The Murders of Spencer and Monique Tepe: The Arrest

Summary

Murder Sheet: The Murders of Spencer and Monique Tepe – The Arrest

Date: January 13, 2026
Hosts: Áine Cain (journalist) & Kevin Greenlee (attorney)

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Episode Overview

This episode delivers a major update in the December 30, 2025, double homicide of Spencer and Monique Tepe of Columbus, Ohio. The hosts break down the recent arrest of Michael David McKee—Monique’s ex-husband—exploring the timeline, speculation about motive, court documents, and the suspect’s background. The discussion emphasizes facts, highlights context for speculation, and maintains the presumption of innocence.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Case Background and Victim Profiles

• Victims: Spencer Tepe, a dentist in Athens, and Monique Tepe, a stay-at-home mom.
• Family: The Tepes had two young children, who were found unharmed.
• Community Impact: The case drew significant national attention due to the victims' reputations and the brutality.

  “...these are just nice people. So when people who are...very nice and productive members of society...when they end up murdered, it attracts a lot of national media attention…” (Anya Cain, 01:40)

2. The Arrest of Michael David McKee

• Development: On January 10, 2026, Michael David McKee was arrested and charged with the murders.
• Connection: McKee is Monique Tepe’s ex-husband, not a stranger to those involved.

3. The Tepe–McKee Marriage and Divorce

• Marriage Details: Brief marriage (August 2015–May 2017), no children together, ended over “incompatibility.”

  “Very short marriage...no children together...no spousal support. So...those factors were not a part of it.” (Anya Cain, 05:08)

• Speculation vs. Facts: The hosts note online speculation about possible abuse or stalking but point out the lack of concrete evidence.

  “We’re long on speculation and short on facts.” (Anya Cain, 04:05)

• Divorce Documentation: Standard restraining orders present, but legal experts confirm this is routine and does not imply prior violence.
• No Outstanding Motive: No custody or support battles, which are typical “pressure points” in domestic homicide cases.

4. Probable Cause Affidavit & Arrest Details

• Affidavit Content: Filed by Detective Russell Weiner (Columbus Police), outlines evidence.
• Timeline: Police responded at 9:57AM after Dr. Tepe failed to show up for work; both victims found deceased by 10:11AM (15:14).

  “On December 30, 2025 at 9:57am Columbus Police patrol officers were dispatched...found Dr. Tepe and his wife...deceased...Two minor children were found inside...unharmed.” (Affidavit, 14:40)

• Surveillance: Video footage captured a suspect near the scene, tracked to a vehicle linked to McKee.
• Vehicle Evidence: McKee’s car located in Rockford, Illinois, with evidence linking him before and after the crime.

5. Suspect Profile: Michael David McKee

• Personal Background: Born 1986, age 39, physician (vascular surgeon), deep roots in Zanesville, Ohio. No apparent criminal record.
• Academic/Professional Achievements: Honor roll student, commended National Merit Scholar, played varsity football, graduated from Bishop Rosecrans High, attended OSU for both undergraduate and medical school.
• No Prior Red Flags: Hosts emphasize that sometimes those accused of serious crimes have outwardly successful, disciplined lives.
• Notable Quote:

  "Physicians do bad things just like everyone else…some people are really smart in one way and not so smart in other ways.” (Anya Cain, 30:17)

6. Lead Detective: Russell Weiner

• Experience: 19+ years as homicide detective, prior work in narcotics and tactical operations.
• Survivor: Seriously wounded in the line of duty in 2020, has since returned to active service.
• Collaborative Effort: Hosts stress that investigations are team events, not the work of lone detectives.

7. Speculation and Societal Context on Domestic Violence

• Potential Motive: While nothing is confirmed, hosts discuss the prevalence of domestic-related slayings by former partners.
• Warning Against Assumptions:

  “There’s just been an arrest. There hasn’t been a trial. Innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.” (Kevin Greenlee, 05:44)

• Longer-Term Grudges: Hosts reflect on how old grievances—sometimes years after divorce—can fester, resulting in violence in rare but tragic cases.

8. Impact on Victims’ Children and Families

• Emotional Toll: The two orphaned children are a focus of the hosts’ compassion.
• Quote:

  “Those two children...put to bed by a mother and father who loved and cherished them and then woke up to a nightmare...” (Kevin Greenlee, 45:16)

9. Legal Process & Next Steps

• Extradition Hearing: McKee was arrested in Illinois; will likely be extradited to Ohio for trial (46:00).
• Ongoing Coverage: The hosts promise to closely follow further legal developments, evidence presentations, and the defense’s stance.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Speculation vs. Fact:

  “We're long on speculation and short on facts.” (Anya Cain, 04:05)

• On Routine Legal Language:

  “It's boilerplate. Sometimes people see language like that and they make assumptions...” (Anya Cain, 09:07)

• On Academic Success Not Precluding Crime:

