Coercive Control Explained: Therapist Analyzes Monique Tepe's Years of Hidden Fear
True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews
Tony Brueski
4.2 • 612 Ratings
🗓️ 22 January 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
Family members say Monique Tepe talked about being terrified of Michael McKee for eight years. She described the abuse. She warned people about the death threats. She carried that fear while building a new marriage, raising two children, and living what looked like a happy life.
She never filed a police report. There were no stalking complaints on record.
Why do victims of coercive control stay silent when it comes to the legal system — even when they clearly understand the danger?
In Part 2 of our three-part expert interview series, psychotherapist Shavaun Scott examines the victim experience. With over thirty years in domestic violence shelters and trauma recovery — and as a survivor of an emotionally abusive marriage herself — Shavaun brings both clinical expertise and personal understanding to these questions.
We examine what Laura Richards calls "murder in slow motion" — psychological abuse that leaves no visible marks. We explore why victims hope distance and time will protect them. We analyze what it does to someone to live in fear for years while trying to maintain normalcy. And we ask what it means that Monique's wedding vows to Spencer — three years after leaving McKee — still referenced "wrong relationships" and "waterfalls of tears."
The weight victims carry. The silence the system enables.
#MichaelMcKee #MoniqueTepe #SpencerTepe #TepeMurders #ShavaunScott #TrueCrimeToday #CoerciveControl #DomesticViolence #VictimExperience #ExpertAnalysis
Link to Shavaun Scott's Substack Discussing Dangerous Ex's:
https://open.substack.com/pub/shavaun/p/when-leaving-is-the-most-dangerous?r=1fklc&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
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This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Bruske, Stacey Cole, and Todd Michaels. |
| 0:09.2 | Monique Teppy allegedly knew she was in danger. |
| 0:12.5 | Family members say she talked about being terrified of Michael McKee for eight years. |
| 0:17.8 | She described the abuse. |
| 0:19.1 | She told people about the death threats, but she never filed a |
| 0:22.4 | police report. There were no stalking complaints on record. She built a new life, new husband, |
| 0:27.1 | two children, a home full of love while carrying the weight of that fear every day. |
| 0:32.1 | Why don't victims report? What is it like to live with that burden for years? Shavon Scott, psychotherapist and author, is with us to help us break all that down. Monique left that marriage in seven months. The family says she was willing to do anything to get out of there. That's not someone who slowly is realizing something was wrong. |
| 0:55.1 | That's someone who recognized danger fast and acted. What does it tell you when the victim |
| 0:59.2 | identifies the threat so quickly seven months into a marriage and is just, you know, I'm out |
| 1:05.9 | the door. We're not working on this. I'm done. |
| 1:08.8 | Smart woman. Smart woman. |
| 1:17.6 | And there are many intelligent women who stay for years because they're being so easily manipulated. |
| 1:18.7 | But he was apparently so extreme with the threats to kill her that this was not one she |
| 1:24.5 | could remain in denial about. |
| 1:26.4 | So good for her. She had, you know, |
| 1:30.1 | at least some semblance of a good life and children and a loving man for a while. But some |
| 1:37.5 | women don't report because they're afraid that it's going to cause escalation. Yeah. |
| 1:49.2 | And it's, I tried to look up data on this and it's hard to get good data. |
| 1:54.0 | But it looks like, you know, with the restraining order, about 50% of the time, |
| 1:55.7 | restraining orders work. |
| 2:04.6 | You know, the stalker, the perpetrator, the angry husband, they take it seriously, they don't want to go to jail, and they stop. |
... |
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