OH - Spencer and Monique Tepe found shot to death at home 2 children unharmed, Columbus, 30 December 2025 *ex-husband arrested*

[academyrd]

Thank you for post, perfectly stated IMO, reminds me of the 4 Idaho student murder discussions on WS when people would go on and on about the dog (Murphy I think). Continually discussing their own dogs etc.
Facts only please!

Same here! I love dogs, I am a dog owner... but the obsession people have with dogs in these kinds of cases is hilarious. The dog is an ANIMAL. Said animal is not a reliable witness who was supposed to act in a certain way

 

[calmdownjudy]

https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/07/us/spencer-monique-tepe-killings-timeline

I don't know if this article has been posted yet, but it has timestamps for the 911 calls.

 

[stmichael]

First of all, how does a random burglar even gain entry in the first place unless,.of course, the back door was conveniently left open? But for arguments sake, lets say he gained entry into the home but now finds himself in total darkness in unfamiliar surroundings. How does one maneuver their way around THREE different floors searching for the loot without the benefit of a light source? Rummaging around trying different doors and rooms while risking the possibility of waking the children or more importantly, the homeowner himself who maybe decides to pull a gun on him.

Also the random burglar neutralized the couple in the bedroom so why didn't they take that golden opportunity to steal their valuable wedding rings? They were there for the.loot, right? But as reported, nothing was apparently missing.

Nah, this was not a random burglary. I bet statistics would support the fact that most burglars prefer to ransack unoccupied dwellings.

There's random and there's random. I often maintained that this could be a distant connection; a handyman, a repair men, someone they hired to help out from the area. A local that might have a hidden drug problem. etc. They were very trusting people and embraced living in a gentrified area with incidents of crime, including murder and an 8 year-old shot within walking distance while they were there. Such a person would also possibly have access to and familiarity of the home.

As to your initial query:

1. Door "Smart" lock glitched open, people going up to check on open doors as they do in many neighborhoods checking if car doors in driveways are open (as many see on Ring community).

2 .Door "Smart"lock defeated. Someone posted an earlier model of that door lock hacked with a paperclip. This is all over the internet and common skells know this. Maybe someone who knew this was picking houses out with a smart lock of that kind.

3 .Rear door left unlocked. Tired couple with young kids let the golden doodle out and forgot to lock it. As security oriented as I am I had lapses when I had little ones and was constantly in brain fog as most young parents.

4. Egress window. Rear egress window from the yard into the basement. Some of these models which prioritize egress (legal code requirement) can be pried open with little disturbance (hence no apparent forced entry).

I can probably think of a few others. When I lived in NYC the locals were crazy creative with these things. Ah, the thing's I've seen.

As for your other points you're telling me you are not familiar with burglars. You can adjust to the dark, you can use a flash-light and cover it, you can be stupid and brazen like tweakers, the house was 2,500 sq ft max. This isn't that difficult. Plus things obviously would have went south in this scenario, so it's not like it was well planned out even in that case, which is what we see in these cases. Nothing is reported missing in a lot of attempted burglaries when a tweaker freaks out, shoots impulsively, and high-tails it out of there. Happens a lot. Furthermore, the police state nothing was "apparenly" missing. etc. When doing press releases, updates in an ongoing investigation, there is tolerance built in the language 'cause often times they don't know. Could be with the 5 year wedding anniversary Spencer bought an expensive small gift that was a surprise and most of the friend circle interviewed didn't know. A handyman, repair person might have caught wind of it and that's enough motive for someone down on your luck and it would seem nothing was stolen.

Of course, I still maintain a lot of other possibilities, but to dismiss this very plausible scenario given the location and crime history of the neighborhood seems lacking.

 

[ElishiaMarie]

The couple's surviving young children will one day have access to the internet and will have questions about their parents' deaths. I would like to think that speculation here will be based on facts and not "vibes". Those children could one day be reading this thread. JMO

Got it. Just trying to hopefully be helpful. I mean the BIL is sharing quite a bit that they will read. Anyway, I’ll see myself out

 

[Mitch1]

Like possible CO poisoning, that takes entire families every winter?

I’m not going to assume my boss who is always dependable is dead at the house and call the police bc he hasn’t shown up or answering calls

 

[you betcha]

I’m not going to assume my boss who is always dependable is dead at the house and call the police bc he hasn’t shown up or answering calls

Man, I hope I'm never your coworker, then.

 

[Mitch1]

Man, I hope I'm never your coworker, then.

Hey now-I said I would check on you

 

[jenn83]

Moo....are you kidding. It takes 3 to 6 months to appointment sometimes. People often have to travel quite a distance. They take time off work for appointment.The patients will not suddenly disappear.

I'm sure it happens all the time. I've had my appointment canceled at the last second because an emergency came up with the doctor. (the emergency could be they overslept, I'll never know). Things happen. It sucks but...what are you gonna do? Anyway, I just wanted to join in on this unnecessary discussion haha

 

[you betcha]

Hey now-I said I would check on you

That's good, but if you're an hour away and in my house there is a dire circumstance where your help could also harm you (such as poisonous gas), I don't know...