  “Physicians do bad things just like everyone else…some people are really smart in one way and not so smart in other ways.” (Anya Cain, 30:17)

• On Domestic Violence as an Epidemic:

  “Whenever an ex is accused of a crime like this, your thought goes to domestic violence. Certainly there's an epidemic of domestic violence in this country.” (Kevin Greenlee, 40:13)

• On Grievance Collectors:

  “The people who I think you're more likely to meet are the grievance collectors. They blame other people for all of their own personal failings...” (Anya Cain, 43:17)

• On Loss to the Children:

  “Those two children...put to bed by a mother and father who loved and cherished them and then woke up to a nightmare…” (Kevin Greenlee, 45:16)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Case Introduction and Context: 00:31–03:59
• Victim Profiles & Community Reaction: 01:26–03:59
• Speculation on Motive (Divorce, Relationships): 03:59–07:17
• Breakdown of Divorce Documents & Legal Standard: 05:08–10:59
• Probable Cause Affidavit Details: 11:37–16:16
• Surveillance Evidence & Police Work: 16:16–20:42
• Background on McKee (suspect): 21:49–31:08
• Discussion on Intelligence and Crime: 31:08–33:37
• Detective Weiner’s Background: 33:37–40:13
• Social Context & Reflection on Domestic Violence: 40:13–42:00
• Orphaned Children and Family Impact: 45:16–45:58
• Extradition and Next Legal Steps: 46:00–47:16

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Tone & Language

The hosts maintain a careful, respectful tone: balancing journalistic detail, legal analysis, and empathy for the victims’ families. They frequently caution listeners not to rush to judgment, reiterating the presumption of innocence, and contextualize speculation as speculation—not fact.

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Summary

This episode provides calm, thorough reportage on the new arrest in a high-profile Ohio double homicide case. It distinguishes between fact and rumor, explores legal nuances, and paints a detailed portrait of both the victims and the accused—while foregrounding the human cost for the surviving children and loved ones. The Murder Sheet confirms its reputation for respectful, meticulous, and intelligent true crime coverage.

Transcript

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[Anya Cain]

Store Today Anya I'm Anya and today.

We'Re going to be talking about a major update in the murder of a young couple from Columbus, Ohio. Content WARNING this episode contains discussion of murder so we have been following the double homicide of, as we mentioned, a young couple in Columbus, Ohio. This was the December 30, 2025, murders of Spencer and Monique Tepe. Well, we can tell you now, as you've probably seen over the weekend, there has been an arrest in this case. We're going to talk about what we know so far, what we don't know, and get into some of the biographical information about some of the folks involved in this.

My name is Anya Cain. I'm a journalist.

[Kevin Greenlee]

And I'm Kevin Greenlee. I'm an attorney.

[Anya Cain]

And this is the Murder Sheet.

[Kevin Greenlee]

We're a true crime podcast focused on original reporting, interviews and deep dives into murder cases.

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[Anya Cain]

The murders of Spencer and Monique Tepe. The Arrest. So this is a case that's really haunted a lot of people. You have this young couple with two young children living their lives in Columbus, Ohio. Monique, the wife and mother, was a stay at home mom and Spencer was a dentist who worked at a dental practice in Athens, Ohio. We've actually heard from some folks who had Spencer as a dentist or, you know, knew them just kind of indirectly through that and said he was like the nicest guy, like, just like a wonderful, wonderful dentist who was very good at setting his patients at ease. And that's something you've seen reflected in the media reporting. Like, these are just nice people. So when people who are, you know, by all accounts very nice and productive members of society who are just living their lives, raising their young children, going to work, doing what they need to be doing when they end up murdered, it's, it attracts a lot of national media attention and that has certainly happened with this case. So over the weekend, news broke that there had been a development Again, these murders occurred on December 30, 2025, in the early hours in the morning. And on January 10, there was movement. We're recording this on Monday, January 12. This. This big development took place on Saturday, January 10. And so that is when the complaint and probable cause affidavit was filed on an individual named Michael David McKee. Michael David McKee is not really a stranger to this situation. Michael David McKee is the ex husband of Monique Tepe. So she had been married previously, and this is the ex husband.

[Kevin Greenlee]

Do we know much, if anything, at this early date about what their marriage was like?

[Anya Cain]

No, I think there has been a lot of speculation on the Internet. People are saying maybe he was controlling, maybe he was obsessed with her, maybe he was stalking with her. Maybe it was abusive emotionally, psychologically, physically. But we're short on. We're long on speculation and short on facts.

[Kevin Greenlee]

Yeah, I think this is speculation, and I admit that. But when you hear about an ex husband killing his former wife, your mind goes in certain directions, and you wonder if there was a history of domestic violence.

[Anya Cain]

Yes.

Or at the very least, emotional abuse or, you know, controlling behavior. It's hard for people to believe, especially in this case. I think we're all often used to situations where there's an ongoing legal custody battle over children, there's an ongoing legal battle over money. There's, you know, a very recent divorce that. Or breakup that results in something like this.

