- 6 weeks ago
Last Night Out (2025) Season 1 Episode 5- Erin Jones
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Short filmTranscript
00:00in Kansas a massive tornado forms it took over the whole sky like you knew by seeing that that
00:19there was something bad in there in nearby Dodge City 45 miles to the west of the tornado's path
00:28single mom Erin Jones is having a night out with friends she liked to dance they danced a few
00:36times just having a good time there's absolutely no reason to think that anything bad it's gonna
00:43happen it was burn marks on the curtain a gunshot had gone through every industry has a bad apple
00:54and we had one there is no way anyone could have ever predicted that this would be her last night out
01:01Friday night I remember driving home and seeing this huge black cloud to the east of Dodge City
01:30we're in tornado alley we knew that there was you know storms in the sky
01:39it was raining but everybody was on the watch because with tornadoes obviously they can turn
01:48and you know come towards you we're out in the middle of nowhere tornadoes are expected
01:56thunder lightning severe thunderstorms hail so it's nothing out of the ordinary it doesn't stop
02:04people from going out and doing what they want to do if they have plans
02:08as the weather outside takes a dramatic turn Vanessa Feldman and her best friend and fellow
02:18single parent 31 year old Erin Jones finalized their plans for the evening I met Erin October of 2006 when I started working at the bank
02:32she was a teller same position that I was in she was very friendly just loving fun to be around
02:43she had her two kids and she doted on them quite a bit even after she had a divorce she kind of used that as her strength and became a really good single mom
02:58undeterred by the gathering storm and keen to let their hair down the two friends head into Dodge City
03:10it didn't seem initially like it was going to be something out of the ordinary or potentially catastrophic
03:20and so here's an a rare opportunity her kids are going to be with her ex-husband
03:29Erin and I did not have our children that night we decided we'd go out we had the opportunity to go watch a basketball game
03:40so she goes to basketball game the legends team which is kind of a minor league basketball team in Dodge City
03:47she had been talking to one of the players he had gotten tickets for her to come to the game
03:57they were initially going to meet up at the Latino bar
04:02they drive by there after the game it's super crowded she texted and said we're going to head over to this
04:08bar which is the one that has a big dance floor and they decided they were going to perhaps try to meet up later
04:17central station had a dance floor music some pool tables
04:28i believe they even had a menu for food
04:34it was a basically an old rail car that turned into a bar dance place
04:39and it was not uncommon for them to spend all night you know not necessarily drinking but just going
04:47there dancing having you know a nice time she loved music and anything to do with music and that included
04:55dancing so that would have been a very fun night for her
04:58outside though the storm has become an unstoppable force a spiraling column of wind exceeding 200
05:14miles an hour spinning down what kansans call tornado alley it becomes increasingly apparent as the night
05:24goes on that this is a storm that is once in a century it's a huge tornado and for emergency services all
05:34resources are in use fixed on the approaching storm they would have been talking about it hey beware of
05:42this be looking for this i think they get some special weather alerts
06:00meanwhile at dodge city's busiest nightclub erin catches the sight of her ex-boyfriend
06:05police officer chris tayhar who's out drinking with his friends
06:09she had noticed that chris was across the way and we just kind of talked about him for a minute and
06:16she said he's got to go do his thing i've got to do my own thing we're not together
06:23we get set at the table with a group of friends and have a drink and just have a good time
06:30that's when we seen that jason was there jason came up spoke to aaron aaron and jason were friends
06:37jason liked to dance she liked to dance so a lot of it was country music fast dancing all the little
06:45twirling i don't remember any slow real intimate type of dancing going on it was just they were having
06:53a good time being dance partners while erin carries on dancing her ex-boyfriend chris tayhar is watching
07:02he was upset he was pissed off but they were able to calm him down and divert his attention away from
07:11that she's out to have a good time out to dance out to have a few drinks out to meet friends and
07:19socialize there's absolutely no reason to think that anything bad is going to happen
07:36so the tornado ended up missing dodge city and hit about 45 minutes away in the small community
07:42called greensburg and it essentially wiped out this community
07:50it literally was there one minute and almost completely gone the next
07:58nothing was left several people lost their lives dodge city was part of the rainy
08:05part of the storm but then most of the um damage was with greensburg
08:14emergency services from dodge city begin responding en masse to the disaster
08:21i would say 80 percent of our force got called and went to assist greensburg wasn't that far away
08:31that you didn't know somebody or have somebody or know somebody that knew somebody
08:36that lived there had lived there had family there friends there
