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Nancy Grace
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
Narrator/Announcer
What happened to her?
911 Caller / Friend
The studio that brought you weapons.
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Here comes a terrifying new vision.
Ron Bateman
What was our daughter doing in the 3,000 year old sarcophagus?
Jo Scott Morgan
Lee Cronin's the Mummy only in theaters April 17th.
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Nancy Grace
In the case of a young dentist and his young wife murdered in their own home with their two little children in the home to find mommy and daddy dead. Could they have even witnessed the murders? As of tonight, a murder suicide has been ruled out and I can tell you why. It's not unusual angles of the bullets or their trajectory path. It's not that sophisticated because there's no weapon. The weapon's gone. They're both shot dead, one of them multiple times, possibly both. But there's no weapon there on the scene, so obviously somebody else did it. And tonight, a starter marriage. What does that have to do with a double homicide? You know what a starter marriage is, right? It's your first try. It's brief. It happened a long time ago. It doesn't really count. That's what you call a starter marriage. So how does that factor into a double murder? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. And I want to thank you for being with us.
911 Caller / Friend
There's a body. Our friend wasn't answering his phone. We just did a wellness shift. We just came here and he appears dead.
Nancy Grace
The dentist and his wife gunned down children upstairs.
911 Caller / Friend
There's a body. This body. There's a body inside. Yeah.
Nancy Grace
If only I could reach through this camera and get my hands. A little finger necklace for the dispatch officer that was taking these calls. Why am I angry? You'll see.
911 Caller / Friend
Listen, I guess I would like to ask for a wellness check on an individual at their home. This individual, Spencer, works with me and he did not show up to work this morning and we cannot get a hold of him or his family. He is always on time and he would contact us if there was any issues whatsoever. And.
Greg Morse
He.
911 Caller / Friend
I just sent a house to say this like we're very, very concerned because this is very out of character and we can't get in touch with his wife, which is probably the more concerning thing.
Narrator/Announcer
When Dr. Spencer Tepe doesn't show up for work at Athens Dental Depot in Columbus, Ohio, co workers are so shocked, they call their boss, the owner of Athens Dental, Dr. Mark Valrose. Valrose is on vacation in Florida, but Spencer not showing up is so unusual, coworkers felt the need to let Valrose know. Valrose tries to contact Spencer. And failing at that, Tepe's wife, Monique, as she's even more predictable than her husband. Unable to reach either Tepe, Valrose calls 911 in Columbus, Ohio at 9:03am requesting a wellness check.
Nancy Grace
Okay, Susan Hendricks joining me before I go to the whole panel, investigative reporter and author of down the Hill, My Descent to the Double Murder in Delphi, which is the def definitive book on the Delphi double murders of Abby and Libby. Susan, what you didn't hear in that snippet of the 911 call that I just played, you've got the co worker going. This is really bizarre for him not to be here. The dispatcher says, and I quote, okay, we'll send somebody over as soon as we have an officer available. It's Columbus, Ohio. They don't have police that can come over. They Translation. He doesn't answer the phone. We're not worried. We'll get to you when we get to you. That's where it starts with this woman.
Susan Hendricks
Her job is not to have preconceived notions about what she believes. It's to answer the 911 calls and get help there. And it appears she's bothered by it all. Downplaying what these people, friends of Monique and Spencer, are saying. We need help. Something is wrong.
Nancy Grace
And you know Greg Morse. Joining me, veteran trial lawyer, criminal defense attorney at Morse Legal. He is the founder of that. He is the author of Untested on Amazon. Veteran trial lawyer. Greg, this is the deal. There's something called routine evidence. Not routine as in typical routine evidence. It's evidence of someone's routine. For instance, if I go to Greg Morse and I look and instead of seeing you, I see an empty chair, I know something's very wrong. That's not your routine. You're always there and prepared, usually with a snarky comment, but you're prepared. So that would be highly unusual. And I would immediately try to find out what's wrong with Morse. See what I mean? It's your routine from which you do not deviate. But this 911 is like, yeah, I'll send somebody when I got somebody.
Greg Morse
Well, it's hello. It's because it came in as a wellness check, not as a 911. There's an emergency right now. So that's probably why the 911 operator, you know, puts it in the queue for police to get out there, and they may have been dealing with some other emergencies. That's the unfortunate nature of the way the call came in. It came in as a wellness check. A lot of times wellness checks turn out fine. So they probably didn't put a high priority on it at the time. And that's because of the way the call came in. So I don't know if it's 91 1's fault there as much as it is that the nature of the type of call that came in. So, you know, everybody wants to have.
