SEREMBAN: French-Irish teenager Nora Anne Quoirin's post-mortem examination results showed she died of starvation.
State police chief Datuk Mohamaad Mat Yusop said official cause of death was upper gastrointestinal bleeding due to duodenal ulcer complicated by perforation, meaning there was internal bleeding in the intestines due to an ulcer which was brought on by starvation.
He said police had ruled out foul play in Nora Anne’s death, adding that there were no signs of kidnapping or rape.
Mohamad said Nora Anne died two or three days before her body was found on Tuesday.
“The cause of death was due to ruptured intestines which could be because she had no food for a long period and also long term stress,” he told reporters at the state police headquarters.
When asked if Nora Anne died of starvation, Mohamad said yes.
“There were some scratches and light wounds found on her leg. However, that did not point towards the cause of her death.
“Several samples from Nora Anne’s body have been sent to the Chemistry Department to analyse for a more detailed post-mortem result,” he added.
Mohamad also said no element of abduction was found and that her case was still being investigated as a missing person.
On reports that French police are conducting investigations as abduction, Mohamad said they had nothing to do with it.
However he stressed that authorities from France, England and Ireland are working closely with the investigation.
Earlier, Reuters had reported that French police had opened a criminal investigation into Nora Anne’s disappearance.
The Paris prosecutor had opened a criminal investigation into the case for kidnapping on Aug 9, a spokesman told Reuters in a text message.
French prosecutors regularly launch investigations on cases involving French citizens abroad, the press agency reported.
Nora Anne’s father Sebastien is from France, while her mother Meabh is from Belfast.
Mohamad said the Quoirin family will be allowed to claim Nora Anne’s remains at any time and there were no restrictions for them to leave the country.
On claims by a Twitter user that Nora Anne was raped by Orang Asli, since her body was found naked, Mohamad denied the claims.
“We have already made a police report and identified the owner of the Twitter account,” he said.
The Quoirin family of five had arrived in Malaysia on Aug 3 for a two-week holiday and checked in at The Dusun resort near here. The following morning, Nora Anne was found to be missing, a large window on the ground floor of the guesthouse they were staying in left open.
The family insisted that she had been abducted, saying the special needs teen would never wander off on her own.
A massive search and rescue (SAR) operation was immediately launched and eventually grew to more than 300 policemen, including VAT 69 commandos and members of the famed Senoi Praaq General Operations Force battalion, and various other government authorities, as well as Orang Asli and civilian volunteers.
The search also included tracker dogs from the police and Fire and Rescue Department’s K9 units as well as helicopters equipped with infrared cameras.
As investigations turned up no evidence of abduction, the case was classified as a missing person case, but police said they had not ruled out any possibility and continued to also work on the abduction angle, though efforts were concentrated mostly on finding the girl in the jungles surrounding the resort.
Police also searched houses in the vicinity for her and recorded statements from family members, resort staff and others who may have come into contact with the family.
On the 10th day, volunteer searchers from a hiking club found Nora Anne’s body on a slope near a river not far from a waterfall Nora Anne was reported to have told her mother she was excited about visiting. The place was some 2.5km from the resort.
As the place where she was found was practically inaccessible, her body had to be winched out by helicopter. Her remains were then fl
own to the Tuanku Ja’afar Hospital (HTJ) where Sebastien and Meabh identified their daughter.
The post-mortem examination began at 11.45am yesterday and only ended at 9pm.
It was conducted by Kuala Lumpur Hospital pathologist Dr Siew Sheue Feng and Dr Hanif Mohammad of HTJ, assisted by specialists from the Petaling Jaya Chemistry and Forensics departments.