A man was arrested Saturday at Miami International Airport in connection with the February disappearance of his wife.
David Knezevich, 36, was taken into custody as he returned to the United States from a months-long trip to Serbia, which WTVJ said was his home country.
Columbian native Ana María Knezevich Henao, 40, disappeared during a trip to Madrid, Spain, and hasn’t been seen since Feb. 2, according to the outlet.
Just before her disappearance, a man wearing a motorcycle helmet spray-painted the security cameras at her apartment, rendering them useless.
The following day, Sanna Rameau, who told WSVN she was Henao’s best friend, said she received a text message saying that “she met someone wonderful on the street and that they were going to a summer house two hours away and that the phone signal was spotty,” the New York Post reported.
Her family received a similar text, but in Spanish.
Both texts reportedly came from Henao’s phone, but her family said the message in Spanish was in a different dialect than Henao spoke and that “she didn’t speak that way.”
Police were then notified in both Madrid and Fort Lauderdale.
She was a naturalized citizen of the U.S., WTVJ reported.
Will Ana María Knezevich Henao ever be found?
Yes: 21% (15 Votes)
No: 79% (56 Votes)
Personnel from at least four different agencies took part in the arrest, according to WTVJ, including the FBI, the Spanish National Police, the Belgrade Interior Attaché Office and the Colombian Police.
WSVN, however, reported that Knezevich was arrested by U.S. marshals.
He was charged with kidnapping, the outlet noted. He was scheduled for a bond hearing on Friday, and will be arraigned on May 20.
The investigation into Henao’s disappearance has been coordinated by the Court of Violence Against Women number 9 in Madrid, which keeps the proceedings under “summary secrecy.”
Henao traveled to Spain in December from her home in Fort Lauderdale, WTVJ reported, “looking to get away” and “explore new places.”
No specific reason for her trip was reported, but her family and friends told the station that she had been going through a “nasty divorce.”
Knezevich’s attorney told WSVN that his client had nothing to do with Henao’s disappearance, and had in fact been in Serbia when she went missing.
He also said that his separation from his wife was “amicable,” according to the Post.
“The claim contradicts that of Joaquin Amills, the president of the SOS Missing Persons Association, who said in a statement that the divorce proceedings were so difficult that Ana was ‘asking for medical help for depression,’” the Post reported.
Knezevich has also refused to take a lie detector test, which the Post said could be admissible evidence in a criminal court in Florida.
