‘I had quite a journey to get to you. Countless bad Bumble dates, wrong relationships and waterfalls of tears.’
Those were the emotional vows of Monique Tepe as she tied the knot with the love of her life, dentist Spencer Tepe, in an intimate ceremony watched by family and friends in December 2020.
It was a loving tribute to the man she called ‘her lobster’ – who, in turn, doted on her as his ‘best friend.’
But now, five years on from that special day, Monique’s hints at a negative past relationship have taken on new meaning after she and Spencer were gunned down inside their home in Columbus, Ohio, in December – and her ex-husband Michael David McKee was charged with their murders.
McKee’s stunning arrest has fueled questions about a possible motive, particularly given that he and Monique had divorced more than eight years prior to the double murder.
Dr Gary Brucato, a leading clinical and forensic psychologist who co-led the largest study ever on mass murders, said there are certain questions that must be asked to understand motive when former partners or spouses kill.
‘What these things boil down to is first establishing the degree of impulsivity versus planning. Then, if there was a long break between their separation and the event, was it a practical thing or was it just long-held jealousy?’ Brucato told the Daily Mail.
‘And if it was long-held jealousy, then did it get set off by something or did they just sit around fantasizing for years and years before finally getting the nerve to do it? Those are the steps you have to go through to understand the why.’
In the case of the Tepe double murder, Brucato said there is not yet enough information to speculate on the suspected killer’s possible motive.
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Spencer and Monique Tepe on their wedding day in December 2020. While exchanging vows, Monique spoke of ‘wrong relationships’ prior to meeting Spencer
McKee is yet to enter a plea and is innocent until proven guilty. Law enforcement have released very little information about the investigation. And little is known about the suspect and his short-lived marriage to Monique.
During his first court appearance in Illinois on January 12, his public defender Carie Poirier said he plans to plead not guilty.
McKee and Monique married in August 2015, and separated just seven months later in March 2016.
Monique filed for divorce, saying the couple was ‘incompatible.’
Court records make no mention of any major conflicts or alarming issues and the reason for the rapid breakdown of the marriage is unclear.
The divorce was finalized in June 2017, court records show. The couple did not share any children.
More information is needed about the case, Brucato said, such as: mental health history, any history of domestic violence, reasons why the marriage broke down, how much the former couple communicated following their separation and if they had crossed paths since.
While it is too soon to speculate what could have led McKee to allegedly track down and kill his ex-wife and her new husband years after their own marriage ended – if he even is the killer – Brucato explained that, generally speaking, the motive for killing a former spouse typically falls into one of two categories.
‘The first bucket is the impulsive, emotional kind of situation where a person impulsively becomes overwhelmed with feeling, jealousy or anger, and will, for example, barge into their house and kill them,’ he said.
‘Usually this happens within close proximity to the separation or an affair or so on because the passion will burn lower over the years in a normal person – they move on.’
The other bucket, Brucato explained, is where the killer ‘broods for a long time’ after the separation or issue.
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Michael David McKee, 39, has been charged with the murders of his ex-wife Monique Tepe, 39, and her husband Spencer Tepe, 37
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Monique and Spencer were shot dead inside their home in Columbus, Ohio, on December 30
There two types of motive within this category: a practical motive such as a resentment over a custody or settlement arrangement, or an emotional motive and long-running desire to get revenge.
‘This is where a person is emotionally angry, but in a kind of detached way where they could hold a grudge for years and years and basically want to get revenge. Where everybody else thinks life has moved on and everybody’s happy, but this brooding person is quietly enraged and is just waiting to level the playing field,’ Brucato said.
‘It’s a sort of mechanical, detached expression of jealousy, control, and anger… the person comes back years later because they’re brooding and they’re looking at their life and thinking: ‘if I can’t have it, nobody can.”
An eight-year gap between the end of a relationship and a murder – like in the Tepe case – is unusual, Brucato said.
Dr. Gary Brucato speaks to the Daily Mail about ex-spouses who kill
‘It’s unusual because it takes a certain type of person to be that angry and hold a grudge for so long. It’s more common for people to be furious immediately about something and then grow out of the anger,’ he said.
‘Most spousal killings are people that are emotionally overwhelmed. You’ve walked in on someone who’s cheating on you or you’re controlling and don’t want to let the person go.
‘But to wait years to ruin a person’s happiness is calculated, cold-blooded, reptilian.’
Generally, when a former spouse harbors a long-standing grudge, that doesn’t necessarily mean the plot to kill was years in the making.
Instead, there will often be a ‘precipitating factor’ or setback that motivates them to finally act.
It can be something as simple as coming across an old photo, remembering an anniversary, or something that reminds them – or bumping into them again, Brucato said.
‘They’re walking around brooding, mad and delirious for a long time thinking they would like to kill them but then something pushes the person and then they go, ‘you know what, it’s time,” he said.
That time allegedly came in the early hours of December 30, when Spencer, 37, and Monique, 39, were shot dead in their home in the Weinland Park neighborhood of Columbus.
There was no sign of forced entry to the home and their two young children, aged one and four, and pet dog were left unharmed.
For more than a week, police remained tight-lipped about the investigation, revealing only that they were on the hunt for a shady, hooded figure captured on a security camera in the alley next to their home between 2am and 5am the morning of the murders.
Then, on Saturday, there was a huge break in the case when 39-year-old surgeon McKee was arrested and charged with two counts of murder.
The charges were upgraded to premeditated, aggravated murder on Monday, before a hearing where McKee waived his right to an extradition hearing in Illinois. He will now return to Ohio to face charges.
Court documents reveal that McKee was linked to the murders after his vehicle was captured on surveillance footage near the crime scene around the time of the murders.
Police have not confirmed whether McKee is the hooded individual seen in the footage circulated to the public.
But, if that video does show the couple’s killer, Brucato said it shows a person who appears to be walking very calmly to commit the crime.
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There was no sign of a break-in at the couple’s home (pictured) and their two young children were left unharmed
‘That person does not seem passionate in that moment, but calculated and cunning enough to conceal their identity, look inconspicuous, and calm. That suggests a calculated person who thinks ‘it’s D-day, it’s time to go in and settle this,” he said.
And if the crime is about jealousy and begrudging an ex’s new life, then it also would not be surprising to kill the current spouse, he explained.
‘If this is about jealousy and anger at being left, whether it is impulsive or not, then ultimately it’s about having a wound to your ego. You’ve lost control, you’re the loser,’ he said.
‘So it’s about wanting to restore a sense of one’s own ego… Ultimately, if there’s an ego wound, because of the loss of control, jealousy, anger and feeling that someone else is having what you should be having, then the motive can simply be: if I can’t have it, then you can’t have it.
‘It’s about leveling the playing field to satisfy your sense of manhood or power or control.’
McKee now lives in Rockford, Illinois – over 300 miles from the Tepe’s family home – where he works as a vascular surgeon at OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center.
Following his arrest, a relative of the Tepes – who did not wish to be named – told the Daily Mail that the family was not surprised to learn McKee is accused of being the perpetrator.
‘It was absolutely not a shock to anybody, we had all expected it, but we weren’t saying that, because we didn’t want to compromise the investigation,’ the relative said.
‘We are all breathing a bit of a sigh of relief, because they got him.’
It is not clear what possible red flags led the family to suspect McKee. The relative said they did not know of any problems Monique and Spencer had had with McKee recently.
McKee is yet to enter a plea on the charges.
He faces life in prison without parole or the death penalty if convicted.
