Missing girl’s body found in ravine
Malaysia
The parents of Nora Quoirin, a 15-year-old British girl who went missing in Malaysia, have identified a body found in the jungle as their daughter’s.
The teenager, who lived in London and had learning difficulties, disappeared on August 4 from the Dusun resort while on holiday with her family.
Her naked body was found on Tuesday in a ravine in the forest surrounding the resort, following a 350-person search involving police, volunteer hikers and shamans.
Mazlan Mansor, the national deputy police chief, told reporters that a body that ‘‘resembles Nora’’ had been found beside a small stream about 21⁄2 kilometres from the resort. He said the body was unclothed but declined to say whether it had any injuries.
Nora’s family believed that the teenager had been abducted, but police classified it as a missing person case. The Lucie Blackman Trust, a charity for Britons missing abroad, which is helping Nora’s family, said: ‘‘The Lucie Blackman Trust can confirm with great sadness that the body found today is that of missing teenager Nora Quoirin.
‘‘Local police have confirmed identification. The charity will update as soon as possible. Please respect the family and do not approach them at this difficult time.’’
Confirmation of the teenager’s death followed local media reports that the search-andrescue team had received a call from a member of the public at 1pm local time, after which a team was sent to an area near a waterfall. The body was found by a local team who had been searching the jungle for 10 days for Nora, who was born with the brain defect holoprosencephaly and had special needs.
Nora never went out alone and had limited verbal communication skills, her family said last week. They said she had visited many countries in Asia and Europe but never before wandered off.
Her parents, Meabh and Sebastien Quoirin, a French-irish couple who have lived in London for 20 years, thanked those looking for her as fundraising pages set up by the teenager’s aunt and uncle collected more than £100,000 (NZ$187,000) from wellwishers.
On Monday, a visibly emotional Ms Quoirin said: ‘‘Nora is our first child. She has been vulnerable since the day she was born. She is so precious to us and our hearts are breaking.’’
Police leading the investigation refused to rule out a ‘‘criminal element’’.
The National Crime Agency, the Metropolitan Police and Irish police were supporting the Malaysian police with the case. –