'She looked like she was sleeping': Hiker described moment he found naked body of Nora Quoirin
The hiker who helped find the body of missing teenager Nora Quoirin in Malaysia has spoken about the emotional moment she was discovered.
Sean Yeap was part of a volunteer group searching for the 15-year-old, who went missing on the first day of her family holiday on 4 August in the jungle resort of Dusun.
Nora was discovered naked on Tuesday, lying by a riverbed around 1.6 miles from the resort where she had gone missing.
Mr Yeap told MailOnline: “It looked like she was sleeping. Her head was resting on her hands.
“But we all knew she was dead. It was very sad and two women in the group did not want to come close and they started crying.”
Mr Yeap added that the body was not hidden or covered with foliage and was lying “like you do when you go to sleep”.
Nora’s family said their "hearts are broken" after the teenager's body was found on Tuesday.
In an emotional statement, the devastated family also offered their thanks to those involved in the search for the 15-year-old.
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A post-mortem is due to take place on Wednesday to determine Nora's cause of death.
Describing how the teenager had "truly touched the world", her family said: "Nora is at the heart of our family. She is the truest, most precious girl and we love her infinitely.
"The cruelty of her being taken away is unbearable. Our hearts are broken.
"We will always love our Nora.”
Nora, who was born with the brain defect holoprosencephaly, disappeared on Sunday August 4 while on holiday with her family.
The teenager's parents, Meabh and Sebastien Quoirin, a French-Irish couple who have lived in London for 20 years, said Nora's condition meant she was not independent and had difficulty walking.
Search crews looking for the teenager had played her mother's voice in the dense Malaysian forest near where she disappeared.
Police had said Nora who was travelling on an Irish passport, was believed to have climbed out of her resort room window.
Deputy police chief Mazlan Mansor told reporters at a press conference that the the body "was not in any clothings" and that while it remained a missing persons case police were looking into all possibilities including the "angle of criminal investigation”.
Sankara Nair, a lawyer hired by the family, said that if the post-mortem does not clearly determine how she died, the Malaysian government could hold an inquest into her death.
