Good morning everyone.
You're listening to the Dateline story meeting.
It's a very busy day.
Buckle up folks.
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.
Judge Mazzy, who is known for his in-court singers, had the line of the day.
Plus, what happens after you dial 911?
We talked to the head of an emergency services department in Pennsylvania which receives thousands of calls a day.
Every call is different.
There are even times that we'll have people text and I will want mail.
But before all that, we've got a stunning update in a story we first told you about last week.
The murder of an Ohio dentist and his wife.
After a 10-day manhunt that crossed state lines, investigators finally have an alleged killer in custody for the shooting deaths of Spencer and Monique Tepe.
The Ohio couple found gunned down in their home in late December.
Prosecutors say the alleged killer is Monique's ex-husband, Michael David McKee, a 39-year-old Chicago-area doctor with no criminal history.
He was arrested roughly 400 miles from the crime scene in Rockford Illinois a day before the Tepe's funeral.
So who is Dr. Michael McKee and how did officials single him out as their suspect?
Joining me now to help answer these questions is NBC News correspondent Erin McLaughlin, who has been in Chicago reporting on this story.
Erin, thank you for being here.
Thanks so much for having me.
So I know you you're learning all kinds of new details about this every day.
Can you just first give us a quick refresher on the case?
So on the morning of December 30th a 911 call was placed around 9 am 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.
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'd 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 specifically?
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.
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 Erin, 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.
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 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 court hearing earlier in the week, being led into the courthouse wearing a yellow prison jumpsuit.
He was shackled. and remain 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 a thousand 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.
Thanks so much for having me.
Coming up the former IRS agent on trial for allegedly masterminding a double murder that involved a fetish website and the family au pair.
In the early morning hours of February 24th 2023, multiple 911 calls came into the Fairfax County Police Department in Virginia from the home of Brendan and Christine Banfield.
911, where's your emergency?
Police raced to the Banfield's home and found a gruesome scene in the bedroom.
Christine, an ICU nurse and mother to the couple's four-year-old daughter, had been fatally stabbed.
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.
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.
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 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 enact a rape fantasy, a violent rape fantasy.
Great 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 believe—
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 Ryan, 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.
She finally says, you know, I'm ready to tell the truth.
And she talks to the prosecutors and says, here's what really happened.
But the defense attorney is saying, well, wait a minute.
You're saying in letters to Brendan and to others that the police are trying to get you to say something against Brendan.
That isn't true.
So which is the truth, Juliana?
What you said earlier or what you're saying now?
All right.
Obviously, she's such a big part of this.
The prosecutor called her to the stand on day one.
Come with your next witness.
It's Juliana Perez Malviahis.
All right.
Usually that's reserved, you know, for a lead detective, or I mean, were you so surprised that she was up there that fast?
Yes.
Most of us were surprised.
Wow.
Day one.
Huh.
She almost looked, you know, just watching her, maybe a little meek, maybe almost a little scared or timid to be up there.
At some point.
While you were working for the Banfield family, did your relationship with the defendant change?
Yes.
How did it change?
It became a sexual, physical relationship.
Yeah, the picture you got of this young woman.
She seems very shy soft-spoken, speaking in heavily accented English.
Did he ever talk about the two of you getting married or the two of you having children?
Yes.
Did he ever talk about getting a divorce with her?
No, he basically said divorce was not an option.
Okay, so the prosecution questioned Juliana about how the plot began.
Did he tell you what he wanted to do?
Yes, he mentioned his plan to get rid of her.
What did you think when he told you that?
At first, I thought he was joking.
This was in October.
But then, you know, they're going to a firing range and she's learning how to fire a gun.
And so by January is when we start to hear about this fetish website and an account being opened publicly, according to the au pair in Christine's name.
Okay, so Marianne Juliana also testified about the morning of the alleged murders and what it was like for her to be in that room.
Did you see Joe before he was shot?
Yeah.
What did he look like when he saw Brendan?
Shocked.
What did you see Brendan do next?
He got on top of her, and that's when I first saw him. stabbed her with a knife.
What she said was she really did not witness most of Christine's attack.
She was cowering on the other side of the bed, hands over her ears, and in shock.
I was walking around, I would say, freaking out, and I was pacing back and forth.
And it was pacing and staying in place, covering my eyes and ears.
Our listeners are going to wonder you know, if Juliana knew about this plan, why didn't she do anything to stop it?
She said this previously in her statement to the Commonwealth.
