Ohio Woman Sentenced to 40 Years in Prison for Killing Husband with Controlled Substance

TOLEDO, Ohio – Amanda Hovanec, 37, of Wapakoneta, Ohio, has been sentenced to 40 years in prison by U.S. District Judge James R. Knepp, II, after pleading guilty to multiple charges, including distributing a controlled substance that resulted in the death of her husband. Amanda Hovanec was also ordered to serve 10 years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $2,108,559.36.

According to court documents, Hovanec and her husband, Timothy, were married and had three children.  They moved several times for his job with the U.S. Department of State, which included an assignment in South Africa around 2018. While there, Hovanec developed a relationship with a South African citizen named Anthony Theodorou. Hovanec initiated divorce proceedings against her husband in 2020 after returning to the United States. In December 2021, she began to deny her husband visitation with their children despite a court order to permit it. After her husband filed several contempt motions against Hovanec for denying visitation, a judge ordered that the children be given visitation with their father in April 2022, and further ordered that the husband become the residential parent and legal custodian of their children for two months that summer, beginning in May.

The children went with their father for an April weekend visitation, as ordered, after which their father returned them to Hovanec’s Wapakoneta residence. Later, a missing persons investigation was opened when the husband failed to check out of an area hotel where he had been staying.

During the investigation, law enforcement officials discovered the husband’s abandoned car in Dayton, Ohio. It had been equipped with a dash camera.  Review of the camera’s video showed that the husband had returned the children to Hovanec’s residence around 7 p.m. on April 24, 2022. Video footage showed Hovanec and her mother, Anita Green, waiting outside the residence next to the garage. Hovanec was then seen walking toward the driver’s side of the vehicle and heard telling the children, “I have a surprise for you inside.” The children entered the residence, followed by Green. Seconds later, the victim was heard saying, “What the heck are you doing?  Did you just assault me?” and then, “Get away from me  . . .  Get off of me.”  The victim and Hovanec came into the camera’s view, at which time video footage captured her pulling on her husband’s shirt as he tried to use his cellphone. She wrestled with him and eventually knocked the phone out of his hand. She then pulled on his back to bring him to the ground, holding him around the neck until his body went limp and he became unresponsive, lying on the driveway. Hovanec stood up, picked up her husband’s cellphone, removed his smart watch, and turned off his vehicle’s engine, at which point the dash camera stopped recording.

After first attempting to cover up her crimes, Hovanec later confessed to investigators that she injected her husband in the shoulder with “poison” that she understood would kill him within minutes. She also admitted to disposing of his car in Dayton, and burying his body in a wooded area not far from her home. Theodorou was in Ohio at the time of the incident.  He not only obtained the substance used to kill the victim, but also helped Hovanec bury her husband’s body. Green, who both Hovanec and Theodorou confirmed knew about the plan to murder the victim in advance, was charged as an accessory after the fact. She agreed to drive them and the victim’s body to the grave site, which was dug in advance of the murder.

The investigation determined that the victim was injected with M-99, also known as Etorphine, a Schedule I controlled substance approximately 1000 times more potent than morphine. It is used in veterinary medicine for zoo and wildlife anesthesia.  

According to court records, Hovanec considered killing her husband for at least a year before the murder and had considered alternate means to do so, including hiring a hitman, before settling on injecting him with M-99.

“Hovanec’s violent and intentional actions were cold-blooded, calculated, and cruel. Her extreme malevolence toward her husband and complete disregard for how his murder would affect their innocent children is incomprehensible and unforgiveable,” said U.S. Attorney Rebecca Lutzko for the Northern District of Ohio. “We know that no amount of time served can bring back a family’s loved one. But our hope is that the victim’s family may find some sense of closure as they painstakingly work to heal from this unimaginable and horrific tragedy.”

Theodorou was sentenced to 18 years in prison and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to conspiracy to import, importation and distribution of a controlled substance that resulted in death. He was also ordered to pay $2,108,559.36 in restitution, of which a part will be paid jointly and severally with Hovanec and Green. Anita Green was sentenced to 10 years in prison and two years of supervised release after pleading guilty to being an accessory to the crimes committed by Amanda Hovanec and Anthony Theodorou. 

This case was investigated by the FBI Cleveland Division, Lima Resident Agency, the Auglaize County Sheriff’s Office, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), and the Lucas County Coroner’s Office.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alissa Sterling and Michelle Baeppler for the Northern District of Ohio.