Simon Hunter
THE estranged husband of Ana Knezevich, a Colombian native with US nationality who went missing in Madrid on February 2, pleaded not guilty on Monday to her kidnapping, despite the existence of apparently incriminating evidence against him.
Court documents that were released late last week in Miami show David Knezevic at a Madrid hardware store on that same day in February, where he bought duct tape and spray paint.
What’s more, in security footage from Ana Knezevich’s apartment in the upscale Salamanca neighbourhood, Knezevich’s eyes are recognisable as he sprays the cameras in the hallway, despite him wearing a motorcycle helmet with facemask.
According to the court documents, he later left the apartment that same night with a suitcase.
David Knezevich, who is 36, has been indicted by a court in Miami of travelling from Florida to the Spanish capital to kidnap his wife between the dates of January 27 and February 5, according to a report in the Miami Herald.
His estranged wife, who is referred to as the ‘victim’ in the indictment, is 40-year-old Ana Maria Knezevich Henao, who moved to Spain in late December as the pair were going through a reportedly acrimonious divorce.
Having run a successful business together, the separation is said to have involved the dividing up of millions of dollars’ worth of joint assets. They had been married for 13 years at the time of her disappearance, and the divorce was yet to be finalised
Ana Knezevich was last seen on February 2, according to the authorities in Spain, the same day that she exchanged text messages with a friend called Sanna Rameau.
The next day, however, Knezevich sent text messages saying that she had met a man. “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,” the WhatsApp message read, according to a report in the Daily Mail.
Her family then began to receive messages in Spanish from her phone that did not sound as if they had been written by her.
“That message in Spanish, it is like it’s translated from Google. It’s not her. She doesn’t say those things. Like nobody in Spanish will say it like that,” her brother, Felipe Henao, said earlier this year.
Spain’s Policia Nacional, along with the FBI, has tried to locate her and has carried out searches for her body but has so far been unsuccessful.
David Knezevich was arrested in May after the authorities determined that he had travelled to Turkey and then to Spain by car.
He has not yet been charged with his wife’s murder, but this could change should the authorities locate her body.
In the meantime, the court case against him in Miami continues.
