Malaysia court rules against coroner verdict in teenager Nora Quoirin’s death

A Malaysian High Court has found that a coroner erred in ruling that the death of French/irish teenager Nora Anne Quoirin, whose body was found near a jungle resort, was likely to have been due to a misadventure that did not involve other people.

High Court judge Azizul Azmi Adnan agreed with Nora’s parents that it would not have been probable for the 15-year-old to venture out on her own, navigate the steep terrain and evade detection for days, due to her mental and physical disabilities.

He ruled that “the verdict of misadventure ought to be vacated in the interest of justice and substituted with an open verdict”, a finding by a coroner of death without stating the cause.

The ruling is a legal victory for Nora’s parents, who believe it was likely she was kidnapped and had appealed the coroner’s verdict, issued in January.

The teenager disappeared at the Dusun eco-resort in southern

Negeri Sembilan state on August 4, 2019, a day after the family arrived for a holiday.

After a major search, her body was found on August 13 beside a stream on a palm oil estate about 1.6 miles (2.5km) from the resort. The coroner had ruled out homicide, natural death and suicide and said it was likely that she got lost after leaving her family’s cottage on her own, and that no-one else was involved.

Police have said there was no evidence of foul play, but her parents said she would not have wandered off on her own. They told the inquest that a third party could have dumped her body in the area following the search for her.

Nora was wearing only underwear when she went missing at night-time, but her body was found naked. The coroner noted the family’s contention that this gave credence to the possibility of sexual assault but said an extensive postmortem examination found no such proof or evidence of a struggle or smothering.