Missing Ana

Summary

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Dateline NBC — "Missing Ana" (June 16, 2026)

Episode Overview

This gripping Dateline NBC episode, hosted by Lester Holt and reported by Jose Diaz Bellard, delves into the sudden disappearance of Ana Kanesevic—a vivacious, adventurous businesswoman who vanished after relocating to Madrid from Florida. The narrative unfolds through the perspectives of Ana's friends and law enforcement, uncovering a tangled web of personal relationships, a high-stakes international investigation, and ultimately the shocking revelation of betrayal. The episode vividly captures the desperation and determination of those searching for Ana, while methodically building a case centered on her estranged husband.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Ana’s New Life in Madrid

• Background: Ana, 39, a Colombian immigrant and successful businesswoman, moves from Fort Lauderdale to Madrid seeking a simpler, authentic life after separating from her husband of 13 years, David.
• Friends and Support: In Madrid, Ana is supported by close friends Elisa Romero and Sana Ramo, who describe her as bubbly, romantic, and full of life.
  • “She always was looking or finding the good things of the people every time. She never got angry. Never, never. Ana was full of life, you know, she was a dreamer.” — Elisa Romero (10:51)

2. Ana’s Sudden Disappearance

• The Odd Message: Days before Sana was to visit Ana, both she and Elisa receive uncharacteristic texts purportedly from Ana, stating she’d met a man and was headed to a remote summer house, with spotty cell service. The messages raise immediate suspicion.
  • “It wasn't written the way Ana and I write to one another.” — Sana Ramo (06:23)
• Initial Response: With Ana missing a planned train trip and ceasing all contact, anxiety escalates. After a welfare check turned up no signs of distress—no forced entry, no evidence of violence—her friends fly into action.

3. The Grassroots Search

• On the Ground: Sana flies to Madrid, demanding immediate action from the American embassy, refusing to leave until she is heard.
  • “I said, I'm not leaving. I need to go in. I need to see someone now. I'm not leaving.” — Sana Ramo (09:34)
• Neighborhood Canvassing: Elisa prints 100 flyers and canvasses Ana’s Madrid neighborhood; neither authorities nor friends receive any leads.
  • “No. No one… It’s as if she had just vanished.” — Elisa Romero (18:24–18:30)

4. The Investigation Intensifies

• Spanish Police & FBI Join Forces: Spanish detective Remo Rodriguez and FBI Agent Alex Montilla begin piecing together Ana’s final days.
  • “My gut told me that this was not a deliberate disappearance from Ana because Ana was thriving in Madrid. She had future plans. This is not a behavior of someone that would just disappear.” — Agent Montilla (08:09)
• Surveillance Breakthrough: Security footage shows a helmeted man spray-painting cameras in Ana’s building the night she vanished—suggesting premeditation.
  • “For me, that's a mindset of a murderer.” — Agent Montilla (08:04)

5. Suspect Pool Expands: Operation Bumble

• Dating App Leads: Investigators systematically interview Ana’s dating app contacts, launching “Operation Bumble.” All potential romantic interests are cleared by confirmed alibis.
  • “Everybody had an exact alibi.” — Lieutenant Tremino Leva (28:26)
• David Under Scrutiny: Focus turns to Ana’s estranged husband David, whose controlling tendencies and dispute over marital assets come to light.
  • “Ana was basically a tool to David to becoming successful. She was the passenger in the backseat...until Ana realized that, hey, I think I belong in the front seat.” — Sana Ramo (24:31)
  • Divorce Row: David reneged on their agreement to divide assets equally, insisting she would receive as little as nothing.

6. Piecing Together the Evidence

• Tracking the Suspect:
  • Car and Disguise: David, not in Florida as he claimed, traveled from Serbia by car, used stolen license plates to enter Spain unnoticed, and purchased distinctive gear—a helmet and reflective vest—matching those seen in the surveillance footage (33:00–34:46).
  • Crucial Purchase: A Madrid store’s security footage captures David buying the identical spray paint used to sabotage building cameras; the video is obtained against the odds due to late retrieval.
    • “And for the first time, a clear image of the buyer.” — Lester Holt (36:12)
    • “I started screaming in my squad. I went to my supervisor, we have it. We have it.” — Agent Montilla (36:29)
  • Phone Evidence: David purchases a burner phone in Spain, which is traced alongside the car throughout Madrid (35:03–35:10).
  • Text Message Revelation: David has his new girlfriend translate the alibi texts to send from Ana’s phone before switching it off (39:30).
• Breakthrough DNA: Two months before trial, David’s DNA is found on the doorknob of Ana’s apartment, placing him at the scene.
  • “Finding David’s DNA in the door puts him directly there with DNA that's direct evidence.” — Agent Montilla (41:27)

7. The Arrest and Aftermath

• Arrest in Miami: Despite expectations that David would shelter in Serbia, he returns to Florida and is apprehended at Miami International Airport.
  • “That plane lands, and I'm glued to the window…there is David with his backpack walking out of the plane.” — Agent Montilla (38:11)
  • “You're under arrest for the kidnapping of Ana Dominguez.” — Agent Montilla (38:28)
• Case Complications: With Ana’s body still missing, David faces “no-body” murder charges. His defense claims lack of conclusive evidence, but the circumstantial and forensic findings are compelling.
• David’s Suicide: Days after reviewing his legal situation, David is found dead by suicide in jail.
  • “He's a coward. That's what cowards do. They take the easy way out.” — Sana Ramo (42:18)