She said, I really did not think he was serious about this.
But then once things got in motion, almost like it was a train going the tracks and she didn't know how to jump off it.
Essentially,
Yeah.
On cross-examination.
The defense asked Juliana why she changed her tune from maintaining her innocence to cooperating with the prosecution and pleading guilty.
Yeah.
And she just says, I just wanted the truth to come out.
And the defense also sort of accused Juliana of tailoring her story to fit the prosecution's theory.
That's exactly right.
They're basically saying, hey, the prosecution told you.
This is the story.
And then you pretty much regurgitated it.
And what is Juliana facing with her deal?
What everyone believes will happen is that she will be sentenced after this trial.
And the talk is that she will be deported home, Brazil.
Time served, deported home.
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.
Welcome back.
Joining me for this week's Roundup is Dateline producer Mario Garcia.
Hey, Mario.
Hey, Andrea.
How are you?
Good.
Let's start with a case you and I know very well out of Long Island.
We've both been covering it for years, the Gilgo Beach murders.
On Tuesday, Rex Hurman, the 62-year-old architect accused of murdering several women, was back in court.
I'm sure many of our listeners are already familiar with this case.
But Mario, just a very quick recap.
Yep, quick synopsis, Andrew.
Between 2010-2011, police on Long Island discovered 11 sets of human remains along a desolate stretch of Gilgo Beach and in other parts of Long Island.
For years, the case just lingered and lingered and went cold eventually.
That changed in 2023 when Heuermann was arrested.
He was initially charged with three murders.
But since then the case has expanded significantly, as you know, and prosecutors now say he's responsible for killing seven women, with some of those murders dating as far back as 1993.
And Rex, as you know, has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
You've been making a lot of trips to Long Island.
Tuesday was no exception.
You were back in the courtroom.
Do we finally have a trial date?
That is like the big question that we seem to ask every single time and we never get an answer.
That's what they call a tease in podcast line, Andrea.
We'll get to that in just a sec.
That is the big question.
You're right.
But Herman appeared in court Tuesday.
He's in a dark suit.
I think that's his usual suit.
His face was stern, expressionless.
His defense team filed an omnibus motion.
Omnibus basically means one big thing with many parts.
So it was a 175-page motion with all their attachments.
They're seeking what's known as relief on a wide range of issues Andrew, including getting all of the search warrants tossed out.
And then, as a result of that, they want all of the evidence that was gathered from those search warrants to be tossed out as well, including another attempt to get some of the DNA evidence thrown out.
They're saying Rex's civil rights were violated when investigators fished his pizza crust out of that Manhattan garbage can.
I don't know that Judge Mads is going to go for it, but it would obviously change the case if he sided with them.
How is the prosecution responding to all of this?
Well, not surprisingly, Ray Tierney, who is an intense, serious man, basically said at his own press conference that his team stands by their indictments, they stand by their case and they are ready to go to trial.
All right, back to our tease.
Do we know when this trial is expected to start?
Drumroll, please, Andrea.
The judge said yesterday that there is a trial date, kind of that.
This trial is going to start very shortly after Labor Day.
Quote come hell or high water.
Oh, my.
So Judge Mazzei, who is known for his in-court zingers, had the line of the day.
So it looks like the attorneys involved in the case will be wearing wool and not linen.
Yeah.
Well, I guess if it's after Labor Day.
Mario, you know, the weather could go either way.
Right, well, definitely no white shoes, I guess.
No white, right, yeah.
All right, well, that's progress.
Up.
Next we're off to New Jersey, where businessman Paul Canero's quadruple murder trial got underway this week.
He is accused of the 2018 murders of his younger brother, Keith.
The murder of Keith's wife and children.
He's also accused of setting fire to their home and his own home in an effort to cover up the crime.
Mario.
In the state's opening statement, the prosecutor laid out a pretty graphic timeline for the morning of the murders.
This is a very disturbing case.
This is a very disturbing, sad case indeed, Andrea.
They did set out that timeline and they described how Paul allegedly lured his brother out of his house before shooting him in the front yard.
Then how he moved into Keith's home to kill his wife and Keith's two children.
The prosecutor then promised to show the jury evidence of Canara's motive, which they say was all about money and greed.
The prosecutor told jurors about a 3 million trust that Keith established if he and his entire family were to die.
Both Paul and another brother we haven't heard much about would be the beneficiaries of that policy.
It brings us to the defense's opening statement, and they talked about Paul and Keith's other brother as well.
