Coroner rules out foul play in death of London teenager Nora Quoirin after she died in Malaysian jungle

A Malaysian coroner has ruled out the involvement of others in the death of London teenager Nora Quoirin when she vanished from a jungle resort during a family holiday.  

The 15-year-old went missing from the family’s cottage on the Dusun eco-resort on August 4, 2019, and was found dead nine days later following an extensive search effort.  

Nora’s parents believe their daughter would not have wandered off on her own due to her mental and physical disabilities, insisting others must have been involved in the disappearance.  

But Coroner Maimoonah Aid today ruled out suspicious circumstances, finding no evidence of intrusion into the family cottage and concluding that Nora died as a result of “misadventure”.  

“I ruled that there was no-one involved in the death of Nora Anne”, the coroner said this morning, as the teenager’s parents listened in from their London home.  

“It is more probable than not that she died by misadventure, i.e. that she had gone out of the (cottage) on her own and subsequently got lost in the abundant palm oil plantation.”

Nora’s family said in a statement after the verdict that they were “utterly disappointed”. 

They said in a statement: “Once again we see that justice struggles to support the most vulnerable in society – only engaging with special needs at a surface level – and not at the level that truly reflects children like Nora.”

“We believe we have fought not just for Nora but in honour of all the special needs children in this world who deserve our most committed support and the most careful application of justice.

“This is Nora’s unique legacy and we will never let it go.”

Nora, a pupil at Garratt Park School in Earlsfield, south London, arrived at the resort in the southern Negeri Sembilan state on August 3, 2019, just one day before she went missing.  

Malaysia police concluded she had climbed out of a cottage window and gone for a walk on her own, getting lost in the jungle.  

Nora was wearing just her underwear when she left the cottage and was naked when she was found dead beside a stream on August 13, 2019, around 1.6 miles from the resort.  

Emergency services searching for Nora Quoirin
EPA

The 24-day inquest heard her disappearance sparked a huge search operation but the family went days without any sign of their daughter.  

A UK pathologist found Nora had died of intestinal bleeding due to stress and starvation, and found no positive evidence the teenager had been sexually assaulted.  

But he also told the inquest the possibility of an attack could not be ruled out due to Nora’s severe body decomposition when she was eventually found.  

Nora’s mother, Meabh, told the hearings she and husband Sebastien heard “muffled whispering” on the night of the disappearance, and Nora was gone when they went to wake her the following morning.  

She said her daughter’s disabilities would have made it impossible for her to open the window alone, and insisted if the teenager had got outside she would most likely have sat down to wait for help.  

"I have a number of very precise reasons to believe that my daughter was kidnapped. How or why, I'm not qualified to say," she told the coroner.

The parents have the option of appealing against the decision at the Malaysia high court.  

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