Nancy Grace
Police response right now. Enjoy this moment. Saver it. I'm saying you're right based on that call alone, but it escalates. And maybe that's why I'm so angry, because I know what's in the content of the rest of the 911 calls. And you might want to hold with withhold judgment, Morse, because I can see a savvy defense attorney using the 911 dispatch's bad attitude and lack of urgency as part of a defense. But hold on. I want you to hear more of the 911 call. Hey, Ron Bateman joining me, former homicide and undercover narc, former sheriff, author of a new book, Opposing Sides, Memoirs of a Drug Dealer and a detective, Ron Bateman. Thank you for being with us, Ron. It's got to drive you crazy when you hear a disinterested 911 dispatch. Because the time that they waste on a case could be the difference in life and death.
Ron Bateman
True. And Mr. Morris does have a good point. It is a wellness check, which we get hundreds of a day and 99.9% of them turn out to be nothing whatsoever. So this is. And the empathy or the lack of empathy in her voice is. I know it's troubling to the average person, but you got to understand what they deal with every single day. And getting a wellness check call is much less dramatic than the other calls that they deal with non stop. You know, someone being beaten, someone, you know, just got, you know, in a terrible car accident. They're pinned in a car. A wellness check that's put across like that. The way, the way the caller did is very matter of fact. So I understand why you could get upset because you know, the outcome, however it's, you know, the outcome is not known by the dispatcher or the call taker at that point. So it is in queue. My question would be how long did it take for the response? If the response was two or three minutes, then that's normal in a non emergency call. So Mr. Morris is pretty, pretty much right on the mark.
911 Caller / Friend
What's the emergency there? Our boss did not report to work. We haven't been able to get a hold of him for three hours. We are on site and we can hear. Okay, I just talked to somebody there. Okay, I'm just making sure somebody called.
Narrator/Announcer
Officers arrive at the tepe residence at 9:22am Officers knock on the front door multiple times but get no response. Checking the door and windows, officers see no sign of disturbance at the back door. Officers again knock multiple times.
Greg Morse
No response.
Narrator/Announcer
Repeating the process, officers failed to get.
Greg Morse
A response and file the report in their logbook. No response.
Nancy Grace
Okay. There's so many places to go right there. Isn't it true, Susan Hendricks, that they first went to the wrong address?
Susan Hendricks
Yes, and I watched the body cam footage and I mean he was thorough. He was just at the wrong address. It was a mistake, a big mistake. I mean, it's just compounding as we listen to this and watch it unfold.
Nancy Grace
Listen to 9111 more time. Listen to this tiny snippet.
911 Caller / Friend
What's the emergency there?
Nancy Grace
Our.
911 Caller / Friend
Our boss did not report to work. We haven't been able to get a hold of him for three hours. We are on site and we can hear. Okay, I just talked to somebody there. Okay, I'm just making sure somebody called.
Nancy Grace
I mean, really, I just talked to somebody there. Like, stop bothering me. My nails are drying. Just got Morgan joining me. Professor, forensics, Jacksonville State University. He is the author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon. He is the star of a hit podcast series, Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan. But most important, he is a death investigator with over 10,000 death scene evaluations under his belt. Of all the possibilities, you've got natural causes, you've got suicide, you have got accident, you've got unexplained, and of course, you have homicide. And that's his job. 10,000 times plus determining COD cause of death. You know what, when somebody shot dead and they're bleeding out one minute can make a difference in life and death. Jo Scott, why?
Jo Scott Morgan
Yeah, because, you know, you don't know if the person is, in fact, salvageable at that point in time. That's one of the big things about this, Nancy, is that there are a lot of unknowns involved in this. The one thing I know is that this individual that's taking the call is irritated by this because I'm not interested in your personal problems about how you just took a call from there. I could care less. The appropriate response is, it's duly noted. We've got officers en route. Okay. Beyond that, there has to be an urgency here to go back out and inspect this area. You've got people swarming over this house. And as we find out, of course, you've apparently got children in the house as well, which is a major problem here. And so this urgency, or lack thereof, in hindsight, it should. You should treat this every single time out of the gate as if you know, this is the most important thing on your plate, as opposed to, well, I'm taking other calls from there.
Nancy Grace
Dr. Bethany Marshall. How many times have we heard, guys, Dr. Bethany Marshall, renowned psychoanalyst, is joining us out of LA. She's the author of Deal Breaker. You can see her now on Peacock, and you can find her at Dr.bethany marshall.com. Dr. Bethany, how many times have we heard someone call 911, somebody's missing, they can't be found, and it's treated like, oh, they're off with their boyfriend or girlfriend, or he just needed a break from the little woman, or he's tired of hearing his kids scream and they just discount it. The guy's lying there bleeding out dead. That's what we know now. That's the backdrop to all of her indifference.
