143 - The Murder of Angie Dodge

Shaun In June of nineteen ninety six, Angie Dodge was taking her first step toward independence and adulthood. She had recently graduated from high school and had just moved out of her mom's house when she was found dead in her new apartment. She was only eighteen years old.

John The tragedy of her murder devastated her family, her friends, and the small community of Idaho Falls, Idaho. But the search for her killer would reach far beyond the borders of her hometown, unfolding into an extraordinary saga that would span nearly three decades.

Shaun Hi, and welcome to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast. I'm your host, Sean.

John And I'm your co-host, John.

Shaun I left out part of our typical intro on purpose, because I'm not sure the series of these next three episodes fit in with what we typically cover. But as we always say, what happens here happens everywhere. Also, one of our colleagues suggested that we cover this case and whenever a listener or a family asks us to cover something, we really work to make that happen.

John We decided that in order to tell this story in the way it deserves to be told, we need to do it over three episodes. We don't want to spoil too much as to what is to come, but as we said in the opener, this story expands way beyond Idaho Falls and eventually reaches Las Vegas. We'll get into all that. But first we need to start with Angie Dodge. Angie Ray Dodge was born December twenty first, nineteen seventy seven, in Vancouver, Washington. She was the youngest of four children born to Jack and Carole Dodge and is their only daughter. Angie had three older brothers, Brent, Todd and Roger. Her parents, Jack, Roger Dodge and Carole Ray Nelson, were married in Las Vegas on New Year's Eve in nineteen seventy. Her dad, Jack, was originally from Idaho Falls, Idaho. He had joined the U.S. Navy in February of nineteen sixty two and went on to serve for twenty one years. By the time Angie was born in nineteen seventy seven. Jack and Carol were raising a growing family and had lived in several different places. Jack's military career had included assignments in California, Washington and Illinois. Angie's early years included time in San Diego, California, where she began preschool in December of nineteen eighty three. When Angie was six, Jack retired from the Navy and the family returned to his hometown of Idaho Falls. That would become the place where Angie would grow up, attend school, build friendships, learn to drive, get her first job, and begin imagining what she wanted her adult life to look like. Idaho Falls is in eastern Idaho, along the snake River. In the mid nineteen nineties, it was a relatively quiet community where people were accustomed to feeling safe in their own neighborhoods. Former Idaho Falls Police Chief Mark McBride later described it as a peaceful place where neighbors know each other, and people didn't necessarily think twice about leaving their doors unlocked.

Shaun According to her family and friends, Angie was an exceptionally bright child. She was intelligent, creative, friendly and fun loving. She enjoyed creative writing, writing, poetry, and she had a particular affection for babies and kids. Her cousin recalled that when they were little, the two girls would transform the space beneath the staircase at Angie's house into their own playhouse, like true 80s kids. They would spend hours playing with their Cabbage Patch dolls, and the girls took their responsibilities as pretend mothers very seriously. They fed the dolls, gave them baths, changed their diapers, and put them down for naps. During high school, Angie tutored younger students in math and English, sharing her academic abilities with children who needed extra help. This was something she really enjoyed. Angie's interests weren't limited to schoolwork. Her family loved camping, and Angie especially enjoyed spending time outdoors. Some of their family camping trips took place in fairly primitive areas without much in the way of amenities, but that never bothered Angie. According to the Dodge family's tribute to her, she had a knack for finding water wherever they camped, and once she found it, there was a good chance she'd start a water fight with her cousins and friends. Angie simply loved spending time with the people she loved.

John One of Angie's favorite times of year was Christmas. Her birthday fell on December twenty one, just four days before the holiday, and the Dodge family often celebrated her birthday as part of their larger Christmas gathering. Angie loved those family parties and would make Christmas necklaces from ribbons and hand them out to everyone at the celebration. She was always sure to make enough for every person who would be there, including extras for unexpected guests. She liked bringing people together, and she wanted everyone to feel included. She attended Idaho Falls High School, where she, of course, excelled academically. In nineteen ninety five, she graduated with honors and went on to attend Idaho State University. She had a memorable sense of humor, and her co-worker Courtney, remembered when they worked together at Barnes and Noble that Angie was simply someone who was a lot of fun to be around. Angie was much taller than Kourtney and taller than most girls her age, and she would jokingly rest her elbow on Courtney's head when she needed a break from working. Angie's friend Jeremy Sargis, who knew her from school, remembered that Angie had sometimes been picked on because of her height. As she grew older, she developed a strong dislike for bullies. She wasn't afraid to intervene when she saw someone being mistreated. Jeremy remembered that Angie had stood up for him on more than one occasion. He described her as someone with a huge personality and a broad circle of friends. If Angie was nearby, you're probably going to know it. Her smile, her voice, and the energy she brought into a room were impossible to overlook. She just wasn't the kind of person who just blended in.

