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

[Cryptic]

. I don't know their personal financial situation but I'm fairly confident they could have easily moved to a safer, cheaper, suburb very easily if they desired.

I agree with you.

Whatever their immediate financial situation is, their long term financial situation is solid and high income. Thus, even in a blight scenario, they would not likely be trapped in a home (ie liquid cash, current interest rates and actual resale value wise)

As the real estate blight is not in Ohio, they would probably not need to "price it to sell" by a significant degree, nor would they have fundamental difficulties in finding another buyer. Reports from you and other posters indicate that though there are safety concerns, the area is still over all viable for urban pioneers types.

In the end, any "Ok- On paper, the house was worth "X". But we actually had to sell it for "Z" out of uhmm... "convenience" type losses would be pretty negligible in the long term for them.

 

[Ms Scarlett]

Sorry, one last point:

I made the locksmith assess the photos of the house.

It’s plausible that the balcony doors could appear locked after being closed. Apparently those types of doors use self-latching or multi-point locking mechanisms that re-engage when the door is shut or when the handle returns to a neutral position. As a result, someone exiting via the balcony could close the doors behind them, and the doors could later appear secured with no visible signs of forced entry or exit.

Hopefully the balcony doors are carefully examined because an exit may have occurred without obvious damage - the door can be closed behind someone and still look locked during later inspection, depending on the lock design and handle position.

And maybe they didn’t lock this door due to the balcony.

Great information. Thanks again!

 

[Sadi]

Who else thinks it’s bizarre that the person who discovered the body has somehow inserted themselves into the narrative by gaining access to the house and possibly contaminating the crime scene? I sense a red flag with this.

While I don’t think it’s an overreaction to do a welfare check, it seems weird that the police were already involved but he had to be the one who found the bodies, there is some type of self serving urgency, maybe as an alibi?

If it’s a close friend, I’ll understand the behaviour more, but if it turns out to be a co-worker, it’s very peculiar…

I don’t find it bizarre at all. They had legitimate concerns and were there to check on them. Working in a small office, you can become close and when he didn’t show up for work, his wife’s phone wasn’t being answered, the cared enough to call 911 and then drive there themselves. I would be more concerned if they didn’t check into this and went about their day etc.

 

[dotr]

Would thieves think that as dentists, the couple might have (pain killer) drugs in the home? speculation.

 

[osu]

Does anyone think that the police dispatcher in these calls should lose their job? So rude and unprofessional. If the dispatcher did their job properly they would have found out that children where in the house and the Police would have taken the situation more seriously. Is there a way to make a complaint?

Not sure if it would do any good, but you could always call the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department to make a complaint.

 

[Sadi]

Would thieves think that as a dentists, there might be (pain killer) drugs in the home? speculation.

I’ve wondered the same thing and I think it’s very likely, especially if he were to treat his family/friends in an emergency dental situation and not have time to drive to the office if the person is in extreme pain.

 

[Lyn71]

I mean that's exactly what I think since it was said that there was no sign of forced entry and the house hadn't been ransacked / nothing obvious was missing. Shooting two people inside their home and leaving their two kids orphans is a pretty extreme measure.
I'm dubious about the brother in law (being so vocal on Reddit and sending the wedding video he made of S&Ms wedding into media channels), but it's not that I think he's involved.

As someone who worked in tv news/video production, I wouldn’t think anything of the brother in law’s actions. I would also likely be the one to share photos and information as allowed by law enforcement simply from being in that business. You would just know how to handle things. Many victims families kind of assign a spokesperson so the rest can simply mourn.

 

[warp3dwing]

I swear that I recently read a post quoting the neighbor who is often out of town for work and had the Tepes pick up packages for him, but I can't find it now. Does anyone know which post/article this was? Thank you.

 

[TIGER0822]

I believe they had the home at time of marriage, based on wedding video. Not sure if one of them owned it prior to marriage or if joint purchase.

It’s odd about work distance, especially in winter, 74 miles is quite a commute.

Maybe he switched jobs?

 

[Speculaytor]

I’m also wondering how easy or hard is it to open an electronic door lock when you don’t have the code? I’ve tried to google it and I see conflicting information. Some say they’re easy to break into and others say they aren’t. So, I’m wondering if anyone here has direct knowledge.
If it’s easy to open a door with an electronic lock, then there wouldn’t be any signs of a break in.

Doors with key pads automatically lock behind you when they close. It would be easy for someone to exit a door with a key pad and have it be locked afterward. I read a theory that sounded very plausible because they were found in different parts of the house, Spencer we know on bottom floor next to bed. The theory is that she was on upper floor, and opened the door for someone and was shot first. The perp then went down and killed Spencer. Would she open the door for a stranger, if they were in need of help? IDK? If the gun had a silencer, no reports of gun shots from neighbors, Spencer would not have known she was shot upstairs or that anything was happening?