8. Ongoing Search and Legacy

• Case Not Closed: The FBI and Spanish police continue searching for Ana’s remains, offering a $25,000 reward for information (43:00).
  • “We haven't forgotten about Ana and...we're going to keep looking for her.” — Detective Rodriguez (43:15)
• Ana Remembered: Elisa and Sana vow to keep Ana’s memory alive, cherishing audio recordings of her laughter and her enduring spirit.
  • “And Ana was a person fully of la. And this is the thing that everyone should remember about her. Know the way she left us.” — Elisa Romero (44:16)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On Ana’s Character and Friendship:
  “She was a very bubbly person, Great smile... Ana was full of life, you know, she was a dreamer. She was so romantic.” — Sana Ramo, Elisa Romero (10:45–11:08)
• On the Chilling Discovery:
  “There was a man spray painting the surveillance cameras in the building... The paint was still on it.” — Sana Ramo, Lester Holt (14:23–14:33)
• On Taking Action:
  “I'm not leaving. I need to go in. I need to see someone now.” — Sana Ramo (09:34)
• Detective’s Tenacity:
  “I was totally desperate. I wouldn't stop annotating and searching for license plates.” — Detective Rodriguez (32:45)
• Breakthrough Reaction:
  “I started screaming in my squad. I went to my supervisor, we have it. We have it.” — Agent Montilla (36:29)
• On David’s Motive:
  “He did not want to give Anna half of the marital assets. But I also believe he was used to having total control of Ana.” — Agent Montilla (39:50)
• Elisa on Memory and Loss:
  “I have one audio. Where is almost one minute. Where is she only laughing… And I was a person fully of la. And this is the thing that everyone should remember about her. Know the way she left us.” — Elisa Romero (43:52, 44:16)

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Timeline & Timestamps of Important Segments

• [01:00–07:21] — Ana’s background, move to Madrid, and the first signs of her disappearance
• [07:51–15:12] — Investigation begins; the apartment search and discovery of security footage manipulation
• [17:29–22:56] — Friends’ grassroots search; police launch “Operation Bumble”; scrutiny of Ana’s relationships
• [23:38–26:43] — Focus sharpens on husband David, exploring his behavior and changing divorce settlement terms
• [27:06–36:12] — Tracking David’s journey; evidence builds (cars, disguises, store footage, telephonic records)
• [36:29–41:27] — Arrest, legal battles, final forensic breakthrough (DNA evidence)
• [41:55–44:16] — David’s suicide, continued search for Ana and tributes from friends

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Conclusion

This episode delivers both an emotional and procedural journey, exposing the pain of loss, the lengths to which friends and law enforcement will go to seek justice, and the chilling reality that those closest can inflict the deepest betrayals. While Ana’s body is still missing and her story unfinished, her spirit lives on in the indelible memories of those who loved her and the persistent efforts of those determined to find her.

Listen for: a meticulous investigation, strong emotional resonance, and a sobering look at the complexities of international justice and personal relationships—all set against the backdrop of Madrid’s vibrant cityscape.

Transcript

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[Lester Holt]

Tonight on Dateline.

[Sana Ramo]

She is very bubbly person, adventurous. We talked about all the trips we were going to do. She wanted to go to Madrid.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

She was thriving here. She made a lot of friends.

[Sana Ramo]

I see these messages that were very strange. She had met a wonderful man and she's going away on a summer house with him. It wasn't written the way Ana and I write to one another.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

She went radio silent.

[Lester Holt]

It's as if she just vanished.

[Sana Ramo]

Yes, I wanted to come here to find my friend.

[Lester Holt]

You're acting like a detective here.

[Sana Ramo]

I felt that I had to.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

We have Anna coming in around 2 o'.

[Sana Ramo]

Clock.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

All of a sudden you see this man. Then you see him spraying the lens. I started screaming in my squad, we have it.

[Sana Ramo]

We have. Was a shock to learn what he was accused of doing.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

His personality. He was so sure of himself. That's a mindset of a murderer.

[Narrator/Announcer]

She moved across the world looking for a new life. Soon friends in law enforcement were looking for her.

[Lester Holt]

I'm Lester Holt and this is date. Here is Jose Diaz Bellard with missing Ana. What would you do if your best friend suddenly disappeared?

[Sana Ramo]

It was an unimaginable situation. Like I had thousand thoughts in my head.

[Lester Holt]

If the woman who loved to sing and laugh and make plans simply vanished.

[Elisa Romero]

I said tomorrow. But tomorrow never came.

[Lester Holt]

What if it was your job to find her? You really are in a race against time.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

Everybody at this point was a suspect.

[Lester Holt]

For these three women, there was only one option.

[Sana Ramo]

I need to see someone now. I'm not leaving.

[Elisa Romero]

I was trying to do all I could do to find my friend.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

It was very overwhelming. But it takes a village.

[Lester Holt]

Sana ramo first met 39 year old Anna Kanesevic at a local happy hour in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It's almost as if you clicked almost immediately.