Dr. Bethany Marshall
Nancy, the assumption should be made that if somebody is worried enough to call, if they're stressed on the phone, that likely something is going on. They don't. The dispatcher doesn't know what it is yet, but they must presume the worst. I have made several welfare checks throughout the years on patients of mine. And those welfare officers, they in one case broke down the door and saved the patient's life. Okay, so these calls have to be made. Seriously, Nancy. The calls are stacking up. It's one person after another after another. So I would think when multiple calls are coming in, you even then begin to take it more seriously, and especially since, okay, so he hasn't shown up to work. Three hours have passed. He's their boss. They're worried. The fact that they are worried after three hours means that they know him and that they know something is seriously wrong. Like in my field we always say, listen to the patient, take them seriously, track with what they're saying. This is what the dispatcher should have done.
Narrator/Announcer
A co worker of Spencer goes to the Tepe Residence and calls 911 explaining Tepe is her boss and they haven't been able to get a hold of him. The caller tries to tell dispatch they can hear kids inside, but the dispatcher talks over the caller telling her, I just talked to somebody there. The distraught co worker apologizes, saying she was just making sure someone called.
911 Caller / Friend
Okay, we do have officers responding there. Do you know if he's been ill or anything like that? No, no, I was just with him yesterday.
Nancy Grace
Okay, so again she's saying, hey, they're on the way. Maybe he's got the flu. Has he been ill? Okay, keep listening.
911 Caller / Friend
What's the emergency there? Police or medical? Maybe both, I guess. I don't know. I'm kind of doing the. Well, they had a call out there. They knocked on the front door and back door multiple times and there was no answer. Yeah, no answer. I can hear kids inside and I swear I think I heard one yell, but we can't get it.
Narrator/Announcer
One of Spencer's friends goes to the Tepe home and calls 911 at 9:57am Dispatch tells the friend officers have already been to the location and knocked on doors and got no answer. The friend says, yeah, no answer. I can hear kids inside and I think I heard one yell.
Nancy Grace
Still disbelieving and it gets worse.
911 Caller / Friend
What's changed since the last person I talked to? There's a body. There's a body. There's a body inside.
Greg Morse
Yeah.
911 Caller / Friend
Okay, hold on one second. Let me get you on the line with the medic. Okay, stay on the line. He appears dead.
Nancy Grace
There you hear the dispatch say, what's new? What's changed since the last person I talked to? And the friend says there's a body inside and the friend is crying and 911 says there's a body. And the friend's crying, says, yeah, and 911. Amy is like, bye. And hooks him over to a medic. Did you hear that, Joe Scott?
Jo Scott Morgan
I did. And look, there's this modern term that folks like to use all the time, kind of flippant term. They say bad optics, dude, this is the worst of optics here. If this is the kind of service you're going to get at these critical times, all these friends that are showing up out there and it's further accentuated by the child crying in the background as well. So yeah, and then the horror that's revealed once they finally entered into this environment. They're, you know, it's a total unknown. And this just goes to show you how every case, every single time, you need to treat it this way and you need to hold it, you need to hold it almost like a sacred thing because you don't know what's going on with those kids in there. You don't know what has occurred inside of that environment. What we do know is that the people that are out there have intimate knowledge of this couple. They even talk about how they understand if the wife doesn't respond. That's how tuned in they are to this whole situation. And granted the dispatcher doesn't necessarily know that, but you should not be treated as if you're on an assembly line, particularly in light of what's further revealed. Nancy.
Nancy Grace
Susan Hendricks joining us. Investigative journalist and author. Susan, isn't it true that the friends, co workers, they're all very tight group where he, where he has his dentist practice. They have to go in the home themselves and they have to find the dead bodies. I don't know how long they had been dead. I know they were killed between 2 and 5. That's what I believe now, 2 and 5am but can you imagine it? Because we believe the husband was shot at least twice with a nine. Can you imagine the damage done to his body? The wife shot once, we believe, same weapon, finding that. And the children are there. They had to break in, they had to get into the home themselves instead of police doing it.
Susan Hendricks
And as I re listened to it, what a great group of friends. They're not impatient saying, where the heck are you? We've been calling. No, they take matters into their own hands. And you could almost sense that he's saying something in code to the dispatcher. Meaning? No, it's a body. Meaning is the young girl nearby, the four year old. Because he's not saying Spencer, he's not saying Monique. Maybe she would think mommy and daddy. It was just, I mean, the friends so close knit. And you could tell just by listening to those calls.
Nancy Grace
I'm sure it's something instinctive, especially once you have children. But when I hear a child crying, it just puts me on edge. I've got to get to the child. We got to find out what's happening with the child. That never goes away. Once you have children and you hear a baby crying, I want you to hear the baby crying in the background and the friend crying on the phone.
911 Caller / Friend
What's changed since the last person I talked to? There's a body. There's a body. There's a body inside.
Greg Morse
Yeah.
911 Caller / Friend
Okay, hold on one second. Let me get you on the line with the medic. Okay, stay on the line. He appears dead.
