An Illinois doctor indicted in Ohio for the December shootings of his ex-wife and her dentist husband pleaded not guilty Friday in a Franklin County courtroom, appearing remotely from jail, according to the Associated Press. Michael David McKee, 39, was arraigned on four aggravated murder counts and an aggravated burglary charge, with the murder counts tied to allegations of prior calculation and design as well as to the commission of the killings, the AP reported.
McKee, who was dressed in prison attire, did not speak during the brief remote hearing, the report said. Defense attorney Diane Menashe waived a request for bond at least “for now,” the AP said, and prosecutors continued the case through the charging phase that follows the recent grand jury indictment.
Police say the killings occurred in the Tepes’ Columbus home and that Spencer and Monique Tepe were shot there, with their bodies found in a second-floor bedroom, the AP reported. Authorities said the case initially drew attention partly because investigators reported no forced entry, no weapon and no obvious signs of theft, as well as additional violence or motive, according to the AP account.
Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant said McKee was the person seen walking down a dark alley near the property in video footage captured the night of the killings. The chief also said the gun found in McKee’s Chicago apartment was a ballistic match to evidence at the scene and that his vehicle’s movements were tracked from Columbus back to Illinois, the AP reported.
The investigation began after family and others attempted to locate Spencer Tepe, who worked at a dental practice in Athens, Ohio. The AP said police conducted a wellness check around 10 a.m. on Dec. 30 after the dental practice manager reported that Tepe had not shown up for work and characterized the absence as “out of character,” based on a 911 call described in the report.
In a separate call before police arrived, the AP reported, a distraught man who said he was a friend of Spencer Tepe told authorities, “Oh, there’s a body. There’s a body. Oh my God.” The report said the caller described being able to see Spencer Tepe’s body off the side of a bed in a pool of blood.
Franklin County’s Coroner’s Office deemed the deaths an “apparent homicide by gunshot wounds,” the AP said. Family members described Monique and Spencer Tepe in funeral and obituary information as “extraordinary people whose lives were filled with love, joy and deep connection to others,” and obituaries issued jointly said the couple were married in 2020, the report said.
Court and education records described in the AP story trace McKee’s background through Ohio State University, where he enrolled in 2005 and later earned a medical degree in 2014. The report said Monique Sabaturski—later Monique Tepe—also attended Ohio State and received a master of education degree in 2011, and that McKee and Sabaturski married in Columbus in August 2015 before their divorce was granted the following year.
The AP said McKee and Sabaturski were living apart by the time Monique filed to end the marriage in May 2017, and it reported that after the divorce he lived in Virginia at the time. It also said McKee completed a two-year fellowship in vascular surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center in October 2022, and that OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford, where he worked when he was arrested, declined to provide specific information about his employment dates.
According to the AP, McKee was arrested 11 days after the Dec. 30 killings, near his workplace in Rockford, Illinois, and was returned to Ohio on Tuesday to face the charges. McKee is charged with two aggravated murder counts for each homicide—one for prior calculation and design and one for committing the crime—plus the aggravated burglary count, and the AP reported that if convicted he could face a minimum of life in prison with parole eligibility after 32 years and a maximum term of life without parole.