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[Music] this wasn't just a crime scene was it no it was not this one was bad two innocent people that were on
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their first date had their lives destroyed for what reason how well did Leslie Reeves know
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chrismith first date Chris was in a band and a singer and they had connected and he
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asked her out the night before Thanksgiving they decided just to meet up go to the
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bar he lived 65 mil away in a really small farming Community the bar that night was very
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busy the place was packed wall to- wall Chris and Leslie were talking a lot laughing getting along with everyone
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around them she texted me around 10: and she said everything's going okay she did
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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
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was that text the last time you heard from Leslie Reeves mhm yes it was [Music] did you try texting her in the morning
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mhm and did she respond no I just started driving towards Farmersville cuz I had the address and
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called the police department in that area Montgomery County Sheriff's Office this is Jeff hi I'm greatly concerned
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about my friend can someone do a welfare check what are you feeling at this point
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Nana a lot of anxiety because I don't know what I'm going to walk into uh going up there to this
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house I pulled up in front of the address and then who came while you're sitting there while I'm sitting there uh
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who's this uh woman parked I said well maybe I'll roll my window down and talk to her I asked her
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if she was checking on Chris and she said she was checking on her friend and that's when I went up to the
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door I saw the back door was broken and then I saw Chris laying there and then I ran back to my car and
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called 911 nobody's answering the door and and the back window's shattered and there's a body and there's a foot I fell
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on the floor I'm only 16 I can't deal with this I was in shock I think Sheriff's Office Jeff Jeff give me
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some help I got one alive and one dead I just remember them bring bringing Chris
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out on the stretcher to the ambulance I remember there being a sheet over him so
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it made me panic a little bit I got a call from our Command Center in Springfield so you are the lead crime
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scene investigator yes were you really prepared for what you faced when you walked into that house I was
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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
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someone heard him going on a first date and they both end up getting shot is insane
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[Music] [Music] on the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day 2021 Nanette Styer sat in her car and
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watched anxiously as EMTs and Montgomery County sheriff's deputies descended on a
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house in the Tiny Village of Farmersville Illinois I was quite upset and kind of going crazy in the car
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Nanette had been unable to reach her good friend Leslie Reeves Nanette knew Leslie had gone to
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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
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thought oh this would this might be um a really good connection but now nette was worried
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she'd seen Chris get taken away in an ambulance but there was no sign of Leslie I kept hoping you know okay bring
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Leslie out please finally a detective approached and asked Nanette for a photo of Leslie
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she showed him her phone and he gave her the horrible news I'm so sorry to have to tell you
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this your friend has um been murdered you know shot he said he didn't tell me where but he did
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say I want you to know that she went very [Music] quickly EMTs have found Chris barely
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conscious and unable to say anything about the shooting they rushed him to the hospital and deputies searched the
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house later that day crime scene investigator Josh Easton of the Illinois State Police was called to the scene and
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he began cataloging the Mayhem inside what do you see when you first approached the door I noticed the side
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door of the house the glass in the door has been broken out the refrigerator was
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pulled away from the wall the kitchen table was pushed the the chairs were knocked over no weapon was found leading
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investigators to suspect that a third person was involved een took note of every detail including the burnt pizza
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in the oven I assumed that maybe they were cooking a pizza for the night and the suspect shows up at the door
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they both tried to fight him off and when Chris was shot Leslie went to the living room to try to hide how many
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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
