Neighbor inside surgeon's ritzy apartment block unveils her horror as he's arrested over murders of ex-wife and her new husband
SOURCE:Daily Mail
Michael McKee, 39, has been charged with murder over the killings of his ex-wife Monique Tepe, 39, and Spencer Tepe, 37, who were gunned down in their home in the early hours of December 30.
The stunned neighbor of a surgeon accused of murdering his ex-wife and her husband said he 'didn't seem like somebody who would do something like this' after hearing of the grisly slayings.
Michael David McKee, 39, has been charged with two counts of murder over the killings of Monique Tepe, 39, and Spencer Tepe, 37, who were found gunned down in their Weinland Park, Ohio, home in the early hours of December 30.
Gera-Lind Kolarik, a neighbor of McKee at his upscale Illinois apartment block, told ABC7 she was devastated to hear the news, and expressed her disbelief that McKee was accused of murder.
She recalled: 'I sat down with this man, I talked to him at the pool, barbequing. It's kind of shocking.'
Kolarik said she was heartbroken for the couple's two young children, who were found unharmed inside the home where their parents were shot dead.
'How do you explain to a child that mom and dad are here one day and gone the next?' she said. 'Those are the real victims of this whole case here, the children.'
Following the arrest of McKee, the Tepe family broke their silence as they said in a statement that the arrest 'represents an important step toward justice for Monique and Spencer.'
'Nothing can undo the devastating loss of two lives taken far too soon,' the family said.
Michael David McKee, 39, has been charged with two counts of murder over the killings of Monique Tepe, 39, and Spencer Tepe, 37, who were found gunned down in their Weinland Park home in the early hours of December 30
Monique Tepe, 39, and Spencer Tepe, 37, were shot dead in their home on December 30, and their two young children were found unharmed inside the property
Gera-Lind Kolarik (pictured), the neighbor of murder suspect Michael David McKee, said she was stunned to hear he had been accused of killing his ex-wife and her husband, and said he 'did not seem like somebody who would do something like this'
The shootings sparked an urgent manhunt that included investigators releasing footage of a suspect stalking the streets of the Weinland Park neighborhood after the slayings.
Spencer suffered multiple gunshot wounds, and Monique was shot once in the chest. Their one-year-old son, four-year-old daughter, and dog were found alive and unhurt inside the home, where they had been for hours before the bodies were discovered.
Cops revealed there was no sign of forced entry or the supposed murder weapon, but police did find three 9mm shell casings at the scene. They said they did not believe the deaths to be a murder-suicide.
The surveillance video shared by cops was used to identify McKee as a suspect as he was tracked to a vehicle 'which arrived just prior to the homicides and left shortly after the homicides', an affidavit said.
‘Detectives were able to identify this vehicle further and link to Michael McKee. Detectives located the vehicle in Rockford, Illinois and found evidence of McKee in possession of the vehicle prior to and after the homicides.’
McKee’s mugshot was shared on the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office website, which showed he was booked into jail on Saturday just before noon. He is due to appear in court Monday.
Eerie surveillance footage shows a hooded figure walking calmly through a snowy alley near the Tepe home during the time the couple were murdered
The couple was found in their $700,000 Weinland Park home the morning of December 30
Monique, then under her maiden name Sabaturski, was married to McKee, a surgeon, briefly from August 2015, with pictures shared on social media of the couple on their wedding day on August 22.
The couple had no children and separated seven months later in March 2016.
In the complaint for divorce, the plaintiff, Monique, stated they were ‘incompatible.'
Divorce documents viewed by Daily Mail show proceedings started in May 2017 and were quickly wrapped up by June.
The documents reveal he paid for her engagement and wedding rings and listed them as his separate property, stating he paid $2,500 for the engagement ring and $3,500 for the wedding ring.
The couple's separation agreement included a requirement that Monique had to pay McKee $1,281.59 back for ‘miscellaneous debt’, with the added clause that if she did not reimburse him buy July 1, 2018, she would be hit with 23 percent interest.
When the pair filed for divorce, they were living in different states, with Monique living in Westerville, close to her parents Ignatius and Nereida Sabaturski, and working for Nationwide.
McKee lived in Roanoke, Virginia, working for the Carilion Clinic. He was listed in the documents as practicing as a vascular surgeon at the OSF Cardiovascular Institute.
When the divorce documents were filed, they also included a ‘standard mutual temporary restraining order, requiring both parties to refrain from ‘harassing…interfering with, assaulting or doing bodily harm to the other spouse’.
The exes paid their own attorney fees and Monique paid the filing fee and fee for a private judge, in a bid to expedite the proceedings privately.
