Pictured: Nora Quoirin, who was found next to a waterfall in Malaysian jungle yesterday
The family of tragic teen Nora Quoirin have issued a statement saying their ‘hearts are broken’ following her death.
They also paid tribute to those who took part in the search and said Nora had ‘touched the world’ as people came together in the hope she would be found.
The statement said: We would like to thank all the people that have been searching for Nóra and trying their best to find her.
‘We thank the local people here and those far and wide for their prayers and support at this time. Nóra has brought people together, especially from France, Ireland, Britain and Malaysia, united in their love and support for her and her family.
‘She has truly touched the whole world. To all our friends and family at home, we can’t thank you enough for all your love.
Nóra is at the heart of our family. She is the truest, most precious girl and we love her infinitely. The cruelty of her being taken away is unbearable. Our hearts are broken. We will always love our Nóra.’
The statement was issued by the missing person’s charity The Lucie Blackman Trust. Spokesman Matt Searle said the family had asked for privacy to grieve the death of Nora and would not be making any other comment to the media.
Nora’s family (pictured) are said to have many questions about how long it took to find the teenager
This is the waterfall at which the teenager’s body was found yesterday following a ten-day search in jungle
It comes after he said they still have ‘a large amount of questions’ about how long it took to find the body.
‘One of those questions is, has the body been there all the time or is there a criminal involvement? Was the body dumped there afterwards?’ he said.
Sean Yeap was with a group of volunteers taking part in the ten-day search and today revealed the body was not covered in leaves or foliage of any kind.
He said if search and rescue teams had walked through the area they would have spotted her but speculated that when the area was first searched she was not there.
‘I think maybe she was elsewhere and walked to the stream perhaps to drink some water,’ he said.
‘The place where she was found is not easy to find. I wonder if she had been following the stream as there were no footprints which means she could have been walking in the water as it was not very deep.’
Searchers found the body near a waterfall that the missing schoolgirl had excitedly talked about visiting.
The grim discovery was made yesterday, more than a week after the 15-year-old disappeared from an eco-resort during a two-week family holiday.
Nora’s body was found unclothed by a group of hikers who had joined the tenth day of a widespread search operation across the perilous terrain.
The teenager’s devastated family faced an agonising wait last night to find out whether her death had resulted from an accident or a crime.
Police chiefs insisted the disappearance was still being treated as a missing persons case, though a parallel criminal probe remains open.
Investigators said they were awaiting the results of a post-mortem examination before deciding on the next steps.
Matthew Searle, head of missing persons charity the Lucie Blackman Trust, which is working with Nora’s family, said: ‘It’s absolutely the outcome that none of us was hoping for.
‘They [the family] are going to have a large amount of questions. One of those questions is has the body been there all the time or is there a criminal involvement? Was the body dumped there afterwards?’
Volunteers discovered Nora’s body at 1.57pm yesterday close to a stream at the foot of a ravine on Berembun mountain, 1.6 miles from the Dusun resort where Nora’s family was staying.
The area, which is popular with local tourists and located in an area known as the Pantai hills, had previously been searched – but no clues were found.
The Dusun resort offers guided tours to the Lata Berembun waterfall, involving a 20-minute trek to the jungle entrance and a further one-hour walk along a defined jungle trail.
Nora’s family searched in vain for the missing schoolgirl for more than a week
In a sad twist, it emerged yesterday that the teenager – who was born with a debilitating brain condition – had been keenly anticipating a trip to the waterfall.
Only hours before her body was discovered, a member of the hiking club that found her said the group had been instructed to check the location.
Shirley Yap, who was among a group of around 20 volunteers from the nearby town of Seremban, said: ‘We had heard she was excited about seeing a waterfall when she arrived in the resort.’
The hikers, including leader Kenny Chan, were taken to give statements at a police station in the nearby village of Pantai, which served as the headquarters for the search operation.
Following the discovery, the schoolgirl’s devastated parents, Meabh and Sebastien, were taken to the area where her body was found.
They were later supported at the resort by relatives who had flown in from Singapore, London and Glasgow.
Nora had travelled to the 12-acre resort on August 3 with her parents, sister Innes, 12, and brother Maurice, eight.
After going to sleep with her siblings in an upstairs bedroom, she was discovered missing by her French father shortly after 8am the following morning.
Police were left with no clues about her whereabouts other than that a large downstairs window at the property had been left ajar.
Sniffer dogs lost her scent around 100 yards from the two-storey holiday cottage.
It is understood that Nora was wearing only underwear at the time of her disappearance, while a police chief previously confirmed that she was barefoot at the time.
The schoolgirl’s grandfather, Sylvain Quoirin, who is a mayor in France, had previously said it was ‘unthinkable’ Nora would have wandered off alone because of the severity of her learning difficulties.
Nora’s parents identified her body last night at Tuanku Ja’afar hospital in Seremban. She had been airlifted there after being winched out of the jungle.
A post-mortem examination will be carried out by senior pathologists from Kuala Lumpur this morning.
State police chief Mohamad Mat Yusof, who has led the searches, said: ‘We will inform the post-mortem result tomorrow. Based on that we will decide if we need to investigate further if we are not satisfied.’
He said that the search and rescue operation had yet to be called off, should authorities need to look for more evidence tomorrow.
A police vehicle at the entrance to the Dusun Resort where Nora vanished
The deputy chief of Malaysia’s police force Mazlan Mansor had earlier said that officers have so far found no evidence of criminal behaviour.
