American woman goes missing in Madrid after helmeted man disables cameras

Police in Madrid and Fort Lauderdale were notified, launching investigations on each side of the Atlantic.

Ana Maria Knezevic traveled from South Florida to Spain in December to get away for a while. Her family and friends say the naturalized American originally from Colombia has been going through a nasty divorce from her Serbian husband, but the trip was also a chance to explore new places.

Then, she vanished — two weeks ago, shortly after a man wearing a motorcycle helmet disabled the security cameras at her Madrid apartment building by spray painting the lenses. The next day, two friends received separate text messages — one in English, one in Spanish — from the 40-year-old’s phone saying she was running off for a few days with a man she had just met.

“She wouldn’t do this … it is very unsafe and crazy behavior. She wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t do that,” said Sanna Rameau, the friend who got the English text. It was written, she said, in an emotionless style that wasn’t Ana’s. The Spanish message was so flat it appeared to have been written in English and run through Google Translate, she said.

AllonzeeLV, (edited )

It always fascinates me in a morbid way how we can hyperfixate on individual suffering when there are people unnecessarily suffering and dying in droves both domestically and abroad.

It’s sad, but a woman got kidnapped on vacation and is likely dead or in sex slavery. People unnecessarily die horribly in our tent cities of exposure to the elements and police harassment constantly, as we consider their lives without value because we’re a sick, broken people. Some of us even wish death upon them for lowering local property values by selfishly continuing to exist without capital.

But this victim is affluent and photogenic, so it’s very important and no resource will be spared.

GiuseppeAndTheYeti, (edited )

It’s tangable tangible because there’s a face associated with the story and doesn’t happen nearly as often. The other example you provided would be in the news everyday. Its like if your tires were slashed this morning but you decided to tell your coworkers about how you spilled some coffee on the counter.

Hyperreality,

Also this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome

DeepGradientAscent,
@DeepGradientAscent@programming.dev avatar

tangable tangible

GiuseppeAndTheYeti,

Ah, thank you. I turned off autocorrect on my keyboard because Gboard kept capitalizing random words in the middle of a sentence.

AllonzeeLV, (edited )

My example isn’t in the news everyday because our people don’t care about them, otherwise the news would report on them.

Our news knows what drives views. We largely only worry about people of means who are preferably also photogenic who are in trouble.

It scales too. We basically moved heaven and Earth to rescue that billionaire’s goo from the bottom of the Atlantic from trying to show off as it dominated the entire news cycle and the nation and world held its breath for a week.

It’s the world we live in, I just find it morbid, inhuman, and proof of a severe socio-cultural disease.

Gork,

The article all but says the husband is the suspect here. Reading between the lines it’s heavily implied that he’s directly involved in her disappearance.

PsychedSy,

It’s easier to personally connect with a single good looking person over ‘statistics’. Someone thousands of miles away hasn’t somehow infringed on your life or city or whatever people use to dehumanize hobos.

originalfrozenbanana,

If the classic RTS Red Alert taught me anything it’s that Stalin quote “when you kill one person, it’s a tragedy. You kill a million, it’s a statistic.”

Of course I’m sure he didn’t actually say that but it’s fun to pretend

SpaceNoodle,

Of course he didn’t say that, he spoke Russian.

originalfrozenbanana,

You. I like you

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

You are technically correct. The best kind of correct!

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Is suffering supposed to be a contest?

deadbeef79000,

Yes, apparently.

Don’t forget that a poor person suffering is righteous, but a rich person suffering is tragedy.

SatansMaggotyCumFart,

Well rich people are better then the poors, if the poor had a better work ethic they’d be rich too.

Cuttlefish1111,

Also, this immigrant is Colombian/Mexican why is this getting attention?

CeruleanRuin,
@CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world avatar

Empathizing with individuals is built into how the human brain works, because we can theoretically do something about the plight of a single person - at least, this was true in an age before mass communication, when our world was only as large as the people we interacted with. It was mutually beneficial for humans to develop an instinct to help those in their own social group, because it was more likely to result in one’s own DNA being passed on.

Hearing about the problems of large numbers of people doesn’t click the same way for us because, for the majority of human history, it didn’t affect one’s ability to further one’s genes. Aiding some random person from a distant tribe just doesn’t figure into an individual’s reproductive fitness. We don’t have an instinct to help people we don’t know, especially when they don’t have a name and a face. And so it’s not ingrained in us. It has to be taught.

thepixelfox,
thepixelfox avatar

It's easier to hope someone will have information on an individual who's is reported on. Someone might see the article and realise they saw her in a coffee shop with a man, looking very uneasy. And tip off police.

