Yzabelle Bostyn
Can you help us find Ana? Email: tips@theolivepress.es
EVERYTHING you need to know about Ana Knezevich Henao, US expat who went missing from Madrid over a MONTH ago.
The 40-year-old woman had moved to Madrid after a difficult divorce in December 2023 only to vanish just two months later on February 2.
According to laSexta, a spokesperson for the family and president of Spain’s National Centre for Missing Persons (CNDES), Joaquin Amills, said the expat moved to Spain to start fresh after leaving her husband, David Knezevich, a 35-year-old Serbian living in Miami.
In January, Ana went to a doctor for help with depression.
Nonetheless, she was making plans for her new life in Spain.
On the day she went missing, Ana told her friend Sanna Rameau she had been to see a flat to rent long-term and was going on a trip to Barcelona just three days later, on February 5.
Sanna was the last person to hear from Ana and family and friends became increasingly worried when they received a strange text just a day later.
On Feburary 3, Sanna and another friend got a WhatsApp message from Ana’s phone.
It read: “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.
“Yesterday after therapy I needed a walk and he approached me on the street! Amazing connection. Like I never had before.”
According to loved ones, this message does not sound like Ana, who never wrote with commas or exclamation marks.
The texts also switched between English and Spanish, something Ana was not known to do.
Concerns rose further when Madrid police revealed surveillance from Ana’s building was obscured when a man in a black motorcycle helmet spray painted over two security cameras on the day she vanished.
Police searched the expat’s apartment and reportedly found nothing out of the ordinary.
A Daily Mail report has also alleged the 40-year-old had started using the dating app, Bumble in the months leading up to her disappearance, citing her best friend, Sanna.
Police have allegedly spoken to at least two men Ana chatted with on the app before she was last seen outside her apartment, in Madrid’s fashionable Salamanca neighborhood, on February 2.
It is unknown whether Ana was using the app to find romantic dates or was using the friendship mode.
According to the Daily Mail, Sanna says she has met one of the men who claims he was ‘friends’ with Ana.
The friend also insisted Ana would ‘never’ run off with a stranger.
Both police in Madrid and Fort Lauderdale, where Ana moved from, have launched investigations into the disappearance.
They, as well as the American Embassy, have refused to comment on Ana’s case.
Spain’s missing persons association (SOS Desparecidos) has posted Ana’s photograph around the city and a notice of her disappearance is shown to anyone using Euronet cash machines across Europe.
In spite of this, police have not received any tips.
Ana, though born in Colombia, was living in Florida, before she came to Spain.
There, she co-owned a tech support company, EOX Technology Solutions with her estranged husband alongside two other businesses with ‘significant assets’.
The pair had been married for 13 years when they separated last year.
EOX Technology Solutions is believed to be one of the biggest problems in their separation.
While Ana wanted to split the asset equally while David wanted a 75% share.
They owned a home and two other Fort Lauderdale properties together.
According to Senna, the six month long divorce was ‘nasty’.
David Knezevich is believed to be in his native Serbia, where he has reportedly begun selling his assets from the separation.
However according to Ken Padowitz, David’s lawyer says Ana’s ex-husband is collaborating fully with police and has only not travelled to Spain because he doesn’t ‘know the language or anybody there.’
He also claims reports the couple’s split was acrimonious are ‘simply not true’, saying they had been separated for four months are they ‘grew apart’.
But, according to press reports the family of 40-year-old Ana claimed that she was unhappy with the way that the assets were being divided during their separation.
They also claimed David’s response to Ana’s disappeance has been cold.
Their spokesperson said: “He hasn’t collaborated morally, with information or money. There has been zero communication and when he has been in touch, he has been threatening. We know he’s been to Spain various times and he could come if he wanted to, to see first hand what is happening.”
Reportedly, Ana’s brother, Felipe Henao contacted David shortly after Ana went missing to ask if he knew where his sister was.
He allegedly responded ‘What’s up?’ before informing Felipe that Ana was missing, which he already knew.
According to the Associated Press, Ana’s friend Senna claimed she never mentioned she was afraid of David or that he was abusive.
Over a month later, the expat’s family is increasingly worried.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, her brother Felipe said: “My mother is devastated. I wish Ana was back already. I just hope someone with information comes forward.”
Juan Manuel Medina, a lawyer collaborating with SOS Desparecidos, told EFE: “When there’s no clues for a long period, it’s a sign something’s wrong. It’s clear this wasn’t a voluntary disappearance.”
Medina is representing the family from their home in Miami and says police, including the FBI, are investigating every lead.
Ana is described as being 1.45m tall with long, brown, wavy hair and brown eyes.
Can you help us find Ana? Email: tips@theolivepress.es
