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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (TND) — The estranged husband of a woman who was reported missing in Spain three months ago has been arrested and charged by U.S. federal agents.

Ana Maria Knezevich, 40, went missing in Madrid on Friday, Feb. 2, according to Spain's National Center for Missing Persons website.

David Knezevich, a 36-year-old business owner originally from Serbia, briefly appeared in Miami federal court Monday and will have a bond hearing Friday.

The couple, who sometimes spell their surname “Knezevic," have been married for 13 years and own EOX Technology Solutions, Inc., which does computer support for South Florida businesses.

Policía Nacional reported on X that Knezevich was detained at Miami International Airport "for his alleged relationship with the disappearance of his wife."

He is charged with kidnapping and is being held pending a bail hearing.

“The Spanish National Police, Customs and Border Protection, the Diplomatic Security Service, and the FBI continue their investigation. Because this is an ongoing investigation, no further information will be released,” the FBI said in a statement to The Associated Press.

A federal criminal complaint obtained by WPLG in Miami details what led agents to connect David Knezevich to his wife's kidnapping.

On Feb. 2, a man resembling David Knezevich appeared on surveillance footage wearing a motorcycle helmet and spray-painting a security camera outside Ana Knezevich's Madrid apartment. The man was then seen carrying a suitcase from the building's elevator.

After doing a welfare check and reviewing surveillance footage, Spanish police said they were able to identify David Knezevich buying the same brand of paint used to cover the security camera and duct tape.

Investigators also interviewed a woman who says David Knezevich asked her to translate a text message that was sent to his wife's friends after her disappearance.

The FBI complaint details him asking an unnamed Colombian woman he met on a dating app to translate a few English sentences into "perfect Colombian" Spanish for a friend who was writing a screenplay.

The woman replied she doesn't speak English and would have to use a generic online Spanish translator. David Knezevich replied that's fine, she could then tweak it to make it sound Colombian.

According to the FBI, he then sent the woman this passage in English: "I met someone wonderful. He has a summer house about 2h (two hours) from Madrid. We are going there now and I will spend a few days there. There is barely any signal though. I will call you when I come back. Kisses."

He then requested one more message from the woman.

"Yesterday after therapy I needed a walk and he approached me on the street! Amazing connection. Like I never had before," he asked her to translate.

The translated message was texted to two of Ana's friends from her phone.

They said it didn't sound like her and contacted Spanish police, launching the investigation.

Law enforcement also obtained travel records about a vehicle David Knezevich rented and reportedly had driven almost 4,800 miles.

His attorney, Ken Padowitz, told The Associated Press his client is innocent and was in his native Serbia on the day his wife disappeared 1,600 miles away. But agents said David Knezevich rented a Peugeot in the Serbian capital Belgrade four days earlier.

A few days later, a Spanish driver reported his license plates were stolen. On the night Ana Knezevich disappeared, a license plate reader on her Madrid street recorded the stolen plate number, Spanish police found.

Additionally, hours after she disappeared, a Peugeot bearing the stolen license plates went through a suburban Madrid toll booth, surveillance video showed. The driver could not be seen behind the tinted windows.

The rental agency told investigators that when Knezevich returned the car five weeks later, the license plates had been replaced and the windows had been tinted.

Ana's brother, Juan Henao, called the couple's divorce "nasty" in an interview with a Fort Lauderdale detective, a report shows. He told police David was angry that they would be dividing a substantial amount of money. Ana is a naturalized American from Colombia.

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Editor's note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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