SEREMBAN, Aug 13 — The family of missing Irish teenager Nora Anne Quoirin has confirmed today that the body of a female found earlier today in the jungle area near The Dusun resort was of their daughter.
Negri Sembilan police chief Datuk Mohamad Mat Yusof announced this after her parents Sebastian and Meabh went in to identify the body at Tuanku Jaafar Hospital here at 7pm.
“The family confirmed that the body found is indeed missing Nora Anne. Both parents... the mother and father both confirmed it,” he said during a press conference outside the hospital mortuary.
“A post mortem will be done tomorrow morning. A senior pathologist from Kuala Lumpur will come to conduct the autopsy at 10am.
“We will inform the post mortem result tomorrow. Based on that we will decide if we need to investigate further... if we are not satisfied,” he added.
Mohamad added that the search and rescue operations will not be called off until the autopsy is done.
“The search and rescue team will still be on standby... our team is still at the scene where the body was found,” he said.
Meabh and Sebastian arrived at the hospital mortuary at 7pm to identify the body which was discovered by a member of the public earlier today amid the search and rescue operation for Nora.
By 8pm Sebastian and Meabh was seen leaving the hospital with police escort after going through the identification process.
40 minutes later, other family members believed to be close relatives were seen arriving at the hospital to assist with documentation process.
Mohamad had earlier said that the unclothed body was found near a stream inside a ravine and that rescuers had used a police helicopter to winch the body.
The location where the body was found was merely 2.5km from The Dusun resort.
Police confirmed that the search and rescue team have covered the area in their operations before this, however said it was too soon to ascertain how many days the body was at the location where it was found.
The case is still classified as a missing person for now.
He also confirmed a group of volunteers during the search and rescue came across the body after they were tipped off by an individual in the area.
Yesterday, Nora’s parents offered a reward of RM50,000 for any information leading to their daughter’s return.
Meabh Quoirin said: “Nora is so precious to us and our hearts are breaking. We are appealing to anyone who has information about Nora to help us find her.
“We have decided to offer a reward of RM50,000 which was by an anonymous Belfast-based business for any information that directly helps us to find Nora,” she said while holding back her tears.
Police also disclosed yesterday that two police officers from the United Kingdom and another officer from Ireland have arrived here to assist local authorities.
Nora flew to Kuala Lumpur from London with her father and two siblings on August 4 for a two-week holiday. Her mother arrived separately from Singapore.
The family journeyed together to the upscale forest resort from the airport that Saturday.
Nora was found missing from her bedroom which she shared with her siblings at 8am the following day.