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had been found in the kitchen e said of the 1,800 crime scenes he had been to this
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was one of the most horrific there was blood everywhere the cabinets the refrigerator the countertop there was
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blood from corner to corner in the Kitchen East spotted two silver colored bullet casings from a 9mm gun one in the
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kitchen and the other near Lesley's body as Easton processed the scene detectives
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began learning about the victims Chris Smith was a 48-year-old divorced father who worked for a pool
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contractor Chris was a nice guy he would hang out here frequently was friends with most people in town everybody knew
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him bartender Dina lran says Chris was well known in town as the guy who grew banana trees and giant pumpkins I
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remember one Halloween he donated hundreds of pumpkins for decorations for any of the kids to
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paint he gave back to his community did either one of you ever worry about Chris no
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no Sharon castanza is Chris's mother Ashley hul his sister Chris is a stayhome person that literally would
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just work in his backyard Chris lived with a dog named Tiki and an EMT told the family that
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Tiki may have helped Chris make it through the night by huddling with him for the roughly 12 hours that Chris was
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bleeding before being rescued I think Tiki protected Chris I think she probably laid right right next to
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him Chris's close-nit family could not imagine anyone wanting to kill him it was like no way how why like who yeah
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who would have done that investigators had the same questions about Leslie and learned that
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she was a divorced mother of two children who lived in Troy about an hour south of
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Farmersville although Leslie had a master's degree in engineering she chose instead to teach Pilates and to promote
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self-defense classes for women hi I'm Leslie from all you studio and Leslie posted this video to her YouTube channel
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to advertise one of her classes Empower yourself against aggression and assault as we teach you easy to learn
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self-defense techniques power up Leslie tried to help women in abusive relationships but friends say she had
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her own TR Nanette told Deputy she was worried about a former boyfriend a contractor by
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the name of Robert tar known as Bobby she said I am going to completely block Bobby from email texts phone calls I I
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have to go no contact later that evening news of Leslie's murder began circulating and
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reached another close friend Amy steinhauer she had met tar a divorced father of three
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and did not have a good impression of him but you never see someone and think that they can kill my
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friend Amy called the Sheriff's Office that night to give them T's name by then detectives had already set
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out to find Bobby tar while 85 miles to the north surgeons were fighting to try to save the life of Chris Smith a bullet
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St lodged in his [Music] brain I just want to get there I just want to get there as fast as I could
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after learning that Chris had been shot in the head his family rushed to the hospital in Springfield Illinois 2 hours
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from their home I was on the phone to everyone I could think of cuz I just needed prayers from
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everybody doctors removed part of Chris's skull and some bullet fragments in his brain before putting him in a
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medically induced coma his family struggling to piece together what had happened learned that he had been out
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with a woman named Leslie Reeves had you ever heard the name Leslie Reeves before
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no I looked her up and then I triy to reach out to her friends and then I found her best friend Nanette Nanette
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told them the same thing she had told investigators she suspected Leslie's ex-boyfriend Bobby
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tar that night sheriff's deputies went to tars home in Collinsville an hour south of the crime scene authorities say
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he never asked why they wanted to talk to him and he agreed to go to the police station without a lawyer
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t r r correct M although her friend said the couple had broken up tar told investigators that he and Leslie were
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still together you Leslie have a lot of problems I wouldn't say no worse than any
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average couple it was Leslie the detectives wanted to talk about I want you to to dig down deep here and be as
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honest with me as you can okay um Leslie is dead what can you help me shed some light on
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this how did she die she was murdered what happened that's why we're here with you
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you help me believe that you're not involved in this I'm not involved in anything investigators asked tar about