[Sana Ramo]

Yes, I want to say we did, we did. And we immediately started talking about travel, memories and discovered that we had the same interests. You know, you could tell she's adventurous, telling me about places that she wanted to go in the future.

[Lester Holt]

As they got to know each other, Sana learned that Ana was a successful businesswoman who had the freedom to go where she pleased. And the place she really wanted to go was Madrid, Spain. She was drawn to the way the city pulses with culture, history and light. Loved the passionate nature of its people. The winding cobblestone streets she believed could be the stepping stones for a simpler, more authentic life.

[Sana Ramo]

To her, living in America in that big house with a swimming pool wasn't her dream anymore. She said, I'm going to go to Madrid and be there by myself for a little while, just to get away, just to clear my thoughts.

[Lester Holt]

So In December of 2023, Sana said goodbye to Ana as she packed up and moved from Fort Lauderdale to Madrid. She checked in with Sana almost every day.

[Elisa Romero]

I just landed in Madrid and I'll let you know how everything goes. Bye.

[Lester Holt]

This is a happy time for her, it seems.

[Sana Ramo]

Yeah, she was very happy.

[Elisa Romero]

Happy New Year. Everything that where we sucked this year, we're gonna make it better next one. She wanted to start fresh, to have a new story.

[Lester Holt]

Elisa Romero was one of Ana's best friends. In Madrid. She let Ana live with her until she found her first home, a six floor apartment in Salamanca, Madrid's most upscale neighborhood. She felt safe and comfortable here.

[Elisa Romero]

Yes, because here she made a lot of friends and she was having a lot of support from us.

[Lester Holt]

Ana needed that support. She wasn't just leaving behind her successful businesses, she was also separating from her husband of 13 years, David.

[Elisa Romero]

She was growing and improving, so it was going to be a good beginning for her.

[Sana Ramo]

We were talking about me coming there. I had plans to go and see her in Madrid.

[Elisa Romero]

I don't know if we want to go maybe to Asturias, which I know is beautiful.

[Lester Holt]

Ana promised it would be the adventure of a lifetime.

[Elisa Romero]

There's just so many places that I don't know.

[Lester Holt]

But less than a week before that trip, Sana got a text from her.

[Sana Ramo]

It said that she had met a wonderful man on the street and she's going away on a summer house with him and it's a couple of hours outside of Madrid.

[Lester Holt]

The Cell signal would be spotty. Ana texted, so she promised to call when she returned to Madrid. Sana got worried.

[Sana Ramo]

It wasn't written the way Ana and I write to one another.

[Lester Holt]

What did you answer?

[Sana Ramo]

I said, what are you talking about? Ana, this is not sounding safe at all. Like, please share your location. Like, who is this man?

[Lester Holt]

I mean, you were exchanging information 24 hours before, and she never mentioned that?

[Sana Ramo]

She never mentioned it. She says in the message, I met a man. Instant connection like I've never felt before. And you haven't called to tell me this?

[Lester Holt]

Sonnek called Ana's estranged husband, David. He said he was at home in Florida and had not heard from her.

[Sana Ramo]

He has no idea. He has not had contact with Ana.

[Lester Holt]

Then she called Elisa, who told her she'd received the same strange text from Ana, but in Spanish.

[Elisa Romero]

I started to message her friends on Instagram. When was the last time that you talked to Ana?

[Lester Holt]

Elisa learned that Ana failed to show up for a train trip she had planned with another close friend. So the friend reported her missing.

[Commercial Narrator]

The.

[Lester Holt]

That's when panic set in for me.

[Elisa Romero]

It was like it was not real. It's like a dream. It's like a nightmare.

[Lester Holt]

Firefighters went to Ana's apartment to conduct a welfare check. Spanish police followed. They found no forced entry, no signs of violence, and no Ana. Sana couldn't wait any longer. She jumped on a plane bound for Madrid, hoping she and Elisa could find Ana and they wouldn't have to do it alone.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

My last 18 years, I worked crimes against US citizens, mostly in Latin America and in the Caribbean.

[Lester Holt]

Alex Montilla, then an agent with the FBI, took on the case after Ana's family notified the Bureau that she was missing. What did your gut tell you?

[Agent Alex Montilla]

My gut told me that this was not a deliberate disappearance from Ana because Ana was thriving in Madrid. She had future plans. This is not a behavior of someone that would just disappear.

[Lester Holt]

Agent Montilla would eventually fly to Madrid herself to investigate. And that. That is her apartment.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

That's her apartment building.

[Lester Holt]

And this is where the investigation begins?

[Agent Alex Montilla]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

What all three women discovered would become the focus of an international manhunt.

[Sana Ramo]

A man with a helmet spray painting the surveillance cameras.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

For me, that's a mindset of a murderer.

[Lester Holt]

Less than one week after her best friend Anna disappeared, Sana Ramo flew to Madrid, determined to find out what happened to her.

[Sana Ramo]

I wanted to come here and just do everything that I can in my power to find my friend.

[Lester Holt]

Her first stop, the American Embassy.

[Sana Ramo]

I said, this is regarding an American citizen who has Been missing for several days. There has been no sign of life. I need help.

