Dateline NBC
Surgeon arrested for Ohio murders. Au pair testifies against former lover. Plus, 911 behind the scenes.
15 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What happened in the Ohio double murder case?
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Our editorial team is catching up on breaking crime news around the country.
It's also such a shock who it is. He's been in and out of prison a lot. We've got a career criminal.
Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly. I'm Andrea Canning. It's January 15th, and here's what's on our docket. In Virginia, it's week one in the highly anticipated trial of Brendan Banfield. Prosecutors say the former IRS agent orchestrated a double murder so he could start life over with the family au pair. Now, she's the star witness against him.
That's when I first saw him stab me with a knife.
In Dateline Roundup, we've got a trial date for Barry Morphew, the Colorado man accused of using an animal tranquilizer to murder his wife. And Rex Huerman, the alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer, was back in court.
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Chapter 2: Who is Brendan Banfield and what are the allegations against him?
from Spencer's boss at the dental practice where he worked. Now, Spencer's boss wasn't actually there. He was out on vacation in Florida. But members of the dental practice were so concerned. This was so unusual for Spencer not to show up to work that they called their boss on vacation in Florida. Spencer's boss then called 911 to arrange a wellness check shortly after that.
Another 911 call came from someone who was outside the Tepe's home, alerting officers to the sounds of children crying. Then another call came in from a friend who said he could see Spencer's body lying in a pool of blood. When officers arrived, they found Spencer and Monique dead from gunshot wounds. Their children, ages one and four, plus the family dog, were found unharmed.
So sad. Erin, officers saw no signs of forced entry and no murder weapon at the Tepe's home. They immediately sought out the public's help to find the killer, and I would imagine they also started canvassing the area.
Yeah, yeah, that's right. The Columbus Police Department made this public appeal on social media for any tips about suspicious individuals in the neighborhood that night and asked residents to submit security camera footage around the time of the shootings. Now, last week, We don't know yet how they got it, but they released video footage that they said showed a person of interest in the case.
It's grainy and hard to make out, but you can see someone in a dark hoodie and light jeans walking down a snowy alley. They tracked that suspect to a car. parked in the area of the Tepe's house around the time of the murders. They then tracked that car to the area of Illinois where Dr. McKee practices medicine, and they believe that car belongs to Dr. McKee.
Erin, what have you learned about Dr. McKee and his background?
He's a vascular surgeon currently practicing in Rockford. He studied medicine at Ohio State University. He has no criminal record apart from a few traffic tickets.
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Chapter 3: What role did the au pair play in the trial against Brendan Banfield?
None of his family members are responding to our repeated requests for comment. We also haven't been able to reach any of his colleagues or patients.
Obviously, things didn't work out between Michael McKee and Monique. They got divorced. What do you know about what led to that breakup? Have we heard anything yet?
Yeah, well, we're not sure exactly how they met, but he and Monique had a brief marriage from 2015 to 2017. They had no children together. Court documents cite incompatibility as the reason for the divorce.
Spencer's brother in law had something very interesting to say after Dr. McKee was arrested. He told you, Aaron, that the family, quote, quickly believed he had something to do with it, meaning, you know, that he killed Monique and her new husband is what they believe.
Chapter 4: How are 911 calls handled during emergencies?
Yeah, that's right. I spoke to Rob Misler, and he told me that when news first broke of the double homicide, the family immediately suspected McKee because of the way Monique characterized their relationship.
She wasn't shy about talking to people about traumatic experiences that she had with her ex and just how emotionally distressed abusive he was to her.
He also said Monique would talk quite often about how terrified she was of him because he had threatened her life on multiple occasions when they were married. This account was also backed up by a second family member. Rob said he's unaware of whether Dr. McKee has made any recent threats to the couple, but he didn't rule out the possibility.