[Kevin Greenlee]

And this was a divorce that happened, as you say, years ago, and there were no kids involved.

[Anya Cain]

Yeah. And I'll get into the divorce shortly. And we can kind of go into this because it's, again, it's not really what you expect. But the thing is, we don't know the situation, and we don't know the personalities involved, and. And we don't know all. All of that. And I think one thing that's been interesting, I've seen some media reports where the family members of the victims have sort of indicated that they're not surprised by this. So I imagine there will be more information that comes out over time that maybe nothing can explain this, but certainly maybe clarifies things or like, shows maybe there were some.

[Kevin Greenlee]

And also, let me make the obvious point. There's just been an arrest. There hasn't been a trial. Innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

[Anya Cain]

Sure, sure. But, you know, in terms of, you know, just the. The family reaction, it doesn't seem like they're terribly surprised. Let's talk about this brief marriage between McKee and Monique. So they were married on August 22, 2015. By May of 2017, Monique had filed for divorce. Very short marriage. I mean, that's, that's just a few months, really. So this was not a long term thing. Uh, they had no children together. And when she filed the divorce, it said they were living separately, they were owners of separate and marital real property. And, and, and what? She said the grounds for the divorce was income incompatibility. They got divorced in Ohio, and they both waived an objection to venue or jurisdiction, meaning that they're both okay getting divorced in Ohio. She asked for divorce. And what we found out from these divorce documents is neither one of them own owed the other one spousal support. So that means that this is not a situation where there's alimony being paid. You know, and that's something that can, you know, again, divorce tempers flare and oftentimes over kids and money, people have different ideas of what they want their children to be doing. People have different ideas about custody of children. People have different ideas about, like what, you know, someone might feel upset if they're paying their ex spouse money. But in this case, those factors were not a part of it.

[Kevin Greenlee]

There weren't those pressure points. No children, at least on the outside. I believe Mr. McKee was a doctor, so I presume he wasn't hurting for money.

[Anya Cain]

He was a vascular surgeon. And we'll get more into his career later.

[Kevin Greenlee]

But yeah, but I think it's also important to remember in a situation like a divorce, when there's been a personal relationship, sometimes things that to outside observers seem very small and very trivial can loom huge in the minds of the people involved.

[Anya Cain]

Yeah, I guess it's. Anything that doesn't come from sources who are close to the situation is just speculation at this point. But this is a situation where Monique was ultimately responsible for her debt, for her credit cards, for her student loans. He was responsible for his student loans. So kind of, you know, one thing that kind of, I think a couple people pointed out in this divorce, you know, these divorce filings, is that there was a standard mutual restraining order. And people say, whoa, is that a sign of something?

[Kevin Greenlee]

No, no. It's very common if you, if you go through a divorce, you know, if you've been married to someone, there's like no boundaries. And you just think, oh, I can just walk into their house or something, and no. No. So in a divorce, it's very common for there to be official court papers saying, no, no, sir, you can't go into your wife's or your former wives residence without her permission, and she can't go into your residence without your permission.

[Anya Cain]

And that's exactly what it said. It said, you can, you know, go to each other's house, but you have to have permission. And that does not mean that anything happened. That's just.

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[Kevin Greenlee]

It's very standard.

[Anya Cain]

It's boilerplate. So that's.

Sometimes people see language like that and.

They make assumptions, and the legal reality is quite different. There's nothing really that stood out to me within what I saw with the divorce documents that struck me as something that, oh, my goodness, this is a powder keg. It was, you know, because again, no children. The money thing seems to be pretty settled. It's a long time ago. Again, they. They got divorced in 2017, having only been married for a little while. And you, you have, you know, there's nothing in there that really sets off any flares in my mind. But of course, that doesn't mean anything. I'm just, I'm just telling you what I'm seeing. So in terms of what we have now, I will get into the probable cause affidavit. And this, of course, is where an investigator is making a case to a judge for oftentimes a search or an arrest saying, you know, yeah, because the.

[Kevin Greenlee]

State has the power to arrest us and take away our liberties. The state has the power to come into our homes and do searches. That's a pretty big power and it needs to be justified. A police officer just can't wake up in the morning and say, oh, I want to go arrest this person. I want to go search this house. They have to have what is called probable cause. They have to have a good reason, and a judge has to sign off on that. And that is all public because it's important that there be a check on the power of the state in these instances so that we can all look at and say, yes, this was a proper exercise of that power. So a rough case is laid out in a probable cause affidavit for an arrest where it says, here's why we think he is guilty.

