Left: Brian McKay (Shawnee County Department of Corrections). Right: Monica McKay (Penwell-Gabel Funeral Home).
A Kansas man who was financially ruined by a divorce decided to beat, strip, strangle and drown his wife in a bathtub after obsessively bugging her home and vehicle with spy devices.
Brian McKay, 55, was found guilty on May 14 of first-degree murder for the November 2024 death of his 50-year-old wife Monica McKay, according to court records.
During his trial, prosecutors said the slaying was the result of a bitter divorce battle that cost Brian McKay money and prompted his wife to obtain a "protection from stalking" order against him, according to an arrest affidavit viewed by Law&Crime.
The Topeka Capital-Journal covered Brian McKay's trial and reported that prosecutors told a Shawnee County jury that he had emotional and economic motives for killing Monica McKay. The ongoing divorce, which Monica McKay filed for on Oct. 19, 2024 — roughly a month before she was murdered — was ruining him financially, according to the newspaper, and he had become increasingly obsessed with her after they separated four months earlier. This resulted in Brian McKay bugging his wife's home.
"[One of Monica McKay's adult sons] previously discovered devices in the home, from which they believed the deceased was being monitored by her husband," the arrest affidavit says. "These devices were described to [police] and also to the court as covert cameras microphones, and possibly an Amazon Echo Device (Alexa)."
Brian McKay, who was also convicted of stalking, "placed a GPS tracking device on a vehicle operated by Monica," according to the affidavit. "It had tracked from Monica's residence to her place of employment and also followed other patterns of life consistent with normal movements," the affidavit says.
Five days before Monica McKay filed for divorce, she applied for and was granted a "protection from stalking" order against Brian McKay. He was made aware of the order on Oct. 17, 2024, and was served with the order later that same day.
After Monica McKay was killed, police interviewed Brian McKay and asked him when he last saw her. Brian said he hadn't seen her "since she got that 'stupid restraining order,'" according to the affidavit.
"While talking, [police] observed two marks on Brian's person," the affidavit says, describing one of the marks as a "red spot" on his left cheek.
"[Police] asked what it was and he said it was a scar from getting skin cancer removed multiple different times," the document explains. "The second mark was a scratch on the back right side of his neck. … When asked what it was from, Brian said that it was from a twig while he was clearing brush with his tractor."
An autopsy performed on Monica McKay determined that her preliminary cause of death was drowning. Authorities reported injuries consistent with strangulation, with Monica McKay's final autopsy report stating that the cause of death was "drowning with contributing factors of strangulation and multiple blunt force trauma."
In addition to premeditated first-degree murder and stalking, Brian McKay was convicted of first-degree murder in the commission of an inherently dangerous felony, aggravated burglary, and violating a protective order.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 20.
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