COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Illinois doctor indicted on murder charges in the December shooting deaths of his ex-wife and her dentist husband in their Columbus home pleaded not guilty to the killings in an Ohio courtroom on Friday.
Michael David McKee, 39, appeared remotely on camera from jail for his arraignment in Franklin County, where he faced four aggravated murder counts and one count of aggravated burglary while using a firearm suppressor in connection with the Dec. 30 double homicide of Monique Tepe, 39, and Dr. Spencer Tepe, 37. He was garbed in prison attire and did not speak during the brief hearing. Defense attorney Diane Menashe waived a request for bond, at least for now.
The mystery that first surrounded the case — which featured no forced entry, no weapon and no obvious signs of theft, additional violence or a motive — drew national attention. McKee, of Chicago, was arrested 11 days later near his workplace in Rockford, Illinois. He was returned to Ohio on Tuesday to face the charges against him.
McKee attended Catholic high school in Zanesville, a historic Ohio city about 55 miles (89 kilometers) east of the capital, according to the Diocese of Columbus. He enrolled at Ohio State University in September 2005 — the same semester that his future wife, then Monique Sabaturski, enrolled, university records show. Both graduated with bachelor's degrees in June 2009. Sabaturski earned a master of education degree from Ohio State in 2011, and McKee earned his medical degree there in 2014.
Sabaturski and McKee married in Columbus in August 2015 but were living apart by the time Monique filed to end in the marriage in May 2017, court records show. Their divorce was granted that June. McKee was living in Virginia at the time, court and address records show. He completed a two-year fellowship in vascular surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center in October 2022, according to the school.
McKee also lived in and was licensed to practice medicine in both California and in Nevada, where he was among doctors named in a personal injury lawsuit in a Las Vegas court in 2023. OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford, Illinois, where McKee was working at the time of his arrest, declined to provide specific information on the dates of his employment. His Illinois medical license became active in October 2024.
An Ohio grand jury indicted McKee in the double homicide last week.
McKee is accused of illegally entering the Tepes’ home with a firearm equipped with a silencer, shooting the Tepes — whose bodies were found in a second-floor bedroom — and leaving the property along a dark alley alongside the house.
Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant has said that McKee was the person seen walking down that alley in video footage captured the night of the killings. She also said a gun found in his Chicago apartment was a ballistic match to evidence at the scene and that his vehicle's movements were tracked from Columbus back to Illinois.
A message seeking comment was left with McKee's attorney.
McKee is charged with two aggravated murder counts for each homicide, one for prior calculation and design and one for committing the crime, as well as facing the aggravated burglary count. If convicted, he faces a minimum of life in prison with parole eligibility after 32 years and a maximum term of life in prison without parole.
Columbus police conducted a wellness check on Spencer Tepe at around 10 a.m. on Dec. 30, after his manager at a dental practice in Athens, Ohio, reported that he had not shown up to work on that day, saying tardiness was very worrying and “out of character” for Tepe, according to a 911 call.
Someone else called to request a wellness check before a distraught man who described himself as a friend of Spencer Tepe called police and said, “Oh, there’s a body. There’s a body. Oh my God.” He said he could see Spencer Tepe’s body was off the side of a bed in a pool of blood.
The Franklin County Coroner’s Office deemed the killings an “apparent homicide by gunshot wounds.”
Family members said the Tepes were “extraordinary people whose lives were filled with love, joy and deep connection to others.”
They have described Monique as a “joyful mother,” avid baker and “thoughtful planner.” According to their obituaries, which were issued jointly, the pair were married in 2020.
Spencer Tepe got his bachelor's degree from Ohio State University in 2012 and earned his doctor of dental surgery degree in 2017, according to school records. He was a member of the American Dental Association and had been involved with the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization.
They had two young children. Both were home at the time of the killings and left unharmed, as was the family dog.
This undated booking photo provided by the Winnebago County Sheriff's Office Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, shows Michael David McKee, who was charged in the killing of his ex-wife, Monique Tepe, and her husband Spencer Tepe at their Columbus, Ohio, home on Dec. 30, 2025. (Winnebago County Sheriff's Office via AP)
This image taken from video shows Michael David McKee walking into the courtroom on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Rockford, Ill. (WIFR News/Pool Photo via AP)
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has signaled that U.S. President Donald Trump should apologize for his false assertion that troops from non-U.S. NATO countries avoided the front line during the Afghanistan war, describing Trump's remarks as “insulting” and “appalling.”
Trump said that he wasn't sure NATO would be there to support the United States if and when requested, provoking outrage and distress across the United Kingdom on Friday, regardless of individuals' political persuasion.
