Missing Nora Quoirin’s ‘footprints are found’ in the jungle

Malaysian police searching for 15-year-old Nora Quoirin believe they have found her footprints in the jungle as the hunt enters its sixth day with the London teenager still missing and her disappearance still unexplained. 

Sniffer dogs found the traces yesterday within four miles of the eco-resort cottage where Nora vanished on Sunday. 

They are believed to be her footprints because they were picked up by the ‘canine detectives’ who have been following Nora’s scent, police told local media.  

Rescuers followed the trail but did not find Nora despite a huge operation involving hundreds of people equipped with drones, helicopters and thermal imaging cameras. 

Today heartbreaking new footage has revealed the moment police broadcast her mother’s voice into the forest in the hope of coaxing her out from a possible hiding place. 

‘Nora darling, Nora I love you, Mum is here’, Meabh Quoirin’s voice called out in a loudspeaker message. 

Nora’s photograph has also been handed out at roadblocks in the area and native forest trackers are calling out the schoolgirl’s name as they comb the dense forest. 

The resort has a wire fence but it has gaps which guests could easily walk through – widening the area in which Nora could be.   

Today there are fears that heavy rain and thunder could hamper the search of the 12-acre resort south of Kuala Lumpur where Nora, who has learning difficulties, was last seen on Sunday. 

Rescuers say that even an ‘able-bodied or normal person would be weak by the fifth day’ and are searching behind trees or rocks where Nora could be hiding.  

District police chief Nor Marzukee Besar said rescuers are using recordings of her mother’s voice ‘as if the family is calling her’ and playing them over loudspeakers.

Meabh Quoirin’s voice rang out loudly through the loudspeakers, piercing the silence in the jungle, but received no answer. 

The voices of her other family members have also been recorded and will be played through megaphones in the hope of luring her out. 

Ms Quoirin’s voice was used first as she is closest to Nora, the police chief told Malaysian media. 

However, Nora’s family members are not taking part in the search operations themselves for security reasons. 

Yesterday a helicopter from the Royal Malaysian Police Air Wing Unit, equipped with a surveillance thermal imaging camera, was seen trawling dense trees near the Dusan forest eco-resort in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, where the youngster went missing.     

Malaysian police say they believe the girl is still in the area of jungle where the search is focused.  

‘We still believe this missing person is still within our search vicinity,’ the police chief told reporters. 

Her family say it would be extremely unusual for the reserved youngster to have wandered off on her own. 

Members of the Senoi Praq, a special police team made up of indigenous tribes with forest tracking skills, are searching the forest surrounding the Dusun eco-resort.

The trackers shouted ‘Nora!’ as they waded through the hilly forest terrain yesterday. 

Two drones and a team of police sniffer dogs have been deployed in the huge search operation and divers have also been sent to search rivers, on the theory that she could head downhill to try and find water.  

Today police were seen handing out fliers with Nora’s picture and hanging them on walls in the hope that someone will reocgnise her. 

The Lucie Blackman Trust, a British charity that supports people involved in crises overseas, has also issued a bilingual poster and urged people to help them hand out flyers in Kuala Lumpur. 

As the investigation grows increasingly desperate, police have sought advice about the possibility that ‘jungle spirits’ played a role in her disappearance. 

Senior officers have discussed local folklore concerning the existence of mystical forces in the jungle where the teenager vanished. 

Malaysians have long believed that spirits roam the country’s vast jungles, leading to a plethora of superstitions and a belief that the spirit world has played a role in previous disappearances.  

One source said: ‘In Malaysia and in thick jungle, we believe that there is someone who is the owner of the jungle. It is very hard to explain but something we take into account.’ 

Officers involved in the search for the 15-year-old yesterday said that, while unlikely, police had to ‘pay respect’ to the idea – although it does not form a central part of the search operation. 

Police yesterday released pictures of the cottage’s living room and ground-floor window, saying that the opening was big enough for a person to squeeze through. 

Police suspect that she climbed out of the ground-floor window which was found open, but have not ruled out a ‘criminal element’. 

‘Only the glass window exit was used. We are certain about this, a police officer told Malaysian media yesterday, citing the work of a forensic police team. 

Unknown fingerprints have also been discovered at the Malaysian jungle cottage where she disappeared, adding to the family’s fears that she was abducted. 

The fingerprints were found at the open window downstairs, while her parents were in another room upstairs when she disappeared. 

Investigators have questioned 20 people so far and said they had received laboratory results on the fingerprints.   

While officially treating it as a missing person case, police say they have not ruled out any other possibilities.  

It remains unclear whether it was possible to open the window from outside the property. Those running the 12-acre resort previously said this could have been the case.   

Rescuers were yesterday seen praying for Nora’s safety and 300 Muslim worshippers held a service for the missing teenager on Friday, according to local media.  

Negeri Sembilan police chief Che Zakaria Othman police also sought divine intervention during the Islamic Friday prayers.

‘After we have conducted our Friday prayers, we conducted a special prayer. We are asking Allah, to help us in finding this missing person Nora Anne Quoirin,’ he said.   

‘What we’re doing today is to help our friends in the search effort,’ said Mohamad Taufek Awaludin, who led the session. ‘We hope that the family… will be patient. This is a test from Allah.’ 

The Friday prayers will continue every week if Nora is not found, the imam said.  

However, sniffer dogs initially lost the scent for Nora just 100 yards from the eco-lodge bungalow where she vanished on Sunday morning.  

Malaysian authorities are also said to be in contact with Interpol as they probe the mystery disappearance, and pictures of her have been distributed to police elsewhere in Malaysia.    

The 15-year-old, who is from a French-Irish family and has learning and developmental disabilities, arrived for a two-week stay with her family on Saturday. 

Nora, who was sleeping upstairs with her sister Innes, 12, and brother Maurice, eight, was found to be missing on Sunday morning by her father at around 8am. 

The Dusun is a small resort located next to a forest reserve about 40 miles south of Kuala Lumpur. 

The resort’s management said in a Facebook post that its employees were ‘extremely distressed and worried’ about her disappearance and were assisting in the search. 

The teenager’s family said earlier in the week that they were ‘overwhelmed’ by the support they had received and remained ‘hopeful’ their daughter could be found. 

‘This is extremely traumatic for the whole family. Meabh and Sebastien are devastated and too upset to speak themselves at this time,’ Nora’s aunt Eadaoin Agnew said, referring to the girl’s parents. 

‘But we must remain hopeful. And we ask everyone to keep Nora in their thoughts, and to continue to support the ongoing search for her,’ she said. 

‘Nora is still missing, and she is very vulnerable, and we need to do everything we can to bring her home.’  

Her grandfather Sylvain Quoirin that she had gone in ‘extremely mysterious’ circumstances and was not in the habit of running off. 

‘In the morning, the window was open and she had disappeared,’ Quoirin said from Venisy, in north-central France where he is the mayor. 

‘After an 18-hour flight and a seven-hour time difference you would sleep soundly and not go for a stroll at night,’ he said. 

Nora’s family has appealed for donations to assist the search and more than £60,000 has been raised so far, as well as a further €4,000 (£3,700) in a separate French collection.  

In an appeal on the GoFundMe.com, the family said Nora’s disabilities made her especially vulnerable and they fear for her safety. 

‘Nora would not know how to get help and would never leave her family voluntarily,’ the statement said. ‘More family members are travelling to Malaysia to participate in the search and rescue effort and would appreciate donations to cover any unforeseen expenses or charges incurred in the process.’