Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary

Michael McKee allegedly drove 350 miles from Chicago to Columbus, executed his ex-wife Monique Tepe and her husband Spencer, and drove back — all while his cell phone showed zero activity for 18 hours. Investigators say he used stolen license plates from Ohio and Arizona. He allegedly kept the murder weapon in his condo for eleven days. And police still caught him.Former FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer breaks down how investigators built this case from surveillance footage, digital forensics, and a national ballistics database match. We examine the multi-jurisdictional coordination between four law enforcement agencies and why this case mo...

The final recorded phone call between Keith Caneiro and his older brother Paul was played for jurors this week—and it captures a man demanding answers hours before his murder. "Give me the f***ing login, Paul!" Keith is heard saying, giving his brother a deadline of 8 p.m. to provide access to a trust account. By the next afternoon, Keith, his wife Jennifer, and their two children—11-year-old Jesse and 8-year-old Sophia—were dead. Prosecutors say Keith had discovered Paul was stealing from their shared businesses and was cutting him off from a $225,000 salary. A neighbor put a timest...

Newly unsealed court documents reveal the chilling psychology allegedly behind the murders of Spencer and Monique Tepe. According to witnesses who spoke with investigators, Michael McKee made three statements to Monique during and after their marriage: that he could "kill her at any time," that he would "find her and buy the house right next to her," and that "she will always be his wife." These aren't the words of heartbreak. They're the words of ownership. The affidavit also reveals that surveillance allegedly captured McKee at the Tepes' Columbus home on December 6th, 2025—three weeks before the murders—while Spen...

The Arkansas Supreme Court just removed Judge Barbara Elmore from Aaron Spencer's murder trial—and appointed a retired judge from the opposite end of the state to take over. This wasn't a close call. Three justices wanted Elmore gone since May, when the high court struck down her gag order as a "plain, manifest, clear, and gross abuse of discretion." Seven months later, she tried again—different restrictions, same constitutional problems. This time they didn't just reverse her. They pulled her entirely. Elmore is the same judge who released Michael Fosler on bond after he was charged with 43 felonies incl...

Diane Menashe is a 27-year veteran of criminal defense in Columbus who specializes in cases that look unwinnable. In 2022, she co-led the defense of Dr. William Husel, the Mount Carmel physician charged with murdering fourteen ICU patients through allegedly lethal fentanyl doses. She called one witness. Husel was acquitted on all fourteen counts. She also kept cop-killer Quentin Smith off death row. Now she's representing Michael McKee—the vascular surgeon accused of driving 325 miles in the middle of the night to execute his ex-wife Monique Tepe and her husband Dr. Spencer Tepe while their two young children slept nearby. Mc...

The Reiner family did everything right. They spent millions. They tried eighteen different rehab facilities—reportedly at $60,000 a month. Private yoga instructors. Family therapists. A guesthouse on a $13.5 million Brentwood estate where Nick could always come home. On December 14, 2025, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner were found stabbed to death. Their son Nick was arrested that night and now faces two counts of first-degree murder. This isn't just a story about one family's tragedy. It's an indictment of a $42 billion addiction treatment industry where 60% of patients relapse within 30 days of discharge. Where the 28-day program isn't based on neuroscience—it's...

Under current Idaho law, convicted killers like Bryan Kohberger and Lori Vallow Daybell could potentially profit from book deals, streaming rights, and paid interviews within just five years. A judge in Kohberger's case confirmed it in November 2025, stating the statute "leaves open the potential for Defendant to receive money from media contracts in the future." Idaho's Son of Sam law hasn't been meaningfully updated since 1978—before streaming platforms, podcasts, or digital monetization existed. The Supreme Court gutted most of these laws in 1991, and Idaho never bothered to fix theirs. Until now. State Senator Tammy Nichols introduced legislation this week to...

The grand jury investigating the death of 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez is done playing nice. LAPD Robbery-Homicide just arrested Neo Langston—D4VD's close friend and fellow content creator known online as NeoTheAsian—at his mother's home in Montana for failure to appear as a witness. He's now sitting in an LA jail on $60,000 bail. Back in December, a female witness went into hiding and had to be threatened with a body attachment order to compel her testimony. Manager Robert Morgenroth spent days on the stand and was overheard saying his priority was keeping the tour going—not calling police...

Michael McKee pleaded not guilty on January 23rd to four counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of his ex-wife Monique Tepe and her husband Dr. Spencer Tepe. The evidence police have described is damning—ballistic analysis allegedly linking a firearm from his property to shell casings at the crime scene, surveillance footage reportedly capturing his vehicle at the scene, and a firearm suppressor. Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant called it a "targeted" and "domestic violence related attack." The couple was found shot to death in their Columbus home while their two young children were discovered unharmed inside. But he...

How does a family go from calling the police in 2019 to sleeping in the same house with someone in apparent psychiatric crisis on December 13th, 2025? Rob Reiner wasn't stupid. He was a successful director, a public intellectual, a man with resources and connections. Michele wasn't naive. These were accomplished people who had access to the best treatment money could buy. Yet their son Nick is now charged with stabbing them to death in their Brentwood home. Former FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke—who spent 21 years with the Bureau including serving as Chief of the FBI's Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program—join...

