I had the same erorr and I did use the full Jessie distribution. In my case “npm start” showed the same error but the problem was before at “npm install”.
I never really took the time to watch the entire npm install routine, because it took a while. I had my rasbperry connected via usb on my tv. And while running npm install it rebooted! So in my case it was caused by an inadequate power supply. Switched to a plug and everything worked fine.
Perhaps somebody runs into the same error like me.