Nancy Grace
I just played you a snippet of that 911 call where the friends, finally, since the cops don't show up and dispatch is giving them the run around, they break into the home. They go into the home to discover the two dead bodies of their dear friend and co worker, their boss and his wife. I want you to hear the rest of that call.
911 Caller / Friend
What's changed since the last person I talked to? There's a body. There's a body. There's a body inside. Yeah. Okay, hold on one second. Let me get you on the line with the medic. Okay, stay on the line. He appears dead. There's a body. Our friend wasn't answering his phone. We just did on the ship. We just came here and he appears dead. Okay. He's laying next to his bed, off of his bed, in his blood. I can't get closer to see more than that.
Greg Morse
Okay, you can tell he's obviously not breathing or anything.
911 Caller / Friend
Yeah, yeah. Is it like kind of like, like, like, you know, does he look like. It doesn't look. I can't look.
Narrator/Announcer
Okay. All right.
911 Caller / Friend
Understand.
Nancy Grace
Okay. I'm learning something new right there. Ron Bateman joining us, former homicide and undercover narc of opposing sides. Ron killed in their beds because it says he's off, he's lying next to his bed off of his bed. So the perp shoots them in their sleep between 2 and 5am it's really.
Ron Bateman
Tragic and I really feel sorry for the kids that they're gonna have to deal with this the rest of their life. At least the four year old probably will and the co workers and yeah, the whole thing is sad. And I got to talk about dispatchers. The turnover rate for dispatchers and police departments is incredibly high because of the numerous hours that they work because lack of staff, they have to work automatic overtime. I'm married to a former dispatcher. I've heard it. I know all about it. I know about the downfalls of their empathy that some of them lack. Some of them are very, you know, it's a job that they treasure and they, they speak to every person like it's their family member. But some of them are just cold and just relay that I don't give a crap attitude like this dispatcher did. Competency is everywhere and definitely with the high Turner rate of dispatchers is prevalent.
Nancy Grace
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Narrator/Announcer
What happened to her? The studio that brought you weapons? Comes a terrifying new vision.
Ron Bateman
What was our daughter doing in the 3,000 year old sarcophagus?
Jo Scott Morgan
Lee Cronin's the Mummy only in theaters April 17th.
Narrator/Announcer
New trailer online now. Want to score? When your favorite player does well, you can't unless you download Better Picks. Who's giving away a free $10? Download the Better app. Pick more or less on your favorite player's stats, watch the games and win some cash. It's that simple. Must be 21 or older in a jurisdiction where Better Picks operates, terms and conditions apply. Better Picks Sports just got better. Well, the holidays have come and gone once again, but if You've forgotten to get that special someone in your life a gift. Well, Mint Mobile is extending their holiday offer of half off unlimited wireless. So here's the idea. You get it now, you call it an early present for next year. What do you have to lose? Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch limited time.
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Nancy Grace
Susan Hendricks, I'm learning something about the home and about the murders. They were killed. It's an eerie echo of the Rob Reiner and Michelle Singer Reiner murders where prosecutors allege their own son murdered them in their sleep. I disagree. I think they woke up during it because there's multiple wounds to them, suggesting to me at least that they fought back. That said here the friend says he's off the bed. Is the bedroom downstairs or upstairs? Did the stalker, did the killer know where the bedroom was? Did he have to sneak around the house? And I say he because statistically, based on this scenario, a guy did it. Do you know when you look at the homes, do we have a photo of the home? It's an up and down. Do we know if the bedroom is on the bottom or the top?
Susan Hendricks
The bedroom's on the third floor, Nancy, and you bring up an excellent point. There were two ways to look at this home. It was for sale recently. So it was on a website, real little website. Also, it's in their wedding video.
Nancy Grace
The video you're seeing of the home is from our friends at WSYX ABC 6. So you're saying you said the first floor or the third floor? Assuming there's a basement first or third? Where is the bedroom?
Ron Bateman
Third.
Nancy Grace
Because looking at it, I only see two floors. Does that mean there's a basement? Is that what you're saying?
Jo Scott Morgan
Yeah.
Susan Hendricks
I'm assuming you kind of walk down into the bottom floor. I looked at this home on the real estate websites and I could see exactly where everything was. Yeah. Third floor.
Nancy Grace
Okay. So up on top. So all the bedrooms are on top. That tells me something else. You know what it tells me, Jo Scott Morgan? That the baby's room is right there, likely beside the parents room. If all the bedrooms are on the top floor. Right. And they've got two children, that tells me they're side by side, increasing the likelihood that they heard those gunshot wound, those gunshots and came Looking for mommy and daddy.
