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A
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Store or sleepnumber.com today foreign today we're going to be talking about the murder of a young couple in Columbus, Ohio. Content WARNING this episode contains discussion of murder. So some of you who follow the true crime news may have seen recently something about this case. We have this young couple, these young parents who were murdered in Columbus, Ohio, Spencer and Monique Tepe. And we're going to be talking about just what's publicly out there about this case so far. It caught our interest because there are some interesting facets about it that sort of, I guess, in a way reminded me of the Delphi murders case that we covered extensively. And we just figured we'd kind of like start from the beginning and if anyone has any information about this case out of the Columbus, Ohio area or has, you know, just any unique perspectives, we'd love to hear from you. And we're@murdersheetmail.com we protect our sources. My name is Anya Cain. I'm a journalist.
- [01:31]
C
And I'm Kevin Greenlee. I'm an attorney.
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B
And this is the Murder Sheet.
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C
We're a true crime podcast focused on original reporting, interviews and deep dives into murder cases.
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D
We're the Murder Sheet.
- [01:43]
B
And this is the murders of Spencer and Monique Tepe. Sam foreign. Okay, before we get started, let's go over my sources for this case. This is some coverage that we're doing that is predominantly relying on local news and a couple of other sources. So I just want to give all of that a shout out. We have WSYX, ABC6, a local affiliate that has been all over this case. They've done some amazing coverage. CBS News published the 911 audio. I relied on that pretty extensively to make my timeline. The Columbus Dispatch, the local newspaper, they've been doing this very extensively. Surviving the survivor had a interview with one of the relatives of the Tepes that I relied upon. And there's also 10 TV and CNN. So lots of places are covering this. This is a case that has gotten national attention so far and that's not surprising because you have, as we're going to talk about, it's a case of a young couple who seemingly had everything going for them and suddenly they are murdered in a way that is mysterious. That is the recipe. You have sympathetic victims plus mysterious case that it's going to get national attention.
- [03:38]
C
Yes.
- [03:39]
D
There are elements of this that are really baffling.
- [03:41]
B
Yeah, I think that's, you know, every. Every murder victim, no matter what the.
- [03:46]
D
Circumstances, it's always a tragedy, it always deserves. But sometimes cases don't get attention because they. We get used to seeing the same scenarios over and over again. When there's something out of the norm, something that at least on the surface seems to be different or unexpected, that's what grabs our attention.
- [04:08]
B
The thing that started this off, I think, was police announcing that they did not believe it was a murder suicide. Had there been indications of a murder suicide, we would not have seen the national coverage. Because a murder suicide, a domestic dispute that ends deadly is not something that is unfortunately uncommon. And so that's where we are. So I think, to start off, does it make sense to talk about who Spencer and Monique were?
- [04:32]
C
Yes.
- [04:33]
B
So this is a couple. Spencer was 37, Monique was 39. And they're a couple who were. They were married in 2021 at their home in Columbus, Ohio. They were approaching their fifth wedding anniversary.
- [04:47]
D
Let me say Columbus, Ohio is a pretty nice town. We've both been there. In some ways, it reminds me a little bit of Indianapolis.
- [04:54]
B
Yeah, you said it was like a kind of Ohio's Indianapolis, just in terms of, I think, vibes mostly.
- [05:00]
D
Yeah, it's a nice area. So I just want to throw that in there.
- [05:04]
B
I've confessed that I've. I've driven through Columbus, Ohio with you. I've not spent a lot of time there, so I'm not super familiar with the city. The Ohio city I know best is Cincinnati because we visited there a couple of times and have not really visited Columbus, Ohio.
- [05:19]
D
Had dinner with the captain there.