The defense pointed the finger at him as an alternate suspect.
Let's take a listen to that.
Now, who should... the police have focused on?
Who should they have investigated?
Well, they didn't really mention him, but there's a third brother, and his name is Corey Panera.
Yep, that's right, Andrea.
The defense said that Corey was never fully investigated and that he was in the worst financial shape, worse than Paul at the time of the murders, and stood to inherit money from that trust too.
Do we think this is going to be a really long trial?
They say several weeks, Andrea.
Possibly it could stretch into March.
Yeah, that is long.
Okay, for our last story.
We're heading to Colorado and back to a case we've been keeping a very close eye on the murder of Suzanne Morphew.
The 49-year-old mother of two vanished on Mother's Day 2020 after what investigators believe was a bike ride near her home.
Her bike was later found in a ravine, but she was nowhere to be found.
Her husband, Barry Morphew, was first arrested in 2021, charged with her murder.
But the case against him, if you remember, was dropped.
Then in 2023, Suzanne's remains were discovered.
And then last year, in 2025, Barry was arrested yet again and charged with first-degree murder.
He was back in court this week, Mario.
Let's just remind listeners what exactly led to his arrest the second time around.
Well Andrea, when Barry was first arrested, prosecutors did not have Suzanne's body, so that's always a hard case.
But that changed back in 2023 when Suzanne's body was found.
An autopsy revealed a combination of animal tranquilizer drugs known as BAM in her system.
Prosecutors say Barry was the only private citizen in the area with access to that drug.
That evidence led to a new indictment and Barry's arrest last year, Andrea.
Barry Morphew has long proclaimed his innocence.
He was back in court on Monday.
What was that court date about?
He entered a not guilty plea and waived his right to a speedy trial.
And we have another court date, right?
We do.
This one even more specific.
Even more specific than the Gilgo case.
Yes Andrea, the trial is scheduled for October 13th an actual date and is expected to run six weeks.
Okay.
Thanks for Roundup this week, Mario.
Lots of good information.
Thanks for having me, Andrea.
For our final story, we're turning to something thousands of people around the country do every day.
Turn to 911 for help.
We're very, very concerned because this is very out of character.
Earlier in the episode we talked about the series of 911 calls that led Columbus police to the home of Spencer and Monique Tepe and the discovery of their murders.
There's blood.
He's laying next to his bed, off of his bed, and there's blood.
It got us thinking about emergency calls, how they're handled, how they're prioritized, how locations are verified and what dispatchers need from callers in real time.
Here to talk about this is B.J.
Meadowcroft, the Chester County, Pennsylvania Deputy Director for Emergency Communications.
Welcome to the podcast, B.J.
Thank you so much for having us, Andrea.
Yeah, we're very interested to learn more about this.
And of course, calling 911 is something we all hope we never have to do.
But this line of work, I mean, you do this every day.
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?
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 now.
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 it's just another way to kind of communicate with us silently but be able 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 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 bedside manner?
Because people calling you are often in a very vulnerable position.
Yeah, we really train our staff to understand that people are calling us on their worst days.
Our dispatchers are amazing professionals that are trained to help, No matter the scenario, no matter what information is available or not available.
They are used to meeting those challenges and finding our successes.
Okay, so for news you can use, what helps dispatchers the most if you are to call 911?
The exact street address.
If you're in an apartment or a specific unit, include that with it.
Nearby landmarks or a business name or a place name that you're at.
Please share that information with the dispatcher.
It's information that will help them.
We want to know what the situation is that's occurring there, if it's happened previously or if it's changing.
The more information that can be provided to the 911 dispatcher better allows us to share that information with responders and ensure that they have a good idea of what's occurring there before they arrive.
Okay.
And if someone feels unsafe but isn't exactly sure what's happening, a good idea is still to call 911.
Absolutely.
Our dispatchers are true professionals, and they want to help with whatever the need is.
Even if there's limited information, please call.
We will work with you to understand where you are and any updates that are occurring at the emergency location.
All right.
Thank you, BJ, so much.
This was very helpful and very educational.
Thank you.
Thank you, Andrea.
A shooting.
Little fires everywhere.
Watch The Trouble with Sarah Friday at 9, 8 central on NBC.
Thanks for listening.
Dateline True Crime Weekly is produced by Carson Cummins, Caroline Casey and Kiani Reed.
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Original music by Jesse McGinty.
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Everybody have a great day.
