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South Florida Sun Sentinel
A ‘great betrayal’: Family of missing Fort Lauderdale woman speaks out for first time since husband’s arrest
By Shira Moolten, South Florida Sun-Sentinel,
11 days ago
Aura Ines Nino de Henao is hugged by her son, Felipe Henao, as she leaves a news conference with Felipe and her son, Diego Henao, left, in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Her daughter, Ana Henao Knezevich, was reported missing while in Spain in Feb.. Her husband was arrested by the FBI at Miami International Airport this past weekend and charged with kidnapping in connection with her disappearance. Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel/TNS
Felipe Henao didn’t know that his phone call with his sister back in January would be the last one. She had seemed hopeful for the future, despite the pending divorce, and had plans to stay in Spain longer term, someday start a nonprofit for women in need. Then she disappeared.
Henao and other family members of Ana Henao Knezevich, 40, gathered inside of their attorneys’ office in downtown Fort Lauderdale to address the public for the first time since her estranged husband David Knezevich was arrested on Saturday at Miami International Airport in relation to her disappearance.
David Knezevich, 36, is accused in newly released federal court documents of plotting meticulously to make his wife disappear: renting a car that he drove from Serbia, where he was staying, to Madrid; spray-painting the surveillance cameras at her apartment building, then leaving with a suitcase; and having a different Colombian woman translate into English a text that he sent from his wife’s cellphone to tell her friends she was fine, though it had the opposite effect.
“It’s terrible,” Henao said on Wednesday when asked how he was feeling in the days since his brother-in-law’s arrest. “We feel great betrayal. We’re just shocked. We’re traumatized. I don’t wish this upon my worst enemy.”
Asked whether he thinks his sister is dead or alive, he replied, “it’s not easy to talk about, so I just don’t want to.”
Yet despite the many unanswered questions about David Knezevich, his role in Ana’s disappearance, and where she possibly could be, her family and their attorneys declined to speak much about him during the news conference at the law offices of Kelley Uustal Wednesday, saying they wanted to use the opportunity to tell Ana’s story instead. When they spoke of her, they included her maiden name, Henao.
Also joining Felipe Henao was his and Ana’s older brother, Diego Henao, and their mother, Aura Ines Nino de Henao, who declined to speak, as well as the family’s attorneys, Adam Ingber and Kelley Uustal’s Courtney Caprio and Amanda Suarez.
The youngest child, Felipe Henao recalled how Ana Knezevich and Diego Henao always used to pick on him growing up. But later in life, she helped him find work, a home, and became the reason he moved to the U.S.
“She fed me,” Felipe Henao said. “Gave me a roof and a job. She carried me, and I’m eternally grateful for her, that’s why I fight for her. I just hope she’s out there and we can find her soon.”
A successful businesswoman, Ana Knezevich had lived in Fort Lauderdale for 18 years. She and David Knezevich had spearheaded two businesses in real estate and IT, and owned several properties across Fort Lauderdale. She used her success to lift up her family.
The siblings’ mother had also moved to the U.S from Colombia and worked for Ana and David Knezevich’s real estate company, cleaning and managing houses, according to a petition filed by her family in Broward County Circuit Court. In fact, her mother was living in a house that the couple had purchased before David Knezevich sold it to new owners three weeks after his wife disappeared.
In the weeks prior to the arrest, Ana Knezevich’s family had filed the petition for conservatorship, arguing that David Knezevich had been selling off her assets. On Thursday, four days before his arrest, a judge appointed a conservator over her estate.
Felipe Henao described his older sister as very loved, with many friends, the kind of person who walks into a room and brightens it. She was so beautiful, he felt like she had stolen the good looks from the rest of the family.
Her capacity to make friends is also something he believes contributed to the success of the investigation: It was Ana Knezevich’s friends, both near and far, who almost immediately knew something was off that weekend of Feb. 2, who contacted the police and aided the investigation in Spain.
One of those friends was Sanna Rameau, who had received the suspicious text and notified the police. Reading the criminal complaint unsealed on Monday “was extremely painful,” she said in a video posted on Facebook Wednesday. “I feel like I’m in shock all over again.”
When Felipe Henao first told his mother the news of his sister’s disappearance, he said he almost had to take her to the hospital because he thought she was having a heart attack. Thankfully, his sister-in-law is a nurse.
“It’s been just anguish and desperation” for the family ever since, Felipe Henao said. For months, they waited for news, barely sleeping or eating. Diego Henao flew from Colombia to Florida, where he has remained.
Last weekend’s arrest was a shock amid months of waiting, one that has brought the family some answers but also more questions. Caprio with Kelley Uustal said they had not known about the arrest until it happened. It remains unclear why David Knezevich had come to Miami.
“It’s a bittersweet feeling,” Henao said when asked if the arrest brought him any closure. “Now we’re getting answers at least.”
David Knezevich will have a bond hearing in Miami federal court on Friday to determine if he will be released or remain in custody. Caprio said that the family believes he should be kept behind bars as he is a flight risk.
She said the trial will likely be held in Miami federal court.
Caprio declined to comment further on the investigation, deferring to the FBI and the U.S Attorney’s Office.
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