- [05:20]
B
Oh, yeah, we did have dinner. Oh, God, I love the captain. Shout out to the captain and Nick of True Crime Garage. They're wonderful people. And yeah, they're, they're. They're our Ohio friends. But no, you know, so this is a. And I'll get more into the neighborhood where they were living in a moment. So let's go over the two murder victims, and they're more than victims. These are two people who just were living their lives and by all accounts were really lovely people. Some of these background Information I got from a really poignant statement released by their families. And so this is kind of where this is coming from. That was reported extensively in the media. So Spencer was a dentist. He went to Ohio State University. And he was by all accounts a loving dad, a friendly guy, generous, energetic. He loved the Bengals, he loved Buckeyes, you know, so he was big into football, fluent in Spanish, a member of the American Dental Association. So this is a young professional, a young dad who's, you know, seemingly doing really well. He was married to Monique. Monique had previously had some background in childhood education. She was described as very warm, loving, patient, caring, intentional, a wonderful mother. And she was a stay at home mother. So she was devoting her life to caring for her kids at home. And by all accounts, again, what we're being told, happy marriage, strong marriage, lovely people, just a beautiful relationship. They like to travel, they laugh together, they had a sense of humor and they were just happy, fun people. And that is one of those things where it, when you hear people talk about them, when you hear some of the family members, when you hear like family members talk about them, it's really like, this is not what you would expect to happen to these people in particular. They just seem to have everything going for them. Everything seems great. How can this happen? It's part of the mystery of like, what, what on earth could happen when these people, seemingly, their marriage is strong, they're doing well in business, what could be going on? So they had two small children. One was, I think one years old and the other one was four years old. And they also had a dog, a golden doodle named Larry. So, you know, it's, it's like the picture perfect marriage. It's the picture perfect family. It's, you know, I mean, everyone has problems, everyone has stuff going on. Everyone has stressors. So I'm not saying, I'm not trying to act like no one. You know, they're these idealized people, but at the same time, it's just you're not seeing a lot of things that scream like risk factors on the surface. So anyways, where did they live? So we mentioned Columbus, Ohio. It was in the Wineland park neighborhood on north fourth street near east eighth Avenue. I've heard in the news the home described, be described as upscale, had at least two stories. And in terms of how they had their livelihood, Spencer worked at Athens Dental Depot, and that's about 75 miles southeast of Columbus. So, you know, he'd have to commute there. But again, we're going to learn he apparently love. I mean, according to his boss at least, the owner of that practice is Dr. Mark Valrose. Valrose. Dr. Valrose said Spencer loved the office. And by all accounts, and based on what happened, he was close with his colleagues. Yeah.
- [08:44]
D
And I think you were talking about how these. This couple was regarded by others. You can look and get a sense of the regard that they were held in, not just by what people say, but by what they do. And I think what you're suggesting here, and I'm sure you're gonna go into this more in a few minutes, is when this guy was late for work, that was so out of character, that was so unlike him, that people started getting very, very concerned. And that tells me that this is a person who was very responsible.
- [09:20]
B
Yes.
- [09:20]
D
He took his obligations seriously. He respected his colleagues. If he was going to be late, he would call and make sure people know. So over and above the words people use to describe him, some of the actions they took when he didn't show up for work, I think is also illustrative of what kind of person this man was.
- [09:41]
B
I completely agree, and that's very well said. It's the actions. Because if somebody is struggling in life or they're dealing with something, maybe they're less responsive, maybe they go out of touch, maybe they disappear for a while. And again, that doesn't mean anyone's a bad person or whatnot, but it just shows you the sort of lifestyle that Spencer and his wife were leading. Because one thing they also note is like, not only are we not hearing from him, we're not hearing from his wife. That really scares us. And so colleagues went on high alert. And. And so what we know at this point is that police believe at this time on January 7, 2026, the. The kind of what's put out there in the media is that police believe that sometime between 2am and 5am on Tuesday, December 30, 2025, somebody came into this house and murdered Spencer and Monique. And that that that occurred on the second floor of their home with their children home at the time, which is so upsetting and scary and horrifying.
- [10:47]
D
I think that's also part of the reason why this case has captured a lot of attention. Anyone who is a parent or anyone who just cares about children can imagine the terror and the fear those children must have felt in this situation. And you can think about these poor kids going to bed that night and whether they're awakened by gunshots or whether they awaken the next morning, they awaken to A world where their parents are no longer there to love and care for them.
- [11:19]
B
Yes, it's. The children were. To be very clear, the children were unharmed. The children are now in the care of relatives. And to me, based on some public statements from family, a family member of the Tepes, it may be that the children actually did sleep through the attack. Not clear. So we. We just don't know yet. So that's all speculation. But. But either way, what you said, waking up to a reality where these young children who need to be cared for are in the house with two parents who've been murdered is horrifying. And so. So what do we know about the actual attack, of how they died? So media cited the office of Coroner Nathaniel R. Overmeyer, and he is the head of the Franklin County Forensic Service center, saying that they died of gunshot wounds. Specifically, Spencer was shot multiple times. Monique was shot at least once in the chest. And we know where Spencer was found because this is in some of the 911 calls, or at least one of them. He was found lying next to the bed. No firearm is found at the scene, and apparently there's no sign of force entry.
- [12:28]
D
Do we know where Monique was found?