08:42in southwest kansas you come together you help each other small towns combine
08:48even though we're rivalry in sports we come together to help each other whenever that need is there and so
08:55that night um and that following days it was kind of that feeling around greensburg
09:05dodge city police officers as many as possible
09:08were diverting what their normal duties were and heading over to greensburg to see if they can help
09:15all except for chris teha
09:17who was a patrol officer and a member of the dodgy department who had taken the day off and did not
09:28respond to what was going on
09:35i was a friend of his um there were several of us um at the police department that um
09:43um he hung around with and i was one of them he was supposed to work that night and he took the night
09:53off and um met up with some friends and went out to the bar
10:01we weren't at central station very long and then she noticed that chris was there as well
10:06he was at the other side of the room she was uncomfortable about it at one point she and
10:14vanessa talked about leaving she wasn't sure if he would start something she was a really independent
10:20strong person she was like no i'm not gonna leave the bar just because i see my ex-boyfriend here
10:27you know i can have a good time i'm not doing anything wrong
10:30she didn't want to dance with him didn't want to talk to him had no desire to have any type of
10:39interaction with him she wasn't mean about it she just said we've got to go our own ways and and i'm
10:46happy that he's he's doing what he's doing and and i'm gonna have my fun
10:53he had a drink and he was with a group of friends we were just having a good time laughing
10:58conversating dancing listening to music
11:03and then it all just kind of went downhill from there
11:09he saw aaron at the bar with another guy and it upset him enough that he smashed his beer bottle on
11:19the floor she was enjoying her newfound freedom of being a single mom
11:26um recently divorced learning what that new life is going to be like discovering new things
11:34and just enjoying the time that she had and unfortunately that didn't end well because of chris
11:51and i was the victim witness coordinator at the ford county attorney's office i knew chris as a dodge
12:05city police officer um and i worked with chris in that capacity in my work employment at the time
12:25he was nice he was cordial he was easy for me to get along with he was reserved he was quiet a lot
12:35but at times he could be outgoing he seemed like he was a likable guy as most cops that we hire are
12:42chris tayhar who's originally from neighboring oklahoma is a police officer in his early 30s
12:55he started at the police department as a records clerk and then transferred into the patrol division
13:02he played in a band with a couple of other officers who were also friends of mine
13:10chris tayhar's band is considered the most popular local rock group in dodge city
13:16he was the bass player of the band they were wildly popular in dodge city
13:22they played frequently and they drew fairly large crowds
13:42chris tayhar is the 33 year old police officer at this point in his life he is really looking to
13:48settle down i think he realizes he's getting older he's kind of settled in his career and he has
13:54decided that he is ready to get buried and start a family and when he met aaron he felt like he had
14:01found the person that he wanted to do this with i do know that another officer introduced chris to aaron
14:12i heard that he thought that they would make a good couple and that's why he introduced them
14:21she met up with him or went and watched his band play a time or two in january they started dating
14:27just shortly after um i know she did spend a lot of time with him there were a lot of text messages
14:35phone calls but i think she was enjoying it at first
14:41they were doing pretty much everything together but i know that chris also slowly started moving his
14:49items into her house within the first few weeks chris tayhar starts taking those steps independently
14:59of erin he starts leaving things at her house bringing the guitar over inviting himself places and she's not
15:05only confused by this she's increasingly uncomfortable with the things that he's doing because it's almost
15:13like what she wants isn't a factor for him he seemed to be clingy or always right at erin's side always
15:24right there involved needed to be there and i think a lot of the times she just felt smothered she just felt
15:33that he was being way too needy in the relationship and she wasn't prepared for that type of relationship
15:41it almost seems as if chris tayhar had made this decision to get married and settle down almost
15:49independently of any relationship and then when he meets erin it's like okay i've picked you as the
15:57person to fulfill this role for me she took a vacation and she was hoping that taking a vacation would
16:14reset everything get them out of their day-to-day life and just go have fun and see where things could
16:21go from there she was going with the kids and she hadn't planned on him coming but he self-invited himself
16:32she kind of complained that he didn't even chip in cost wise he paid for a tank of gas you know when
16:41you've got kids and you're a single mom you're trying to make ends meet and someone kind of invites
16:46themselves along you think they would split some costs and he didn't even offer that so that kind of
16:51angered her i think that weekend really might have been the final straw for erin i'm not crazy about