Shaun Her brother Brent, remembered that Angie was also a lot like their mother. She was loving and kind, but she was also highly organized and detail oriented. Numerous family and friends have consistently mentioned her generosity and compassion, and it sounds like she was very independent and maybe even had a bit of a rebellious streak. We heard this the story mentioned in several sources. As a teen, Angie drove an old Oldsmobile that she and her friends affectionately called the boat. They were equally amazed at how far the car could take them on just a few gallons of gas, which undoubtedly any teen would appreciate. It said the car looked like something that had survived a demolition derby. It was sometimes covered in mud, and the inside could accumulate an impressive collection of food wrappers. Angie wasn't exactly a conventional driver, either. Several friends recalled occasions where she'd cruise around with one hand on the steering wheel and one foot hanging out the window. Somehow, according to her family's tribute, Angie only received one traffic violation during her driving years. This is a good place to pause for our first break, but we'll be right back.

John Just a few months before her death, Angie finally said goodbye to the beloved Oldsmobile and purchased a brand new Chevrolet. That was one more sign that she was moving into adulthood. She was working, earning her own money and thinking about what she wanted to do with her life. Angie had expressed ambitions of becoming an entrepreneur. She had worked at Barnes and Noble, and by the summer of nineteen ninety six was employed at a local beauty and cosmetics supply business called beauty for All Seasons. She had a wide circle of friends, some of whom spent time socializing near the snake River, which ran through Idaho Falls. They were a group of young people enjoying the freedom that came with being out of high school, having cars working and making their own plans. Angie, of course, wanted to experience more of that freedom for herself, and like many young adults, she occasionally clashed with her parents over the rules of the family house. According to her mom, a disagreement with Carol over a household rule contributed to Angie finally making the decision to move out. She rented her first place of her own and she was very excited.

Shaun Moving out on your own has its ups and downs, and it was an adjustment for both Angie and her family. On Wednesday evening, June twelve, nineteen ninety six, Angie stopped by her parents house around nine fifteen p m she and her mom talked about the new apartment, how excited she was and the difficulties that come with trying to establish an independent life. At one point, Angie admitted that growing up was hard. Carol reached out to embrace her daughter. Angie rested her head on her mother's shoulder, and they gently rocked back and forth together. Carol told Angie that no matter how old she became, she would always be her baby. And for that moment, even at age eighteen with her own apartment, Angie was still willing to be her mother's little girl. Carol remembers all of this so clearly how her daughter blew her a kiss and said, I love you. When she left that night around ten twenty, because this would be the last time she would see and speak to Angie. The next day, June thirteen, was supposed to be a happy day for the Dodge family. Her brother Brent, who lived in Preston, Idaho, was in town for a work meeting, and he brought his four year old daughter along. Brent had arranged a family lunch at his grandma's house that morning. Carol was cleaning up her office and stumbled upon an art project Angie had made when she was in school. A paper heart with Angie's photo in the middle. When Carol saw the project, she remembered that she needed to tell Angie about that lunch later. She called Angie at work, and after being placed on hold and transferred around a few times, someone from the company told Carol that Angie had been found dead and Carol had to go to the police station.

John Carol was in complete shock and disbelief, thinking this must all be a horrible nightmare. She later recounted she must have been running lights on her way to the police station because she had no recollection of stopping. Brent finished his work meeting and tried to call Carol. When he got no answer, he called his grandmother and she told him to go to the police station. When Brent arrived, the officers told him that Angie was dead and they asked him to identify her from photos that had been taken at her apartment. Brent could barely comprehend what he was seeing. He'd seen her only a week earlier, making dinner at his mom's, but the young woman in the photo was indeed his little sister, Angie. Brent then had to break the devastating news to his mom. The two were overcome with grief. Brent said That day was like the family was forced onto a train, taking them inexorably down a track they had no desire to be on. Their lives would never be the same. We're going to pause here one more time for our second break, but we'll be right back.

Shaun Earlier that morning, Angie's coworkers had become concerned. When she failed to report for work. Angie was generally considered responsible and dependable, so two coworkers went to her apartment to check on her. Around eleven a m when they arrived, they discovered that the door was unlocked. Inside, they found Angie on the floor, the victim of a horrific attack. Police and EMTs were called to the scene, but there was nothing they could do for her. Angie was gone. She had suffered extensive injuries, cuts and stab wounds. Evidence at the scene indicated that she had been sexually assaulted. There were signs of a struggle, but detectives did not find obvious evidence of forced entry. It wasn't clear if that meant the attacker had entered through an unlocked door, or if Angie had let the person involuntarily, or if the attacker had gotten into the apartment some other way. Detectives also needed to establish where Angie had been after she left her parents house around ten p m the night before, who she might have been with, and what had happened during those hours before her death. They interviewed people who had seen or spoken with her that night, as well as examined the apartment and collected physical evidence. They recovered several biological samples and hair that had been left behind by the killer. When these samples were tested, it revealed that they had all come from the same unidentified male.

John At that time in nineteen ninety six, DNA profiling was an important tool in criminal investigations, but investigators needed a known sample to compare against the evidence. Investigators interviewed people who knew Angie and collected DNA samples from men they considered to be possible suspects. Over the course of the investigation, more than one hundred samples were collected and tested, but none matched the DNA collected at the crime scene. The people of Idaho Falls were shocked and disturbed by the news of Angie's murder. It didn't take long before rumors began circulating. People speculated about who might have wanted to hurt Angie, and whether someone in her social circle might have been involved. Courtney, Angie's former coworker, later remembered how unsettling that uncertainty was. There were rumors everywhere, she recalled, but it seemed that no one really knew what had happened. They had looked closely at Angie's relationships and friendships. As we shared, Angie was very outgoing and knew a lot of people. Despite their diligence, six months went by and detectives were unable to establish who had attacked Angie and nobody had been arrested. As the months passed without an arrest, the Dodge family faced a difficult milestone. December twenty first, nineteen ninety six would have been Angie's nineteenth birthday. As we mentioned earlier, Angie loved Christmas and her family traditionally celebrated her birthday together with the holiday that December, her family marked her birthday by placing an angel on her grave. In an AP interview published on Christmas Eve, Carol spoke about how difficult the previous six months had been. She said the loss was something that consumed her every single day in the passage of time, wasn't making that uncertainty any easier. Then in January of nineteen ninety seven, investigators believed they finally had a break. An acquaintance of Angie's had been arrested in Ely, Nevada, and charged with sexual assault that occurred at knifepoint. His name was Benjamin Hobbs. He was a part of the group of young people that liked to hang out along the snake River and were known locally as the River rats. Angie hung out with several people in this social circle, including Hobbs. The Idaho Falls investigators wondered whether Hobbs could have been responsible for both crimes, the sexual assault in Ely and Angie's murder. They interviewed him and also started questioning people who knew him. One of those people was Christopher Tapp, a twenty year old man who had also graduated from Idaho Falls High School and knew several people in Angie's social circle. Investigators believed that Chris Tapp had been seen with Angie at a gathering the night before her murder.

Shaun On January seven, nineteen ninety seven, he was interviewed by Idaho Falls Police. He denied knowing anything about what happened to Angie, and said that neither he nor Ben Hobbs had anything to do with it. Detectives questioned Tapp again on January tenth, but this time his story was different. He told officers that Hobbs killed Angie and that Hobbs had asked him to provide an alibi. Police then scheduled a follow up interview for the following day. But Chris's parents had become very concerned about the investigation and hired an attorney to represent Chris. Chris mom told the investigators that he would come to the police station on the thirteenth with his attorney. Instead of waiting, the investigators returned to Chris's house with an arrest warrant. He was arrested on an accessory charge.

John Over the next several weeks, detectives continued questioning Tapp. This part of the story is a bit convoluted, and we're saving some of the details of the timeline for our next episode because we really want to keep the focus on Angie. So for now, we're going to provide an overview of what happened during those multiple interviews. Police questioning focused heavily on the theory that Hobbes had killed Angie and that Tapp had been present during the crime. As these multiple interviews went on, Tapp's description of what happened began to change. On January fifteenth, he told investigators that he had been present when Hobbes killed Angie, and the prosecution decided to offer him a deal. Chris was expected to provide truthful information about Angie's murder. In exchange, prosecutors agreed that he would face a substantially reduced charge involving aiding and abetting an aggravated battery, rather than murder or sexual assault. It's important to note that this arrangement depended on the prosecution believing that Tapp was telling the truth. On January eighteenth, investigators learned that DNA testing had excluded both Hobbes and Tapp. This was a huge complication for the prosecution and the police, but also for Chris, who was facing serious charges if he didn't provide a truthful account of what had happened.

Shaun Undoubtedly, prosecutors were increasingly frustrated by his shifting statements. On January twenty ninth, his immunity agreement was revoked, with the prosecutors asserting that he had failed to deliver the truth. On February three, nineteen ninety seven, prosecutors charged Christopher Tapp with first degree murder, rape and use of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony. Their case would depend heavily on the statements he had made during the weeks of questioning. Their theory was that multiple people had been involved in the murder. One of them being Chris, and that the unidentified DNA belonged to someone that Chris Tapp knew and could name. Tapp himself had said in interviews that he was there when she was killed, had helped restrain her, and even at one point admitted to slashing her. During the trial, the defense challenged the reliability of Tapp's confession and attempted to have the statements he made to police suppressed. However, the judge ruled that most of his statements could be presented to the jury on May twelve, nineteen ninety eight. Christopher Tapp's trial began in Idaho's seventh Judicial District Court. It had been nearly two years since Angie Dodge had been found murdered in her apartment. The Dodge family attended the proceedings, hoping the trial would finally establish what had happened to Angie and who was responsible.

John Much of the trial centered on the recordings of Tapp's interviews and the testimony of the officers who had questioned him and his own admissions to being there when Angie was killed. The prosecution also introduced testimony from a young woman named Destinee Osborne. Osborne said that she had attended a party several days after Angie's murder, and had overheard a conversation involving Tapp and Hobbes. According to her, Hobbes claimed that Angie had been killed because she owed him money for methamphetamine. Christopher Tapp did not testify in his own defense, but he did present evidence that he had an alibi. Chris's defense was that he had spent the night of the murder with a woman he was having an affair with. Witnesses testified that the date had been memorable because Chris's girlfriend had caught them together the following morning. The prosecution challenged the alibi, introducing testimony from other acquaintances who disputed the timing. So the jury had to decide who they were going to believe. In the end, the defense argued that the prosecution had failed to establish Tapp's involvement beyond a reasonable doubt. On May twenty eighth, nineteen ninety eight, the jury returned its verdict after only thirteen hours of deliberation. They found Christopher Tapp guilty of first degree murder, rape and the deadly weapon charge. After nearly two years of investigations, extensive DNA testing and interviews, the state had obtained a conviction in the murder of Angie Dodge.

Shaun The Dodge family had suffered for two years not knowing who had killed Angie, and through the ordeal of the trial where the horrific, unspeakable details of Angie's death had been discussed at length. In December of nineteen ninety eight, Christopher Tapp was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after thirty years. At sentencing, Judge Ted Wood acknowledged just how important Tapp's statements had been to the outcome of the case. He said I can say without equivocation that had Mr. Tapp not confessed, there would have been no conviction in this case.

John Angie Dodge was just eighteen years old when she was murdered. She had graduated from high school with honors, was beginning her adult life, and had recently moved into her first apartment. She loved writing, camping, Christmas, and spending time with her friends. She was the youngest child in her family, the only daughter and a little sister to three older brothers. She was the friend who stood up to bullies. The young woman who drove around town in her enormous Oldsmobile. And the girl who made Christmas necklaces so everyone at the family party would feel included. Nearly two years later, her loved ones sat through a trial that was supposed to provide answers about what had happened to her. A jury returned a guilty verdict, but a central mystery of Angie's murder had not been resolved. The police had a DNA profile. They had a confession. They even secured a conviction. But they did not have the person who actually killed Angie.

Shaun In our next episode, we will dive into the questions Carroll still had after the verdict was reached and the nearly unbelievable turn this story takes. Thank you as always for listening. Please leave us a review on whatever platform you're listening to, and be sure to share this episode with a friend. Because what happens here happens everywhere.

John Thanks for listening. Visit sins podcast. Subscribe for exclusive bonus content and to listen ad free. Remember to like and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and threads at Sens and survivors. If you're enjoying the podcast, please leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice. You can contact us at questions at survivors dot com.

Shaun If you or someone you know is affected by domestic violence or need support, please reach out to local resources or the National Domestic Violence Hotline. A list of resources is available on our website and survivors dot com. Signs and survivors. A Las Vegas True Crime podcast is researched, written, and produced by your host, Sean and John. The information shared in this podcast is accurate at the time of recording. If you have questions, concerns, or corrections, please email us. Links to source material for this episode can be found on our website, survivors dot com.

John The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast creators, hosts, and their guests. All individuals are innocent until proven guilty. This content does not constitute legal advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult with legal professionals for guidance.