David Knezevich, 36, a Florida businessman is charged with the murder of his wife, Ana Maria Knezevich, who has been missing since February from Madrid, Spain. He was initially accused of his estranged wife's disappearance in February.
According to reports Ana and David were in the midst of a nasty divorce with a lot of money on the line. Though presumed dead, Ana's body has yet to be found.
David Knezevich was arrested in May at Miami International Airport, and at the time of arrest, he was only charged with kidnapping. According to reports, he faces multiple charges including kidnapping resulting in death, foreign domestic violence resulting in death, and foreign murder of a United States national.
David's indictment alleges that he traveled to Spain to "kill, injure, harass, and intimidate" Ana, committing an act of violence that resulted in her death. If found guilty of all the charges David could face the death penalty.
Events leading to murder charges against David Knezevich
On February 2, 2024, Ana Knezivich, 40, disappeared from her house in Madrid. It was reported that Ana and David were going through a messy divorce that involved properties worth at least $13 million.
The case is being investigated by the FBI along with the Spanish National Police. According to The Independent UK Edition, the CCTV footage at the building showed a man spray painting the cameras and using duct tape to lock the building's entrance. An hour later, the man was seen allegedly walking out of the building with a suitcase, though later in a hearing the judge pointed out that he couldn't detect the suitcase in the video.
Another CCTV footage allegedly showed David at a hardware store in Madrid buying duct tape and spray paint. This was considered strong evidence against him. The investigators believe he reached Spain via road from Serbia after he flew from Istanbul to Miami and then from Miami to Serbia in January.
According to police, the FBI also traced the phone call made to an insurance provider a month after Ana's disappearance by someone claiming to be Ana, requesting the cancellation of the couple's three insurance policies for their IT support business in Fort Lauderdale, to David Knezevich.
In one of the earlier court hearings, the judge pointed out how David asked a woman, a possible girlfriend, to translate a message into perfect Colombian. Interestingly, the day after Ana was last seen in her apartment in Madrid, her friends received a text (one in English, the other in Spanish), but her friends believed the text was not from her. The text read as follows,
"I met someone wonderful. He has a summer house about 2h from Madrid. We are going there now and I will spend a few days there. There is barely any signal though. I’ll call you when I come back. Kisses."
David was arrested on May 4 at Miami International Airport as he flew back from his home in Serbia as a suspect in his wife's disappearance. Knezevich's lawyers argued that there were no signs of struggle or traces of blood in Ana's Madrid apartment. But, based on other evidence and considering his flight risk, the court ordered his detainment.
On Wednesday, the federal prosecutors got a grand jury indictment accusing David of murdering Ana Knezevich, on top of his kidnapping charges. Regarding the new charges against Knezevich, his lawyers said,
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"It is a desperate attempt by the government to charge everything possible and see what sticks. There is no evidence that David Knezevich kidnapped or murdered his wife."
David Knezevich, who pleaded not guilty, is detained in a federal lock-up in Miami.
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