Game Player Psychology: What McKee's Defense Strategy Reveals | Tepe Double Murder
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 907 Ratings
🗓️ 5 February 2026
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Michael McKee faces two counts of aggravated murder for the shooting deaths of Spencer and Monique Tepe. The evidence against him — according to court filings and police statements — includes surveillance footage, ballistics evidence, a cell phone that went dark during the murder window, and years of documented threats against his ex-wife Monique.
He pleaded not guilty.
This episode explores a psychological pattern that emerges in cases where evidence is overwhelming but defendants refuse to fold. Forensic psychologists call it narcissistic grandiosity with antisocial features. We call it the game player. These are defendants who view prosecution not as consequence but as competition — the final arena to prove they're the smartest person in the room.
We examine the parallels to Scott Peterson's detached courtroom demeanor, Chris Watts treating investigators like marks he could con, and Ted Bundy transforming his trial into performance art. The common thread: a fundamental inability to view other people as fully real. Victims become obstacles. Murder becomes a move. Trial becomes the championship round.
According to the unsealed affidavit, McKee allegedly told Monique he could "kill her at any time," that he would "find her and buy the house next to her," and that she would "always be his wife." If prosecutors' allegations are accurate, the game started long before December 30th, 2025.
The same psychology that allows someone to treat their murder trial as a puzzle may be the same psychology that allowed them to allegedly commit the crime.
McKee is presumed innocent until proven guilty. All claims are sourced from public records.
#HiddenKillers #MichaelMcKee #SpencerTepe #MoniqueTepe #TrueCrimePodcast #ForensicPsychology #GamePlayer #ColumbusHomicide #DomesticViolenceMurder #CriminalPsychology
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Hidden Killers with Tony Bruske. Here now, Tony Bruske. |
| 0:07.2 | The evidence against Michael McKee isn't thin. According to court documents, investigators have |
| 0:13.5 | surveillance footage showing a vehicle linked to McKee arriving in Columbus before Spencer and Monique Tepe were shot to death and leaving shortly after. |
| 0:24.6 | They trace that vehicle to his former address and his workplace in Rockford, Illinois. |
| 0:29.7 | Not exactly where you want a vehicle to be traced to if you're trying to get away with murder. |
| 0:35.3 | According to Columbus Police and Chief Elaine Bryant, |
| 0:38.8 | a firearm recovered from his condo in Chicago showed a preliminary match to evidence |
| 0:43.7 | from the crime scene through a national ballistics database. |
| 0:46.8 | His cell phone went dark during the exact hours of the prosecutors claiming that the murders occurred, |
| 0:52.4 | and they have footage from nearly a month earlier showing someone police believe is McKee walking through the Teppies yard while the couple was at a Big Ten championship came in Indianapolis. |
| 1:03.0 | So there's all that. All of that. |
| 1:09.0 | So here's the question. |
| 1:14.7 | If you're looking at that kind of evidence, |
| 1:19.8 | why enter the not guilty plea? |
| 1:20.9 | I guess why not? |
| 1:23.6 | Because it's pretty damning. |
| 1:30.8 | So why waive your bail hearing but reserve the right to revisit it later a move that suggests strategy? |
| 1:33.0 | Not desperation? |
| 1:37.0 | Because for a certain type of defendant, this was never about winning. |
| 1:39.3 | It's about playing. |
| 1:48.3 | There's a psychological profile that emerges in cases where evidence is overwhelming, but the defendant refuses to fold. |
| 1:52.2 | Narcissistic grandiosity. |
... |
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