KOTA KINABALU, Sept 11 — Based on her injuries, 13-year-old Zara Qairina Mahathir was most likely conscious when she fell, a pathologist told the Coroner’s Court here today during the inquest looking into her cause of death.

In her testimony today, forensic pathologist Dr Jessie Hiu said that her injuries upon impact showed that she would have had to land feet first and it would have been difficult for anyone carrying her to put her in such a position that would have caused that landing.

“The persons carrying her would have to position the body with the feet down and stretch it out from the ledge to where she landed, which was quite a distance,” she said to a question by counsel Datuk Ram Singh.

When asked how many people it would require to make that possible, she said she would not know.

Ram: “In short, Zara would have to be conscious, standing upright. Not unconscious. Am I correct to say that?”

Dr Hiu: “Yes, likely.”

Zara was found unconscious on the ground floor of her hostel in the early hours of July 16.  

She died from severe trauma injuries to her head the next day.

During questioning by lawyer Rizwandean M. Borhan, forensic pathologist Dr Hiu said that the injuries sustained by Zara narrowed the possibilities of how she had fallen.

Rizwandean: “Am I correct to say there are many possibilities of how the deceased could have fallen, for example the position of her feet on the metal railing or the cement railing, whether she had fallen from the ledge, or whether she had been pushed? Taking into account that you examine people who have died, you cannot say with full certainty how the deceased had fallen. Am I correct?”

Dr Hiu: I agree there are many possibilities of falling. However, in this case the deceased had landed on her feet a distance from the building. Based on the reconstruction this morning, she could not have just slipped and fallen straight down. To get from the position on the ledge to where she allegedly landed, the body must be projected forward and land down both feet first.”

She also told the court it was unlikely that Zara had been struck on the top of her head with a blunt weapon, as the injury pattern would have been different.

“There may be a laceration at the point of impact, with any skull fracture and brain bleeding concentrated under that site. But in this case, the bleeding was generalised, which is more consistent with a deceleration-type injury rather than a localised force,” she said when questioned by counsel Azhier Farhan.

When asked if a blow from above would normally cause a depressed skull fracture, Dr Hiu said it would depend on the force used. However, she confirmed that Zara did not suffer any depressed skull fracture. The only laceration present was at the back of her head.

Dr Hiu said Zara’s injuries were consistent with a fall from height, first landing on her feet and then falling backwards.

She also explained that she had considered the decomposition process in her autopsy, noting that tissue integrity deteriorates over time.

“If the body has decomposed, determining the cause of death becomes more difficult, especially in cases of severe decomposition. However, bone injuries can still be detected,” she said.

In Zara’s case, Dr Hiu said that because her brain had already decomposed extensively, she could not determine the cause of death purely from the post-mortem. Instead, she relied on Zara’s clinical tests and scans done before death, while excluding other injuries as possible causes.

Dr Hiu was the first witness in the inquest, which began on September 3. She was recalled for her expert opinion after a site visit to the school today to reenact and reconstruct the alleged fall on July 16.

Zara was found unconscious on the ground floor of SMKA Tun Datu Mustapha’s girls’ dormitory and died from her injuries at the hospital the following day.

The inquest was ordered to determine her cause of death following allegations of improper procedural conduct in the investigation.