Hendrik, 78, who took care of Ivana for 13 years in Batu Ferringhi, Penang, returned home over the weekend after spending two weeks away for her wake held late last month.
He cradled the urn against himself as he spoke to FMT during an interview at his home here yesterday.
“Half of her ashes are with her parents in the Netherlands. And the other half is with me.
“If I die or plan to leave Penang, we will scatter Ivana’s ashes in the sea at Batu Ferringhi.
“She loved Penang, and while she was away in the Netherlands looking for a job, she always told me she could not wait to return home, which was Penang,” Hendrik said.
Ivana, who had always been very attached to her grandparents, moved to Malaysia when she was three. She lived in Penang and attended school here under her grandparents’ care for 13 years.
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Hendrik said the last time he had celebrated her birthday was when she turned 16, before she left for the Netherlands to pursue a career in modelling.
After two years, she returned to Malaysia last November, saying she was not used to the cold weather abroad and was seeking better opportunities here.
Hendrik said Ivana had entered a supermodel pageant in Belgium and was supposed to be there on Dec 21.
“Learning about her death, the organisers of the supermodel pageant in Belgium declared her the co-grand prize winner of this year’s Miss Top Model Belgium.
“The organiser came to the wake to lay the winner’s sash on her casket. It was so saddening as she always wanted to be a top model in Europe someday,” he said.
On Dec 7 last year, Ivana was found dead on the balcony of a sixth floor apartment in downtown Kuala Lumpur.
She was said to have been in the apartment of a couple, an American man and his Kazakh wife.
It was reported that she had been out drinking with the couple in Bangsar and had returned to their apartment on the 20th floor before her death.
Police classified the case as sudden death pending the results of the post-mortem and pathology tests.
Her body was kept at a morgue in Kuala Lumpur for 21 days before being repatriated to the Netherlands.
She was cremated in her birth town of Roermond on Dec 30, in a grand send-off which received wide coverage by foreign media.
Oddities surrounding Ivana’s death
Hendrik said while attending Ivana’s wake, he had been told about several oddities surrounding her death.
“It is strange, we were told no bones were broken. Are we to believe that someone who fell 14 storeys did not have any broken bones?
“We were told that there was no blood at the site where she fell, too.
“Doctors found a wound at the back of her head, and bruises on her arm. She would have put up a fight. Ivana had a black belt in taekwondo,” he added.
Hendrik said it was impossible that Ivana could have fallen accidentally as she was 181cm tall and the balustrade of balconies at the apartment block was about 120cm.
He said a second post-mortem had already been conducted, although pathologists in the Netherlands were still awaiting the results of the first post-mortem.
“They told us to wait three to six months. I feel that is an incredibly long time to wait for a post-mortem report,” he added.
Ivana already injured before fall, says pathologist
A pathologist conducting Ivana’s second post-mortem found bruises on her arms which he said were likely inflicted before her fall.
In his initial findings, Dr Frank van der Goot said the bruises on Ivana’s upper arms indicated that a struggle had likely taken place before she plunged to her death.
“We have also found drugs that might have been consumed long before her death,” he told FMT.
According to van der Goot, these included several highly toxic drugs.
Besides cocaine, he said, traces of the para-Methoxymethamphetamine (pMMA) drug were found in Ivana’s system. The combination of pMMA with cocaine could be lethal, he added.
“Next week, when the final results come in, we hope to have a better picture,” he said.
Family lawyer Sébas Diekstra said the latest pathologist findings showed there were elements of crime in the case.
He said the emergence of the new facts showed that a third party may have been involved in Ivana’s death.
“We are looking at a number of scenarios. We are investigating them and we do not want to disclose the details of this in the interest of our investigation,” Diekstra said when contacted.
Grandfather angry with findings
Hendrik said the pathologist’s findings were not surprising as they had suspected criminal elements all along.
“The blue-black marks on both her arms show that she put up a fight, and it is likely that Ivana was slammed into the wall, and the back of her head was hurt.
“We are very angry. We hope with the help of investigators, the culprit will be punished to death,” he said.
The Smits are pleading with members of the public to donate towards the hiring of a private investigator to ascertain the cause of Ivana’s death.
They have initiated a crowdfunding attempt to raise €7,000 (RM33,958) at https://www.gofundme.com/ivanas-tragic-suspicious-death.