On December 30, Spencer and Monique Tepe were discovered shot to death in their Columbus, Ohio home. Their two young children were, thankfully, unharmed. Police found them after Spencer’s coworkers went to their house when he didn’t show up for work and neither could be reached. A man of interest, now presumed to be Monique’s ex-husband, Michael McKee, was spotted on neighborhood surveillance video. Police identified his car in the area and tracked him nearly seven hours away, in Rockford, IL. He was arrested last weekend and a firearm tied to the murders was found in his home.
This past week, McKee was charged with premeditated aggravated murder. Court records also revealed that McKee, a vascular surgeon, was currently avoiding being served as a defendant in a malpractice lawsuit for his alleged role in a botched surgery that happened when he was living and working in Las Vegas in 2023. On Friday, McKee, who is currently still in jail in IL, was indicted by a grand jury in Franklin County, OH on four counts of aggravated murder and one count of aggravated robbery.
Michael McKee, the vascular surgeon accused of murdering his ex-wife Monique Tepe and her dentist husband Spencer, is facing new charges ahead of his extradition from Illinois to Ohio.
A grand jury in Franklin County voted to indict McKee on four counts of aggravated murder and a single count of aggravated robbery on Friday, Jan. 16, according to court records obtained by PEOPLE.
Prosecutors also allege that McKee used a firearm with a muffler, according to a copy of the grand jury indictment obtained by PEOPLE. Police said at a press conference earlier this week that a weapon discovered during a search of McKee’s property matched the one believed to have been used in the deaths of Monique and Spencer.
McKee was booked into the Winnebago County Jail on Jan. 10 — nearly two weeks after Monique and Spencer were killed inside their Columbus home on Dec. 30. The couple was killed just days after their fifth wedding anniversary, and while their two children, ages 4 and 1, were asleep in their bedrooms.
An arrest warrant filed in Franklin County Court said that detectives were “able to identify a suspect through neighborhood video surveillance” and then track that person to a vehicle “which arrived just prior to the homicides and left shortly after the homicides.”
Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant said that police also have evidence of McKee being in possession of that car both before and after the killings of his ex and her husband. Police were able to track McKee’s vehicle to Illinois, where he was taken into custody 450 miles away from the crime scene.
McKee has yet to speak publicly about his arrest, with police telling PEOPLE that he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when interviewed by detectives. He also remained silent during his first court appearance on Monday, Jan. 12.
Legally speaking, the “aggravated” qualifier means that a crime is “committed under circumstances that allow for increased punishments.” Charging someone with aggravated murder is based on criteria that are laid out in each state’s criminal law statutes. Driving 450 miles with a gun and a muffler in your car makes a pretty solid case for premeditation, but prosecutors must really think they have solid evidence that McKee meets the aggravated criteria. I’m curious what McKee allegedly stole that constitutes an aggravated robbery charge. I’m sure it will all come out soon enough.
Monique and McKee were married for only eight months when they separated in early 2016. Their divorce was finalized in 2017 and according to family and friends, it was not amicable. Monique’s brother-in-law is on record saying that McKee was “emotionally abusive” and that Monique was still “terrified” of him. People got an exclusive interview with a friend who knew both of them that corroborated the description of McKee being “controlling.” That friend also claims that while they never saw first-hand evidence that he was stalking his ex-wife, McKee would ask about her to mutual friends. They said, “She moved on and he had not.” They got divorced a decade ago. Make of that as you will.
Wouldn’t the aggravated portion of the murder charges come from the fact that the children were home during the crime? What I don’t understand is how there are four aggravated murder charges when there were only two victims.
Also, I guarantee I don’t want to know what he stole. It’s going to be creepy AF.
I think it’s something that they do to give juries more options for convictions. Like aggravated murder (regular) and then aggravated murder with (special circumstance). Maybe he moved the bodies around so the extra is harassing a corpse or something.
Section 2903.01 of the Ohio Revised Code has several bases for charging aggravated murder. To me, the relevant ones here are:
“(A) No person shall purposely, and with prior calculation and design, cause the death of another….”
“(B) No person shall purposely cause the death of another…while committing or attempting to commit, or while fleeing immediately after committing or attempting to commit…aggravated robbery….”
(A) is a classic “malice aforethought” or premeditated murder. (B) is basically felony murder, so murder that occurs in connection with the commission of another felony (in this case, we know he’s also been charged with aggravated robbery).
So if they can prove one or both of those, which I suspect they can, this asshole for aggravated murder.
ETA: they can get this asshole for aggravated murder.
There is, on average, a higher level of psychopathy found in surgeons. And sometimes psychopaths find that being a surgeon is a great way to channel their traits and be rewarded for them. I bet this is not the first time he harmed someone or something. With a malpractice lawsuit closing in on him, he apparently had no reason to hold back.
I think that there are professions, such as surgeons, that should have required regular psychological testing.
Agreed! Many local police and county sheriff’s require testing, for example, as people who are higher in antisocial traits and/or desire to dominate others are attracted to policing.
(Obviously, there are too many local AND federal agencies that not only don’t seem to screen these folks out, they actively select them, but I digress.)
This is also why professions that work with kids screen for past abuse charges. You gotta recognize types of sick folks that want the job and screen ’em out. In general, employers are so bad at this.
I had a stalker ex who would call my coworkers AT WORK and ask about me months after I broke up with him (he was an abusive a-hole). Mind you, these were people I wasn’t even particularly close to other than we got along at work. It was insane.
I am so sick of the violent “if I can’t have her, nobody can” stories. I hope that he gets life in prison and that it’s absolute hell for him.
It sickens me to know he got what he wanted. They’re both dead and he’s alive to witness the carnage.
Apparently aggravated burglary has nothing to do with whether he stole something. It could be to do with how he entered the house with weapons
I live in Columbus and they were a beloved couple adored by everyone except her obsessed ex. I’m sick to my stomach over this, especially by the trauma inflicted on the children who were home with their parents’ corpses! The 4 year old is old enough to be very aware of everything and to remember it. They’ll have to move the trial if they want a neutral jury.