Ana Knezevich’s best friend says the missing Florida businesswoman’s estranged husband fled to his native Serbia after being asked for help finding her.
Knezevich, 40, was going through a “difficult” divorce from her husband David when she disappeared from her apartment while on vacation in Madrid on February 2.
Her friends received forced text messages from her phone stating that she would not be able to be contacted for a few days, and within hours her friend Sanna Rameau was on the phone with the husband to see what he knew.
“I suggested that he meet me in Madrid to help with the investigation and help, you know, find Ana,” he said.
“He didn’t come to Madrid, I contacted him again that Friday and he told me that he had gone to Serbia.”
Ana Knezevich was going through a “tough” divorce from her husband David when she disappeared 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 to help her with the search, but he fled.
The couple ran a successful computer repair and support business from their home in Fort Lauderdale.
Ana and Sanna had traveled a lot together during the holidays and communicated daily while Ana looked for a new apartment in the Spanish capital.
Rameau and Ana’s brother received a series of strange text messages from her phone claiming that she was dating someone “wonderful” she had met on the street.
One sent in Spanish to Ana’s brother, Felipe Henao, said as if it had been passed through ‘Google Translate’.
‘It’s not her. She doesn’t say those things. As if no one in Spanish said it like that,’ she stated.
The messages sent from Ana’s phone said that the new person had a house two hours from Madrid and that she was going with him there for a few days.
The text messages added that there was “spotty” phone service where he was going and that he would let his family know when he returned.
The messages sent from Ana’s phone said that she had met someone who has a house two hours from Madrid and that she was going with him for a few days. Her brother said they read as if they were written with Google Translate.
Rameau said she had become Ana’s “best friend” and traveled a lot with her.
Rameau said that “it is impossible” that Ana disappeared as her messages suggest
“She has never expressed to me that she is afraid of anyone,” Rameau said.
Her family says they found that a helmeted man had spray painted over surveillance cameras the night Ana disappeared.
“As soon as I received these messages I realized something was wrong,” Rameau told Cuomo in NewsNation.
“For her, meeting someone on the street and doing something like this is out of the question,” he added.
‘I responded immediately telling him to share his location and asking him what was going on.
“When I received no response on Sunday morning, I contacted the police myself in Madrid.”
Rameau flew to Madrid herself on February 8 to speak with police and assist in the search.
David Knezevich is originally from Belgrade.
“Police said a judge denied their request to access his apartment and phone records, saying he could simply be a missing person, that they weren’t taking him seriously,” he said.
Henao said he is also concerned that authorities in Madrid are not equipped to deal with Ana’s case.
‘I have heard from the police in Spain. I know they are working very hard. I just don’t know if they have all the tools they need,” the worried brother said.
‘I found out that they don’t even have a detective who speaks English and that makes it really difficult. And that seems ridiculous to me.
But police discovered that a man wearing a motorcycle helmet had disabled security cameras outside the Madrid apartment with black spray paint on the night she disappeared.
And neighbors at the couple’s Fort Lauderdale home said David spent a lot of time paying attention to their security cameras.
“She was obviously stressed and upset about separating from her husband, they have a very successful business together, but she seemed in good spirits,” Rameau said.
“She has never expressed to me that she is afraid of anyone.”
And she called her friend for the last time just a few hours before disappearing.
“He was happy, he had a great day and he sent me a voicemail like he normally does saying he was in Madrid looking for an apartment,” Rameau said.
“She was telling me about the upcoming trip to Barcelona with a friend that she was very excited about.”
But Ana never arrived to Barcelona with her friend.
“All her friends in Madrid are worried saying that this is not Ana,” Rameau added.
‘Something has happened.’
The couple married in 2011 and moved to the southern Florida city of Fort Lauderdale.
The FBI is in contact with the Spanish police, but Rameau wants more to be done.
“We have an American citizen who has gone missing overseas and no one in the United States is doing anything about it,” he said.
‘There are strong suspicions that a crime has been committed in relation to his disappearance.
‘I just want her back. “I want the American authorities to help.”