[Anya Cain]

Yeah, yeah. So that. That's exactly. That's very helpful. Just so we know what we're kind of getting into here. And this is a pretty short probable cause affidavit. You know, I mean, I know, like within true crime, I feel like we've gotten to the point where people who are kind of laypeople like to kind of like, look, see. Oh, my gosh, is this a, you know, is this a good probable cause affidavit or a bad one. And I sometimes think a lot of people who kind of engage in that don't really know what they're talking about. But in this case, it's very short. I don't really think that means anything. You don't have to put everything in your pca, but this kind of highlights the big points about why they feel like there's probable cause here.

[Kevin Greenlee]

You don't have to put your entire case in the pca. You just have to put enough in there to justify the arrest. Here's the probable cause for the arrest. Here's enough information to reach that standard. Certainly, we've seen probable cause affidavits which go into great detail, like the one in the University of Idaho case. Even in the Delphi case, the probable cause affidavit was basically what the man Richard Allen was convicted of.

[Anya Cain]

We initially thought that was a weak probable cause affidavit. But then over time, as we kind of put it together, we were like, oh, wait, no, that's. That's kind of the case. And so I. I feel like, you know, this is. This is just one. I'm just pointing out that it's short. So. David. Michael. Michael David McKee, rather, he's listed as a man. He was born in 1986. He's 39 years old. He has brown hair, green eyes, weighs about 200 pounds, and is white. And his last known address was on North Lincoln park west in Chicago, Illinois, in an apartment. And he is now charged with two counts of murder, essentially, initially, Nat has been upgraded to two counts of aggravated murder. So when we're talking about aggravated murder, that's a situation where there might be certain factors that, I guess, for lack of a better term, make it worse.

[Kevin Greenlee]

What were those factors in this case?

[Anya Cain]

I don't know. I just saw the news that came across. So, I mean, I think the fact that. I mean, morally speaking, if you're accusing a guy of murdering people with little kids in the, you know, home, that's pretty horrific. But I don't. I don't really know what would count as an aggravating factor in Ohio law. There's. It's often very specific about what can be counted. You can't just say, oh, and he was wearing a. A black hat, and so that means it's worse. You know, there's specific things that I would imagine would go into making this an aggravated case. Is that right?

[Kevin Greenlee]

Yes.

[Anya Cain]

So, as I mentioned earlier, Michael David McKee is a physician. He is a vascular surgeon. And we will go into that a little bit more later. But let's go into this. January 10, 2026 PCA. First it was filed in with the Franklin County Municipal Court in the City of Columbus and the complainant is Detective Russell Weiner of the Columbus Police Department. And both counts have him shooting and killing Monique Francis Tepe and Spencer Louis Tepe with a firearm. And so Detective Wieners is, you know, within this document says, quote, I have personal knowledge of the facts listed in the statement of Facts as I was involved in the underlying investigation and or arrest. So I'm going to just read a paragraph from this to kind of start us off. Quote. On December 30, 2025 at 9:57am Columbus Police patrol officers were dispatched to North 4th street on a check on the well being of a Dr. Spencer Tepe who who had not shown up to work. Officers arrived and found Dr. Tepe and his wife Monique Tepe deceased inside suffering from gunshot wounds. Two minor children were found inside the home unharmed. Columbus fire medic number seven responded inside and pronounced both victims deceased at 10:11am It's 2026.

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So this is a situation where you know by that time, by 10:11, I think 10:03 was the fourth and final of the four calls to 911 from friends and colleagues of the TEPES. And that was where they discovered the bodies. I think there's some indication that the last call at least some of the friends were inside and were able to observe that Spencer at least had been murdered. So let's go on to the next portion. Quote, two minor children so that I already got that, sorry, quote Columbus Police Homicide Unit Team 2 is advised, responded and initiated an investigation. During the subsequent investigation, detectives were able to identify a suspect through neighborhood video surveillance. This suspect was tracked to a vehicle which arrived Just prior to the homicides and left shortly after the homicides. Detectives were able to identify this vehicle further and link it to Michael McKee. Detectives located the vehicle in Rockford, Illinois, and found evidence of McKee in possession of the vehicle prior to and after the homicides. End quote. So one thing that was notable about this case was a bit of surveillance footage of a man walking in the alleyway right near the Tepes home. You know, wearing a hoodie, hood up, head down. That was some. That was something police released and asked if anyone knew anything about that. Obviously, they had more surveillance footage than just that. And obviously that surveillance footage obviously captured a car, too. So that seems to be the biggest issue, increasingly, with more and more surveillance cameras out there, with things like license plate readers. All of that benefits police in terms of identifying who a suspect might be. Whereas in the past, if you didn't have those tools and that technology, somebody could kind of just go in and out of a place without really showing any signs that they were there. So kind of reminds me a little bit of the Idaho murders case, where there was kind of, okay, we were noticing this car driving around. I'll be curious to see, are they able to say this is this car? Because we're seeing the license plate or the car matches. I'll be curious. It sort of feels, from reading this, like they're saying this is the car.

[Kevin Greenlee]

Right.

