Eight years after Dutch model Ivana Smit tragically fell to her death from a Kuala Lumpur high-rise, a Malaysian court has ruled that the case must be reopened and properly investigated. The decision comes after years of legal battles and pressure from Smit’s family, who never accepted the initial findings that her death was accidental.
Back in December 2017, Smit’s naked body was discovered on a sixth-floor balcony after plunging several stories from a luxury apartment. Straits Times, a Malaysian paper, reported.. The case immediately made international headlines, not just because of her young age and modeling career, but also because of the circumstances surrounding her final hours. According to Malaysian outlet The Star, American Bitcoin investor Alexander Johnson and his wife admitted they had a sexual encounter with Smit on the night she died.
In 2019, the case seemed closed when a coroner officially ruled her death a “misadventure,” concluding there was no evidence of foul play. That ruling was devastating for Smit’s family, particularly her mother, who filed an appeal almost immediately. Later that same year, a judge overturned the coroner’s finding and declared that Smit’s death had in fact been “caused by a person.”
Frustrated with how the case was handled, Smit’s mother went a step further in 2020, filing a lawsuit against Malaysia’s Inspector General of Police. She argued that authorities had failed to properly investigate her daughter’s suspicious death, leaving too many questions unanswered.
Now, after years of back-and-forth, Judge Roz Mawar Rozain has ruled in her favor. On July 29, the court awarded Smit’s mother 1.1 million Malaysian ringgit in damages—roughly $235,000—and ordered police to reopen the investigation into her daughter’s death. The ruling also requires authorities to keep the Attorney General’s Chambers updated every three months on the progress of the investigation, ensuring accountability this time around.
“This judgment is historic and sets an example of the responsibility that senior police officers and authorities must shoulder in conducting proper investigations into unnatural and suspicious deaths,” said the family’s lawyer, Datuk Sankara Nair, speaking to reporters after the decision. He praised the ruling as a breakthrough not only for Smit’s family but also for how similar cases might be handled in the future.
For years, speculation has swirled around what really happened that night in Kuala Lumpur. While officials initially brushed off suggestions of foul play, Smit’s family remained adamant that the truth had not been uncovered. They argued the inconsistencies in the evidence, coupled with the bizarre circumstances of her fall, pointed to a cover-up or at least a severely flawed investigation.
With the case now officially reopened, Smit’s mother is finally closer to the answers she’s been fighting for since 2017. Whether the new probe will uncover fresh evidence or simply confirm what many already suspect remains to be seen, but the ruling has at least given the family renewed hope that justice might still be possible.