17:00this guy this is not going anywhere and as a matter of fact his lack of respecting my boundaries is a
17:06deal killer for me and so she comes back and on april the 9th she sends him an email and in that email
17:14she essentially says this isn't going to work out i'm ending the relationship
17:20and for chris he was at least in his words completely blindsided
17:35it's late at night and chris tayoff comes over to her house doesn't knock on the door he uses
17:44the garage code that he knew to let himself in
17:47he goes into aaron's office and she is completely shocked and i would imagine terrified to see him
17:57standing in her office doorway
18:02he initially talks about the fact that he came to get some of his stuff but he also says
18:06i'm not leaving until i find out why you're ending a relationship
18:14i said what happened she said i can't tell you did he threaten her did he threaten her kids did he
18:20threaten her family did he say if you're not going to be with me you're not going to be with anybody
18:27did he physically abuse her did he sexually abuse her that night
18:31the only thing she would tell me is it was the scariest night of her life and she couldn't talk
18:37about it
18:43he does eventually leave but i think that is such a huge red flag it's a home invasion essentially
18:52he's coming into her home without being invited and that's super scary
18:55what little she would even tell vanessa was that she had to keep their blinds closed because there
19:03was times where he would call her and know where she was in the house she was paranoid i'm just
19:11searching my house searching the closets search everywhere to make sure nobody's in my house is what
19:16she would tell me
19:17her response was he's a police officer what are they going to do she didn't think anything would
19:33happen because he does have a badge he does have a gun he has that uniform they're not going to do
19:37anything so in dodge city police officers are viewed as good people who are almost like demigods
19:49and they're people who are are just special in some way i think that would have influenced erin
19:57maybe you have this kind of brotherhood among police officers who might protect each other but
20:02the community might be more likely to support a police officer if there's a complaint that's been
20:07filed
20:21we had a jury trial together and when i say together so i would have been the victim witness coordinator
20:26he would have been one of the law enforcement officers involved he wasn't doing well he had had
20:32a breakup and these were all things that during those day or two that we spent to this jury
20:37trial he shared with me um which was uncommon uh because we didn't really have a personal
20:43relationship which i knew that if he was sharing this with me it was very bothersome to him
20:48the thursday before the greensburg tornado hit chris and i had lunch together it was clear to me that he was
21:00upset about breaking off with erin and um he was back living at his apartment
21:07it was not an ending that chris wanted or appeared to have wanted at the time i mean my understanding
21:19is he was ready to maybe get a little bit more serious with erin um and when that relationship
21:25didn't work out he he took it pretty bad chris was a friend i never in a million years would you have
21:35convinced me that i would end up being involved in a case that involved a fellow officer being a actual
21:43suspect of a homicide
22:04in kansas a powerful tornado narrowly misses dodge city that devastates the nearby town of greensburg
22:11dozens are injured 10 lives lost and emergency services from across the county are rushing to the scene
22:22all except officer chris tayhar who's drinking at the same bar as his ex-girlfriend erin jones
22:29she's dancing and catching up with a male friend
22:31he gets incredibly angry to the point where he smashes a beer bottle and breaks it and his friends
22:41are concerned about how upset he is to the point that they all decide to go and leave the bar at this
22:48point just to prevent him from having to continue to watch erin dance with other people
22:53what i think happened is he was probably so enamored with the idea of having a wife and kids
23:05that when it broke off maybe he still had hopes of getting back with her and then when he saw her with
23:12another guy at the bar he let his emotions get the best of him
23:26it's now the early hours of saturday morning and the end of erin and vanessa's night out
23:32the two friends leave the club and drive back to erin's house where they turn on the television to
23:37watch the news so we pull into her garage the garage door closes we go in and just kind of
23:45watch the weather see the tornado see what damage has happened
23:51we opened another drink and just kind of sat in her computer room
23:55and was just having that girl time that girl talk we knew that the tornado is going on in greensburg
24:02i remember watching the news and hearing that the tornado hit greensburg and stepping out on my
24:07porch and looking in that direction you know you can't see it that far away but
24:13just looking in the sky to know that that's what just happened
24:24instead of staying the night at erin's vanessa decides to head home
24:29they agree they'll meet for lunch the next day
24:37that day dad had tried calling her
24:50and couldn't reach her which was not normal
24:59erin was supposed to call vanessa and she didn't and so vanessa was trying to call her over and over