“We’ve never needed them, we have never really asked anything of them," Trump said of non-US troops in an interview with Fox News in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday. "You know, they’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, or this or that, and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”
In October 2001, nearly a month after the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. led an international coalition in Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaida, which had used the country as its base, and the group's Taliban hosts. Alongside the U.S. were troops from dozens of countries, including from NATO, whose mutual-defense mandate had been triggered for the first time after the attacks on New York and Washington.
In the U.K., the reaction to Trump's comments was raw.
Starmer paid tribute to the 457 British personnel who died and to those have been left with profound life-long injuries.
“I will never forget their courage, their bravery and the sacrifice they made for their country,” Starmer said. “I consider President Trump’s remarks to be insulting and frankly appalling and I am not surprised they have caused such hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured and, in fact, across the country.”
Prince Harry weighed in too, saying the “sacrifices” of British soldiers during the war “deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect.”
“Thousands of lives were changed forever," said Harry, who undertook two tours of duty in Afghanistan in the British Army. “Mothers and fathers buried sons and daughters. Children were left without a parent. Families are left carrying the cost.”
After 9/11, then Prime Minister Tony Blair said that the U.K. would “stand shoulder to shoulder” with the U.S. in response to the al-Qaida attacks. British troops took a key role in many operations during the Afghan war until their withdrawal in 2014, particularly in Helmand Province in the south of the country. American troops remained in Afghanistan until their chaotic withdrawal in 2021 when the Taliban returned to power.
More than 150,000 British troops served in Afghanistan in the years after the invasion, the largest contingent after the American one.
Ben Obese-Jecty, a lawmaker who served in Afghanistan as a captain in the Royal Yorkshire Regiment, said that it was “sad to see our nation’s sacrifice, and that of our NATO partners, held so cheaply by the president of the United States."
Anger was further fueled by the fact that the comments came from someone who didn't serve in the Vietnam War at a time when he was eligible.
“It’s hugely ironic that someone who allegedly dodged the draft for the Vietnam War should make such a disgraceful statement," said Stephen Stewart, author of “The Accidental Soldier,” an account of his time embedded with British troops in Afghanistan.
Trump received a deferment that allowed him to not serve in Vietnam because of bone spurs, but he has been unable to remember in which foot, leading to accusations of draft dodging.
It wasn't the first time that Trump downplayed the commitment of NATO countries over the past few days. It has been one of his pivotal lines of attack as he escalated his threats to seize Greenland, a semiautonomous territory belonging to Denmark.
Trump’s allegation that NATO countries won’t be there when requested stands in stark contrast to reality.
The only time Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty has been used was in response to the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. The article is the key mutual defense clause, obliging all member countries to come to the aid of another member whose sovereignty or territorial integrity might be under threat.
“When America needed us after 9/11 we were there,” former Danish platoon commander Martin Tamm Andersen said.
Denmark has been a stalwart ally of the U.S. in Afghanistan, with 44 Danish soldiers killed there — the highest per capita death toll among coalition forces. Eight more died in Iraq.
The latest controversy surrounding Trump comes at the end of a week when he has faced criticism — and pushback — for his threats to Greenland.
Trump also threatened to slap tariffs on European nations opposed to his ambitions to annex Greenland, which raised questions over the future of NATO. And though Trump backed down after a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in which he said they formed the “framework” for a deal over Arctic security, trans-Atlantic relations have taken a hit.
His latest comments are unlikely to improve relations.
Diane Dernie, whose son Ben Parkinson suffered horrific injuries when a British Army Land Rover hit a mine in Afghanistan in 2006, said that Trump's latest comments were “the ultimate insult” and called on Starmer to stand up to Trump over them.
“Call him out,” she said. “Make a stand for those who fought for this country and for our flag, because it’s just beyond belief."
Taking her up on that, Starmer said “what I say to Diane is, if I had misspoken in that way or said those words, I would certainly apologize and I’d apologize to her.”
Anders Kongshaug contributed to this report from Copenhagen, Denmark.
FILE - Mourners react as funeral hearses drive the coffins of four British soldiers through the town of Wootton Bassett in England, Thursday, July 22, 2010, after their bodies were repatriated to the UK after they were killed in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, file)
FILE - Relatives of British Army Private Douglas Halliday, of the 1st Battalion The Mercian Regiment, one of the seven British soldiers killed in Afghanistan, line a street as his coffin is driven through the town of Wootton Bassett, England, following repatriation, Tuesday, June 29, 2010. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, file)
FILE - The coffins of seven British soldiers killed in Afghanistan, are driven through the town of Wootton Bassett, England, after repatriation to Britain, Tuesday, June 29, 2010. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, file)
President Donald Trump discuses bruising on his hand with reporters aboard Air Force One after leaving the World Economic Forum in Davos for Washington, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters aboard Air Force One after leaving the World Economic Forum in Davos for Washington, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters aboard Air Force One after leaving the World Economic Forum in Davos for Washington, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