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Farmersville the scene of the crime you know where Farmersville is Farmersville no I can't say that never
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been there I've never heard of it and they asked tar where he had been the night before Thanksgiving I went to
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buddy of mine's house he left and left me some money out of his shop and I had to go pick it up
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the friend lived a short distance from T's home remember what time he came back yeah it wasn't that long
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um maybe 630 something like that investigators believe the shooting took place sometime early on Thanksgiving
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morning after 1:00 a.m. tar said after he got back he was home all night you can talk to my daughter about me being
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home that's exactly what they did detectives brought T's 17-year-old daughter Shelby to a different room at
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the police station and she told them that her father actually left home twice that night so first time he left was
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roughly 6:30 right and then he he came home about a half hour later and I said he had to go back right and then it was
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9:15-ish when he got back home Shelby said he had been gone for more than 2 hours and when he got home he was upset
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he gets home he was crying he was soling he said he missed Lesley Shelby said she
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went to sleep around 9:30 and was awakened by her father around 2:45 a.m. he started laundry he was pacing walking
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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
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then changed his story and said he had gone to his friend's house twice but still insisted he was home by 8 as tar
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sat at the police station detectives searched his house and found his phone and a Glock pistol Shelby had told them
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her father had a different gun but they didn't find it it's little it's like this big I look at the army green Shelby
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told investigators she had seen it the day before Thanksgiving in her father's sock drawer yesterday morning actually I
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went to get S and it was there and that it's not there was there yesterday and gone today yeah okay Bobby tar sat at
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the police station overnight while authorities continued to investigate they had already learned that his car
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had been captured by License Plate Reader cameras just after midnight the night of the shooting the cameras were
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near a gas station and investigators discovered the tar had bought gas there just after midnight back at the police
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station they confronted him with the gas station receipt so you're Al cuz I don't
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remember doing there you don't remember being out after midnight when you have told us you are 100%
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positive the gas station is here in Troy yes and the murder occurred here in Farmersville
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correct the gas station was near tars home an hour from the crime scene Andrew Arron is the Montgomery County States
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Attorney he has distonia a condition that causes muscle ticks and tremors so why is it significant cuz it so he went
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out and got some gas it was significant to us cuz why would he lie about it so I
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got fuel what does that Pro investigators believed it was proofed tar was lying about his whereabouts that
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night they placed him under arrest you're under arrest from AR frzy says they arrested tar
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immediately because they feared Chris's life was in danger and they hadn't found the murder
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weapon if he was out of custody could he take further steps to dispose of the evidence just one day after Leslie
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Reeves was killed and Chris Smith was left fighting for his life investigators believed they had the man responsible in
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custody I'm Aaron Mori Bobby but in his only media interview Bobby tart tells 48
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hours they got the wrong guy there is so many things Untold that will prove my innocence Bobby tar charged with the
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murder of Leslie Reeves and the attempted murder of Chris Smith is nothing if not UNF flappable did you
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kill Leslie reefs no did you shoot Chris Smith no he kept his cool even when confronted with a Litany of Lies he told
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investigators you told the police you only left the house once that wasn't true correct you told
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the police you had no idea where Farmersville is MH that was a lie mhm you lied about getting gas in your car
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that night mhm when he spoke with us tar admitted he was at Christmas house the night before Thanksgiving placing
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himself at the scene of the crime he says the night began when he met Leslie at her part-time job at this Loft store
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she had said she was going to go meet some friends because one of their friends was playing in a band she asked