[Lester Holt]

But the embassy's initial suggestion. Send an email with her concerns.

[Sana Ramo]

I didn't give up. I said, I'm not leaving. I need to go in. I need to see someone now. I'm not leaving.

[Lester Holt]

And you did.

[Sana Ramo]

And I did.

[Lester Holt]

Sana got her meeting and learned the embassy was aware of Ana's disappearance and was working with police. Then Sana went to meet Elisa. The two friends plotted their next move. They would scour Ana's neighborhood looking for any signs of her.

[Sana Ramo]

So I said, will Elisa, let's go here. Let's ask around. Let's look for surveillance cameras so I can take pictures of them and then take it to the police station.

[Lester Holt]

You're acting like a detective here.

[Sana Ramo]

I felt that I had to because Ana is still missing. I don't know what's being done.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

The international search for an American woman.

[Lester Holt]

Within weeks, the story of Ana's mysterious disappearance hit the news.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

An international search is underway for an

[Sana Ramo]

American woman who went missing in Madrid.

[Lester Holt]

Sana became the family's spokesperson.

[Sana Ramo]

Someone has done something to her, and I'm trying to understand who it could be and why.

[Lester Holt]

Sana felt sure her friend was in danger, but she couldn't imagine anyone wanting to hurt the vivacious Ana. Talk to me about your best friend, Ana. What was she like?

[Sana Ramo]

She's a very bubbly person, Great smile. Ana was very easygoing.

[Elisa Romero]

She always was looking or finding the good things of the people every time. She never got angry. Never, never. Ana was full of life, you know, she was a dreamer. She was so romantic.

[Lester Holt]

Those dreams led Ana to leave her hometown of Bogota, Colombia, when she was in her early 20s and moved to

[Sana Ramo]

the U.S. she had a difficult life back in Colombia, and she wanted a better life for herself. She didn't know English when she first came, and she learned English later on. She met David, her husband.

[Lester Holt]

David was a fellow immigrant from Serbia. The two bonded over their love of travel and the American dream. They quickly fell in love and got to work.

[Sana Ramo]

They built two successful businesses together, real estate and it. So they worked very hard and became successful.

[Lester Holt]

Successful is an understatement. Their two companies took off, eventually worth more than 10 million DOL.

[Sana Ramo]

Ana told me that David was extremely driven in their marriage. A lot was about just working hard all the time and making money.

[Lester Holt]

But after 13 years, Ana and David decided to split. The separation seemed amicable. By the time Ana left for Madrid, she told Sana that she and David had agreed to split their assets 50. 50.

[Sana Ramo]

She had decided with David that they were going to wait a month with the official filing of the divorce.

[Lester Holt]

Ana didn't mind waiting, especially now that she'd found a new life in Spain. So why would she suddenly disappear?

[Agent Alex Montilla]

She was missing from Salamanca. And I had lived here before, and this neighborhood is a very high end, low crime neighborhood.

[Lester Holt]

FBI Agent Alex Montilla knew this was much more than a missing person. So case.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

The only things that were missing from the welfare check was her computer and her cell phone. She also went radio silent that day, and that was very telling. She was a very social person. She was always in contact with her friends and family.

[Lester Holt]

Agent Motilla learned that Ana usually raved about her new adventures. And yet the friend who first called police to report her missing told them Anna. Ana had been depressed lately. She said, I fear she may have taken her life.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

Anything was a possibility. So she thought maybe she overdosed in her pills. Ana had been going to therapy because she had some childhood trauma and because of her divorce with David, she was taking antidepressants.

[Lester Holt]

But when Agent Montilla spoke with Sana and Eliza, they told her on the day she disappeared, Ana seemed perfectly happy. In fact, she was looking for a new apartment. She left Sana a voice message about it.

[Elisa Romero]

I saw an apartment that I loved yesterday. I am now on my way to see another one, and everything is doing great.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

I'm feeling actually really good.

[Lester Holt]

Aliza and Sana didn't believe Ana had harmed herself. They were convinced someone else was to blame, and they were about to find proof in Ana's apartment building.

[Sana Ramo]

We came here first and looked around. We tried to enter the building and there was a door lady there.

[Lester Holt]

It was the building super. And she told them something harrowing.

[Sana Ramo]

She told us that the same night that Anna had disappeared, there was a man spray painting the surveillance cameras in the building.

[Lester Holt]

And the paint was still on it.

[Sana Ramo]

The paint. This paint was still on it.

[Lester Holt]

Someone sabotaging the camera. Sana knew it was a bad sign.

[Sana Ramo]

It was a complete shock. I had a thousand, thousand thoughts in my head, but I was convinced, obviously, that a terrible crime had happened and someone had kidnapped her.

[Elisa Romero]

Sorry.

[Sana Ramo]

Oh, my God. Sorry.

[Commercial Narrator]

I'm so sorry.

[Lester Holt]

No, no. Sana didn't know that El Grupo Doce, one of Spain's most elite police squad, was about to join the investigation. Their specialty, cracking the most impossible cases. Veteran Detective Remo Rodriguez took the lead.

[Detective Remo Rodriguez]

I think everyone has their own way of working. Mine in particular is to go little by little pulling a thread, which leads me to the next one. And which leads me to the next one.

