'We want her back safe': Loved ones search for South Florida woman who vanished in Madrid

Sanna Rameau describes her best friend, Ana Knezevich, 40, as one of the sweetest people she’s ever met.

“She is just so caring, so sweet,” Rameau said. “She is funny. She is smart. She is adventurous.”

But now, Knezevich is missing.

“Someone has done something to her, and I’m trying to understand who it could be and why,” Rameau said.

Knezevich has been living in an apartment in Madrid, the Spanish capital, since December, but on Feb. 2, she vanished.

Neighbors said they last saw her around 10 o’clock that night.

According to Rameau, the move from Fort Lauderdale was a fresh start for her friend, who was going through a stressful time.

“She is divorcing her husband and is going through that,” Rameau said.

She said she sent Knezevich a text message the day she disappeared but didn’t hear back. The next day, however, Rameau received a message saying that Knezevich met someone and was going to his home two hours from Madrid and that cellular service would be spotty. Rameau found the message “strange” and believes someone else was texting her from Knezevich’s phone.

“I tried to respond saying I was worried about her, like ‘you don’t sound safe,’” Rameau said. “What is she talking about? This makes no sense, and my messages didn’t go through, either.”

When she hadn’t gotten a response by the next day, Rameau contacted police in Madrid.

On Feb. 4, friends also called the local fire department to conduct a wellness check. The fire department said Knezevich wasn’t there.

“They didn’t find her,” she said. “Looks like she left the apartment locking it from the outside. That’s the last we know.”

Rameau said authorities in Madrid told her they did find something strange captured on security video about 30 minutes before Knezevich was last seen.

“A man with a helmet sprayed the surveillance cameras outside the directory of her apartment building and waited for two people to leave the building and took the opportunity to go inside and spray the surveillance camera inside by the elevator,” she said.

Rameau said that Madrid police are investigating and the family is working with the FBI but that so far, they have no leads.

“I honestly feel like I’m still living in a dream, to be honest with you,” she said. “I have never felt this pain in my entire life.”

Rameau is sending this message to her friend or to anyone who may know where she is:

“We miss and we love her,” she said. “We want her back safe.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com