Original subtitles

Angie Dodge's life was cut short last night.

It was a horrible shock to her friends and family.

She's almost decapitated.

The perpetrator clearly left his DNA.

They pull in Chris Tapp.

Chris... you could push him around a little bit.

Detective Fuhriman wouldn't back down.

How dare he?

IFPD had me programmed

that Chris was part of my daughter's killing.

There's no physical evidence that puts him there.

-Yeah. -Period.

But people were confused.

Why would someone admit to something that they didn't do?

I was on a campaign to say, "They wronged him. They wronged me.

They got the wrong person."

These are people that lived

right in that neighborhood in 1996.

We're gonna get the right guy on this one. We have to.

It is the judgment of the court that you are guilty

of the crimes of murder in the first degree and rape.

It is the order of the court that you be sentenced

to the Idaho Penitentiary for a term of life

plus 15 years with 30 years fixed.

Prison is a dog-eat-dog world.

You know, survival of the fittest.

So, you learn how to survive in here.

The facility that we're at right now,

I've been here for a grand total of 10 years.

I was out of state for a year,

you know, county jail for a few,

and then maximum-security prison

here in Idaho for eight years.

So, I've spent a lot of 22-, 23-hour days in a cell.

This is it.

I... Everything that...

I've been living on for the last 20 years.

So...

Try to get as comfortable as you can.

So, Carol, you've met Ira and Joe.

I have. Great guys.

They're here helping me out, and...

Welcome, guys.

She knows this case better than anyone.

Carol has been the driving force.

She's kept this visible.

She drove the police efforts.

I mean, Carol Dodge has been the one who's kept this alive.

All three of us here, we're trying to figure out,

who was in that neighborhood?

Who would've had access to Angie?

Who had familiarity with the home?

Because it's not in the police reports. It's not documented.

The neighborhood canvas is the absolute key

to solving homicide cases.

And that... it was never done. It is 101.

It... It was never done.

You know, they tried.

I mean, you see they're actually

entering tag numbers on the vehicle canvas.

Those were my tags.

I used to take them lists of license-plate numbers.

Okay.

There's specific doors at the police station

called the Carol Dodge doors

where you have to have a-a code entry to get in, uh,

because they got tired of Carol

just coming into the police station

and just hounding the police all the time.

She keeps us on our toes.

We have great empathy for her, um, and she's very adamant

about finding the killer of her daughter.

That woman was driven, and she is still driven.

There was a number of things they could've done,

and I think we need to stop focusing

on what they didn't do.

Yeah, there's nothing we can do about what IFPD didn't do.

They still haven't done anything for her.

Carol has asked for 1,001 things,

and they haven't helped that lady.

She's the one that's done all this work for them.

So, let's get a map out.

Let's talk to everybody

that's in that neighborhood back then.

And that's how you're gonna identify a perpetrator.

Right.

Oh, it's beautiful out here, isn't it?

It's amazing.

I thought it was gonna be cold.

Yeah, I did, too.

I, uh... I thought it was gonna be a lot colder,

at night, especially.

Hey, I'm sorry to bother you.

-Does Brent live here? -No.

Brent?

No Brent?

It's pretty quiet.

Might be out back.

Hi. I was looking for Shane.

Okay.

Maybe this is him right here in this truck.

Nope.

How you doing?

I was looking for Zach.

Hey, we're looking for Corey.

Y-you expect him back or...

Unh-unh.

Don't have a Corey here at all?

Hi. How are you? I was looking for Corey.

No Corey here?

Oh.

It's almost impossible to reconstruct that neighborhood

Yeah, a lot of people have moved,

but Joe and I, we had a opportunity

to go out to the crime scene.

Yeah, and they clearly overlooked

the behavioral clues of that crime scene.

Here's that deck, Ira. Right there.

See, and everybody's theorizing

that the guy climbed up and went up there.

But it doesn't make any sense.

No.

How do you even know she's up there unless you know her?