Jo Scott Morgan
Yeah. And you know, when you got babies like this, Nancy, they'd be very young, you know, to keep them separated. You know, when you're talking about a multi story dwelling, you would want the kids right down the hallway. Mom's going to get up in the middle of the night, dad gets up in the middle of the night to tend to the kids. Right. And so, yeah, in proximity is key here. I think one of the things I'm very curious about is what initially drew the attention of the children because you can hear them in the 911 call where they are actually crying. It sounds like. Was it the fact that someone was going around banging on the door to try to wake them up or did they hear something during the night? And maybe they been up all night. Maybe they had actually. This is so horrible. Walked into the room where mom and dad were. I'm sure that the door is easily accessible for the kids. And here's the more sinister thing, and I think that Susan is, you know, right on the money here. When you think about this, the idea that this structure is multi storied. Somebody has got very intimate knowledge of the space, Nancy, and can move around in this space. I think with comfort. You begin to think about what's being potentially perpetrated in here. And they're bumping around in the dark, man. See, this is somebody that knows this dwelling.
Narrator/Announcer
At 10:11am Police officers are back at the Tepe residence securing the crime scene. Two adult victims suffering apparent gunshot wounds are located and medic personnel pronounce Spencer and Monique Tepe dead minutes after arriving on scene. Three bullet casings are found, but no gun is immediately located. The couple has two children, ages 4 and 1, who are found unharmed.
Nancy Grace
Spencer and Monique Tepe, now dead. Their children orphans. Who did this?
911 Caller / Friend
His blood. He's laying next to his bed, off of his bed, in his blood. Okay, so you can tell he's obviously not breathing or anything.
Nancy Grace
What does a starter marriage that happened 10 years ago that was over just like that have to do with a double murder? First, here's a clue as to who's the killer. Take a look at this video that was obtained. This is a guy, a single male, walking down an alley directly behind the victim's home. Now, this alley is hard to find. It abuts up against the back of the other street. You're seeing an alley. On either side of this pedestrian are the backs of homes. The fronts of the homes are on two other streets that run perpendicular. Who's this guy and why is he walking around between 2 and 5am on an alley, a little known alley that's only used by people that park in the back of their homes and walk in the back door. Why is he there? Now if you go to, let's just say for instance downtown LA, people are walking around 24, 7, 365. That's not unusual there. It is unusual. Straight out to Susan Hendricks joining us. Investigative journalist. Officers finally show up. Both of the Tepes are dead. Spencer and Monique. Tell me about the weapon, the bullets, the casings that were found at the scene.
Susan Hendricks
Yeah, Nancy, there were three casings found. And from the police report it appeared Spencer had been shot twice. Monique once. So in the beginning I was thinking, okay, not a professional hit. Everything was going out of my mind because there's casings found at the scene. So maybe that tied, maybe police were able to use that or they will be able to in the trial.
Nancy Grace
That's a very eerie scenario. Greg Moore says somebody coming into your home, skulking around, a lot like Brian Coburger, skulking around and knowing to find you upstairs in bed, just sneaking around, going up the stairs and finding them. That's a creep factor a jury is not going to be able to ignore.
Greg Morse
Yeah, I mean the creep factor is not going to play well with a jury at all. You have someone allegedly for maybe up to three hours going through these people's three story home, going in each room, maybe looking at the kids, looking at them and walking around. And that's gonna obviously if that comes out, whoever's in trial, it's not gonna go well for the defendant at all. It's not a great factor.
Nancy Grace
I'm only praying, Greg Morse, for your worst nightmare to come true. And there be nanny cams in the home, home surveillance that shows the perp wandering around, looking around. We learned there are the three casings. Yeah, you're right. There is at least one ring cam. I'm talking about interior home interior home surveillance. We learned there are three bullet casings there from a nine, a nine millimeter. And I don't know if the killer thought to load the weapon with gloves on or did he leave a print or a partial print on the bullets themselves as he loaded the gun. Joining me right now is former military sharpshooter Koa Larimore Koa. What about it?
Narrator/Announcer
Well, Nancy, this right here is a nine millimeter round. The top part is the bullet and the back part is the casing. Now you can get DNA off this casing by fingerprints and sweat and whatever else they have on their hands when loading the weapon. So this is how you load magazine right here. And also, there are certain marks that are left on the casing after the round is fired. Now, this is the pistol. A pistol that this round can be fired from. The bulk is out the front, and the casing is ejected out of the side. Now, the firing pin leaves a mark on the back of the casing, which is unique to the weapon. Then the extractor leaves scratches on the casing, which is also unique to the weapon. And the ejector leaves dents on the casing. Now, all these marks can be traced straight back to the weapon it's fired from. And that could link the suspect to the gun. You can also link the suspect to the casing based on the fingerprints they get off the casing itself.
