A Florida realtor who went missing in Spain earlier this month during a nasty divorce had just started using the dating app Bumble – and cops have interviewed at least two men she chatted with before she vanished, a report says.
Ana Knezevich, 40, disappeared in Madrid almost three weeks ago, after she decided to travel to Europe while going through a bitter split from her 35-year-old Serbian-American husband, David Knezevich, according to family and friends.
Troubling signs in the disappearance of the stunning Fort Lauderdale woman include her telling pals the day after she was last seen that she had just met a man and felt an “instant” connection with him, reports have said.
Frantic friends also said they have since received oddly phrased texts in Spanish from the Colombian-born Knezevich and don’t believe the messages are from her.
In addition, cops said surveillance video from the building where Knezevich was staying in Spain shows a man in a black motorcycle helmet spraying paint over two security cameras there the day she vanished.
“My mother is devastated. I wish I had something new, I wish Ana was back already,” Knezevich’s brother, Felipe Henao, told the Daily Mail in a report Monday. “I just hope someone with information comes forward to tell us what they know.”
The stunning realtor — who owned a tech-support company with her estranged husband — had started using Bumble in the months leading up to her disappearance, the outlet said, citing her best friend, Sanna Rameau.
At least two men who Knezevich chatted with on the dating app before she was last seen outside her rented apartment Feb. 2 have been tracked down by Spanish authorities, according to the outlet.
Rameau told the outlet that she sent her friend a text the day she vanished but did not receive a response. The next day, Rameau got a message from Knezevich saying she had met a man and they had an instant “connection,” the pal said.
Friends do not believe that the WhatsApp messages they have received from Knezevich since Feb. 2 were written by her, the outlet said. Knezevich was officially declared missing Feb. 5 when she failed to meet a pal to travel to Barcelona, according to the Mail.
Rameau, who traveled to Spain to help search for Knezevich, told the outlet that she didn’t know if her friend had been on Bumble to find romantic dates or was using the app in “BFF” mode.
“I just know that police have been in contact with several people she was speaking with,” Rameau said. “I have met with one of them who tells me that they were not romantically involved, they were friends.
“I have been saying this whole time that we need to get into her phone and look at the platforms she was using. We need to look for any clues in there, but we have not got that far yet,” she told the outlet.
Henao said police have not yet tracked down the man who spray-painted over the security cameras at the place where his sister was staying in Spain.
Police in Madrid and Fort Lauderdale have launched investigations on both sides of the Atlantic but have declined comment, as did the American Embassy in in the Spanish capital.
Spain’s Missing Persons Association has posted Knezevic’s photograph around the city but has not received any responses, spokesman Joaquin Amills said.
The Knezeviches, who have been married for 13 years, own EOX Technology Solutions Inc., which does computer support for south Florida businesses.
Records show they also own a home and two other Fort Lauderdale properties, one of which is in foreclosure.
Henao called the divorce “nasty” in an interview with a Fort Lauderdale detective.
David Knezevich’s whereabouts are unknown.
After Ana disappeared, her brother texted her husband to ask if he knew where she was.
The hubby responded “’Whats up?” before telling Henao that Ana was missing, which the sibling already knew, he said.
“Nothing else besides that,” Henao said.
Rameau told The Associated Press that Ana never mentioned fearing her husband or that he was abusive.
Ana had rented an apartment in Madrid’s wealthy and fashionable Salamanca quarter, traveled with Rameau in Austria in January and planned to see a Spanish friend in Barcelona on Feb. 5 before reuniting with Rameau in Madrid on Feb. 8.
Rameau said there was no chance her friend would run off with a stranger.
“I’m just desperate to find answers,” she told AP. “I’m just desperate to find a reason for who could have done this.”
With Post wires