MIAMI – U.S. and Spanish authorities continued searching Sunday for the remains of Ana Knezevich, also known as Ana Maria Henao, a Colombian-American who lived in Fort Lauderdale and moved to Madrid after a 13-year marriage fell apart.
Spain’s national police released a video showing FBI agents in a desolated area and men searching in shallow water for the 40-year-old woman’s remains. She vanished in February and they believe her estranged husband David Knezevich, also known as Dusan Knezevic, is responsible.
FBI agents believe the 36-year-old Serbian-American businessman carefully planned it. A witness, according to the detailed complaint in the case, said she had met him on a dating site and he asked her to re-write a message to “sound Colombian.”
The message: “I met someone wonderful. He has a summer house about 2h (two hours) from Madrid. We are going there now and I will spend a few days there. There is barely any signal though. I will call you when I come back. Kisses.”
It was a bit like the message that Ana Knezevich’s friend Sanna Rameau received and found off-tone and concerning after she vanished while living in Madrid.
The couple co-owned an IT service provider and real estate properties, including their home in Fort Lauderdale. They were going to have to divide it all during a divorce that her brother Juan Henao had described as “nasty.”
FBI agents and the Spanish national police investigated the case. David Knezevich’s defense claims a travel itinerary shows he was back home with family and friends in Serbia.
According to the complaint, the FBI believes he rented a Peugeot in Belgrade four days before the murder, drove it for about 4,800 miles, got tinted windows, changed the license plate, and returned it five weeks later.
Spanish authorities suspect he was in Madrid when he placed a stolen license plate on the rental Peugeot with tinted windows. The FBI reported surveillance videos show him buying spray paint and duct tape in Madrid.
FBI agents identified him as the man who was later wearing a motorcycle helmet on Feb. 2 to spray paint the lens of a surveillance camera at the apartment building where she lived in Madrid.
Investigators believe he was in her apartment for about an hour — before he left the building with a suitcase. What was in that suitcase? Investigators have yet to answer that question.
FBI agents arrested David Knezevich on May 4 at the Miami International Airport after he returned to South Florida from Serbia. Chief Magistrate Judge Edwin G. Torres denied his pre-trial release on May 10. A grand jury returned an indictment charging him with one count of kidnapping on May 15. He was set to appear in court on Monday.
FBI agents asked anyone with information about the case to call 1-800-225-5324.