SEREMBAN: Malaysian police said on Thursday there were no signs of foul play in the death of a 15-year-old Lon­don girl who mysteriously disappeared from a nature resort, with an auto­psy showing she succumbed to intestinal bleeding due to starvation and stress.

Nora Anne Quoirin’s body was discovered on Tuesday beside a small stream about 2.5kms from the Dusun eco-resort after she disappeared from her family’s resort cottage on Aug 4.

Negeri Sembilan state police chief Mohamad Mat Yusop said the autopsy found no evidence the teenager had been abducted or raped. She was estimated to have been dead two or three days and not more than four when her naked body was found, he said.

“For the time being, there is no element of abduction or kidnapping,” he told a news conference at a police station.

“The cause of death was upper gastrointestinal blee­ding due to duodenal ulcer, complicated with perforation ... it could be due to a lack of food for a long period of time and due to prolonged stress,” he said.

Mohamad said there were also some bruises on the girl’s legs but wouldn’t cause her death. Samples taken from her body will be sent to the chemistry department for further analysis, he said. The girl’s family can take her body back to their country if they wish, he added.

Quoirin’s family has said she wasn’t independent and wouldn’t wander off alone as she had learning and physical disabilities.

Police from Ireland, Fra­n­ce and the UK are in Malaysia to assist in the invest­i­gation. The girl’s mot­her is from Ireland and her father is Fre­n­ch, but the family has lived in London for 20 years.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2019