No bond for Fort Lauderdale man suspected of a role in his wife’s disappearance in Madrid
A man suspected of masterminding an elaborate intercontinental kidnapping and killing of his wife in Spain was denied bond in federal court in Miami on Friday by a judge who said his wealth and connections abroad made him a flight risk.
Magistrate Judge Edwin G. Torres called it a difficult decision in a case that was based on circumstantial evidence and in which no body has been found. Making it tougher, he said, was defense attorney Jayne Weintraub’s argument that keeping David Knezevich locked up on a kidnapping charge was dubious because prosecutors didn’t know where, or were even certain that a kidnapping occurred.
The judge said his decision to keep Knezevich behind bars was based on “given the means he has to flee and given the seriousness of the charge.”
Knezevich — arrested after a return flight to Miami International Airport last Saturday and handcuffed at his lawyer’s side Friday — hasn’t been charged with murder in the disappearance of Ana María Knezevich, 40, his wife of 13 years. He is likely to be if Spain’s National Police or the FBI recover his wife’s body.
As of now, it’s not even known if she’s dead.
Federal prosecutors believe Ana Knezevich was so frightened by her husband that the Fort Lauderdale couple’s relationship essentially ended when she boarded a flight for Madrid the day after Christmas. Once there, they say, she messaged friends and family of the troubled relationship and began to date several men.