TRAGIC END
Family identifies body as that of their missing daughter
AFTER 10 days, the search for missing Irish teen Nora Anne Quoirin has come to a tragic
end.
Her parents, Sebastien Marie Philipe and Meabh Jaseprine Quoirin, have confirmed that the body found yesterday afternoon is that of their 15-year-old special needs daughter.
State police chief Datuk Mohamad Mat Yusop told reporters that the parents had positively identified the remains of their daughter at the Tuanku Jaafar Hospital mortuary here.
It was almost a foregone conclusion, however, as earlier in the day, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Mazlan Mansor had said police were “very certain” that the body of the “female Caucasian” found at 1.57pm was that of Nora.
He had said they had “reasonable suspicion” that the body found was that of Nora.
“(In fact) we are certain of it, but let’s wait for the family to confirm,” he had told reporters before the parents were brought to the hospital’s mortuary.
The body was found without any clothing, he said, but added that it was still too early to say if there were any criminal elements involved and this would be known once a post-mortem examination was completed.
Mazlan said the body was found by a group of hikers who were registered volunteers participating in the search.
He said the search-and-rescue (SAR) team had checked the area, but did not explain how they had missed it.
The body, said Mazlan, was flown to Tuanku Jaafar Hospital for a post-mortem.
Earlier, Mohamad had announced the discovery.
“My deputy (Senior Assistant Commissioner Che Zakaria Othman) and forensic unit policemen went in at 2.05pm and reached the site at 2.30pm,” he told reporters, adding that the body was “still intact”.
The situation was tense at the resort where Nora went missing as police forensic unit vehicles were seen entering and leaving.
Police cordoned off the entrance of the resort at 2.30pm while a forensic unit vehicle was seen entering at 3.30pm.
Two forensic unit vehicles were seen entering the resort again at 3.50pm.
Nora’s parents, Sebastien and Meabh, were seen entering the resort not long after that.
It was the 10th day of the search for Nora, the eldest of three children. The family had arrived in Negri Sembilan for a two-week holiday and checked in at the resort a day before she went missing.
On Aug 4, the family discovered Nora missing. A large window in one of the rooms was left open.
The family had insisted that she had been abducted, but with no evidence supporting this, police classified the case as a missing person case although they said investigators were looking at all possible angles, including abduction.
A SAR operation was mounted by several hundred policemen, including members of the Senoi Praaq General Operations Force battalion, government agencies, Orang Asli villagers and volunteers. Helicopters equipped with infrared radar were deployed in the search.
Although the family was kept away from the search site to keep them safe considering the terrain of the search area was somewhat treacherous, they did their bit, with a recording of Meabh’s voice urging her daughter to come home being blasted on loudspeakers by rescuers.
The family offered a reward of £10,000 (about RM50,628) for finding her.