Deadly First Date

0:00Music

0:12This wasn't just a crime scene, was it? No, it was not. This one was bad. Two innocent people that were on their first date had their lives destroyed. For what reason? How well did Leslie Reeves know Chris Smith? First date. Chris was in a band and a singer, and they had connected, and he asked her out. The night before Thanksgiving, they decided just to meet up and go to the bar. He lived 65 miles away in a really small farming community. The bar that night was very busy. The place was packed wall to wall. Chris and Leslie were talking a lot, laughing, getting along with everyone around them.

1:10She texted me around 10 and she said everything's going okay. She did then text a second text that said, I feel like something's a little bit off or something. I'm not sure what she meant. Was that text the last time you heard from Leslie Reeves? Mm-hmm. Yes, it was. Did you try texting her in the morning? Mm-hmm. And did she respond? No. I just started driving towards Farmersville because I had the address and called the police department in that area. Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, this is Jeff. Hi, I'm greatly concerned about my friend. Can someone do a welfare check? What are you feeling at this point, Nanette?

1:58A lot of anxiety, because I don't know what I'm going to walk into going up there to this house. I pulled up in front of the address. And then who came while you're sitting there? While I'm sitting there, who's this woman parked? I said, well, maybe I'll roll my window down and talk to her. I asked her if she was checking on Chris, and she said she was checking on her friend. And that's when I went up to the door. I saw the back door was broken, and then I saw Chris laying there. And then I ran back to my car and called 911. Nobody's answering the door, and the back window's shattered, and there's a body, and That's what I saw on the floor.

2:46I'm only 16. I can't deal with this. I was in shock, I think. Sheriff's office, Jeff. Jeff, give me some help. I got one alive and one dead. I just remember them bringing Chris out on the stretcher to the ambulance. I remember there being a sheet over him, so it made me panic a little bit. I got a call from our command center in Springfield. So you are the lead crime scene investigator? Yes. Were you really prepared for what you faced when you walked into that house? I was not. Why would somebody do this to him? Why would they try to hurt my baby? That's all I kept thinking. He's my baby. Someone hurt him.

3:31Going on a first date and they both end up getting shot is insane.

3:45Erin Moriarty reports, fatal first date.

3:53Afternoon of Thanksgiving Day 2021, Nanette Stiber sat in her car and watched anxiously as EMTs and Montgomery County Sheriff's deputies descended on a house in the tiny village of Farmersville, Illinois. I was quite upset and kind of going crazy in the car. Nanette had been unable to reach her good friend Leslie Reeves. Nanette knew Leslie had gone to that house the night before to go on a first date with Chris Smith, a man she had met online. She was very excited. She thought, oh, this might be a really good connection. But now Nanette was worried. She'd seen Chris get taken away in an ambulance, but there was no sign of Leslie.

4:49I kept hoping, you know, okay, bring Leslie out, please. Finally, a detective approached and asked Nanette for a photo of Leslie. She showed him her phone, and he gave her the horrible news. I'm so sorry to have to tell you this. your friend has been murdered, you know, shot, he said. He didn't tell me where, but he did say I want you to know that she went very quickly.

5:27EMTs have found Chris barely conscious and unable to say anything about the shooting. They rushed him to the hospital and deputies searched the house. Later that day, crime scene investigator Josh Easton of the Illinois State Police was called to the scene, and he began cataloging the mayhem inside. What do you see when you first approach the door? I noticed the side door of the house, the glass in the door has been broken out. The refrigerator was pulled away from the wall. The kitchen table was pushed. The chairs were knocked over. No weapon was found, leading investigators to suspect that a third person was involved.

6:10Eason took note of every detail, including the burnt pizza in the oven. I assumed that maybe they were cooking a pizza for the night and the suspect shows up at the door. They both tried to fight him off and when Chris was shot, Leslie went to the living room to try to hide. How many times was she shot? She was only shot one time. In the head. In the head. Leslie's body was in the living room, while Chris had been found in the kitchen. Easton said of the 1 ,800 crime scenes he had been to, this was one of the most horrific. There was blood everywhere. The cabinets, the refrigerator, the countertop.

