On Thanksgiving afternoon in 2021, emergency medical technician Dennis Hobson was summoned to a house in a small village in Farmersville, Illinois. This is the house where his friend Chris Smith lives with his dog Tiki.

What he encountered was the theme of "The Deadly First Date", reported by "48 Hours" reporter Erin Moriarty. The reenactment of the plot aired on Saturday, May 17, 2025 on 9/8C on CBS and played on Paramount+.

Someone checked Smith, Hobson walked into a bloody scene and called the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office 911.

The side door of Smith's house was broken and Hobson found his friend (almost not alive) lying on the floor of a blood-soaked kitchen. Smith had a gunshot wound to the head, a woman, who was later identified as Leslie Reeves According to the sheriff's report, he died from a nearby Troy, Illinois, lying on the living room floor with a single bullet injury to the head.

A friend later told the sheriff's deputies that the couple had their first date the night before they met online. No one knew what happened during the first few hours of the investigation, but investigators believed a third person was involved because no guns were found at the scene.

Smith survived the shooting but remembered nothing on Thanksgiving day. Hobson later told him some details. “He said I had no pulse,” Smith told Moriarty. "He screamed my name three times and I gasped, 'Danny, I'm freezing.'"

Hobson later told Smith that Tiki might help save his life. On that Thanksgiving day, the temperature inside the house was much colder than normal, as the suspect broke the glass on the side door.

"But someone warms you up," Moriarty said. "I have Tiki there," Smith replied. "My little girl, my four-legged daughter."

Smith owns the three-year-old Tiki, a Beagle-Terrier combination. He said he found her in a craigslist ad and adopted her when she was a puppy. Tiki was apparently Smith’s lifeguard when she was huddled together and provided much needed warmth within 12 hours before he was rescued.

"Tell me (tiki)," Moriarty asked Smith.

"Well...she obviously-When Danny walked in and saw her lying beside me...I was...in the position of the fetus...she was hugged beside me," he replied.

Smith and Reeves' "The Deadly First Date" and Smith's dramatic story are told for the first time in "48 Hours." The broadcast will include an exclusive interview with the killer who convicted Reeves, who is her ex-boyfriend Robert Tarr, who denies himself a shooter.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s report later pieced together what happened that night. Smith and Reeves met each other after a night of night and returned to his rental home in Farmersville.

Sometime around 1 a.m. on Thanksgiving in 2021, authorities believe an attacker broke into the side door while Smith and Reeves were in the kitchen on the first floor to heat up the frozen pizza late at night.

A deputy sheriff told a friend of Reeves that she died immediately and “did not suffer.”

Investigators later concluded that the attacker that night was Reeves' ex-boyfriend Robert (Bobby) Tarr, who secretly followed her to Smith's home.

Tarr was convicted of murder in April 2024 and attempted murder and sentenced to 85 years in prison.

Smith, who had three shots in the hospital and was trapped in a medically induced coma, has been recovering since the shootings and progress. He still uses wheelchairs and crutches, but returns to singing in his rock band and is looking for a job.

When he recovered, he had been unable to take care of the Tiji people, but she lived nearby and they met frequently. Smith also started a business of motivational speakers and created a website: chrissmithmotivating you.com. He also bought a new house and just proposed to his girlfriend, fiancé, Michelle Albrecht.