The strange death of Nora Quoirin in Malaysia
Nora Anne Quoirin, Disappeared August 4, 2019, Dusun eco-resort, Malaysia. Body found August 13, 2019, near Gunung Berembun in the Pantai Hills.
Revised January 2024
Nora Quoirin, 15, went on vacation with her family to Malaysia in Southeast Asia on August 3, 2019. Nora was based in London, half Irish and half French. Early in the two-week trip, she disappeared mysteriously from the Dusun Resort, an exclusive self-contained complex surrounded by thick jungle.
Nora’s naked body was found ten days later, leaving her family convinced that foul play was involved, although the police are sure that this was just misadventure. The case certainly has some strange and puzzling facts.
The Quoirin trip to Malaysia in 2019
The Quoirin family checked in at 7 am, after the overnight flight from London, at the exclusive Dusun eco-resort in southern Negeri Sembilan state, located not far from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. The resort has seven self-contained houses. That evening, Nora went to sleep upstairs with her younger sisters.
Dusun eco-resort
The next day, on August 4, Nora’s father, Sebastien, found she was missing from the house at 8.30 am and quickly notified the authorities.
The police believed Nora had opened a downstairs window and walked into the jungle, as a window was found open and did not look like it had been forced open. By contrast, the family thought she had been abducted by a person or persons unknown.
She suffered from a condition known as Holoprosencephaly, an abnormality of brain development in which the brain doesn't correctly divide into the right and left hemispheres. She had the mental age of a 6-year-old, had limited verbal communication skills and could only write a few words. Nora was said to be very shy and dependent on her Irish mother, Meabh. The family said, “She never goes anywhere by herself. Nora would not know how to get help and would never leave her family voluntarily.”
Unfortunately, there were no CCTV cameras at the Dusun Resort apart from those in the reception area, and security barriers preventing access to the resort were absent.
Sebastien and Meabh Quoirin
Search and rescue efforts start
A large search took place starting August 4. The Search and Rescue (SAR) operations team comprised of personnel from various agencies including the police, K9 tracker dogs, Fire and Rescue Department, Civil Defence Force, People’s Volunteer Corps (RELA) and civilians. Drones and helicopters with heat-seeking cameras were also used in the search. But despite the experience and knowledge of the local area, the search was unsuccessful.
Four days after the teen went missing, officials played a recording of the girl's mother calling 'Nora, Nora darling, mummy's here' through loudspeakers. Cadaver dogs were also deployed in the dense jungle with their handlers.
The discovery of Nora Quoirin’s body
Then, on 13 August, ten days after she vanished, Nora’s unclothed body was found in a small stream in a ravine by volunteers from the Seremban Hiking Club at 1.57 pm. The location was in a palm oil estate near Gunung Berembun in the Pantai Hills, about 1.6 miles (2.5 km) from the Resort. The family confirmed the identity of the body that evening.
She was barefoot and wearing only undergarments when she disappeared, as those were the last clothes she was seen wearing by her parents. It is not clear what happened to her clothing. Sean Yeap, a hiker who was part of the search team which found Nora's remains, said the body had not been covered in any foliage or hidden and was lying with her head on her hands. Yeap said, “It looked like she was sleeping. Her head was resting on her hands. But we all knew she was dead. I could see the body. She was lying with her hands behind her head like you do when you go to sleep. There were some scratches on her arm and some bruises but otherwise there were no injuries. I am not sure, but I think she had been dead a few days.
I think maybe she was elsewhere and walked to the stream perhaps to drink some water. The place where she was found is not easy to find. I wonder if she had been following the stream as there were no footprints which means she could have been walking in the water as it was not very deep.”
Scratches and light wounds were found on Nora’s legs, but no other information on injuries on her arms or face has been revealed. Charles Morel, the Quoirin family’s French lawyer, said: “We have to be very cautious about the interpretation of the first result of the autopsy.” He added that “she wasn’t there [during earlier searches]. Someone put her there to get rid of her. Can you imagine her walking 1.5 miles, naked and barefoot, over rocks in the middle of the night? For me, that’s absurd.”
The authorities continued a search operation even after finding the body, this time to look for her missing underwear. The search for the missing underwear resumed at 8.30 am on August 14, 2019, with the help of 361 people and was conducted in a straight line sweeping pattern which started from the Dusun retreat where Nora Anne vanished on August 3, 2019, to the point where her body was found about 2.5km away. Despite their efforts, he said the search team failed to find any trace of the girl’s underwear, and the large-scale operation was called off by day’s end.
The discovery of the body was alarming and surprising. A search volunteer said he believed she could not have been in the spot for long because previous searches of the same area would have found her.
Nora’s Autopsy
An autopsy was conducted, which stated that the official cause of death was upper gastrointestinal bleeding due to a duodenal ulcer complicated by perforation, meaning there was internal bleeding in the intestines due to an ulcer that was brought on by starvation.
Yet, the discovery of the body threw up many questions. In particular, the cause of death after such a short period from stress and starvation, the state of undress, etc. The report confirmed she had been dead around four days before the discovery of the body.