6:54There was blood from corner to corner in the kitchen. Easton spotted two silver colored bullet casings from a 9mm gun, one in the kitchen and the other near Leslie's body. As Easton processed the scene, detectives began learning about the victims. Chris Smith was a 48-year-old divorced father who worked for a pool contractor. Chris was a nice guy. He would hang out here frequently, was friends with most people in town. Everybody knew him. Bartender Dina LeGrand says Chris was well-known in town as the guy who grew banana trees and giant pumpkins. I remember one Halloween, he donated hundreds of pumpkins for decorations for any of the kids to paint.

7:50He gave back to his community. Did either one of you ever worry about Chris? No. No. Sharon Costanza is Chris's mother, Ashley Holcomb, his sister. Chris is a stay-home person that literally would just work in his backyard. Chris lived with a dog named Tiki, and an EMT told the family that Tiki may have helped Chris make it through the night by huddling with him for the roughly 12 hours that Chris was bleeding before being rescued. I think Tiki protected Chris. I think she probably laid right next to him. Chris's close-knit family could not imagine anyone wanting to kill him. It was like, no way, how, why, like...

8:41Who? Yeah, who would have done that?

8:46Investigators had the same questions about Leslie and learned that she was a divorced mother of two children who lived in Troy about an hour south of Farmersville. Although Leslie had a master's degree in engineering, she chose instead to teach Pilates and to promote self-defense classes for women. Hi, I'm Leslie from All You Studio. Leslie posted this video to her YouTube channel to advertise one of her classes. Empower yourself against aggression and assault as we teach you easy-to-learn self-defense techniques. Power up! Leslie tried to help women in abusive relationships, but friends say she had her own troubles.

9:30Nanette told deputies she was worried about a former boyfriend, a contractor by the name of Robert Tarr, known as Bobby. She said, I am going to completely block Bobby from email, texts, phone calls. I have to go no contact. Later that evening, news of Leslie's murder began circulating and reached another close friend, Amy Steinhauer. She had met Tar, a divorced father of three, and did not have a good impression of him. But... You never see someone and think that they can kill my friend. Amy called the sheriff's office that night to give them Tar's name. By then, detectives had already set out to find Bobby Tar.

10:20While 85 miles to the north, surgeons were fighting to try to save the life of Chris Smith, a bullet still lodged in his brain.

10:51I just wanted to get there. I just wanted to get there as fast as I could. After learning that Chris had been shot in the head, his family rushed to the hospital in Springfield, Illinois, two hours from their home. I was on the phone to everyone I could think of because I just needed prayers for everybody. Doctors removed part of Chris's skull and some bullet fragments in his brain before putting him in a medically induced coma. His family, struggling to piece together what had happened, learned that he had been out with a woman named Leslie Reeves. Had you ever heard the name Leslie Reeves before?

11:29No. I looked her up and then I tried to reach out to her friends. And then I found her best friend Nanette. Nanette told them the same thing she had told investigators. She suspected Leslie's ex-boyfriend, Bobby Tarr. That night, sheriff's deputies went to Tarr's home in Collinsville, an hour south of the crime scene. Authorities say he never asked why they wanted to talk to him, and he agreed to go to the police station without a lawyer. T-A-R-R, correct? Mm-hmm. Although her friend said the couple had broken up, Tarr told investigators that he and Leslie were still together. Do you and Leslie have a lot of problems?

12:12I wouldn't say no worse than any average couple. It was Leslie that detectives wanted to talk about. I want you to dig down deeper and be as honest with me as you can, okay? Leslie is dead. What? Can you help me shed some light on this? How did she die? She was murdered. What happened? That's why we're here with you. You would help me believe that you're not involved in this. I'm not involved in anything. Investigators asked Tarr about Farmersville, the scene of the crime. You know where Farmersville is?

13:00And they asked Tar where he had been the night before Thanksgiving.

13:14The friend lived a short distance from Tar's home.

13:26Maybe 6.30ish, somewhere like that. Investigators believe the shooting took place sometime early on Thanksgiving morning after 1 a.m. Tarr said after he got back, he was home all night. You can talk to my daughter about me being home. That's exactly what they did. Detectives brought Tarr's 17-year-old daughter, Shelby, to a different room at the police station. and she told them that her father actually left home twice that night.

