New questions are being asked in the death of Dutch teen model Ivana Smit after her family have been left concerned that the Malaysian letter representing the expat couple who she was last seen with may have had access to her mobile phone.
De Telegraaf is reporting on their front page that the lawyer who represents the couple, American Alexander Johnson and his Kazakh wife Luna, spoke with the investigator hired by Smit’s family, telling him that he had seen the contents of her phone after her death.
Ivana’s uncle spoke to the Dutch paper, telling them that the lawyer’s comment was shocking, and asking how such an important piece of evidence like the victim’s mobile phone could have been accessed by a third party.
Mark Williams-Thomas, the British former detective turned journalist and private investigator has claimed that the Malaysian lawyer told him to look through Smit’s phone, and it would “reveal the innocence of the American couple,” as well as her frame of mind at the time of her death.
Comments of such a vague and leading nature, intending to imply a multitude of meanings and readings from grief stricken parents are, at the very least, in poor taste. At the very worst, admission that the lawyer of a couple whose role in a teen’s death is still unclear tampered with evidence. For the record, the family’s investigator has also recommended that police reclassify her death as “homicide.”
The family hopes that police will investigate the lawyer’s claims.
Nineteen-year-old Ivana Smit tragically died on December 7 2017. Her naked body was found on the landing of a sixth-floor condo, 14 stories below the unit where she had previously been spending time into the early hours with the expat couple.
The couple had no explanation as to how a young girl who was over 180cm in height could have fallen over their balcony; however, the case was quickly classified by police as “sudden death.”
After uproar from the girl’s family, public and media over such a haste conclusion with many questions unanswered, police agreed to re-open the case. Their new conclusion has yet to be released.
The latest findings from the family’s private investigator and a Dutch pathologist revealed that Ivana has sustained serious head injuries before she died that were not strong enough to kill her, but would have rendered her unconscious. The pathologist also added that the lack of blood at the crime scene pointed to the likelihood of Smit having died before her body impacted with the ground.
As a result, Williams-Thomas concluded that the case should more aptly be treated as a “homicide” until questions were answered.