Yep. Huh?

Right. I mean, let's think about it.

There's no way you look through that window and see her...

Right. ...unless you see her out on the balcony.

But even that... Far away.

...they wouldn't know if somebody's in there with her.

Yeah! Mnh-mnh.

The more I look at it,

somebody knew she was up in there.

Yeah.

So, this is the only set of stairs in the house, right?

Yeah. Okay.

This is it.

These are the original stairs.

Oh, man. You can certainly hear them.

It's a short distance, though.

And somebody could climb up here easily.

Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Especially if you're younger.

No, it's not hard to get up.

But it's still a lot of trouble just to... Yep.

This perpetrator could've easily climbed up

and easily escaped off the roof, but when we looked at that,

we didn't really believe that he did that.

Yeah, I-I agree, Ira.

You're more observable in the back, to me,

than you would be just walking off the street

and walking right into the house.

The landlady said that she heard steps about 4:00

and listened to make sure the door closed. Yes.

I think somebody came straight through the front door.

Yep.

I'm thinking that they knew her

and went right up in there and knew she was there.

Just looking at the scene,

whoever is our perpetrator,

there is more intimate familiarity with Angie

than I originally thought.

You know, and they didn't have to have

this up-close, intimate relationship,

but who's coming and going

out of that neighborhood routinely

that would have had a reason to interact with her?

So, you have to think of the service industry,

and the service industry is everything from pizza delivery

to the newspaper person to the... to the meter reader.

You know, I don't think the service industry

was ever looked at back then.

Looking back through the police report,

I found this phone-repair man.

He... He worked for the phone company there.

He had done a service for Angie, so I wanted to talk to him

because of his contact with Angie

when he was in the apartment.

So, I called him up on the phone.

Hello. I am a private investigator

calling about a case from 21 years ago,

and you were interviewed on the case.

And it was about the death of a young girl

over in Idaho Falls.

Do you recall that?

Huh.

This might kind of, um, help you remember a little bit...

the police had spoken with you,

and you had performed some kind of a service

at the apartment of the young lady who was murdered...

You recall that?

Yeah, and I was gonna tell you,

her name is Angie Dodge, so if...

Oh, your daughter actually knew her, huh?

Really?

But not many of the customers you've talked to get killed.

Well, next time you're gonna be in Idaho Falls,

let me know if you got any more information.

Well, I appreciate you coming down here.

With Angie, you remember talking to her... Yes.

...and you remember she told you about some problems. Right.

Tell me about that the best you can remember.

She indicated that she was getting...

harassing phone calls and...

what could she do about it?

And at that point in time, I told her

that she would have to contact the police

or our security department.

Was there anything else that was strange or odd?

Having daughters close to that same age,

you... you... you... you walked away

and you go, "Man, I feel bad.

Wished I could do something.

I think there's something wrong there,

but I don't know what it is."

Then to, a few days later, see it on the news,

I told my wife, I said, "Hey, I-I was just over there."

So, then I called the police,

and I told them that I'd been there on a trouble report.

She told me that she was getting harassing phone calls,

and basically...

that's as far as it ever went.

Herky, to be honest with you,

one of the things that I'm doing

is getting male individuals

who have had contact with Angie...

we're asking them if they'd provide DNA.

That way, we can make sure that, you know,

we're not overlooking a potential suspect.

Is that something you're wiling to do?

Probably, yeah.

Right now, what we are doing...

we're collecting more DNA samples

from persons of interest.

I'm kind of, uh, prepared with each house I go to

or each person I contact, I have a, um, DNA swab,

and basically, what I ask the person to do

is take the swab out and put it inside their mouth,

and then I have them place it into the box,

uh, seal it up, and that's it.

The way forward on this

is to check as much DNA as you can

until somebody finally matches.

My experience in wrongful-conviction cases

has been the surest way to get an innocent person out

is to find the person who did it.

