Joe Yates
A mom has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for killing her ex-husband in order to stop him from seeing their children.
Timothy Hovanec worked for the US Department of State, which advises the President on foreign policy issues as well as negotiates treaties and agreements with foreign countries and entities.
In 2018, he and wife Amanda Hovanec moved to South Africa with their three children for Timothy's work assignment. It was while they were there that 37-year-old Amanda developed a relationship with a South African citizen named Anthony Theodorou.
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Upon arrival back on US soil, Amanda - who lived in the small city of Wapakoneta, Ohio - initiated divorce proceedings against her then-husband, 36, in 2020.
The following year, in December 2021, she began to deny Timothy visitation to see their children, despite a court order permitting it.
Fighting for his children, Timothy filed numerous contempt motions against her.
It led to a judge ruling in April 2022 that the children were granted visitation to see their dad and that he would become the residential parent and legal custodian of their children for two months that summer, beginning in May.
Before that took place, he picked them up from their Wapakoneta home for weekend visitation, but when he returned them home, he vanished.
A subsequent missing person report was created by the hotel he was staying in.
Police investigating the incident discovered Timothy's car abandoned in Dayton, Ohio, and inside, they found dashcam footage of the incident.
In the footage, dated April 24, 2022, at around 7pm, Amanda and her mom Anita Green can be seen waiting outside the home, before Green says: "I have a surprise for you inside."
Once the kids go inside, Green follows them in, and Amanda is seen walking to the driver's side of the car. She says out of shot: "What the heck are you doing? Did you just assault me?"
Before adding: "Get away from me... Get off of me.”
As Timothy tries to use his cellphone she begins pulling his shirt before wrestling him and knocking the phone out of his hand, pulling him to the ground and holding him until he goes limp.
After initially denying any involvement in his disappearance, Hovanec finally admitted to injecting her estranged husband in the shoulder with 'poison' which she understood would kill him within minutes.
She then went on to explain how her and Theodorou had already dug up his grave, and how the South African obtained M-99, an anaesthesia which is used on rhinos and is approximately 1,000 times more potent than morphine.
Her mom then agreed to take the pair to what would be Timothy's grave site where they buried him.
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 Amanda 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.