Questions surface over couple’s suicides

Suspicions about an alleged embezzlement scheme surround the couple’s death.

RUSSELL, Ohio (AP) — Two charcoal grills were set up in the basement of a home where a young professional couple died of carbon monoxide poisoning, an apparent suicide that has left a trail of questions about whether they were involved in a scheme to steal millions of dollars from a hospital.

The bodies of Jeffrey Hovinen and his wife, Jennifer, both 41, were found in a basement bathroom July 7 by a housekeeper. Beer and liquor bottles and prescription pills were nearby.

Two days later, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, citing sources it said were familiar with the case, reported that Jennifer Hovinen was under investigation for embezzling $2 million from her employer, St. Vincent Charity Hospital in Cleveland.

The deaths stunned those who live in the Hovinens’ upscale neighborhood, where big houses on recessed lots allow people to keep to themselves if they want, and many do.

“Everybody is kind of shocked because of the way they went about this in the basement,” said Todd Swann, 52, who shoes horses at a stable down the hill from the Hovinens’ home.

In the heavily wooded Northeast Ohio neighborhood of understated wealth, the Hovinens weren’t well known. They showed up at a block party last fall but mostly spent leisure time at a swanky club alongside Lake Erie or cruising on their 40-foot boat.

Little has emerged about the couple, who married in Columbus when they were both 24 and just out of Ohio State University.

St. Vincent hospital said Jennifer Hovinen was suspended July 1 — the last day either Hovinen was seen — from a public relations and marketing job that put her in regular contact with the media, and occasionally on TV, to provide medical updates on high-profile patients. Two years ago her office issued a news release on the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning.

The marketing side of her job typically involved advertising to promote the hospital’s image in competition with bigger and richer rivals, including the Cleveland Clinic.

The hospital has declined to comment beyond a statement emphasizing that it is determined to find out what happened, correct it and cooperate with authorities.

Russell police didn’t confirm the newspaper’s report, and Chief Tim Carroll was unavailable to discuss it. Several messages were left for him.

Police in suburban Beachwood have confirmed they searched a post office box that might have been used in the alleged hospital scam, and the coroner said Jennifer Hovinen had left a vague apology note for her mother.

Family members issued a brief statement to say they were saddened and needed privacy. Relatives were seen taking boxes from the Hovinen home after the deaths were reported, but they didn’t talk to reporters. They could not be reached later by The Associated Press, which left messages at the homes of three possible relatives living in the area.

Jeffrey Hovinen was an attorney and tax consultant. He worked for a real-estate developer and eventually went off on his own, founding a tax and real estate consulting firm that required long business trips across the country.

“He is known by our team as loyal, straight shooting, hard working and dedicated to our clients. He will be missed as a mentor, peer, friend and business partner,” his firm said in a statement.

The Hovinens had a boat, leased Porsches in the garage behind a white picket fence and a manicured lawn still cut neatly a week after their deaths.

But they also filed for bankruptcy court protection in 1992 and ran into financial trouble again in late 1997, when they lived in nearby Novelty and the Internal Revenue Service filed a $20,694 federal tax lien.

By 1999, the Hovinens were able to move to their dream house in Russell, valued then at $409,000 and purchased with a $451,250 mortgage.

The rare dose of bad press for bucolic Russell left a mixed response from residents: shock at the deaths but relief that it was a private affair, not the result of an intruder.

Bud Burkle, 65, a retired banker and treasurer of the neighborhood association, didn’t know the Hovinens but said devastating circumstances must have led to their deaths.

“Once I found out that it was self-inflicted, my next question in my own mind was: What would be so horrible that would cause them to do that together?” he said.