[Lester Holt]

His first thread. That man spray painting the security camera. Who was he and what, if anything, did he have to do with Anna's disappearance?

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[Lester Holt]

Two women were on a mission in Madrid. Find out what happened to their friend Ana. Sana was terrified that she had been kidnapped.

[Sana Ramo]

I was thinking about Ana's physique, like she weighed barely 90 pounds. It's easy for anyone to just take her. And I thought, maybe she's been trafficked. I can go and just pick her up under one arm and just carry her away.

[Lester Holt]

Elisa hit the streets of Madrid canvassing Ana's neighborhood.

[Elisa Romero]

And what I did was to print some flyers and I put them on around Anna's house.

[Lester Holt]

How many did you print?

[Elisa Romero]

It was around 100. It has her picture, the name, the day when she disappeared, the year and how she looks like, and the numbers where the people could call with any information.

[Lester Holt]

And did anyone call with any information?

[Elisa Romero]

No. No one?

[Lester Holt]

Never.

[Elisa Romero]

No. No one.

[Lester Holt]

It's as if she had just vanished.

[Elisa Romero]

Yes, exactly.

[Lester Holt]

Eliza was haunted by her last conversation with Ana, just hours before she went missing.

[Elisa Romero]

She asked me to go out three times that day. I said, no, baby, today, no. And I said, tomorrow. But tomorrow never came.

[Lester Holt]

As Ana's friends desperately searched for her, Detective Rodriguez focused on the building security footage from the day Ana disappeared.

[Detective Remo Rodriguez]

The first thing we did was ask for the videos and watch them.

[Lester Holt]

When he hit play, he saw Anna entering the apartment at around 2.20pm later that night, someone dressed like a food delivery man walks down the hallway. He looks up at the camera before heading upstairs. And then

[Detective Remo Rodriguez]

after three or four minutes, that same person comes down, looks at the camera again and takes out spray paint and paints the camera. It seemed that whoever had done it had been thinking for a long time about how they were going to do it. The fact that he painted the camera and he was concealing his identity told us that his intentions were to do something really bad.

[Lester Holt]

Detective Rodriguez shared what he found with Agent Montillo. What did that lead tell you?

[Agent Alex Montilla]

That was huge for me. I saw that. I'm like, we have our guy.

[Lester Holt]

Agent Montilla watched the video over and over again, and she kept watching even after the man spray painted the lens, even while the paint was drying. There is information you could gather.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

Yes. So once the paint started drying in the surveillance camera, we can see the suspect exiting the building. A few minutes later, you see somebody come in the building because the light in the lobby turns on.

[Lester Holt]

The person was just a blur, barely visible through the painted lens. But as Agent Montilla studied the images, she spotted something flashing. It looked like the reflective vest the man in the helmet was wearing.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

You can see the reflective vest going into the the elevator, and then the elevator comes down. And then you see the reflective vest dragging what we believe is a suitcase exiting the building.

[Lester Holt]

What do you believe was in that suitcase?

[Agent Alex Montilla]

I believe Ana was in that suitcase. Ana was a very small, petite woman, and she could easily fit in that

[Lester Holt]

suitcase, inside that suitcase. But was she dead or alive? Agent Montilla didn't know. The question was, who took her?

[Agent Alex Montilla]

We traced back the days before she went missing, and we identified every single person that she came in contact with. Bumble and other applications.

[Lester Holt]

Ana was active on dating apps, including Bumble. That gave investigators a series of new leads.

[Lieutenant Emilio Tremino Leva]

This has opened the case to many people that we will have to investigate. So I named it Operation Bumble.

[Lester Holt]

From the beginning, Lieutenant Emilio Tremino Leva, an investigator in the Missing Persons Unit, helped identify and interview everyone Ana contacted through the site.

[Lieutenant Emilio Tremino Leva]

The people Ana had relationships with were people who had A high level of intellectual and economic status. She didn't date just anyone. Cultured people, educated people, People that added something to her life.

[Lester Holt]

There was an Italian man. He cooperated with police, but after his first interview, he left the country.

[Lieutenant Emilio Tremino Leva]

It could raise alarm bells. Why has this person we're trying to contact left Spain and gone to Portugal?

[Lester Holt]

There was a married Spanish CEO.

[Lieutenant Emilio Tremino Leva]

He had an open relationship. And among these relationships, there was Ana.

[Lester Holt]

Then there was the youngest of the bunch, an engineer.

[Lieutenant Emilio Tremino Leva]

He had a closer, more intimate relationship with Anna compared to the others. I believe Anna wanted something more serious with him, but he wasn't ready.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

Every single person she met could be a possible suspect. So we had to locate and interview each one of them. It was a challenge because a lot of them were hesitant to give us an interview. Some of them already left the country.

[Lester Holt]

As police worked their way through Operation Bumble, they were gathering information on another man, one who didn't need a dating app to find Anna. Police searching for Anna Kanesevich were focused on finding the man they knew. She had been dating men in Spain, but they were also curious about her husband, David, who lived in Florida. Ana's friends said their recent split seemed friendly enough.

[Elisa Romero]

She still love him a lot. She said that he was trying to do his best. I think that she admired him a lot.

[Sana Ramo]

It's not like they were at war. They were talking.

