SEREMBAN, Sept 4 ― A total of 29 premises comprising private residences and resorts were searched to obtain possible leads into the disappearance of Irish-French teen Nora Anne Quoirin near a jungle resort here last year, a senior police officer involved in the search-and-rescue operation told the Coroner's Court today.
Ampang Jaya deputy police chief Superintendent Mohd Azam Ismail explained that the purpose of the search was to gather fresh clues on the whereabouts of Quoirin in the surrounding areas of The Dusun where she had gone missing.
Mohd Azam, who was then Negri Sembilan Criminal Investigation Department’s Special Investigations Division (D9) officer with the rank of Deputy Superintendent, said his team were deployed on August 5, 2019, a day after Quoirin disappeared.
“We started with The Shorea resort located adjacent to The Dusun and the closest to it as there was a possibility the missing person had gone in that direction.
“Besides that, several private villas and premises including those in The Dusun were also searched,” he told Coroner Maimoonah Aid.
Earlier, Mohd Azam said his team ― comprising four senior police officers, 26 low-ranking personnel and two K-9 Units ― were ordered to conduct their search within the administered police area of the Pantai police station to gather intelligence from the local populace.
Apart from the targeted search operations, Mohd Azam also said he ordered his officers to interview Forestry Department personnel on duty at the foothills of Gunung Berembun to determine if Quoirin had passed through the area but failed to turn up any new leads.
Mohd Azam also revealed that he was ordered by his superior, Deputy Negri Sembilan Criminal Investigation Department chief (Intelligence/Operations) Superintendent Wan Azlan Wan Mamat to profile all of the witnesses involved.
“These witnesses comprised the complainant and her family (The Dusun owner), resort workers, former resort workers, locals present at the time of the incident and previous tenants who stayed at the resort.
“Since our investigations have not turned up any new leads at that time, we decided to profile the witnesses to obtain fresh information of said individuals based on their personal information such as criminal records, vehicle records and background,” he said, adding that this too failed to raise any form of positive indications.
To a question from Maimoonah, Mohd Azam said profiling conducted on Quoirin's parents showed that both of them were not convicted of any crimes in their home country and that they were not antagonised by anyone.
He also told the court he had recommended for the case to be classified as a sudden-death report following the autopsy result which had concluded Quoirin died due to internal bleeding in her stomach due to starvation and there were no criminal elements involved.
Quoirin, a 15-year-old with learning difficulties, disappeared from The Dusun resort last year where she had been staying with her London-based family, triggering a 10-day hunt involving helicopters, search dogs and hundreds of searchers.
Her nude body was later discovered close to the jungle retreat and an autopsy found that she probably starved and died of internal bleeding after spending about a week in the dense rainforest.
