A GROUP of friends from Seremban found Nora Anne Quoirin’s body in a stream at the Jeram Toi rainforest yesterday.

Group leader Kenny Chan Kai Sian, an experienced hiker, told The Malaysian Insight they spotted the body but did not dare to approach it..

“Even at a distance, we were quite sure it was her. We did not want to contaminate the place for fear of jeopardising police investigations. So we just called it in,” Chan said.

“There were 24 of us and we split up into two groups. We began our search at about 8am and as we were walking down the stream we saw a body of a white female some 20 metres away, at about noon.”

Chan said he had been in the Jeram Toi rainforest several times and when he heard about the missing girl, he wanted to help.

“I am from Seremban; I live and work here. I have trekked in the rainforest near the resort several times before with family and friends, but this is my first time being involved in a search and rescue mission.

“It is sad that it has to end this way,” he said.

Chan said his group decided to search downstream which they were not able to do in the last few days because of heavy rain.

“It is quite risky to follow the stream after rain. The slopes are slippery and it can be dangerous.

“We didn’t need to go to that particular spot because other search and rescue teams had already been there.

“But we decided to go anyway.”

Chan and his group joined the mission last Saturday morning after receiving permission from the police.

He said he and his friends were not after the reward.

“We were just helping out. We are not looking to get the reward. From the day we joined the search amd rescue mission, we decided we were just there to help.”

Nora Anne’s body was identified by her parents last night at the Tuanku Jaafar Hospital in Seremban.

The 15-year-old was reported missing on August 4, a day after she and family checked into the Dusun Pantai Hill eco resort near Seremban in Negri Sembilan.

Police earlier said that Quoirin had left the villa unclothed, through a window that had been left unlocked.

More than 300 police personnel, firemen and local villagers took part in the search which also featured sniffer dogs, drones and aircraft fitted with thermal imaging sensors.

Police are waiting for the post-mortem results before proceeding with investigations.

This morning, a lawyer representing the family, Sankara Nair, announced he will contact Attorney-General Tommy Thomas to seek an inquest if the post-mortem turns up evidence to merit it.

The family have yet to decide on the next course of action, he said. – August 14, 2019.