Florida husband charged with kidnapping of wife who went missing in Spain

May 7 (UPI) -- The husband of Ana Knezevich Henao, a Florida woman who went missing a few months ago while temporarily living in Spain, was arrested recently by the FBI at Miami International Airport, authorities said.

David Knezevich, 36, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and a native of Serbia, is currently in federal custody for his alleged involvement in his wife's kidnapping , an FBI spokesperson confirmed Monday.

He was arrested Saturday and has been charged with kidnapping in connection to Knezevich Henao's disappearance. It had been reported that the pair were headed toward or were in the middle of a divorce after 13 years of marriage.

Officials in Spain said Knezevich Henao, 40, a naturalized American citizen and a native of Colombia, "disappeared" on or about February 2. She did not meet a friend as planned, according to her brother, and she had not been seen since.

A series of WhatsApp text messages to a friend at about the time she supposedly went missing communicated that she had met someone -- though that was met with suspicion.

"I met someone wonderful!! He has a summer house about 2h (hours) from Madrid. We are going there now and I will spend a few days there. Signal is spotty. I'll call you when I get back," read one message, according to Sanna Rameau, a friend of Knezevich Henao.

It was later reported that a woman with whom Knezevich had met online had been asked by him to write the message on Feb. 3 "in perfect Colombian."

"I'm hoping we are going to get some answers," Rameau told CNN after learning of Knezevich' arrest.

Knezevich has been connected to his wife's disappearance by law enforcement on multiple fronts and the two reportedly had significant assets between them that were at risk of being split in their pending divorce proceedings.

Authorities say Knezevich had flown from Miami International Airport to Turkey on Jan. 27 and, after landing in Istanbul, Knezevich headed north to Belgrade then left his native Serbia -- formerly Yugoslavia -- on Jan. 30 but returned days later on Feb. 5 after his wife supposedly had disappeared.

Officials said the suspect who spray-painted security cameras at the entrance to the door and at the elevator in the upscale Salamanca apartment building where Knezevich Henao had been living the night she was last seen matched a description of her estranged husband. He was also linked to the purchased spray paint cans.

It also was determined that he had rented a car in Serbia in eastern Europe -- where Knezevich was located at the time his wife disappeared -- which had been pinned down to being in the neighboring where she was last seen. The dealer reported that the rental car had been driven a long distance consistent with a trip across Europe to Madrid, according to officials.

The woman who admitted to writing the WhatsApp messages unknowingly did so and had reported the incident to police after her mother had discovered an article online about Knezevich talking about how his wife disappeared.

NBC News had reported that David Knezevich, also a naturalized U.S. citizen, was at an initial Monday court appearance and had been ordered to a temporary pretrial detention.

The investigation into Knezevic Henao's disappearance is still ongoing. Knezevich, the suspect, has a Friday pretrial detention hearing.

"The Spanish National Police, Customs and Border Protection, the Diplomatic Security Service, and the FBI continue their investigation," the FBI said in a statement.