Whereas homelessness is a much harder thing to tackle. That requires government intervention rather than individual intervention from someone who saw something suspicious. And getting a government to care about homeless people is a huge ask.
I hate that we have a homelessness issue, and I hate that it's not reported on much at all. Things should be in the public eye, in hopes that people wrote to their local rep to try get help.

But it's more likely you'll find a missing person (dead or alive) by posting an article than it is likely you'll resolve homelessness.

AllonzeeLV,

There have been studies proving its significantly cheaper to house the homeless than to manage the secondary effects of mass homelessness as we do. We want homelessness because our culture is highly punitive, with many believing some deserve to suffer for making “bad” decisions to feel superior. Schadenfreude is a hell of a drug. They also function as scarecrows for the capitalists, ensuring the working poor knows what happens if they fail to show up for their scheduled exploitation.

vox.com/…/homeless-shelter-housing-help-solutions

Masculinum,

Death of a man is a tragedy, death of a million is a statistic

SparrowRanjitScaur,

The news publishes what makes them money. People find mysterious disappearances more interesting and engaging than tent cities.

AllonzeeLV,

Agreed, people are largely horrible.

Ultragramps,
@Ultragramps@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I enjoyed your paragraph above, regarding the morbid fascination, and I feel I share it.
The waves of hate against all things not white, male, cis/het show up just like Twitter.
Humanity is struggling to adapt to disingenuous trolls in ways that include having people in charge of “moderation” without any desire to foster sincere communication.
Whether it is intentional or not, ignoring fallacies and other red flags used by trolls has only enabled them further and the greatest adaptation of the foreseeable Information Age will be An Effective Bullshit Filter.

nonailsleft,

Don’t they lower local property values because they shit on the sidewalk?

ChocoboRocket,

I mean, it also helps that it seems to be an international, targeted hit on a woman trying to leave her husband in a nasty divorce with a lot of money at stake.

This isn’t just some chick went missing on holiday, but wait she’s hot, rich, and probably connected so everyone pay attention because a real person was hurt.

I’m not disagreeing that beauty and wealth are bringing this additional attention, but this is also far more targeted than a sex/violence crime of opportunity.

Also, if every time a woman was targeted by an ex made headlines, it’s all we would literally ever hear about, anywhere, always.

Family annihilation is often initiated by men, and if it’s a woman killing herself and her kids, there’s a good chance her partner was abusive.

Saying this as a man before any neck beards start angrily sweating about anti-male agendas (not trying to suggest the person I’m replying to is doing that atm).

Cosmonauticus,

if it’s a woman killing herself and her kids, there’s a good chance her partner was abusive.

I guess I’ll be the neck beard then. What source do you have that backs this up? Digging through news articles most cases of murder suicide involving the woman killing herself and her kids are due to spite from custody battles or severe mental illness with zero mention of domestic violence.

Basically you’re victim blaming

ChocoboRocket,

General population studies of maternal filicide The mothers were often poor, socially isolated, full-time caregivers, who were victims of domestic violence or had other relationship problems.

link

Love that you complained about a lack of source/evidence in my comment, then fail to provide any of your own 🤌

Cosmonauticus,

You did for me apparently

Conclusion

A mother’s motive for filicide may be altruistic, acutely psychotic, or due to fatal maltreatment, unwanted child, or spouse revenge. In addition, many mothers who do not attempt filicide experience thoughts of harming their child. Maternal filicide motives provide a framework for approaching filicide prevention. Suicidality, psychosis and depression elevate risk, as does a history of child abuse.

ChocoboRocket, (edited )

So, you can read, but you choose to ignore everything that doesn’t support your opinions. Classic neckbeard!

Yes, revenge is sometimes the driving force - but since you didn’t read any of what was linked with the intent of absorbing information contrary to your existing opinions (or the direct quote I provided), the evidence specifically indicated that abuse/maltreatment is often* the driving force

*the word “often” means it is more common, or at a greater rate than other occurrences.

Hope that clears things up for you!

Now go apologise to your mother for how you are, and try to disappoint her a little less mmmkay?

Kalkaline,
@Kalkaline@leminal.space avatar

Where’s the ex-husband?

capital,

From the article:

David Knezevic’s current whereabouts are unknown.

Henao told the detective he believes his brother-in-law traveled to his home country of Serbia in January.

Kalkaline,
@Kalkaline@leminal.space avatar

Thanks, didn’t see that.

Cort,

I’m guessing Madrid

mosiacmango,

Yeah unfortunately if she used any kind of shared account to plan this trip its fully possible he could track her down, especially as they aren’t actually divorced yet.

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