For the second time, a judge denied Ana Knezevich's husband bail, describing him as a "serious flight risk" ahead of his federal trial in Miami.
The FBI charged David Knezevich, 36, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with kidnapping in connection with the disappearance of his 40-year-old estranged wife earlier this year, according to authorities.
In his ruling Monday, Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres wrote "there is ample evidence" to support the prosecution's kidnapping allegations and concerns he may flee.
"Indeed, the evidence produced at the second hearing supports the Court's original finding that [Knezevich] presents a serious risk of flight given the cunning level of deception that he has demonstrated as part of the crime he is alleged to have engaged in," Torres ruled in a 17-page order obtained by the Miami Herald.
The defense said they plan to file an appeal.
Knezeich was arrested at Miami International Airport in May, three months after Ana vanished from her apartment in Madrid, Spain, where she had been living apart from her estranged husband.
The day she is believed to have gone missing, investigators discovered someone resembling her husband gained access to her Madrid apartment building while other individuals were leaving, according to the criminal complaint. The person then spray-painted a security camera – unknowingly with a transparent layer of spray paint. About an hour later, the same individual was seen through the spray-painted security camera lens leaving the building with a suitcase.
Ana was never seen on camera walking out of her apartment.
Knezevich was also allegedly captured on video making a purchase at a Madrid hardware store around the time of her disappearance.
The Knezevichs were in the middle of what family members described as a "contentious" divorce due to the substantial amount of assets acquired during their 13-year marriage.
Loved ones requested a welfare check after a suspicious text was sent from her phone – the same day she was last seen alive on surveillance footage entering her apartment.