- [12:31]
B
It's not clear to me where Monique was found, when. And we'll get to this in more detail later. But in the 911 call where someone is saying, I'm seeing the body of. He's only talking about Spencer. He's saying where Spencer is. No mention of Monique. So that's something that we're gonna. You know, I don't want to infer anything, so I just don't know. But Spencer's found in his bedroom near his bed. And I think it's interesting. So, you know, as police are coming into this, you imagine they're looking at, okay, is this a murder suicide or is this a double homicide? And obviously the absence of the firearm is going to tip that into a double homicide. I think that would be the predominant factor. Right?
- [13:17]
C
Yes.
- [13:18]
B
What do you think about. I mean, I. And I, again, there's no speculation here because we just don't know what happened. But I think it also might be worth to note that it sounds like from these initial media reports, which, you know, sometimes they get it wrong, but let's assume it's right. Monique is not necessarily shot as much as Spencer. Now, you can look at that two ways. You know, someone gets shot more because they're a predominant target. Or you could have a situation where, as you often say, if you are a murderer and you're Coming into a household, the biggest threat to you is typically the adult male.
- [13:51]
D
Yes. Because the adult male, this, I don't mean to be sexist, this is a bit of a cliche. But you would expect the adult male, generally speaking, to be more of a potential physical threat than the female.
- [14:05]
B
That's why oftentimes in a case where there is some sort of attack on a family and there's a, you know, everyone's brutally murdered except for the father or the husband and the husband has.
- [14:18]
D
Like a little, couple of little scratches or something, that's something that often makes investigators suspicious. We, we saw this in, for instance, the Jeffrey McDonald case. We saw something like this in the Sam Shepard case.
- [14:30]
B
Yes. And so you have to look at that. And again, there can be instances where the father just happened or the husband just happens to surv that. That does happen too. The Cheshire home invasion in Connecticut being one of those cases. He was badly injured though. But in, in, in, in other instances, that can be a red flag. So, so it, I don't necessarily. Some people I've seen sort of say, oh, well, he must have been the target. Maybe. We, we don't know yet. Certainly that's a possibility. But also it's, it can be a practical thing too. If you're like me, you're so into true crime that you kind of get extra careful about stuff, making sure you're not followed, for instance, staying situationally aware and of course, checking the locks on your doors and windows before bed. Better safe than sorry, right? Because we all know bad stuff can and unfortunately does happen.
- [15:19]
C
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- [18:01]
B
Quince.com msheet in terms of no forced entry, again, without having more information, it's hard to know what that means. And also without knowing the kind of attitudes and practices of the tepes that you know, that's something that can mean a lot or not so much. You know, I mean, because I, without knowing the layout of the home, without knowing everything about access points or whatnot, that can mean they let somebody in that they knew and trusted to be in their home. That could also mean that, I don't know, like some, somebody had some meticulous plan to get in or to me, the fact that Spencer at least was found in his bedroom and police are saying that they fa. They felt that this took place between 2am and 5am indicates to me, like, it's possible that the scenario right now seems to be amongst law enforcement that somebody attacked them in their bedroom when they're asleep. So to me it's a little bit odd because it's like, who would you let in your house and then like let stay overnight necessarily to where you're feeling comfortable, like going to bed while they're in your home. But again, it's also possible, like, I don't know, people can get keys made, people can find a window that's open. I don't know. Like, I just. I think there's. It's too early to really say how signi. When we're so early in a situation like this, it's really tempting to ascribe a lot of meaning to specific facts that are released by police. And certainly all that discussion, as long as it's done respectfully and with the note that we're all kind of in the dark here, I think that's okay. But I just don't think we should necessarily like ascribe too much meaning to any one thing.
- [19:58]
D
Fair.
- [19:58]
B
I mean, what do you. What do you think about the no forced entry element?
- [20:02]
D
I would just echo what, what you said. We don't, we don't know what that means. I know in a door could be left unlocked accidentally. I don't know.
- [20:13]
B
You can, you can stab. I mean, the Harvey murders in Richmond. How do we know? So many murders. This is weird, but the Harvey murders in Richmond, Virginia, that was a home invasion murder of an entire family. Husband, wife, two little girls. And my understanding is that maybe the husband or the parents just like left the house unlocked for a minute to go get a newspaper. And that was enough to, you know, create a situation where there was a push in and everyone was taken hostage and later brutally murdered. And so, you know, not saying that's what happened here. It's just that people can make a mistake or people cannot make as big of a deal about like, going around and locking everything, or they can. It just. It's hard to know.
- [21:00]
D
If you live in a neighborhood that.
- [21:01]
C
You feel is safe, maybe you don't do that.
- [21:05]
D
I'm the cliche, I guess. When I grew up, I lived in a safe area and it was customary for us to leave our doors unlocked while we were home.
- [21:16]
B
Yeah.
- [21:16]
D
Now I can't imagine doing that. Our doors Here are always locked day and night.
