CBS News
Husband of American woman missing in Spain denies involvement, disputes couple was going through “nasty divorce,” lawyer says
The husband of an American missing in Spain under suspicious circumstances played no part in her disappearance and disputes her family’s contention that their impending divorce was “nasty,” his attorney said Tuesday.
David Knezevich was in his native Serbia when his wife, Ana, disappeared from her Madrid apartment on Feb. 2 and has been cooperating with both Spanish police and the FBI, said Ken Padowitz, his Florida-based attorney.
Ana Knezevich, a 40-year-old naturalized American originally from Colombia, vanished shortly after a man wearing a motorcycle helmet disabled her apartment complex’s security cameras by spray painting the lenses. Two of her friends received text messages from her phone the next day saying she was running off for a few days with a man she had just met. They say the messages were not written in her style and she would never leave with a stranger.
Sanna Rameau / AP
Sanna Rameau, a friend of Ana, told WSVN that she responded by asking Ana to send her location but Ana never responded and the phone turned off.
“When we tried to respond, the messages were not going through and the phone is off. She has not left on her own. She has been taken against her will and by who, I don’t know,” said Rameau.
David Knezevich has been cooperative with authorities, his lawyer said.
“He has talked to detectives in Spain on a number of occasions. He’s provided credit card information … He obtained a lawyer in Spain to sign documents that might help the Spanish authorities go into the apartment that his wife had rented,” Padowitz said. “He is doing everything that he possibly can … from Serbia.”
He said if Knezevich, 36, traveled to Spain, that would not help the investigation or search.
“He does not speak Spanish. He does not have family in Spain. He does not have friends in Spain. He does not have a house or an apartment or any place to live in Spain,” Padowitz said.
Rameau said Tuesday that David Knezevich told both her and Ana’s brother that on Feb. 2 he was at the couple’s Fort Lauderdale home and not in Serbia.
“Whatever he did can obviously be confirmed by authorities,” Rameau said.
Madrid police on Tuesday said the investigation is ongoing, but did not release further details.
Missing person alerts about the missing American have been seen over 15 million times over the past week, the president of a volunteer organization in Spain told NBC News.
Manu Fernandez / AP
David and Ana Knezevich, who sometimes spell their surname “Knezevic,” have been married for 13 years. They own EOX Technology Solutions Inc., which does computer support for South Florida businesses. Records show they also own a home and two other Fort Lauderdale properties, one of those currently under foreclosure.
Ana’s brother, Juan Henao, called the divorce “nasty” in an interview with a Fort Lauderdale detective, a report shows. He told police that David was angry that they would be dividing a substantial amount of money.
But Padowitz said the couple’s split had been amicable and that they had even talked of hiring just one attorney to finalize their divorce and divide their properties and other assets.
“That they were having ‘a nasty divorce,’ that’s just blatantly false,” Padowitz said.
Rameau said Ana never told her the divorce was amicable, “but I also did not take part (in) all their conversations.”
The following is a transcript of an interview with Sen. Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Oct. 6, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Joining us now is Arizona’s Democratic Senator, Mark Kelly. He’s in Detroit this morning on the campaign trail for the Harris campaign. Good morning to you, Senator.
SEN. MARK KELLY: Good morning, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to talk to you about Arizona, but let’s start in Michigan, which is where you are right now. And it is going to be such a key state to a potential Harris or Trump victory. Vice President Harris is facing challenges among black men, working class people, as well as the Muslim and Arab populations skeptical of the White House support for Israel’s wars. What are you hearing on the ground there from voters?
SEN. KELLY: Well, my wife, Gabby Giffords, and I have been out here for a couple days. We’ve been campaigning across the country, Michigan, I’ve been in North Carolina, Georgia as well. I’ll be back to Arizona here soon. The vice president was out here speaking to Muslim organizations and the Arab community about what is at stake in this election and addressing the concerns that they have. What we’re hearing, issues about the economy, about gun violence, about, you know, supporting American families and the difference between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. You know, Kamala Harris, who has a vision for the future of this country, Donald Trump, who just wants to drag us backwards.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Today in Dearborn, Michigan, there’s a funeral service for an American man who was killed in Lebanon by an Israeli airstrike. It just underscores how that community you’re talking about out in Michigan feel some of what’s happening in a personal way to their community. Given how close this race is, do you think this war and the expectation it could escalate could cost Democrats both a seat in the Senate and potentially the presidency?
