Odd texts, $15M and a divorce? Husband of woman who vanished in Spain arrested in Miami

A Fort Lauderdale woman, processing her looming divorce, hopped on a plane to Spain in December hoping to start a new chapter and rebuild her life. Months later, she mysteriously vanished in Madrid.

On Saturday, 35-year-old David Knezevich — her estranged husband — was arrested at Miami International Airport in connection with the February disappearance of his wife, Ana María Knezevich Henao.

Knezevich, according to Spanish news agency EFE, arrived in Miami from Belgrade, Serbia, where he had been for several months. In a post on X, Spanish authorities said they had been investigating the 40-year-old Colombian American woman’s disappearance in collaboration with Serbian police and the FBI.

Knezevich, who is being held at the federal detention center in downtown Miami, faces a kidnapping charge, according to court records. He has a detention hearing on Friday in Miami federal court and an arraignment on May 20.

An FBI criminal complaint filed Friday alleges that a man resembling Knezevich was caught on surveillance footage leaving Knezevich Henao’s apartment in Madrid at around 10:30 p.m. on Feb. 2 — with a suitcase in hand.

The complaint also includes a series of messages between Knezevich and a Colombian woman he met on a dating app. At one point during their exchange, he asked the woman to translate a message into “perfect Colombian” for a friend in Serbia writing a script, the complaint says.

Knezevich told the woman he wanted the writing to sound authentic, according to the complaint. The wording of the text exactly matched a WhatsApp message that was later sent on Knezevich Henao’s phone.

Agents also uncovered that Knezevich rented a Peugeot 308, a French vehicle, around the time of the disappearance, the complaint states. The car was returned to the rental agency with tinted windows, a changed license plate frame and nearly 4,800 additional miles.

The vehicle, the filing alleges, passed through toll booths in the area. Sometime after, a license plate reported stolen was found on the street where Knezevich Henao’s apartment is located.

Then in March, a woman posing as Knezevich Henao contacted an insurance carrier to cancel three insurance policies held for the couple’s business. According to the complaint, an employee later told agents that Knezevich asked her to impersonate his wife.

The employee said she was uncomfortable, but told agents Knezevich said this was “not serious” and that he couldn’t call “with my voice because I sound like a guy.”

The complaint even hints at a possible motive: “The separation was contentious because Knezevich did not want to split the marital assets evenly...”

Divorce negotiations, odd WhatsApp messages

Knezevich Henao moved to Madrid in December to clear her mind while navigating a difficult divorce with Knezevich. However, on Feb. 2, she was spotted on her apartment’s surveillance footage for the last time.

Family and friends said Knezevich Henao kept in regular contact with them until Feb. 3, when loved ones noted they received strange WhatsApp messages from her phone. The messages, which friends suspect weren’t authored by her, claim that Knezevich Henao had met a man on the street the day before and intended to visit his summer home two hours from Madrid, according to NewsNation.

A friend, who reported her missing on Feb. 5, learned that the security cameras in Knezevich Henao’s apartment building were spray painted black three days earlier. The Fort Lauderdale woman had also told a loved one that she feared her husband — and that she realized during couple’s therapy that he was narcissistic and manipulative.

Knezevich Henao hasn’t been heard from since, despite repeated attempts to contact and find her.

The FBI complaint, filed by prosecutor Lacee Monk, says the security cameras showed Knezevich Henao entering her apartment building in Madrid at around 2:20 pm on Feb. 2.

“This is the last time the victim is ever seen alive,” according to the affidavit, which does not identify her. “That same day at approximately 9:27 p.m., the building’s surveillance camera captured a male wearing a helmet enter the building at the same time some individuals were exiting.

“Once inside the building, the male is captured descending the stairs while holding a can of spray paint, which he then uses to disable a surveillance camera by painting the lens,” the affidavit says. “The lens was not completely obscured, and the male is seen fastening a piece of duct tape to the lock of the building entrance to prevent the lock from engaging to allow subsequent entry.”

The FBI affidavit notes that “the male, who looks directly at the camera, has the physical characteristics that resemble those of Knezevich.”

At about 10:30 p.m, according to the affidavit, “the male is captured leaving the elevator with what appears to be a suitcase.”

Millions in shared assets

Documents filed April 3 by Knezevich Henao’s brother in Broward circuit court shed more light on the investigation into the missing woman’s fate. Knezevich Henao’s brother requested that a judge appoint him as a conservator to “safeguard and manage” his sister’s multi-million dollar assets.

Before she disappeared, Knezevich Henao was negotiating a divorce and property settlement with her husband, according to the petition penned by attorneys Courtney Caprio and Adam Ingber. She even told a close friend that the couple had agreed to split their assets equally in “a soon-to-be-filed divorce.”

Since his wife vanished, the petition reveals Knezevich has sold more than $15 million worth of their marital assets. The couple owned businesses, including EOX Capital LLC, a rental property company comprised of 15 properties in Florida.

In fact, from December 2023 to January 2024, Knezevich sold seven of the homes to a single buyer, the filing indicates. He pocketed the almost $7 million.

Three of the residences have yet to be sold. The couple’s house, the filing says, is currently “occupied” by unknown people.

“...Despite being overseas, [Knezevich] has been busy selling and transferring the very assets that he and [Knezevich Henao] had agreed to divide equally in a marital property settlement,” Caprio and Ingber said in the document.

Trying to “safeguard his sister’s interests” in Spain, Knezevich Henao’s brother also hired Juan Manuel Medina Andrés, a criminal lawyer who’s representing the family and serving as a private prosecutor, the petition states.

In an affidavit included in the filing, Medina Andrés confirmed that authorities are treating Knezevich Henao’s disappearance as a murder. He also said that proceedings in Madrid are being held in secrecy to protect the probe.

But one thing is clear. Knezevich, Medina Andrés said in the petition, is the only suspect in the case.

“…I am happy that there has been an arrest,” Sanna Rameau, Knezevich Henao’s friend, told Miami Herald news partner CBS News Miami. “...We are hoping that this next chapter will bring justice and that we find answers about what has happened to Ana.”

Miami Herald staff writer Jay Weaver contributed to this story.