The Coroner’s Court was told today the post-mortem on Irish-French teenager Nora Anne Quoirin’s body on Aug 14 last year was also attended by an investigator from France.
Petaling Jaya district police chief Assistant Commissioner Nik Ezanee Mohd Faisal, 42, said the investigator attended the post-mortem at the Tuanku Ja’afar Hospital here, following a request from Nora Anne’s family.
“On the post-mortem, the family requested to have an investigator from abroad to be present…so I requested for the clearance from then-Deputy Inspector-General of Police. Tan Sri Mazlan Mansor and he agreed.
“We got nothing to hide and it (autopsy) went on for nine hours. Among those present during the post-mortem was Laurent Collomb, an investigator from the France National Police,” said the 45th witness in the inquest proceedings to determine the cause of Nora Anne’s death.
Today is the 22nd day of the inquest before Coroner Maimoonah Aid.
Ezanee, who acted as the liaison officer for the teenager’s family during the incident, said he was also informed by the foreign investigator of his observation on the post-mortem after the process was completed at about 9pm last Aug 14.
“When Laurent came out of the post-mortem room, he said, wow…there is no doubt in my mind that the pathologist has performed (the autopsy) in the most professional way,” he said, adding that he also received a message of appreciation from the French Ambassador to Malaysia Frederic Laplanche.
He also informed the court that apart from two investigators from France, there were three other investigators, from Ireland and Britain, who also came to the country to assist in the investigation on Nora Anne’s case.
Earlier, the 44th witness, Deputy Superintendent C Tharmalingam, 53, from the Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) Unit, Forensic Laboratory, Bukit Aman, in his testimony, said that there were stains, believed to be of blood, obtained during inspection at a toilet at Sora House, where the teenager and her family stayed upon arriving in Malaysia.
He said the stains were visible by using Luminol Spray in the inspection conducted on Aug 6 last year, which was two days after Nora Anne was reported missing.
“When my team and I did the inspection at Sora House, we did not see any traces of blood with our naked eyes, but when we used Luminol Spray to detect the presence of blood, we found it on the ground floor toilet,” he said when reading out his witness statement.
He said the blood samples were then handed over to investigating officer Inspector Wan Faridah Mustanin for further action.
Asked by deputy public prosecutor Nuralis Mat, who is conducting the inquest, what Luminol is, the witness said Luminol was a chemical liquid used in forensics to find traces of blood that were said to be invisible to the naked eye.
“When sprayed on the surface, if there is blood, it will react and turns blue…this examination can only be done in the dark,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ezanee testified that the family had been under tremendous stress over Nora’s disappearance.
Nora Anne’s family insistence she may have been abducted instead of wandering off on her own during her disappearance was not meant to divert investigators in their search, he said.
“I don’t think they did on purpose. They are just concerned. They just couldn’t accept that she could have walked by herself.
“At the point of time, in their mind, somebody had abducted Nora,” he said, further agreeing that the family was adamant the teenager would not have gone off by herself willingly.
At the time, Ezanee said he was informed by the family how Nora could not walk more than 20 feet (six metres) without assistance.
However, surveillance footage obtained by personnel from the Criminal Investigations Department from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) had shown Nora could walk unaided despite her physical disabilities, which contradicted the family’s initial claim.
Ezanee said the revelation surprised everyone, including several foreign police correspondents who held watching briefs on behalf of the family’s home country.
“I asked for one of the footages to be provided to one of the Irish police correspondents and he was shocked even after I told him this footage of Quoirin walking unaided was confirmed by the mother herself.
“But then we came to a conclusion that the family could possibly be under so much stress that they insist Nora Anne cannot walk by herself.
“In their mind at the time Nora was abducted. If we said Nora went out herself, their stress level would have gone up, they would have denied something like that,” he said.
Pressed on whether there could have been a miscommunication between the family and him over the full disclosure of Nora’s disability, Ezanee said he accepted the information at face value and did not probe to avoid further stressing the family.
He also affirmed that he did not seek any form of clarification over the surveillance footage and the family’s initial disclosure that Nora could walk no more than 20 feet (six metres) without guided assistance from another person as she could not maintain her balance.
“It would have added to the stress of the family if I did that. So, I didn’t,” he said.
On the day Nora’s body was found, Ezanee also affirmed he was the first person to have notified the family of the discovery on August 13, 2019.
“After receiving a call concerning the discovery of a body, we agreed to inform the family as quickly as possible to prevent them from getting to know first-hand through the media which would have made them even more emotional,” he said, adding that he had gone to the scene where she was found and confirmed it was indeed the missing teenager.
He also said international investigators were satisfied with the findings of the post-mortem that there were no criminal elements present and that her cause of death was of upper gastrointestinal bleeding due to duodenal ulcer complications with perforation.
The inquest continues tomorrow.