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

[Cassie P]

from the ADA--
2.F. Patient Abandonment. Once a dentist has undertaken a course of treatment, the dentist should not discontinue that treatment without giving the patient adequate notice and the opportunity to obtain the services of another dentist. Care should be taken that the patient's oral health is not jeopardized in the process.

it's rather broad language, so i absolutely can see a dentist no call no show one time possibly falling into this, depending on what the appointment was for.

Nonmaleficence

This principle expresses the concept that professionals have a duty to protect the patient from harm.

www.ada.org

Most healthcare professionals are responsible and show up for work on time. But emergencies occur which may result in being a bit late. This is not TERMINATING a patient's care.

If you are in the healthcare field, have you heard of any healthcare related professional subjected to state of Ohio licensing board action for being late to work one time?

Ohio licensing boards are strict, but I have never heard of this happening to any medical professional.

I am willing to give the dentistry field a pass on what looks to be odd behavior. But the twists and turns to defend the behavior is puzzling to me.

As we have witnessed in other aspects of this case, the more people try to explain things, the more puzzling it looks.

 

[armchairagatha]

The bedroom door did have to be broken down. It was locked. That was the quickest way to get in at that time.

As for the back door to the house, I believe it has been posted, on this thread somewhere, that the back door was either ajar, or that someone had a code to get in. I have never seen that anywhere in MSM, so can't confirm it.

Why did the friends need to break down the bedroom door? Could they not have waited for LE to get there? The kids were already secure and the police were on their way.

 

[alexwood]

Why did the friends need to break down the bedroom door? Could they not have waited for LE to get there? The kids were already secure and the police were on their way.

You'd have to ask them that.

 

[Cassie P]

They haven’t asked for help or released any new videos for the past few days. It may have taken a couple of days to get that initial forensic data.

Some of it might be readily apparent? Position of bodies, blood spatters, etc. At least enough to give LE a basic idea of what happened.

 

[armchairagatha]

Some of it might be readily apparent? Position of bodies, blood spatters, etc. At least enough to give LE a basic idea of what happened.

Perhaps. But without a weapon at the scene?

 

[Ms Scarlett]

so they didn't even send an officer to canvass the area after the person had been banging on the woman's door for half an hour??? i thought it was pretty standard procedure to send an officer out for stuff like that? i don't think i've EVER heard of 911 being like oh they left? oh ok case closed *shrug*

That is a huge red flag in DV cases and he just took her word for it and didn't send an officer.
exactly! not sending for that call doesn't make any sense either. as others have pointed out, someone could've been standing right there intimidating her to tell the dispatcher she was fine and an officer wasn't needed. someone should've been sent regardless of what she was saying, that's crazy to me.

MOO

I thought they HAD to send an officer out for a 911 call even if the person on the phone said it wasn’t necessary…that’s the impression I got from my cop friends.

 

[getthefax]

1

From my understanding wasn't the office a 3 hour commute? Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

hour and 15 minutes, each way.

 

[getthefax]

The timeline is interesting. There is a good ten minutes between the time the friends arrived and the police arrived the 2nd time. Enough time for someone to dispose off the murder weapon (if it was murder-suicide). The police are tight lipped about what they have found so far so we have no idea what forensics found. But MOO, murder suicide is more likely than swingers and other wild theories people are now proposing. Hopefully the police release the investigation report once they have all the reports in. It does look like they have a theory they are working on and collecting evidence on since they don’t appear to be asking for new public help or even answering any questions about the POI.

I'm sorry but murder-suicide would mean that one of the two dead folks is the perpetrator, AND that one of their friends is being accused of stealing the weapon and concealing that fact. These are not particularly victim-friendly theories and it's out of line to suggest as much. The dead pair are victims, their friends are too. Can we refrain from blaming victims and their friends until police give us any reason to suspect literally any one of them??

 

[StarryStarryNight]

This thread is just flying!
I can’t keep up and frankly I don’t think we know anymore than we did at the beginning.

 

[LKN NC]

The bedroom door did have to be broken down. It was locked. That was the quickest way to get in at that time.

As for the back door to the house, I believe it has been posted, on this thread somewhere, that the back door was either ajar, or that someone had a code to get in. I have never seen that anywhere in MSM, so can't confirm it.

Was it confirmed the bedroom door was broken down by the friends? Most interior doors have tiny keys that rest above door frames. Also, they can be picked open fairly quickly. Not being combative, just asking for clarity.
I would want to get into the room if I thought someone may be hurt or in need of help, but I would not break down a door without accessing if there was another way to open.

 

[getthefax]

Just getting rid of the gun would not change the rest of the forensic evidence pointing to how the crime was committed. So if someone tried to stage the crime to protect the Tepes only by removing the weapon, it would be easily discovered once forensic data came in.

If the police believe it is a M/S why ask the public for help, why release a POI video, etc.

Hear, hear!! Unless there's evidence to suggest otherwise, we should be operating under the straightforward assumption that a third person entered the home and did the shooting.

 

[MesquiteO21]

Most healthcare professionals are responsible and show up for work on time. But emergencies occur which may result in being a bit late. This is not TERMINATING a patient's care.

