Estonian model with links to royal family murdered in Malaysia

2014-07-10
From wire reports, TALLINN

Regina Soosalu’s death is being treated as murder after ’suspicious wounds’ were found on her body

An Estonian model linked to the Malaysian royal family has been found dead on the same group of islands where a British traveller died in mysterious circumstances a month earlier, the UK's Daily Mail newspaper reports.

Regina Soosalu was found dead on a beach on Rawa island, off the south east coast of Malaysia.

Pathologists are now trying to establish how 23-year-old Soosalu died after she had set out from a resort for a stroll along the beach on July 1.

At first it was believed she had drowned, but now police are treating the model’s death as murder after ‘suspicious wounds’ were found on her body.

The reported ‘strong and independent’ model, whose face has been seen on the covers of numerous international magazines, was the girlfriend of Alang Reza Ibrahim, the son of the former Sultan of Johor.

The Star newspaper of Malaysia reported today that until Tuesday this week Alang had remained silent about his girlfriend’s death until he wrote on Facebook about ‘the worst tragedy’ of his life.

Saying that he was heartbroken, he wrote: ‘Regina my love has passed away on July 1, in the holy month of Ramadan.
‘She is my love, my best friend and will continue to be my inspiration for the rest of my life.

The Star reports that six suspects had been brought in for questioning. Asked if her boyfriend had been called in as well, a police official told the paper that police had ‘yet to bring him in’.

The island group, a popular destination for tourists, is gaining a reputation as a dangerous place to be, particular following the murder of a French holidaymaker, Stephanie Foray, 30, whose partially mummified remains were found buried in a cave on Tioman island in 2011.

In May 2011 a group of foreign visitors were involved in a bloody brawl with bodyguards who accused them of interfering with a powerboat belonging to the Sultan of Johar on Rawa Island.

In 2005 a member of the Johor royal family was taken in for questioning after a Brazilian couple’s wedding was gatecrashed,, resulting in a brawl, on Rawa Island.