Ex-husband charged with aggravated murder in slaying of Ohio couple due in court
Spencer and Monique Tepe are seen in this undated photo. (Courtesy Rob Misleh)
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — A man is due in court on Monday for allegedly gunning down his ex-wife and her husband in their Ohio home and leaving their two young children alive, authorities said.
Dentist Spencer Tepe and his wife, Monique Tepe, were found shot to death on Dec. 30, according to Columbus police, and the mysterious case quickly garnered national intrigue.
McKee, a Chicago resident, was taken into custody in Illinois and is charged with premeditated aggravated murder, according to records.
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 arrest came one day before the scheduled celebration of life service for the couple.
“Today’s arrest represents an important step toward justice for Monique and Spencer,” the family said in a statement. “Nothing can undo the devastating loss of two lives taken far too soon, but we are grateful to the City of Columbus Police Department, its investigators, and assisting law enforcement community. … As the case proceeds, we trust the justice system to hold the person responsible fully accountable.”
“Monique and Spencer remain at the center of our hearts, and we carry forward their love as we surround and protect the two children they leave behind,” the family said. “We will continue to honor their lives and the light they brought into this world.”
ABC News’ Matt Foster, Victoria Arancio and Nadine El-Bawab contributed to this report.
Luigi Mangione attends a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 18, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Shannon Stapleton-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione could stand trial by the end of the year, the judge in his federal case said Friday at a hearing in a Manhattan courtroom that was filled with Mangione’s supporters.
Mangione was back in federal court, where the defense presented arguments seeking to dismiss the death penalty counts against him if he is convicted of stalking and killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson on a New York City sidewalk in 2024.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett did not rule on the death penalty question at the conclusion of the hearing, but suggested that if the death penalty remains on the table, jury selection would begin in early September, and the trial would commence sometime in December or January.
If the death penalty is excluded, the judge suggested the trial could start in September.
She set a date for the next hearing on Jan. 30.
Judge Garnett also ruled Friday that Mangione’s backpack was lawfully seized by police when Mangione was apprehended in a Pennsylvania McDonalds’s five days after the shooting.
Two women who flew in from Sicily and came straight from the airport were among those in the courtroom gallery, which was filled with Mangione’s supporters, mostly young women. Many of them were wearing green, the color that has come to represent advocacy for Mangione.
“We have a full house here today,” Judge Garnett said at the outset of the hearing. “It is very important that decorum be maintained.”
The appearance of Mangione, who has pleaded not guilty to federal charges, follows a three-week hearing in state court during which Mangione sought to convince the judge in his state case to exclude some of the critical evidence police said they found in his backpack, including writings and the alleged murder weapon. The judge has yet to issue a ruling.
Judge Garnett, in issuing her ruling on the legality of the backpack’s seizure, said, “I don’t think it’s really disputed that if you’re arrested in a public place, the police are supposed to safeguard your personal property.”
Garnett said she does not need to schedule a hearing to determine whether to exclude evidence taken from the backpack, but that she reserves the right to reconsider that decision. She has yet to rule on what, if anything, should be suppressed.
“The Government searched the contents of the defendant’s notebook pursuant to a judicially authorized search warrant that expressly covered, among other things, handwritten materials, including notebook entries, contained within the defendant’s backpack,” prosecutor Sean Buckley argued in an earlier court filing.
“To the extent that the defendant now seeks to challenge the validity of the Government’s warrant — an argument the defendant similarly did not make in either his moving or reply papers — that argument would also fail on the merits because the warrant, which disclosed the initial search of the defendant’s backpack by the Altoona Police Department, was supported by ample probable cause,” wrote Buckley.
Paresh Patel, a lawyer from Maryland who recently joined Mangione’s defense team, argued stalking “fails to qualify as a crime of violence” and therefore cannot be the predicate to make Mangione eligible for the death penalty.
Mangione entered the courtroom with his ankles shackled but his hands free. Unlike his recent appearance in state court, when he wore slacks and blazer, Mangione was dressed in a beige smock and pants and a white long-sleeve T-shirt as he took a seat at the defense table between defense attorneys Karen and Mark Agnifilo.
Earlier this week, prosecutors disputed a defense claim that Mangione should not face the death penalty because of a purported conflict of interest by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The defense said Bondi is continuing to benefit from a 401k established while she worked at the lobbying firm Ballard Partners, which represents UnitedHealthcare.
