A person who knew Michael McKee and Monique Tepe tells PEOPLE that McKee struggled to move on after his divorce
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There was a time when Michael McKee and Monique Tepe were very much in love, according to a friend who knew the former couple.
After divorcing in 2017 — less than two years after they married in 2015 — Monique struggled for a while, but was soon back to her old self again and putting herself out there, the friend tells PEOPLE.
That led to her meeting Spencer Tepe through an online dating app, says the friend, and in 2020, she went on to marry the dentist and fellow Ohio State University alum.
That fairytale romance ended in tragedy, however, on Dec. 30, 2025.
Monique and Spencer were killed inside their Columbus, Ohio home just a few blocks away from their alma mater as their two children, ages 4 and 1, were asleep in their bedrooms.
Then, on Jan. 10, 2026, McKee was arrested and accused of murdering the couple more than eight years after his divorce from Monique.
The friend, who still spoke to Monique but had not spoken to McKee in years, says that McKee’s anger may have come from seeing his ex-wife’s happiness.
“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,” the friend says.
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McKee and Monique married in August 2015, but things began to sour after they moved to Virginia for McKee’s post-medical school residency, according to the friend.
“At first when it was just starting out, they seemed so happy and they were so in love, but he was always manipulative,” she alleges. She also says that it took years for her to realize McKee was doing these things and finding ways of “bending things to his will.”
She adds: “He needed to be in control of most situations, but wouldn’t make it seem like he was controlling the situation.”
He also allegedly exerted a level of control over Monique, says the friend, that became more evident when the newlyweds moved to Virginia. That alleged control and Monique’s displeasure about living almost five hours from her family and friends played a big part in the couple’s split.
“She is a family girl and a girl’s girl. She needs that in her life and she didn’t have that. It was just the two of them in a new place and she had no support system,” the friend says.
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After the divorce, Monique moved on — but the friend says McKee did not do the same.
Monique remarried to Spencer — a man referred to as the “love of her life” by friends and family — in 2020, and according to the friend, they were “so happy.”
“Everything you see is completely true because that’s who they were. That’s how much love and pride and joy they had for one another,” the friend says. “They really were perfect. Their kids really were perfect. Their life really was perfect.”
McKee would ask around about Monique whenever he saw a mutual acquaintance, says the friend, who then addressed the rumors of McKee stalking Monique prior to the murders.
“I’ll say that we’ve been talking about it, but none of us ever actually saw any evidence of this,” the friend says, adding that Monique also never mentioned anything about McKee.
“She had moved on,” the friend tells PEOPLE. “He had not.”
A grand jury in Franklin County voted to indict McKee on four counts of aggravated murder and a single count of aggravated robbery on Friday, Jan. 16, according to court records obtained by PEOPLE.
He is currently in custody at the Winnebago County Jail in Illinois while awaiting his extradition to Ohio.
Police previously told PEOPLE that McKee invoked his Fifth Amendment right to self-incrimination after his arrest and refused to speak with detectives.
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