Investigators comb Italy to find body of Fort Lauderdale woman who vanished in Spain

Investigators from Spain, Italy and the FBI have been combing through a heavily wooded area in northern Italy, searching for a Fort Lauderdale woman who prosecutors say was kidnapped from her apartment in Madrid by her estranged husband amid their bitter divorce over millions of dollars.

Ana Knezevich Henao was reported missing in early February in Spain and her body has not been found.

The FBI believes the husband, David Knezevich, carried her body in a suitcase out of her Madrid apartment building on Feb. 2. But if he did kill her, which investigators have been unable to prove, where is the wife’s corpse?

Investigators now suspect that Knezevich, a 36-year-old Serbian native, may have transported her body in his rented Peugeot 308 on his return trip from Madrid to Belgrade between Feb. 2 and Feb. 5.

A GPS signal generated on Feb. 4 by Knezevich’s rental car recently led Italian and Spanish investigators to a wooded area in the province of Vicenza in northern Italy — west of Venice and east of Verona — where they say he may have taken a detour off the main highway to dump the wife’s corpse.

For a day and a half last week, Italian and Spanish police officers, along with firefighters, a dog unit and an FBI agent, searched the woods above Cogollo del Cengio , a town about 25 miles north of Vicenza.

They scrutinized an area of more than 300 yards covered with thick vegetation marked by crags, ravines and cracks, until they decided to temporarily suspend operations after the wife’s body was not found, according to a published report in the Italian newspaper, Il Giornale di Vicenza. However, they planned to continue their search in the same area, the Vicenza newspaper reported.

Knezevich, 36, has been charged in Miami federal court with kidnapping his wife since her body has not been found. According to an FBI criminal affidavit, he drove from Madrid to Belgrade, the Serbian capital, after he was captured on a security video exiting an elevator in his wife’s apartment building with the suitcase on the night of Feb. 2.

The detour off the main highway near Vicenza occurred about two-thirds of the way on his return trip from Madrid to Belgrade, according to the GPS signal on the rented car. The distance between the two cities is 1,620 miles.

Millions at stake in divorce

An FBI spokesman declined to comment on the search for the wife’s body, which has added a dimension of mystery to an international case based mainly on circumstantial evidence. The couple was going through a difficult divorce over millions of dollars in assets in South Florida, where they owned more than a half-dozen real estate properties in Broward.

Ana Knezevich, a Colombia native, traveled on her own to Spain in late December and her husband tracked her down in early February, according to court records. She was starting a new life and “looking forward to the future,’’ her brother Juan Felipe Henao said in May, referencing a phone call he had with her in late January.

READ MORE: ‘We miss her’: Brother of Fort Lauderdale woman who vanished in Spain pleads for help

Knezevich’s Miami defense attorney, Jayne Weintraub, said she was aware of the search in Italy and questioned the basis for it along with other evidence in the federal case.

Earlier this month, at a court hearing in Miami, Weintraub zeroed in on a Spanish police forensic report that found “no traces of blood” in the wife’s Madrid apartment, contrary to what they initially claimed. Citing no signs of struggle, Knezevich’s defense team is seeking his release from federal lock-up before trial. A magistrate judge’s decision is pending.

“So far, in this case, reports of blood in the apartment and videos outside the apartment have turned out to be false,” Weintraub said Thursday in a statement by her, Bruce Zimet and Christopher Cavallo. “The magistrate judge openly disagreed with the government’s interpretation of the other video evidence involving a suitcase.

“You can’t put any stock in the information this search was based on, given how the investigation in Europe has been done to date.”

In May, Knezevich was indicted on a single federal charge of traveling from Miami to Madrid to kidnap his wife between Jan. 27 and Feb. 5.

Arrested at MIA

Knezevich was arrested at Miami International Airport by FBI agents when returning from Serbia, where his mother lives. Since his arrest, he has been held at the Federal Detention Center in Miami. If convicted of the single kidnapping charge, he would face up to life in prison and the loss of any money stemming from the offense.

Knezevich was previously denied bond in Miami federal court by Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres, who is reconsidering that decision. Initially, the judge found that his wealth and connections abroad made him a flight risk.

In his detention order, Torres spelled out his reasoning for keeping Knezevich locked up before trial:

“A great deal of circumstantial evidence supports the government’s complaint, including [the] defendant’s documented travel through extraordinary means from the United States to Turkey and then to Spain,” Torres wrote. “Additionally, the defendant appears on video surveillance in Spain purchasing materials [at a hardware store] that may have been used in a kidnapping, all while the defendant claims to have been elsewhere.

“The government’s complaint is also supported by a strong motive that [the] defendant may have had to commit this offense given his bitter divorce with the victim.”

Stolen license plates

Federal prosecutors said Knezevich was trying to hide his tracks from the moment he left Miami in late January to hunt down his wife.

“Specifically, rather than flying directly into Spain, the defendant sought to conceal his travel to Madrid by flying into Istanbul, Turkey, and then driving over 5,000 kilometers [3,125 miles] through multiple countries to Madrid,” prosecutors said.

“During his journey, the defendant used at least two stolen license plates — one from Serbia and one from Spain — in order to further obscure his travel to Madrid.”

Prosecutors said Knezevich stole a license plate in his native Serbia as he drove the rented Peugeot 308 from Belgrade to Madrid as part of an alleged plot to kidnap her in the Spanish capital, an FBI agent testified at a recent hearing.

FBI agent Alexandra Montilla accused Knezevich of stealing the license plate in Serbia soon after he rented the Peugeot in Belgrade on Jan. 29, 2024.

The agent cited a license plate reader and cell tower data provided by Spanish authorities indicating Knezevich passed through toll booths with the stolen Serbian license plate as he approached Madrid in late January. She also said Serbian authorities confirmed the plate was stolen.

Knezevich, she said, replaced that plate with another one stolen in Spain before he allegedly kidnapped his wife on Feb. 2. Spanish authorities confirmed that plate was stolen in Madrid.

Caught on video in Madrid

She also said video surveillance captured him entering and leaving his wife’s Madrid apartment building while spray-painting a surveillance camera to block the view.

Spain’s National Police said they have matched the rare type of spray paint allegedly purchased by Knezevich to the store in Madrid where he was seen on a video camera making the purchase. A worker there also told police he recalled seeing the man a few days before.

The FBI agent said Knezevich was then seen on the Madrid apartment’s video camera on Feb. 2, when he was entering and leaving the building with what appeared to be a suitcase.

Knezevich immediately left Madrid, traveling on the main highways through France and Italy on his way back to Serbia, according to FBI and Spanish authorities.

But it was in northern Italy where investigators detected he took a detour on Feb. 4 in the Vicenza area based on the GPS signal in his rented Peugeot. That evidence was provided by a Serbian car rental agency, which led to the collaboration among Spanish, Italian and FBI authorities in the search for the wife’s body in northern Italy.

When Knezevich returned the car, the rental agency discovered that the windows had been tinted, the license plate frames had changed and two stickers had been removed, according to the FBI.

Court records show Knezevich traveled from Belgrade to Madrid and back to Belgrade between Jan. 30 and Feb. 5. The round-trip distance, according to Google Maps, is 3,240 miles.

He returned the rented car on March 15, after driving it for about 4,800 miles.