On December 30, Spencer and Monique Tepe were shot dead in their home.
Monique’s first husband, a vascular surgeon named Michael David McKee, has now been arrested for the murders.
And as evidence against McKee mounts, new information reveals a checkered past filled with scandal and abusive behavior.
According to a new statement from Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant, McKee had the murder weapon in his possession at the time of his arrest.
“Multiple weapons were taken from the property of McKee, and there is a preliminary link to one of the weapons that ties it to the homicides,” Bryant said in a press conference held Wednesday (per The New York Post).
“What we can say, this was a targeted attack. This was a domestic violence-related attack, as we know McKee is the ex-husband of Monique Tepe,” she added.
“We believe at this point we have the person responsible for the murders of Monique and Spencer Tepe, and that person is Michael McKee.”
Today’s update comes on the heels of a series of startling updates about McKee’s past.
Multiple reports now indicate that McKee had been behaving erratically and dodging legal trouble for the past several years.
Rob Misleh, who is married to Monique’s sister, recently revealed that she ended their marriage abruptly after experiencing profound emotional abuse.
“Monique was very vocal about being terrified of this guy [till her death],” Misleh tells People.
“He was very emotionally abusive to her, to the point that it changed her as a person,” Misleh alleges.
And Monique isn’t the only one who had firsthand knowledge of McKee’s dark side.
According to a Las Vegas-based attorney named Dan Laird, McKee spent several years employing shady tactics to avoid a malpractice lawsuit.
McKee tells WSYX in Cincinnati that the surgeon used fake addresses and “questionable” state-issued phone numbers to avoid being served with subpoenas.
“Interestingly, the address that was given to us by the surgery group that he worked for turned out to be a fake address,” Laird told the outlet, referencing Las Vegas Surgical Associates LLP.
“It was an address that doesn’t exist.”
Laird says his client accused McKee of failing to properly train a physician’s assistant, and the situation resulted in an emergency surgery to correct the damage.
The attorney went on to state that he was stunned by McKee’s alleged attempts to avoid accountability, and that he had never encountered such behavior from a doctor before.
“They tend to be highly responsible people. They’re not the kind of people who just disappeared suddenly, and this was very surprising to us,” Laird told the outlet.
The Tepe’s two children, ages 1 and 4, were at home at the time of the murders, but were not harmed.
We will have further updates on this developing story as new information becomes available.