A former friend of Michael McKee and Monique Tepe says the couple once appeared deeply in love — but that things changed long before the tragedy that later unfolded.
After McKee and Monique divorced in 2017, Monique struggled for a time, the friend said, but eventually found her footing again. She began dating and later met Spencer Tepe through an online dating app. In 2020, she married Spencer, a dentist and fellow Ohio State University alum.
That new chapter ended violently on Dec. 30, 2025, when Monique and Spencer were killed inside their home in Columbus, Ohio — just a few blocks from their alma mater — while their two children, ages 4 and 1, were asleep in their bedrooms.
On Jan. 10, 2026, authorities arrested McKee and accused him of murdering the couple, more than eight years after his divorce from Monique.
The friend, who remained in contact with Monique but had not spoken to McKee in years, believes resentment may have built as McKee watched Monique move on.
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“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 said.
McKee and Monique married in August 2015, but the friend alleged the relationship began to deteriorate after they moved to Virginia for McKee’s post-medical school residency.
“At first when it was just starting out, they seemed so happy and they were so in love, but he was always manipulative,” the friend claimed. She said it took time to recognize what she described as a pattern of McKee “bending things to his will.”
She added, “He needed to be in control of most situations, but wouldn’t make it seem like he was controlling the situation.”
According to the friend, the controlling behavior became more noticeable after the move to Virginia. Monique also struggled with being nearly five hours away from her family and close friends — something the friend described as a major factor in the 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 said.
After the divorce, Monique rebuilt her life, the friend said — but believes McKee did not.
Monique and Spencer were viewed by loved ones as an ideal match, the friend said, describing the couple as genuinely happy.
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“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 said. “They really were perfect. Their kids really were perfect. Their life really was perfect.”
The friend also said McKee would sometimes ask mutual acquaintances about Monique when he ran into them. Addressing rumors that McKee may have stalked Monique before the killings, the friend said she never personally saw proof of that and Monique never raised any concerns.
“She had moved on,” the friend said. “He had not.”
A grand jury in Franklin County indicted McKee on four counts of aggravated murder and one count of aggravated robbery on Friday, Jan. 16, according to court records obtained by PEOPLE.
McKee is being held at the Winnebago County Jail in Illinois while awaiting 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.