25:06couldn't get a hold of her she didn't answer i thought that was kind of weird
25:18by 12 12 30 she's becoming concerned and so she drives over to see what's going on and she doesn't
25:25see anything initially she knocks on the door nobody answers and she says yeah this is not right and so
25:32she decides to walk around to the back
25:38so when i walked around the corner on the side of the garage
25:41it was breezy that day the gate swung open which was very alarming to me because she had just told me
25:47i don't use that gate it doesn't close well it's very hard to lock i don't use it
25:53i got real scared at that point um because i knew this this is not right and i noticed that it was the
26:04glass door that went into aaron's bedroom that was broken
26:07so at that point um i ran back out shaken by what she's seen vanessa makes an emergency call to dodge
26:21city police i was actually standing in the dispatch center talking to the dispatcher that took that call
26:30and i didn't like the sound of that and i had the dispatcher dispatched two of my officers
26:39they came and found that the back door was dead bolted it was burn marks on the curtain
26:48a gunshot had gone through when i got there i went back to the backyard i saw the broken glass
26:56glass i walked in and uh saw erin on the bed and that's when i noticed the uh trauma to the back
27:06of her head then i told him i said okay well this is a homicide so we need to get out and rope off the
27:14scene
27:17i pulled vanessa aside first i told her that her friend was deceased and i asked her if she knew of
27:30anybody that would want to hurt her to actually hear somebody tell me that she's not alive it's just
27:40the emotions that ran through my body was just unexplainable you know i felt like my legs wanted
27:47to give out she said she has a had an ex-boyfriend who was a cop and i said with what agency and she
27:59said with with you guys his name is is chris something and my heart just sunk because then i knew
28:07i knew who we were talking about i was almost physically sick because i knew that she was
28:18referring to chris teha officer chris teha and so i knew he would be a prime suspect just because
28:28of his relationship with erin i had to gather myself and i took a few moments sitting there in my
28:37squad car he's gonna be a prime suspect but you know he's innocent until we find out otherwise and
28:46that's the way i was able to calm myself down
28:53i was living in denver at the time and it was late afternoon early evening
28:59i remember vividly and we get the call and it was from my dad's phone so i thought oh it must be dad and
29:08it was the gray county sheriff
29:13he said i'm sorry erin has been killed and i remember yelling over and over no you were wrong
29:25you're wrong she's not dead no you're wrong over and over
29:43in dodge city officers from the kbi the kansas bureau of investigation pay chris teha a visit
30:04so saturday afternoon this would have been four four o'clock in the afternoon the kbi went to his
30:10apartment and they confronted him just as he was walking out of his apartment
30:17initially when kbi questions chris teha he says that he had nothing to do with it he wasn't there he
30:25was asleep they end up finding his gun finding some other evidence at that point he begins to
30:32to say things such as i thought about taking revenge on her but i didn't take revenge on her
30:41teha agrees to take a lie detector test set to take place the following day he's a no-show
30:51and at that point they realize that they don't know where he is he's essentially skipped town and
30:57they don't know for a few days have no idea where he is until they get a call from police in colorado
31:04who have arrested him who are stealing a car
31:10he was out of gas in his car and he was parked at a hotel somewhere in denver
31:17and someone started their hummer to let it warm up and he was out of gas so he jumped into the hummer
31:27and took off with it
31:33but hummers have onstar navigation and the owner was able to use onstar to track the vehicle
31:40and colorado highway patrol got into a pursuit with him
31:48and he ended up wrecking out the hummer in a field and he was captured
31:56and it's at this point when they capture him he tells him he's wanted for murder in kansas
32:10in denver on interstate 70 murder suspect police officer chris tayhar has crashed a stolen car
32:21after a high-speed pursuit by police you know the red flags were going up left and right you know him
32:28skipping out on the lie detector test stealing the car getting in a chase it wasn't looking good and i
32:35i was coming to the realization that we might actually have a murderer here
32:42officer chris tayhar is arrested and taken for questioning
32:47he made the claim that he only intended to scare her
32:57when i pointed the gun when i realized that it was blind shot because i couldn't even see through the
33:04blinds i decided to to lower a gun i meant to lower the gun down he certainly knew how to handle the weapon
33:18so when i heard from the investigation team that he said or admitted that he was just trying to scare
33:30aaron aaron not killer i'm like that didn't make any sense because he knows how to handle a gun
33:37he knows all the bad things that can happen chris you're a police officer you know how to control a
33:42weapon i have a hard time believing it just went off you've been around guns a long time they don't just go off
33:49he had hunting weapons again i treated that as another red flag
33:59he said he lowered the gun it went off accidentally which is bull as a police officer you are trained