Nancy Grace
Right, I get it. I see Koa how those prints can be left. I want to look at that video again. The video of who we believe to be the pert walking down that private alley behind the home. Check it out. Susan Hendricks. Is it giving you a chill because he's walking along just like Richard Allen did on that trestle bridge in Delphi. Hands in pockets, so you can't see the color of his skin or any identifying marks or rings on his hands. Hunched forward, head down, covering his face with a hoodie?
Susan Hendricks
Yeah, and that's exactly what I thought of Nancy. As soon as I saw that, I went back to Richard Allen and what the authorities were saying. Does anyone know this person's walk, this person's gait? And now that we talk about the bullets, that also brings me back to Delphi with the striations. Will that play in? But yeah, the walk, the head down. I feel like that person didn't want to be seen or caught.
Narrator/Announcer
Investigators get all available surveillance video from the Tepe neighborhood, focusing on the time between 2am and 5am and release video of one person walking in the alley behind the Tepe home. One car with an Illinois license plate arrives in the neighborhood shortly before the Tepe murders take place and leaves shortly thereafter. The license plate on the vehicle is registered to Michael McKee, a vascular surgeon in Chicago. McKee is also Monique Tepe's ex husband.
Nancy Grace
Dave Mack. Joining me, crime stories investigative reporter. You can't see his face unless they get his face on video. They've got to rely on the car. Tell me, do you think that they tracked that lone pedestrian on a private alleyway behind the victim's home? You think they traced him on cam from one ring cam to the next to a surveillance cam, to a stoplight cam and so forth and so on until he gets to a car. Then they get the car tag. What do you think, Dave Mack?
Narrator/Announcer
I think that's exactly what they did, Nancy.
911 Caller / Friend
And once they were able to get.
Narrator/Announcer
That license tag and find out the car is registered in Illinois, they actually.
911 Caller / Friend
Police tracked the car back to where it is located and they actually find it in Rockford, Illinois.
Nancy Grace
Rockford, Illinois. They find the vehicle and isn't it true, Susan, they say there's evidence that in the vehicle that shows he McKee, the ex, the starter husband, had been in the vehicle leading up to the time of the shootings.
Susan Hendricks
Exactly. And I'm wondering what that exactly is. But they seem pretty confident obviously that they connected him to the murders, to.
Nancy Grace
The double murder or at least to the car. Because Greg Morse, unless they get his face, you know what he's going to say, oh, yeah, somebody stole my car day before yesterday. I wasn't even driving that car. Unless they've got his face in that car or on that video, they're going to have to do a lot more investigation.
Greg Morse
Well, that's right. They're going to need to connect with actual evidence if it, if it, you know, to go to trial and proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Although, you know, the cameras are everywhere so all over this country and it seems like that's what they did. They may just follow from Illinois, him getting in the car and going, he's covering his face here. But you know, people, people, it's just like the ring camera on the house. It appears there's only one in the front, not in the back. People only do certain things and they think, okay, I covered all bases. But if he's driving this person, the ex husband, from Illinois to Ohio, there's a lot of places he's going to be along the way getting out of that car. Similar to the Utah story that you did a couple months ago where they followed the car of the lady with daughter to the end point. And this is seems to be the case here. And I'd also like to know if anyone went past the front of the house because what would have gone off, ring cameras have a lot of information on them behind the video as well. So there's a lot of leads that police can put together, but they need to get evidence to link it to him, fingerprint DNA, face shots, getting in the car, things of that nature. So this is just one piece of information that's generic. That's that they now have to link to an individual person. And it seems like it's this ex husband, which also, Nancy, there's an important part for prosecution here is there's no justification for this man to be in the area. If it's the ex husband. My understanding is the two children are the deceased's, not one, one of the children are not his. So he has no reason to be around his ex wife, no legitimate reason whatsoever. And that's another factor that will go against this person if he, you know, the state does continue to prosecute him.
Nancy Grace
You know, it could be something as simple as gotta eat. What if they find one McDonald's receipt on the floor five hours before and he used his credit card? What if. Or he could pull a Jodi Arias, she crossed the desert with gas tanks in her trunk so she wouldn't have to go into a 7 11. So Ron Bateman, it may not be as sophisticated as fingerprints because fingerprints could have been from a week ago, a year ago. Gotta be something more recent connecting him to being in that car up to the time of the murders.
Ron Bateman
Yeah, I'll tell you what I would do is I would double back and go to where he lives and check not only his ring camera, which he probably has one, he's, you know, established businessman, doctor and his entire neighborhood and try to put that person that was in the alley coming out of his front door, passing by his next door neighbor, getting into his car, etc. And you know, I've talked about this a million times on your show about the transference of evidence principle. Every time you go somewhere, you take something with you from the scene and you leave something there. Hence the DNA, hair, blood, spit, gravel from that, that road that he's walking on. There's so many things, prints, like we talked about earlier. There's so many things, his car that maybe the later search of his car maybe had that, that black hoodie inside of it, his black tennis shoes, you know, what he's wearing is, you know, it's pretty. You got jeans, you got black pants.
