'We miss her': Brother of Fort Lauderdale woman who vanished in Spain pleads for help

MIAMI — The last time Felipe Henao spoke with his sister over the phone was late January, days before she disappeared in Spain.

“She was looking forward to the future,” Henao said at a Fort Lauderdale press conference Wednesday about the Jan. 24 call. “She was telling me about concerts she wanted to go.”

Ana María Knezevich Henao, 40, a Colombian-American woman and Fort Lauderdale resident, had hopped on a plane from South Florida to Spain a month earlier hoping to rebuild her life as her divorce loomed.

Knezevich Henao’s estranged husband, David Knezevich, 35, was arrested Saturday at Miami International Airport in connection with her disappearance. An FBI criminal complaint filed Friday alleges that a man resembling Knezevich was caught on surveillance footage leaving Knezevich Henao’s apartment in Madrid at around 10:30 p.m. on Feb. 2 — carrying a suitcase.

Her family has not heard from her since.

Knezevich, who is being held at the federal detention center in downtown Miami, faces a kidnapping charge. He has a detention hearing Friday in Miami federal court.

The complaint also includes a series of messages between Knezevich and a Colombian woman in which he asked her to translate a certain message into authentic Colombian Spanish. The Colombian woman’s translation exactly matched a WhatsApp message that was later sent on Knezevich Henao’s phone.

The message, which friends suspect wasn’t authored by her, claims that Knezevich Henao had met a man on the street the day before and intended to visit his summer home two hours from Madrid, according to NewsNation.

Henao, sitting at a table in between attorneys and family members, said all he wants is justice and to find his sister alive.

“We love her. We miss her. We support her. We are her voice,” Henao said.

His sister gave him shelter, food and a job when he moved to South Florida.

“I’m eternally grateful for her,” he said.

Henao now wants anyone with information about her sister’s disappearance — whether they are in Florida, Spain, Colombia or anywhere else — to contact the FBI. He said he can barely sleep or eat not knowing what happened to her.

“We miss her a lot,” Henao said in Spanish.

Anyone with information about Ana María Knezevich Henao’s whereabouts can submit a tip to the FBI at tips.fbi.gov/home.