[Lester Holt]

But as police continued their investigation, they were hearing something else. Any of the other interviews you had with people who knew David paint a picture of him in any way?

[Agent Alex Montilla]

Yes. They all said that David was very controlling of Anna. He controlled everything, from the economic aspect to her social aspect all through their marriage.

[Lester Holt]

Sana saw that aspect of David, too, and said it was a factor in their separation. Did you get a sense that he was a controlling person?

[Sana Ramo]

Yes. Ana was basically a tool to David to becoming successful. She was the passenger in the backseat of that car, and he was the driver, always deciding where to go, what turn to make, until Ana realized that, hey, I think I belong in the front seat.

[Lester Holt]

The couple turned to therapy to try and salvage their marriage until Ana discovered David had been cheating on her. She confided in her friends about it.

[Commercial Narrator]

I told my psychiatrist, the couple's one, that I didn't want anything since, you

[Lester Holt]

know, again, he cheated on me.

[Commercial Narrator]

Again, he was using Tinder.

[Lester Holt]

He had been seeing a Colombian woman he matched with on the dating app Tinder. And that, to her, was the last straw.

[Elisa Romero]

Yes, exactly. It was. When they decided to get divorced.

[Sana Ramo]

Ana loved David. She never really wanted to divorce him. But she realized that there was no turning back after everything that had happened.

[Lester Holt]

The couple managed the separation themselves without help from attorneys. But once Ana was living in Spain, David changed his mind about that 5050 split they had originally agreed to.

[Sana Ramo]

She tells me that David doesn't want to give her half of the assets in the divorce. He believed that he should take 75%, she should get 25%. Then he changed it to that she wasn't going to get anything. He was going to give her a monthly allowance.

[Lester Holt]

Agent Montilla wanted to speak with him.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

I called him, I texted him. I never heard from him, but I did hear from his attorney. And his attorney told me that David is in Serbia taking care of his mother.

[Lester Holt]

So David was not in Florida like he told Sana. He was in Serbia, still more than 1,600 miles away from Anna's apartment. His attorney went on TV to defend him. David has nothing to do with this. He was in another country. But while his attorney was communicating with police, David was not.

[Lieutenant Emilio Tremino Leva]

He never called and asked, where is my wife? I haven't heard anything about her. He acted completely absent and didn't want to have any kind of relationship with

[Agent Alex Montilla]

us if he was getting a divorce or not. This is a person that he spent the last 13 years with. I would think, you know, that he would want to help the FBI, especially to eliminate him as a suspect.

[Lester Holt]

Investigators search for any sign David had been in Spain. He was not registered as having come in at any airport.

[Detective Remo Rodriguez]

Any airport, any hotel, any place. David did not show up. So we asked Serbian police.

[Lester Holt]

Serbian police gave them what appeared to be a lead. David had rented a car four days before Anna disappeared, a blue Peugeot 308, and crossed the border into Croatia.

[Detective Remo Rodriguez]

And the Serbian police gave us the license plate number of the rental car with which David had left Serbia.

[Lester Holt]

Could David have driven the 25 hours from Serbia to Madrid? Detective Rodriguez tried to find any trace of David's rental car in Spain.

[Detective Remo Rodriguez]

We asked the Madrid City hall and the Department of Transportation if that Serbian license plate number had been registered by any of the license plate readers there are throughout Spain, including, like, that reader. Right, that reader over there. And the Spanish authorities said that Serbian license plate has never come to Spain. It doesn't appear anywhere in Spain.

[Lester Holt]

So that lead seemed to be a dead end. And Operation Bumble wasn't getting them any results either. One by one, police tracked down the men's alibis.

[Lieutenant Emilio Tremino Leva]

We verified where everybody was the day she went missing. Everybody had an exact alibi.

[Lester Holt]

The Italian did His alibi check out? Yes. The married Spanish CEO, did his alibi check out?

[Sana Ramo]

Of course, yes.

[Lester Holt]

The engineer, did his alibi check out?

[Detective Remo Rodriguez]

Absolutely.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

The detectives were at an impasse, but they weren't giving up and their hard work was about to pay off.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

I started screaming in my squad, we have it. We have it.

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[Sana Ramo]

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[Lester Holt]

Three weeks passed with no trace of Anna. Investigators feared that the worst case scenario was true. True that Anna was dead. Her friend Elisa couldn't bear the thought.

[Elisa Romero]

I always have the hope. Always, always had the hope that she was going to appear. You know, she was going to say, hello, I'm here, and then I'm back.

[Lester Holt]

But the truth. Time has a way of removing your hopes.

[Elisa Romero]

Yes, Exactly.

[Lester Holt]

As Elisa's hope gave way to overwhelming loss.

[Elisa Romero]

Can we stop, please?

[Narrator/Announcer]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

Detective Rodriguez was out for justice. As a seasoned investigator, he'd learned long ago to keep his emotions at bay. But there was something about Ana.

[Detective Remo Rodriguez]

You put yourself in that situation of a young person with her whole life ahead of her, who came to Spain to discover another world and start a new life.

[Lester Holt]

Investigators now believed that Ana's husband, David, had something to do with her disappearance. But they couldn't prove he had driven his rental car into Spain.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

We had no tracking information from Croatia to Spain. And at this point, we needed to put him in Spain with the car.