14:10Shelby said he had been gone for more than two hours and when he got home he was upset. He was crying. He was sobbing. He said he missed Leslie. Shelby said she went to sleep around 9.30 and was awakened by her father around 2.45 a.m. He started laundering. He was pacing and walking around. And he was like, I can't sleep. Detectives went back to Tar and told him Shelby's story did not match his. Tar then changed his story and said he had gone to his friend's house twice, but still insisted he was home by 8. As Tarr sat at the police station, detectives searched his house and found his phone and a Glock pistol.

14:57Shelby had told them her father had a different gun, but they didn't find it. It's little. It's like this big. I don't know if it might be with the Army green. Shelby told investigators she had seen it the day before Thanksgiving, in her father's sock drawer. Yesterday morning, actually, I went to get socks that was there. I know, it's not there. Was there yesterday and gone today? OK. Bobby Tarr sat at the police station overnight while authorities continued to investigate. They had already learned that his car had been captured by license plate reader cameras just after midnight, the night of the shooting.

15:38The cameras were near a gas station, and investigators discovered that Tarr had bought gas there just after midnight. Back at the police station, they confronted him with a gas station receipt. So you're like, I don't remember doing it. You don't remember being out after midnight when you have told us you are 100 % positive. The gas station is here in Troy. Yes. And the murder occurred here in Farmersville. Correct. The gas station was near Tarr's home, an hour from the crime scene. Andrew Affronti is the Montgomery County State's Attorney. He has dystonia, a condition that causes muscle ticks and tremors.

16:25So why is it significant? Because Zoe went out and got some gas. It was significant to us because why would he lie about it? So I got fuel. What is that for? Investigators believed it was proof Tar was lying about his whereabouts that night. They placed him under arrest. You're under arrest for murder.

16:50A frenzy says they arrested Tar immediately because they feared Chris's life was in danger. And they hadn't found the murder weapon. If he was out of custody, could he take further steps to dispose of the evidence? Just one day after Leslie Reeves was killed and Chris Smith was left fighting for his life, investigators believe they had the man responsible in custody. I'm Aaron Moriarty. Bobby Tarr. But in his only media interview, Bobby Tarr tells 48 Hours they got the wrong guy. There is so many things untold that will prove my innocence.

17:48Bobby Tarr, charged with the murder of Leslie Reeves and the attempted murder of Chris Smith, is nothing, if not unflappable. Did you kill Leslie Reeves? No. Did you shoot Chris Smith? No. He kept his cool even when confronted with a litany of lies he told investigators. You told the police you only left the house once. That wasn't true. Correct. You told the police you had no idea where Farmersville is. That was a lie. You lied about getting gas in your car that night. When he spoke with us, Tara admitted he was at Chris Smith's house the night before Thanksgiving, placing himself at the scene of the crime.

18:36He says the night began when he met Leslie at her part-time job at this loft store. She had said she was going to go meet some friends because one of their friends was playing in a band. She asked me if I wanted to go. I said, well, you know, I would go, but I have my youngest daughter staying with me for a week. Tar says that when he declined the invitation, Leslie asked if he would follow her to Farmersville because her van was unreliable. And so he did. That makes no sense to Leslie's friend, Amy Steinhauer. She was terrified of him. Rightfully so. Just a few weeks earlier, Amy says, Leslie told her that Tar had shown up while she was on a first date with a different guy.

19:23After that incident, Leslie told Amy she was frightened by Tar and texted Amy, I could be killed by him someday if I don't cut all contact. So you're telling me now that this woman who was scared of you, who had actually texted a friend that she thought you might kill her, asked you to follow her to another man's house? Does that make any No, I understand. So I don't understand that text in general. Why did she think you might kill her? I don't know. I've got no clue. Tar says Leslie lied to her friends about their relationship. He insists she asked him to follow her north to Farmersville. So I went with her up there.

20:11I think we arrived there around 7.30. I parked in front of her van in front of his house. That's as far as I went. I left. I never went back to Farmersville again. If he had an innocent explanation for why he was in Farmersville, why did he lie to detectives? My daughter, her and Leslie, there was a little bit of tension between both them. I did not want her to know that I was going to meet Leslie that night. Tarr claims that after he lied to his daughter Shelby about seeing Leslie, he stuck to that lie at the police station because he was afraid they would tell her. And he never corrected those lies, even when detectives arrested him.