[Anya Cain]

But I could be wrong. So McKee at that point, you know, you know, by the time he was arrested Saturday, he was in Illinois. He was apparently in Rockford, Illinois, and he was taken into custody there, charged with the two counts of murder that was upgraded to premeditated aggravated murder. And, you know, as we mentioned, they had gotten divorced. Now. Now, this is interesting. Monique and McKee had actually lived in Virginia, that he apparently had some kind of job there at a hospital. And so they. They moved quite around a lot. He's also been connected. He's been connected to Illinois, obviously, Ohio, and then also Nevada. So those are some things about him. So I want to talk a little bit about this suspect because I. I kind of did a little bit of a deep dive into him. I wanted to learn more about who this guy is. Does he have a criminal record? Does he have any sort of red flags?

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What'd you learn?

[Anya Cain]

I couldn't find anything about any criminal record, Although, you know, that can happen. Not everybody who does surprising crimes is necessarily a career criminal. That doesn't mean this guy's guilty either. I'm just saying, I. It doesn't matter. Either way. But I didn't see anything about that. I did see that he had very deep roots in Zanesville, Ohio. And I'm going to be talking about just what I was able to find about this guy. And just note, when we're talking about any academic achievements of a person who is accused of a vicious and horrible homicide, we're not glorifying the guy. We're just trying to give you background on who he is and sort of what his public facing Persona has been for years. So I hope that makes sense to people. But my source for this that I heavily relied on was the Zanesville Times Recorder that I accessed through newspapered.com, which is a wonderful resource source, especially when you're looking at stuff back in the past when there was a lot more robust local reporting. So from what I could find, Michael David McKee's parents are James David McKee and Mary Agnes Burkhart. So James McKee was the principal of the Nashport School, which was an elementary school in Zanesville. And the, the two, the pair of them were married in 1973 at the St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Zanesville. And Mary, the mother, attended Bishop Rosecrans Rosecrans High School and graduated from there in 1965. Graduated from cum laude from Ohio University and taught at the McIntyre Elementary School and was a member of the St. Nicholas parish. James McKee graduated from Zanesville High School in 1963, got a degree from Muskegon College and a Master of Education from Ohio University and was a member of the Euclid Avenue Methodist Church and the Elks. So they, they wed in 1973. Michael was not born until 1986, so they didn't have him until a bit later into their marriage on August 6, 1986, after his birth, the Nashport School staff had a little ad in the newspaper saying, welcome to Michael David McKee. Congratulations, mom and Dad. So people were excited, his, his father's colleagues, apparently. So as far as his childhood goes, September 18, 1990, there's a picture of him as a little kid at age four looking at books at the John McIntyre Public Library. A couple years later in 1994, he's listed as a fourth grade, I'm sorry, a first grader at the St. Nicholas School. And he was got an honorable mention from Ohio Secretary of State Bob Taft in the fourth annual Voter Registration Kids poster design contestants. So that's a little giving you a sense of his childhood. He was a student at the St Nicholas School and that was a Catholic school that seemingly incorporated elementary and middle school. And quite a number of times he was listed on the honor roll. I think I counted 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Yeah, six instances where he was on their honor roll at, in his middle school. So he was doing well academically.

[Kevin Greenlee]

And I mean let's. This is an obvious point. If you're somebody who ends up in medical school, someone who becomes a doctor, you probably had a lot of academic success in your life.

[Anya Cain]

You had to, because otherwise you're not.

Going to get into medical school.

So none of this was terribly surprising. He showed interest in science early on. He went to the state science day at Ohio Wesleyan University in 2000 and received an excellent rating there. And he also, yeah, then went on to his mother's alma mater of Bishop Rosecrans High School. And so to give you a sense, Bishop Rosencrantz High School was a. The result of a merger between St. Nicholas and St. Thomas Aquinas High schools. So this is a private Catholic high school in Zanesville. And he also achieved a lot of academic success there. I think I counted 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 instances from 2002 to 2005 where he at least achieved the 3.5 honor roll. In a couple instances he received the principal's recognition, which meant he had an even higher gpa. So he was certainly having a lot of success in terms of his academics throughout his young life within the Bishop Rosenkranz High School. He also played varsity football for three years and got a special mention in the all Ohio football team. He ranked fifth in his class with a 3.9 GPA. He was a commended National Merit Scholar. He was the biology student of the year one year member of the National Honor Society, placed in the top 25 for the Ohio University's American History contest and got a special reckon recognition for his essay. For that he participated in student council. He was in the key club. He was an altar server at the St Nicholas parish, which in Catholicism means you basically get up there and you help the priest do stuff during the mass. And he was said to love golf, hunting, fishing. And as early as high school in the newspaper when they were sort of profiling him as an academic all star, he indicated that he wanted to pursue pre med in college and wanted to become a surgeon. So that had always been a goal for him. Now one thing to note is that he never seemed to be like the top student. Like I don't like. He was not like the person who did the best in his class, but he was just doing good Generally. Well, I think it's fair to say so.