[Lester Holt]

None of the license Plate readers in Spain had picked up David's car. So detectives wondered, did David switch license plates so he could get into the country undetected? The only way to tell was to get a list of all the plates that crossed into Spain the day before Anna disappeared and see if any of them had been stolen.

[Detective Remo Rodriguez]

It totaled over 100,000 license plates.

[Lester Holt]

Detective Rodriguez's team spent five weeks going through each and every plate. Finally, they got a hit. They discovered a stolen Serbian plate had entered into Spain through Italy. But when they looked for it in Madrid, it was nowhere to be found. Detective Rodriguez was exasperated, but he had a hunch. If it was David who stole that Serbian plate, perhaps he swiped a second one in Spain and used it to secretly drive around around Ana's neighborhood.

[Detective Remo Rodriguez]

I was totally desperate. I wouldn't stop annotating and searching for license plates.

[Lester Holt]

It was the end of the workday at the station. Everyone had gone home except Detective Rodriguez. He scribbled down one last plate, and

[Agent Alex Montilla]

then, bingo, they find out that there was a license plate reported stolen in Alcala de Nares, which is on the way into Madrid. Into Madrid.

[Detective Remo Rodriguez]

That license plate had moved a lot throughout Madrid, particularly this reader got it several times, and we said, this is the license plate.

[Lester Holt]

Police tracked that stolen plate to this toll booth the night Anna went missing. They checked the security cameras, and there it was. The blue Peugeot 308David rented in Serbia. Its windows were tinted, and even though it was past midnight, the driver had pulled the sun visor down as it goes through that toll booth. Are you able to see him?

[Detective Remo Rodriguez]

What we could actually see inside was that there was only one person driving, but we couldn't actually see the person.

[Lester Holt]

Investigators trace the car to a neighborhood filled with stores selling motorcycle gear.

[Lieutenant Emilio Tremino Leva]

We have the route the person traveled from one point to another. It took them longer than usual. Something must have happened there.

[Lester Holt]

They called every single store and asked if anyone had bought a helmet or a reflective vest around the time Anna disappeared. They hit the bullseye right here at a place called Boutique Motor. The owner told them that a foreigner paid cash for two items.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

The exact helmet and vest that was seen in the surveillance video.

[Lester Holt]

So this is the helmet that he picked up here.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

This is the exact helmet. White, same brand, L52.

[Lester Holt]

The owner tells me that he's. These are pretty common helmets to sell. He sells about 100 of these helmets here every year. But then there's another even more critical piece.

[Elisa Romero]

Correct.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

He also bought this reflective vest, which the owner said it's not sold that often, but this was very critical because we were able to track him because of the reflectors.

[Lester Holt]

The evidence against David was mounting. Investigators also found that wherever his car

[Agent Alex Montilla]

went, we were able to identify a Serbian telephone number in the same vicinity. Huge break in the case.

[Lester Holt]

That's amazing. Serbian police discovered that David had purchased a burner phone with that number. But the clincher came at this hardware store on the outskirts of Madrid. Police found that on the day Ana disappeared, a customer bought the same exact paint the man in the helmet used to cover the security camera. There's a camera right here as he purchases this.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

But there was a hitch. According to Spanish law, businesses are only required to hang on to security footage for two weeks, and Ana had by then been missing for much longer.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

When the owner of the store says, we have a surveillance video, it's like, oh, my gosh.

[Lester Holt]

I'm just struck by the extraordinary luck in this investigation. The fact that the suspect, when he spray paints the lens, shows for just a nanosecond, the brand of the paint. And then this is way past 14 days.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

And he had the video, and he had the video.

[Lester Holt]

And for the first time, a clear image of the buyer.

[Detective Remo Rodriguez]

We didn't have any doubt that it was David and that David was the one who bought the spray paint.

[Lester Holt]

I just can't imagine what your reaction was when you open up those files and see this.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

I started screaming in my squad. I went to my supervisor, we have it. We have it.

[Lester Holt]

What do you say when you said, that's our guy?

[Agent Alex Montilla]

There's no ifs or buts.

[Lester Holt]

Agent Montilla believed she had enough evidence to arrest David. And since Ana was an American citizen, David could face charges in the U.S. just one problem. David was back in Serbia.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

We knew that it was going to be very hard for Serbia to approve an extradition of David to the United States.

[Lester Holt]

A seemingly insurmountable hurdle. Or was it? And so there you are at Miami International Airport, and that flight arrives.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

I'm at the window like this.

[Lester Holt]

Agent Alex Montilla was frustrated. She believed she found the man who killed Ana and thought she could prove it. She just couldn't get her hands on him.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

We knew David was back in Serbia, so it's not that we had given up, but we knew it's going to be a very tough road ahead to get David in our soil.

[Lester Holt]

So imagine her surprise when, out of the blue, a source told her that David was boarding a plane back home to Florida.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

I told all my co workers I wasn't going to believe it until I was in the Airport. And I would see him walking out

[Lester Holt]

of that plane holding her arrest warrant. Agent Montilla paced anxiously inside Miami International Airport.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

That plane lands, and I'm glued to the window. I cannot believe it. I cannot believe it. And as soon as they open the gate, there is David with his backpack walking out of the plane.