If you are in the healthcare field, have you heard of any healthcare related professional subjected to state of Ohio licensing board action for being late to work one time?

Ohio licensing boards are strict, but I have never heard of this happening to any medical professional.

I am willing to give the dentistry field a pass on what looks to be odd behavior. But the twists and turns to defend the behavior is puzzling to me.

As we have witnessed in other aspects of this case, the more people try to explain things, the more puzzling it looks.

i can see it (especially from a boss/owner prospective) being considered harmful patient abandonment if the appointment was for something rather serious. Doesn't matter if it was just this one time, if the person needed to be prescribed something, no one else in the office would've been able to write a prescription and it could be a big deal that would cause harm and/or significant trouble for the patient to then find an emergency dentist. Dentists don't do cleanings, so it's not like it was just an inconvenience for the patient missing a regular old cleaning that they would need to reschedule. I'm struggling to see how people can't understand that this would escalate concern and action, especially from the owner

it's also the no call + no show together plus not hearing from his emergency contact (wife). It's not like they were expecting him at 8 and they called 911 at 8:05. they hadn't heard ANYTHING by 9, a half hour after the appointment was supposed to start -- that's serious.

MOO

 

[Cassie P]

Perhaps. But without a weapon at the scene?

Hopefully LE doesn't make a firm decision based on only one piece of initial evidence at the crime scene.

But sometimes LE does exactly this. It is called threshold bias. The police form an opinion the minute they step over the threshold of the crime scene site and never budge from that viewpoint despite a great deal of contrary evidence.

 

[worm]

They haven’t asked for help or released any new videos for the past few days. It may have taken a couple of days to get that initial forensic data.

It may be that they are in good shape with the investigation. This is always the frustrating part of following these cases.

 

[LKN NC]

I agree and I actually find it odd that so many think it's odd to call so soon.

Imagine you are the patient waiting for a dental procedure. You arrive at 745 for an 8am appointment and it's now 9am and you have work or some other obligation to get to at some point and nobody knows where the dentist is. It's one thing for a dentist to be running behind on patients, but a dentist who isn't even at work yet and isn't ansering a phone and neither is his wife.

What were they going to tell the patients? Sorry we will reschedule, what if he walked in 5 minutes later?

Now imagine the office is full of people that need to see that dentist and there is no other dentist to see patients in his place. The entire office is now at a standstill because patients are there and nobody can see them.

IMO

I agree with you.

I don’t think it was weird to call for a wellness check. They only asked for someone to check on them.

Several fam members of mine work in the dental field. They are extremely close. Recently, the dentist called me (I have never met or spoken with them) to check in on my fam member who was hospitalized. They had just spoken to the fam member the night before and knew they were going to be in the hospital. I did not see it as an overreach, they just work closely together. The person has only worked there one year and they already act like family. Without a doubt, if my family member had not show up to work, they would call me and/or send someone to check on her- even police.

Many states prohibit what dental hygienist and other staff can do unless a dentist is physically present. I do not know all of the laws of the state or how many dentists were present, but dental practices rely often on the entire team. It would be a noticeable disruption for a dentist to just no show.

 

[lg2019]

It may be that they are in good shape with the investigation. This is always the frustrating part of following these cases.

It doesn’t sound like they are based on what cpd just said

 

[wibbleflea]

This thread is just flying!
I can’t keep up and frankly I don’t think we know anymore than we did at the beginning.

Made me laugh. You’re right!

 

[keek]

I agree with you.

I don’t think it was weird to call for a wellness check. They only asked for someone to check on them.

Several fam members of mine work in the dental field. They are extremely close. Recently, the dentist called me (I have never met or spoken with them) to check in on my fam member who was hospitalized. They had just spoken to the fam member the night before and knew they were going to be in the hospital. I did not see it as an overreach, they just work closely together. The person has only worked there one year and they already act like family. Without a doubt, if my family member had not show up to work, they would call me and/or send someone to check on her- even police.

Many states prohibit what dental hygienist and other staff can do unless a dentist is physically present. I do not know all of the laws of the state or how many dentists were present, but dental practices rely often on the entire team. It would be a noticeable disruption for a dentist to just no show.

The thing is, people are not realizing that this small group are ALSO friends. That was apparent to me right off. It's a practice, similar ages, you get close, you sometimes socialize outside the office. ANY office I've worked in we were friends with at least SOME, good friends, confidants.. These are guys and their buddy seems to be in trouble. IMO

 

[ttjo]

The thing is, people are not realizing that this small group are ALSO friends. That was apparent to me right off. It's a practice, similar ages, you get close, you sometimes socialize outside the office. ANY office I've worked in we were friends with at least SOME, good friends, confidants.. These are guys and their buddy seems to be in trouble. IMO

And there was a reason, for that response. now that we know the police went to the wrong address, and did they say they were going to do any follow up?
It makes more sense why others came out. They may have felt like they got a lack of response from cops, ( if they didnt say they’d follow up) a cranky 911 girl, the boss is on vacation in Florida, workers are an hour a way, so let’s call friends in the area. It will come together even more, once there’s more info…

 

[Cassie P]

It doesn’t sound like they are based on what cpd just said

I only saw part of the news story just now. Cbus LE said they went to the wrong house initially? What else did they say?