The charging of McKee comes a day before friends and family will gather for a visitation and celebration of life for the Tepes in Columbus, Ohio, tomorrow afternoon.
The visitation at the Schoedinger Northwest funeral home Upper Arlington will be followed by a Celebration of Life at an Italian restaurant in the city.
Loved ones described the couple as 'remarkable inside and out'
Spencer and Monique Tepe were shot to death upstairs while their two young children slept unharmed inside the family home
Rob Misleh, who is married to Spencer’s sister Maddie and is the Tepe family’s unofficial media spokesperson, has yet to return the Daily Mail’s request for comment on the latest development.
The Tepe murders sent shockwaves through the tight-knit local community in Weinland Park, with their closest neighbors still too traumatized to speak about what happened.
A redacted dispatch log obtained by the Daily Mail from the morning of December 30 paints a distressing picture of the couple’s panicked friends as they struggled to reach them before the couple were found deceased.
At 9.57am, a caller – later revealed to be Spencer’s friend, Alexander Ditty - is logged as being outside the Tepes’ home and saying he ‘can hear kids inside’ and that ‘he thought he heard one of them yelling’.
The caller wants the police to ‘return’ to the property, the log states, after cops who did an initial welfare check at the home received no response to their knocks at the door.
Dr Mark Valrose, the owner of the Athens dental practice where Spencer worked as a dentist, is described as the ‘business owner’ who called for the welfare check on Spencer, from his vacation in Florida, after he didn’t arrive for work that morning and neither he nor his wife could be reached.
Per the logs, another concerned co-worker is recorded to have made ‘another’ call to police ‘saying their boss never showed up for work this morning and she thinks something is wrong and is enroute’.
Friends say the couple shared a deeply happy marriage built on laughter, travel and family life
Police are seen carrying out their investigations following the couple's killing
A 10.05am log entry captures the distressing moment Alex sees Spencer dead, as he tells dispatchers ‘there is a body inside’ and that ‘he is laying next to the bed and there is blood laying next to him.'
Alex insists his friend ‘has not been ill and does not do drugs’ and the logs record that a baby can be heard crying in the background.
Three men are later recorded to have entered the home through an open door or window.
The logs mention gun casings being found inside the home before alluding to ‘29s’ or children being inside the home, before neighbors take them next door.
By 10.17am, the logs report ‘one male shot multiple times and a female at least once through the chest.'
Less than half an hour later, they record that Spencer’s mother and father, named as Tim Tepe, are more than two hours away from the scene in a grey pickup truck.
Friends and family described the Tepes as a warm, kind and happy couple who were devoted to their children and ‘whose lives were filled with joy, love and deep connection to others’, per a family statement.
A small memorial of floral tributes, teddy bears and other gifts had amassed outside the couple’s home when the Daily Mail visited.
On Tuesday evening, neighbors gathered in grief at a private event at a community space in Weinland park, with a police liaison officer stationed outside for support.
Several shared a group embrace before attending a private gathering to remember the Tepes, who bought their three-bedroom home in May 2020.
Concerned coworkers called police after Spencer (pictured) failed to show up for his shift at an Athens dentist's office
Approached by the Mail, one woman in the group said the Tepes ‘were our friends’ and that they did not want to speak to the Press.
Another neighbor who gave his name as Chris told the Mail he had only come across the Tepes’ ‘five or six times’ and they would always smile and wave when he saw them.
He said he did not hear anything in the 2am-5am window cops believe the couple were gunned down, but that he had frequently heard gunshots when he first moved to the neighborhood in 2014.
Another local, who did not want their name published, said the killings felt like a ‘violation of our peace’ in a neighborhood they said had had its ‘bad times’ with ‘drug-related’ violence.
They said the Tepes ‘were lovely people, wonderful people, just very sweet and very kind.'
Another neighbor said he knew Spencer as a ‘great dude, great guy, very friendly, great part of the neighborhood. That's what you'll hear from everybody,’ he told the Mail.
He said their killings are ‘shaking the community a good bit’ and that there is a ‘lot of grief, and a lot of unknowns.'
‘There's no reason or rhyme to this, and it makes zero sense as to why this happened.’
Asked for comment, Columbus Police told the Daily Mail: ‘On January 10, detectives filed warrants charging Michael D. McKee, 39 with two counts of murder in the deaths of of Spencer Tepe and Monique Tepe.
'Mr McKee was arrested in Rockford, Illinois without incident. He is currently incarcerated in the Winnebago County Jail.'
A police spokesman told the Daily Mail that no further information will be released at this time so as not to compromise the ‘active and ongoing case progress.'
He said more information would be released when appropriate.