SEREMBAN, Jan 4 — The Coroner’s Court announced today that Irish-French teenager Nora Anne Quoirin’s death was a result of misadventure.
Coroner Maimoonah Aid said the injuries sustained by Quoirin, who disappeared from The Dusun resort in Negri Sembilan, where she had gone on holiday with her family in 2019, was probably self-inflicted and did not involve any third party.
“After hearing all the relevant evidence, I ruled that there was no one involved in the death of Nora Anne.
“It is more probable than not that she died by misadventure i.e. she had gone out of the Sora House on her own and subsequently got lost in the abandoned palm oil plantation.
“For me to speculate and presume of her action and involvement of a third party without any proven facts would be a breach of my duty. The inquiry is hereby closed,” she said in her verdict.
The verdict delivered in English, was also live-streamed through the Malaysian Judiciary’s official YouTube page.
Maimoonah, in delivering her two-hour long verdict, had earlier gone through excerpts of testimonies from the over 40 witnesses who testified throughout the inquest from late August to December last year.
Among others, the coroner highlighted that there were no signs suggesting the teenager was murdered or sexually assaulted following an extensive autopsy that was performed by senior pathologists.
Maimoonah also decided against an open verdict — whereby she would have confirmed Quoirin’s death under suspicious circumstances without being able to reach any other open conclusions.
She focused instead on the fact that Quoirin and her family were likely exhausted from their long journey after arriving in Malaysia in August 2019.
Describing the family as jet-lagged and tired, Maimoonah said it was likely the teenager may have wandered off on her own in a disoriented state after their arrival in a “strange and new place”.
Quoirin’s family was represented by lawyer S. Sakthyvell, while The Dusun resort was represented by lawyers Alliff Benjamin Suhaimi and Datuk Gurdial Singh Nijar.
Her parents were also present during the verdict this morning, opting to tune in virtually from their home in London due to travel restrictions imposed by the government.
When met by reporters outside court, Gurdial said he welcomed the coroner’s decision as her ruling proved that there was no culpability on the resort’s part in the teenager’s death.
As for the family’s counsel, Sakthyvell said the family would now need time to deliberate the next course of action following the court’s ruling.
“We have provided our advice. The family needs time to ponder and decide on the next course of action,” he said briefly when contacted.
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 last year.
Quoirin, 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.
The police had ruled out abduction as a motive, saying they found no signs of foul play but Quoirin’s family questioned the findings and insisted she had never before left them of her own accord.
