SEREMBAN: The post-mortem examination of the remains of Irish teen Nora Anne Quoirin has turned into a marathon of sorts.
The examination, by a team of senior pathologists led by Dr Siew Sheue Feng from Kuala Lumpur Hospital, is still going on, nine hours after it began at 11.45am.
A press conference scheduled for 5pm to announce the initial results of the examination was postponed to 8pm, but as that hour came and went, there was still no sign of senior police officers to update the media.
When deputy state police chief Senior Assistant Commissioner Che Zakaria Othman finally appeared, he said the post-mortem examination was still on-going.
He said police could not release any details as yet because of this.
“I made a decision based on the instruction of state police chief (Datuk Mohamad Mat Yusop) that a statement will only be issued at a time to be advised tomorrow. There is also no new development at the scene (where Nora Anne’s body was found) that I have to report,” he told a horde of reporters who had been stationed outside the Tuanku Ja’afar Hospital mortuary, some from as early as 6.30am.
Che Zakaria declined to answer any questions.
While post-mortem examinations generally take a long time, the fact that this one has taken so long has left many questions lingering in the minds of all following the case.
The case itself has left many unanswered questions, the biggest being what actually happened to Nora Anne. Did she wander off on her own or was she abducted? Did she fall and injure herself? Or was she killed and her body dumped there? What was the cause of death?
These were the answers which were expected to be answered by the post-mortem examination.
But there is another question which may only be answered later on in the investigation, or may never be solved at all: How is it rescuers missed Nora Anne’s body in the area where it was found if, as police said, the place had been covered by them earlier?
Nora Anne, the eldest of three children to Sebastien and Meabh Quoirin, was found on the 10th day after she had been reported missing.
The family had arrived in Malaysia for a two-week holiday and checked in at the resort the day prior to her disappearance.
On Aug 4, the family discovered Nora Anne, who is a special needs teen, missing with the large window in one of the rooms left open.
The family had insisted that the 15-year-old had been abducted, but police classified the case as that of a missing person due to fact that there was no evidence supporting an abduction.
A massive search and rescue (SAR) operation was activated with over 300 policemen, including members of the famed Senoi Praaq general operations force battalion, as well as officials from other government agencies deployed. Orang asli villagers and other volunteers also lent a hand.
Helicopters equipped with infrared radars were also deployed in the search.
Even though the family were kept away from the search so as to keep them safe considering the terrain of the search area was somewhat treacherous, they did their bit, with a recording of Meabh’s voice urging her to come home being blasted on loudspeakers by rescuers.
The family also offered a reward of £10,000 (about RM50,628) for finding her.