Melody, a Penang-based model who had known Ivana Esther Robert Smit since 2012, told FMT that she was a fearless and outgoing person.
“I knew her back in 2012 from a modelling competition back in Penang, called ‘Little India’s Next Top Model’. She was in the football team back in her school, and her dream was to become a model.
“Over the years, she did very well in modelling. She booked job after job, and even went overseas for modelling competitions.”
Melody said Ivana, who had been active on social media, had also posted numerous pictures of her last relationship on Instagram.
“They looked like they were very much in love,” she added.
Ivana, 19, had been the second runner-up in the 2014 Malaysia Supermodel Search when she was just 15 years old.
She died on Dec 7 after falling from the window of a 20th floor apartment unit on Jalan Dang Wangi, landing on the balcony of a 6th floor unit.
An American man and his Kazakhstan wife had been with her in the apartment after going out together the previous night.
However, Dang Wangi OCPD Asst Comm Shaharuddin Abdullah said police had classified the case as sudden death, and did not suspect any foul play.
DutchNews said police had also told the family that Ivana was intoxicated at the time, and that blood tests revealed traces of alcohol, ecstasy and amphetamines in her system.
According to the news portal, camera footage from the apartment showed Ivana entering the building with her American hosts at around 5am. She is believed to have fallen off the balcony at around 10am.
“Her last communication was a selfie sent to her boyfriend at around 7.25am, in which she said she had gone home with an American couple after a night out,” the report said.
Her father contends that neighbours heard shouting and arguments from the apartment unit in question that morning.
According to the report, however, the couple with whom Ivana stayed told police that the husband had slept through the whole episode and not noticed her falling from the balcony, while his wife had gone out to take their four-year-old son to school.
Melody said the manner in which Ivana had died was suspicious, and that media reports on her death did not “seem right”.
“I understand there will be parties you’re invited to once you’re a famous model, and that resting over at a friend’s place is fine.
“But it makes no sense to strip down naked and go over to the balcony and then fall off.”
Adding that Ivana was a smart girl, Melody asked how she had been able to pull herself up onto the balcony railing if she had indeed been intoxicated.
“It makes no sense. Would friends leave a friend intoxicated on the couch and let them be just like that?
“If she was that intoxicated, I don’t think she would have been able to remove all her clothes just by herself, so did one of them remove her clothes?
“Everything is so suspicious,” Melody said. “Even her family, friends and fans think it’s suspicious.”
As the modelling circle in Penang was small, she said, she and Ivana had shared some of the same friends.
“Even they say that the story doesn’t add up. And they are angry about it.
“She was young, and she had such a great future ahead. Her grandparents, who took care of her when she was growing up in Penang as her parents were overseas, are devastated.”
Today, it was reported that the Dutch government had asked Interpol to help investigate the case.
Ivana’s father had told Dutch media that he had seen blue marks resembling fingerprints around his daughter’s neck when he viewed her body at the hospital morgue.
The Dutch embassy in Malaysia subsequently asked Interpol to investigate the concerns raised by Ivana’s family.