Idaho 1989 Cold Case Solved — Arrests Shock the Community

Описание: SOLVED: Idaho 1989 Cold Case | Arrests That Shocked the Community — A Quiet Apartment, a Wrongful Conviction, and Truth That Took Three Decades
Some cold cases remain unsolved because the wrong answer comes first.
This one endured because science waited—and truth refused to stay buried.
On a winter morning in 1989, in Idaho Falls, Idaho, eighteen-year-old Angie Dodge was found brutally murdered inside her apartment. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed multiple times, the violence shocking a community unaccustomed to such crimes. Angie was young, responsible, and living independently for the first time. Her death shattered any sense of safety the town believed it had.
Investigators recovered DNA from the crime scene, but early testing failed to identify a suspect. As pressure mounted to solve the case, attention turned to a local young man, Christopher Tapp. After hours of interrogation, Tapp confessed to being present during the crime, despite his DNA not matching the evidence. In 1998, he was convicted and sentenced to prison, even though the biological evidence pointed to someone else. The case was considered closed
For years, Angie’s mother, Carol Dodge, refused to accept the verdict. She believed the DNA—and the science—over the confession. Her persistence kept the case alive. As forensic technology advanced, genetic genealogy reopened the investigation decades later. In 2019, preserved DNA was reanalyzed and traced through family databases, leading investigators to a man who had lived near Angie at the time of her murder.
That man, Brian Leigh Dripps, was arrested after his DNA conclusively matched the crime scene. He confessed to acting alone, admitting he raped and murdered Angie before returning to his nearby home. Christopher Tapp was fully exonerated after spending more than twenty years in prison.
Dripps later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
This documentary examines how tunnel vision delayed justice, how DNA corrected a devastating error, and how one mother’s refusal to stop asking questions finally uncovered the truth—thirty years after a young woman’s life was taken.