The father of a woman who plunged to her death from a seventh-floor penthouse in Belgium said he knew it wasn’t suicide and was convinced her American sailor had thrown her out of the window.
For seven years, John Hove has been determined to find out what happened that night in 2015 when his daughter Johanna “Hanna” Hove-Becker, 32, fell to her death in Mons, Belgium.
Hove-Becker’s husband, Marine Lieutenant Craig R. Becker, told authorities she committed suicide. But Hove tells Dateline NBC in a recent interview that he knew it wasn’t a suicide, and that he was “convinced” that his son-in-law killed her.
Authorities initially thought Hove-Becker’s death was a suicide, but her family and friends refused to accept this. In the spring of 2022, nearly seven years after her death in October 2015, a US military jury in Belgium found Becker guilty of her murder.
Dennis Murphy of Dateline NBC addresses Hove-Becker’s family and friends in a new two-hour report airing Sunday at 7 p.m.
Johanna ‘Hanna’ Hove-Becker, 32, (left) died after falling to her death from a seventh-floor window in Mons, Belgium. Her husband Navy Lt. Craig R. Becker was convicted of murder
For seven years, John Hove has been determined to find out what happened that night in 2015 when his daughter Johanna ‘Hanna’ Hove-Becker, 32, fell to her death in Mons, Belgium.
In the spring of 2022, a US military jury in Belgium found Becker guilty of “premeditated murder, assault committed by battery, and the inappropriate conduct of an officer and a gentleman” in connection with the death of his wife. reported the Navy Times.
It was a verdict Hove, president of Buffers USA in Jacksonville, Florida, had been waiting for after becoming “determined to find out what happened to his daughter after her fatal fall from a penthouse apartment,” according to NBC News.
“I never really liked him,” Hove said The Florida Times Union. “He was aloof… So full of himself.”
Becker was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole and discharge from the service.
His other allegations stemmed from the fact that on the day of her death, Hove-Becker was poisoned with tramadol, an opioid, and zolpidem, a sleep aid, according to the Navy Times.
He was also charged with “impersonating Hove-Becker in text messages on the day of her death and lying to local police when he told them he didn’t know the access code to her phone.”
Becker maintained his innocence and continues to claim his wife’s death was a suicide due to mental illness. His appeal is pending.
Hove-Becker, a psychologist who was born in Sweden and grew up in Florida, moved to Mons, Belgium in 2013 with her husband Becker who was in the US Navy. They have a daughter, Isabelle, who was born in 2014.
Becker retains parental rights as long as his appeal is pending, and has not allowed Hove to see her.
Hove, who said she doesn’t even know where she lives, said: ‘I haven’t seen her in eight years. She wouldn’t know me.’
An investigation by Belgian authorities, including a reconstruction of the crime scene, later concluded that Hove-Becker could not have committed suicide, but rather had been pushed through the window to her death and was unconscious, the Baltimore Sun reported.
Navy Lieutenant Craig Becker (right), now 36, was handed over to US authorities last week and Naval Criminal Investigative Services (NCIS) will lead an investigation into the death of his wife, Johanna Hanna Elizabeth Hove-Becker in 2015 (left)
Hove-Becker worked as a psychologist before her death at the age of 32 in Belgium in 2015
The view from the window Hove-Becker dove out of can be seen on the left. The window is highlighted in the photo on the right
When Hove-Becker plunged to her death from their Belgian penthouse on October 8, 2015, her parents John and Yvonne Hove rushed to mourn with her husband, who was serving at NATO headquarters in Brussels at the time.
Belgian officials told Dateline that Becker told them his wife was upset and mixed wine and medicine before jumping to her death from a window.
“For us, what we see, what we hear, was suicide,” another official said.
“Once the circumstances are clear, the case is closed,” the officials concluded.
But Hove said he looked out the bedroom window where his daughter allegedly jumped and noticed the markings on the walls, prompting him to ask, “Did you see these markings?”
Family and friends questioned the ongoing investigation before Belgian authorities finally charged Becker with murder.
One of Hove-Becker’s friends, Ida Birk Blomqvist, told Dateline that it didn’t make sense for her friend to commit suicide, saying there were “no signs.”
“She didn’t say goodbye, you know, there was no note. There was nothing.’
One of Hove-Becker’s friends, Ida Birk Blomqvist, told Dateline that it didn’t make sense for her friend to commit suicide, saying there were “no signs.”
Hove-Becker was born in Sweden and raised in Florida before moving to Belgium in 2013
An investigation by Belgian authorities, including a reconstruction of the crime scene, later concluded that Hove-Becker could not have committed suicide, but rather had been pushed through the window to her death and was unconscious. Baltimore Sun reported.
Becker stayed in Belgian custody for more than two years after Hove-Becker’s death, before the United States Navy finally took over jurisdiction.
Becker’s lawyer Jeremiah Sullivan filed a complaint with the court that led to former Secretary of Defense James Mattis ordering the Navy to take over in 2018.
Becker was then in Belgian custody, in prison or under house arrest.
He told the San Diego Tribune in 2017, “It’s pretty unfortunate and frustrating… You don’t expect to be cooped up in your apartment building as an active duty U.S. military officer.
“I really don’t have any support from the Navy and have been for quite some time. I spend a lot of time thinking about when it will all end. When will someone help me?’
The Navy Times reported that the “junior officer’s sentencing” in 2022, “marks the end of a long legal saga in which the Navy was initially unwilling to prosecute one of their own, even though Becker was at the time assigned to a NATO command in Belgium and under Alliance status of Forces Agreement, allowing the military to take jurisdiction over matters involving personnel abroad.”
The navy had previously argued that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service was not authorized to carry out an independent investigation into murder on non-military property in Belgium.