SEN. KELLY: Margaret, nobody wants to see escalation and it’s tragic when any innocent person, whether it’s an American or Palestinian, lose their life in a conflict. Tomorrow’s one year since October 7th, when Israel was violently attacked. Israel has a right to defend itself, not only from Hamas, but from Hezbollah and from the Iranians. But, you know, I and my wife, you know, we feel for the community here who’s been affected by this. And that’s why the vice president was out here earlier, a few days ago, meeting with that community.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But it’s a live issue.
SEN. KELLY: Yeah, sure. I mean, there is an ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Israel is, you know, fighting a war now on, I think it’s fair to say, two fronts and then being attacked by the Iranians as well. And, they- they need to defend themselves, and we need to support our Israeli ally. At the same time, when women and children lose their life, innocent people in a conflict, it is- it is tragic.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You do sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee and so I know you know how intense the efforts are by foreign actors to try to manipulate voters going into November. Just this Friday, Matthew Olsen, the lead on election threats at the Department of Justice, told CBS the Russians are, quote, highlighting immigration as a wedge issue. That is such a key issue in Arizona. Are you seeing targeted information operations really focusing in on Arizonans right now?
SEN. KELLY: Not only in Arizona, in other battleground states. It’s the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, and it’s significant. And we need to do a better job getting the message out to the American people that there is a huge amount of misinformation. If you’re looking at stuff on Twitter, on TikTok, on Facebook, on Instagram, and it’s political in nature, and you may- might think that that person responding to that political article or who made that meme up is an American. It could be- it could look like a U.S. service member. There is a very reasonable chance I would put it in the 20 to 30% range, that the content you are seeing, the comments you are seeing, are coming from one of those three countries: Russia, Iran, China. We had a hearing recently, with the FBI director, the DNI, and the head of the National Security Agency. And we talked about this. And we talked about getting the word out. And it’s up to us, so thank you for asking me the question, because it’s up to us, the people who serve in Congress and the White House to get the information out there, that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation in this election, and it’s not going to stop on November 5th.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood. And we will do our best to help parse that for viewers. But on the topic of the border, President Biden did announce just this past week new regulations to keep in place that partial asylum ban that he rolled out back in June. That’s what’s credited with helping to bring down some of the border crossing numbers in recent weeks. It was supposed to be a temporary policy, dependent on how many people were crossing at a time. Do you think this is the right long term policy, or is this just a gimmick to bring down numbers ahead of the election?
SEN. KELLY: Well, the right long term policy is to do this through legislation. And we were a day or two away from doing that, passing strong border security legislation supported by the vice president, negotiated by the vice president, and the president and his Department of Homeland Security, with Democrats and Republicans–
MARGARET BRENNAN: But this is not legislation.
SEN. KELLY: –This is bipartisan. This isn’t. But the legislation was killed by Donald Trump. We were really close to getting it passed. That’s the correct way to do this. When you can’t do that, Margaret, when a former president interrupts the legislative process the way he did, which is the most hypocritical thing I’ve ever seen in my three and a half years in the Senate. After that happened, the only other option is executive actions. And this has gone from what was chaos and a crisis at our southern border to somewhat manageable. And if you’re the border- Border Patrol, you know, this is this- you need this. I mean, otherwise it is unsafe for Border Patrol agents, for CBP officers, for migrants, for communities in southern Arizona. So it’s unfortunate that this was the- these were the steps that had to be taken.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay.
SEN. KELLY: But that’s because the former president didn’t allow us to do this through legislation.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator, we have to leave it right there. Face the Nation will be right back.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
CBS News
Sen. Mark Kelly says Americans need to know about “huge amount of misinformation” on election
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.