- [21:20]
B
Yeah, yeah. Like I, I have, you know, I have a hard time paying attention to things, but I also do, I pay a lot of attention to that, that detail. And, and so for, for us that would be really, you know, unusual. But, but for other people it's not necessarily. And that doesn't, you know, that's.
- [21:38]
D
We, we're kind of marinated.
- [21:40]
B
Yeah. We're marinated in misery. Right.
- [21:42]
D
You know, and if, if you're living a comfortable life in a job, you to think day and night about crime and violence, maybe that's not as high a priority for you.
- [21:53]
B
And nor should it be because let's be honest, this kind of homicide is exceptionally rare. I mean, I think sometimes true crime does a disservice to people by making everyone scared constantly. And I just try to, you know, the people who are going to come at you are usually the people in your own life, not strangers. And in this case, who knows, you know, targeted, random whatnot. We just don't know yet. Some of the things speak to me like that they were targeted like the fact that, you know, the children were left alive. Like the fact, you know, like. So maybe it was like specifically focused on the parents for whatever reason, but it's too early to say. But, but either way, so we just, it's hard to know with the unforced entry or were there, was there some access point in the house that they, they weren't even aware of? Like somebody left a window unlocked and it just, you know, they didn't even know. It's just hard to say. But certainly very scary. So here's where some situation arises in this case where I, you know, Delphi flashbacks.
- [22:52]
D
Right.
- [22:54]
B
Get the thousand yard stare and you just start thinking about that because we have video footage of an unidentified. I don't know what the official term the police are using at this point. I guess I would say person of interest. But let's use the strict caveat here. You know, Columbus, Ohio is a city. You know, people are out and about even late at night, even early early in the morning. So I think the Tepes family spokesperson was correct to point out, hey, we don't know if this is significant or.
- [23:28]
D
Not, but this is video of a person in the area at the time. Is that what you're discussing?
- [23:32]
B
Yes, this is video released by police that it's been described as. This occurred in the timeframe of the killings, so presumably 2am to 5am and I've reviewed the video camera footage. It shows a sort of A snowy, icy alleyway, seemingly. This is apparently near the Tepe residence. You can see three recycling or garbage containers on one side. There's a black car that you can see, like the back of. And then you see a person, a figure walking from the right side to the left. And the person, to me, looks and walks and sort of has the presence of a male. That's my opinion. But you cannot see face. You cannot see the face. You can't really see any details. I. I couldn't make out anything like grace or anything. So you just see this figure. But to me, this figure presents as male. So the person's head is down. They're wearing a hoodie. They're wearing a dark hoodie, lighter pants, and dark shoes. So hood up, head down. To me, they're walking in a furtive manner like they don't want to be seen, which, again, would make me suspicious and make me think that maybe this is related to what occurred in the Tepe residence. It. It could just be someone, you know, shuffling around, or it's cold out and they're kind of hunched over. I don't know. But there seems to be, like, a deliberate attitude of like, don't pick your head up. At one point, the person reaches up and sort of touches the hoodie. The hood part of the hoodie. But, you know, I think even if this is just some person, like, stumbling back from something or like had a party or whatever, you know, just like hanging out, it would be great to just clear that up and just know who this is. So if it's not relevant, it can be eliminated, and if it is relevant, pursued.
- [25:31]
D
Yes. So, yeah, I would be curious if this person shows up in other footage which perhaps they have not released.
- [25:43]
B
Yeah.
- [25:43]
D
Because I'm curious what it is. Is it simply that this person was in the neighborhood in the same general vicinity at the time? Is that the only reason that they are suspicious, or is there something else? Typically in an investigation, obviously law enforcement is not going to play their full hand immediately, especially when it comes to trying to locate people or convince people to come in and talk.
