Ex-husband charged in Ohio couple’s double murder enters not guilty pleas
In this booking photo released by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, Michael McKee is shown. (Franklin County Sheriff’s Office)
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — The surgeon accused of gunning down his ex-wife and her husband entered a not guilty plea at his first appearance in an Ohio courtroom on Friday.
Michael McKee faces four counts of aggravated murder and one count of aggravated burglary for allegedly shooting and killing his ex-wife, Monique Tepe, and her husband, dentist Spencer Tepe, at their Columbus home on Dec. 30, according to police and prosecutors.
McKee, who was taken into custody in Illinois, was booked into the James A. Karnes Corrections Center in Franklin County, Ohio, on Tuesday.
McKee appeared via video at Friday’s brief hearing and did not speak.
His defense attorney, Diane Menashe, told the court, “We acknowledge receipt, waive reading, enter not guilty pleas to all counts.”
“We would also waive bond at this time,” she added.
McKee and Monique Tepe were married in 2015 and divorced in 2017, according to divorce records obtained by ABC Columbus affiliate WSYX. They did not have any children together, according to the records.
Spencer and Monique Tepe married in December 2020, according to their obituary. The Tepes are survived by their two young children, who were found safe inside their home after the Dec. 30 killings.
“We just want justice,” the Tepes’ brother-in-law, Rob Misleh, told ABC News.
“We want this person that took so much from, not just us as a family, but so many more people. And obviously the kids, especially. We want this person to pay for what they did,” he said.
ABC News’ Josh Margolin and Jason Volack contributed to this report.
A sign is displayed outside of the Mary E. Switzerland Memorial Building which houses the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on June 2, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
(MINNEAPOLIS) — An official with the Department of Health and Human Services says the agency has “frozen all child care payments” to the state of Minnesota after allegations of fraudulent day care centers there.
In addition, HHS is tightening requirements for payments from the Administration for Children and Families to all states, requiring a justification and a receipt or photo evidence, Deputy HHS Secretary Jim O’Neill said in a post on social media Tuesday.
The move comes after an unverified online video from conservative influencer Nick Shirley alleging fraud in child care in Somali communities in Minneapolis. Minnesota officials had disputed the allegations.
In the post, O’Neill wrote the agency was taking steps to address “blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country” and said HHS was demanding Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz conduct a “comprehensive audit” of day care centers identified in the viral video.
In a post on social media, Walz responded to the move by HHS, writing: “This is Trump’s long game. We’ve spent years cracking down on fraudsters. It’s a serious issue – but this has been his plan all along. He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans.”
Earlier this week, Minnesota officials had also pushed back on the claims made in the video that went viral last week.
Conservative influencer Nick Shirley posted a 40-minute-long video alleging fraud in childcare in Somali communities in Minneapolis. In the video, Shirley allegedly visited daycares that he said have taken public funds, but there were no children when he visited.
ABC News has not independently verified any of his claims. Unrelated allegations of fraud have been under investigation by state officials dating back to the time of the Biden administration.
According to Minneapolis-St. Paul ABC News affiliate KSTP, Tikki Brown, the commissioner of the state Department of Children, Youth and Families, raised concerns about the video, including whether videos were taken during times when the businesses were scheduled to be open.
“While we have questions about some of the methods that were used in the video, we do take the concerns that the video raises about fraud very seriously,” Brown said on Monday.
“Each of the facilities mentioned in the video has been visited at least once in the last six months as part of our typical licensing process, and in fact, our staff are out in the community today to visit each of these sites again so that we can look into the concerns that were raised in the video,” she added.
Brown noted that children were present during the unannounced visits by the state at all the visits.
The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on the video or the allegations of fraud.
After the video Shirley posted to social media went viral, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in an X post that her department was conducting a “massive investigation on childcare and other rampant fraud.” Similarly, FBI Director Kash Patel said the agency had already surged resources into Minnesota and that he believed alleged fraud already uncovered on federal food aid during COVID was “just the tip of a very large iceberg.”
“To date, the FBI dismantled a $250 million fraud scheme that stole federal food aid meant for vulnerable children during COVID,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a Sunday evening X post. “The investigation exposed sham vendors, shell companies, and large-scale money laundering tied to the Feeding Our Future network.”
The COVID fraud scheme was uncovered during the Biden administration, but charges have been brought as late as this year.
At a cabinet meeting earlier this month, President Donald Trump criticized the U.S. Somali community, citing allegations of fraud in Minnesota.
One of the most senior career prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota commented on massive amounts of alleged fraud in the state at a press conference earlier this month.
“The magnitude of fraud in Minnesota cannot be overstated. It’s staggering amounts of money that’s been lost,” prosecutor Joe Thompson said on Dec. 18.
Voters casting ballot (CREDIT: Hill Street Studios/Getty Images)
(FULTON COUNTY, Ga.) — Officials in Fulton County, Georgia, filed a motion Wednesday seeking the return of all files from the 2020 election that were seized by the FBI last week, according to a spokesperson for the county.
FBI agents last Wednesday removed 700 boxes containing ballots and other materials associated with the 2020 election from a county election site after obtaining a search warrant approved by a federal magistrate judge.
The warrant said the material “constitutes evidence of the commission of a criminal offense” and had been “used as the means of committing a criminal offense.”
The county’s new motion also seeks the unsealing of the affidavit filed in relation to the search warrant, the spokesperson said in a statement.
The statement said that because the case is still under seal, the county is unable to share the contents of the motion.
The FBI’s action comes after Trump has repeatedly made baseless claims that there was voter fraud in the 2020 election, specifically in Georgia, that contributed to his election loss.
Georgia officials audited and certified the results following the election, and numerous lawsuits challenging the election results in the state were rejected by the courts.
Cadaver dogs in the Bahamas to help search for missing American Lynette Hooker, April 16, 2026. (ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — The husband of an American woman who is missing in the Bahamas has left the islands two days after being released by local authorities, his attorney said Wednesday, as the search continues for his wife, Lynette Hooker.
The attorney for Brian Hooker said his mother is not well.
Meanwhile, cadaver dogs from the U.S. Coast Guard are now being used to help with the search for Lynette Hooker, local police told ABC News.
The Royal Bahamas Defence Force said in a statement Thursday that the search and recovery work is ongoing, with operations involving “extensive shoreline patrols, sea patrols, aerial drone surveillance, and submersible drone operations.”
Lynette Hooker has been missing since the evening of April 4. Her husband reported she went overboard on a dinghy.
When the 55-year-old Michigan woman and her husband departed Hope Town on the Abaco Islands for their yacht, Soulmate, in Elbow Cay, bad weather caused her to fall off the dinghy, her husband told authorities.
Brian Hooker, 58, was arrested on April 8 and questioned by police. He was released on Monday without charges.
Brian Hooker told ABC News on Tuesday that he was staying in the Bahamas with a “sole focus” of finding his wife, “no matter how likely or unlikely that is.”
He said at the time that he planned “to go back to the boat, and then hire or beg people to help me go find some areas to search.”
Brian Hooker’s attorney did not allow him to answer questions about what happened the night his wife went overboard due to the pending investigation.
When asked if there was anything he wishes he’d done differently, Brian Hooker was emotional, saying, “I will always think there was something I could have done differently. My one job, my one job was to look out for her, and that has not happened. And I’m gonna keep looking out for her now, the best I can.”
ABC News’ Brian Andrews contributed to this report.
