After Father Suspects Foul Play, Police are Reexamining Case of Dead Dutch Model

By Nur M. Nazri  •  12 Dec 2017 in News

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Ivana Esther Robert Smit, was found dead and naked on the sixth floor balcony of an apartment in Jalan Dang Wangi last Thursday, leaving questions unanswered by her family.

She had allegedly fallen from the 20th floor of an apartment where she had been spending the night, and crashed through an awning of a 6th floor unit. The incident took place at 10am (last Thursday 7 Dec), and the body was later discovered at 3pm. The last contact she had was with her boyfriend when she sent him a selfie earlier in the morning.

According to an initial report by TheSunDaily, Dang Wangi OCPD Asst Comm Shaharuddin Abdullah said police have classified the case as sudden death and did not suspect any foul play. “Our investigations and the post-mortem report shows no elements of foul play,” Shaharuddin said.

Meanwhile, Malay Mail revealed that their sources informed them that “a decision to reclassify Ivana’s case from sudden death to murder, manslaughter or death by misadventure would be made after pathology results are obtained” by the police.

However, her father believes that her death was no accident.

He remained skeptical with the timing of her death that took place in broad daylight as well as bruise marks resembling fingerprints found on her neck. Marcel Smit told the Dutch press, “The police are doing nothing with that information and just want to tie up the case quickly.”

Marcel Smit was even more doubtful of the activities leading up to the time when the police were contacted. He added, “It’s very strange that this American couple [that hosted the model the night before] did nothing while Ivana’s things were lying in their apartment.”

Interpol had also been called in by the Dutch embassy to investigate the case.

According to news reports, the Ivana Esther Robert Smit had followed a couple back to their apartment after a late night. Her father claimed that during the morning of the incident, neighbours overheard arguments from the household. Police found traces of alcohol, ecstasy, and amphetamines in the model’s system, but suspicions surrounding her death was raised further when bruises were also found around her neck area. Her uncle, Fred Agenjo also said, “Her clothes have been found, but her shoes and underwear haven’t.”

When the couple was asked regarding the incident, the husband says he was asleep during the time of incidence, whilst his wife dropped their 4-year old off to school.

Wearing a winter jacket in Malaysia was not the most comfortable oh well it was stylish. You know what they say… #mansnothot Thx @rmzairi #only #fashion #model #onthejob #kualalumpur

A post shared by Ivana Smit (@ivana_smit) on Nov 28, 2017 at 11:33pm PST

The latest update from TheSunDaily states that police are reexamining the case. And the host-couple had been unaware of the incident until the police knocked on their door.

It was learnt that a US national who works here in the IT industry and his wife, a Kazakhstan national who is a lecturer with a local academic institution – had allowed Ivana to put up at their home on Thursday, as she was highly intoxicated after an outing at a nightspot here. Shaharuddin said the expatriates had only befriended Ivana about two months earlier and were meeting her for the second time on the day she was killed.

“We are also uncertain of where the victim lived. The couple had allowed her to stay with them for the night and gave her a robe to use. They went into their bedroom to sleep and allowed her to use the living room. They were unaware she had fallen from their apartment unit until police came knocking on their door. We urge witnesses including her friends, family and acquaintances who might have any information that can help in the case to come forward and meet us,” the Dang Wangi OCPD Asst Comm said.

Be your own kind of beautiful @rmzairi ♡ #kualalumpur #model #eurasion

A post shared by Ivana Smit (@ivana_smit) on Nov 12, 2017 at 4:05am PST

Ivana Smit first stepped onto Malaysian soil about 13 years ago, and lived with her grandfather Fedrik. She then swooped the local modelling industry, coming out as the second-runner up in Malaysia’s Supermodel Search 2014 and had also modelled for other fashion brands. She had a dual Dutch-Belgian citizenship.

The stories were gathered from DutchNews.nl, New Straits Times, Malay Mail online, The Star, Business Insider Malaysia, TheSunDaily.