MYSTERY continues to surround the death of Nora Quoirin after rescuers admitted they extensively searched the area where her body was eventually found.
The 15-year-old Irish-French teenager was found dead near a ravine on August 13, 2019, nearly a week and a half after she went missing from a holiday resort in the Malaysian jungle.
She was staying with her parents at The Dusun eco-resort in southern Negeri Sembilan state, 40 miles south of Kuala Lumpur.
A desperate search was sparked after the teenager, who suffered from holoprosencephaly - a disorder that affects brain development - disappeared, just a day after the family arrived in Malaysia.
Hundreds of search teams, including rescue dogs were deployed to look for her, but found nothing for 10 days, despite the fact that her body was found out in the open, less than 2km from the resort where she was last seen.
The inquest into her death was told this week that not only had search operations been looking in the area where Nora was eventually found, but that authorities "took hours" to arrive once the body was discovered.
Chong Yue Fatt, a volunteer who was first to come across Nora's body, told the inquest that he didn't want anyone to go near the body for fear it would be tampered with.
"I saw the body," Mr Chong told the court.
"When I found the body, the place where I shouted, that's where I remained standing.
"We all tried to call by phone but could not get any calls out. And we asked a Malaysian Indian who knows the area very well, and he was the one who told his father to call the fire department, because there's no (phone) line."
Mr Chong added said it felt like "one or two hours" before any assistance arrived.
"We told all group members not to come close to the body, because [we were] afraid we would tamper any evidence. We just waited until assistance arrived."
The inquest continues.
See More: Inquest, Nora Quoirin
