‘THEY THREW HIM AWAY’
Grieving mum helps CLEAR her own daughter’s ‘killer’ 23 years on after carrying out her own incredible investigation into the case
A HEARTBROKEN mum helped clear the man who had been jailed for her daughter’s murder after she carried out her own investigation.
Christopher Tapp had been sentenced for killing Carol Dodge’s daughter 23 years ago and he even confessed to the murder.
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But he was exonerated on Wednesday in Idaho Falls, Idaho, thanks in part to her dogged determination in examining hours of interrogation videos.
The case was also blown wide open thanks to a new forensic technique called genetic genealogy which pairs DNA with genealogy databases.
Mr Tapp said in a statement released through the Innocence Project: “The system thought that I could be thrown away.
“They were wrong. I want people to know that I’m innocent. I’ve said it for the past 22 years. Finally, the truth is being revealed.”
Angie Dodge, 18, was raped and murdered on June 13, 1996, in her apartment in Idaho Falls.
A year later with the crime still unsolved, a friend of Ms Dodge’s was arrested in an unrelated rape that also involved a knife.
The system thought that I could be thrown away. They were wrong. I want people to know that I’m innocent. I’ve said it for the past 22 years. Finally, the truth is being revealed.
Christopher Tapp
The cops believed the suspect could also be responsible for the murder of Ms Dodge and contacted Mr Tapp, a friend of the man, to try to find out more about him.
As the police continued to investigate, Mr Tapp, 20 at the time, became a suspect, reports the .
Vanessa Potkin, the director of post-conviction litigation at the Innocence Project, said: “Police threatened him with the death penalty and told him that if he just told them what they wanted to hear, they would give him immunity.”
After Mr Tapp was arrested he renounced his confession.
The DNA extracted from semen found at the scene did not match Mr Tapp’s DNA but the police continued with their case.
Ms Potkin said: “The confession trumps all other evidence in a case.
“There is a common belief that I would never confess to a crime I didn’t do.”
She added: “Interrogations are not a quest for information. The purpose is to get an admission.”
Mr Tapp was convicted of rape and murder in May 1988 and handed a life sentence.
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The case largely rested on his confession as well as the testimony from a woman who claimed in court she had overheard Mr Tapp mention the murder at a party.
Decades later the woman confessed to Angie’s mum and a local newspaper, saying she lied on the stand under pressure from the police.
Carol Dodge though remained uneasy with the conviction due to the DNA sample not matching up and held the belief that someone else was responsible for her daughter’s death.
In an attempt to get some answers she asked to see the confession tapes and started pouring over them in minute detail looking for any sort of clue.
Due to the poor quality they had to be played over and over so she could work out what was said, taking her more than 70 hours to get through half that amount of tape.
In the police interviews, which took place over several weeks, it was clear they knew that Mr Tapp was not the responsible for the semen at the scene and pushed him to name his accomplice and promised him leniency if he complied.
He was fed a name twice, which he agreed with but neither men matched the DNA sample.
Eventually Mr Tapp offered up the name of “Mike”.
NEW DNA TESTING
Mrs Dodge was appalled when she heard that, believing it was an “imaginary person” made up so the interrogations would stop.
She contacted a false confession expert in 2014 who in turn contacted the Innocence Project.
Lawyers for Mr Tapp filed post-conviction motions based on new DNA testing and in 2017 the prosecutor agreed to a new deal.
The court cleared Mr Tapp of rape but not of murder and he was freed due to the time he had already served.
Mrs Dodge was also trying to track down the person involved in her daughter’s murder and eventually contacted CeCe Moore, a genealogist with Parabon, a consultancy firm.
Ms Moore built up a new DNA profile from a degraded sample and identified several relatives in a genealogy database.
Thanks to her work Brian Leigh Dripps, who had lived across the street from the victim at the time of her murder, was identified.
Investigators confirmed the crime scene DNA was his and Dripps was arrested.
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During his interview with the cops he confessed to the killing but also said he acted alone and didn’t even know Mr Tapp.
Daniel Clark, the Bonneville County prosecutor, moved on Wednesday to dismiss all the charges against Mr Tapp.
Dripps, who is currently being held in the Bonneville County Jail is due to appear in court in August.
Mother gives emotional statement after helping to CLEAR her own daughter's 'killer' 23 years on after carrying out her own incredible investigation into the case
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