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

[Cassie P]

Even considering a murder suicide is a waste of time. All evidence is pointing away from that

I tend to agree, but I like to hear all theories. Sometimes something pops out that helps with other theories. And sometimes the long shot theory turns out to be correct.

If we had more data and evidence we would be in a better position to make strong statements.

 

[academyrd]

Literally the only thing police have told us is “this was not a murder/suicide” and you have people in here being like “yep, looks like a murder/suicide to me”

 

[sunshineray]

No, but if anyone has issues like that keep it in your home. That's the problem. Everyone is performative now. Everyone wants to make a scene. Why? Because everyone feels they're on a tv show. People who keep things private stay out of trouble.

Generally a woman calling 911 in fear is not thinking they're on a tv show or being performative, they're afraid of physical harm. People who keeps violence quiet and in the home enable more violent troubles to occur. MO

 

[kwins]

The BIL was aware of the content of the call when he gave that interview, and the substance of that call related to a perceived problem with an intimate partner. It was the BIL who made the connection to the earlier incident, so it is reasonable to conclude the incident he was thinking of was similar.

I'm sorry, but your understanding is not correct.

 

[MassGuy]

Also, the three casings was from the police dispatch. Was it later confirmed publicly by police? It may have been and I didn't see it. If not, it is totally possible they found more casings or the autopsies revealed additional wounds and they never found the casings. I believe the no gun was also the police dispatch but later confirmed by police in statements.

I don't see an actual statement from police confirming three casings, but multiple outlets are referencing police stating that three casings were found. I guess it is possible they are getting that information from dispatch, but I tend to think that's not the case.

That being said, I do think it's odd that they would confirm the number of gunshots, as that's typically something they'd want to keep quiet if they could.

The Franklin County coroner’s office said the couple died from an apparent homicide by gunshot wounds, but added that the case is not finalized. The police department previously said it does not believe the killings were a murder-suicide.

Three 9 mm shell casings were found in the home, police said.

An Ohio dentist and his wife were fatally shot in their home. One week later, questions remain.

Spencer and Monique Tepe were found dead Dec. 30 after concerned friends and co-workers called police to report that he had not shown up for work.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[Moonstrawbs]

Literally the only thing police have told us is “this was not a murder/suicide” and you have people in there being like “yep, looks like a murder/suicide to me”

Tell me about it. I don't even know why that's coming up! It's extremely disrespectful to the victims. Jmo.

 

[Cassie P]

I'm not considering murder/suicide at all. In addition to the wounds and the lack of a weapon, I don't think a mother (assuming MS is the implied aggressor with fewer shots reported) would have left the children with no rescue in sight.

There's no way to know how long a 1 and 4 year old would have been alone had it not been for the quick and persistent response of ST's coworkers and the friends/neighbors. Even if it was a heat of the moment type of decision, I think she would have texted someone or called 911 to get the kids before she killed herself.

In an M/S scenario, even an unplanned one, one of them is alive after the first death. I don't see either of them being okay with leaving their kids in danger, even if they were set on ending things for themselves.

MOO

I tend to agree. In general, for a woman to kill her husband and herself, leaving her two young children in the home unattended for an undetermined length of time would indicate serious mental health or addiction problems. This would not occur out of the blue, her friend and family would be aware of it, as well as community mental health services. ETA: We have no reports of this at all.
So while it is possible, it is low probability on the list of theories.

Police interviews of friends, family, co-workers, neighbors would also shed more light on this theory.

Also we don't know who was texted prior to the deaths, so we are missing a lot of data.

 

[kwins]

It is my opinion that moderators need to delete all posts regarding murder-suicide and respectfully ask that this subject no longer be discussed on the forum.

 

[BlaiseFinlay]

Where did you read that?

The excerpts of the article that were in the post I quoted.

There is the April 2025 call, and then the BIL said there was a call “a few years ago” made by a partygoer at their residence. He confused the two initially. We know the April 2025 call related to a domestic dispute, because it has been released. It’s my assumption that the reported partygoer’s call a few years ago also related to a domestic dispute, given the BIL thought the 2025 call was the one he was told about that happened a few years ago.

 

[waldojabba]

I would suggest the family consider professional help so they do not further traumatize the child. Right now the 4 year old is going to cue off the adults around her. She does not understand the concept of death. She just knows all the adults are upset and acting oddly.

You can listen to the interview with the BIL, it was posted up thread last evening. He shared they have consulted with child psychologists.
It does not make it any easier certainly but at least they have experts guiding them.

As you state, a child 4 yrs old does not understand the concept of death so its a delicate process.
It sounded like they are trying to keep things as "normal" as possible to do everything to Avoid retraumatizing their niece/grand daughter.

JMO

 

[tlcya]

If members feel posts are against TOS there is a report button at the bottom of each post that can be used to get a moderator's attention.

 

[am80]

the police need to be on to something. The fact that they aren’t putting the community on alert, they know more than they are letting on. They are just gathering evidence at this point.
My opinion only…

 

[midwesttowest]

Please provide a link in MSM for the name you are looking up. I haven't seen that reported in MSM, so I may have missed it. Thanks.

Orphaned Young Kids of Slain Dentist, Wife Are 'Unaware as They Ever Could Be,' Says Family Member

Monique Tepe's brother-in-law says he believes the children did not see the crime scene.

people.com

 

[Cassie P]

You can listen to the interview with the BIL, it was posted up thread last evening. He shared they have consulted with child psychologists.
It does not make it any easier certainly but at least they have experts guiding them.