Nancy Grace
And what he's wearing may very well have blood spatter on it as well. I'm going to circle back to Joe Scott on that. Grand Canyon University, an affordable private Christian university based in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona, is one of the largest universities in the country. Praised for its culture of community and impact, GCU integrates the free market system, a welcoming Christian worldview, and free and open discourse into 369 academic programs with over 300 of them online. Join a nationwide community of learners redefining what online education looks like through academically rigorous, industry driven programs that can spark bold ideas and prepare you for a future that matters. In addition to federal grants and aid, GCU's online students receive nearly $161 million in institutional scholarships in 2024 alone. Find your purpose at Grand Canyon University Private christian affordable visit gcu.edu. my offer to see the scholarships for which you could qualify.
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Nancy Grace
But to Dr. Bethany Marshall, let's get right down to it. Okay, another thing. Two words. Ohio Turnpike. He drove, if it is him, 300 miles to get there. He left a trail. It could be he had a cell phone on it could be the nav system. It could be the McDonald's receipt. There's going to be a trail. It could be a licensed tag grabber on the side of the interstate of the Ohio Turnpike. He left a trail like a snail. Trust me on this. He may think it's invisible like the snail does, but we can see it. Dr. Bethany, I've looked into this starter marriage and this starter husband and it it ain't pretty. They were married just seven months. She filed divorce. She even paid for a private judge to expedite it. It wasn't because she left because she was having an affair. She didn't marry till sometimes later. She didn't meet the husband till sometime later. Incompatible. Okay. You sitting down? Dr. Bethany? I hope you are, because when they got divorced after just seven months, she instigated it. He says that her engagement and wedding rings are his and he wants 2,500 for the engagement ring and 3,500 for the wedding ring. Hey, big spender. Okay, that plus. Wait for it. He wants. I mean, put it on a credit card. Go crazy, you know, break two grand, get crazy. You're a vascular surgeon. He makes, like, between 500 and a million a year. But he wants those rings back or the money back. And it says in the doc she owed him about. She owed $1,200 in miscellaneous debt, and he wanted her to pay 23% interest on the $1,200.
Dr. Bethany Marshall
You know, Nancy, obviously, I don't know this guy, but one of the things about personality, I know enough. And about abusers is that they always feel owed. You owe me this, you owe me that. And that kind of attitude could have given rise to stalking behavior. I still want to get my pound of flesh from you, Nancy. That household had a family dog. Did you know that? So this has shades of Bryan Coburger, who befriended the dog over a period of months so he could gain access to the house. I don't know if that dog barked. I just wanted to put that out there. But if we go back to the starter marriage, she paid a judge to expedite the marriage here in the state of California. Once you file, it takes six months for the dissolution. She went to a private judge and paid to wrap it up in six weeks. She wanted to get the hell out of Dodge. Okay. The fact that then she remarried, found a great partner. We see all those beautiful pictures. I'm kind of wondering what he saw of the new marriage. Was he stalking her? Was he following her? Did he see a picture in the paper? Did he see the beautiful wedding video on YouTube and it. Did it incite him to want to punish her?
Nancy Grace
Yeah. Susan hendricks told me, Dr. Bethany, that the wedding was in the home so he could see the home, see where they were living. I bet that threw him over the edge. Listen to this. Listen to this. This actually got me very upset. These are part of her vows that she stated at the wedding. I had quite a journey to get to you. Countless bad bumble dates, wrong relationships, and waterfalls of tears, and she finally found Mr. Right. Not Mr. Right now, but Mr. Right. And they had a family, two beautiful children. And now it's all gone. The children are orphans. They probably will remember the murders of their parents. And for what, Bethany? A starter marriage that happened 10 years before. She's been married to her murder victim husband five years. So it's not like she left the ex for another man. That didn't happen. She just left him because he's him 10 years ago. And now he drives 300 miles to murder them both.
Dr. Bethany Marshall
We know, Nancy, if you think of him charging the 23% interest on the ring, he wants to get her to pay. You're going to pay for leaving me. I'm going to get my pound of flesh from you. And people like this, they kind of have an oceanic rage. It kind of goes on and on and on. You know, stalkers, they. Time doesn't matter to them. They could do it for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years. And stalkers believe that they have a special and unique relationship with the victim, even if that victim hasn't talked to them in a decade. So seeing her happy, seeing the YouTube videos, must have enraged him and thrown him into a state of, you're rejecting me, you're humiliating me. You're. You're diminishing me. I'm gonna have to wipe you out because I cannot tolerate that feeling in myself. You know, one. One other thing, Nancy. Whenever you flash the image of Michael McKee, the. The cardiovascular surgeon, I noticed that it says that he has been in practice for 12 years, but he's accepting new patients. And I don't know about you here, it takes months to get in to see a great doctor like that. That also tells me something might be going wrong in his life and in his practice. That just seemed like a little clue that stood out to me.
