Tiki the dog helps Illinois man survive gunshot to the head

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Sneak peek: Fatal First Date

Sneak peek: Fatal First Date 03:36

On Thanksgiving day successful 2021, emergency aesculapian technician Dennis Hobson was summoned to a location successful nan mini colony of Farmersville, Illinois. It was nan location wherever his friend Chris Smith lived pinch his canine Tiki.

What he encountered is nan taxable of "Fatal First Date," an all-new "48 Hours" reported by analogous Erin Moriarty, airing Saturday, Nov. 2 astatine 1/9c connected CBS and streaming connected Paramount+.

A 911 telephone had been placed to nan Montgomery County Sheriff's Office by personification checking connected Smith, and Hobson walked into a bloody scene.

The broadside doorway of Smith's location had been broken, and Hobson recovered his friend — hardly live — lying connected nan level of nan blood-soaked kitchen. Smith had a gunshot coiled to nan caput and a woman, later identified arsenic Leslie Reeves from adjacent Troy, Illinois, was lying dormant connected nan surviving room level pinch a azygous slug coiled to her head, according to a sheriff's report.

Friends later told sheriff's deputies that nan mates had gone connected their first day nan erstwhile nighttime aft gathering online. In nan first hours of nan investigation, nary 1 knew what happened, but investigators believed a 3rd personification was progressive because nary weapon was recovered astatine nan scene.

Smith survived nan shooting but doesn't retrieve thing from that Thanksgiving Day. Hobson later told him immoderate details. "He said I had nary pulse," Smith told Moriarty. "He screamed my sanction 3 times, and I took a gasp and I said, 'Denny, I'm f***ing freezing.'"

Hobson later told Smith that Tiki apt helped to prevention his life. The somesthesia wrong nan location connected that Thanksgiving Day was overmuch colder than normal because nan fishy had surgery nan solid connected nan broadside door.

"But personification was keeping you warm," Moriarty said. "I had Tiki there," Smith replied. "My small girl, my small four-legged daughter."

Smith had owned Tiki, a beagle-terrier mix, for 3 years. He says he recovered her successful a Craigslist advertisement and adopted her erstwhile she was a pup. Tiki apparently was Smith's lifesaver erstwhile she huddled pinch him, and provided overmuch needed warmth, successful nan 12 hours earlier he was rescued.

"Tell maine astir [Tiki]," Moriarty asked Smith.

"Well … she apparently — erstwhile Denny walked successful and saw her laying by maine … I was … successful nan fetal position … and she was cuddled up adjacent to me," he replied.

The melodramatic communicative of Smith and Reeves' "Fatal First Date" and Smith's singular betterment is being told for nan first clip connected "48 Hours." The broadcast will see an exclusive question and reply pinch Reeves' convicted killer, a erstwhile fellow of hers named Robert Tarr, who denies that he was nan shooter.

A Montgomery County Sheriff's study later pieced together what happened that night. Smith and Reeves, aft a nighttime of barhopping and getting to cognize 1 another, had returned to his rented location successful Farmersville.

Sometime astir 1 a.m. connected Thanksgiving greeting 2021, authorities judge an assailant collapsed into a broadside doorway while Smith and Reeves were successful nan crushed level room warming up a late-night stiff pizza.

A lawman sheriff told a friend of Reeves' that she died instantly and "did not suffer."

Investigators later concluded that nan assailant that nighttime was Robert (Bobby) Tarr, an ex-boyfriend of Reeves who had secretly followed her to Smith's house, according to Andrew Affrunti, nan charismatic successful nan case.

Tarr was convicted of execution and attempted execution successful April 2024 and was sentenced to 85 years successful prison.

Smith, who had 3 strokes successful nan infirmary and was put into a medically induced coma, has been recovering since nan shooting and making progress. He still uses a wheelchair and a cane but has returned to singing successful his stone and rotation set and is looking for work.

He has been incapable to attraction for Tiki himself arsenic he recovers, but she lives nearby, and they spot each different often. Smith besides has started a business arsenic a motivational speaker and has created a website: ChrisSmithmotivatingyou.com. He besides bought a caller location and conscionable projected to his girlfriend, now fiancée, Michelle Albrecht.