No signs of foul play were found in the death of a British teen found near a Malaysian jungle resort — though it can’t be ruled out due to her body’s severe decomposition, a British pathologist said Monday.
Nathaniel Cary, who performed a second autopsy on 15-year-old Nora Anne Quoirin, said she died of intestinal bleeding due to starvation and stress after she disappeared during a family vacation in the southern Negeri Sembilan state on Aug. 4, 2019.
But he also told a Malaysian court that he couldn’t say for certain whether the teen had been sexually assaulted since her remains were in poor condition.
“I think we can exclude very serious trauma to the genitalia … but I won’t be able to exclude minimal trauma because of the decomposition obscuring things,” Cary testified at a virtual inquiry into her death.
“The difficulty here is because of the decomposition, the forensic evidence would be disadvantaged to an extent.”
Cary’s findings were in line with the initial autopsy by Malaysian officials, who also found no evidence the teen had been abducted or raped when she went missing from her family’s cottage at the Dusun eco-resort.
Nora was found naked on Aug. 13 just over a mile from the resort, though she had wandered away only wearing her underwear.
Her parents said they don’t believe she could have gone off on her own since she had mental and physical disabilities.
But police have claimed their investigations turned up no evidence of criminal activity — and they believe that she climbed out a window on her own.
Her family has argued that foreign DNA could have washed off since her feet and hands had been in the water for a few days before her body was found.
Cary said Monday that he agreed that was a possibility, but ultimately he came to the same conclusions as Malaysian officials about the evidence available.
“I see no reason to dispute the findings, although like me, the Malaysian pathologists were clearly disadvantaged by the decomposition,” he said.
The court proceeding to determine the teen’s cause of death will likely conclude next month, but it’s possible that a verdict won’t be delivered until next year.
Her family has also sued the resort owner for alleged negligence, claiming there was no security on the property.
With Post wires