Husband of woman reported missing in Spain arrested at Miami airport, charged with kidnapping
The husband of Ana María Knezevich Henao, who disappeared in Spain in February, was arrested by the FBI at Miami International Airport and charged with kidnapping in connection with her disappearance.
Knezevich Henao, 40, a native of Colombia and naturalized U.S. citizen, was reported missing Feb. 2 in Madrid, according to Spanish police.
Friends and family members previously told NBC News that she had moved to Madrid amid a difficult separation from her husband, David Knezevich, who is originally from Serbia. They said she shared significant financial assets with him from their shared businesses.
After months of unanswered questions during which missing person notices blanketed streets in Spain, Spanish police announced Monday that David Knezevich was arrested Saturday at Miami International Airport in connection with her disappearance.
The investigation was carried out by the Belgrade Interior Attache Office, FBI agents in Florida and Colombian and Spanish police.
He has been charged with kidnapping by federal agents, according to a complaint filed Friday in the Southern District of Florida. The complaint did not detail what may have happened to Knezevic Henao.
Man believed to be David Knezevich-spray painted camera at wife’s Madrid apartment — and left with a suitcase, complaint says
David Knezevich was considered a suspect in his wife’s disappearance after a man who resembled him spray-painted the security camera in her Madrid apartment building, after a car he rented in Serbia was tracked down to her street and after suspicious texts sent from her phone were tracked back to him.
According to a criminal complaint filed by the FBI, Knezevic Henao had traveled from Miami to Madrid on Dec. 26. Then on Feb. 2, her friends and family lost contact with her.
She was not formally named in the filing, but she was described as the wife of David Knezevich. She was still married to him at the time, but friends and family members said they were separated and planning to divorce.
“The separation was contentious because Knezevich did not want to split the marital assets evenly with the victim,” the complaint said. “The victim was very fearful of Knezevich and believed that he was surreptitiously monitoring her whereabouts.”
Knezevic Henao was last seen alive entering her apartment building in Madrid at 2:20 p.m. Feb. 2, according to Spanish authorities citing security cameras.
At 9:27 p.m. the same day, the building’s security camera captured “a male wearing a helmet enter the building at the same time some individuals were exiting.” Once he was inside, he was seen holding a can of spray paint and painted the lens of the camera. Despite the paint, the lens was not totally obscured, and the man was seen fastening duct tape to the lock of the building, the complaint said.
The man looked at the camera, and his physical characteristics resembled those of David Knezevich, the complaint said.
The man was seen again at 10:30 p.m., this time leaving the elevator with what appeared to be a suitcase.
Missing items, a Serbian car rental and stolen license plates
Two days later, Spanish firefighters entered Knezevic Henao’s apartment for a welfare check. A law enforcement search found that her cellphone, her laptop and her chargers were missing.
Spanish police used the security video at the apartment to identify the brand of spray paint used to obscure the camera and found a store in Madrid that had sold the same brand on Feb. 2. Security video from the store showed a man “who appeared to be David Knezevich purchasing the spray paint can,” as well as two rolls of duct tape, around noon Feb. 2, the complaint said.
A Peugeot 308 car that David Knezevich had rented in Belgrade, Serbia, was tracked to Knezevic Henao’s street in Madrid.
He had rented the Peugeot from an agency for Jan. 29 through March 15. He had traveled out of Serbia by car on Jan. 30, and he returned to Belgrade by car on or about Feb. 5, the complaint said.
The owner of the rental car agency told law enforcement officers that when the man returned the car, the windows had been tinted, the license plate frames had been changed and two stickers had been removed from the vehicle.
The car had also traveled 7,677 kilometers while it was rented by Knezevich. The complaint noted that it’s a 26-hour, 2,592-kilometer drive from Belgrade to Madrid.
Around that time, a person in Spain reported that both of his license plates had been stolen off his vehicle. When authorities ran a search in their plate reader database, they found it on Calle Francisco Sivela — the street where Knezevic Henao’s apartment was located.
The stolen plate had passed through two toll booths in the middle of the night of Feb. 2 and into Feb. 3. Video from the booths showed the plates were attached to a Peugeot 308 with tinted windows — matching the description of David Knezevich’s rented car. However, because of the tint, the driver was not visible.
A suspicious text and impersonating calls to cancel insurance
When Knezevic Henao disappeared, she had reportedly sent a text to a friend on Feb. 3 claiming to have met a man. She said she was going to his home two hours away from Madrid, warning that she’d have spotty cell service.
The FBI complaint revealed that a Colombian woman who met David Knezevich on a dating app told law enforcement officers that on Feb. 3, he asked her on WhatsApp to help translate messages into “perfect Colombian.” He claimed it was for a friend in Serbia who was writing a script about a Colombian character.
He asked her to translate the line: “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. There is barely any signal though. I’ll call you when I come back. Kisses,” according to the complaint.
He then asked her to translate: “yesterday after therapy I needed a walk and he approached me on the street! Amazing connection. Like I never had before,” according to the filing.
At some point in their connection, the woman told her mother that she had met a Serbian man online. Her mother searched his surname on Google and learned that his wife had been reported missing in Madrid. The woman then discovered a news article that included a message purportedly sent by David Knezevich’s wife that matched the exact wording of the text she had helped translate.
The complaint also said other evidence surrounding the couple’s businesses came into play.
NBC News previously found three corporations registered under the couple’s names in Florida — EOX Technology Solutions Inc., Registered Corporate Agents LLC and EOX Capital LLC — all of which provide technology and other types of support for South Florida businesses.
On March 4, a woman claiming to be Knezevic Henao contacted an insurance company to cancel three insurance policies held for her and her husband’s business. During the call, children were heard in the background, though Knezevic Henao does not have any children. Later, law enforcement officers learned that the number was owned by David Knezevich’s company and that he was listed as the contact for the phone number.
Then, on April 24, an employee of David Knezevich told law enforcement officers that he had instructed her to impersonate Knezevic Henao “in order to open a new bank account” and provided her with Knezevic Henao’s Social Security number to use as proof. The next day, the employee told David Knezevich she was uncomfortable impersonating Knezevic Henao because she was missing, but he allegedly told her that it was “not serious” and that it needed to be done for employees to be paid. David Knezevich further allegedly stated, “I cannot call with my voice because I sound like a guy.”
Online court records show David Knezevich made his initial court appearance Monday and was ordered to temporary pretrial detention. He’s due back in court for a pretrial detention hearing Friday.
A attorney listed for Knezevich and the FBI office in Miami didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The investigation is ongoing.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
