British and French police who joined the hunt for missing teen Nora Quoirin were able to carry out their own investigation at the eco resort from where she disappeared, MailOnline can reveal.
The disclosure came as the teenager’s family said they were preparing to bring her body home as they continued to ‘struggle’ to come to terms with her death.
In a statement, Nora’s family said: ‘Today the deputy prime minister of Malaysia and minister for the state paid their respects to our family.
British and French police conducted their own investigation into whether Nora Quoirin could have been abducted from the Malaysian eco-resort where she vanished
The investigation was revealed as parents Sebastien and Meabh said they are struggling to accept the Malaysian police’s version of events, in which their daughter wandered off alone
‘We had the opportunity to thank them for everything that the Malaysian government, police, search and rescue teams, local people and volunteers have done to help us.
‘Tragically, as we know, this wasn’t enough to save Nora.
‘The initial post mortem results have given some information that help us to understand Nora’s cause of death. But our beautiful innocent girl died in extremely complex circumstances and we are hoping that soon we will have more answers to our many questions.
‘ We are still struggling to understand the events of the last 10 days.
‘We would like to thank the Malaysian authorities for their ongoing support and cooperation with international governments and police as the criminal and missing persons investigations continue.
‘We will be bringing Nora home where she will finally be laid to rest, close to her loving families in France and Ireland.’
The Quoirin family plan to collect the body of their daughter tonight.
Meanwhile British and French police officers stayed at the jungle hotel and were able to see for themselves if an intruder would have been able to break in undetected and abduct the vulnerable teen from a bedroom while sleeping alongside her siblings.
A police source in Seremban said the officers – from Paris and Britain’s National Crime Agency – requested to stay at the hilltop resort after arriving in Malaysia.
They will submit a report on their findings, but have not raised any suspicions of foul play with the Malaysian police.
Both officers have now left the country.
Negeri Sembilan Police Chief Mohamad Mat Yusop (second right) said a post-mortem has revealed Nora was alive in the jungle for up to a week before dying of starvation
The naked body of Nora, who had serious learning difficulties, was found by a hiker near a waterfall on Tuesday – ten days after she went missing
The involvement of police from three countries comes as Nora’s mother Meabh is said to still not accept that her special needs daughter would have wandered off alone. Other family members also have serious doubts.
Sylvain Quoirin, Nora’s paternal grandfather, told the Irish Times that ‘dark areas need to be cleared up for the family to be able to grieve in peace.’
And family lawyer Charles Morel said: ‘The family are just concerned to find out the truth. There are many unanswered questions and we cannot exclude criminal involvement.’
He said they are awaiting DNA and toxicology tests to rule out any other person being involved in her disappearance.
Police in Malaysia insist they found no evidence of a break in at the resort with an open ground floor window the possible way Nora could have left.
They are convinced the teen left on her own and wandered in the jungle for a week before dying from starvation.
Her naked body was found by a stream on the 10th day of the search by a group of hikers volunteering with search teams.
A post mortem carried out in the presence of an officer from the Irish police revealed that she suffered intestinal bleeding caused by stress and no food.
Police chief Mohammed Yusop said he was told by the Irish liaison officer that they would not be requesting a second autopsy.
British and French police asked to stay at the resort (pictured) to test whether an intruder could have taken the teenager away unnoticed. They are yet to report their findings
The officers from the three nations flew to Malaysia to offer their assistance but did not take part in the search and rescue operation.
They were given access to the initial crime scene investigation at the Duson resort where no forensic evidence of an intruder was found apart from unknown fingerprints on the ground floor window.
These were sent for analysis but the results have not been made public. Police also questioned locals and visited over 30 homes as part of the search efforts.
While Nora’s family insisted from the moment she disappeared she had been abducted, police viewed it as a missing person’s case.
With the post mortem finding no signs of sexual violence or physical injury, they continue to be convinced Nora wandered into the dense jungle of her own free will.
Yusop said one reason search teams did not find her at the location where she was eventually discovered was because she was ‘mobile’ and moving around the jungle.
A senior member of the search team told MailOnline that a helicopter with a thermal image camera picked up a body heat source close to the eco resort the day after she went missing.
Rescuers scoured the area but found no trace.
‘When we got to the spot there was just a bamboo tree. The cameras are usually very accurate but there was nothing there and we don’t think it was an animal.’
He said a decision was taken to widen the search into the jungle and away from the resort.