Parents claim body of Franco-Irish teen found dead in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The grief-stricken parents of a Franco-Irish teen found dead in Malaysia after she disappeared from a rainforest resort claimed her body Friday, police said, following an autopsy that showed no signs of foul play.

Mohamad Mat Yusop, the police chief of Negeri Sembilan state where Nora Quoirin died, told AFP her remains would be repatriated to London where she had lived with her family.

An autopsy showed the 15-year-old likely starved and died of internal bleeding after about a week in the jungle, with no immediate signs of foul play, police said.

There was also no indication that the teenager, who had learning difficulties, was abducted or sexually assaulted, they said.

"The body of Nora has been claimed from the hospital by the family after a post-mortem found no foul play," Mohamad Mat said.

"Nora's body will be flown back to her home in London."

The girl had gone missing from Dusun Resort, about 70 kilometres (40 miles) from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, on August 4, a day after checking in for a holiday with her family.

Her disappearance sparked a massive 10-day search in the jungle that involved hundreds of people, helicopters, drones and sniffer dogs.

The search came to a tragic end Tuesday when the teenager's unclothed body was discovered in a ravine beside a stream not far from the resort.

Police had classified her disappearance as a missing persons case.

But the lawyer of her family, who believe she may have been abducted, said it was too early to rule out a criminal element in the case.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail met with the girl's family Friday at the resort.

"It is very sad. Her death was tragic and I wish to extend my condolences to the family," Wan Azizah told reporters.

The schoolgirl is believed to have died two to three days before her body was found.

Her family had said it was extremely unlikely the reserved youngster would have wandered off on her own.

She had a condition known as holoprosencephaly, where the brain fails to develop normally. She had limited verbal communication and could only write a few words.