Inquest into death of Nóra Quoirin to be held next month

Malaysian authorities have said an inquest is to be carried out into the death of Franco-Irish teenager Nóra Quoirin next month

According to Malaysian newspaper, the Star and the Quoirin family lawyer, the inquest will begin at the end of August and will take two weeks.

Irish citizen Nóra Quoirin went missing on Sunday, August 4th, after arriving at The Dusun resort near the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

Her disappearance sparked a massive 10-day search in the jungle. It sadly came to a tragic end on Tuesday, August 13th when her body was discovered in a ravine beside a stream 2km from the resort.

Malaysian police had revealed that, according to an autopsy, the teenager died of internal bleeding in her intestine, which was likely caused by “hunger or extreme stress” but her parents have said that all evidence doesn’t point to it being so simple, due to Nóra being born with Holoprosencephaly – a rare congenital disorder which left her struggling to walk and balance normally.

“We have insisted from the beginning that we believe there was a criminal element to what happened…,” they said earlier this year. “And crucially we’re struggling because it was difficult to get resources in place fast enough to explore a criminal angle.”

Meabh Quoirin told RTÉ that it would have been “impossible physically and mentally to imagine that she could have got any distance at all.”

“We believe that crucial time and evidence was lost in the beginning,” she said.

The family have persisted and pushed for an inquest and a coroner has set dates from August 24th to 4th September for one to take place.

“We have fought very hard to keep Nora’s case alive, after it was initially closed by the police in early 2020, and it has been our wish all along to have an inquest,” the family said in a statement according to Sky News.

“This will be crucial in determining the fullest possible picture of what happened to Nora and how her case was dealt with.”

Sixty-four witnesses will be called, and the coroner, prosecutors and lawyers will visit the area where her body was found before it gets underway.

The inquest will be streamed over video-conferencing platform Zoom “for the parents of Nora and other witnesses living abroad to follow the proceedings.”

Main photograph: The Lucie Blackman Trust/ the Quoirin family

Read more: What the tragic loss of Nóra Quoirin has reminded us about sisterhood

Read more: ‘We believe she was abducted’: Parents of Nóra Quoirin call for fresh investigation