Terrifying dash cam footage captured a mother ambushing and injecting her ex-husband, a State Department investigator, with a deadly poison amid a heated custody battle.
Amanda Hovanec, 37, was seen waiting with her mother, Anita Green, for her ex-husband, Timothy Hovanec, 36, to arrive with their daughters at their Ohio home on April 24, 2022, when federal prosecutors said that she had “ambushed and injected.” He administered an animal tranquilizer.
Timothy had just received ‘visitations’ from his three daughters two days earlier, when a judge ruled that he would be ‘the residential custodial parent and legal guardian of the three children during the summer beginning May 28, 2022 through May 5.’ August 2022.’ Reports on law and crimes.
Over the next two days, evidence showed that the victim and her daughters spent time together and swam at a Best Western pool, enjoying their time together before Timothy’s untimely death.
Amanda Hovanec, 37, was convicted Tuesday of the murder of her ex-husband, Timothy.
When the girls got out of the car on April 24, Hovanec told his children, ‘I have a surprise for you inside,’ and moments after the children and Green were inside the residence, Timothy was heard saying, ‘ What the hell? are you doing? Did you just attack me? and then ‘Get away from me… Get away from me.’ federal prosecutors saidciting footage from his vehicle’s dash cam.
Soon, both husband and wife appeared on camera, and Hovanec could be seen pulling on her husband’s shirt as he tried to grab his cell phone.
“She struggled with him and eventually knocked the phone out of his hand,” prosecutors said. “She then pulled his back to the ground, holding him by the neck until his body went limp and unresponsive, lying in the driveway.”
“Hovanec got up, grabbed her husband’s cell phone, took off her smartwatch, and turned off the engine of her vehicle, at which point the dash camera stopped recording.”
Court documents say law enforcement officials later determined that the State Department investigator was injected with M-99, also known as etorphine, a substance that is about 1,000 times more potent than morphine.
Hovanec obtained the poison a few months earlier, when her South African boyfriend, Anthony Theodorou, sent her a vial hidden in a package with jewelry and other items. LimaOhio.com reports.
The suspect had previously contacted Theodorou to see if he could find someone willing to kill her husband, and the boyfriend contacted an acquaintance to see if he knew of any potential hitmen, Special Agent AJ Eilerman testified Tuesday.
He said Theodorou and his friend were able to identify two hitmen, but they backed out or disappeared, prompting Hovanec and Theodorou to resort to poison.
She then injected her husband with the poison while he was “unloading child seats from his car” in the driveway, according to a government sentencing brief. obtained by Law and Crime.
She and her mother, Anita Green, were seen on dash cam footage waiting for Timothy, 36, to arrive with her daughters at their Ohio home on April 24, 2022, when federal prosecutors said she He “ambushed” him and injected him with an animal tranquilizer.
Hovanec then “put a plastic bag” over her head and body “because she was concerned about fluids secreting” from her body, according to court documents.
A day later, Green led Hovanec and Theodorou to dump Timothy’s body in a previously dug grave near some farmland Hovanec’s grandfather owned, and returned later to pick them up.
“Before killing (Timothy), Amanda told her mother, Green, that she was going to kill him,” reads a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law & Crime.
‘After Amanda killed (Timothy). He also informed his mother that it had already been done.
‘Amanda and Theodorou loaded (Timothy’s) body into the back of Amanda’s Honda Pilot. “Shortly thereafter, Green took Amanda and Theodorou to the location where the body was buried,” the affidavit continues.
He also claims that Hovanec and Theodorou used shovels from Green’s house to bury the body.
Timothy Hovanec dropped his daughters off at his wife’s home in Ohio before she “ambushed and injected” him with an animal tranquilizer.
She had obtained the poison from her South African boyfriend Anthony Theodorou (pictured).
A missing person investigation began when Timothy was unable to exit a nearby Best Western and his belongings were still inside.
After local authorities learned he worked for the State Department, the FBI was called in to investigate, prosecutors said.
Over the course of a subsequent investigation, officials found Timothy’s car abandoned in Dayton, Ohio, and were able to recover dash cam footage.
At first, Hovanec claimed his ex simply left after dropping off their daughters, but confessed when confronted with the video.
“Amanda admitted that she injected (Timothy) in the shoulder while they were standing next to his vehicle after he dropped the children off,” an affidavit said.
‘Amanda couldn’t name what she injected (Timothy), but she referred to it as “poison” or “drug.” Amanda understood that the drug would kill (Timothy) within minutes.
He pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to import a controlled substance, importation of a controlled substance, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death.
“No matter how much I try to explain my actions, it comes down to being selfish,” Hovanec acknowledged at his sentencing hearing Tuesday.
His mother, Anita Green, pleaded guilty to being an accessory to the crime and was sentenced to 10 years in prison and two years of supervised release.
Problems in her relationship with her husband reportedly began after they moved to South Africa in 2018 for her husband’s job at the State Department and she met Theodorou.
When the Hovanecs returned to the United States in 2020, she filed for divorce and denied Timothy ‘visitation with the children despite a court order allowing it,’ Law & Crime reports.
The father then filed several contempt motions against Hovanec for denying visitation to his three daughters, and traveled from Virginia to Ohio to attend court proceedings so he could see his daughters.
At Tuesday’s sentencing, Timothy’s brother Daniel Hovanec told how he had to tell the girls the horrible news after their father’s death.
“I’m always haunted by the memory of telling the girls that their mother murdered their father,” she said, adding, “The hardest thing for me is trying to accept that I will never be able to make more memories with Tim.”
Ronald Stuart, Deputy Assistant Secretary and Deputy Director of Diplomatic Security for Countermeasures at the State Department, also testified that Timothy’s experience was a vital key to more effective detection and response to security risks to diplomats abroad.
The department was only able to fill the position earlier this year, he testified, demonstrating its difficulty in replacing someone with Timothy’s skills and experience.
“His ultimate passing has had a negative effect on the safety of our diplomats serving overseas,” Stuart said.
Hovanec was ultimately sentenced to 40 years behind bars, followed by 10 years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay more than $2.1 million in restitution.
Green was also sentenced to 10 years in prison and two years of supervised release after pleading guilty to being an accessory to the crime, and Theodoros is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.