SEREMBAN, Aug 26 — The authorities continued a search operation even after finding the nude body of Irish-French teen Nora Anne Quoirin last year — this time to look for her missing underwear, Nilai police chief Superintendent Mohd Nor Marzukee Besar testified today in her inquest.
The Negri Sembilan district police chief said he made the decision as the commander-in-charge of the operation to extend the search for the teen’s undergarments by one day as there were “lingering questions” over her missing clothes.
“After returning from the hospital, I held a meeting with my search team because the family previously disclosed to the investigating officer that Nora Anne was clad in her underwear the last time she was seen and the body that we found was naked.
“So there was a lingering question on the whereabouts of her underwear,” Mohd Nor Marzukee, the third witness in the inquest, told Coroner Maimoonah Aid.
He said the decision was made after attending a meeting with the respective leaders of the search teams on August 13, 2019.
He had earlier gone to the hospital where Nora Anne’s body was transported for a post-mortem examination.
Mohd Nor Marzukee said the search for the missing underwear resumed at 8.30am on August 14, 2019 with the help of 361 people.
According to Mohd Nor Marzukee, the search 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.
To a question by Quoirin’s family lawyer, S. Sakthyvell on when the search operation official ended, Mohd Nor Marzukee affirmed that it ended on the same day itself on August 14, 2019.
Nora Anne, a 15-year-old with physical and learning difficulties, disappeared from The Dusun resort last year where she was staying with her London-based family, triggering a 10-day hunt involving helicopters, sniffer dogs and hundreds of searchers.
Her body was discovered about 2.5km from the jungle retreat and an autopsy found that she likely died of internal bleeding linked to starvation after spending about a week in the dense rainforest.