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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
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says that when he declined the invitation Leslie asked if if he would follow her to Farmersville because her
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van was unreliable and so he did that makes no sense to Leslie's friend Amy steinhauer she was terrified of
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him rightfully so just a few weeks earlier Amy Says Leslie told her that tar had shown up
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while she was on a first date with a different guy after that incident Leslie told Amy she was frightened by tar and
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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
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who was scared of you who had actually texted a friend that she thought you might kill her asked you to follow her
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to another man's house does that make any sense no I understand U so I don't understand that
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text in general why did she think you might kill her I don't know I've got no clue
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tar says Leslie lied to her friends about their relationship he insists she asked him to follow her North to
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Farmersville so I went with her up there I think we arrived there around 7:30 I parked in front of her van in
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front of his house as as far as I went I left I never went back to Farmersville again if he had an innocent explanation
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for why he was in Farmersville why did he lie to to detectives my daughter her and Leslie there was a little bit of
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tension between both them I did not want her to know that I was going to meet Leslie that night tar claims that after
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he lied to his daughter Shelby about seeing Leslie he stuck to that lie at the police station because he was afraid
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they would tell her and he never corrected those lies even when detectives arrested him why not just say
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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
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why wouldn't you do that I should have done that he's quick to point out the lack of physical evidence connecting him
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to the bloody crime scene investigators searched his white Jetta but did not find any shards of glass or blood stains
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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
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scene anything from the crime scene in my car or on me or any of my clothing or my
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shoes zero prosecutor of fronti has to concede that point was any of Ty's DNA found
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inside the house no were any of his fingerprints found inside the house and authorities still had not
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found the murder weapon but a week after the shooting they got a phone call from
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tarr's friend Billy Adams Adams said tar called him from jail that call was recorded what's your day look like today
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cuz I need 10 minutes of your time tar ask Adams to go to his house and look for some deck brackets I got some
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special aluminum brackets and that I need you to get because there for another job that I
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didn't tell that about yet so don't say nothing to him instead Adams contacted the Sheriff's Office Deputy suspected
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tar knew the phone call was being recorded and was speaking to his friend in code about something other than deck
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brackets yeah get them and get rid of them they thought that was suspicious which was why they went over and
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searched investigators were on their hands and knees in T's yard looking for a gun Dan folz is T's defense attorney
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they searched that area thoroughly no gun you know what they did find deck brackets a few days later they got
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another phone call this time from tarr's Brother asking them to come back to the
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house tarr's family gave deputies a ziplock bag they said they had found in the same yard that had been searched
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just days earlier inside a Springfield Hellcat 9mm pistol and silver colored ammunition the
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Illinois State Police determined the gun was the murder weapon and the ammunition
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matched the casings found at the crime scene we still to this day don't know how that ended up there specifically in
00:24:21
the spot that they searched are you saying you were set up someone was framing you yes
00:24:28
but if someone was framing tar he or she would have to be pretty detail oriented
00:24:35
the state police say T's fingerprint was on the Ziploc bag he is adamant that he
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would not have been dumb enough that he would have carried it all the way back to his home and said hm where would I
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put this gun on my 1 acre lot I think I'll put it next to the front door and tar points out neither his Prince nor de
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DNA were found on the gun itself nothing on the firearm no DNA no Prince of mine
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on the firearm what I think what happened is is that the gun was cleaned and then Mr tar just missed a spot that
00:25:12
spot was Leslie's DNA say police found on the guide rod of the gun T's explanation the gun wasn't his it
