In a shocking revelation, autopsy reports have laid bare the horrific details surrounding the alleged murder of an Ohio couple, believed to have been carried out by the wife’s former spouse, a surgeon.
The tragic incident unfolded on December 30, when Monique Tepe, aged 39, was found to have been brutally shot nine times across various parts of her body. Her husband, Spencer Tepe, 37, suffered a similar fate, enduring seven gunshot wounds. These grim details were uncovered in postmortem examinations obtained by the Daily Mail.
Their lives were cut short in their Columbus residence, a crime for which Monique’s ex-husband, Michael McKee, also 39, was apprehended on January 10. Authorities have charged him with the double murder of Monique and her second husband.
The Franklin County Coroner’s Office offered a detailed account of the attack on Monique. She was shot once in the face, thrice in the chest, twice in the left upper arm, once on the right side of her torso, and sustained additional gunshot wounds to her right forearm and right hand. Her body also bore abrasions on the chest and left forearm, alongside a bruise on her left calf.
Spencer Tepe’s injuries were equally severe. The coroner’s report noted two gunshot wounds to his chest, with additional shots to his back, neck, left ear, left hand, and right arm. He also had an abrasion on his left arm, marking the violent nature of the attack.
The coroner determined that Tepe’s husband was shot twice in his chest, once in his back, once in his neck, once in his left ear, once in his left hand and once in his right arm. He also had an abrasion on his left arm.
Both the Tepes’ deaths were ruled as homicides caused by the many gunshot wounds they suffered. Police said that the firearm used in the murders was equipped with a silencer.
The couple had a one-year-old son, a four-year-old daughter and a dog who were all found unharmed in the home by police after the double homicide.
Michael McKee, 39, was arrested for murdering his ex-wife and her second husband in their home. The autopsy report for his ex-wife’s death revealed she was shot nine times
Monique Tepe, 39, and her husband Spencer Tepe, 37, were found shot dead in January
Monique and Spencer Tepe got married in 2020, about three years after the wife had divorced McKee. Spencer was also found with multiple gunshot wounds
McKee was arrested in Rockford, Illinois, after a 10-day manhunt to find the couple’s killer. The city is about 440 miles, or a seven-hour drive, from Columbus, where Tepe and her husband were murdered.
The ex-husband was extradited to Ohio, where he is being held without bond in Franklin County and faces four charges of aggravated murder and an additional charge of aggravated burglary.
He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
Investigators said that McKee was captured on surveillance camera footage entering the Tepes’ home on December 6, just three weeks before they were shot to death, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Columbus Dispatch.
The couple was away that weekend to attend a Big Ten Championship Game in Indiana.
McKee had allegedly been driving a silver SUV, which investigators said had been seen near his ex-wife’s home multiple times before she was murdered.
The affidavit noted that the SUV’s registration was allegedly linked to past addresses McKee had lived at and a hospital where he worked. The vehicle also had stolen Ohio and Arizona license plates at different times, the court document stated.
McKee’s phone had been left unused at the hospital where he worked in Illinois for 17 hours, from December 29 until after noon on December 30, the day of the murders, according to the affidavit.
Investigators said they found surveillance camera footage showing McKee entering the Tepes’ residence, pictured above, weeks before they were killed
McKee, pictured above in court, has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. He was arrested in Illinois, about 440 miles from the site of the murder, after a 10-day manhunt
Police previously said that they believed the couple was killed just before 4am. Their bodies were found around six hours later.
Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant said after McKee’s arrest that he had a gun with him when he was detained.
‘Multiple weapons were taken from the property of McKee, and there is a preliminary link to one of the weapons that ties it to the homicides,’ the police chief said at a press conference.
‘What we can say, this was a targeted attack. This was a domestic violence-related attack, as we know McKee is the ex-husband of Monique Tepe.’
McKee and Tepe were briefly married in August 2015. Their divorce was finalized less than two years later in June 2017. Tepe married her second husband in December 2020 and took his last name.
In her complaint for divorce, Tepe said she was ‘incompatible’ with her then-husband, according to court records previously reviewed by the Daily Mail.
Court documents revealed that Tepe told friends McKee had been abusive and threatened her life multiple times before and after they were married.
‘McKee had told Monique that he could kill her at any time and would find her and buy the house right next to her, that she would always be his wife,’ a witness told detectives, according to the court filing.
Tepe and McKee, pictured above, were briefly married starting in 2015. Court documents revealed that Tepe told friends that McKee had been abusive and threatened her life multiple times before and after they were married
Another witness said McKee allegedly choked his ex-wife and ‘forced unwanted sex’ on her during the marriage.
Ahead of a memorial service for the couple, a relative told the Daily Mail that McKee’s arrest was ‘absolutely not a shock’ to the family and that they had been expecting it.
‘We are all breathing a bit of a sigh of relief, because they got him,’ they added.
