KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 ― The inquest into the death of Irish-French teenager Nora Anne Quoirin who disappeared from The Dusun resort in Negri Sembilan last year has concluded after 24 days of hearing.
Coroner Maimoonah Aid of the Seremban Coroner Court said she was satisfied with the testimony and evidence tendered to assist the court in delivering its subsequent verdict.
“To me, the witnesses and evidence tendered in court is sufficient enough for me to formulate a verdict,” she said.
She also said parties involved may present their respective submissions to court latest by December 24.
Maimoonah also tentatively fixed December 31 or January 4, 2021 to deliver her verdict.
A total of 49 witnesses were called to testify in the inquest proceedings that were also live-streamed to the public after it began on August 24.
Among the witnesses called to testify included senior pathologists, Quoirin’s parents, search-and-rescue personnel, police investigators, members of the public, forensic experts and the resort management.
Nora Anne, a 15-year-old with learning difficulties, disappeared from the 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 close to the jungle retreat and an autopsy found that she had died of internal bleeding linked to starvation after spending about a week in the dense rainforest.
Police had ruled out abduction as a motive, saying they had found no sign of foul play but Quoirin’s family questioned the findings and insisted she had never before left them voluntarily.
Quoirin’s family was represented by lawyer S. Sakthyvell while The Dusun resort was represented by lawyer Alliff Benjamin Suhaimi.
Teenager could have been disoriented by unfamiliar surroundings
Earlier today, police investigator Inspector Wan Faridah Mustanin said there was a likelihood that the deceased could have been confused with her unfamiliar surroundings and wandered out of the house before getting lost in the jungle.
“She could have been confused. She was in a new place. She woke up to go to the toilet. But she might have gone out of the house on her own and subsequently got lost in the jungle,” Wan Faridah, the inquest’s final and 49th witness, told the court.
Wan Faridah was earlier asked how she could have concluded the teenager’s disappearance from the resort after investigation findings revealed no indication of criminal related evidence.
On claims that police were slowed to react to a missing persons report filed by the resort owner on behalf of the family, Wan Faridah explained that she had instructed a deputy police station chief to head towards The Dusun in the span of 15 minutes after the report was filed on August 4, 2019.
She also recounted the sequence of events which took place chronologically from the point she arrived at the resort up until Quoirin’s body was discovered and autopsied on August 14, 2019.
Affirming there was no foul play involved, Wan Faridah cited the post-mortem report which concluded Quoirin’s death to be from internal bleeding brought about by starvation with no visible signs of sexual or physical assault on her body.
However, she agreed that there was no concrete evidence that could link Quoirin’s disappearance to abduction or her own willingness to wander out of the resort.
Wan Faridah also said no other evidence apart from DNA analysis, fingerprint evidence and witness statements were collected to assist in the investigation of both theories in relation to Quoirin’s disappearance.
