Killing of Monique and Spencer Tepe

Monique Sabaturski was born on October 14, 1986, in Chicago, Illinois. Her family moved to Worthington, Ohio, when she was one year old, and she was raised there. During her youth, she participated in soccer and running and developed an interest in horses and reading. She attended Ohio State University, where she pursued a master's degree in early childhood education. Monique married Michael McKee in August 2015; they separated in March 2016, and she filed for divorce in June 2017. According to relatives, McKee had been emotionally abusive during the marriage, and Monique had been afraid of him. Spencer Tepe was born on December 9, 1988, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He completed both his undergraduate studies and his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree at Ohio State University. He worked as a dentist in Athens, Ohio. He also maintained interests in competitive activities, particularly soccer and golf, and was fluent in Spanish. Monique and Spencer met online in 2018 and married in 2020. They had two children: a daughter born in 2022 and a son born in 2024. == Discovery ==

On the morning of December 30, 2025, concerns arose when Spencer did not arrive for work and could not be reached. At 8:58 a.m., his employer, who was on vacation, contacted Columbus police to request a welfare check after staff reported that Spencer had not come in and that no one had been able to reach either him or Monique. An officer was dispatched at 9:10 a.m. and arrived at 9:15 a.m., but went to the wrong address, knocked, received no response, and left. Autopsy reports later released by the Franklin County Coroner's Office confirmed that Monique had sustained nine gunshot wounds, including one fired at close range, and that Spencer had sustained seven. Funerals Visitation was held on January 11, 2026, at Schoedinger Northwest in Upper Arlington, followed by a short service at the funeral home. Later that afternoon, a separate gathering in remembrance of the couple took place at Due Amici in Columbus. == Investigation and arrest ==

Police released surveillance footage on January 5, 2026, showing an unidentified man walking through an alley near the Tepe residence between 2 and 5 a.m., the estimated window of the killings. Police later identified Michael David McKee, 39, Monique's ex‑husband, as the man in the video. Investigators also compared the video with vehicle‑tracking data indicating a car associated with McKee arrived in the neighborhood shortly before the homicides and left soon afterward. The vehicle was later traced to Rockford, Illinois, where McKee was employed. McKee was arrested in Illinois on January 10, 2026, at a Chick-fil-A restaurant near his workplace. At a January 14 police briefing, the Columbus Police Chief described the killings as a targeted, "domestic‑violence‑related attack." == References ==