Terrifying dashcam captures killer mom ambushing and injecting ex-husband with deadly poison during heated custody exchange after falling for new lover

Terrifying CCTV footage shows a mother ambushed and injected a deadly poison into her ex-husband, a State Department investigator, during a heated custody battle.

Amanda Hovanec, 37, was seen with her mother, Anita Green, waiting for her ex-husband, Timothy Hovanec, 36, to arrive at her Ohio home with their daughters on April 24, 2022, when federal prosecutors said they ‘ambushed and injected’. him with an animal tranquilizer.

Timothy had just been “visited” by his three daughters two days earlier, when a judge ruled that he would “be the custodial parent and legal custodian of the three children for the summer of May 28, 2022 to August 5, 2022.” Reports on law and crime.

Over the next two days, evidence showed that the victim and his daughters spent time together and swam at a Best Western pool, enjoying their time together before Timothy’s untimely death.

As the girls got out of the car on April 24, Hovanec told her children, “I have a surprise for you inside,” and shortly after the children and Green were inside the home, Timothy could be heard saying, “What the heck?” are you doing? Did you just attack me?’ and then ‘Get away from me… Get away from me’, federal prosecutors saidciting CCTV footage from his vehicle.

Soon, both husband and wife came into view of the camera, and Hovanec could be seen pulling on her husband’s shirt as he tried to get his cell phone.

“She struggled with him and eventually knocked the phone out of his hand,” prosecutors said. “She then pulled his back to bring him to the ground and held him around the neck until his body went limp and he became unresponsive and lying in the driveway.”

“Hovanec got up, grabbed her husband’s cell phone, removed his smartwatch and turned off his car’s engine, at which point the dashboard camera stopped recording.”

Court documents show that law enforcement officials later determined that the State Department investigator was injected with M-99, also known as etorphine, a substance about a thousand times more powerful than morphine.

Hovanec had acquired the poison a few months earlier, when her South African boyfriend, Anthony Theodorou, sent her a vial hidden in a package containing 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 friend contacted an acquaintance to see if he knew of any possible hitmen, Special Agent A.J. testified Eilerman Tuesday.

He said Theodorou and his friend were able to identify two hitmen, but they retreated or disappeared, prompting Hovanec and Theodorou to resort to poison instead.

She then injected her husband with the poison while he was “unloading the children’s car seats from his car” in the driveway, according to a government ruling. obtained by Law and Crime.

According to court documents, Hovanec then placed “a plastic bag” over his head and body “because she was concerned about fluid secretion” from his body.

A day later, Green drove with Hovanec and Theodorou to dump Timothy’s body in a pre-dug grave near farmland that Hovanec’s grandfather owned, returning later to pick them up.

‘Prior to the murder [Timothy]Amanda told her mother, Green, that she was going to kill him,” reads a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law & Crime.

‘After Amanda was killed [Timothy]. she also told her mother that it had happened.

“Amanda and Theodorou are loaded [Timothy’s] body in the back of Amanda’s Honda Pilot. Shortly thereafter, Green drove Amanda and Theodorou to where they buried the body,” the affidavit continues.

It is also alleged that Hovanec and Theodorou used shovels from Green’s home to bury the body.

A missing person investigation began when Timothy failed to check out of a nearby Best Western and his belongings were still inside.

After local law enforcement learned he was working for the State Department, the FBI was called in to investigate, prosecutors said.

During the course of a subsequent investigation, officials found Timothy’s car abandoned in Dayton, Ohio, and were able to recover the dashboard camera footage.

Hovanec initially claimed her ex had simply left after dropping off their daughters, but confessed when confronted with the video.

‘Amanda admitted that she had injected [Timothy] in the shoulder as they stood next to his car after he dropped off the children,” an affidavit said.

‘Amanda couldn’t name what she was injecting [Timothy] but called it ‘poison’ or ‘medicine’. Amanda understood that the drug would be fatal [Timothy] within minutes.”

She 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 causing death.

“No matter how hard I try to explain my actions, the bottom line is that I am selfish,” Hovanec acknowledged during her sentencing hearing Tuesday.

The problems in her relationship with her husband reportedly started after they moved to South Africa in 2018 for her husband’s job at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and she met Theodorou.

When the Hovanecs returned to the United States in 2020, she filed for divorce and Timothy “denied visitation with the children despite a court order allowing it,” Law & Crime reports.

The father subsequently filed several contempt petitions against Hovanec for denying him visitation with his three girls, and he traveled from Virginia to Ohio for court proceedings so he could see his daughters.

At the sentencing on Tuesday, Timothy’s brother, Daniel Hovanec, described how he had to tell the girls the terrible news after their father’s death.

“I am forever haunted by the memory of the girls telling me that their mother had killed their father,” he said, adding: “The hardest thing for me is trying to accept that I will never be able to make memories with Tim again. ‘

Ronald Stuart, Deputy Assistant Secretary and Assistant Director of Diplomatic Security for Countermeasures at the Department of State, also testified that Timothy’s expertise was a critical key in more effectively detecting and responding to security threats to diplomats abroad.

The department wasn’t able to fill the position until earlier this year, he testified, demonstrating the difficulty of replacing someone with Timothy’s skills and expertise.

“His ultimate death has had a negative impact on the safety and security of our diplomats serving abroad,” Stuart said.

Hovanec was ultimately sentenced to 40 years behind bars, followed by 10 years of supervised release. She 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 aiding and abetting the crime, and Theodoros is expected to be sentenced Thursday.