OH - Spencer and Monique Tepe found shot to death at home 2 children unharmed, Columbus, 30 December 2025 *ex-husband arrested*

[LAborn]

Normally I always lean towards an ex but I just didn’t think after this long and no children together that he was an issue. I was wrong.
I do still stand by Spencer sharing issues regarding said ex with employees in case anything happened to him or his wife.
What a sad case all around.

Is that known? That Spencer shared info about the ex with employees?

 

[Cassie P]

Maybe an Alexis type device in the home recorded something? Not that far fetched?

I’m confident they have a lot on this monster. Wonder how long the extradition process will take?

Some beds like Sleep Number record heart beat activity.
Extradition cannot come soon enough for the people of Ohio.

 

[ElishiaMarie]

Is that known? That Spencer shared info about the ex with employees?

It is not. I still think that was the urgency to call 911. Again IMO. No need to start rehashing that again.

 

[LAborn]

It is not. I still think that was the urgency to call 911. Again IMO. No need to start rehashing that again.

I'm new to the thread, so have no idea what's been hashed or rehashed. Adding "jmo or moo" helps ID comment as opinion vs. fact.

 

[shonyakay]

He probably was visiting family for the Holidays in Zanesville, Ohio and on his way back home to Rockford, Illinois stopped by the Tepe's in Columbus (which was about 1 hour away from Zanesville) to commit this crime. Did he have this planned out? If so, how far in advance? How did he know that the Tepe's wouldn't have guests staying over that night? The fact that he used his own vehicle is stupid if he had this planned out for any length of time.

 

[TIGER0822]

Have you ever been through a divorce? It is a life-altering experience, even with no kids involved. Their divorce might have appeared uneventful on paper, but no divorce is uneventful emotionally. I don”t know how their marriage ended, or who left whom, but people can harbor rage and resentment for years. M & S’s wedding video being freely available on YT might not have helped either. He was honestly my main suspect from day 1. It just made the most sense since it was called targeted, even 8 years after the divorce. I guess I have watched and read too much true crime. I bet LE looked into him hard right away.

I considered him unlikely. MT filed for divorce.

 

[airportwoman]

I've been out all day, and just heard this on NBC News. I am GOBSMACKED. This is insane!

 

[nerosleuth]

Extradition cannot come soon enough for the people of Ohio.

It is my understanding from the WSYX-TV website that McKee is scheduled to have an court appearance on Monday in Illinois for an extradition hearing and that he could be extradited back to Ohio as soon as Monday afternoon.

 

[OhDannyBoi]

Perhaps you can share your insights on this case. I am interested in hearing them.

Nope. The wisest course of action is to wait and see rather than make baseless assumptions on limited evidence that rely more on bias than actual facts.

That would be the least reckless course of action until more details are provided in court.

 

[Cassie P]

This is so weird. And surprising....the last person I would have thought of doing it.

Never got over divorce? I dont get it. Why?

We don't yet know the answer to this question. And why this killer spiraled totally out of control and committed two brutal murders.
We will know more as the truth and facts come out.

 

[airportwoman]

Have you ever been through a divorce? It is a life-altering experience, even with no kids involved. Their divorce might have appeared uneventful on paper, but no divorce is uneventful emotionally. I don”t know how their marriage ended, or who left whom, but people can harbor rage and resentment for years. M & S’s wedding video being freely available on YT might not have helped either. He was honestly my main suspect from day 1. It just made the most sense since it was called targeted, even 8 years after the divorce. I guess I have watched and read too much true crime. I bet LE looked into him hard right away.

ISTR that he was the first person they looked at, especially when it was revealed that their divorce case was reopened last year.

I have a feeling that his second wife feels a lot safer, now that he's behind bars. Does anyone know if they had any children?

 

[armchairagatha]

This is a puzzler. Their (ex and Monique) marriage was short, no children. She's been remarried for 5 years, so there's also dating of Spencer making it longer. Ex had also remarried and divorced in that time. He's a neurosurgeon, and threw everything away because of a grunge? Did he harbor anger because he realized the failed marriage must be his fault as Monique went on to successfully have another marriage and children? Tragic and baffling. jmo

Ex was not remarried and may not have had a successful dating life after the divorce from Monique. Maybe he gave off weird vibes and no woman wanted to date him for long. So in his mind, Monique was the one who got away (the one he had had any kind of extended relationship with) and she was doing extremely well without him - new family with loving husband and darling kids. Yes, just rage and envy and jealousy probably were the key motivators for this murder. MOO.

 

[armchairagatha]

ISTR that he was the first person they looked at, especially when it was revealed that their divorce case was reopened last year.

I have a feeling that his second wife feels a lot safer, now that he's behind bars. Does anyone know if they had any children?

There was no second wife. He didn't remarry as per a lot of other posts (here and on reddit).

