Surgeon ex-husband charged in double homicide of dentist and wife slain at $700K home in attack that spared their two children
SOURCE:Daily Mail
The ex-husband of a woman who was discovered shot dead alongside her new dentist husband in their Ohiohome has been charged with their murders.
The cardiovascular surgeon ex-husband of a woman who was discovered shot dead alongside her new dentist husband in their Ohio home has been charged with their murders, the Daily Mail can reveal.
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.
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.
Ohio court records obtained by the Daily Mail reveal Columbus Police identified a suspect through neighborhood video surveillance.
A summary statement of facts in support of probable cause, reads: ‘The suspect was then tracked to a vehicle which arrived just prior to the homicides and left shortly after the homicides.
‘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.
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
Spencer and Monique Tepe's neighbor made a distressed 911 call just over a week before their murder
Eerie surveillance footage shows a hooded figure walking calmly through a snowy alley near the Tepe home during the time the couple were murdered
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 couples’ 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.
The couple was found in their $700,000 Weinland Park home the morning of December 30
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 shock 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.
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’.
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
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’.
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.'
Friends say the couple shared a deeply happy marriage built on laughter, travel and family life
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.
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.
Concerned coworkers called police after Spencer (pictured) failed to show up for his shift at an Athens dentist's office
Police are seen carrying out their investigations following the couple's killing
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.