Who is Ana Maria Knezevic, the American woman missing in Spain?

Ana Maria Knezevic was amid a contentious divorce in Dec. 2023 when she moved to Madrid to start over. About two months later, Knezevic disappeared, and the next day, her friends received two text messages from her telling them she was with a man she just met.

A closer look at the security cameras in Ana Maria’s apartment building told a different story. On the day the 40-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, born in Colombia, vanished, a man was seen wearing a motorcycle helmet spray painting over the lenses of the cameras, the AP reported.

And Knezevic’s friends weren’t buying those text messages, anyway. According to NBC News, Knezivic’s texts said she would be at the man’s house outside Madrid for a few days, where service was weak, and they texted her back, but she never responded.

One text was written in Spanish, and the other was in English, but it didn’t sound like Ana Maria, and based on its tone, it seemed like it may have been written in Spanish and then put through Google Translate, her friends said.

One text read, “Yesterday after therapy I needed a walk and he approached me on the street! Amazing connection. Like I never had.”

But Knezivic’s friend, Sanna Ramea, told the AP, “She wouldn’t do this … it is very unsafe and crazy behavior. She wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t do that. It just didn’t make sense.”

David Knezevic denies involvement

David Knezevic, Ana Maria’s estranged husband, was reportedly in his home country, Serbia, when she disappeared and has denied he had anything to do with what may have happened to her. David and Ana Marie own businesses together in South Florida. Ana Marie’s family has called her divorce “nasty,” adding there was a good deal of money to split up and that David was angry.

According to the AP, however, David, who doesn’t speak Spanish and has no connection to Spain, called the divorce amicable. David’s Florida attorney, Ken Padowitz, said,

“David has worked with authorities. 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. He is doing everything that he possibly can … from Serbia.”

via the AP

Since Knezevic vanished, a massive search was launched on both sides of the Atlantic involving several U.S. and European agencies, but as of this report, Knezivic had not been found. Knezevic’s friend, Sanna Ramea, said, “I’m just desperate to find answers. I’m just desperate to find a reason for who could have done this.”