On the day a woman was killed in a rural Dakota County home, it was her 26th birthday and Christmas Eve.

The county attorney’s office charged Demarco Marquie Jones, 29, on Monday with murder. The criminal complaint said he was the boyfriend of Tatianna “Tayah” Ehnes-Giles and the father of her two young children.

Tatianna “Tayah” Ehnes-Giles (Courtesy of the family)

Dakota County sheriff’s deputies responded Wednesday at 2:20 p.m. to a double shooting in Castle Rock Township, south of Farmington. They found Ehnes-Giles dead from a gunshot wound, and Jones wounded with a gunshot to the head.

Jones was transported to a hospital alive, and Sheriff Joe Leko said last week they are investigating the case as a homicide and attempted suicide.

Ehnes-Giles’ sister remembered her Monday as having “the most beautiful soul.”

“Amazing mother, daughter, sister, aunt and friend,” said Leah Walde. “She would have never willingly left her kids behind. She lived for those children.”

Ehnes-Giles’ family wrote in her obituary: “You could always find Tayah doing something with her family. She especially loved the 4th of July event she hosted every year. Tayah loved the fall and spending time outside having bonfires.”

She’d started working at the Buckboard Restaurant in Lakeville as a teenager, where she “was a well-loved waitress for eight years,” her obituary said.

A GoFundMe (gofund.me/fdcd93341) has been set up for Ehnes-Giles’ funeral expenses and to help care for her children. A fundraiser is being planned for Jan. 25, 3-6 p.m., at Celts Pub in Farmington.

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