Peace for Nora

WHEN Nora Quoirin first went missing her anguished family clung on to the vestige of hope that she had just wandered off.

Perhaps she’d woken from a bad dream and stumbled outside, disorientated by jet lag after the long flight to Malaysia?

Could she have gone looking for the rainforest waterfall she’d been so excited to see? Maybe, just maybe, she was lost but unhurt and hiding in the jungle waiting for them to find her?

But Meabh and Sebastien Quoirin never really believed it.

Their eldest daughter had been born with a neurological disorder limiting her co-ordination, speech and intellectual development.

And in 15 years the shy, vulnerable child had never gone anywhere without them.

They were sure she had been abducted. And as each dark hour of fruitless searching went by that conviction grew.

Then, ten days after she disappeared, Nora’s body was found two miles away away near a waterfall, naked, and lying head-on-hands “as if she was asleep”.

But that same area had been searched repeatedly the previous week, while a postmortem showed Nora had been dead for at least three days –from internal bleeding caused by starvation and stress.

So, while the authorities have ruled out any foul play, I can completely understand why Nora’s family still fear criminality and want a fresh investigation.

Nora’s grandfather Sylvain says it’s “absurd” to think she could have walked naked and barefoot over rocks at night and

me insists she must have been dumped there. And, the family mily lawyer points out: “In view of the importance rtance of Malaysia’s image for tourism, the authorities may tend to favour the theory of a disappearance over the criminal hypothesis.” pothesis.”

I have little le time for conspiracy theories or cover-ups. s. I spent months in Praia da Luz in 2007 and subsequent years covering the disappearance arance of Madeleine Mccann.

And I’ve never believed any of the bizarre, cruel l and counterproductive claims which dogged ged that still- unsolved tragedy.

Yet et Nora’s disappearance ce and the Malaysian investigation nvestigation make me very, very uneasy.

My heart breaks reaks for her parents rents and siblings who must be tortured by mental ntal images of Nora’s final nal moments. Wandering lost, starving and scared to o death or that other unbearable rable scenario. There are, her er grandfather insists, still l “dark areas s that need to o be cleared d up for the e family to be able to grieve i n peace”.

And we should hould all cling on to o the vestige of hope that they get some resolution.

IT’S 80 years ago this month that The Wizard of Oz first took us over the rainbow.

But the much-loved movie – starring Judy Garland – has a remarkably prescient message.

A cyclone lands Dorothy in a country she doesn’t recognise and she’s desperate to get back to Kansas.

With the help of a cowardly lion, a brainless scarecrow and a tin man with no heart, she follows the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City to ask the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz to help her get home.

Then she pulls back a curtain to find

a little bloke with a megaphone – all mouth and no real power.

In the end, Dorothy finds the Good Witch who shows her how to end the journey – by clicking the heels of her ruby slippers together and willing herself home.

It feels to me like we’ve all been landed on the Yellow Brick Road to Brexit.

We need leaders to find some courage, brains and humanity if we’re going to complete the journey.

But we have to learn how to come together and heal – and show the will to get there.