WEBVTT - #362 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Chris Tapp 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:06.280 Hey there, it's Laura and I writer. I am here 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:08.200 with an update on a case we shared with you 0:00:08.280 --> 0:00:12.039 back in season one of False Confessions. It's the story 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:15.480 of a mother, Carol Dodge, and her relentless pursuit of 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:18.880 justice for her daughter Angie. Now, when we first aired 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:22.880 this story, the real perpetrator had been identified Brian Drips, 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.160 But since we aired this story, Brian Drips has been 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:29.920 tried and convicted, sentenced to twenty years to life for 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:33.360 the murder of Angie Dodge. But while Brian Dripps was 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:36.160 living as a freeman for twenty years, it was Chris 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:39.120 Tapp who suffered in prison for a crime he didn't commit. 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:41.600 No amount of money can ever make up for what 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:43.800 Chris lost. But I'm glad to tell you that the 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:47.239 State of Idaho settled Chris TAP's wrongful conviction case for 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:51.599 over eleven million dollars. To Chris and Carol were replaying 0:00:51.600 --> 0:01:00.800 this story in your honor. Welcome to Wrongful Convictions Confessions. 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:02.200 I'm Laura and I Writer. 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:03.320 And I'm Steve Drissen. 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:06.280 Today we're going to tell you about an Idaho man 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:09.759 named Chris Tap. Chris was just twenty years old when 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:14.319 he endured a mind bending twenty five hour interrogation that 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:18.840 transformed him from an innocent into a confessed murderer. Fortunately 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:22.720 for Chris, he found an indomitable champion in the victim's mother. 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:26.280 She convinced police to use a revolutionary new method of 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:30.399 DNA identification to exonerate Chris Tap and find her own 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:31.200 daughter's killer. 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:42.440 There are certain special people you meet in your life, 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:45.840 people that I like to say are more evolved than 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:50.160 the rest of us, people that really inspire you. And 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:53.120 Carol Dodge is one of those people. It's one of 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:56.480 the few times in my career as a lawyer where 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:01.000 someone from the victim's family has asked me to investigate 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:05.360 an injustice and for a crime victim who was so 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:08.679 invested in Chris's guilt that she wanted him to get 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:12.200 the death penalty, to evolve to a place where she 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:15.960 was thinking he might be innocent. That just blew me away. 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:19.760 How was it that a lay person could look at 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:24.840 these interrogation tapes and see all of the problems, all 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:28.720 of the coercion, all of the leading questions, all of 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:33.519 the fact feeding. When law enforcement officers on the Idaho 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:37.120 Falls Police Department couldn't see it themselves. 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:39.680 And it shows that wrongful convictions affect more than just 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:43.520 the defendants. It's also the victim's families, the survivors of 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:47.880 these horrible attacks, who are being fed aligne about an 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:49.600 innocent person being guilty. 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:52.200 It wasn't easy. She had help from a lot of 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:57.040 other people, but it was her persistence and her desire 0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:00.000 for knowledge that ultimately changed the course of this say. 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:07.040 Kristap's story starts in Idaho Falls, a town of about 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:10.639 one hundred thousand people in southeastern Idaho, about two hours 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:15.320 north of Yellowstone National Park. Idaho Falls is a beautiful place. 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:18.320 There's mountains on the horizon and the Snake River cut 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:22.160 straight through town. Gorgeous though it may be, the town 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:26.840 was wrecked by terrible ugliness nearly twenty four years ago. 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:30.800 In June nineteen ninety six, Idaho Falls resident Angie Dodge 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:34.040 was eighteen years old. She graduated from high school the 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:37.400 year before, a head of schedule with honors, and life 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:40.520 was just beginning for her. She was working two jobs, 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:45.480 taking a few classes at Idaho State, becoming independent. In fact, 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:48.720 Angie had just recently moved into her first apartment, the 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:51.920 upper floor of a little frame house on Eye Street 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:56.240 where she lived by herself. But on the morning of Thursday, 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.200 June thirteenth, Angie didn't show up for her day job 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:02.640 at a local buse supply store. A friend stopped by 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:04.960 her apartment to make sure she was okay, but by 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:09.520 eleven o'clock that friend was frantically dialing nine to one one. 