Family of couple allegedly killed by ex speaks out: ‘She just had to get away from him’
Spencer and Monique Tepe are seen in this undated photo. (Courtesy Rob Misleh)
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — The family of slain Ohio couple Monique and Spencer Tepe is speaking out about Monique Tepe’s ex-husband, who is accused of shooting the young parents in their home.
“She just had to get away from him,” the Tepes’ brother-in-law, Rob Misleh, told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” of Dr. Michael McKee.
McKee, 39, is charged with premeditated aggravated murder for allegedly gunning down the Tepes at their Columbus home on Dec. 30, according to police.
Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant on Wednesday called it a targeted and “domestic violence-related” attack. She said multiple weapons were taken from McKee’s property and one of those weapons has preliminarily been linked to the crimes.
McKee appeared in court on Monday. He did not enter a plea but assistant public defender Carie Poirier told the judge he intended to plead not guilty.
Misleh said that Monique Tepe told him that McKee was emotionally abusive.
“Myself and many others were well aware of, kind of, the negative impact that he had on her. And the abuse that he put her through, the torment that he put her through,” Misleh said. “She was willing to do anything to get out of there.”
“She was a very strong person,” Misleh 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 Tepe, a dentist, married Monique Tepe married in December 2020, according to their obituary.
“They were some of the kindest and just most inviting people,” Misleh said. “… I think it speaks really loudly that their funeral had over 1,000 people there.”
The Tepes are survived by their two young children who were found safe inside the house on Dec 30.
“We just want justice,” Misleh said.
“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.
“Our hearts remain with Spencer and Monique and their loved ones, and especially the children impacted,” Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said at a news conference on Wednesday.
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) — Luigi Mangione returns on Friday to Manhattan federal court, where prosecutors have said they would seek the death penalty if he’s convicted of stalking and killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson on a New York City sidewalk in 2024.
The appearance follows a three-week hearing in state court during which Mangione tried to convince the judge to exclude some of the critical evidence police said they found in his backpack, including writings and the alleged murder weapon.
Prosecutors said in a letter Thursday no such hearing is necessary in the federal case.
“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 wrote.
“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.
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.
Mangione, who has pleaded not guilty to federal charges, is also trying to fight the possibility of the death penalty by challenging one of the aggravating factors that makes him eligible.
Paresh Patel, an expert on the federal stalking statute who Mangione has added to his legal team, is expected to argue that stalking is not a crime of violence and, therefore, an improper predicate to making the case death penalty eligible.
Prosecutors say the defense is wrong.
“Volitional conduct by the defendant that simultaneously places the victim in reasonable fear of death or bodily injury and that proximately causes the victim’s death necessarily involves the ‘use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another,’ thereby making the offenses charged in Counts Three and Four crimes of violence,” Buckley argued.
he US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — A person with what appeared to be a gun was arrested near the front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., according to Capitol police.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Florida State University law professor Dan Markel’s last day alive began like many others.
He dropped off his two young sons at preschool and went to the gym, authorities said. But things took a dark turn.
After pulling into his driveway on the morning of July 18, 2014, Markel was shot in the head multiple times and rushed to a hospital where he died the next day, authorities said.
Markel had been having custody issues with his ex-wife Wendi Adelson.
Over the next 11 years, two members of Adelson’s family, including most recently her mother Donna Adelson, would be revealed as the center of a stunning murder-for-hire plot against him that would span several criminal trials.
A new “20/20” episode, “Meddler or Murderer?,” airing Friday, Jan. 2, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and streaming the next day on Disney+ and Hulu, examines the case.
You can also get more behind-the-scenes of each week’s episode by listening to “20/20: The After Show” weekly series right on your 20/20 podcast feed on Mondays, hosted by “20/20” co-anchor Deborah Roberts.
Wendi Adelson came from a prominent dentistry family in South Florida. Wendi’s father, Harvey Adelson, and brother Charlie Adelson, were lead dentists at the practice, called the Adelson Institute, according to authorities.
Wendi married Markel in 2006 after previously connecting on a Jewish dating service. However, a controlling figure emerged in their relationship — her mother, Donna.
Sarah Katherine Dugan, who prosecuted Donna Adelson, said in court that the family matriarch was very involved in all aspects of Wendi’s life and relationship with Markel.
“She was extremely controlling. She had very strong opinions about all the decisions in Wendi Adelson’s life, whether it be about her career, her relationships, or even purchasing a home,” she said.
Wendi Adelson and Dan Markel eventually moved to Tallahassee, where they both got jobs at Florida State University’s law school. However, their marriage deteriorated.
“Our marriage dissolved after the children arrived, as the loneliness of being married to someone that didn’t view me as an equal crept in,” Wendi Adelson said in a 2015 podcast.
The couple went through a bitter divorce, and at the center of both of their lives post-separation was the issue of where their two children would live.
Donna Adelson began a fierce campaign against Markel to relocate the children and Wendi down to South Florida with her, but Markel remained insistent on keeping the kids in Tallahassee, 500 miles away, according to authorities.
Markel became increasingly distrustful of Donna Adelson due to her desire to move the children away from him, even filing a motion to prevent her from having unsupervised visits with the children in 2014. However, it would be the last motion he would ever file before he was shot to death.
Some two years after the killing, investigators arrested two individuals named Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera in 2016, charging them with first-degree murder. The duo was alleged to be hired hitmen who were paid to take out Markel, per prosecutors.
In exchange for a lesser sentence of second-degree murder and 19 years in prison, Rivera gave investigators the name of the woman he claimed hired them to carry out the hit on Markel — Katie Magbanua, the mother of Garcia’s child and the ex-girlfriend of Adelson’s brother, Charlie.
Police then arrested Magbanua in 2016 and later Charlie Adelson in 2022, charging them with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation to commit murder for Markel’s death.
Prosecutors alleged that Donna and Charlie orchestrated the hit on Dan Markel due to his custody issues with Wendi, and they used Magbanua, Garcia and Rivera to execute their plot.
Magbanua and Charlie Adelson both pleaded not guilty but were ultimately convicted of all charges in 2022 and 2023, respectively, and sentenced to life in prison with an additional 60 years for their conspiracy and solicitation convictions.
Garcia was also convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2019. He had pleaded not guilty.
After Charlie’s conviction, investigators learned that Donna Adelson was planning to leave the country with a one-way ticket to Vietnam — a country that has no extradition agreement with the U.S.
Police arrested her at the Miami International Airport in 2023, also charging her with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation to commit murder in Dan Markel’s killing.
Donna Adelson pleaded not guilty, with her defense claiming that she was not involved in the murder plot.
Adelson, 75, was convicted of all counts against her in 2025 and sentenced to life in prison with an extra 30 years for the solicitation and conspiracy charges to be served consecutively.
“Never in a million years would I have wanted Danny to be harmed or killed, nor could I ever do something that would leave these two small boys to grow up without him,” she said at her sentencing.
In an exclusive new interview with “20/20,” Evan Higginbotham, a juror at Donna Adelson’s trial, spoke out.
“The prosecution had a long list of evidence,” he said. “I think it was how they presented that evidence in the trial that laid out everything to finally land me a guilty verdict at the end of it.”
Dan Markel’s mother, Ruth Markel, told “20/20” that she was most proud of her son for being a good dad.
“Danny was a great father,” she said. “With all his accomplishments, to me I’m the proudest of him as a father.”
Donna and Charlie Adelson have filed appeals for their convictions. Magbanua and Garcia’s appeals were both denied in 2025.
