Madeleine Tepe Misleh’s last memory with her brother Spencer Tepe, before his shocking killing in December, was on Christmas day, when Tepe beamed at her latest artistic creation: princess dresses for Tepe’s 3-year-old daughter Emilia.
“My brother has always been one of my biggest fans,” recalls Misleh, 35, “[and] one of the biggest fans of my art, so he was always proud.”
Misleh spoke to PEOPLE nearly three weeks after Tepe, 37, alongside his wife Monique Tepe, 39, were found slain in their Columbus, Ohio home. The couple’s 3-year-old and 1-year-old were found in a nearby room, physically unharmed.
The slayings came as a shock to the Tepes’ friends and family, left unable to fathom who would want to harm the “madly in love” couple.
On Jan. 10, police arrested Michael David McKee, 39, who had been briefly married to Monique more than a decade ago. He has been indicted on aggravated murder and burglary charges.
As friends, family and the community reel from the shocking double homicide, Misleh says she is holding on to her memories with her brother — especially their last few days, when they met for Christmas.
“We grew up playing Nintendo 64, and we were playing Mario Kart, and Spencer and Monique got a Nintendo Switch for Christmas,” recalls Misleh. “So the last night I was with them, we were all playing Mario Kart. It was a full circle moment.”
She then shares a funny memory: “We gave them controllers and Spencer and Monique gave us electric toothbrushes,” she laughs.
Rob Misleh
Madeleine Tepe Misleh at age 15, and Spencer Tepe at age 17.
Misleh, too, was her brother’s cheerleader and supporter. During his time at dental school, she says she let him practice his skills on her.
“I was Spencer’s practice patient for Invisalign, so I was always going up to Columbus while he was in dental school,” she recalls with a laugh.
Spencer, known as the protective brother and son, was also a youth mentor who grew close with his mentee’s family over the decade he worked with them.
His mentee, whom he guided from first grade through high-school, even came to Spencer’s dental school graduation in 2017.
“Spencer was always involved, he was always in a club,” says Misleh. “Always pushing the limits — everywhere.”
Columbus police have not disclosed a motive behind the killings but say it was a “domestic-violence related” and “targeted” attack.
McKee was arrested near his workplace in Rockford, Ill. and booked into the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office. He is set to be extradited to Ohio to face the charges.
Prior to his indictment, he told an Illinois judge through a local public defender that he plans to plead not guilty to the murder charges.
News
A Chilling Coincidence at LaGuardia: Two Deadly Crashes, Same Date… Exactly 34 Years Apart — And People Are Starting to Notice
LaGuardia Airport has now experienced two tragedies exactly 34 years apart. A passenger plane crashed as it attempted to take off from the Queens travel hub in a snowstorm on March 22, 1992. The Cleveland-bound USAir flight tumbled off the runway and spiraled into Flushing Bay, killing 27 of the 51 people on board, including […]
Black Box Reveals Pilots’ Final 10 Seconds Before LaGuardia Crash… And It Changes Everything
Passengers on the Air Canada flight that crashed with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport have described the “chaos” as the aircraft veered out of control on the runway — while suggesting the pilots who died may have saved countless other lives. “It was a regular flight like always,” passenger Jack Cabot told […]
JUST RELEASED: Shocking 1-minute security footage captures the final moments of James Gracey — police say the Alabama student was seen accidentally falling into the water while traveling in Spain… but chilling details in the video are now raising more questions than answers.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Police have concluded that the death of a 20-year-old University of Alabama student on holiday in Spain was an accident, citing footage showing him falling into the ocean the night he went missing. According to the newspaper El País, security camera footage from the early morning hours Tuesday showed James Paul […]
Scandal erupts around Nancy Guthrie: sheriff spotted cruising to the gym in a flashy convertible more often than visiting the case scene — as the investigation mysteriously stalls with no answers in sight.
The garrulous Arizona sheriff who has failed to find Savannah Guthrie’s missing mother has been spending more days pumping iron at the gym than at his desk, The Post can exclusively reveal. Chris Nanos — the embattled chief lawman of Pima County leading the hunt for 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie — was spotted at his office […]
SPRING BREAK HORROR: What REALLY Happened to This American Student in Barcelona?
The 20-year-old Illinois native disappeared while visiting friends studying abroad in Spain. Authorities in Spain say that James “Jimmy” Gracey, a 20-year-old University of Alabama student who disappeared this week while on a trip to Barcelona, has been found dead. Gracey, a native of Elmhurst, Ill., went missing overnight on Tuesday and was last seen […]
DAY 2: MISSING U.S. STUDENT IN BARCELONA — WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON TO SEE HIM ALIVE?
Search Intensifies for Missing American Student in Barcelona as New Clues Raise Troubling Questions Authorities in Barcelona are continuing their urgent search for 20-year-old American student James “Jimmy” Gracey, whose sudden disappearance during a spring break trip has sparked growing concern on both sides of the Atlantic. Now entering its second day, the investigation is […]
End of content
No more pages to load