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:13.320 She'd found Angie Dodge lying face up on her bedroom floor, 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:17.640 half naked and clearly dead. Angie's head was against the 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:20.840 bedroom wall with her legs outstretched. Next to her, there 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:24.080 was a basket of stuffed animals, including a teddy bear, 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:28.760 specked in blood. She'd been stabbed fourteen times and her 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:29.640 throat had been cut. 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:34.839 She was nearly decapitated. Most of the apartment was undisturbed, 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:39.280 so all of the activity between the assailant and Angie 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.719 took place in her bedroom. The crime scene did not 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:47.280 suggest a prolonged struggle. Angie was six feet tall, and 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:51.320 she had a reputation of not taking guph from anybody. 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:55.320 I mean, she would have been the kind of victim 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:58.119 to have fought back, and she did have a few 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:02.200 defensive wounds on her arms and her wrists. The police 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:05.400 theorized that she had been attacked in her sleep and 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:09.800 quickly overwhelmed. But who would want to hurt Angie Dodge. 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:13.920 The police assured Angie's family, including her mom Carol, that 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:17.839 the killer had left damning evidence behind. Seaman left on 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:22.719 Angie's body yielded a full DNA profile, but police ran 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:26.560 the profile through the state and national DNA databases and 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:30.280 got no hits. They compared it against Angie's male friends 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:34.000 and family members, still no hits, and as summer turned 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:37.279 to fall and the temperatures dropped, the case went cold too. 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:42.000 The case stayed cold until January nineteen ninety seven, when 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:45.520 an acquaintance of Angie's named Ben Hobbs was arrested in 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:49.719 Nevada for a knife point sexual assault. Police started questioning 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:52.720 Ben about whether he was involved in the attack on Angie, 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:56.080 which seemed to be similar, but Ben insisted he had 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:59.560 nothing to do with Angie Dodge and eventually lawyered up. 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:03.640 So instead, police turned to his friend, Chris Tap to 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:05.520 see if they could get some dirt on Ben. 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:08.440 At the time, Chris was twenty years old, maybe a 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:11.880 year or two older than Angie. In fact, he and 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:14.359 Angie and Ben were part of a young group of 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:17.000 people who hung out on the trails along the Snake 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:18.919 River and partied from time to time. 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:22.159 This group of friends called themselves the river Rats crew, 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:25.080 and police figured that if one of the river Rats 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:27.920 had attacked Angie, then the others would know about it. 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:31.039 Not only was Chris Tap a river Rat, but one 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:34.200 of the police officers had known Chris for years. He 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:37.680 figured it'd be easy to use their trusting relationship to 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:41.480 make Chris give up whatever he knew about Ben Idaho 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:44.440 fall of the police decided to question Chris, and here 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:49.239 come the interrogations, not one, not two, but eventually nine 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.640 of them, spread out over nearly four weeks, for a 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:56.599 total of twenty five hours of questioning. The statements that 0:06:56.640 --> 0:07:02.120 police get archaotic, confused, jumbled, and the tactics police used, well, 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:08.680 they're a recipe for wrongful conviction. It all began for 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:12.880 Chris on Tuesday, January seventh. The officer starts by asking 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:17.360 Chris about Ben's possible role in Angie's death. Chris denies 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:20.360 knowing anything about it, over and over again. 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:21.360 I mean, I'm going to be. 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:22.400 Straight up and truful with you. 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:25.200 If I did anything know about this, I would. 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:28.960 Say what I do on them. That's all true, not lying. 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:31.720 But the police have an unsolved murder on their hands, 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:36.040 and Chris's possible knowledge about Ben Hobbs was the only 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:39.280 lead they had. They try to create leverage with Chris 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:43.120 by implying that he's withholding crucial information and that there 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:46.679 could be consequences if the investigators don't get what they need. 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:50.600 The deeper they get into the interview, the more police 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:53.960 up the pressure. They tell Chris that he has to 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:55.840 tell them something about Ben. 