The parents of a 15-year-old London girl who mysteriously disappeared from a Malaysian resort a week ago yesterday said that she was not independent and had difficulty walking, in new details to support their conviction that she was abducted.
A massive search operation has been under way for Nora Anne Quoirin, who was discovered missing by her family on the morning of Sunday last week from the Dusun eco-resort in southern Negeri Sembilan state.
Police believe the teen climbed out through a window in the living room that was left open and was still in the vicinity of the resort. They are treating her as a missing person, but do not rule out a criminal element in her disappearance.
Photo: AFP/ROYAL MALAYSIA POLICE
Her parents, Meabh Quoirin from Ireland and Sebastien Quoirin from France, said that Nora Anne was born with holoprosencephaly, a malformation that causes her to have a smaller brain and has led to learning and physical disabilities.
“All her life she has spent a lot of time in hospital. When she was born, she needed operations to help her [breathe]. She has specialists that monitor her growth, her physical abilities and her strength, and especially her mental capacity,” they said in a statement released by the Lucie Blackman Trust, a British charity that supports people involved in crises overseas.
“She is not like other teenagers. She is not independent and does not go anywhere alone,” they said. “Nora likes to walk with her family, but her balance is limited and she struggles with coordination. She has been to Asia and many European countries before, and has never wandered off or got lost.”
Other challenges she faces include having limited verbal communication, not being able to write more than a few words and an inability to grasp anything conceptual such as mathematics or managing money, they said, adding that she is also unable to make or receive phone calls independently.
Nora can wash and dress herself, but she cannot manage buttons and struggles to wash her hair, they said.
The parents described Nora as a “fun, funny and extremely loving” girl, but who is also sensitive, shy and anxious outside the family.
“With her family, she is very affectionate. Family is her whole world and she loves to play games, like Cat Bingo, with us. She likes to tell us silly jokes and wear clever, colorful T-shirts,” they said. “Every night, her special time is for cuddles and a nighttime story with her mum, and she was extremely excited about the family holiday in Malaysia.”
Nora’s family, who have lived in London for 20 years, arrived on Saturday last week for a two-week stay at the Dusun, a small resort located in a durian orchard next to a forest reserve 63km south of Kuala Lumpur.
The family thanked the Malaysian police and all those involved in the search.
More than 260 people have taken part in the operation that has included aerial searches, thermal detectors, sniffer dogs, indigenous trackers and elite commando forces.
Rescuers on Friday began playing voice recordings of her mother to try and draw the girl out as they combed the hilly forest terrain.
Investigators have questioned 20 people and said a forensic team was analyzing fingerprints found in the cottage where the girl went missing. Posters of the girl have also been circulated in the district.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS