An innocent Idaho man who spent 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit was mysteriously killed a month after appearing on Dateline NBC to discuss his wrongful conviction.
Christopher Tapp was just 21 years old when he was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted in 1996 of raping and murdering his then 18-year-old girlfriend, Angie Dodge. He was exonerated in 2017 after the Idaho Innocence Project intervened.
The real killer, Brian Dripps, Sr., 55, confessed to the murder and pleaded guilty to the crime in 2021 and was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years and up to life in prison.
But after an exclusive interview with Dateline in September 2023, Tapp, then 47, was found dead in a Las Vegas hotel room. He died of blunt force trauma and in January his death was ruled a homicide.
In the Dateline NBC episode “True Confession,” airing Friday, Tapp tells host Keith Morrison, “I'm just trying to be the best person I can be – to bring the two people together.” The guy who was in prison, and the guy before prison.'
“We all make mistakes, good or bad.” “We may do things right or wrong, but I just try to be the best person I can.”
Morrison asked Tapp, even though he had moved on, “if he was still a little upset inside.”
“Of course I will. “These people have robbed me of my life for 20 years,” he said during the sit-down. “I'll always be angry.” “I'll always have a bit of tension and resentment because of what those people did to me.”
Christopher Tapp, 47, was just 21 when he was sentenced to life in prison for the 1996 rape and murder of his then 18-year-old girlfriend, Angie Dodd. However, he was released in 2017 after the Idaho Innocence Project proved his innocence
The real killer, Brian Dripps Sr. in the Dodd murder case, confessed to the murder and pleaded guilty to the crime in 2021. He is pictured at the Bonneville County Courthouse on February 9, 2021
Angie Dodge was 18 years old when she was raped and stabbed to death in her Idaho Falls home on June 13, 1996
Tapp told Morrison, “I wish I could say I've moved on, and I have moved on, because look again at what I've been able to accomplish since getting relief from the compensation bill here in Idaho and Oregon.”
“I have helped pass bills across the country to help those wrongly convicted for the next person.”
NBC Dateline has been following the case for decades, providing viewers with in-depth coverage.
The latest two-hour program will feature new interviews with investigators, other suspects, Dodge family members and other key figures, including lead investigator Bill Squires, now retired, and Jeremy Sargis, a friend who Tapp falsely accused of involvement.
Other interviews include Steven Drizin, a false confession expert who advocated for Chris's release, and CeCe Moore, an investigative genetic genealogist who alerted police to the real killer.
On Thursday, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told that the murder investigation is ongoing and there are no new developments at this time.
Angie Dodge was raped and stabbed to death in June 1996 in an apartment she had just moved into.
Dodge's body was found by colleagues who came to check on her. On site, investigators were able to take DNA samples from hair, skin cells and body fluids.
Tapp was interrogated nine times and subjected to seven lie detector tests, during which he was told he had failed and therefore faced the death penalty.
He was convicted after a jury heard what experts later described as false confessions made under extreme duress, and was found guilty even though his DNA did not match evidence found at the crime scene.
On March 22, 2017, following a deal with prosecutors, Tapp was released after serving 20 years of a 30-year sentence. The judge overturned his rape conviction and resentenced him to time served for Dodge's 1996 murder.
His conviction was overturned using groundbreaking DNA technology, a technique called “genetic genealogy.”
The technique requires DNA matching with distant relatives, which in Tapp's case led police to Dripps, a neighbor of Dodge's who lived across the street.
The database comes from websites that collect DNA samples from users and allow them to find relatives online by publishing their results and creating a list
Police used the database of genetic profiles collected from websites like 23 and Me and Ancestry, where people submit DNA samples to discover their roots
Christopher Tapp, pictured right, with his public defender John Thomas during Tapp's post-conviction restitution hearing at the Bonneville Courthouse in Idaho Falls on March 22, 2017
Christopher Tapp (right) and Jeremy Sargis, who was also originally linked to the crime but whose charges were dropped, hug during Tapp's post-conviction relief hearing at the Bonneville Courthouse in Idaho Falls, Idaho
Christopher Tapp celebrates his post-conviction exoneration hearing at the Bonneville Courthouse in Idaho Falls, Idaho, on Wednesday, March 22, 2017. Tapp, who experts say was coerced into a false murder confession, is now free after spending half his life behind bars
While this technique has been used before to implicate suspects in crimes, this is the first time it will be used to exonerate someone who has already been incarcerated.
“For me it's a new life, a new beginning, a new world, and I'm just going to enjoy every day,” Tapp said after his release.
Tapp was convicted in 1998 solely on the basis of a confession that he later recanted. The court agreed to release him from prison in 2017, but the charges were not dropped.
“It's just an incredible feeling to be part of clearing an innocent man's name,” CeCe Moore, the genetic genealogist who worked on the case, told local media.
“I am grateful that I was given this second chance at life.” I wasted 20 years of my life on something I never did. But I grew up in those 20 years,” Tapp said during the hearing.