 

[Kittybunny]

Soooo…I haven’t seen anyone bring up this possibility, but given all the circumstances (no signs of forced entry, nothing taken), is it possible that this is really a murder-suicide and police are just working to eliminate the possibility that it isn’t?

Not sure I strongly believe this theory but might explain some things.

 

[Speculaytor]

Am I remembering correctly that he worked in Athens, Ohio but chose to live in Columbus…which Google says is 74 miles away?

Did they buy this home after they married? Has he changed jobs? Perhaps they just preferred an urban vibe but a quick look on Zillow shows much more house for one’s dollar in Athens.

M.did not work, but was she in school, working on a degree? Did she have babysitters that would have the door code?

If office hours began at 8am, he would have to leave between 6-6:30 am every day. A long commute, but maybe that’s just my perspective.

His Linkedin has him at Stonecreek Dental Care before the Athens Depot, and he studied at Ohio State (not sure when, but graduated 2017?). I am not sure which Stonecreek Dental Care, but it may have been closer to the house, I know OSU is. I agree that commuting that distance in winter is less than ideal.

 

[Cryptic]

Would thieves think that as dentists, the couple might have (pain killer) drugs in the home? speculation.

I can see drug fogged thinking along the lines of:

- I always jump start my parties by popping pills. So, he must do likewise.
- I keep my convenience stash behind the TV. "Thinking" that a dentist's daily stash is there too- right next to his solid gold, living large Rolex.
- Meanwhile, his deep party stash is going to be the size of, well..... a pharmacy.

The only drawback, as @ivegotcha pointed out, is that evidently nothing was taken. I can see fuzzy logic from a violent addict leading to a belief of the presence of a pharmacy sized pill stash and an equally enticing stash of mandatory living large bling loot- he is a wealthy 'doc- right?

But... leaving with out taking any "consolation prizes" such as wallet, credit cards and grabbable jewelry?

 

[MntnHiker]

I know I mentioned this briefly earlier in the thread, but with the further discussion of the coded locks, I am increasingly interested in any service people they've had in the home and not just necessarily recently but over the past several months. They may have given a service person or company a separate door code and forgot to erase that code once the work with that person was finished. It would be a big risk, of course, but if you write that code down and decide to try it one night to see if it still works....

Another thought I had was I am curious what Spencer and Monique's movements were earlier in the evening. Did they go anywhere? This is a farther-fetched theory but wondering if they angered someone without realizing - cut someone off in traffic, took a parking spot someone was gunning for - and the person was so incensed that they followed them home to come back later and exact revenge. Far-fetched but can and has happened in the past. MOO

 

[keek]

People compartmentalize. It sounds as though he is and acting practically at this time which is needed. He has their dog that he is close to previously. His focus sounds on let LE do their job, let him and family get through what needs to be done, which is the upcoming events. Shock and unreality plays into this as well. IMO

 

[Speculaytor]

I watch too many crime shows, but isn't there something about bullet and casing marks (striations?) that can possibly be matched to previous shootings? Which can sometimes give a lead to the perp.

Yep, and they even have a nationwide digital data base where police can enter the pictures and the computer can see if there is a match to a bullet previously entered. Just like the fingerprint or DNA data bases. It's called the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN)

 

[StarryStarryNight]

From what’s being said it sounds like this densely populated area was saturated with security cameras of one type or another.
By now I would think LE has numerous videos of the culprit coming and going. That, of course, doesn’t mean the video are good enough to identify anybody, but hopefully, because there are so many cameras LE can “follow” him in a particular direction that might be helpful.
I expect this week for LE to release maybe a still shot or short video or some type of new information while asking for the public’s help. If they don’t, my thinking would be LE knows way more than we think.

 

[StarryStarryNight]

Soooo…I haven’t seen anyone bring up this possibility, but given all the circumstances (no signs of forced entry, nothing taken), is it possible that this is really a murder-suicide and police are just working to eliminate the possibility that it isn’t?

Not sure I strongly believe this theory but might explain some things.

Didn’t LE say very early on that no gun was found in the home.
I’m thinking that’s why they ruled out murder-suicide.

 

[osu]

I believe they had the home at time of marriage, based on wedding video. Not sure if one of them owned it prior to marriage or if joint purchase.

It’s odd about work distance, especially in winter, 74 miles is quite a commute.

I believe the brother-in-law mentioned that Spencer worked at the Athens office and also at the Ashland, OH office which is a little over an hour NE of Columbus. Having a home in C-bus would be centrally located between the two offices.

 

[Speculaytor]

Would thieves think that as dentists, the couple might have (pain killer) drugs in the home? speculation.

Great thought. I did wonder how they could claim nothing was taken so quickly? I have been burglarized, it took days to realize everything that had been taken. They don't necessarily ransack a house, if a push in robbery they want jewelry, hidden cash, medicine cabinet narcotics. They hold the gun on the person while the person retrieve the items for the perp. The fact no gunshots were reported, and it sounds like there were about 6, makes me think silencer and hit. They must have surveillance video by now?