When blood is spilled and hearts are broken, answers can't come quickly enough.

The chilling deaths of Spencer and Monique Tepe turned the national spotlight on this Ohio city as the Columbus Division of Police was closing out an undeniably banner year.

In 2025, Columbus recorded its lowest number of homicides since 2007, a dramatic 33% drop from 2024.

An impressive 84% of the 84 homicides recorded in Columbus in 2025 are listed as solved in a report released by the homicide bureau.

For comparison, in 2022, the national solve rate – also known as the clearance rate – was 52%, meaning half of all homicides in the nation did not result in an arrest or conviction, according to the Council on Criminal Justice.

Statistics – even the ones that show such progress – rarely, if ever, heal the hearts of those who lose loved ones to homicide.

Perhaps they offer hope, but as someone who has lost a loved one to an unsolved homicide, I know they do not lessen the pain of those left craving answers and........

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