Ivana Smit family to file civil suit in U.S. over model’s suspicious death

The family of Dutch model Ivana Smit is filing a civil lawsuit in the United States against the American couple who were present when she died in Kuala Lumpur. Through the lawsuit, the family hopes to be able to question the couple, the family's lawyer Sebas Diekstra said on talk show M on Thursday. 

The 18-year-old's naked body was found on a 6th floor balcony of a Kuala Lumpur apartment building in December 2017. She had fallen from American couple Luna and Alexander Johnson's 20th floor apartment. The local authorities ruled it an accident, but her family and a number of experts who examined her body are not so sure. According to experts, the injuries on Ivana's body are not consistent with a fall and are indications that Ivana was dead before her fall. And the American couple had their room cleaned before the police could do forensic investigation there. 

Documentary maker Thijs Zeeman has been examining Ivana's death. He traveled to Malaysia to speak to the concierge of the apartment building at the time of the young woman's death. He also managed to track down Luna Johnson in Miami.

The concierge confirmed to Zeeman that the Johnsons called to have their apartment cleaned, while they were still at the police station after Ivana's body was found. "Is it true that they called the cleaner to clean up the whole apartment?" Zeeman asked the woman. She answered yes. "That was not supposed to happen", she said. "Because by the time I went to the police and they came back, everything was already cleaned."

Zeeman also managed to confront Luna Johnson, but she did not give him any answers, only blaming Ivana's parents for attacking them. "Please tell me what happened in that apartment. You called the cleaning lady. Why did you do that?" he asked. Luna answered: "The first thing when I came out from the prison, I thought I'm going to see the parents. No, they have to attack us. They have to do all this stuff to us."