Nancy Grace
Wow. I didn't notice that. Dr. Bethany Jo Scott Morgan professor of Forensics, Jacksonville State University I know you probably teach at least one entire class on this, probably more. But boil it down for me. How close did he have to be to the bodies to get blood spatter on that hoodie?
Jo Scott Morgan
He would have to be probably within about 18 to 30 inches, depending upon the dynamics of the round.
Ron Bateman
Where.
Jo Scott Morgan
When you begin to think about where the muzzle or the end of the barrel is in relation to the victims, this is going to be a high velocity event. And what I mean by that is that when you have blood deposition, it's going to come out in these very fine droplets. And the higher the speed, the tinier the droplets. And listen, if he thinks that perhaps with this hoodie that he's wearing, he might look at it. And this happens all the time, Nancy. You might look at the hoodie and he won't see anything. But if we get that hoodie, or the colleagues in the prom lab get that hoodie and they begin to explore this thing, they'll find those little tiny dots that are actually a Derivative of high velocity blood deposition. And they can be all over the place. You can even find them in logos, for instance, where they're kind of guarded or hidden, that sort of thing. You can find them there. And that's going to tell. That'll be the tail of the tape. Because once that blood is typed and then further you can actually run DNA on it. That that's going to be very damning evidence. And if I could insert one more thing here that reminds me of the Idaho four. Nancy, do you remember that video that those kids shot inside of that house? That tick tock that they did? It made my skin crawl when I began to think that that perpetrator in that case could be watching the interior of this house. I think a lot of evidence, not just physical evidence that may have been transferred to him or him back to the scene. There's going to be damning evidence in his social media because he's gazing from afar. Who's he searching out? They start to look at Facebook or any other social media platform that he's engaged with. That's going to be a big tell there. You know, he can sit around his house in his dirty underwear and look at these people and fantasize about it and may have been doing it for years and years. Who knows? We're talking about a ten year span, Nancy. And he's creating this fantasy all the while he gets to get an insight of this new home that they're occupying there.
Nancy Grace
Just got the defendant, ex husband, starter husband, McKee, sitting at home alone in his dirty underwear for the last ten years, obsessing on Monique. That's Dr. Bethany's bailiwick. I'll leave that to her. Susan Hendricks, investigative reporter. Quickly upgraded charges. Extradition.
Susan Hendricks
Exactly. Two counts of aggravated. Sorry about that. Aggravated murder with premeditation. We do know that he drove close to five hours. So is that the premeditation they're talking about? But this morning the charges were.
Nancy Grace
And he is in the middle of being extradited back home. The home, the jurisdiction of the shootings. If you know or think you know anything about this case, Please call Columbus PD. 614-645-2228. Repeat, 614-645-2228. We remember American hero Officer James Jackson. Jackson, Florida Department Corrections. Killed in the line of duty, leaving behind a devastated family. American hero Officer James Jackson, Nancy Grace, signing off. Goodbye, friend.
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Nancy Grace
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Episode: BIZARRE: BRIEF "STARTER MARRIAGE" CLUE, DENTIST & WIFE MURDERS @ HOME, TOT KIDS ASLEEP
Release Date: January 12, 2026
Host: Nancy Grace
Panel: Susan Hendricks, Greg Morse, Ron Bateman, Jo Scott Morgan, Dr. Bethany Marshall
Main Theme:
The episode dives deep into the chilling double homicide of a young Ohio dentist and his wife, murdered in their home while their two young children were asleep upstairs. Nancy Grace and her panel analyze the failures in police response, the significance of the so-called "starter marriage," and the mounting evidence that points to the wife's ex-husband as the suspected killer.
Nancy Grace and a panel of experts dissect the tragic case of Spencer and Monique Tepe, who were found shot dead in their Columbus, Ohio home while their children (ages 4 and 1) were present but unharmed. They criticize police and 911 dispatcher response, consider forensic evidence, ask what role Monique’s brief first marriage plays, and explore the mounting suspicion toward her ex-husband, a Chicago vascular surgeon.
On Police Dispatch Response:
On the Ex-Husband’s Motive:
On Forensic Evidence:
On Surveillance:
Panel Humour:
Summary of the Case’s Emotional Toll:
Nancy Grace and her expert panel build a gripping, multidimensional case narrative, highlighting systemic failures in emergency response, the devastation for family and friends, the clues that point to a vengeful ex-husband, and the painstaking work needed to achieve justice. The episode is equal parts true crime investigation and social critique, with an emphasis on how one man's grudge can destroy many lives — and the urgent need for diligence and compassion in every step of the investigative process.