ROCKFORD, Ill. (TCN) — A man has been arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated murder in connection with the Dec. 30 shooting of his ex-wife Monique Tepe and her husband, Spencer Tepe, in Columbus, Ohio.
NBC News reports that Michael David McKee, 39, was arrested in Illinois on Jan. 10 and charged with two counts of murder in Ohio’s Franklin County Municipal Court. The charges were updated to two charges of aggravated murder with premeditation on Jan. 12, shortly before his first extradition hearing scheduled in Illinois, the Columbus Dispatch reports.
According to the outlet, aggravated murder is punishable by life in prison without the possibility of parole. Murder is punishable by 15 years to life.
McKee had been married to Monique Tepe, 39, for two years. They divorced in 2017 and had no children together. According to the New York Post, a neighbor of McKee said, “He did not seem like somebody that would do something like this.”
The couple was found shot to death in their home after Spencer Tepe’s colleagues became concerned when he did not show up for work and called the police to request a welfare check. A friend who also went to the Tepes’ home to check on them saw Spencer Tepe’s body through a window and heard the couple’s children, ages 1 and 4, crying inside. The children and the family dog were unharmed in the shooting and have since been placed with family members.
The Columbus Dispatch reports that the Tepes had a camera doorbell at their home, but it’s unclear whether it was working at the time of their deaths, which police said was around 3:50 a.m.
The Columbus Police Department released a video of a person of interest in the shooting and set up an online portal where people could submit tips or additional security footage from their homes. According to NBC, the police have not said whether McKee is the person seen in the video footage and will not be releasing further information.
WBNS reports that according to investigative records, the person in the video is likely McKee and video footage links him to a car that arrived at the Tepes’ home shortly before the killings and left afterward. The New York Post reports the vehicle was later found near McKee’s workplace in Rockford, Ill.
McKee, a vascular surgeon licensed in Illinois and California, is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 12. He has no criminal history except for traffic tickets, NBC reports. Police have not released a motive in the killings.
He is being held without bail in the Winnebago County Jail in Illinois, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
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