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belonged to lesie I purchased the Hellcat and Leslie purchased it from me as investigators continued to build a
00:25:31
case against Bobby tar they say he was hatching a plan to silence the only eyewitness did you ask a inmate to shoot
00:25:43
Chris Smith what do you make of Bobby T's story chat now with the 48 Hours team on
00:25:51
Facebook andex [Music] lesle accompanied me here on several occasions if there's anyone who knew
00:26:11
what guns Leslie Reeves owned it's Howard Bolton her close friend and firearm instructor when I would hold
00:26:19
classes she would actually shoot with us Leslie was becoming a very good shot Bolton says Leslie had organized a class
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called girls with guns not long before she was murdered we put the girls through their Paces they would move in
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fire they would go forward and fire they would come back and fire and Leslie did
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very very well at that Bobby tar insisted to us that Leslie owned the Hellcat that was used to kill her but
00:26:49
Howard says he never saw her use it Leslie never brought a Springfield let alone a Hellcat to class so then how how
00:26:58
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
00:27:06
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
00:27:17
that part of the gun in fact Howard says Leslie owned a different gun her friends
00:27:22
say they wish she had taken it with her the night she was killed had Leslie Tak the gun with her I assure you the
00:27:30
outcome would have been different tar declared his innocence but the case against him could hinge on what
00:27:39
Chris Smith the only Survivor remembers would he be able to identify him that was the question as Chris remained in a
00:27:49
coma we were talking to him singing to him and I was always holding this hand hallu well Chris Smith Lay helpless
00:28:00
authorities say tar was plotting to silence him forever a grand jury indicted tar on two
00:28:08
counts of solicitation of murder those charges are based on allegations by an inmate who says tar paid him
00:28:17
$110,000 to shoot and kill the lead detective and Chris did you ask a inmate to shoot Chris Smith no ma'am and to
00:28:30
kill detective roach no ma'am tar says the alleged plot was a lie concocted by a former cellmate tar
00:28:39
says he loaned that cellmate $10,000 for his bond and that it had nothing to do with Chris Smith were you worried he was
00:28:49
going to testify and point to you as a shooter no I was not worried one I OTA the truth was that no one knew what
00:28:58
Chris Smith remembered the first time he regained Consciousness was in early January
00:29:04
2022 about two months after the shooting like egg fu young egg fu young Chris's voice was so weak in those early
00:29:14
days it's already over there that his old friend Mark Reen a talk show host in St Louis 522 971 FM talk barely
00:29:24
recognized Chris on the phone I could not believe that I was hearing from this guy and I cried he cried just talking
00:29:34
about that moment really brings me chills because I just thought he was never going to be someone that was in my
00:29:39
life ever again what did Chris tell you well when Chris came out of this I was pretty sensitive to ask him about what
00:29:46
had happened that night because I think I was a little afraid of even having those conversations so most of the
00:29:51
conversations that we had were really focused on hey how are you are you going to be okay after intense Physical
00:29:58
Therapy he's made incredible strides he's much stronger than when he awoke from a coma but he discovered there are
00:30:07
gaps in his memory what does he remember from that terrible night I wish to God I could
00:30:15
remember something I mean even just a smidgen of something but I remember nothing he remembers nothing of the
00:30:23
shooting or Leslie Reeves I said who the heck Leslie I don't know Lesley you had
00:30:29
no idea no nothing nothing nothing is Chris the same person who used to come on your show before he was shot yeah I
00:30:38
think at the core he's still the same guy that I knew he's still the smartass he's still the guy that's going to talk
00:30:44
about how good he is and how good he was and how much he could lift weights Chris works out at the gym most
00:30:51
mornings trying to regain muscle so that someday he'll be able to walk without assistance
00:30:59
straight them C he's even back to being the lead singer in his rock and roll band I don't
00:31:07
know how he did make it I don't understand how he did he's a miracle but Chris is aware his life is
00:31:16
very different from what it once was so I'm half the man I used to be but I'm trying to get it back as hard as I can
00:31:23
and then my left leg is uh partially paralyzed my hip to my knee then from my knee to my toes completely paralyzed so
00:31:30
if there's any neurosurge out there any researchers out there please get a hold of me I'll be your guinea pig just make
00:31:35
me normal and give me my life back please it's tough isn't it Chris it tough doesn't even describe it
00:31:44
doesn't describe it Chris is resigned to living with part of that hollow point bullet in his brain doctors say it's in
00:31:52
a spot that makes it too dangerous to remove so that's where you got shot yep right here there's a y you still feel it
00:32:00
on my skull right there after decades on his own Chris had to move back into his
00:32:06
mother's house I thank my blessings daily that he's here with us I just wish that this guy didn't take everything
00:32:15
away from him Chris visits with his loyal dog Tiki but no longer lives with her and he'd love to see his 12-year-old
00:32:23
daughter more often but he can't drive and he's living in St leis almost 2 hours away from his daughter and ex-wife
00:32:32
I miss her she was my little PE in the pot I mean we did everything together the trial of Robert tar was set
00:32:39
for April 2024 but Chris would not be there he told the prosecutor he was too angry to attend you didn't think you'd
00:32:48
be able to just sit there oh no no way I I Know Myself there's know what no but Chris's alleged shooter Bobby tar will
00:32:56
be there and he said he was eager to tell the jury that he's not a violent man but on this one night early morning
00:33:07
did you snap no that's not my nature I don't lose it [Music] snap follow along with Chris's
00:33:17
remarkable story at 48 hours.com [Music] when Bobby tar went on trial in April 2024 prosecutors told the jury that he