[Kevin Greenlee]

Certainly better than I did.

[Anya Cain]

Kevin, everyone did better than you did. You were what they called a slacker.

[Kevin Greenlee]

Yes.

[Anya Cain]

You were a bit of a slacktivist. He did, he did better than me, I'll say that. I mean, I, I was like a, I, I feel like I was like a B plus, a minus because I do like really well in stuff I was interested in and like bomb in math. So in terms of some special recognitions, I mean, he was in the newspaper a lot. In 2001, he was listed as a St Nicholas student, a listed as 14 year old who won the Zanesville City Schools spelling bee. And he said he won $200 for that. He said the hardest word he got was laceration, and he won with the word siege. In 2004, he was listed as a commended student because for the 2005 National Merit Scholarship program, he and another girl at his school, they placed on in the top 5% of 1 million students who took the preliminary SAT or PSAT in 2003. And he, yeah, he, he just generally did well in. On May 27, 2005, he's listed as graduating from his high school and, or going to graduate on May 29 rather. And then he also continued some academic success when he went to Ohio State University, which of course is in Columb. And he made the honor roll between 2006 and 2009. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 times as far as my count, as far as what was listed in the newspapers. So, you know, he was doing well. I couldn't really find any newspaper reports about him from Columbus, Ohio area newspapers from 2000 to 2026. I kind of cast a wide net, but you know, again, no real indications that anything is going wrong here. But I think it's really important to say a lot of people have actually pointed that out. I've seen people comment like, why would a guy who did all this studied, he went to Ohio State University both as a undergraduate and for medical school. Apparently doctors, you know, I come from a medical family. Physicians have to go through an. A lot of training, a lot of schooling. It's expensive, it's long, it's hard, it's difficult to become a doctor. So oftentimes I think when people see doctors accused, medical doctors accused of something horrible, they're kind of like, why would you put in all of that effort and then wreck your life? But unfortunately, physicians do bad things just like everyone else. And I will say this, this guy hasn't had the trial yet. We haven't seen the evidence yet, so let's keep an open mind. But having been having been fortunate enough to be around smart people a lot of the time, I can tell you that some people are really smart in one way and not so smart in other ways. In fact, sometimes people are so smart in one way that they almost think that they're smart in every way and that can result in some really dumb things happening.

[Kevin Greenlee]

Yes, and I would go so far as to say is that the vast, vast majority of people are only smart in certain areas. There are areas, frankly, I think I'm pretty smart in. But you would be a fool to like, oh, Kevin, you know about this topic. So you also must be able to help me repair my car engine or things like that.

[Sponsor Voice]

Just because you have expertise or knowledge.

[Kevin Greenlee]

In one area that's not transferable.

[Anya Cain]

It's not necessarily, and frankly it can be detrimental if you feel like you're smart and you don't have any sort of humility. I think the people like that can really do themselves a disservice. Not, not, not necessarily going to murder case. But just in general, like, I, I really, I, I feel like intelligence is something that is, is not necessarily like a binary. I think some people can be extremely gifted in certain areas and really have a dearth of knowledge or ability in other areas. And I count myself in that. Like, I'm, I'm really not gifted in many areas and I, you know, you try to focus on what you're good at. Right. But knowing your flaws and pitfalls can be helpful because then it keeps you from thinking, oh, I'm God's gift to intellect and you know, I can't do anything wrong. I think that's where people run into trouble. So I guess I just say that with. We have seen other physicians murder people in the past. It can happen. So I, I just think it's important that we just, we don't necessarily stereotype and be like, why would a smart guy do this? He's obviously smart. He's a doctor. Well, we've seen it before, we'll see in it, see it again. And you know, we're keeping an open mind because this isn't, hasn't gone to trial yet. But I, I think again, smart, otherwise smart people who are good at their jobs are capable of doing all sites, types of inane and, and destructive things. Yeah, that's a bit of the information I was able to gather on him then. I was, I was very interested because I wanted to, you know, I'm always Curious, like, who's working on this case? So the affiant was this Detective Russell Wiener, and he has been apparently a homicide detective since 2007.

[Sponsor Voice]

So 19 years.

[Anya Cain]

Yeah. So I, I, I'll go into what information I could find about him because I'm always just interested in, like, who's working on a case. Now this is with the caveat that he is the affiant. But in many high profile investigations in particular, crime solving is a team sport. It's not a solo event at all. Even, even smaller cases, you have a lot of input from lab staff. You have crime scene investigators helping out, you have different detectives running down different aspects of things. I think true crime really needs to abandon the paradigm that we've gotten from mostly crime fiction, which is the lone detective doing it all, figuring it all out, because that does not really give us much insight into how this actually works. So while his name is on the document and I will be focusing on him, I don't, don't take this as me saying that this is, you know, this is the guy who's the only one doing anything because, I mean, obviously it's a team effort. We saw that, and we've seen that in every case that we've ever, like, looked at.