Dr. McKee has not commented on any of the family's accusations as of yet. At a press conference on Wednesday, investigators told reporters they did not know of any police reports of McKee being abusive toward Monique. But they did call the murders a domestic violence-related attack. What we can say, this was a targeted attack. Where is Dr. McKee now, Erin?
After his arrest, he was taken to the county jail in Rockford, Illinois. That is the area in which the arrest took place, we understand. We saw him during a very brief period. court hearing earlier in the week, being led into the courthouse wearing a yellow prison jumpsuit. He was shackled and remained sort of stoic.
He was silent through that two-minute proceeding, except to identify himself to the judge by name. The Franklin County, Ohio district attorney upgraded his murder charges to aggravated murder. They are now alleging the crime was premeditated. He has yet to enter a plea, but a public defender says that he intends to plead not guilty once he gets to Ohio.
Erin, over the weekend, the family held a memorial service for Monique and Spencer-
Yeah, Rob Misla said that it was one of the most moving services. He said more than 1,000 members of the community showed up to remember Monique and Spencer. He said that putting the couple in their tombs was probably the hardest day so far, that they've been surrounded by friends and family, and it'll be hard stepping back into normal life after all of this. He said he'll never be the same.
Thank you for this reporting on such a horrible story. Really heartbreaking. We appreciate you coming on.
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Chapter 5: What details emerged about Dr. Michael McKee's background?
A man by the name of Joseph Ryan lay a few feet away from her. He'd been shot to death. Brendan Banfield, an IRS agent, told investigators the man was a stranger he'd found attacking his wife and that he'd shot him to try to save her life. The family's Brazilian au pair Juliana Perez Magaliz backed up Brendan's story. She said she'd also shot at Joseph Ryan.
But something about their story didn't add up for investigators. And almost eight months later, police arrested Juliana for the intruder's murder. Then, almost a year after that, police arrested Brendan, too. Prosecutors charged him not just with fatally shooting Joseph Ryan, but with murdering his own wife, too. His alleged motive?
According to prosecutors, Brendan wanted Christine out of the picture so he could be with Juliana, the au pair. Their source on the matter? Juliana herself. Did he tell you what he wanted to do? Yes.
He mentioned his plan to get rid of her.
That is Juliana on the witness stand this week as Brendan Banfield's trial finally got underway. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. Dateline producer Marianne O'Donnell is coming to us from the busy courthouse where the au pair shared her story of what happened that day. Thanks for joining us, Marianne. Great to be here once again.
Before we get to the trial, let's quickly go back to that morning in February 2023 and You know, it feels like a leap for investigators. You know, they go from hearing Brendan Banfield's story that he was the hero trying to save his wife to putting him on trial for a double murder. How did all of this unfold?
Well, it is a long process. But if you do ask many of the investigators, they will tell you the day of... Something did not feel right about this case right from the start. And I think a couple of tip-offs were previous calls to 911 before the official call with Brendan saying he'd shot someone. There were quick hang-ups.
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Chapter 6: What should you know about calling 911 in a crisis?
You hear Joe Ryan.
moaning in the background before the line goes dead. And they were like, why was that? So, Marianne, you brought up Joe Ryan. So he's the man that was also killed along with Christine. He's kind of the mystery man in all of this when investigators start looking at this case. Who is this man? You know, why is he with Christine in her house?
It is a convoluted story no matter which side is telling it. But the prosecution is saying this. that Brendan Banfield wanted rid of his wife. He and the au pair months earlier had struck up a love affair. And he asked her to help him fake an account in his wife's name on a fetish website, soliciting men to come to the house and basically...
An act of rape fantasy, a violent rape fantasy, bring knives, all this. And they finally found Joseph Ryan. Now, again, in this scenario, Joseph Ryan is on this website willingly, but he thinks he's speaking to Christine Banfield. The prosecution is saying, no, no, no. He's being catfished. He's being lured by Brendan Banfield.
