Parents of tragic teen ask Irish officials for help to get answers
THE parents of a teenager found dead in a Malaysian jungle while on a family holiday have met with Irish government officials.
It is understood Meabh Quoirin, from Belfast, and her French husband Sebastien Quoirin have asked the Department of Foreign Affairs for assistance as they call for Malaysian authorities to carry out an in-depth inquiry into the disappearance and death of their daughter.
Nora (15) was found dead following an intense and high-profile 10-day search around the Malaysian jungle resort of Dusun in August after she vanished from the house where she and her family were staying.
Her body was found around 2km from the property.
Following the meeting yesterday morning, a spokesman for the Irish government department said: “The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade continues to provide ongoing consular assistance in this case.”
A post-mortem examination revealed Nora died from interabduction nal bleeding probably caused by hunger and stress.
But the authorities in Malaysia have yet to release the full post-mortem report to the teenager’s family.
In an interview with RTE on Tuesday, Ms Quoirin said she still had many questions about her daughter’s death.
When Nora disappeared from her hotel room, her parents feared she had been abducted, insisting she would not have wandered off by herself.
However, police in Malaysia said they found no evidence of or kidnapping.
Ms Quoirin said during the interview that it would have been “impossible physically, mentally to imagine that she could have got any distance at all”.
She added: “For us, something very complex happened.
“We have insisted from the beginning that we believe there was a criminal element to what happened.
“Crucially, we’re struggling because it was difficult to get resources in place fast enough to investigate a criminal angle.
“While a post-mortem, when it comes through, may give us answers and has already given us some basic answers around what caused Nora’s death, it doesn’t explain any of how she could possibly have got to where she was found.”
A rare congenital disorder left Nora with cognitive and developmental delays that left her struggling to walk and balance normally.
She was also very shy and would not venture beyond the family’s front door on her own, let alone wander off into a jungle, Mrs Quoirin said.