The divorce between Ana Maria and David Knezevich was a toxic affair that boiled down to money, detectives believe.
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Now, David Knezevich faces the death penalty in Florida after allegedly embarking on a homicidal odyssey that took him to Spain and Europe.
Ana Maria, 40, has not been seen since February when she vanished from her villa in Madrid.
A Sunshine State grand jury has now filed a superseding indictment charging him with kidnapping resulting in death, foreign domestic violence resulting in death, and foreign murder of a United States national.
If convicted of the kidnapping resulting in death, prosecutors want him on federal death row in Terre Haute, Indiana.
According to the indictment, David Knezevich concocted an elaborate scheme to travel to Spain where he kidnapped and murdered his estranged wife. Her body has not been found.
Investigators believe David travelled from Miami to Madrid intending to kill Ana Maria. Authorities are now searching a forest in northern Italy in the belief that’s where her body is buried.
Normally, Spain would have had jurisdiction over the case but because David returned to the U.S. following his European sojourn, the feds are taking command of the probe.
A Yugoslavian-born naturalized U.S. citizen, David was arrested upon arrival at Miami International Airport on May 4. His estranged wife is a U.S. citizen from Colombia.
Ana Maria flew from Miami to Madrid on Dec. 26, 2023. Investigators said her family last had contact with her on Feb. 2 when she was planning a trip to Barcelona with pals. She never showed up.
Friends told the feds David did not want to split the couple’s marital assets, adding Ana Maria had become “very fearful” of her husband and paranoid he was “monitoring” her every move.
David’s lawyer, Ken Padowitz, said his client had nothing to do with Ana Maria’s disappearance.
“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,” Padowitz told The Associated Press in February.
But Spanish detectives say CCTV captured Ana Maria on the afternoon of Feb. 2. Hours later a man holding a can of spray paint was captured trying to cover the camera’s lens.
And a man was still able to be seen putting duct tape over the door lock. The feds claim it was David.
The man left the apartment hours later carrying a suitcase.
They tracked the brand of the empty can of spray paint to a local hardware store. CCTV from the outlet allegedly showed a man who looked like David Knezevich buying the paint and two rolls of duct tape.
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Cops also allege David left a slew of misleading messages that would throw investigators off the trail. Her family became concerned and called authorities.
“Juan [her brother] stated that Ana and David are going through a nasty divorce and there is a substantial amount of money on the line to be split up between the two and David is not happy about it,” a Fort Lauderdale police statement said. “Juan advised that Ana has a longtime friend in Spain, so she travelled there three months ago to clear her head.”
Investigators tracked David Knezevich’s movements that saw him travel from Miami on Jan. 27 to Istanbul and then on to his native Belgrade. He left Serbia on Jan. 30 and returned Feb. 5.
He remains in jail without bond.