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.
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.
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.
https://www.vox.com/2014/5/30/5764096/homeless-shelter-housing-help-solutions