Eight fingerprints found on window of Nóra’s villa
…And bloodstains found in bathroom, tragic girl’s inquest hears
THERE were eight fingerprints found on the window of the Malaysian jungle villa where tragic schoolgirl Nóra Quoirin disappeared, the disabled Irish girl’s inquest has heard.
The 15-year-old, who had mental and physical disabilities, was found dead ten days after she was reported missing during her family’s ‘trip of a lifetime’.
She vanished from her bedroom at the Dusun Resort, surrounded by thick Malaysian jungle, on the night of August 4, 2019.
The coroner’s court in Seremban was told yesterday that eight fingerprints were found at the window frame on the upper floor of the villa, as well as bloodstains in the bathroom. However, some of the prints couldn’t be matched.
Assistant Commissioner Wan
Rukman Wan Hassan said a total of 20 fingerprint samples of family members of Dusun Resort manager Haanim Ahmed Bamadhaj, employees and former resort workers, as well as family members of the Irish teenager, were taken for comparison.
‘The results found four of the eight fingerprints had inadequate features and cannot be matched, while four were in suitable condition and one matched the mother of the missing person,’ he said when testifying at the seventh day of the proceedings before Coroner Maimoonah Aid.
When asked if Nóra’s fingerprint was found out of the eight fingerprints that were lifted, Wan Rukman said the fingerprints could not be matched because they could not get a suitable fingerprint from Nóra.
He said some were taken from her decomposed body for comparison but it was unsuccessful as ‘the fingerprints had shrivelled’.
As for the remaining three unknown fingerprints, Wak Rukman
explained that they could have belonged to the villa’s previous tenants.
Apart from fingerprint dusting, Wak Rukman also disclosed that luminol – a form of chemical substance used to detect the presence of blood – had detected blood droplets in the bathroom of the villa.
‘But whose blood it belonged to I am not at liberty to say,’ he said referring the court to the crime scene team leader for more detail on this.
Her grieving parents, Meabh, from Belfast, and Sebastian, who is French, maintain that it is ‘inconceivable that Nóra, with her physical and mental state could possibly have embarked upon this journey alone in the middle of the night.’
The inquest heard earlier this week that a postmortem showed Nóra had died from internal bleeding, inside her intestines.
She suffered haemorrhaging after prolonged stress and hunger in the dense jungle, the hearing was told.
Head of forensics, Noor Aidora Saedon, told the court Nóra breathed for the last time four days before her naked body was found during an extensive search in August 2019.
Describing the thoroughness of the criminal investigations conducted by his subordinates, Wak Rukman said they examined CCTV footage of the family’s arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
‘The purpose of obtaining the footage was to probe the family’s prior arrival to Sora House, since our investigation comprised both search and criminal angles conducted concurrently,’ he said.
‘I thought it was reasonable to study the possibility of whether there were suspicious circumstances [surrounding their arrival],’ he said, adding that he wanted to see if the family was followed and the veracity of the girl’s physical characteristics as described by her family.
Wan Rukman said he and another police investigator viewed the footage together and subsequently discovered discrepancies between information the family gave and what was depicted on the footage.
‘I was told by the investigating officer that the missing person had difficulty walking due to her condition but in the footage she could be seen walking normally while tugging on her luggage behind her,’ he explained.
During his first meeting with the family – who were living in London at the time – on August 5, 2019 at the scene, Wak Rukman said he noticed a broken latch on one of the windows from which Nóra was said to have exited.
The Quoirin family has sued the rainforest resort owner for alleged negligence.
They said in their lawsuit that there was no security at the resort and that a cottage window was found ajar with a broken latch on the morning Nóra disappeared.
Police have ruled out abduction as a motive, saying they had found no sign of foul play, but her family has questioned the findings – saying Nóra had never before left them voluntarily.
Her family is not attending the inquest due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the hearing is being streamed online.
Nóra’s parents’ testimony is being delivered via the videoconferencing app Zoom.
Police have never found Nóra’s clothes despite claims that she wasn’t kidnapped, the hearing has been told.
The inquest aims to answer questions including ‘when and where did the deceased die, how and in what manner the deceased came by her death, and… whether there is any person who was criminally concerned in the cause of death’, Coroner Maimoonah Aid told the court earlier this week.
The inquest continues. news@dailymail.ie
‘Whose blood it was I can’t say’
Nóra’s clothes were never found