Report: Family says teenage model’s death in KL suspicious

PETALING JAYA: The Dutch government has asked Interpol to help investigate the case of a Dutch teenager who died after falling from a high-rise apartment in Kuala Lumpur last week.

DutchNews reported that the father of model Ivana Esther Robert Smit told the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper in the Netherlands that he had seen blue marks resembling fingerprints around his daughter’s neck when he viewed her body at the hospital morgue.

Following that, the Dutch embassy in Malaysia had asked Interpol to investigate the concerns raised by Ivana’s family.

Ivana, who was 19, died on the morning of Dec 7 after she fell from the window of a 20th floor unit of the apartment building, landing on the balcony of a 6th floor unit, on Jalan Dang Wangi.

An American man and his Kazakhstan wife, were with the victim in the apartment after they had gone out together the previous night.

However, 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,” The Star had quoted Shaharuddin as saying.

DutchNews said police had also told the family that Ivana was intoxicated at the time and blood tests revealed traces of alcohol, ecstasy and amphetamines in her system.

According to the news portal, camera footage from the apartment had shown Ivana entering the building with her American hosts at around 5am. She is believed to have fallen off the balcony at around 10am.

“Her last communication was a selfie sent to her boyfriend at around 7.25am, in which she said she had gone home with an American couple after a night out,” the report said.

However, her father contends that neighbours heard shouting and arguments from the apartment unit in question that morning.

“The police are doing nothing with that information and just want to tie up the case quickly,” he was quoted as saying by DutchNews, adding that the couple did not contact police until 3pm, five hours after the accident is thought to have happened.

“It’s very strange that this American couple did nothing while Ivana’s things were lying in their apartment.”

However, according to the report, the couple with whom Ivana stayed, told police that the husband had slept through the whole episode and not noticed her falling from the balcony, while his wife had gone out to take their four-year-old son to school.

Ivana was the second runner-up in the Malaysia Supermodel Search 2014, when she was just 15 years old. -FMT