Florida man charged in wife's murder in Spain found dead in jail
A South Florida businessman charged in the murder and disappearance of his estranged wife in Spain last year was found dead in jail, his attorney confirmed Monday.
David Knezevich had been charged with kidnapping resulting in death, foreign domestic violence resulting in death and foreign murder of a United States national in the Feb. 2, 2024, disappearance of Ana Maria Henao Knezevich.
Officials with the U. S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons said Knezevich was found unresponsive at the Federal Detention Center in Miami at around 8:15 a.m. Monday.
He was given life-saving measures but was pronounced dead by emergency medical services workers, officials said.
'The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Marshals Service were notified. No employees or other incarcerated individuals were injured and at no time was the public in danger,' officials said in a news release.
Further details of his death weren't available, but Knezevich's defense attorney Jayne Weintraub confirmed he died by suicide and released a brief statement later Monday.
'The Defense team was devastated to learn about it this morning. We trust than an appropriate investigation will be conducted,' her statement read.
Henao Knezevich's family also released a statement through their attorney.
'The suicide of Ana's murderer closes a painful chapter in our lives, previously filled with the dread that he might not face justice. Now, we may never know where he put Ana's body,' the statement read. 'It is a cruel final insult that we may never recover Ana's remains or know the full extent of the betrayal she suffered. Still, we remain committed to seeking the truth and justice for Ana through our attorney, Mr. Ingber, and to preserving Ana's memory while honoring her life with dignity, strength, and love. We are thankful to the authorities that they continue to investigate and to search for Anna's body.'
Knezevich, 37, was arrested in May 2024 after arriving at Miami International Airport on a flight from Serbia. He had been behind bars without bond while awaiting trial.
Henao Knezevich, a Colombian native and naturalized American who had lived in Fort Lauderdale, was last seen in Madrid last year, after heading to Spain amid a contentious divorce from her estranged husband.
Federal prosecutor Lacee Monk said in court last May that prosecutors believe Ana is dead and that the FBI and Spain's national police have substantial evidence that Knezevich had been behind his wife's disappearance, which happened five weeks after she left him and moved to Madrid.
She said the couple had been going through a nasty divorce after 13 years of marriage, fighting over how to split a substantial fortune they had amassed from their computer firm and real estate investments. He didn't want her to have an equal share, Monk said.
According to an indictment filed in November, Knezevich traveled from Miami-Dade to Madrid 'with the intent to kill, injure, harass, and intimidate his spouse and intimate partner' and committed a crime of violence against her that resulted in her death.
Court documents show that authorities believe Knezevich resembles the man wearing a motorcycle helmet who spray painted the security camera lens outside her Madrid apartment on Feb. 2, 2024. The man left an hour later carrying a suitcase.
Prosecutors said security video showed Knezevich in a Madrid hardware store using cash to buy duct tape and the same brand of spray paint the man in the motorcycle helmet used on the security camera.
License plates that were stolen in Madrid in that period were spotted by police plate readers both near a motorcycle shop where an identical helmet was purchased and on Ana's street the night she disappeared. Hours after the helmeted man left the apartment, a Peugeot identical to the one Knezevich rented and sporting the stolen plates was recorded going through a toll booth near Madrid. The driver could not be seen because the windows were tinted.
The morning after his wife disappeared, prosecutors say Knezevich texted a Colombian woman he met on a dating app to translate into 'perfect Colombian' Spanish two English messages. After the woman sent those back to Knezevich, two of Ana's friends received those exact messages from her cellphone. The messages said Ana was going off with a man she had just met on the street, something the friends say she would have never done.
Knezevich's attorney said he was in his native Serbia on the day his 40-year-old wife disappeared, 1,600 miles away. But agents say Knezevich rented a Peugeot in the Serbian capital of Belgrade four days earlier.
When Knezevich returned the Peugeot to the rental agency five weeks later, it had been driven 4,800 miles, its windows had been tinted, two identifying stickers had been removed and there was evidence its license plate had been removed and then put back, prosecutors said.
Knezevich had pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his attorneys had maintained his innocence.
The case garnered international attention as law enforcement from several different countries came together to try to help find Henao Knezevich and the person responsible for her disappearance.
Henao Knezevich's family had filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Knezevich in February.
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