The family of dead Dutch teenage model Ivana Smit have engaged the services of former police detective-turned-ITV investigative journalist Mark Williams-Thomas, who has spent the past week in Kuala Lumpur following leads into the circumstances surrounding her death.
Tweeting to his followers, he wrote that her suspicious death, coupled with his findings and the conclusions of Dutch forensics investigators, have given him ample evidence that the case should be classified as homicide.
Speaking over the weekend with Belgian regional channel TVL, he said: “There is no doubt that it must be a murder investigation.”
Dutch forensic pathologist Frank van der Goot, hired by the model’s family after they became increasingly dissatisfied with the thoroughness of Malaysian police, revealed that the model had sustained several injuries before her fall. He also reported that the bruises on the teen’s arms were consistent with a struggle, and that she had several drugs in her system at the time of her death, including cocaine and para-Methoxymethamphetamine (pMMA).
Williams-Thomas wrote that he would be producing a detailed report in the next seven to 10 days, and would share his findings with Ivana’s family, as well as Malaysian police.
Refusing to mince words, he tweeted that he had been given direct evidence of organized crime syndicates and police protection rackets operating in the shadows. He elaborated to Belgian media, telling them that “people pay the police in exchange for protection,” though he stopped short of naming any specific individuals.
Ivana Smit’s death on Dec. 7 made international headlines after her naked body was found 14 stories below the apartment of an expat couple that she had been visiting after a night of drinking at a Bangsar rooftop bar.
Her unexplained fall from the apartment’s balcony, and the timeline that preceded it — rife with gaps and unanswered questions — occupied the headlines for much of December.
Malaysian police classified the case as “sudden death,” a designation often used in instances of suicide, prompting the teenage model’s family to voice their concerns, and demand further investigation. Forensic investigators performed a second postmortem; however, the results have yet to be shared with the public.
Ultimately, after three weeks in the KL morgue, her body was sent back to Holland, where the Dutch pathologist van der Goot was able to carry out his own postmortem before her cremation in her hometown of Roermond.
Mark Williams-Thomas in an award-winning investigative reporter, who received an International Peabody for his work exposing Jimmy Savile’s child sex abuse allegations and eventually prompting Metropolitan police to launch Operation Yewtree. This lead to the investigation into allegations against several high-profile celebrities of past sex crimes, and the arrests of the entertainer Rolf Harris and PR guru Max Clifford.
*Editor’s note: The name of a club mentioned in an earlier version of this story has been removed.
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