Nora Quoirin died of starvation after week in jungle, investigators believe
The autopsy of Nora Quoirin, the 15year-old who went missing in the Malaysian jungle, has concluded that she likely died of starvation and stress after spending seven days in the jungle.
Speaking outside the police headquarters in Seremban, Negri Sembilan police chief Mohammad Mat Yusop said Nora had died “two to three days ago” from internal bleeding in her intestine, possibly caused by “prolonged starvation or stress”.
She also had bruising on her legs but there was “no sign of violence, abduction or kidnapping” and “no evidence of foul play for the time being”, though tests were still ongoing.
The exact cause of death given by the police was “upper gastrointestinal bleeding due to duodenal ulcer complicated with perforation”.
The body of the London teenager was found on Tuesday, down a steep ravine in the jungle, after a 10-day search. Nora had gone missing overnight on 3 August from the resort where she was staying with her family on holiday, sparking a large search operation involving over 350 people, including officers from the UK, France and Ireland, local tribes people and hundreds of volunteers.
Nora was barefoot and just in underwear when she went missing, and a window was found wide open downstairs in the holiday cottage where she was staying. Her remains were eventually discovered unclothed in a stream 1.2 miles from the resort where she was staying by a team of local hikers. The area was highly inaccessible and the body had to be winched out by a helicopter before it was brought to Tuanku Ja’afar hospital for a post mortem. Her clothes have still not been uncovered.
The Malaysian attorney general Tommy Thomas, who is overseeing the case, will decide if an inquest will now be held. The police chief said Nora’s family were now free to bring her body back to the UK.
It had been a drawn-out wait for the results of the autopsy, which took 12 hours and was carried out by a pathologist from Kuala Lumpur, two experts from the department of chemistry and a local doctor.
Nora was born with holoprosencephaly, a neurological disorder, which limited her speech and coordination and made her “very vulnerable”, according to her parents.
During the search, Nora’s Irish and French mother and father, Meabh and Sebastien Quoirin, said she must have been abducted as she “never goes anywhere by herself”, but police continued to treat the case as a missing person, while not ruling out a “criminal element” in her case. The French prosecutor’s office said they had opened a criminal investigation into Nora’s case.
In a statement on Wednesday, the family described their agony at Nora’s death in a statement, describing her as “at the heart of our family”. They had travelled to Malaysia for a two week family holiday.
“She is the truest, most precious girl and we love her infinitely,” said the family. “The cruelty of her being taken away is unbearable. Our hearts are broken. We will always love our Nora.”
They thanked all those who had been involved in the search to find her, adding: “Nora has brought people together, especially from France, Ireland, Britain and Malaysia, united in their love and support for her and her family. She has truly touched the whole world. To all our friends and family at home, we can’t thank you enough for all your love.”
The family’s lawyer, Charles Morrell, urged people to be “very cautious about the first results of the autopsy”. He told Ireland’s RTÉ radio: “Nora, as you know, was born with holoprosencephaly, she was very shy and dependent on her mother, it wasn’t in her temper to go out in the night after a long trip in a place she doesn’t know in the jungle.
“Even the place where she was found, 2km from the resort, was very strange that she would go there alone so I don’t think we can exclude anything.”