MALAYSIAN POLICE INVESTIGATING the disappearance of 15-year-old Irish citizen Nóra Quoirin said that there are no signs of “foul play”.
Speaking yesterday, a Malaysian police official said: “So far, there’s been no indication on that, no indication that there’s been foul play. However, police will do a thorough investigation.”
Nóra Quoirin, who has special needs, went missing while on a family holiday in the resort of Seremban, a short distance from the capital Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
Nóra is the daughter of an Irish-French couple who have been living in London for around 20 years.
“We will continue our search and rescue mission until we find the missing person. In God’s will, hopefully we will find her as soon as possible,” the police official said.
More than a hundred people from various government agencies have been searching for her, Che Zakaria Othman, deputy police chief of Negeri Sembilan state, told AFP.
Che Zakaria said that Nóra’s disappearance was currently classified as a missing person case and was not being treated as an abduction.
However, one of the girl’s relatives told the Lucie Blackman Trust, a British charity that supports the families of British people who go missing abroad, that the family suspected foul play.
“Nora is a child with special needs and has learning and developmental disabilities which make her especially vulnerable and we fear for her safety,” her aunt Aisling Agnew said.
“Nora would not know how to get help and would never leave her family voluntarily. We now consider this a criminal matter,” she added.
The Dusun is a 12-acre resort in the foothills of a mountain range and next to a forest reserve.
On Sunday, Nóra’s parents found her bedroom empty and the window open. On Monday the French foreign ministry said that it had “immediately intervened” after learning of her disappearance.
The French ambassador to Kuala Lumpur contacted the Malaysian police authorities while the French consul travelled to the resort to support the missing girl’s family and help them liaise with investigators.
“We remain fully mobilised to ensure that everything is done to find our compatriot,” the ministry said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ireland confirmed it is “aware of the case and is providing consular assistance”.
The resort’s management said in a Facebook post that its employees were “extremely distressed and worried” about Nora’s disappearance and were assisting in the search.
Additional reporting from - © AFP 2019
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