Ana Knezevich’s best friend says the missing Florida businesswoman’s estranged husband fled to his native Serbia after being asked to help find her.
Knezevich, 40, was going through a “tough” divorce from husband David when she disappeared from her apartment on February 2 while on holiday in Madrid.
Friends received stilted text messages from her phone claiming she would be unreachable for a few days, and within hours her friend Sanna Rameau called the man to see what he knew.
“I suggested he meet me in Madrid to help with the investigation and help find Ana,” she said.
‘He didn’t come to Madrid, but I contacted him again that Friday and he told me he had gone to Serbia instead.’
Ana Knezevich was going through a ‘tough’ divorce from husband David when she went missing in Madrid on February 2
The couple ran a successful computer support business from their home in Fort Lauderdale
Ana’s best friend Sanna Rameau said she asked David for help in the search, but he fled
The couple ran a successful computer support and repair business from their home in Fort Lauderdale.
Ana and Sanna had traveled extensively on holiday together and were in daily contact while Ana was on the hunt for a new apartment in the Spanish capital.
Rameau and Ana’s brother received a series of bizarre text messages from her phone claiming she was leaving with someone “amazing” she met on the street.
One sent in Spanish to Ana’s brother Felipe Henao read as if it had been run through ‘Google Translate’
‘She is not. She doesn’t say those things. Like no one in Spanish will say it like that,” he said.
The messages sent from Ana’s phone claimed that the new person had a house two hours away from Madrid and that she would go there with him for a few days.
The texts added that there was “poor” phone service where she was going and that she would let her family know when she returned.
The messages sent from Ana’s phone claimed that she had met someone who has a house two hours away from Madrid and that she was going there with him for a few days. Her brother said they read as if written by Google Translate
Rameau said she became “best friends” with Ana and traveled extensively with her
Rameau said it is “only possible” that Ana disappeared in the manner her messages suggest
“She never told me she was afraid of anyone,” Rameau said
Her family says they discovered a man wearing a helmet spray-painted over the surveillance cameras the night Ana went missing
“As soon as I received these messages, I realized something was wrong,” Rameau told Cuomo NewsNation.
“For her to just run into someone on the street and do something like that is out of the question,” she added.
“I immediately responded telling her to share her location and asking what was going on.
‘When I didn’t hear anything on Sunday morning, I contacted the police in Madrid myself.’
Rameau flew to Madrid himself on February 8 to talk to police and assist in the search.
David Knezevich is originally from Belgrade
“Police said a judge denied their request for access to her apartment and her phone records, saying this could just be a missing person, and they weren’t taking it seriously,” she said.
Henao said he is also concerned that authorities in Madrid are not equipped to handle Ana’s case.
‘I heard something from the police in Spain. I know they work very hard. I just don’t know if they have all the tools they need,” said the concerned brother.
‘I found out that they don’t even have a detective who speaks English and that makes it very difficult. And I think that’s ridiculous.’
But police did discover that a man wearing a motorcycle helmet had disabled the security cameras outside the Madrid apartment with black spray paint the night she disappeared.
And neighbors at the couple’s Fort Lauderdale home said David spent a lot of time watching the security cameras.
‘She was clearly stressed and angry about the divorce from her husband. They have a very successful business together, but she seemed cheerful,” Rameau said.
“She’s never told me she’s afraid of anyone.”
And she called her friend for the last time, just hours before she disappeared.
“She was happy, she had a great day and sent me a voicemail message like she normally does, saying she was in Madrid looking for apartments,” Rameau said.
‘She told me about an upcoming trip to Barcelona with a friend which she was very excited about.’
But Ana never arrived in Barcelona with her friend.
“Her friends in Madrid are all concerned and say this is not Ana,” Rameau added.
‘Something happened.’
The couple married in 2011 and moved to the city of Fort Lauderdale in South Florida
The FBI is liaising with Spanish police, but Rameau wants more to be done.
“We have an American citizen who has disappeared abroad, and no one in America is doing anything about it,” she said.
‘There is a strong suspicion of foul play in relation to her disappearance.
‘I just want her back. I want the American authorities to help.”