 

[Knox]

It is not. I still think that was the urgency to call 911. Again IMO. No need to start rehashing that again.

Folks can always read back if they need to come up to speed. I understood your post

 

[airportwoman]

Did not expect it to be the ex

I didn't either.

 

[COSCitizen]

I know someone (E) who escaped an emotionally and physically abusive husband when her two children were very young. This was around thirty years ago. She remarried and the abusive ex had at least one marriage with an additional child since then. He is also in a long standing relationship with a rather well-off woman with whom he lives.

Despite it being 25 years since the divorce, a few years ago he sent E some sufficiently concerning text messages that she consulted the local sheriff's department. They absolutely took her concerns seriously, and told her that if he ever shows up, call them and don't let him in the house. They also made some recommendations on how to better secure the household. E also told several people besides myself about the creepy messages, including their kids. Her son is no-contact with the guy, and her daughter is low contact. He has stopped sending her messages, but she keeps a record of everything anyway, just in case.

I was talking to her and she asked "Why me?" I told her I thought it was because she was the one who got away. He made the decision to terminate the second marriage. She made the decision to escape the abuse and his control (helped by her therapist, her lawyer, and some friends) and he can't stand that.

 

[Cassie P]

Nope. The wisest course of action is to wait and see rather than make baseless assumptions on limited evidence that rely more on bias than actual facts.

That would be the least reckless course of action until more details are provided in court.

So when the case goes to court you will be more comfortable rendering your thoughts about the case? I look forward to that time then.

 

[Knox]

It is my understanding from the WSYX-TV website that McKee is scheduled to have an court appearance on Monday in Illinois for an extradition hearing and that he could be extradited back to Ohio as soon as Monday afternoon.

Would he have to agree to waive for it to happen that quickly? I forget how it works?

 

[warp3dwing]

With the Idaho case, I’ve spent way too much time trying to think of how you would avoid tying yourself to a vehicle. Career criminals just steal cars (then burn them), which seems to work, but if you don’t have a criminal background, you probably just increase your odds of getting caught if you attempt that.

I recall from the Idaho case that the search for matching vehicles only reached to neighboring states. So, one could get a long term rental (like, one month), from somewhere at least 1,000 miles away. 2 day drive, take your time and see some sights. Somewhere in the middle, steal a license plate. Ideally from a car with the same make and model, and from a location without cameras. Swap the plates (somewhere isolated). Swap back somewhere else isolated along the way back. Benefit to keeping the car for a month is you’ll be less likely to be suspicious for having a large number of miles on the car.

It seems surprising to me that someone with a surgeon’s background and money wouldn’t go to those steps, since it seems simple enough to me, but it may have been a more spur of the moment crime with limited planning. Which I do think makes sense. Months of anger and obsession build up, and then something over the holidays triggered him to snap.

Maybe a couple days of planning. Not long enough to do it well or, more importantly, to come to your senses and not do it at all. My guess is between getting the impulse to actually kill, and following through on the murders, he had no distractions (didn’t go into work; didn’t get together with family, etc.). But that said, the holidays probably aren’t a coincidence. Getting together with family, going back to your hometown (?), etc. can all be emotional.

From following true crime, it has always seemed to me like a disproportionate number of murders happen in December.

Exactly. I suppose like anything else, having extensive background "experience" is required to pull off such a feat as modern-day murder without a hitch. McKee's a newbie, and unless he simply didn't care about getting caught, his lack of planning is perplexing for anyone who's ever watched a case of Forensic Files.

You just can't drive in your own car cross-country on highways and toll roads to the proximity of a murder scene and get away with it.

That being said, there must have been some planning above and beyond a hoodie and facemask.

The big question for me is ingress* egress. Would the Tepes have let this guy in at 3:30 in the morning? Possible, but hard to believe, all things considered.

Would he have driven all that way in the simple hopes that they left the door unlocked AND the alarm off AND actually encounter that very scenario on the night he happened to be there? Seems unlikely.

Was he a McGuyver level lock-picking, sensor-dodging ninja? Highly doubt all that.

Was he hoping they set the code to something easy and was willing to beat a hasty retreat if wrong? Not this nutjob.

I hypothesize the one thing he did have in his proverbial back pocket was the entry code and alarm code (if different). How he got it is what I want to know, especially if this guy was persona non grata amongst the Tepe clan.

*Thanks for pointing out the typo, JDG

 

[TIGER0822]

I haven’t confirmed it so don’t take this as fact but YouTubers (I’m thinking of the Plunder channel’s episode on the divorce from a day or two ago) suggested that all divorce cases attracted these fees, which are paid into funds. They don’t reflect child abuse, etc. in each divorce case.

Correct: all these fields are in the database. The fields with 00 after them are not applicable to the specific case.