Michael McKee, Monique Tepe.Credit : Winnabago County Sheriff’s Office; Courtesy of Rob Misleh
Monique Tepe was still dealing with the fallout from her first marriage eight years after her divorce.
Just three weeks before she and her dentist husband Spencer Tepe were found dead in their Columbus, Ohio, home, Monique had to excuse herself during a night out with friends because of a situation involving ex-husband Michael McKee, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by PEOPLE.
McKee is now accused of murdering Monique and Spencer on Dec. 30, as the couple’s two young children slept just a few feet away.
Three weeks earlier, on Dec. 6, during a weekend getaway to Indiana — one week before Monique and Spencer’s fifth anniversary — the incident described in the affidavit unfolded.
Monique and Spencer had joined friends on a trip to watch the Big Ten Championship football game, featuring their alma mater, Ohio State University.
The affidavit states that midway through the game, Monique suddenly informed the group that she needed to return to her hotel room, but didn’t offer an explanation.
Friends later told investigators that Spencer had informed them that Monique was “upset about something involving her ex-husband,” according to the affidavit.
Around that same time, McKee was allegedly captured on neighborhood surveillance footage breaking into the Tepes’ property back in Columbus, police have said.
He allegedly spent a few hours on their property before leaving.
Investigators did not say whether Monique and Spencer were aware of the situation at the time, but the affidavit describes a history of alleged threats McKee had made to Monique over the years.
According to the affidavit, one friend told police that McKee once told Monique she would always be his wife, and threatened to buy the house next door if she ever left him.
The affidavit does not say if McKee allegedly knew the Tepes and their two young children would not be home when he drove over 400 miles from Illinois to their home on Dec. 6.
The affidavit alleges that McKee made that trip in the same silver SUV that was later captured on neighborhood surveillance cameras arriving in the Tepes’ neighborhood in the early morning hours of Dec. 30, just before the couple was killed inside their home.
Police say that same car was then seen leaving the neighborhood shortly after the deaths of Monique and Spencer.
Investigators were able to link McKee to the vehicle and later tracked it down to the medical facility where McKee worked in the city of Rockford, about 80 miles west of Chicago.
Federal agents took McKee into custody near that facility on Jan. 10, and a week later, a grand jury indicted the surgeon on four counts of aggravated murder and a single count of aggravated burglary.
Police later said that a search of McKee’s property led to the discovery of the weapon they believe was used to kill the Tepes.
McKee made his first appearance in an Ohio courtroom on Jan. 23, at which time his lawyer entered a not guilty plea to all charges.
A friend of Monique and McKee’s previously told PEOPLE that while she moved on after the divorce he was still fixated on his ex-wife.
“He thought she could not live without him. That she needed him. So for her to thrive [in her new marriage], that just destroyed his fragile little ego,” said the friend.
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