Prosecutors said Ballard has made no contributions to her retirement plan since her Senate confirmation as attorney general, and argued that she stands to gain nothing from a “capital outcome” in the Mangione case.
“There is simply no factual basis for the assertion that outside corporate interests influenced the Attorney General’s charging decision in any fashion. The defendant’s insinuations otherwise rest on an inaccurate financial narrative,” Buckley wrote in a court filing.
Firefighters respond to a fire at the Silver Lake Nursing Home in Bristol, Pa., Dec. 23, 2025. WPVI
(BUCKS COUNTY, Pa.) — A massive fire has erupted at a nursing home in eastern Pennsylvania following a possible gas explosion, officials said.
The Upper Makefield Township police described it as a “mass casualty incident” at the Silver Lake Nursing Home and asked people to avoid the area in Bristol, which is about 25 miles northeast of Philadelphia.
It’s believed some people are trapped inside, according to an official briefed on the matter. Responders are trying to get everyone out safely and are investigating the cause of the explosion, the official said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Labor Department is warning of a potential food crisis linked to President Trump’s immigration raids – and one family-owned farm is caught in the middle.
“The near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens combined with the lack of an available legal workforce, results in significant disruptions to production costs and threatening the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S consumers,” according to a Department of Labor report submitted earlier in October.
Owyhee Produce, a third-generation agricultural business in Idaho, is now facing worker shortages in the wake of the Trump administration’s increasing deportation raids.
Shay Myers, Owyhee Produce’s general manager, said the farm typically has 300 workers at peak harvesting times, with roughly 82 H-2A visa employees, who are temporary, seasonal agricultural workers from abroad.
According to Myers, these seasonal workers – some from Mexico, some from South Africa and other countries – are granted a visa for up to nine months after being interviewed to determine whether they qualify. Owyhee then provides their travel to the farm, and their housing – “everything, really, when they’re here except for food and clothing. That’s part of the requirements,” said Myers.
Given the cost and requirements, it may seem easier to hire local workers instead. Not so, according to Myers.
“We would love to hire people from here. The reality is that we can’t find the numbers of people here,” Myers told ABC News. “We’re in a rural area, number one. Number two: This is hard work. It is difficult work, and there are lots of people that are not willing to do it.”
Mauricio Sol, a seasonal worker at Owyhee, said 90% of the workforce at the farm is from Mexico, but it is becoming more difficult to find seasonal agricultural workers due to increased concerns about possible ICE raids.
“We all come on the H-2A visa program, so we come all here legally by the season, just for the season, and then we go back to Mexico,” Sol told ABC News. “We usually get a lot of applications. We’re not getting that many now because people is afraid of that even when they are legally here, they’re getting arrested for no reason.”
James O’Neill, the director of Legislative Affairs for the American Business Immigration Coalition, which describes itself as “a bipartisan coalition of over 1,700 employers and CEOs from across the country to provide a strong and unified voice seeking lasting immigration solutions,” says that President Trump’s immigration raids are hurting agricultural labor forces and could lead to higher food prices.
“It’s absolutely impacting the labor force,” O’Neill told ABC News. “Nationwide, the USDA’s ag labor survey suggests that somewhere between 50 and 60 percent of our farm labor workforce is undocumented immigrants.”
“And if that’s the case, if we were to deport them all overnight, then that’s 60% of the workforce, meaning that’s 60% of the supply that’s not being met without a shift in demand. And I think anyone that understands economics knows that means higher prices for them at the grocery store,” O’Neill said.
A September report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Research Service estimated that “about 40 percent” of “hired crop farmworkers lack legal immigration status.”
Myers said he wants to share Owyhee’s story in hopes of bringing attention to the plight faced by seasonal agricultural workers across the country, “because it’s wrong not to.”
“I have a voice, I have reach. I have people that will listen,” Myers told ABC News. “And because I am a conservative and a Republican, people assume that I would have a different perspective here, and this is my reality.”
“I love these people. I love the culture, and I love the effort that they make. And ethically, to continue to not fix this problem is absolutely completely wrong.” Myers said. “We as Americans try to do the right thing. Let’s do the right thing.”
ABC News reached out to the U.S. Department of Labor for comment but was told that their press team was unavailable due to the ongoing government shutdown.