The evidence against Michael McKee is staggering—ballistic matches linking a firearm from his property to shell casings at the scene, vehicle surveillance tracking his movements from Chicago to Columbus, a confirmed ID as the figure in the alley footage, and a firearm suppressor that prosecutors will argue proves premeditation. McKee allegedly drove 300 miles to execute his ex-wife Monique Tepe and her husband Dr. Spencer Tepe while their two young children slept nearby. Now the vascular surgeon faces four counts of aggravated murder carrying life without parole. Former felony prosecutor Eric Faddis, who spent years in the Special Victims Un...

Danny Spilar was 15 years old when he shared a room with Nick Reiner in a $60,000-a-month Malibu rehab. What he witnessed back then made him certain — the moment he saw the headlines about Rob and Michele Reiner's murders — exactly who was responsible.According to Danny, Nick would stay up after lights out ranting about how much he hated his parents. This wasn't after years of heroin abuse. This wasn't after a psychotic break. This was the baseline. A 15-year-old kid, only using marijuana at the time, seething with resentment toward the parents who showed up for every ther...

Two Utah mothers. Both raised LDS. Both developed apocalyptic beliefs that destroyed their families. Ruby Franke tortured her children until her twelve-year-old escaped through a window. Elleshia Seymour allegedly took her kids to Croatia based on TikTok prophecies about nuclear winter. In both cases, the children figured out how to save themselves.And in both cases, the fathers say they had no idea.Kevin Franke told police he hadn't seen or spoken to his kids in over a year. His job was to "financially provide." That was his "only involvement." He trusted Ruby completely—while sh...

Defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis delivers the definitive analysis of two murder cases dominating headlines: the Michael McKee case in Ohio and the Kouri Richins trial in Utah.On McKee: Eric examines the prosecution's case against Monique Tepe's ex-husband from both sides of the courtroom. The affidavit details surveillance footage, death threats spanning years, stolen plates, cell phone blackouts, and vehicle tracking. Which evidence is most critical? Where are the weaknesses? Then Eric flips to the defense perspective—the motions to exclude prior abuse allegations, the hearsay battles over statements Monique made to friends, and ho...

The Paul Caneiro trial just delivered some of its most disturbing testimony yet. A blood stain expert told jurors that eleven-year-old Jesse Caneiro was still moving - still bleeding - still trying to reach the front door when he died. The patterns don't lie. A handprint. A finger mark. Movement toward an exit he never reached.Prosecutors say Paul Caneiro killed his brother Keith, sister-in-law Jennifer, and their two children over money and a $3 million life insurance policy. But the defense is pointing at someone else entirely: Corey Caneiro, the third brother who was never investigated, never...

The Kouri Richins murder trial begins February 23rd. But two weeks out, the prosecution's case is taking hits from multiple directions.The defense just filed a motion alleging witness intimidation. Lead detective Jeff O'Driscoll allegedly texted a witness saying essentially: answer our calls so we can prep you, or next time I knock on your door, I'll have a warrant and a catch pole for your dog. Investigator Travis Hopper allegedly told another witness that their previously granted immunity "remains conditional upon continued cooperation"—and declining further meetings could put that immunity at risk.Defense at...

Two men. Two elite educations. Two alleged murder sprees months apart. Bryan Kohberger—criminology PhD, studied crime scene processing at the doctoral level—pled guilty to killing four Idaho students in November 2022. Michael McKee—vascular surgeon with more than a decade of surgical training—stands charged with murdering his ex-wife Monique Tepe and her husband Spencer in December 2025. The methods allegedly used in both cases reveal a chilling pattern.Both men allegedly turned off or abandoned their phones during the murder window. Both allegedly surveilled their targets beforehand—Kohberger's phone pinged near the victims' house 23 times over four month...

John Carroll, Defense Counsel for Brendan Banfield, presented closing arguments today in the Brendan Banfield murder trial. Banfield, a former IRS agent, is charged with four counts of aggravated murder in the February 2023 deaths of his wife Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan at their Herndon, Virginia home.Prosecutors allege Banfield plotted the killings with the family's Brazilian au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, with whom he was having an affair. Magalhães has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and is expected to testify against Banfield. The defense maintains digital evidence does not support the state's catfishing theory.#Br...

Jenna Sands, Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney for Fairfax County, presented closing arguments in the Brendan Banfield murder trial. Banfield, a former IRS agent, is charged with four counts of aggravated murder in the February 2023 deaths of his wife Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan at their Herndon, Virginia home.Prosecutors allege Banfield plotted the killings with the family's Brazilian au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, with whom he was having an affair. Magalhães has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and is expected to testify against Banfield. The defense maintains digital evidence does not support the state's catfishing theory....

The prosecution laid out their case. Now the defense has to tear it apart. Michael McKee pleaded not guilty to the aggravated murders of Monique Tepe and Spencer Tepe. His attorneys are now preparing for the pretrial battles that could determine whether a jury ever hears the most damaging evidence against him.Defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis walks us through the defense's likely strategy. McKee waived his bail hearing—Eric explains why that's a calculated move, not a surrender. The real fight happens in motions.The affidavit includes allegations that McKee strangled Monique an...