[Kevin Greenlee]

Absolutely.

[Anya Cain]

Sometimes the team effort's great and it's like people working together in a really, like, comprehensive way. And sometimes it's chaos because you have a bunch of people fighting behind the scenes. But either way, it's a group effort. So you have. He becomes a community liaison officer in 2012, and he was in the Columbus Dispatch quoted as being the community liaison officer for Precinct 19, which in Columbus, Ohio. My understanding is that covers the Hilltop neighborhood, which is a residential area where I think it was traditionally working class, and crime has been a problem there. So in, in, he was involved in a number of narcotics investigations and, and seemingly homicides. I don't, you know, I don't know that much about Columbus Police Department, so I don't know, like, you know what, like what? I mean, it sounds like you can kind of be doing both at the same time because he seemingly was. So on February 8, 2017, he signed an affidavit talking about, you know, saying he was with the narcotics bureau for the Columbus Division of Police and saying he was part of an investigation on a property on Belvedere Avenue that they were looking at for drug sales and had investigated two covert purchases of heavy narcotics in 2016 and 2017, and this was for crack cocaine. He was involved in another narcotics investigation on or around October 29, 2018, he and a confidential informant conducted a covert purchase of heroin on West Mound street and involving a guy named Joe. And he was, he ultimately applied for and was granted a warrant to search that premises for drugs. He was also a member of intact, which stands for Investigative Tactical. And this is like a special Narcotics enforcement team, I think a bit akin to SWAT within Columbus. No, this is, this is perhaps the most, you know, dramatic thing that he was involved in prior to this case. On May 28, 2020, Detective Weiner was part of the Intact team responding to a home. They had been investigating this place since January of 2020 with help from federal law enforcement as well as state law enforcement. So it was kind of a, you know, kind of a multifaceted effort here because this home was suspected of being used in drug trafficking as well as money laundering involving a guy named Eric Gray. Eric Gray's mother, 68 year old Rita Gray was inside this home on Shelford Drive. Police knocked on the door, apparently they announced themselves. The knock went unanswered. So they entered the residence and at this point Weiner went into the home and was shot. So he, Rita Gray opened fire on the officers. He was shot once outside of his protective vest and was seriously injured and was rushed to surgery. So Rita Gray was then apprehended. She was found with two semi automatic Glocks near her. And Detective Weiner was rushed to the hospital and he was ultimately recovered. And On a, on May 29, the Columbus Police Department released a statement saying, quote, we are so thankful that he is able to be with his family today and the coming weeks, days, weeks, months and years. As today is his birthday. So he was shot a day before his birthday. Jesus. And they said at that point he'd served 25 years. So I guess that means at this point he's served about like 30 years. So he was back on duty by June 1, 2020 and Rita Gray faced federal charges. So the most recent thing that he's been involved in, at least in the media was in 2024, a 13 year old named Angel Salguero Diaz was shot and killed on East Hudson street on the northeast side of Columbus. And he was quoted on that, talking about how they were looking at different, you know, surveillance footage in order to figure out what happened. Since then, 20 year old Jayvon Jones and 21 year old Doc Parker were arrested. So that that case saw some development. So that's a bit of information on, on the various folks involved in this so far as far as this kind of new development as far as suspect and the police investigation goes. I will note that one thing that I found a bit interesting is that it seems like there is kind of a large Ohio State University connection here. As I mentioned, McKee, the suspect in this case, attended there, and Spencer Tepe and Monique Tepe, I believe, also, or at least Spencer Tepe went there. He was on the honor roll in 2008, so he seems to have been of couple years behind. But yeah, it's just. It's really sad and so unfortunate that these two young parents were killed in this way. And I imagine we're going to learn a lot more, you know, as time goes on. I mean, what are your thoughts so far on everything I've kind of described to you based on what's going on here?

[Kevin Greenlee]

Well, I guess. I guess I bring it up to what I said at the beginning. This is speculation, but whenever a person who's an ex is accused of a crime like this, your thought goes to domestic violence. Certainly there's an epidemic of domestic violence in this country. And the idea that this woman would be a victim to this and that this man would be in her life for all these years afterwards and that he would have this anger against her that, if the charges turn out to be true, resulted in him taking her life is just horrifying to me.

[Anya Cain]

I completely agree. And if this is the case and the charges against him do turn out to be true and he's convicted and whatnot, you know, she's somebody who did everything right. She got away from a person who was bad news. She moved on. Years passed. She was with another person who she had a great relationship with. By all accounts, they had children. And to think that the shadow of the specter of. Of this kind of damaged person could follow her that far crossed the years. I mean, they're divorced in 2017. She's murdered in 2025, you know, eight years.

[Kevin Greenlee]

And if you get a divorce and.

[Sponsor Voice]

There'S no children, there's no need for.