- [26:10]
B
We. That's. That's exactly right. And we should not expect that. And I'm going to talk more about that later, too, but I think that's really important. Note, I would be curious. They are asking for additional footage, and I'll get more into that later. But for now, this is all that's been released, and I would encourage people, we'll be including links in our show notes to some of this footage, especially if you're in the Columbus area or you are from Ohio in general, you know, or you know, anyone who lives up there, take a look at it. You know, if you haven't already, send the footage to your friends. Just let's all take a look. You know, I think it's. You can, you can recognize a walk. You know, you're not going to recognize this person's face for sure because you just cannot see it. But if there's anything, I think it's worth taking a look. So let's then skip ahead to the morning or the, you know, more working hours of December 30, 2025. Spencer does not arrive for work and his colleagues become concerned. As we talked about, he's a reliable guy. There's no reason he should not be at work and not having, you know, hey guys, this happened or whatever, I'm going to be late, whatever, or I'm sick. His colleagues become so concerned at the Athens Dental Depot that they actually call Dr. Mark Valrose, who owns the practice. Dr. Valrose is on vacation in Florida, but he becomes concerned enough that he calls the Columbus police. The call comes in. This is the first of five, 911 calls, or rather first of four, 911 calls. This comes in at 8:58am and he says, yes, I would like to ask for a wellness check on an individual at their home. He tells the dispatcher that he was informed by his employees that Spencer was not at work. But this is a guy who loves the office. He gets along with his coworkers. And, you know, think about a dentist. If you, you know, if you're like a, a dental patient and you've got like an early morning appointment, it's a big deal if your dentist is like just randomly not there and not talking to anyone. So that's gonna raise. That's not something like a responsible dentist would let happen. So, I mean, like, I imagine this is, this is concerning. So he tells the dispatcher that Spencer works with him and that, quote, we cannot get a hold of him or his family, quote, here's another quote. And he's been reliable and we cannot get in touch with him, his wife, his family, anybody that lives in that house. There's two kids in the home, end quote. He continues, quote, he is always on time and he would contact us if there were any issues. I don't know how else to say this, but we are very, very concerned. This is very out of character for him. We can't get in touch with his wife, which is probably the more concerning thing, end quote. So this is where it comes down. This is a business. They have the relationship with Spencer, but they also have the relationship with Monique. And they know that, like, if Spencer's ill, if he's got the flu, if something's going on with him, if he was in a car accident, Monique is somebody who is going to be in touch with them and she's not so very concerning to me in this call. Dr. Valro sounds, he's very polite. He's, you know, he's. But you can tell he's concerned. Dispatch says they're going to send over an officer when one is available to check on the home. So that's at 8:58 9:22. The wellness check occurs. According to WSYX, citing police records. A officer arrived at the home, performs the welfare, welfare check, or attempts to, but no one answers the door. So this is something I've seen the police get some flack for. According to dispatch, they knocked on the front door and back door multiple times, did not get an answer, and then departed. What are police obligations? What are. Because I understand where people are upset, like, hey, they got murdered and you're wasting time and you didn't bust in. What happened? But can you explain why they wouldn't necessarily kick down the door in this situation?
- [30:07]
D
Let's say, Anya, that you and I are driving somewhere, bad cell reception on our phones and we get a flat tire and we're stuck somewhere for a couple hours. How would you feel if we found out that the police came to our house and broke in and were prowling around our, going through all of our things, looking for us? That would be a pretty significant invasion of privacy. We don't want police to be able to come and break into people's homes just because someone expresses concern. You need to have more than that. You need to have some sort of an indication that there is some sort of an emergency situation going on or there's some reason to go into the home and violate the person's privacy? A worst case scenario could be like somebody gets mad at somebody or wants revenge. Like a swatting type incident where you say, oh, this person's supposed to be somewhere and they're not here and you're just doing that to try to get the police to come and break into someone's home.
- [31:12]
B
And let's be clear, it's very much a common, all too common phenomenon for individuals to actually try to use the police to hurt other people by getting them in trouble or causing inconveniences like that. So, unfortunately, as much as we'd like to think that wouldn't happen, it does happen now. So the police did nothing wrong by not busting down the door in this instance. But at the same time, I understand the frustration. And when you look at the scenario, you're like, okay, this is the perfect storm. This kid's in the house. There's no reason these people are not in contact. This is so out of character for them. But the, the problem is here, the police don't know these people. You know, it's. They're taking the word of these people calling in. So the people who are calling in, the colleagues and friends, were completely correct and did the right thing, and they really put a lot of pressure on police to respond, which is what you should do. But in terms of just not breaking down the door in that first instance, that's not. That would be a violation of people's rights if you were doing that.
- [32:10]
D
Correct me if I'm wrong, if my memory is wrong, but wasn't there an instance in the O.J. simpson case where the police entered Mr. Simpson's property to do a welfare check? And as they were doing this welfare check, they uncover evidence, and so that really then later becomes litigated in the trial. And so if you do something improperly and even if there is a crime, then you may lose evidence. It's so complicated.