00:33:36
killed Leslie Reeves rather than allow her to live the life she wanted a life without him Mr tar couldn't deal with
00:33:45
the fact that Leslie was seeing somebody else and he had to go and take care of it Andrew affronti says tar secretly
00:33:54
followed Leslie to Farmersville early that evening and shortly afterwards his phone began showing some interesting
00:34:03
activity he had actually searched Chris Smith on his phone he tried to find his Facebook profile tar headed home and
00:34:11
texted his friend Billy Adams I don't feel like she would drive that far for a party or go out with a girlfriend I
00:34:20
think it's for a dude he also searched whether police could track his phone if he was using a VP n a virtual private
00:34:30
Network he was researching to determine whether or not that would Mas where his location was while he was using the
00:34:39
phone authorities say around midnight tar left home stopping at that gas station and then according to a frony
00:34:47
surveillance videos and cell tower records show that tar drove back to Farmersville you believe he intended to
00:34:55
kill both Chris and Leslie I 100% believe that he went up there with the intent to do serious harm to both of
00:35:06
them with one victim dead and the other with no memory it's difficult to say with certainty what happened but the
00:35:15
prosecution argued that sometime after 1:00 a.m. Bobby tar tried to enter through the back door of Christmas house
00:35:24
Leslie and Chris tried to keep him out there was some kind of altercation or struggle and that's when the glass was
00:35:34
broken crime scene investigator Josh East told the jury what he had observed inside the kitchen the refrigerator was
00:35:42
pulled away from the wall where it appeared it normally was prosecutors believe Leslie was trying to use the
00:35:49
refrigerator to block the door and based on where Chris was shot in his head they
00:35:56
think he was crouching down down to help Leslie I think that while Chris was crouched down trying to hold the door
00:36:05
shut Bobby shot through the door and shuck Chris with Chris incapacitated Arron says Leslie hid in the living room
00:36:14
tar tracked her down shot and killed her I strongly believe that he walked in an
00:36:21
Executor defense attorney Dan folz disputes all of that there is simply no evidence that that's what happened
00:36:29
there's no evidence that Leslie pushed the refrigerator there's no fingerprints and blood on the refrigerator of
00:36:34
Leslie's fol says evidence of a fight in the kitchen tells a different story the
00:36:41
amount of blood in that kitchen was astonishing from looking at that crime scene do you believe that Christopher
00:36:49
Smith had to fight his his as salent in the kitchen it would appear to me that there
00:36:56
was some sign ific struggle in that kitchen between him and someone else and he says the asent could not have been
00:37:03
Bobby tar because he would have been covered in blood they did not identify a single piece of DNA in his car they
00:37:13
didn't identify a bloody fingerprint they did not identify anything tying him to that crime scene but prosecutors
00:37:21
argued the house wasn't bloody when tar left they said Chris bled heavily and in
00:37:27
the 12 hours it took for help to arrive and while the prosecution did not have a
00:37:33
lot of forensic evidence linking tar of the crime scene a fronty says his phone activity his lies to investigators and
00:37:42
the evidence found on the Hellcat all prove his guilt when you put all of that together that's when you get the clear
00:37:49
picture of what happened when it was the defense's turn tar says he wanted to tell his story to the jury but he chose
00:37:58
not to testify why didn't you just decide you were going to talk to the jury and tell
00:38:04
this story if in fact you have a story to tell I should have I very well should have we made a strategic decision
00:38:13
because it may have opened the door for a whole lot of other more damaging evidence to be used uh to cross-examine
00:38:20
him the defense didn't put on any Witnesses and counted on the jury to find Reasonable Doubt in the lack of
00:38:28
physical evidence after 3 hours the jury found Bobby tar guilty of first-degree murder
00:38:38
and attempted murder everyone clapped and Bobby just sat there shaking his head two months later tar was back in
00:38:48
court for sentencing and this time so was Chris to tell the judge how the shooting impacted him and his family
00:38:57
Cameron were not allowed in the courtroom lost my house lost my truck I've literally lost my life about being
00:39:05
killed tar also spoke and denied shooting Leslie and Chris the judge sentenced him to 85 years I hope the
00:39:16
rest of his time on this Earth is Hell Leslie Reeves friends are focused on keeping her memory alive she was a
00:39:28
light of a lot of people's lives she was always smiling she was a very good mother lived for her kids and was an
00:39:38
advocate and champion of women women's rights and especially women that were abused if it can happen to her it could
00:39:48
happen to anyone so we all need to be careful Chris Smith says he never expected he'd be a victim of domestic
00:39:57
violence and cautions other men to take a hard look at their behavior if guys you feel
00:40:03
like that you want you want to hurt a woman get help while Chris Mourns his old life
00:40:12
he's writing a book about his experiences and says he's working to make what he calls Poor Man's Margaritas
00:40:20
out of the lemons and limes he's been handed I've got a doover good Lord give me a do over how many people we'll get a
00:40:27
second chance live Chris has found love with Michelle albre she's an angel loving me and
00:40:35
accepting me the way that I am he proposed to her on stage I just asked her if she'd married me
00:40:42
guys what's the most important lesson out of all of this don't ever give up on anything ever no matter how bad things
00:40:51
are don't ever give up [Music] as a kid growing up in Chicago there was one horror movie I was too scared to
00:41:09
watch it was called Candyman but did you know that the movie Candyman was partly
00:41:14
inspired by an actual murder listen to Candyman the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder wherever you get
00:41:19
your podcasts I'm Erin morard of 48 hours and of all the cases I've covered this is the one that troubles me most
00:41:29
listen to murder in the Orange Grove the trouble case against Crosley green wherever you get your podcast