Ivana Smit allegedly took her own life. So why is gomen paying her family RM1.1mil?

Between last week’s rally drama, the haze making a comeback and a whole war happening between Cambodia and Thailand, it’s no surprise if this bit of news flew under your radar. But get this: The Malaysian government has just been ordered to pay RM1.1 million to the family of Ivana Smit, a Dutch teenager who died here eight years ago.

You might be wondering… what does this have to do with us? Why now? Why are we paying?

Well, that’s because a High Court judge basically called out our police for being so cincai in investigating her death, it was deemed an actual breach of duty. In plain English, they messed up so badly the government has to now compensate her family.

And this isn’t some random nobody. Ivana Smit was a model who was living the KL high life up until a night out with a married American couple ended with her dead and naked on a balcony several floors down. But before we get to the part with the luxury condo, the mystery fall, and the couple with a very open marriage, let’s rewind a little. Just who was Ivana Smit?

Like any other Malaysian, she grew up juggling school and 99 extracurricular activities

Ivana Esther Robert Smit wasn’t Malaysian by passport but ask anyone who knew her and they’d say she was a Penangite through and through. She was born in the Netherlands in 1996 to Dutch-Chinese-Indonesian heritage but her life took a major turn before she even hit kindergarten.

When she was just three, little Ivana missed her grandparents so badly she literally stopped eating. Her parents were also juggling hectic work schedules at the time, so her dad made the decision to put her on a plane to Penang where her grandparents, Hendrik Smit and Ho Sioe Tjoan, had just migrated. That’s where she would spend most of her childhood, right by the beaches of Batu Ferringhi.

From there, Ivana basically lived the life of your overachieving, multitalented anak Malaysia. She spoke fluent Mandarin, had a black belt in taekwondo, played football, guitar, piano and by 13, she was already walking runways in Korea and Taiwan. Her grandpa said she collected 35 different certificates from all the courses she attended. Thirty-five! Isshhh, some of us barely even passed SPM ????

For a stretch of years, she shuttled between Malaysia and Europe a couple of times, both to visit her her parents and for modelling work. But by November 2017 she was back in KL for good. She had plans. She was even shortlisted for a modelling contest in Paris happening the following January.

But Ivana never made it to Paris.

Instead, she fell 14 floors to her death from a condo in the middle of KL

Her naked body was found on the 6th floor of CapSquare Residence on December 7th 2017. Earlier that night, she was with an American man, Alex Johnson, and his Kazakh wife, Luna Almazkyzy, who lived 14 floors up. And no, this wasn’t just some innocent tumpang tidur kind of sleepover, okay?

Ivana may have had a sheltered upbringing under her grandparents but by the time she returned to KL in late 2017, things had changed. She was more independent, more daring and as some reports and witnesses suggest, more entangled in KL’s flashy night life.

And the thing about the Johnsons was that they were as charming as they were rich. He was a crypto bro who’d been living in KL for a decade and she was his elegant, stylish wife who was pretty well-off herself. Together, they had a taste for lavish dinners, private parties and some pretty unconventional relationships. And by that, yes. Threesomes. They had those often.

From what investigators uncovered, Ivana first met the Johnsons in November 2017 through a mutual friend. One minute they were strangers, the next they were partying together, sending flirty texts and hooking up in five star hotels. On the night she died, the three of them started their evening at Mantra in Bangsar, then skipped over to place called 9 Club. It was around sunrise that they eventually ended up back at the Johnsons’ apartment.

At home, Luna (the wife) said Ivana was tipsy, but still joined her and her young daughter for breakfast. After sending the girl to school, the adults had sex. Luna and Alex passed out in the bedroom while Ivana stayed in the living room. The last time Luna saw her, Ivana was giggling and talking to herself. At about 1.25pm, Luna noticed that Ivana’s things were still there tho she was nowhere to be seen. Strangely, that didn’t alarm the Johnsons and they carried on as usual.

At 5pm, the police were knocking on their door.

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