Additional Coverage:
- 911 call at Ohio dentist’s home reported ‘domestic dispute’ months before he and wife found shot dead: records (foxnews.com)
Columbus, OH – Months before a tragic shooting claimed the lives of a Columbus dentist and his wife in their own home, a 911 call from the same address reported a “domestic dispute.” New records reveal a woman told the dispatcher, “me and my man got into it,” during the April 15 call.
Spencer Tepe, 37, and Monique Tepe, 39, were found dead with apparent gunshot wounds around 10 a.m. on December 30. Two young children inside the home were unharmed. Authorities do not believe the incident was a murder-suicide, citing no signs of forced entry and no weapon found at the scene.
The newly obtained 911 call from April 15, placed at 2:45 a.m., involved an unidentified female who was heard crying. She initially hung up but later told the operator, “me and my man got into it.”
When asked if anything became physical, she responded, “No,” asserting that she was “just emotional” and no longer needed police assistance. The dispatcher coded the call as a “domestic dispute,” noting that help was “no longer needed.”
Columbus police have released surveillance video showing a “person of interest” walking in an alley near the Tepes’ Weinland Park residence in the early hours of December 30. Detectives believe the murders occurred between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. The individual in the video appears to be wearing a dark coat and light-colored pants.
The first 911 call on December 30 came from Spencer Tepe’s employer, Mark Valrose, owner of Athens Dental Depot. Valrose, vacationing in Florida, reported that Spencer, known for his punctuality, had failed to show up for work, causing significant concern among his colleagues.
A friend of Spencer’s later went to the Tepe home at 10:03 a.m. and made a frantic 911 call, reporting, “There’s a body.” The friend described seeing Spencer “laying next to his bed, off of his bed in this blood.”
The Tepe family released a statement expressing their profound grief, calling the deaths “tragic and senseless.” They described Spencer, an Ohio State University graduate, as a “devoted and proud father, a loving partner, and a friend to everyone he met.”
Monique was remembered as a “loving, patient and joyful mother whose warmth defined her.” The couple was set to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary next month.