[Kevin Greenlee]

You to ever see that person again. And if you have anger towards them, the best way to get revenge is just to go and be happy and lead your own life.

[Anya Cain]

It's really shocking to me just the amount of mayhem and murder that a man can cause just because they're feeling rejected and like, how long that can simmer because. Yeah, you're right. Listen, in the heat of the moment, within a divorce, feelings of anger, I think are normal. Feelings of betrayal, you know, all of that. That doesn't justify any sort of violent behavior whatsoever. The second you know you're doing that, then you're completely unjustifiable. But to have it linger over the years to this extent, you know, that's wild to me. And if, if it's, if it's true that this man did this and he, you know, had professional success in the interim, it really makes you wonder, like, what kind of emotionally damaged personality are we dealing with here? Because you, one would hope that somebody who had a successful career in an engaging field like medicine, you know, would have something to do other than, you know, stalk and murder their ex and their ex's new partner. I mean, I just. But I mean, we see it. I mean, it's not, it's not, unfortunately, it's not unfathomable because you see it. You know, people feel like they're entitled to other people. People feel like they're entitled, you know, and then they go and they take a life or they, they harm other people. And, you know, it's, it's, it's beyond the pale. But it, it doesn't really surprise me because I just feel like I see a lot of cases like this. Maybe the timing's a little bit unusual, but, you know, you never know what's going to set somebody off. And, you know, I think the, the people who I find the scariest in life, just like in terms of true crime, obviously the serial killers, right? I mean, the sexually motivated, sadistic serial killers, those are the scariest. But the people who I think you're more likely to meet are the grievance collectors. And these are the people who, they blame other people for all of their own personal failings. They blame other people for every bad thing that happened to them. And instead of dealing with those feelings of anger, sadness, disappointment, shame, whatever, they tend to them for years and they scare me because you could walk away thinking, okay, well, that's resolved at this point, and then they will still come back to haunt you because they are incapable of letting it go. And so if Monique was dealing with a personality like that, I mean, God help her, I mean, what a horrible situation. But, you know, obviously McKee is innocent until proven guilty, as you said. I mean, that's certainly a very apt thing for prospective jurors, you know, and, and whatnot. We're not a court of law, we're a podcast. But we try to be open minded. And ultimately I'm looking forward to seeing what evidence exists against him and learning about that in more detail. But I'm also interested in seeing what his defense is. Does he is he going to claim he has an alibi? Is he going to claim that, you know, it couldn't have been him for, you know, however many number of reasons? This is going to be something that we're going to be following.

[Kevin Greenlee]

But yeah, and my heart goes out not just to the murder victims here, but I think like so many of us, my thoughts also go to those two children who that night were put to bed by a mother and father who loved and cherished them and then woke up to a nightmare and woke up to a world where they are orphans. So my thoughts are with them. I'm sure the Tappy family is taking care of them and loving them and doing the best they can. Those poor children.

[Anya Cain]

It's horrible.

Couple of housekeeping things I will note is that today, January 12th, there is a hearing set in Illinois for McKee. And what the press is saying at this point is that this is believed to be an extradition hearing. So as we mentioned, he was arrested in Rockford, Illinois and this crime took place in Ohio. So because he's in one state and he needs to be brought back to another state, there is a process that that happens. It is called extradition. And he will presumably at some point be moved to Ohio to face, you know, you know, go through this court process there. So he can waive it, he can fight it. But typically I would say between the states that, that that's something worse. You know, somebody will be transferred. It can be difficult in most situations. I would imagine that that would just proceed pretty smoothly. So there is a hearing today. He will appear. We're recording this before that's happened. But that is going to be something to watch. And I think some local news outlets are trying to stream it so people can watch along. But I don't know what the exact details are of are, you know, at this point. But anyways, that's something that's going on.

But thank you all so much for listening.

Anything else, Kevin, that you wanted to add?

[Kevin Greenlee]

I think that covers it.

[Anya Cain]

All right, thanks guys.

[Kevin Greenlee]

Thanks so much for listening to the Murder Sheet. If you have a tip concerning one of the cases we cover, please email us at Murder Sheet. If you have actionable information about an unsolved crime, please report it to the appropriate authorities.

[Anya Cain]

If you're interested in joining our Patreon, that's available at www.patreon.com murdersheet. If you want to tip us a bit of money for records requests, you can do so at www.

Buymeacoffee.com murdersheet we very much appreciate any support.

[Kevin Greenlee]

Special thanks to Kevin Tyler Greenlee, who composed the music for the Murder Sheet and who you can find on the [e-mail] if you're looking to talk with.

[Anya Cain]

Other listeners about a case we've covered, you can join the Murder Sheet Discussion group on Facebook. We mostly focus our time on research and reporting, so we're not on social media much. We do try to check our email account, but we ask for patience as we often receive a lot of messages. Thanks again for listening.

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