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:58.600 Now, this officer was not a stranger to Chris. He 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:02.880 was a school resource officer whom Chris had known throughout 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:06.360 his life, and one of the tactics this officer used 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:10.320 was the false friend technique, suggesting that he was there 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:13.880 to help Chris to see him through this problem. 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:14.440 I should be. 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:17.840 Saying this, but I kind of close to you. I've 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:20.840 got to know not on these crimes. I could go 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:21.320 out to do that. 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:24.679 And the police suggests that if Chris tells them something 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:28.200 about Ben, then they'd pull some strings that even though 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:31.960 he's getting dragged into the investigation, they'd protect him. He 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:34.840 wouldn't have anything to worry about. It's a theme they'd 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:38.200 go on to repeat again and again, I. 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:39.360 Will get everything the kid. 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:43.960 Chris continues to insist that he doesn't have anything to 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:46.880 tell them, and eventually the cops let him go home, 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:50.880 But a few days later, on Friday, January tenth, the 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:55.000 police are back. They still suspect that Chris is withholding 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:59.599 information to protect his friend. They need more leverage, so 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:02.800 they give him a polygraph test and they tell him 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:04.199 that he flunked it. 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:08.319 It was extremely painful to watch because you see someone's 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:13.440 will being broken over and over and over again by 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:17.880 these two interrogators, primarily their friend, the school resource officer 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:19.280 and the polygrapher. 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:22.240 They also tell Chris that by covering for his friend, 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:26.560 Chris is making himself an accessory to murder, and the 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:29.800 police start warning him that the law treats cover ups 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:33.640 the same as the crime. In other words, Chris Tap 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:35.720 is now facing the gas chamber. 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:39.000 Are looking at it. The possibility getting charged with the 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:43.520 murder one which max penalty is dead middle a penalty 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:48.880 is life, a person footnot row, and save your time period. 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:49.839 To save your life. 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:52.400 The thread of death penalty is in the air. 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:56.319 Chris is terrified and so he starts to make things 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.880 up in order to please his interrogators and save himself 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:02.920 from a death sentence. He tells a story in which 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:06.920 he'd heard Ben Hobbes admit to killing Angie, and the 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:09.960 cops eat it up. By now they can't wait to 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:12.920 take Ben down for rape and murder, with Chris as 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:14.920 the star member of their team. 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:18.640 The school resource officer tells Chris at one point that 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:24.320 he really wants Chris to help in nailing Ben Hobbes 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:30.160 so that he could drop kick Ben Hobbes through the 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:32.000 goalposts of life. 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:37.240 Toxic masculinity, anybody, Huh. 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:38.600 I'm serious? Heart attack. 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:43.000 Detectives keep pushing for more details, and they help Chris 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:46.080 out by giving him hints about what they think happened. 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:49.760 They tell Chris, for example, that Angie had been stabbed 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:53.640 with a knife. Pretty soon Chris agrees and says he 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:57.160 heard Ben describe using a knife. But even as Chris 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:02.800 regurgitates these details, he's freaking out, crying hard, terrified that 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:06.560 whatever he says won't satisfy his interrogators, that instead of 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:10.440 helping police drop kick Ben, he'll end up being the football. 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:14.240 But the cops still don't seem convinced, and they start 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:17.959 asking whether the DNA left on Angie's body might belong 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:21.880 to Chris. He rallies, take my DNA. It ain't going 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:26.080 to be me. He says, I was never inside Angie's apartment. 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:30.600 The police let Chris go home again, but they still 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:33.559 think he's not telling them everything he knows about Ben Hobbes. 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:38.360 So the next day, January eleventh, they arrest Chris and 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:41.680 charge him as an accessory who helped cover up Angie 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:42.560 Dodge's murder. 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:47.200 And that threat or suggestion of the gas chamber that's 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:49.840 becoming realer and realer to Chris. 