Weeks before Monique Tepe and her husband were brutally killed in their Ohio home, the warning signs were already bleeding into her everyday life.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Monique had to excuse herself from a night out with friends after becoming upset over a situation involving her ex-husband, Michael McKee — just three weeks before she and her dentist husband, Spencer Tepe, were found dead in their Columbus home.

McKee is now accused of murdering the couple on Dec. 30 as their two young children slept nearby.

The incident described in the affidavit unfolded on Dec. 6, during a weekend trip to Indiana where Monique and Spencer joined friends to watch the Big Ten Championship football game featuring their alma mater, Ohio State University. The getaway also marked the week before the couple’s fifth wedding anniversary.

Midway through the game, Monique suddenly told friends she needed to return to the hotel room. She offered no explanation. Later, Spencer told the group that Monique was upset about something involving her ex-husband, according to investigators.

Around that same time — hundreds of miles away — McKee was allegedly captured on neighborhood surveillance cameras breaking into the Tepes’ property in Columbus. Police say he spent several hours on the property before leaving. Investigators did not say whether Monique or Spencer knew about the intrusion at the time.

The affidavit paints a troubling picture of a man who never let go. One friend told police that McKee once told Monique she would always be his wife and threatened to buy the house next door if she ever left him. Though the couple divorced eight years earlier, McKee allegedly continued making threats long after Monique moved on and built a new life.

Investigators say McKee drove more than 400 miles from Illinois to the Tepes’ home on Dec. 6, using the same silver SUV later captured on surveillance footage arriving in the neighborhood during the early morning hours of Dec. 30 — just before Monique and Spencer were killed. That same vehicle was seen leaving shortly after the murders, police said.

Authorities later traced the SUV to a medical facility in Rockford, Illinois, where McKee worked. Federal agents arrested him nearby on Jan. 10. A grand jury indicted the surgeon a week later on four counts of aggravated murder and one count of aggravated burglary.

Police have since said a search of McKee’s property uncovered the weapon they believe was used to kill the Tepes. McKee entered a not guilty plea during his first court appearance in Ohio on Jan. 23.

A friend previously stated that while Monique rebuilt her life after the divorce, McKee remained consumed by her success and independence.

“He thought she could not live without him,” the friend said. “That she needed him. So for her to thrive in her new marriage — that just destroyed his fragile little ego.”

Now, investigators say that obsession may have turned deadly, leaving two children without parents and a community grappling with how long the danger had been closing in.