‘Criminal element’ probe in UK girl’s Malaysia disappearance

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police are analysing fingerprints found in a forest resort cottage where a 15-year-old London girl was reported missing, and have not ruled out a possible criminal element.

Police had earlier said there were no initial signs of foul play in Nora Anne Quoirin’s disappearance from the Dusun eco-resort in southern Negeri Sembilan state on Sunday morning. Her family discovered her missing from her bedroom and say they believe she was abducted.

Negeri Sembilan deputy police chief Che Zakaria Othman said a forensic team was analysing fingerprints found in the cottage where the girl disappeared from but declined to give details. He said it was the window in a downstairs hall that was left open, and not the one in the bedroom upstairs where the girl was sleeping with her two siblings.

He declined to say if the window could be opened from the outside, saying the investigation was ongoing. “Although we classified this case as a missing person but we are not ruling out any possibility... the scale of investigation and the search and rescue is very big for a small place here,” he told a news conference. He said the investigation includes a possible criminal element.

Zakaria said a special team from federal police headquarters as well as from forensics and criminal investigation departments were assisting. The rescue operation involves more than 200 people working on shifts through the night but police still have no clues to the girl’s whereabouts and are appealing for information, he said.

Officers have expanded the search to the riverbed at the foothill of the resort on the assumption that she could head downhill to try to find water. Local villagers and police dog teams have also been deployed to try to find her.