According to the prosecution, essentially, Marianna Trapp is being set. They say they believe when Joseph Ryan showed up, Brendan Banfield shot him and then murdered Christine, right? Right. And I think it really comes down to, do you believeā
Brendan and his au pair set up this fake account in one of the victims' names and lured the other victim? Or do you believe that Christine, the victim herself, entered into this dangerous pact with this stranger and it went awry and it ended in her death, her murder, by the hand of Joseph Bryan, who was then killed by her husband, who came in as the hero?
Those are the two versions that you're hearing here.
We knew going into the trial that Juliana, the au pair, was key to the prosecution's case. In opening statements, the prosecutor told the jury that Juliana would be the one to tell them that Brendan orchestrated this murder plot. But she's not a perfect witness. She spent almost a year in jail after her arrest saying she and Brendan hadn't done anything wrong.
Then she suddenly changed her story and agreed to testify for the prosecution in exchange for a reduced charge of manslaughter.
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Chapter 7: How did investigators track down Dr. McKee as a suspect?
But listen, that's the judge's discretion.
OK, Marianne, thank you so much for this. And I know you'll be in court every day and we'll have you back on as this continues. Thanks so much, Andrea. Up next, it's time for Dateline Roundup. We've got the latest on Rex Heuermann and Barry Morphew. Plus, 911 calls and what dispatchers need to know.
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It was a decades-long story about the powerful and the privileged seemingly getting away with murder. But I discovered a much darker, more shocking tale than I ever could have guessed.
They put a sign around my neck that said, hi, my name is Michael Skakel and I'm a murderer. He's been talked about a lot, but he's never spoken up until now. It was like the worst nightmare ever. Dead Certain, the Martha Moxley murder. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.
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Chapter 8: What evidence is there of domestic violence in the McKee case?
And it must be just so stressful at times, I would imagine. It can be certainly at times. Our amazing staff does a really good job of ensuring that we're helping our county residents while also making sure that we help each other. How do you prioritize the calls?
Our calls are received in the order that they're taking, and then they're prioritized in our system based on the risk and urgency associated with them. Okay, so active or life-threatening situations, those are handled first? They are handled first, yes. And I would expect it to be fluid.
I'm sure your dispatchers are constantly getting new information or new callers coming in about the same incident. Absolutely. And it happens all the time in our system. New information can upgrade the call and actually upgrade the priority level of the event as well. You know, we watch movies, right? We watch these movies like Halle Berry and 911 and countless others that involve 911.
How do you train dispatchers on those calls that can be so tricky? Like, for example, someone is maybe in a closet and there's an intruder in their house or you lose the call and then you're maybe afraid to call back, you know, if it's going to make a sound with the phone ringing. How do you deal with all of that with your dispatchers? Yeah. So we have an in-house training academy.
And within that academy, we do simulated scenario-based training where we can really spend some time with our folks to understand that calls present in different ways, right? Because every call is different. That's right. Every call is different. There are even times that we'll have people text the 911 mail. Oh, I didn't know that. So you can text 911.
So we say call if you can, text if you can't. Well, I say this constantly on Dateline. I learn something new every day. I would be remiss if I didn't ask, how do you text 911? Do you just literally just type in 911 and send your text and that's it? Or is there anything else that you need to do?
When you're texting us, you can just text the 911 and we will text you back and the dialogue will be the same as normal. Okay, so we know this is available in Pennsylvania, but it might not be everywhere else. So you'll want to check if you can text in your state.
Either way, it could be really helpful in a situation where you're perhaps with someone that you don't want them to know that you're calling 911. Absolutely. And we've seen that scenario. So, you know, it's just another way to kind of communicate with us silently, but be able to, you know, to give us good details and information about what's truly occurring there. Yeah.
I mean, there could be domestic violence going on or something like that where, you know, you certainly don't want your partner to know that you're reaching out to 911. And what do you teach your dispatchers about so-called, you know, bedside manner? Because people calling you are often in a very vulnerable position.
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