Absolutely. It's sort of like, "Take a penny, leave a penny,"

but it's with human beings.

Howdy. I was looking for Steve.

Are you related or...

Oh.

You actually could save me a lot of time.

Why would you ever provide your DNA?

I mean, the short answer, people are dumb.

Ron, some people will give DNA

because they know they weren't involved, to be fair.

Some people want to say, "Hey, you know what?

I want to help find out who killed that person,"

because some people aren't suspicious. Some people aren't defense attorneys

that prepare for things like that. And some people aren't guilty.

People want to do the right thing.

Steve's on, basically, what we call a person-of-interest list,

but there's a real simple answer and that's DNA.

You being his father, would you give me a DNA sample?

Okay.

It was kind of a productive week out there.

I got DNA from quite a few persons of interest.

There's a guy that committed suicide two years

almost to the day of the murder,

and one of the reasons that I'm interested in that

is that to our knowledge, there haven't been

repeated crimes linked to the crime-scene DNA,

and I was able to track down his brother.

Hi. You're James?

I'm a private investigator,

investing the Angie Dodge murder.

And this is kind of a delicate type of a conversation

we're gonna have here, but at some point,

your brother Adam was a person of interest.

Are you aware of that?

I-I wondered if you would be willing to...

to tell me the circumstances of his death

if... if you don't mind.

And I-I knew that, but, I mean, do you know why, or...

Oh, my.

Okay, so, there's DNA related to this case,

and they've never found the donor of that DNA.

So, I-I-I would like to ask a favor of you,

and I-I don't know how you feel about it,

but if we could take your DNA and test it because...

Yeah, because your DNA and his DNA are almost identical.

Okay.

You know, it was one of those awkward situations

because I'm gonna talk about his brother's suicide,

and, man, he was great about it,

and he said, "Oh, absolutely."

Gave us his DNA.

There's another guy that... He's a registered sex offender.

He's got a lengthy criminal history.

This guy lives in a house.

He's got a-all the windows closed up.

I didn't think he was ever gonna open the door,

but he did. He opened the door.

So, I asked him for DNA, if he'd be willing to consent,

and, um, he said no, but anyway,

we... we've got his DNA, but he doesn't know it, so...

Oh, wow!

If he didn't just give it to you, how'd you get it?

I really don't wanna talk about that.

Okay. No problem.

If... If you don't want to talk about it,

I can assure you I don't want to hear about it.

So, this is my bag of evidence,

the DNA that we've been collecting throughout the week.

From here, I am going to be sending it to a lab.

What happens from there is kind of out of my hands.

Chris wrote to us

at the Idaho Innocence Project saying,

"There's DNA, and I'm excluded."

So, it wasn't clear to us why he would've been convicted

with that very firm evidence in his favor.

For years, the state has conducted

lots of rounds of new DNA testing

using several generations of new technologies

with the hypothesis Chris Tapp is guilty,

but he's not on anything that's been tested.

The evidence was clear there was a single attacker

who was definitely, positively, scientifically not Chris Tapp.

Do you want a Quantifiler or a Identifiler?

Identifiler.

So, in April, we're getting this hearing

to look at the DNA evidence

and decide, does Chris Tapp deserve a new trial?

All of his efforts to date in the courts have failed,

but Chris is fortunate enough to have one more bite at the apple.

The two hearings in April will deal with two issues...

DNA testing and there was some information

that was not turned over to the defense

at the time of the trial, including polygraph interviews.

If the judge rules in our favor,

then hopefully, I'll be home by the summertime.

And if not, then what else can I do?

I am off to Judge Mike Heavey's house

because he volunteered his time

as an expert on this case.

I'm looking forward to seeing what he thinks

about Chris Tapp's interrogation.

Judge Heavey? Ira Todd.

How you doing, sir?

Detective Todd, come on in.

Let's go downstairs.

I started an organization,

Judges for Justice,

to change public opinion about wrongful convictions.

