KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 — The married couple who were with 18-year-old Dutch model Ivana Smit in the hours before she fell to her death from their balcony at a condominium here have claimed to be receiving death threats.
According to British newspaper Mail On Sunday, the couple, Alex Johnson and Luna, said that there was also an attempt to kidnap their five-year-old daughter.
This was after Ivana’s family, along with the investigators they hired claimed that there is probable cause for Ivana’s death to be investigated as a homicide, despite the Malaysian police so far ruling the case as accidental death.
“This case is an object lesson in how false claims and fake news can come close to destroying people,” Alex, a crypto currency trader, reportedly said.
Both Alex and Luna admitted in the report to have been drinking heavily and also having intimate relations with Ivana in the hours prior to her death, but stress that Ivana falling off their balcony was a tragic accident and not foul play.
“We never intended to make the details of our marriage public. Now we fear our own lives are in danger, and we have no choice,” Alex said, citing an incident where a man claiming to be Luna’s father attempted to pick up their daughter from school, despite her father having died before she was born.
The couple claim they have had several such intimate relationships with others during the course of their marriage, although they were much closer to Ivana, who allegedly told the duo that she was actually 26 years old.
Luna said that both her and her husband were asleep after a night of partying while Ivana, who was in the living room, tragically fell to her death.
She said both were asleep between 1.30pm to 5pm, while Ivana’s body was discovered at 2.20pm at the sixth floor of the condominium.
“When I talk about her death, my hands are shaking, I have a pain in my heart. I feel so sad. It’s awful. But because I have been fighting to prove my innocence, I haven’t been able to grieve,” she said.
Authorities had found traces of drugs in Ivana’s body in ruling the death as accidental, but a post-mortem conducted after her corpse was brought to Holland said there were bruise marks that suggested a struggle shortly before her death.
Alex and Luna spent two weeks in police custody but has not been charged with any crimes.