20:55Why not just say, look, between you and me, I lied to my daughter, so let me tell you the truth, but let's just not share that with her. Why wouldn't you do that? I should have done that. He's quick to point out the lack of physical evidence connecting him to the bloody crime scene. Investigators searched his white Jetta, but did not find any shards of glass or blood stains. Two tests by the state police were done on my car. Zero blood found in my car. There's zero DNA of mine at the crime scene. anything from the crime scene in my car or on me or any of my clothing or my shoes. Zero. Prosecutor Affronti has to concede that point.

21:46Was any of Tyre's DNA found inside the house? No. Were any of his fingerprints found inside the house? An authority still had not found the murder weapon. But a week after the shooting, they got a phone call from Tar's friend Billy Adams. Adams said Tar had called him from jail. That call was recorded. What's your day look like today? Because I need 10 minutes of your time. Tar asked Adams to go to his house and look for some deck brackets. I got some special aluminum brackets that I need you to get because they're for another job that I didn't tell Dad about yet. So don't say nothing to him. Instead, Adams contacted the sheriff's office.

22:36Deputies suspected Tarr knew the phone call was being recorded and was speaking to his friend in code about something other than deck brackets. They're looted? Yeah, get them and get rid of them. They thought that was suspicious, which was why they went over and searched. Investigators were on their hands and knees in Tarr's yard looking for a gun. Dan Foltz is TAR's defense attorney. They searched that area thoroughly. No gun. You know what they did find? Deck brackets. A few days later, they got another phone call, this time from TAR's brother, asking them to come back to the house. TAR's family gave deputies a Ziploc bag they said they had found in the same yard that had been searched just days earlier.

23:29Inside, a Springfield Hellcat 9mm pistol and silver-colored ammunition. The Illinois State Police determined the gun was the murder weapon, and the ammunition matched the casings found at the crime scene. We still to this day don't know how that ended up there, specifically in the spot that they searched. Are you saying you were set up? Someone was framing you? Yes. But if someone was framing Tarr, he or she would have to be pretty detail-oriented. The state police say Tarr's fingerprint was on the Ziploc bag. He is adamant that he would not have been dumb enough, that he would have carried it all the way back to his home and said, hmm, where would I put this gun on my one-acre lot?

24:22I think I'll put it next to the front door. And Tar points out neither his prints nor DNA were found on the gun itself. Nothing on the firearm, no DNA, no prints of mine on the firearm. What I think what happened is that the gun was clipped, and Mr. Tar just missed a spot. That spot was Leslie's DNA, say police, found on the guide rod of the gun. Tarr's explanation? The gun wasn't his. It belonged to Leslie. I purchased the Hellcat, and Leslie purchased it from me. As investigators continued to build a case against Bobby Tarr, they say he was hatching a plan to silence the only eyewitness. Did you ask an inmate to shoot Chris Smith?

25:17What do you make of Bobby Tarr's story? Chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and X.

25:36Leslie accompanied me here on several occasions. If there's anyone who knew what guns Leslie Reeves owned, it's Howard Bolton. her close friend and firearm instructor. When I would hold classes, she would actually shoot with us. Leslie was becoming a very good shot. Bolton says Leslie had organized a class called Girls with Guns not long before she was murdered. We put the girls through their paces. They would move and fire. They would go forward and fire. They would come back and fire. And Leslie did very, very well at that. Bobby Tarr insisted to us that Leslie owned the Hellcat that was used to kill her.

26:18But Howard says he never saw her use it. Leslie never brought a Springfield, let alone a Hellcat, to class. So then, how did Leslie's DNA get on the guide rod of the murder weapon? Howard believes that Leslie's DNA could only be on that guide rod if the gun was fired at her at close range. So when he shot her, wherever it was he shot her, would have contaminated that part of the gun. In fact, Howard says Leslie owned a different gun. Her friends say they wish she had taken it with her the night she was killed. Had Leslie taken the gun with her, I assure you the outcome would have been different.