[Lester Holt]

So then there you are face to face with David.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

My partner's, like, so ready to put handcuffs on him. I'm like, do it. And when he puts the handcuffs on him, I go, you're under arrest for the kidnapping of Ana Dominguez.

[Lester Holt]

Agent Montilla deliberately avoided using Ana's married name.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

I didn't give him the pleasure of listening to his last name.

[Lester Holt]

Do you think he had a sense of how much information you had on him?

[Agent Alex Montilla]

I don't think he did, but I also think that he thought he could get away with it.

[Elisa Romero]

Why?

[Agent Alex Montilla]

His personality, I think, you know, he was so sure of himself.

[Lester Holt]

The evidence against David was staggering, and even more so when the FBI got a phone call from the Colombian woman David had met through Tinder. Those strange texts Sana and Elisa received about Ana running off with that man. The girlfriend told Agent Montilla that David asked her to translate that message from English to Spanish. The exact wording?

[Agent Alex Montilla]

The exact wording. It was David using Anna's phone. And as soon as those text messages were sent, he turned off the phone.

[Lester Holt]

The stakes for David were high, especially after the US District Attorney upped his charge from kidnapping to murder. What would David's motive for murder be?

[Agent Alex Montilla]

He did not want to give Anna half of the marital assets. But I also believe he was used to having total control of Ana. Once Ana decided to move to Madrid and break free from him, he was not having was either his way or no way.

[Sana Ramo]

It was the most gruesome thing. It was, to me, a worse of a shock almost than first learning that she was missing and that she was gone.

[Lester Holt]

But David's defense attorney, Jane Weintraub, argued in pretrial hearings that the state could not prove her client killed his wife. There's no evidence

[Commercial Narrator]

then and there is

[Lester Holt]

no evidence now that David kidnapped her, murdered her. In fact, she said investigators couldn't even prove that Ana was really dead. What we do know is that the agent testified there was no struggle, there was no taking, and there's no evidence of any foul play in that apartment. She also took issue with that security video of the man in the helmet. She said the lens was so covered in paint, it was impossible to make out a reflective vest or a suitcase. Agent Montilla disagrees.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

I've seen the video a thousand times. It does look like a hard white case. Suitcase.

[Lester Holt]

Still, this was a no body case and the evidence was circumstantial until two months before the trial when the prosecution received a delayed analysis of a specific of DNA police found on the front door knob of Ana's apartment. It was David's.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

Finding David's DNA in the door puts him directly there with DNA that's direct evidence. So put all that together, put it in front of a jury in trial, there's no way he would have not been convicted.

[Lester Holt]

The DNA results arrived on a Wednesday. On Sunday, David met with his lawyers. The next day, Agent Motilla received some disturbing news.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

So I get a call from Ana's family telling me that David was dead.

[Lester Holt]

Jail guards had found David's lifeless body in his cell. His manner of death, suicide.

[Agent Alex Montilla]

It did not surprise me. There was a lot of evidence against him. So when things got real for him, he just quit.

[Sana Ramo]

He's a coward. That's what cowards do. They take the easy way out.

[Lester Holt]

Do you think in a way that was his confession?

[Sana Ramo]

Pretty much, yeah. Yeah. I don't think that David would ever confess. He would rather kill himself than admit to doing something wrong.

[Lester Holt]

And I keep thinking, why would she open the door?

[Agent Alex Montilla]

Door?

[Sana Ramo]

I honestly think that if he knocked on the door and said, hey, Anna, it's me, David, I've come all this way, we need to talk, we need to figure this out, she would think positive thoughts. She would never, ever think that he would come there to hurt her. Never.

[Lester Holt]

David's death did not end the case for the authorities. The FBI has offered a $25,000 reward for any information leading to the location of Ana's body. And the Spanish National Police continue to search for her.

[Detective Remo Rodriguez]

I want to make it clear to her family and friends that we haven't forgotten about Ana and that we're going to keep looking for her. With every day that goes by, it can be more difficult to find her. But it will never be because we stop trying to find her.

[Lester Holt]

Whether they do or not, Elisa says that Anna's wonderful spirit will always remain. The trauma of losing her, she says, can never diminish the beautiful memories of Ana's generosity, her kindness, and the happiness she found in Madrid. For Elisa that will never die.

[Elisa Romero]

I have one audio. Where is almost one minute. Where is she only laughing.

[Lester Holt]

Do you have that. That audio still?

[Elisa Romero]

Yes, I think that is this one. And she's just laughing.

[Lester Holt]

Those audio recordings of laughter, you'll keep those forever.

[Elisa Romero]

Yes, I'm going to have her in my heart forever. And I was a person fully of la. And this is the thing that everyone should remember about her. Know the way she left us.

[Narrator/Announcer]

That's all for this edition of dateline. And don't forget to check out our

[Lester Holt]

Talking DATELINE podcast, which will go behind

[Narrator/Announcer]

the scenes of tonight's episode, available Wednesday

[Lester Holt]

in the DATELINE feed.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Wherever you get your podcasts, we'll see you again next Friday at 10, 9 Central. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good night.

[Commercial Narrator]

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