- [32:44]
B
It's way more complicated than just like, bust down the door. Because also in. I'm sorry, in a lot of cases, the calls the police are also dealing with might be somebody trying to set somebody up or might be, we got in a fight and we're not talking and they just don't want to talk to you. You know, this sort of thing is the rarity. This sort of thing where it's like, no, no, no. People have literally been murdered. And we. They're. They're reliable people. And this is happening is not. That's not the combination you're usually seeing. So I understood why people were upset. But I imagine that if the police officers who'd made that welfare check did not hear the children inside, then there was very little they were going to be able to do in that situation. So what happens is from there, at about 9:51am 1 of.1 of the friends of the tepees, one of their friends or colleagues arrives. They miss the police. So police get there 9:22. By 9:51am they're gone. 9:56am that friend or colleague makes the second of four calls to 91 1. This caller sounds male to me. Dispatch says, quote, it looks like we already had a call out there. They knocked on the front door and back door multiple times and there was no answer. And then the second caller says, yeah, no answer. I can hear kids inside and I swear I think I heard one yellow, but we can't get in at this point I don't know if I need to break the door in or just get in the house or what. Dispatcher asks if he was there when the police were there and he says no, he just got there five minutes ago. And dispatch says they will send the police back 9:58am so two minutes after that call, the third of four calls comes in. This caller sounds female to me and they, they say that another colleague called 911 but they, they're concerned because they've been unable to reach Spencer for three hours. Quote, 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 the dispatcher. This sounds, at this point sounds a bit exasperated and says that she just talked to somebody there. And this caller says, okay, I'm just making sure somebody called. And they say that they're not actually at the house, they are en route. So you're seeing everyone coming together. And again, like, I think people were mad at the dispatcher. I just, this stuff is, is, is unusual and you know, I don't know, I think their job is to mostly just get information. If, if, you know, I, I guess I didn't really see anything. Like it sounded like they were responsive and they were agreeing to send police back and doing all that stuff. I mean, that's ultimately what you want. But I think I commend his colleagues and friends for being so forceful because I think if there's a situation where you are dealing with something that's so out of character and so bizarre, you have to keep the pressure. Because what police and dispatch may be used to dealing with is kind of just run of the mill people not communicating, people who might be into drugs, people, you know.
- [35:48]
D
And let's be honest, a lot of.
- [35:50]
C
People are a little flaky.
- [35:52]
D
And for a lot of people, if you're like an hour late to work, that's not cause to get the police to come and break into your house.
- [35:59]
B
The police are not typically dealing with every day with the tepees of the world, people who are reliable, people who have, you know, jobs and are going to their jobs and not causing problems and not involved in any issues. They're dealing with people who are struggling for whatever reason. And so to make it clear, like, no, no, no, no, no, this is out of character, keeping that pressure on early is something that in this case, got a quicker response. Ultimately, had these people been kind of dissuaded. Oh, well, okay, well, police checked it out, then we could be dealing with a situation where that would have been dangerous for those kids. But I really commend these people for, like, no, no, you need to focus on this and you need to send resources now. This is a problem now. And I would just recommend if anyone else finds themselves in a situation like this, you know, all of these callers were polite, they were professional, they were clear, they were articulate, but they kept the pressure up. And that is exactly what you should do. So. And again, if you're wrong and it turns out, you know, your friends actually just, you know, got a flat tire somewhere, okay, then you can laugh about it later. But in the end, but, you know, for the time being, keep the pressure up. The final call, the fourth of four calls, comes in at 1003am so again, quick succession. This caller sounds male. Dispatch notes, we've had several calls about this. What's changed since the last person you know called in? And this person who called in, this caller sounds incredibly distressed, like they've been crying, and they say, there's a body. In this call, I believe I can hear children in the background crying, which is horrible. The dispatch then calls a medic. You can hear the friend, I think, cry a bit and say, oh, my God. The friend explains to dispatch, our friend wasn't answering his phone. We just did a wellness check. We just came here. And he appears dead. There's blood. He's laying next to his bed, describes him as being off the bed. There's blood, quote, I can't get closer to see more than that. He can tell, though, that Spencer is not breathing. He describes the blood as being puddled. He says that he supposed it was yesterday that someone last talked to Spencer. The medic asks if he is a drug user, and the. The caller emphatically responds, no. Several times he identifies himself as a friend of Spencer's, as a friend of the family. Officers are kind of sent in to respond, and he also notes that he had just been with him yesterday and that he was not ill, he was not a drug user. So as you can tell in this instance, he's not referring to Monique's body. And he's also saying he can't get closer, but he can see that Spencer is laying next to his bed. So I don't know it. The. They were found on the second floor of the house. I don't quite know the layout, whether he was able to climb up somewhere that he could see, whether that he just didn't want to go in the room further or if he was in the house or not. Like, I just don't know. So it. But, you know, he, he. This is a devastating thing for, for this guy, obviously, and you can tell from the reaction. So, so what's going on now? So now we have police investigating. You have initially, the timeline that they were talking about was between midnight and 9am on December 30th. That's narrowed to 2am to 5am do.
- [39:34]
D
You have any idea why it was narrowed?
