A Florida woman was “taken against her will” in Madrid, Spain, where she was in the midst of a divorce from her husband, one of her friends has confirmed.
Ana Maria Knezevic, 40, a Colombian native and Fort Lauderdale resident, was temporarily living in a normally safe apartment complex in Madrid’s Salamanca neighborhood when she disappeared on February 2nd.
“Someone took her away against her will. She didn’t leave of her own accord. That’s beside the point,” Knezevich’s friend Sanna Rameau from Fort Lauderdale told Fox News Digital. Ta.
Knezevic’s friends last heard from her around 10 p.m. that day — just 30 minutes after a man wearing a motorcycle helmet spray-painted her apartment’s security camera. Ta.
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“Someone took her against her will. She didn’t leave of her own accord. That’s beside the point.”
Ana Maria Knezevic, 40, of Fort Lauderdale, disappeared from her apartment in Madrid on February 2nd. (Sanna Rameau)
The two met at a social event in South Florida and instantly hit it off. They bonded over their love of travel. Rameau once vacationed with Knezevic in Bogotá, Colombia. In Florida, the two lived within walking distance and “visited each other frequently.” During the summer, the two friends went to Mallorca, France, and Croatia. They had made plans to meet in Madrid shortly after Knezevic’s disappearance.
Knezevic bought a ticket to go to Barcelona for a few days before meeting Rameau in Madrid, but Rameau received a strange email from a friend on February 3.
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A man wearing a motorcycle helmet appears to have spray-painted a security camera at the Madrid apartment where Ana Knezevic was staying. (Sanna Rameau)
“I met a wonderful person!” read the WhatsApp message. “He has a summer house that’s about 2 years old. [hours] Born in Madrid. We are going there now and plan to spend a few days there. The signal is unstable. I’ll call you when I get back. ”
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This screenshot image provided by Sanna Rameau shows a text message thread between Ana Maria Knezevic and Rameau on February 3, 2024. Spanish police are searching for Colombian-American woman Knezevic, who suddenly went missing in Madrid. (Sanna Rameau, via AP)
Then another message arrived. “Yesterday, after therapy, I needed a walk and he called out to me on the street! It’s an amazing connection. It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.”
Rameau said the messages were strange because she had spoken to Knezevic the day before and had not mentioned any encounters with men. Rameau also said that although Knezevic is fluent in both Spanish and English, Knezevic sent messages in Spanish to other friends that did not translate well into Spanish. He also said that it seems like it.
Someone else wrote those messages.
On the day she disappeared, Knezevic also sent a voice message to Rameau. It was something I often sent when I was too busy to type a text message.
“Yesterday I saw an apartment that I liked, so I hope it’s mine,” Knezevic said with a laugh in a message shared with Fox News Digital. “Right now I’m going to watch the next game and everything is going well. I’m actually feeling pretty good.”
She then told Rameau that she was going on a day trip to Barcelona on February 5th. Rameau explained that it didn’t make sense to leave the city for a few days with a stranger when she was planning to go to Barcelona.
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Neighbors reported seeing Knezevic outside her Madrid apartment on the night of February 2, but no one has seen or heard from her since.
Ana Maria Knezevic and Sanna Rameau met at a social event in South Florida and quickly became good friends. (Sanna Rameau)
Knezevich and her husband, David Knezevich, ran an IT company in South Florida and had interests in real estate. Rameau said she described the pair as a “successful couple” who were married for 13 years before deciding to separate last summer.
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“It was obviously difficult for her, so she started spending more time in Europe, in Madrid, where she had old friends,” Rameau said.
Sanna Rameau described David and Ana Knezevic as a “successful couple” who were married for 13 years before deciding to separate last summer. (Sanna Rameau)
The Fort Lauderdale Police Department told Fox News Digital that FLPD is “not investigating Knezevic’s disappearance” because she was “reported missing abroad.”
Attorney Ken Padowitz told Fox News Digital that David was in his native Serbia at the time of his wife’s disappearance.
“It’s a really bad, terrible situation at the moment, but David was living in Serbia,” Padowitz said. “His passport will reflect that. He was in Spain before his wife disappeared in Spain. He was not in Spain.”
The lawyer said that David “does not have any information as to why he disappeared in this way” and that it has “nothing to do with the incident.”
David Knezevic was in Serbia when his wife disappeared from Madrid. (Sanna Rameau)
On February 7, five days after Knezevic’s disappearance, Henao contacted police and shared information about her sister’s disappearance, stating that Ana and David were going through a “bad” divorce and that “a lot of money was at stake.” He is said to have said, in the police report.
“Juan was very worried that something bad had happened to Ana.”
“David stated that he traveled to Serbia on January 17 of this year, but it is unclear how long he was there,” the police report states. “Additionally, he called and texted David asking where Ana was, to no avail. Juan advised that David responded via ‘Whats’ around 6pm last night.” [App]It was as if they were out of the country and all they were telling Juan was that Ana was missing. ”
Ana Maria Knezevic’s brother went to police on February 7, five days after she was last seen in Madrid, Spain, explaining that Ana and her husband David had gone through a “bad” divorce. It was reported that (Sanna Rameau)
David’s lawyer disputed claims that the couple was going through a “bad” divorce, saying the couple were even trying to hire the same divorce lawyer.
“They had been separated for about four months and were planning on getting a divorce. They hadn’t hired a lawyer yet and were actually talking about hiring a lawyer to work with them to resolve the divorce. It was a bad divorce. Quite the opposite,” Padowitz said, adding that his client is cooperating with law enforcement and has also spoken with Madrid police.
Police went to Knezevic’s residence earlier this month to see if they could contact the couple, but David and Anna were not home. Police said three unopened Amazon packages were left on the doorstep.
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Police went to Anna and David Knezevic’s home earlier this month to see if they could contact them, but no one answered the door and their belongings were piled up outside. (Sanna Rameau)
David Knezewicz reported in January that more than $5,000 in cash and personal items were stolen from his Mercedes, which he said was left unlocked overnight. Security cameras outside the home did not appear to capture the incident, but the suspect told police that the passenger door was ajar, and authorities collected latex traces from the passenger door. But he said no suspects have been named in connection with the theft charges.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to David and his IT company for comment.
Madrid police did not immediately respond to inquiries from Fox News Digital. Joaquín Amirs, a spokesman for the Spanish Association of Missing Persons, told The Associated Press that the association has posted missing persons flyers with Knezevic’s photo throughout Madrid, but has not yet received any information. He said he has not done so.
