Main story: Amanda Hovanec and her mother Anita Green wait at the door as victim Timothy Hovanec arrives to exchange custody of three daughters (court documents). Inset left to right: Amanda Hovanec, Anita Green, Anthony Theodorou (Auglaize County Sheriff's Office).
A 37-year-old woman from Wapakoneta, Ohio, who divorced her husband, a researcher at the US State Department, the father of her three daughters, and began a relationship with a man she met in South Africa, is serving 40 years to federal prison after she “ambushed her ex and injected him with animal tranquilizers and killed him after he arrived in 2022 to swap custody of the children.
Amanda Hovanec apparently had no clear explanation as to why she poisoned 36-year-old Timothy Hovanec on April 24, 2022. The Lima News reported that Hovanec admitted at her hearing on Tuesday that “what it comes down to is that I'm selfish.”
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio, the crime, which also involved Amanda's mother Anita Green and Anthony Theodorou, Amanda's new boyfriend from South Africa, occurred during an ongoing dispute over child access during the divorce.
Prosecutors said the victim's work at the State Department often involved moving and that one of those trips was to South Africa in 2018. During this time she met Theodorou. When the Hovanecs returned to America in 2020, Amanda Hovanec filed for divorce and the defendant subsequently denied her ex “visitation with her children, despite a court order allowing it.”
A court battle over visitation became so heated that Timothy Hovanec traveled from Virginia to Ohio for a trial so he could see his daughters, but the hearing did not take place as scheduled. Instead, on April 22, 2022, two days before the killing, a judge ordered that the victim be “granted visitation” for the next two days and that he be “the custodial parent and legal guardian of the three children for the summer.” beginning May 28, 2022 through August 5, 2022.”
According to the evidence, during the two days of the visit, the victim and his daughters spent time together and swam in a Best Western pool. What Timothy Hovanec didn't know is that his ex had planned to kill him by injecting him with M-99 when he exchanged custody of the children in a home where Amanda Hovanec lived with her mother.
A government sentencing brief for the three defendants detailed that Timothy Hovanec suffered a lethal injection while “unloading the child seats from his car” in the driveway. Citing the victim's dashcam, the Justice Department determined that Hovanec and Green were waiting at the front door when the victim arrived and that Amanda told her children, “I have a surprise for you inside,” shortly before the attack.
“The children entered the residence followed by Green. Seconds later, the victim was heard saying: 'What the hell are you doing?' Did you just attack me?' and then: “Get away from me.” . . “Get away from me,” the Justice Department press release said. “The victim and Hovanec came into view of the camera, whereupon video footage showed her pulling on her husband’s shirt as he attempted to use his cell phone.”
“She struggled with him and ended up knocking the phone out of his hand. She then pulled on his back to bring him to the ground and held him around the neck until his body went limp and he became unresponsive and lay on the driveway,” the Justice Department added. “Hovanec stood up, picked up her husband’s cell phone, took off his smartwatch and turned off his vehicle’s engine, at which point the dashcam stopped recording.”
The drug of choice was shipped to Hovanec just a month earlier by Theodorou, who admittedly dug a shallow grave the day before the murder.
From then on, defendant Hovanec “placed a plastic bag over TH's head and body because she was afraid that fluids would leak from TH's body” before dumping the victim's remains with the help of her co-defendants.
While Theodorou still awaits sentencing, prosecutors noted that Green was also sentenced to 10 years in prison for her role in the cover-up, as an accessory after the fact.
The day after the murder, Green drove her co-defendants and the victim's body to a previously prepared “grave site.” […] “near farmland” that Amanda's “grandfather used to own” and then picked her up when they were finished, a probable cause affidavit states.
“Before she killed TH, AMANDA told her mother GREEN that she was going to kill him. After AMANDA killed TH, she also informed her mother about it. AMANDA and THEODOROU loaded TH's body into the back seat of AMANDA's Honda Pilot. Shortly afterwards, GREEN drove AMANDA and THEODOROU to where they buried the body. AMANDA and THEODOROU buried TH in a wooded area at the northwest corner of Blank Pike and Wrestle Creek Road in Auglaize County in the Northern District of Ohio,” court documents state. “AMANDA and THEODOROU used shovels from GREEN's house to bury the body. AMANDA said that GREEN dropped her off and later returned at a prearranged time to pick her and THEODOROU up.”
Evidence that Green knew her daughter planned to kill the victim reportedly led U.S. District Judge James Knepp II to remark that he had “come to the inescapable conclusion that she did not and did not enable murder.” only in retrospect.”
As for the case as a whole? Knepp reportedly said it was “as bad a crime as I have seen or could have imagined.”
While defendant Hovanec initially claimed her ex simply left after she dropped off the children, she confessed when confronted with the video evidence, police said.
“AMANDA admitted that she injected TH in the shoulder as they stood next to his vehicle after he dropped off the children. AMANDA couldn't name what she was injecting with TH, instead referring to it as a “poison” or “drug.” AMANDA knew the drug would kill TH within minutes,” the affidavit states.
Not only was Hovanec sentenced to 40 years in prison, she must also pay $2,108,559.36 in restitution.
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