In the quiet town of Dodge City, Kansas, the life of a 31-year-old White / Caucasian single mother of two, Erin LeeAnn Wade Jones, was abruptly ended on May 5, 2007. A bank teller known for her kind and down-to-earth nature, Erin had spent the evening of May 4th out with a friend. They attended a basketball game and later went to a local club to enjoy some drinks and dancing before returning home in the early hours of May 5th.
Later that day, when her friend arrived to pick her up for
lunch, she discovered a disturbing scene: an unlocked gate and broken glass near the door. A call to 911 brought police to the residence, where they found Erin deceased in her bedroom. An autopsy would later reveal she had died from a single gunshot wound to the head from a high-powered rifle. The investigation showed no signs of a struggle within the home, leading authorities to believe the attack was targeted and the shot was fired from the backyard.
The investigation into her death quickly focused on her ex-boyfriend, Christopher Tahah, a 33-year-old Dodge City police officer. The couple had gone through a difficult breakup, and it was revealed that Tahah had been stalking Erin. On the night of her murder, both had been at the same bar, and Tahah had reportedly become enraged after seeing her dance with another man. Evidence soon pointed toward Tahah as the primary suspect, and he was arrested and charged with her murder.
Christopher Tahah was initially convicted of first-degree murder in 2008 and sentenced to life in prison. However, the Kansas Supreme Court overturned this conviction, stating that the jury should have been allowed to consider lesser charges. In a subsequent retrial in 2012, a Ford County jury once again found Tahah guilty of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 20 years, with a consecutive sentence of over eight years for the criminal discharge of a firearm.