As you state, a child 4 yrs old does not understand the concept of death so its a delicate process.
It sounded like they are trying to keep things as "normal" as possible to do everything to Avoid retraumatizing their niece/grand daughter.

JMO

Excellent. Thank you for the update.

 

[stmichael]

Literally the only thing police have told us is “this was not a murder/suicide” and you have people in there being like “yep, looks like a murder/suicide to me”

Yeah, it's also something that would be forensically easily disproven, and we've talked about it in this long thread. I get a lot of people gloss over things and don't read the posts but yeah....

They will check both victims for gun shot residue (GSR). If one of them discharged a weapon they will know.
They will check the ballistic entry wound/exit wounds, blood spatter etc. That will tell them how and where they got shot, what angles, etc. If there are two entry wounds penetrating the mattress where they both were sleeping they will know they were shot while prone in bed, from an angle across the room. They also have the spent casings on the floor were the ejected so they can determine more or less where they were shot from and so on.

The crime scene will already exclude a M/S based on all this concrete forensic information regardless the presence of a murder weapon.

 

[MesquiteO21]

Even considering a murder suicide is a waste of time. All evidence is pointing away from that

it just doesn't make sense that either one would be able to dispose of the gun after shooting themselves. not saying there isn't a scenario where that could happen but if no weapon found in the house and there's no blood trail leading outside, this was absolutely not a m/s, period.
MOO

 

[Charlot123]

Why do you say it’s obvious? You have no idea where the investigation is. Everyone is a suspect - no one has been ruled out. Please note that people in this forum are only reacting to his public behaviour and comments.

Indeed, I should have said, “it is obvious to me”.

So understanding that I can be totally wrong…

IMHO the newspapers oversensationalize it. The way 911 call was covered by “the Sun”, NYP and the others is yellow journalism at its worst.

The way BIL did “damage control” was by tossing new information to the public. It is like pouring water on a hot stove.

And now, the internet is abuzz. What was their lifestyle? Why did she say “my man”? (IMHO, “my man”, while being correct, hints at the speaker’s origin. The person could hear it from her parents. It is a tad archaic, like a guy saying “my missus”. Not sure that it was Monique’s style. She would not use the words making her sound older than she was). But since the context of the call was not known, it is open to insinuations.

So the explanation served neither to clarify nor mystify; it muddled the waters.

MOO: the mentality of a BIL who managed to single-handedly worsen the PR situation while acting with the best intentions in mind is ill-suited to be the murderer. Whoever murdered the Tepes made mistakes, but he didn’t step on the same rake twice. BIL does. Hard to imagine it was him.

Everyone acts with a goal in mind. Me and you, we read his goal differently. In BIL, I see nothing even remotely resembling the Idaho families. I view BIL as having a thorough, detail-oriented mentality. He tries to perform the role of the “family-appointed representative” to the best of his knowledge. In fact, delegating the 911 questions to LE would have been better, but I think BIL is under stress. In the evening, the family discusses how to tell the kids. And I bet that he’ll be religiously taking the kids to the therapy and doing everything by the book but it is hard.

JMO, MOO, etc.

 

[Cassie P]

Yeah, it's also something that would be forensically easily disproven, and we've talked about it in this long thread. I get a lot of people gloss over things and don't read the posts but yeah....

They will check both victims for gun shot residue (GSR). If one of them discharged a weapon they will know.
They will check the ballistic entry wound/exit wounds, blood spatter etc. That will tell them how and where they got shot, what angles, etc. If there are two entry wounds penetrating the mattress where they both were sleeping they will know they were shot while prone in bed, from an angle across the room. They also have the spent casings on the floor were the ejected so they can determine more or less where they were shot from and so on.

The crime scene will already exclude a M/S based on all this concrete forensic information regardless the presence of a murder weapon.

So forensics will have already determined that it cannot be M/S?
There is no way a family could have staged this.

 

[PGHJW]

I find your attitude towards victims of domestic violence very troubling. Keeping such problems inside the home is what has led to the death of many women. This has nothing to do with wanting to be performative. You can only control your own actions, not those of anyone else.

And I do remember being a houseguest once and having a very upsetting interaction with my then-boyfriend after we all had gone to bed. I kept it private. But looking back on it, I should have instead dramatically left in the middle of the night, setting off any house alarms, taken my car, and driven to a hotel. Being a demure houseguest was not worth my trauma.

You seem to be implying that she could have avoided the whole situation by not fighting with her man. That’s victim-blaming at its finest. And you want to know what set off my then-boyfriend on that occasion I reference above? His brother-in-law that evening had brought up a recent movie. That’s it. He was triggered by the mention of a movie. I wasn’t even the one who mentioned it.

And I find the modern attitude of making personal issues everyone's business troubling. If this issue led to these murders (which seems highly unlikely -- it's simply become a talking point as drama attracts people) and it really was someone with no connection to the deceased, it just makes it an even bigger shame.

 

[stmichael]

it just doesn't make sense that either one would be able to dispose of the gun after shooting themselves. not saying there isn't a scenario where that could happen but if no weapon found in the house and there's no blood trail leading outside, this was absolutely not a m/s, period.
MOO

As I said above if Spencer or Monique fired a gun they would have significant gun shot residue and this would be tested right away (usually "mit" or bag hands).

Also the entry.exit wound angles, bloodspatter, distance from casings will tell you were they were shot. If both were shot prone in bed it's obviously not a M/S and that's info they have right away.