(NewsNation) — Court records indicate the long-closed divorce case between Monique Tepe and Michael McKee was mistakenly revived months before Tepe and her spouse, Spencer, were killed.
McKee and Monique Tepe were married on Aug. 22, 2015. The marriage lasted fewer than two years, ending in May 2017, before the case received a new hearing, which appeared on the docket in June 2025. The development, which was deemed a clerical error by court officials to USA Today, is just the latest in the high-profile murder case against McKee.
On Wednesday, Columbus police said investigators had located the murder weapon used in the slayings. Elaine Bryant, chief of the Columbus Division of Police, said the firearm was tied to McKee, who faces two counts of murder in the Tepes’ death. Law enforcement officials said additional evidence and multiple guns were found at McKee’s condo.
“We believe at this point we have the person responsible for the murders of Monique and Spencer Tepe, and that person is Michael McKee,” Bryant stated during a news conference. “We can’t speak to all of the specifics related to this case, so we don’t want to jeopardize the ultimate conviction.”
Video of a person of interest, later said by authorities to be McKee, walking in an alley hours before they were discovered dead, was found. While Bryant said investigators have not determined a motive in the killings, they suspect that McKee drove from Columbus, Ohio, to Rockford, Illinois, after the killings.
In May 2024, months before the killings, McKee was named in a complaint for malpractice in Las Vegas. Reporting from People magazine indicated the vascular surgeon was accused of overseeing a surgery during which an 8.6-inch catheter shard broke off in a patient’s leg, causing “lower extremity bleeding, edema, pain, discoloration, disfigurement and other injuries.”
McKee is awaiting extradition from Illinois to Ohio.