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:52.800 Pretty soon, the promise of help gets more real too. 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:58.040 Chris gets a lawyer, and that lawyer negotiates an immunity agreement. 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:02.000 Under the deal, Chris would escape charges if he provides 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:05.960 information about who raped and killed Angie Dodge. But it's 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:09.560 got to be information that the police will believe, and 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:12.120 the police tell him that in order to go free, 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.840 they expect him to say he was present during the attack, 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:20.000 in their words, get us up close. If he does that, 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:23.040 they suggest he can go home. They'll leave him alone, 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:27.200 and we can't help you now. Chris has no choice, 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:31.560 but to tell lies placing him inside Angie's bedroom, and 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.680 as police keep pushing, Chris has to take the story 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:39.000 further and further. By the very end, he agrees that 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:42.480 he slashed Angie with a knife and held her down 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:43.920 while Ben raped her. 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:48.719 To cut Angie Dodge across the. 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:50.160 Right breast with the knife. 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:53.480 Is even though Chris now has agreed to say he 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:57.560 was directly involved, he can't get the story right. He 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:01.040 doesn't know basic facts like the layout of Angie's apartment 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:04.760 or what room the attack occurred in. In fact, at 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:08.160 one point, the police take Chris to Eye Street so 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:10.839 he can point out Angie's home and walk them through 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:13.480 the crime scene, but he can't even tell them which 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:16.360 house she lived in. He guesses that she lived on 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:19.160 the corner when she really lived in the middle of 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:19.600 the block. 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:23.000 This should have been a huge red flag to these officers. 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:25.840 He had previously told them that they won't find his 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:29.720 DNA there because he'd never been to Angie's apartment. But 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:34.440 they are stuck in the Chris tap box and they 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:35.840 can't get out of it. 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:39.080 They refuse to get out of it, even when a 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:41.360 big problem emerges about a week later. 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:45.199 It's a problem we've seen in case after case. By 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:49.240 January eighteenth, the police have done DNA testing and the 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:53.120 results are back. Their DNA from the crime scene does 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:56.800 not belong to either Ben Hobbs or Chris Tap. 0:13:57.080 --> 0:14:00.319 Neither of them could have been Angie's rapist, and police 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:03.760 accept that Ben Hobbs had nothing to do with this crime. 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:07.720 But Chris, on the other hand, he had confessed to 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:12.760 being there, and why would anyone confess unless they were guilty. 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:16.720 The police decide they'll never know whose DNA was left 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:19.760 at the crime scene, but they stick to their belief 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:24.160 Chris was involved. They conclude that he's been protecting the 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:28.600 identity of the real rapist this whole time. They're furious 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:32.640 and the immunity deal is yanked off the table. Chris 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:36.160 Tap is charged with first degree murder and sexual assault, 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:40.800 and the county prosecutor announces that he'll seek the death penalty. 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:45.920 At Chris's trial, prosecutors show the jury one brief clip 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:50.600 from the interrogation Cherry picked from twenty five hours of videotape. 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:56.120 This excerpt makes his confession seem spontaneous and voluntary, and 0:14:56.160 --> 0:15:00.000 on May twenty eighth, nineteen ninety eight, Chris tap is 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:17.280 convicted of the rape and murder of Angie Dodge. This 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:20.080 is where the hero of our story first comes in 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:26.240 Angie's mother, Carol Dodge, a heartbroken but ferocious woman. Carol 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:29.600 was tortured by the thought that one of Angie's attackers 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:33.080 was still free, the one who had raped her, and 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:37.040 Carol believed Chris knew who the rapist was, so when 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:40.400 the time came for sentencing, Carol Dodge begged the judge 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:43.520 to give Chris the death penalty. When the judge gave 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:47.800 him life in prison instead, Carol broke down sobbing to 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:53.520 her justice hadn't been served. Carol Dodge was right, justice 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:56.920 hadn't been served, but the failures here were more profound 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:00.840 and troubling than even she imagined at first. For years, 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:05.200 an unanswered question remained at the heart of Angie Dodge's case. 