Wife remembers husband killed in Napa Valley car crash on their first anniversary

Jaryd Dock and Sara Tashakorinia went to Napa Valley to celebrate their first anniversary. It ended in tragedy when their Uber car was struck head-on while driving to dinner.|

Jaryd Dock and Sara Tashakorinia had much to celebrate on their first wedding anniversary.

In their first year as a married couple, they moved from Chicago to San Francisco, found new jobs in the tech-security sector and hosted a visit from Tashakorinia’s parents.

They were looking forward to an overnight getaway to Napa Valley this past weekend to celebrate their first year together and look forward to their future.

It was the kind of trip that couples make every day to Wine Country, seeking to disconnect from everyday life and reconnect with each other over slow dinners, fine wine and intimate conversations in one of California’s most romantic settings.

“Let’s just find a day where it could be just us,” Tashakorinia recalled Dock saying.

Dock, 28, didn’t want anything extravagant because he was saving up to buy Tashakorinia, 27, a proper ring and a down payment for a home. The couple brought along their beloved dog, Sammy.

After wine tasting Saturday at Domaine Carneros and a bite for lunch, Dock and Tashakorinia returned to their room at Wine Country Inn & Cottages in St. Helena to relax, mingle with other guests and get ready for dinner. They decided to use Uber so they wouldn’t have to worry about drinking and driving.

The trip to the restaurant ended in tragedy.

Angwin resident Hilda Arroyo, 53, lost control of her 2012 Dodge Avenger on a curve, sideswiped a pickup and slammed head-on into the 2015 Hyundai Sonata carrying Dock and Tashakorinia, authorities said.

Dock was killed in the 8:50 p.m. Saturday crash. Three people were injured: Tashakorinia, Arroyo and the Uber driver, Beau Washington, 48, of Vacaville. All three were treated at Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa and released, according to authorities and a hospital spokeswoman.

The cause of the crash, on Highway 29 north of Yountville, remains under investigation, CHP spokesman Marc Renspurger said Wednesday.

Tashakorinia shared the couple’s love story on Tuesday night as she remembered her husband, a friendly Minnesota native who organized friends to make and distribute sandwiches to the homeless.

They started dating five years ago when both were students at DePaul University in Chicago. Dock was a year ahead of her in college, but they ended up meeting though the Tinder dating app.

“We met for coffee,” said Tashakorinia, who grew up in Iran and came to the United States to attend college. “It was just love at first sight.”

He walked her back to class, holding her hand along the way. Dock then texted her while she was in class with “I miss you.” Tashakorinia said that she immediately felt comfortable with Dock and “was giggling in my stomach” when she read his text.

The relationship blossomed as Tashakorinia continued her undergraduate studies and Dock worked various jobs, overseeing a moving company in Chicago and managing the career of the late Chicago-based rapper Fredo Santana. Their dates stretched into full-day events, including late-night breakfasts and Chicago Blackhawks hockey games.

It continued while she attended graduate school at IIT Institute of Design in Chicago. Dock would jump on a plane to visit her in distant places while she was interning in San Francisco and worked as a consultant in Hong Kong. Both loved spontaneous travel, and they drove around Europe, visiting 15 countries.

“We always had each other,” she said. “It felt like we could do anything.”

As graduation approached, Dock told her: “I don’t want another day to go by and not call you my wife.” They exchanged vows at the Cook County Courthouse in Chicago on May 12, 2017.

One day later, Tashakorinia graduated from IIT. The next day, Dock found a place for the couple to live in San Francisco.

The couple weighed whether to live in New York or San Francisco. They selected the Bay Area, where Tashakorinia had done a previous internship at Butterfleye Inc. in San Mateo, which offers internet-?connected security cameras for businesses.

While Tashakorinia worked at Butterfleye, Dock also got to know many of its employees as well. In a fortuitous twist of fate, Dock was hired in April 2017 as marketing manager at Butterfleye and started immediately.

Tashakorinia landed a job in October at Lookout Inc., a local cybersecurity company, after an earlier offer from a tech company fell through.

It finally felt, Tashakorinia said, that everything was coming together and they could think about eventually buying a home and starting a family.

“It started to feel like the most amazing life you could ask for,” she said. “For the first time, we had time to breathe.”

On Saturday night, as they rode to dinner in the back seat of their Uber ride, Tashakorinia said she was taking selfies and Dock was blowing her kisses. It was the couple’s final moments together.

“All of the sudden, I see this light coming at us,” she said. She remembers a loud noise.

Dock was pronounced dead at the site of the wreck, while Tashakorinia was taken to the hospital. She called her sister in San Francisco to meet her. “That hour felt like about 30 hours” until she arrived.

In the painful aftermath, she said she has been heartened by the support from friends and co-workers, many of whom she considers like family.

“I lost the most precious thing in my life,” she said.

She said she has tried to console herself with the thought: “I feel so thankful I experienced this really true love story.”

You can reach Staff Writer Bill Swindell at 707-521-5223 or bill.swindell@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @BillSwindell.

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