Mohamad Mat Yusop, police chief of Negeri Sembilan, said, “There were no signs of rape. There are no suspicions of foul play, there were no signs of kidnapping or abduction,” explained a state located in the southern part of Malaysia.”
Coroner’s Inquest - September 2020
An inquest was held in Seremban, Malaysia at the Coroner’s Court in late August until 4 September 2020 and involved 64 witnesses.
On the opening day of the inquest, coroner Maimoonah Aid said the hearing was aimed at determining when Nora died, the cause of her death, how she came to her death and if anyone was criminally involved.
The first witness, Negeri Sembilan police chief Mohamed Mat Yusop, said the investigation showed no criminal element. He said there was no indication Nora was abducted and no ransom demand and that officers believe she climbed out of a window on her own.
Evidence reported at the inquest stated that the post-mortem examination revealed no trace of foreign DNA from 4 reports, according to the government chemist Nor Aidora Saedon.
Nor Aidora said the first report was aimed at ascertaining the profile of the individual that had gone missing with analysis performed on exhibits such as swabs taken from family members, while the second report was for identification purposes to ensure the body that was found was indeed the missing individual through family relations. The third and fourth reports were to check if there were elements of foul play, if any.
She said, “DNA, in time, will degrade and be lost. However in the case where a body is found, generally it is suggested that the outside of the body, definitely foreign DNA is difficult to find due to the environment. Malaysia is hot and humid, therefore DNA degrades very fast as compared to four seasons countries. However having said that, the swabs taken in intimate areas, inside of the body, no foreign DNA was found as well.
Generally, it is suggested that no penetration happened, then again usually in cases of penetration and ejaculation, foreign DNA (not belonging to Quoirin found on her body based on swabs, fingernail, or hair samples taken by the pathologist.) should be there. It’s well-preserved because it's in the inside.”
The Coroner’s inquest had a witness testify that an unknown stranger approached Nora and her siblings whilst her parents were away for a few minutes, but the encounter lasted only seconds.
The resort owner, Haanim Bamadhaj, said Nora's parents had told her the teenager only had on her underwear when she went missing and that she would hide when she was frightened. Her house faces the Quoirin’s cottage on the resort, and she said the resort was peaceful the night before Nora went missing. She added that her dog, who would bark if there were outsiders, was also quiet.
Ms Haanim also said that a window of the cottage found ajar the morning Nora disappeared was faulty and could be opened from the outside. But she said there have never been any criminal break-ins on her property since the resort opened 11 years ago.
The Quiorin family has sued the resort owner for alleged negligence and claims in their lawsuit that there was no security at the resort and that the cottage window was found ajar with a broken latch on the morning Nora went missing. After the first day of the inquest, the lawyer representing the resort, Gurdial Singh Nijar, told reporters that the incident was unfortunate but "there was no culpability" on the resort owner's part.
A post-mortem toxicology analysis on three specimens belonging to Nora (liver, peritoneal fluid, and psoas muscle) did not show any trace of common drugs or poisons, according to the Department of Chemistry Malaysia Toxicology Division chemist Suhana Ismail. The drug tests included over-the-counter medicines, recreational drugs, and synthetic drugs.
Department of Chemistry Malaysia Criminalistics Division chemist Saiful Fazamil Mohd Ali said two soil samples were obtained from the vicinity of where Quiorin was found and those underneath her body. “After performing my analysis, I found that both soil samples contained similar density distribution with each other. Therefore, I believed both samples were from the same source.”
KLIA police district K-9 Unit handler Sergeant S. Simon and his search dog were involved in the SAR operation that lasted four days — August 6, 8, 11, and 12. He said his German Shepherd dog failed to pick up a scent on the first day of his assignment on August 6, 2019. “Upon arriving at the scene, I was led to the house where the girl was staying and asked a family member if they could provide anything for the dog to smell because we had no clue as to where to start. I was then provided some white attire, presumably worn by the missing girl, and I allowed the dog to sniff it to obtain a scent to begin tracking, and we started by searching the surrounding area at random. The search lasted about two hours and there was no positive indication (of the victim’s scent) whatsoever”.
He also pointed out how he had gone to a nearby Hindu temple and river southeast of The Dusun with a search party, with the dog failing to show any positive indication of a successful scent pickup while traversing the rocky riverbank.
“I would say it (the operation) was done very thoroughly because most of the work was performed by the dog, and we covered a lot of ground. Even if certain areas are inaccessible to us, the dogs are on a long leash, and they will give an indication if they detect a scent. But there was no indication whatsoever exhibited by my dog as compared to other cases we have been involved in."
He also affirmed that the dog did not show any positive indication of a scent when brought to the window through which Quoirin was said to have left the house where she was staying.
Malaysian Police Training Centre (PULAPOL) K-9 Unit handler Corporal PD Manimaran also said his German Shepherd dog failed to pick up any explicit scent belonging to Quoirin during his assignment throughout the SAR operation. Manimaran and his dog were assigned to track Quioirin on August 5, 7 and 13.