34:06so well in handling a firearm that you just do it naturally
34:12only a monster would then say no i i didn't do it it had to have been someone else i don't think there
34:22was a single person who interviewed him who believed it number one because of his experience with guns as
34:27a police officer and number two the degree of premeditation that went into him going over to this house
34:33he was charged with aaron's murder and he ended up going to trial
34:56when they finally caught him and had a court date
34:59i would not allow my parents to see the photographs
35:06she was facing away from the door
35:11and the one shot hit her head there was absolutely no way she knew
35:20i mean my parents were distraught obviously and i was trying to hold it together for myself be there for
35:28them they nearly lost me and two months after my car accident the year before my brother was killed
35:36in a car accident so to lose my sister after all that
35:45this is mind-boggling
35:46even before we got in there to the courtroom aaron's dad he said to me he was so mad at the police
36:01he had to endure the ultimate betrayal uh by the public trust you know
36:07i just reached out i gave him a hug and um
36:15just told him that all the cops that were in the room
36:18were here for him and his family not for chris teha
36:21after confessing to kbi agent that he had shot aaron by accident at trial he made up kind of a
36:37ridiculous explanation that he wasn't in her backyard that he wasn't there that he had just driven by
36:45there a couple times and that in fact he had just confessed because he wanted to give aaron's family
36:51closure the jury did not buy this one bit he knew everyone would be busy with the tornado in greensburg
37:03and he knew everyone was being called in
37:05so i definitely think he used that as his way to do what he did and thinking that he could get away with it
37:18knowing that chris left that bar that night went home changed into dark clothing
37:25parked a few blocks away
37:28carried his rifle got into her backyard and sat there and waited for us to arrive
37:35watched us drive in close the garage door knowing that he was in the backyard that whole time
37:42waiting for me to leave so he could take the life of this innocent mom
37:49is heart-wrenching i get this image of a hunter that this is somebody who literally is hunting it's
37:57incredibly premeditated it's calculated he's waiting for the right moment
38:03to shoot and then he shoots through glass and hits her in the back of the head
38:15the silent way that he went about it gives you a very eerie feeling you chose to
38:21lift that gun and with one shot was able to take the life out of her within seconds
38:32only a monster would think that she belonged to him after they'd broken up
38:38only a monster would go home change their clothes get their rifle
38:47only a monster would see that her friend was with her so he couldn't do anything then
38:52only a monster would wait that long
38:59to shoot her
39:06it may give a little closure but it doesn't help with any of the pain
39:22you still lose your sister the kids lost their mother
39:30her friends lost her as a friend co-workers
39:35they all loved her so much and a guilty verdict doesn't bring her back
39:50and i know vanessa feels horrible
39:54you know if hindsight were 20 20 she said she would have stayed the night but she didn't
39:58what if i would have stayed would he have done it maybe he would have just said i'm gonna go home
40:11i guess we'll never know
40:20i liked that the judge addressed chris and told chris that he was basically a disgrace to this community
40:28the judge let him know that because of you there's a lot of distrust
40:38and you're supposed to be protecting people and here you are killing people
40:48we got some pretty vile comments from public about us hiring murderers
40:54and of course we have a legendary lawman image you know with white herb
41:11you know with white herb
41:18even now it just feels so surreal
41:23from that instant you feel like your life
41:27not just you know her life was gone but any life we had together was just
41:34ripped away from us
41:39i think it was shocking for all of us
41:46that worked in the field
41:49i had lots of conversations with aaron's father
41:53he would always describe her as his little red engine
41:57full of life full of vibrancy
41:59and he wanted her to be remembered like that
42:08this is how i remember erin
42:13so beautiful
42:16kind
42:18and loving
42:20and such a great mom to her kids
42:22i meet the most extraordinary people in the worst of circumstances and this family was one of those
42:36you always wonder what she'd be like today
42:38you really miss that caring person that she was you really miss the kind nature the kind of voice that she had
42:53if this interview helps one person that are in any kind of relationship and they're scared but they think that they can handle it
43:08talk
43:10say something even if it turns out to be nothing say something because my sister would be here
43:18right now
43:21by my side
43:24she would have said something
43:25in 2008
43:35in 2008
43:36dodge city police officer christopher tayhar was convicted for the murder of his ex-girlfriend erin jones
43:43overcome by jealousy after seeing her dance with another man tayhar shot jones through her bedroom window
43:49condemning her to her last night out
44:02so
44:04so
44:08so
44:12so
44:14so
44:16so
44:18so
44:22so
44:23so
44:25so
44:29so
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