The Dutch pathologist who carried out a new post mortem on Dutch model Ivana Smit has said she may have been dead before falling from a balcony in Malaysia.

Smit, who was 18, died on December 7 after apparently falling from a balcony on the 20th floor of an apartment block in the capital Kuala Lumpur. She had been out on the town and had gone home with an American couple.

The Malaysian authorities have said her death was an accident. Police said she was intoxicated at the time and blood tests revealed traces of alcohol, ecstasy and amphetamines in her system.

However, pathologist Frank van de Goot told the Telegraaf there is evidence that she was already dead before falling, such as the lack of blood on the spot where she landed. She also had injuries which had been caused before the fall.

On Monday, private investigator Mark Williams-Thomas, a former policeman who has been involved in several high profile investigations in Britain, told Belgian broadcaster TV Limburg he believes she may have been murdered.

‘I have no doubt, with the evidence that I now have… and other information we have through forensics, we are in a position to say very clearly… in the UK this would be treated as a homicide investigation,’ Williams-Thomas said.