THE FAMILY OF teenager Nóra Quoirin has raised over €100,000 through online donations to aid the search effort for the missing 15-year-old.
Nóra, who was on a family holiday to the Malaysian resort of Dusun in Seremban, has been missing since Sunday 4 August.
The search, which now involves over 350 people along with sniffer dogs, helicopters and drones setting out on a trek through jungle terrain in a bid to find her, has entered its 10th day.
Nora is the daughter of an Irish mother and French father and so carries an Irish passport. They believe she was abducted, but Malaysian police have classified it as a missing person case.
On two separate GoFundMe pages, two of Nóra’s uncles and her aunt have raised over €120,000 in order to cover travel costs for family members who wish to join in the search efforts and support them while they are in Malaysia.
The family has said that any surplus donations will be given to charities, such as the Lucie Blackman Trust, which is currently assisting the family in Dusun.
Yesterday, a handful of traditional shamans – known locally as “bomoh” – appeared to go into a trance in the jungle as they conducted rituals to help locate Nóra.
The search has now expanded to include the slopes of a nearby mountain, the deputy police chief of Negeri Sembilan state said.
“We will continue the search for Nora. We are committed to finding her,” he told reporters.
Nóra’s family yesterday offered a reward of 50,000 Malaysian Ringgit (around €10,633) for information leading to the return of their daughter.
The teenager’s family has received a donation of 50,000 MYR from an anonymous Belfast-based business for information that directly helps them to find the girl.
“Nora is our first child. She has been vulnerable since the day she was born,” the family said.
“She is so precious to us and our hearts are breaking.
“We are appealing to anyone who has information about Nora to help us find her.”
Anyone with information is asked to call the police hotline on 01112285058 or email the Lucie Blackman Trust on ops@btrust.org.
A spokesperson for the UK’s National Crime Agency has confirmed that officers from the NCA, and the Metropolitan Police were also assisting in efforts to find her.
On Friday, it was revealed that a Garda liaison officer was deployed to Malaysia to assist with efforts to locate the young girl.
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