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:08.720 Whose DNA had been left on her body? 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:13.800 The investigation had stalled, and Carol's frustration was going through 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:17.920 the roof intol. One day, about twelve or thirteen years 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:22.720 after Angie's death, Carol decided to take the matter into 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:26.040 her own hands, and the first thing she wanted to 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:29.560 look at were the videotapes of Chris TAP's interrogation. 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:32.160 It's the first time she's seen these tapes from start 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:35.320 to finish, and as she watches them, she's growing angrier 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:39.240 and angrier because those tapes are making her think that 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:43.640 Chris Tap might be innocent. Carol starts doing research online 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:48.040 about false confessions, and whose name comes up, but Steve Drisen. 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:50.880 She picks up the phone and calls them. 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:53.400 Now, I'll never forget this. I was sitting at my 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:58.560 desk one afternoon. It was February twenty second, twenty thirteen, 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:02.080 and the phone ran and on the other end was 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:06.359 Carol Dodge. Now I knew who Carol Dodge was. I 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:10.120 had read about the cap case. I had seen Carol 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:14.399 on an episode of Dateline, but I had never received 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:19.359 a call from a crime victim before. Asking for my assistance, 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:25.440 she said, would you mind reviewing and analyzing these interrogation videos? 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:28.840 Who could say no to Carol Dodge. 0:17:28.960 --> 0:17:32.520 Carol sent the videotapes and Steve watched them all. He 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:37.240 wrote an expert report deeming Chris Tapp's confessions unreliable. But 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:40.760 even as Steve and Carroll worked together, others were starting 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:44.800 to raise questions too. An advocacy group called Judges for 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:49.920 Justice started pushing to reopen the investigation. Two former FBI 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:53.200 agents reviewed the case and concluded that the Idaho fall 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:58.440 of Police investigation was deeply flawed, and an internationally recognized 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:02.880 expert concluded that that Chris Tapp's polygraph had been a sham. 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:06.280 The results, he said, weren't worth the paper they were 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:06.720 written on. 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:11.639 Things were starting to congeal around the idea that Chris 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:16.439 was wrongfully convicted. Chris TAP's own attorneys and representatives of 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:20.640 the Idaho Innocence Project were beginning to push the innocence 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:22.439 narrative in court. 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:26.679 What the team really needed was more forensic testing to 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:31.000 show that Chris taps DNA was nowhere in Angie Dodge's bedroom. 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:35.119 Under previous Idaho law, defendants like Chris could only seek 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:40.000 DNA testing during the year immediately following conviction, but that 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:44.439 restriction was lifted in twenty ten and Chris's team jumped 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:48.240 at the opportunity. They had additional testing done on some 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:51.439 other things from Angie's bedroom, that Teddy bear with the 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:54.600 blood on it, and some articles of her clothing. What 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:58.760 was found the same DNA profile as the person who 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:02.840 had left his seamen. We now had multiple DNA hits 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:05.879 to the same guy. While we didn't know who that 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:13.280 guy was, we did know he wasn't Chris Tap. Based 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:16.800 on all these new discoveries, Carol Dodge becomes convinced that 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:20.240 Chris Tap is innocent, and she starts bringing pressure to 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:23.240 bear on the local police department to release Chris and 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:27.920 find her daughter's actual killer. In May twenty sixteen, Chris 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:31.239 TAP's lawyer filed a post conviction petition alleging that new 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:34.240 evidence had cast doubt on the reliability of TAP's confession, 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:38.880 and pretty soon an enormous collection of forces was pushing 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:42.040 the state of Idaho to do the right thing. Judges 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:45.639 for Justice was releasing expert reports and calling for Chris's release, 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:49.400 The Idaho Innocence Project was talking about the new DNA results, 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:53.240 and the Idaho Falls Post Register, the local newspaper, was 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:57.320 hammering the prosecutor to release Chris. One local journalist became 0:19:57.320 --> 0:20:01.280 particularly invested in the case. His name is Brian Clark. 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:05.960 I'm the opinion editor of the Post Register in Idaho Falls, 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:09.200 and I'm a former reporter there. I first heard about 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:13.200 the case shortly before Judges for Justice started releasing their 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:17.960 reports about it. My editor approached me and said, I've 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:20.000 got a gift for you. It's not going to feel 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:22.439 like a gift, but I promise it is, And he 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:26.040 introduced me to the Dodge case and the Tap conviction. 