LISTEN: Death of Nora Quoirin ruled as 'misadventure'

by Q Radio News

A coroner in Malaysia has ruled the death of a London teenager was not murder and there were no suspicious circumstances.

That's despite the parents of Nora Quoirin believing she was kidnapped during a family holiday in August 2019.

The body of the 15-year-old, who had learning difficulties, was found 10 days later in jungle near the Dusun resort they were staying at.

The coroner's ruled her death was misadventure - believing no one else was involved.

Reading her verdict to a virtual hearing watched by Nora's parents, coroner Maimoonah Aid said: "After hearing all the relevant evidence, I rule that there was no one involved in the death of Nora and it is more probable than not that she died by misadventure i.e. she had gone out of the Sora House on her own and subsequently got lost in the abandoned palm oil plantations."

She said it would be a breach of her duty to speculate on third-party involvement without any evidence.

Police previously told the inquest that there was no evidence of criminal activity, suggesting Nora had climbed out of a window and wandered off, but her mother said she believed someone had taken her.

The resort where Nora and her family were staying, is around 40 miles south of Kuala Lumpur.

Nora disappeared the day after the family arrived.

Civilian volunteers found Nora's body around two miles from where she was last seen.

During the night both her mother Meabh, and Nora's father, Sebastien, a Frenchman, said they heard "muffled whispering" inside the house but were half asleep so didn't investigate further.

The following morning when Sebastien went to wake the children, Nora was missing.

"He said words to the effect of 'Nora's not here Meabh, can you see her?' And I immediately, immediately panicked," Mrs Quoirin said as she gave evidence.

A huge search effort ensued, with officials and volunteers scouring the nearby jungle.

On 12 August, the family offered a £10,000 reward for information.

"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," Meabh Quoirin said in a statement announcing the reward.

The following day, a local villager called Magendran told Sky News he joined volunteers in the hunt.

He was with them when they found Nora's body.

"We started the search from here and walked all the way down the ravine to a small stream. We stopped to rest for a while and saw some small shacks around, old ones," he said.

"From there, we split up into different teams to search the area and followed the stream, and from there we found the body."

A UK pathologist, who carried out a second post-mortem, told the inquest he agreed Nora had died from intestinal bleeding due to stress and starvation.

Forensic pathologist, Nathaniel Cary said he found no positive evidence the teenager had been sexually assaulted but he could not fully exclude the possibility due to the severe body decomposition.

How she disappeared from the resort is still unknown.