Case of dead Dutch model being re-examined by police

KUALA LUMPUR: The investigation into the case of a 19-year-old Dutch model who fell to her death from a condominium unit on Jalan Dang Wangi on Thursday, is being re-examined by investigators because of her family's suspicion of foul play.
This was following a request from the parents of Ivana Esther Robert Smit, who through the Dutch Embassy, had urged federal police to ascertain if foul play was involved in the case.
Embassy officials and the federal police CID had met on Monday to discuss the matter.
Dang Wangi police chief ACP Shaharuddin Abdullah said today that following the meeting, an investigations team headed by Kuala Lumpur CID chief SAC Rusdi Mohd Isa will lead a probe to fulfil the request of the victim's family.
"The case remains classified as sudden death for now. However, if we find incriminating evidence that indicates foul play in her death, we will re-classify the case. As of now we are yet to find this and we are also waiting for the full post mortem report to be ready," he said.
Shaharuddin said investigations also showed that a couple – 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.
He 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 acquintances who might have any information that can help in the case to come forward and meet us." he said.
Ivana had fallen from the 20th floor, and was found dead and in the nude on a balcony at the sixth floor.
She moved to live with relatives here more than a decade ago, and was a budding model, who at the age of 15 was second runner-up in the Malaysia Supermodel Search 2014 competition.
Her father, Marcel Smit who had come here with his wife and son to claim her body, alleged that he had learnt that there was an argument prior to his daughter's death and that there was bruising around her neck. These apparent clues aroused his suspicion.