- [39:35]
B
Nope, not at all. Not at all. I. Yeah, I'd be, I'd be curious to know whatever evidence they have that would point them in that direction. And we'll have to see if it changes or not. What police are doing right now, what they would really help them is if people have video and like cameras in operation in the area bounded by Summit Street, North Grant Avenue, East 7th Avenue or East 11th Avenue, that is what they're looking for. So if you are in that area and you might have some footage or you might have seen something, call the police. I will give you the number in a minute. Or if you know anyone in Columbus who might have connections, like, listen, this is a big deal in Columbus. People are talking about it. I imagine a lot of people in the area already know this. But at the same time, at the same time, sometimes people just don't really pay attention. So it can't hurt to at least text your friends. So you should, if you have anything, call Columbus police homicide unit at 614-645-4730. There's also a QR code that's going to be in some of the links that I'm going to include that you can kind of like drop video into. We do know that there was a police crime camera at a utility pole at the intersection a few hundred feet from their home. But they're really, really trying to get this video. So I would just recommend everybody, if you got a ring, if you got anything, just. Just, you know, come forward. I'm just going to be clear and I think our audience understands this. So I'm not really worried about you guys. But just something, if you see it in the true crime spaces that you exist in, let's try to be helpful. Let's not try to be harmful. And one thing that's helpful is encouraging people, encouraging the right kind of tips. Police need tips. Police need the public to come forward with witness statements and footage and whatever they might have to help. What do they not need, Kevin?
- [41:36]
D
They don't need what they call investigative tips. Is that, what, is that what the term?
- [41:42]
B
Investigative suggestions?
- [41:43]
D
Investigative suggestions. Pardon me? That means like don't, don't call them and say, hey, have you thought about looking for fingerprints?
- [41:53]
B
Have you thought about DNA? Yes, yes, they have.
- [41:56]
D
They've thought about that.
- [41:57]
B
They know about DNA.
- [41:58]
D
What they, they need to know is like, did you see somebody in that neighborhood at that time? Do you have information about a possible suspects? They don't need you to tell them. Why don't you look at the videos?
- [42:12]
B
And they don't need someone to come in and say, oh, well, my ex husband went to Columbus once and he's a real lout, so maybe it was him. They need concrete evidence that has to do with this specific crime. They don't need. And they also don't need, at this early stage, they don't need someone coming in and being like, I think here's my theory of a serial killer that's transversing the nation. They need concrete stuff. So I would just. If you see any of this nonsense in the true crime spaces you're in, I encourage you to shut it down if, if you can, if you, if you feel comfortable doing that, because that stuff's not helpful and all it does is clog up the system and prevents the really important information from perhaps rising to the surface. I, I really, I feel strongly about this as a true crime community. We should not be entertaining people who are doing this. We should be, we should be basically correcting them.
- [43:00]
C
Well said.
- [43:02]
B
So the aftermath of this, there's been no warnings from police about an ongoing threat. This is something that's been emphasized in the media. Honestly, I would not expect that unless they have a concrete view of what exactly happened. Like, usually if there's a fugitive, they'll say, okay, he's armed and dangerous and he's gonna, you know, shoot anyone who approaches him. But like, I don't, I don't, like, I don't feel like a lot of police agencies are gonna like, send someone out there and be like, anyone could be next. I mean, like, what, what do you think about that? Everyone's always made such a big deal about that in Delphi, where it's like, they didn't tell everyone we were in danger. Isn't that kind of Implied by the, I don't know.
- [43:40]
C
Like, yeah, I agree.
- [43:42]
B
Like what are they supposed to, you know, everybody run? Like I, they're not gonna try to start a panic. I, I, I would. And if they don't really know what happened yet, like there's no point in, if this is targeted, then the public is not at risk. So like if they don't know yet, I think it's too soon to say either way. The children are in the care of relatives. Apparently so is Larry the Golden Doodle. Again, there's a dog in the house when this happens. But I think you and I from having a dog recognize that not every dog is going to be a guard dog and not every guard, not every dog is going to attack or even confront anybody doing harm. We, we all love our dogs. It's just not all of them have that kind of personality.
- [44:29]
D
Our recently deceased dog Lanny would have just tried to make friends with the.
- [44:34]
C
People or slept through it.