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:29.520 Even the Innocence Project in New York had joined the fight, 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:33.800 but no one was pushing harder than Carol Dodge. It 0:20:33.840 --> 0:20:37.200 takes an army sometimes, and she was the general Lisimo. 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:40.280 An example of her tenacity you can actually see in 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:43.600 the architecture of the police station. There are a pair 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:46.600 of doors that are in between the sort of main 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:50.120 lobby area and the area where the detectives and other 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:53.080 police are. The reason they were put in is that 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:56.040 Carol Dodge would show up at the police station, walk 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:58.600 right past the front desk and into the chief's office 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:02.439 and start demanding that he you know, what are you 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:05.119 doing to find my daughter's killer? And so they finally 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:07.000 had to put indoors to keep her from doing that. 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:08.800 They're referred to as the Carol Doors. 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:13.159 Eventually, prosecutors decide that they're not yet ready to exonerate Chris, 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:16.280 but they would agree based on this new DNA evidence 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:20.560 that Chris should be granted immediate release. So in twenty seventeen, 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:24.960 Chris Tap walked out of prison, not yet exonerated, but 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:28.199 a freeman after spending twenty years behind bars. 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:30.679 You see all the evidence stack up and it becomes 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:34.480 clear the guys spent twenty years behind bars for something 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:38.600 he didn't do, and that did keep me up at nights. Frankly, 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:40.480 after working on it for years, I did not think 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:43.720 it was going to be remedied. So it was really 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:46.520 great to watch them take those handcuffs off. That made 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:48.800 me really happy. The first two people to give him 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:52.000 a hug was his mother, Vera and Carol. They hugged 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:56.639 and they were both crying, and it was just really remarkable. 0:21:57.280 --> 0:22:01.560 It was a bittersweet moment. Dodge was relieved that Chris 0:22:01.600 --> 0:22:05.280 had been released, but she was also concerned would the 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:08.679 Idaho Falls police and prosecutors now give up the search 0:22:08.720 --> 0:22:11.760 for Andy's killer. There was no way she was going 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:12.879 to allow that to happen. 0:22:15.520 --> 0:22:19.119 Usually, in these cases, the DNA profile eventually gets matched 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:22.200 and it's the identification of the real killer that leads 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:26.000 to full exoneration. But this wasn't happening for christ Tap. 0:22:26.440 --> 0:22:29.440 The single DNA profile left at the scene was run 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:33.320 again and again through the National DNA database, but it 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:36.359 kept coming up dry. You see, profiles get added to 0:22:36.359 --> 0:22:38.960 that database only when people are arrested or charged with 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:42.439 certain serious offenses. Clearly, whoever had done this to Angie 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:45.679 Dodge hadn't reoffended, at least not at the level of 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:48.399 severity that would lead to his DNA being included in 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:52.439 that database. But that didn't stop Carroll. She wasn't going 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:56.199 to arrest until that mystery DNA was identified, and she 0:22:56.320 --> 0:23:00.240 wanted Idaho police to try a brand new DNA identification 0:23:00.400 --> 0:23:14.760 technique called genetic genealogy. Genetic genealogy is basically the use 0:23:14.800 --> 0:23:20.159 of DNA evidence in combination with traditional genealogical information. If 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:23.080 you can identify whose DNA it is, at least you 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:26.400 might be able to identify that person's family tree. This 0:23:26.440 --> 0:23:29.040 technique was recently used to solve the Golden State killer 0:23:29.119 --> 0:23:33.040 case in California. Now in twenty fourteen, police had already 0:23:33.040 --> 0:23:36.600 given genetic genealogy a shot in the case of Angi Dodge. 0:23:37.240 --> 0:23:39.640 Using the DNA profile from the crime scene and an 0:23:39.640 --> 0:23:44.000 ancestry dot com database, they obtained a partial DNA match 0:23:44.320 --> 0:23:47.879 to a man in New Orleans, a possible suspect, a 0:23:47.920 --> 0:23:52.560 man named Michael Ustri. They became more and more interested 0:23:52.560 --> 0:23:54.800 in Usri after it turned out that he was a 0:23:54.840 --> 0:23:58.480 filmmaker with a flair for the macabre. He had recently 0:23:58.480 --> 0:24:02.040 created a short film called murder Abelia about the market 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:05.280 for collectibles related to real life killings. 0:24:04.920 --> 0:24:07.240 And when he told the officers that he had been 0:24:07.320 --> 0:24:10.000 to Idaho at some point around the time of this 0:24:10.119 --> 0:24:15.119 crime on a camping trip, their expectations soared even higher. 0:24:15.280 --> 0:24:18.440 Police interviewed Michael Usri and got his full DNA profile, 0:24:18.800 --> 0:24:21.440 but it didn't match the DNA left at the scene. 0:24:21.560 --> 0:24:25.200 Film noir or not, he wasn't guilty. As for everyone 0:24:25.200 --> 0:24:28.120 else in the Usri family, tree police found themselves out 0:24:28.160 --> 0:24:31.240 of leeds again. Every other male in the family was 0:24:31.359 --> 0:24:36.000