An Ohio woman has been sentenced to four decades in federal prison after a scheme to ruthlessly murder her husband and hide the evidence was exposed by the victim’s vehicle dashcam.
Amanda Hovanec, 37, was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years in prison at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Hovanec’s lover, Anthony Theodorou, and her mother, Anita Green, were sentenced the same day over the death of Timothy Hovanec, per the United States Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Ohio.
Timothy initially went missing on April 24, 2022, after dropping off the couple’s three children after a weekend visitation to the home of Green, where Amanda was living at the time.
According to NBC News, the couple was in the midst of divorce proceedings that began in 2020. Amanda was also denying Timothy visitation rights.
The Wapakoneta Police Department was first alerted to Timothy’s disappearance by staff at Best Western, who found his belongings still in the hotel room.
Timothy’s employment with the federal government resulted in the FBI being called in.
His vehicle was found abandoned in Dayton, where investigators found a dashcam. A recording on the unit’s memory would turn the case upside down.
Video from the day Timothy dropped the children off shows Green rushing them inside before an apparent fight is heard on the recording. Timothy is heard asking, “What the heck are you doing? Did you just assault me?” and “Get away from me!”
He exited the vehicle and walked into frame, where Amanda grabbed his back and took him to the ground. Video shows she held him by the neck until he stopped struggling and remained motionless. She stripped him of his smart watch and phone, then shut off the car, stopping the recording.
After being confronted by authorities, Amanda confessed. She was found to have injected her husband with M-99, a powerful veterinary tranquilizer that is roughly 1,000 times more potent than morphine.
She told investigators how she abandoned the car and buried Timothy’s body in a nearby stretch of woods.
Amanda also said she knew the poison would leave her husband dead within minutes.
According to Theodorou, who sourced the M-99 for Amanda, she felt murdering her husband “was the only way to prevent the children from spending the summer” with their father.
“Hovanec’s violent and intentional actions were cold-blooded, calculated and cruel,” U.S. Attorney Rebecca Lutzko said.
She added: “Her extreme malevolence toward her husband and complete disregard for how his murder would affect their innocent children is incomprehensible and unforgiveable.”
Theodorou was sentenced to 18 years for distribution of a controlled substance that resulted in death and conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance that resulted in death.
Green, who drove Amanda and Theodorou to the burial site, pleaded guilty to being an accessory to the crimes and was given 10 years in prison.
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