COLUMBUS — Authorities believe they have found the gun used in the Dec. 30 slaying of a former Ashland dentist and his wife, Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant revealed on Wednesday.
Former Ashland dentist Spencer Tepe, 37, and his wife Monique, 39, were found shot to death in their Columbus home. Their two children, a 4-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy, were found unharmed in a separate room of the same house.
Police provided an update on the case, which has drawn national attention, Wednesday in Columbus.
Monique Tepe’s ex-husband, Michael McKee, 39, a vascular surgeon in Rockford, Illinois, was charged with two counts of murder in connection with the case, according to the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office.
Illinois authorities reported that McKee was arrested for the crime in a Rockford Chik-fil-A restaurant around 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 10.
Police searched McKee’s Chicago condo and found additional evidence, including multiple firearms, Bryant said Wednesday. One of those weapons has been matched through ballistic evidence from the homicide scene, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
Spencer Tepe worked at Stone Creek Dental in Ashland before recently transferring to Columbus, where he was employed at Athens Dental Depot.
McKee, who was an honorable-mention All-Ohio football player at Zanesville Rosecrans High School, graduated from Ohio State’s medical school in 2014 and has practiced in Nevada, California and Illinois.
He is in custody in Illinois awaiting extradition to Ohio.
Detectives identified McKee as a suspect through Columbus neighborhood surveillance and tracked his vehicle to Rockford, located about 79 miles northwest of Chicago, court documents showed.
Authorities have stated that three 9mm shell casings were found inside the home, but no gun was recovered at the crime scene.
Detectives believe the murders took place between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. on Dec. 30. Police previously released surveillance video showing a “person of interest” walking in the alley near the Tepes’ residence in the early morning hours of Dec. 30.
The video, released by the Columbus Division of Police, shows the man walking slowly in an alley near the Weinland Park home where Spencer and Monique lived.
McKee and Monique (Sabaturski at the time) were married in August 2015. Monique filed for divorce in May 2017, according to court records. McKee was listed as living in Virginia at that time.
Spencer and Monique Tepe were married in January of 2021 in their Weinland Park neighborhood home. That’s the same residence where their bodies were found, just a month short of their fifth anniversary.
Spencer Tepe had worked at Stone Creek Dental in Ashland before recently transferring to Columbus, where he was employed at Athens Dental Depot.
The Tepe’s two children and the family’s dog are reportedly in the care of their relatives.