- [44:36]
B
My joke is that she would have helped. She would have gotten the kill kit in her mouth and brought it up to help. You know, like she just loved people so much that she wasn't going to confront anybody. It's possible she might have surprised us in if there was a heat of the moment situation. I mean, I just don't know. But dogs are unpredictable and, and a dog might just not. Like not every dog is going to ra. It's like a human being. Some people fight, they, they flee, they freeze, they fawn. Dogs are the same. You just don't know. The dog is alive though, and safe. And the Athens Dental Depot closed for a few days. The colleagues are devastated as you can imagine. And all this occurred again a month before this couple's fifth anniversary. That should have been a beautiful time for them and instead they're dead. It's horrible. There has been one latest development though that I do want to get into because I think it's important that people don't get confused about this. Fox News broke this that they uncovered that on April 15, 2025 at 2:45am a unnamed woman called from the couple's residence about a what was described as a domestic dispute. She hung up. 911 called her back and she's crying and she spoke with the dispatcher and said that she got into a fight with her man but that she claims it wasn't physical. Spencer Tepe's brother in law, Robert Misla, he said that this woman was not Monique. This was not Monique calling. This was apparently an incident that occurred at one of their house parties involving another woman. So he's saying it's not his relatives, it's unrelated, but there was an incident there and you know, people will be talking about that. So that's what we have. This is the concrete information. I've seen a ton of rumors, a ton of speculation online and I've tried to basically avoid that because I think it's important when we're talking about this case to just start fresh and just ignore what might be noise. Again, sometimes rumors pan out. So I'm not saying none of those are true. I'm just saying that as people who are trying to do this with some integrity, we're not, we're not looking to report anything that could turn out to be just ridiculous later on and malign anyone who might be very well innocent.
- [46:58]
C
So yeah, I remember certainly in our.
- [47:00]
D
Experience in the Delphi case, the vast majority of rumors we saw online were simply not true. I remember at one point somebody was saying, oh, this person who's spreading rumors about the Delphi case, about 50% of what he says proves to be accurate. So let's pay a lot of attention to him. But no, I don't think that's a good batting average. I don't want to spread something out there unless I know it's accurate.
- [47:26]
B
Here's a question. If like half of the chicken you made was doused in salmonella, would you eat it?
- [47:34]
C
No.
- [47:35]
B
So the information is, is like you're consuming it. It's like food. If half of it's bad or if the restaurant gets everyone food poisoning, half the time you go to it, it's not good. Don't go there any. It should be shut down, frankly. Maybe someone needs to go to jail.
- [47:52]
D
And one, the problem is if you, if you hear some rumors, sometimes you might accept those as true. And sometimes it's hard to get those dislodged from your mind and it affects your perception of the facts. So we're just focusing on the facts.
- [48:08]
B
My heart goes out to rob the brother in law because he's really making an effort to talk to a lot of people, debunk information and get on social media. I hope he's getting support as he's doing that and I hope he could maybe connect to other victims families who've gone through this and who've been dealing with a high profile case because the Internet can be pretty cruel to victims families out there. It's terrible, but it is true. And I just hope he can kind of get some support as he's doing this. Because it is a difficult job that he has taken on for himself in an effort to keep the public focused on this case, but keep them focused on the correct information that actually matters. I think he's doing a very good job so far, but I just hope someone is looking out for him because that is a heavy burden to take on. And my heart goes out to their family members. They sound like wonderful, really nice, cool people. And obviously, even if they weren't, they're still victims and they still matter. But they just sound like people like you really just would know in your real life. Like, they sound like, you know, your dentist and his wife. And it's just the fact that this happened and the fact that these two kids are orphaned now is just horrible. And I really hope they get answers. But if any of you guys out there who are listening maybe knows somebody who knows something or it, you know, I'm not talking about the case so much. I'm not talking about like, oh, they know, like, information that could solve it. But like, if you know something, I mean, if. Because if you do know that, then please go to the police. But if you have something that you want to share with us or, you know, people involved or, you know, this area, whatever, then please email us. We're@murdersheetgmail.com and we'd love to hear from you, but thank you so much for listening.
- [49:53]
C
Thanks so much for listening to the Murder Sheet. If you have a tip concerning one of the cases we cover, please email us@murdersheetmail.com. if you have actionable information about an unsolved crime, please report it to the appropriate authorities.
- [50:13]
B
If you're interested in joining our Patreon, that's available at www.patreon.com murdersheet if you want to tip us a bit of money for records requests, you can do so at www. Buymeacoffee.com murdersheet. We very much appreciate any support.
- [50:37]
C
Special thanks to Kevin Tyler Greenlee, who composed the music for the Murder Sheet and who you can find on the web@kevintg.com if you're looking to talk with.
- [50:48]
B
Other listeners about a case we've covered, you can join the Murder Sheet discussion group on Facebook. We mostly focus our time on research and reporting, so we're not on social media much. We do try to check our email account, but we ask for patience as we often receive a lot of messages. Thanks again for listening.