 

[wibbleflea]

The Columbus Division of Police stated that the April 911 call had nothing to do with MT. They made that information public. So, although it’s understandably not their highest priority to do so, they are shutting down certain avenues of public speculation as and when they can.

If that process continues, things should become clearer for anyone watching the case from the outside. For now, the less likely possibilities are still open. It’s too early to rule anything out.

 

[Voidz]

It's my understanding the first-time police were called they didn't go to the correct house so when a friend showed up to check on them, no police were there. Then at some point the person outside checking on them hears the kids crying, but nobody is answering the door. At this point police are not at the house, and I think that is when they made the decision to enter the house due to hearing the kids. IMO

That makes sense although I read it was 3 people including co-workers - I presume they didn’t know police had gone to the wrong house and everything was under control so why would they make their way there? And if it’s co-workers, I find it hard to believe they lived in the same area as Spencer, so they drove all the way there? Taking into account the timing of it all, yes, I do find it bizarre for them to turn up. If the office is busy with patients not being seen to, the boss on holiday has called police for a welfare check which was underway, it’s weird if they went all the way there themselves too. Especially since it was still quite early on in him not turning up.
Keep in mind they don’t know the police would go to the wrong address.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

No rando targets a new build house and somehow gains entry…… And then guns down the adults but spares the babies. This was so personal.

It could be the murderer feels nothing toward adults but still feels something toward kids and pets, no?

Wow. Everyone makes mistakes but this is sad to watch. Not that it would have saved them but he would at least have heard the kids.

I think it's hilarious that this video was released and is on YouTube. In his defense, he believed he was at the correct house. The whistling was probably his way to calm his nerves, inappropriate as it was.

 

[Mitch1]

The Columbus Division of Police stated that the April 911 call had nothing to do with MT. They made that information public. So, although it’s understandably not their highest priority to do so, they are shutting down certain avenues of public speculation as and when they can.

If that process continues, things should become clearer for anyone watching the case from the outside. For now, the less likely possibilities are still open. It’s too early to rule anything out.

The BIL said he spoke to several people at a particular party that MT and ST had that night and they all said they remember this incident and that caller, although not MT, was someone at the party having mental health issues at that moment.

 

[stmichael]

I’m not going to assume my boss who is always dependable is dead at the house and call the police bc he hasn’t shown up or answering calls

But that's not what happened. They made numerous calls to no avail. They had a past relationship with his wife (say she always answers) who they knew stays at home with a 1 and 4 year old (4 year old had daycare) and lives in a neighborhood with crime (maybe they were judgmental about that and concerned behind the scenes. You guys live in Weinland Park with kids?) It was when they couldn't repeatedly reach the wife with infants that they called the police. The BIL said when they heard the news they assumed it was a car accident.

<modsnip: Removed personalizing> You may think it's overreacting but many people including them did not given the circumstances.

 

[flippyflappy]

Exactly, and I think this is why the staff let the boss know right away that Spencer hadn't come into work yet that morning and patients were already waiting and I think he knew then that something was very wrong.

Exactly! They probably had $30k+ worth of services booked for that day and were unable to do anything unless he was onsite as the billable provider. It’s a freaking crisis when the whole office can’t work and you have patients all over the place.

 

[TexLil]

You are calling the cops if your boss misses a meeting with you? After how long? Wouldn't you just assume he got pulled into another meeting?

Every situation and person and business is DIFFERENT. The people in THIS situation made their decisions based the specific set of circumstances happening in real time (that none of us are privy to). None of them are suspects. The children were found safe relatively quickly. The double murder investigation was started relatively quickly. It seems the actions of the victims' concerned, proactive support community successfully achieved these critical outcomes MOO

 

[Voidz]

Got it. Just trying to hopefully be helpful. I mean the BIL is sharing quite a bit that they will read. Anyway, I’ll see myself out

<modsnip> your theory could be 1000% correct. I enjoy your insights. If anything, the children will most likely be annoyed by the wedding photo being released publicly (I can’t see it on any of his socials until their deaths which makes me think they wanted to keep it private).

 

[ElizaKate]

Not my opinion of what's happened but got bored and started looking at the dental practice google reviews.

 

[you betcha]

Exactly! They probably had $30k+ worth of services booked for that day and were unable to do anything unless he was onsite as the billable provider. It’s a freaking crisis when the whole office can’t work and you have patients all over the place.

I cannot imagine the sheer anxiety from this workplace situation alone, tensions must have been high. I could imagine a flurry of calls and messages among coworkers and friends, with worry rising exponentially as, possibly, everyone winds each other up.

 

[Tortoise]

Ah, I see Gray Hughes has done a video on the location of the video camera. He's excellent with this kind of thing.

So Gray has pinpointed the precise location of the camera and the person of interest is walking towards the rear of the house at that time, from the direction of 9th Ave towards 8th Ave, in the alley that runs right behind their house and garage. If he is the murderer it looks like it was video before the murders.

He's also shown stills of the inside of their house, from the sales particulars.