But he refused to confirm whether Nora had suffered any injuries or if anybody else may have been involved in her death.
He described Nora as ‘completely naked’ but ‘intact’ when she was found, adding it was too soon to determine how long her body had been at the scene.
Nora’s parents, who have lived in London for 20 years, had previously expressed fears that the schoolgirl had been abducted and had put up a £10,000 reward for information. Mrs Quoirin, 45, held back tears during a statement in which she said the family’s ‘hearts are breaking’ without her.
‘Nora is our first child. She has been vulnerable since the day she was born,’ she said.
The teenager had a smaller than average brain and struggled to act independently having been born with Patau’s syndrome, or holoprosencephaly.
The condition left her struggling to complete everyday tasks and with limited speech, walking ability and co-ordination.
During the search operation, rescuers had also played Mrs Quoirin’s voice through loudspeakers in the hope her daughter would hear, saying: ‘Nora, darling, Nora, I love you, Mummy is here.’
Mr and Mrs Quoirin, a data analysis firm salesman and market research company director, met in Northern Ireland and the family live in Streatham, south London.
The search for Nora had involved up to 350 staff from various government bodies over a period of ten days, alongside helicopters and drones equipped with thermal imagining technology.
British, Irish and French police had been dispatched to Malaysia to join the search. Scotland Yard said it was ready to deploy remote support.
The Dusun resort, located around 39 miles south of Kuala Lumpur, is nestled in the foothills of the Titiwangsa Mountains and borders the Berembun Forest Reserve.
The jungle is home to an array of harmful animals, including snakes, biting insects, tigers and wild boar.
Hikers burst into tears when they found Nora’s body which looked as ‘if she were sleeping’
Nora (pictured) was discovered dead yesterday next to a waterfall she had spoken excitedly about visiting
A hiker who found the body of missing teen Nora Quoirin has told how she looked as ‘if she were sleeping’ when they saw lying close to a stream.
Sean Yeap was with a group of volunteers taking part in the search and rescue operation to try and find the 15-year-old.
He described how they saw the teenager lying by the riverbed with her head resting on her two hands.
‘It looked like she was sleeping,’ her told MailOnline in an exclusive interview. ‘Her head was resting on her hands. But we all knew she was dead.
‘It was very sad and two women in the group did not want to come close and they started crying.’
The body of the teenager was formally identified by her parents Sebastien and Meabh at a hospital in the town of Seremban on Tuesday night ending days of anguish. A post-mortem to determine cause of death is set to be revealed later today.
A statement issued by the family today thanked those who took part in the search while saying ‘the cruelty of her being taken away is unbearable.’
Police have admitted the area where she was found had been searched before. Nora was found naked lying near a stream.
While police are treating her death as that of a missing person they are still carrying out a criminal investigation after her parents said the special needs teen was abducted from the eco-resort where they had booked a two-week holiday.
Yeap was with a group of 24 experienced hikers who had left the Dusun resort to look for Nora on the 10th day of the search having volunteered to join experienced search and rescue teams.
Led by team leader Kenny Chan, the men and women set off to follow a trail on a palm oil plantation about 1.2miles from where Nora disappeared on August 4th.
He said they met an Indian man who told them he was familiar with the area and would assist them.
They followed a trail through the oil plantation when one of the group said he could smell a strong odour coming from the jungle. It was then they came across tragic Nora’s body.
‘We did not approach but stood about 15 metres away and out team leader called the police.
‘I could see the body. She was lying with her hands behind her head like you do when you go to sleep. There were some scratches on her arm and some bruises but otherwise there were no injuries. I am not sure, but I think she had been dead a few days.’
Yeap, an insurance salesman, said the body was not covered with any leaves or jungle foliage.
He said if search and rescue teams had walked through the area they would have spotted her but speculated that when the area was first searched she was not there.
‘I think maybe she was elsewhere and walked to the stream perhaps to drink some water,’ he said.
‘The place where she was found is not easy to find. I wonder if she had been following the stream as there were no footprints which means she could have been walking in the water as it was not very deep.’
Yeap and the others, including housewife Shirley Yap, stood back from the shocking discovery and waited for police. Two of the group began crying and were comforted by others,.
‘We knew not to touch the body and let the police do their work,’ he said. ‘The police took about 40 minutes to get there and sealed of the scene. We all had to make statements at the police station.’
Yeap, a Chinese/Malay who spoke through an interpreter, said he feels nothing but sadness for Nora’s parents.
‘I feel so sorry for them but I am glad that we were able to find the body and they did not have to wait even longer to know what happened.’
Other member of the group who belong to the Kepayank Hiking Club read out a statement that they said was the ‘truth’ of what took place.
Since Nora’s body was found rumours have swirled particularly as she was found naked.
Shirley Yap, 50,read from a prepared statement describing how the group had formed a line either side of trail towards a stream.
She fought back tears when asked to describe finding the body.
‘It is not good. It sad to see a body like that,’ she said.
Describing the lead up to finding the body, Yap said they had spread out either side of a path and followed a trail through an old palm oil plantation.
After searching for 30 minutes they followed the trail downhill towards a stream.
She said: ‘One of our members saw the body lying across the small stream and called out. All of us turned back to where the body was found.
‘We stopped 10m from the body and all knew we should not stop too close to the scene of the body and waited there for the police to arrive. It was hard for the police to find us as the area was quite unacceptable.
The place where Nora was found remained sealed off by police today