Vanessa Tanujaa Nair, 34, the building manager of CapSquare Residences where Ivana and the duo had stayed, said she was in their 20th-floor condo about 5pm when the news was relayed to them.
“I was not looking at Luna Almaz, the wife, but I saw her husband, Alex Johnson, first.
“He started shouting and saying ‘Oh my God!’. He was cursing and using the four-letter F-word.
“They were both visibly shocked,” Vanessa told the inquest at the Kuala Lumpur Coroner’s Court today.
Vanessa is the fifth witness to testify in the eight-day inquest into Smit’s death, which ends on Aug 24.
Vanessa added Luna looked “normal but stressed” after police broke the news about Smit’s naked body, which was found sprawled 14 stories below on a balcony of a sixth-floor condo.
“She walked past me. She said Ivana told her she was 22 years old but she was actually 18. I’m not sure how she had found out,” Vanessa said when asked by deputy public prosecutor N Joy Jothi about Luna’s reaction to Smit’s death.
Smit, Luna and Alex went out for drinks in Bangsar the night before her death and visited a nightclub in the area. CCTV footage showed them returning to their apartment in the early hours of Dec 7.
Smit is believed to have fallen off the couple’s 20th floor condo balcony at around 10am that day. She crashed through a balcony roof on the sixth floor.
Her body, covered by debris, plastic and wooden blinds, was discovered by the unit’s occupant when he came home around 2pm.
Vanessa said the duo looked like they had just gotten up from sleep when she and the police met them that afternoon, a few hours after Smit’s body was found.
She said their house looked messy, and a broken glass bottle and an open lipstick was lying on a table.
Police were questioning them while she was there in their condo, Vanessa said. They were also asked to show their passports.
She overheard the cops asking Alex and Luna why they didn’t open the door earlier when they had come knocking.
Earlier, Vanessa had testified that she and the police had rung the doorbell and knocked on Alex and Luna’s door after Smit’s body was found.
She said she heard noises from inside, including a bottle moving, but the door was not opened. She went back to her office to call them, but could not get through to the couple.
The duo are expected to testify next week when the inquest resumes on Tuesday.
The rest of the dates for the 8-day inquest are Aug 14-17 and Aug 23-24. Extra days will be allocated if there is not enough time to finish proceedings.
Police had originally classified the case as sudden death, but it was reopened by Dang Wangi police following claims of foul play by Smit’s family.
A Dutch pathologist hired by the family says there is a chance Smit was dead long before her fall.
Smit moved to Malaysia when she was three and lived for 13 years in Penang with her paternal grandparents, who were present in court today.
She was the second runner-up in the Malaysia Supermodel Search 2014, which she took part in when she was just 15 years old.
Her body was kept at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital mortuary for 21 days before being repatriated to the Netherlands.
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