Husband of Florida woman missing in Spain is charged with her disappearance as he returns to the US
The estranged husband of a Florida woman who vanished in Spain earlier this year has been arrested after he returned to the US from Serbia.
David Knezevich, 36, was arrested by US Marshals on Saturday at the Miami International Airport in connection with the disappearance of his wife, Ana Knezevich, 40. They had been married for 13 years when she disappeared in Spain on 2 February.
Mr Knezevich was returning from Belgrade, Serbia — his home country — where he had been living for several months. He has denied any involvement in the disappearance of his wife. The couple previously lived in Miami.
He was expected to appear in federal court in Miami on Monday afternoon, according to WSVN.
The arrest is the latest development in a multi-national investigation spearheaded by the FBI and with the assistance of authorities in Spain, Columbia, and Belgrade, according to Spanish news outlet EFE.
Ms Knezevich, who is Columbian-American, reportedly moved to Spain in December amid a divorce with Mr Knezevich that her brother described to detectives as “nasty.”
Her friend Sanna Rameau said the day after Ms Knezevich disappeared, she received a text from the missing woman claiming she had met a man and was leaving for some time, WSVN reports.
“I met someone wonderful!! He has a summer house about 2h from Madrid. We are going there now and I will spend a few days there. Signal is spotty. I’ll call you when I get back,” the text read. “Yesterday after therapy I needed a walk and he approached me on the street! Amazing connection. Like I never had before.”
The text was also sent to Ms Knezevich’s family members in Spanish. They told police they did not believe the text was from Ms Knezevich, and did not believe the text was sent by a native Spanish speaker.
Ms Rameau had reportedly been using the Bumble dating app while in Spain. Local police have conducted interviews with the men she talked to, The Daily Mail reports.
Further suspicion developed around her disappearance when police discovered surveillance footage at her home showing a man in a black motorcycle helmet spraying over a pair of security cameras on the day of her disappearance.
Mr Knezevich has insisted he had no role in her disappearance.
His attorney, Ken Padowitz, told the Associated Press that reports that the couple’s divorce had been trying were overblown and that Mr Knezevich was doing everything he could from Serbia to locate his estranged wife.
“David has worked with authorities. He has talked to detectives in Spain on a number of occasions. He’s provided credit card information … He obtained a lawyer in Spain to sign documents that might help the Spanish authorities go into the apartment that his wife had rented,” Padowitz said. “He is doing everything that he possibly can … from Serbia.”
He further said that Mr Knezevich travelling to Spain would not help investigators.
“He does not speak Spanish. He does not have family in Spain. He does not have friends in Spain. He does not have a house or an apartment or any place to live in Spain,” Mr Padowitz said.
Joaquin Amilis, the president of the SOS Missing Persons Association, rejected Mr Padowitz’s description of the couple’s divorce; he said that the proceedings had been so difficult that Ms Knezevich was “asking for medical help for depression”, according to the New York Post.
Mr Knezevich has previously refused to take a lie detector test, which is admissible as evidence under Florida law. The efficacy of polygraph tests has been questioned in the past.
