Ivana Smit was 18 years old and on top of the world. An aspiring model with a growing following. Dutch born but raised mostly by her grandparents in Malaysia, Ivana was ready, like most young women at that age, to experience the world away from her doting family.
But, on December 7, 2017 she was found dead on the 6th floor balcony of a luxury high rise apartment complex in Kuala Lumpur. Ivana had fallen 14 floors, from the 20th floor apartment of a millionaire couple, expatriates Alex and Luna Johnson.
I’ll get back to the Johnson’s later but to return to Ivana. She was born in Holland, but sent to live with her grandparents in Kuala Lumpur when she was about 3, as her parents were travelling and needed someone to care for her over an extended period of time.
She bounced between Holland and Malaysia while growing up. But, it seems Malaysia was were her heart was. Kuala Lumpur has a vibrant modelling scene, one of the biggest in Asia. It was also the kind of place where an aspiring Instagram influencer could grow her following.
In her Instagram bio she also describes herself as a ‘hostess’. Modelling being such a short lived and unreliable career – even for someone as successful as Ivana – means that girls find themselves looking for supplementary income.
This includes ‘hostessing’. This entails women hanging around in public with wealthy men, who want a pretty girl on their arm while out nightclubbing, to impress their friends/business associates.
It was during this phase of her life that Ivana met the Johnsons, to whom she was introduced at a nightclub.
They were in most respects unremarkable. He was a Bitcoin investor from Atlanta, Georgia and she from Kazakstan. Together, they had a 4 year old daughter. They also liked to party.
In mid-2017 they were introduced to Ivana. Luna was especially taken with her, and the three began having regular sexual trysts. The Johnson’s described their marriage as ‘progressive’ in a Daily Mail interview explaining their side of events, a few months after Ivana’s death.
They met up on the evening of December 6, and spent the night club hopping. They returned to the Johnson’s apartment after 5.30 am, and according to the Johnsons, retired to bed and had sex. At 8.30 Luna left to drop the Johnson’s daughter at school. Ivana was asleep on the couch and her husband in bed.
Luna arrived back at around 10am, and Ivana was gone – so she said. Luna told police she assumed Ivana had departed for a modelling gig scheduled for later in the day.
Ivana’s clothes were in the apartment, but Luna said she assumed Ivana had borrowed some of hers for the photoshoot.
Both Luna and Alex claim to have no knowledge that Ivana was dead until the moment police came banging at their door later that day.
Police took them into custody, and held them for a couple of weeks. Both were tested positive for drugs and alcohol. So too was Ivana, when a post mortem was carried out.
Malay police eventually let them go, and accepted their story that they did not know how Ivana came to fall out their apartment window.
However, Ivana’s family in Holland had her body repatriated and ordered a second autopsy. A Dutch coroner found bruising on her arms as well as contusions on her head – the kind of bruises that could only have occurred while still alive.
Eventually the Malay police opened an inquest, after pressure from Ivana’s family. The Johnson’s meanwhile left Malaysia and are presumed to be in the US. The inquest filings are expected soon, and may well conclude that she was the victim of a violent attack in the apartment.
I’ve put together a more detailed video overview of the case. I explain that I believe Ivana was more than just a one-time threesome, as their other ‘dates’ had been. I believe there may have been a fight in the apartment – perhaps when Luna returned after dropping off her daughter at school, to discover Ivana and her husband having sex without her.
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