“For my dog, when it has found a scent during tracking, its ear and nose dip towards the ground and his tail wags slowly. That is the indication and I would know whether he is doing this or not. “On the first day, he did exhibit (such traits), he was going all over the place looking for something but couldn’t find it."
Assistant Commissioner Wan Rukman Wan Hassan, who previously headed the Negri Sembilan Criminal Investigation Department, said there were eight fingerprints lifted on August 4, 2019.
“The results which I was informed of on August 6, 2019, on the eight samples were as followed; four of them had inadequate features while four more were in a suitable condition. Of the four that we compared with the 20 samples we obtained, only one matched the mother of the missing person while the remaining three were unknown.
When asked further by lawyer S. Sakthyvell what he meant by inadequate features, Wak Rukman explained that these fingerprints could mean partial or side prints that rendered them unsuitable for analysis. As for the three unknown fingerprints and whether Quoirin’s fingerprint could be one of them, Wak Rukman explained that it may also belong to the previous tenants before affirming that the authorities managed to obtain the girl’s fingerprint through the assistance of the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol). “At that time when we lacked a sample, we did manage to obtain a fingerprint sample later from her home country through Interpol but it was her middle finger. But that too was incomplete and we couldn’t make our comparison. Even after she was found and a sample was taken, there was no positive result as her prints have shriveled due to the exposure [of her body] to the environment."
Findings of Inquest January 2021
Nora’s family said they were “utterly disappointed” after the coroner, Maimoonah Aid, ruled that no third party was involved and that she probably died as a result of misadventure. She ruled out homicide, natural death, and suicide on January 4, 2021, at the official end of the inquest and said Nora probably got lost after leaving her family’s cottage on her own. “After hearing all the relevant evidence, I rule that there was no one involved in the death of Nora Anne. It is more probable than not that she died by misadventure.”
Around 50 witnesses gave evidence to the inquest, including a British pathologist who conducted a second autopsy on Nora’s body, who said it was impossible to completely rule out the possibility of a sexual assault due to the condition of her remains.
Maimoonah said there were no suspicious circumstances before the disappearance, no ransom request, and no signs of intrusion into the family’s chalet. The teenager probably left the family accommodation “on her own and got lost in the abandoned palm oil plantation. For me to speculate and presume of her actions and involvement of a third party without any proof, that would be a breach of my duty so the inquiry is hereby closed.”
Nora’s parents had hoped for an open verdict and were listening from their home in London, 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 honor 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’s parents, Meabh and Sebastien Quoirin, always questioned and criticized aspects of the police response and repeatedly stressed it would have been entirely out of character for her to have wandered off alone. Meabh said she feared crucial evidence had been lost because police were too slow to investigate the possibility of a criminal element and described problems with the response. She said the officer sent to take a statement from her struggled to communicate in English, while some police officials were “quite rude and arrogant”.
Puzzling facts
The body was found in an area searched several times before
Sniffer dogs could not pick up a scent
Lack of injuries on the body despite over a week and a half in the deep jungle
She was nude, missing even her underwear (which could not be located)
What happened to Nora Quoirin - key questions?
Was it Accidental death? - Nora’s Irish mother, Meabh, and French father, Sebastien, have repeatedly rejected police suggestions that her death was an accident. Nora, a 15-year-old with learning difficulties and physical disabilities, would not have wandered off alone in the night, the family has said.
Why did she die so fast? There was plenty of drinking water in the area where she was found. After ten days, is it likely she died from stress and starvation? Perhaps she had an underlying ulceration of the gut? The analysis confirmed Nora had not consumed poisonous berries or other noxious substances from the jungle.
Foul play? There was no ransom request, indicating that the motive of the kidnap was unlikely. The DNA and physical evidence shows Nora was not raped or sexually molested, so a sexual predator seems unlikely. But why did she leave the house? There were no signs of a drug in her body to indicate she had been put to sleep to ease an abduction.
Police said there was no sign of any intruder entering the property. They found no footprints or forensic evidence to suggest an unknown person was inside the villa. The entire area around the villa where the family was staying is covered with wet vegetation, and the single-track road leading to the resort is covered with mud. Had someone entered through the window and climbed a flight of stairs to an upstairs bedroom where Nora was sleeping, it is assumed there would have been traces of mud on the floor.
Something altogether weirder? - A shaman, Khalid Mohamad, believed to be able to summon spirits, entered a trance-like state to perform a ritual incantation in a bid to find Nora during the search. He said he believed the girl was lured by a genie, an invisible spirit believed by Muslims to inhabit the Earth and influence mankind by appearing in the form of humans or animals. He said that the genie was attracted to the girl because she had special needs and had chosen her as its step-child.
Shaman - Khalid Mohamad
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Sources
https://theaseanpost.com/article/mysterious-death-nora-quoirin
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https://extra.ie/2019/08/25/news/irish-news/hiker-describes-the-moment-he-found-nora-quoirins-body
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