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The New Zealand Herald
The New Zealand Herald
World

Ivana Smit found naked after fall: Cops probing model balcony death as murder

The death of a Dutch model who fell from a 20th-floor balcony following a threesome with a wealthy couple has been reopened as a murder investigation.

The probe comes two years after the 18-year-old model, Ivana Smit, was found dead at the bottom of a Kuala Lumpur apartment block.

A coroner had originally ruled there was no foul play, but a Malaysian court overturned that finding last week after an appeal by her family, Mail Online reports.

Dutch model Ivana Smit plunged to her death after partying with US cryptocurrency trader Alexander Johnson and his wife Luna (above). Photo / Facebook

Smit was found naked after she fell from the apartment owned by bitcoin tycoon Alexander Amado Johnson, 45, and wife, Luna, 32, on December 7.

Earlier this year, the couple admitted that they had a threesome the night of her fall, but denied any involvement in her death, claiming they were asleep when the incident happened.

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The couple were arrested after her body was found and spent two weeks in custody.

A post-mortem found Smit to have cocaine, alcohol and an amphetamine called PMMA in her system. However, the couple denied giving Smit drugs or taking any themselves on the night that she died.

After being tested by officials, the couple were released without charge after blood tests showed no trace of drugs. They were also suspected of breaching immigration rules, but their visas were found to be in order.

Following the model's death, a Malaysian coroner found that her body showed evidence of a struggle, while an additional autopsy in Holland suggested bruising on the body had been sustained before Smit fell.

But in March a court inquest concluded Smit's death was a "misadventure", and that no one was responsible.

However, the Smit family, who have longed believed she was murdered, was granted an application to set aside the inquest's findings by a judge last week.

The model's father, Marcel Smit, told MailOnline that the couple involved in the threesome before she died would have to explain how a dead body can get up and go over a balcony as he insisted his daughter was dead before she fell.

Criminal Investigation Department chief Huzir Mohamed said the court had ruled it was possible that Smit's death may have been caused by someone else.

"The court ordered the attorney general to instruct the police to reinvestigate the cause of death, and for the case to be reclassified under Section 302 (of the Penal Code)," he said at a press conference.

Section 302 refers to Malaysia's laws regarding murder. Police had originally classified the case as "sudden death".

American bitcoin trader Alexander Johnson and his wife Luna.

Mohamed said a task force will be formed for the investigation, pending instructions from the attorney general.

"We will recall witnesses from whom we have taken statements, and call witnesses who were not previously interviewed," he said.

Speaking to MailOnline in May, the millionaire's wife said: "Ivana was our friend and we both had relationships with her. She came with us willingly that night. I wish I had more time to know her. I lost a friend."

Andrew said that couple had "enjoyed the company of other women over the course of our marriage", but added: "We had unequivocally nothing to do with her passing."

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