A husband in the midst of divorcing a Florida woman when she went missing in Spain has denied any involvement in her suspicious disappearance.
David Knezevich said he wanted to “clear the air,” over the disappearance of Ana Knezevich, 40, of Fort Lauderdale, according to his lawyer, Ken Padowitz.
The attorney, Ken Padowitz, confirmed to NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo David is currently living in Serbia — and clarified the split between the couple was amicable.
Before their split, Knezevich and her husband ran a tech consulting business in Florida and after friends say Knezevich traveled to Madrid for some peace of mind.
Asked why he has yet to travel to Spain to assist local authorities in their probe, Padowitz said his client would be of little use.
“He has no friends in Spain, he has no relatives in Spain, he doesn’t own property in Spain, he doesn’t speak the Spanish language,” he told Cuomo. “So, for him to be expected to all of a sudden fly to another country that he hasn’t been in and to attempt to do something there doesn’t seem very productive.”
Padowitz said Knezevich plans to return to Florida soon.
“He has a house here in Fort Lauderdale, and, you know, he plans on coming back here at some point because he has business interests and property here,” Padowitz said of David. “But it’s not as if he’s fled and gone somewhere. He was already living in Serbia, prior to his wife ever missing from Spain.”
Knezevich rented an apartment in Madrid in December and had been corresponding regularly with her friendship circle before going missing on February 2.
Her friend Sanna Rameau told WSVN said she sent a text the day Knezevich vanished, but did not get a response.
The following day, she got a message from her phone stating she had met a man and they had a unique “connection” almost instantly.
The text said Knezevich and the mystery love interest were en route to a country home with spotty cell service, and that she would reach out to her when she returned to Madrid.
“We received very bizarre messages from her phone, I have to say from her phone because I don’t believe it was her sending it, that Saturday afternoon after she disappeared. That she had met a man on the street,” Rameau said, according to the station.
“She has not left on her own,” Rameau said. “She has been taken against her will and by who, I don’t know.”
Other family members said they received curiously phrased Spanish texts from the native of Colombia, and that they don’t believe she sent them.
Knezevich’s brother told Newsnation’s Chris Cuomo he had concerns about the pace of their probe.
“I know they’re doing everything that they can,” Felipe Henao said. “I wish there was more collaboration between the US and the Spanish law enforcement. This is an American citizen that is missing abroad. And I just want my sister back.”
Adding to the concern, investigators found surveillance footage from Knezevich’s building showing a man in a black helmet spraying paint over two security cameras.
Rameau told The Daily Mail that Knezevich had recently been using the Bumble dating app and police have interviewed men she chatted with from the site.
Padowitz said his client’s divorce from Knezevich was not contentious, and that he is cooperating with Spanish authorities from afar.
“He’s aided the Spanish police in giving them information on credit cards, on attempting to hire a lawyer in Spain, and do all sorts of things to aid the authorities in searching for his wife,” he said.