By 2013, I was in Idaho Falls meeting John Thomas,

Carol Dodge, and Chris,

and then I sat down for two years,

probably 20 hours a week,

going through different interrogations,

and then I saw how Tapp ended up telling

six separate and distinct stories

over a-a 3 1/2-week period.

Chris Tapp told story number 1, "I don't know anything,"

and then I saw on story number 6, "I stabbed her."

Right. Whoa!

Where does that come from?

And I couldn't figure out why

he would suddenly say that out of the blue.

I finally saw that he's given a polygraph

before each of the five story changes...Mm-hmm.

...and discovered the January 15th,

polygraph was never produced to the defens.

I call that the Rosetta Stone of the polygraphs.

It explains exactly how they're trying to convince

and coerce Tapp into believing the polygraph

is saying he's at the crime.

It was part of a trick. Right.

It's... It's legal to trick and to lie to somebody

during an interrogation.

You can trick, manipulate, and lie...

Right. ...during an interrogation,

but you can'tdo it during a polygraph.

Right.It's supposed to be used just for the assessment

of credibility of the witness,

but they took this way beyond that.

Yeah. They broke him, you know?

They mentally destroyed this young man.

Yeah.

I can't agree with you more,

and there's no evidence that the missing polygraph video

was ever given to, uh, Tapp's trial council

back in '97 and '98.

And that is a Brady violation.

The prosecution has a duty

to give any and all

exculpatory, uh, information to the defense.

So, we started these videos,

and when we got them on our website,

we got over 10,000 views.

That resulted in people circling the courthouse

with signs saying "Free Tapp."

So when the judge drives into the courthouse,

he's going, "Oh, there's certainly a lot of people

who think he's innocent.

I think I'll pay attention to this case."

Wow.

Would this be an opportunity for a new trial

or would he get exonerated?

April 25th, there's a hearing on the polygraph videos,

but there's no evidence against Chris Tapp.

So I think if we get to a hearing

and show the judge those polygraph videos,

Chris Tapp is out immediately.

Okay, see if we can't locate

old Mr. Finn, the polygrapher.

In a quarter mile, turn right onto First Street.

I know you'll be interested in talking to him. Yeah.

I mean, if you watch those polygraph tapes,

it will upset you.

Let's see. Is it one of these?

Yes.

That's it. Right here, Ira.

We got a chance to talk to Finn and Fuhriman.

Oh? KUBY: Uh-huh?

And we went to Finn's house first,

the polygrapher.

We want to talk to you about

that, uh, Christopher Tapp case.

Want to see if we can, uh,

talk to you a little bit about that.

You're not gonna go into it?

Finn comes to the door, and the first thing he said,

"Hey, I don't want to talk to you guys,"

and then he wound up talking to us for an hour or so, right?

Yeah.

And he said he gave him that polygraph

in conjunction with appropriate policies and procedures.

He was just adamant that Chris Tapp was responsible

for the murder of Angie Dodge.

But you definitely think Chris Tapp is guilty?

You got... Oh, yeah?

And you think that because of what?

Wow.

And what was it that stood out at you

up there in her apartment that he...

And you guys never revealed any of that information to him?

All right.

Was that video when he went to the scene

and took you guys back to the scene?

See, well, why not?

Because that would've been critical if you'd... if you'd...

No video reenactment?

Yeah, if you would've videoed that,

it would at least show him pointing out the things,

and nobody can say,

"Hey, no, the cops told him where it was," you know?

And you think it was definitely three people?

But you just... That's based on gut?

And so, and the... the information that you

extracted from the interviews...

So, that's telling us that Tapp

had to at least tell you

there was two other people involved.

He in his mind thinks he did that polygraph correctly

is what... what blows my mind.

He thinks, in his mind, that this dude did it.

That was very interesting.

All right, so we're gonna see

if we can't locate old Jared Fuhriman, Ira.

Newly minted detective when this case happened,

and, uh, he ended up becoming the mayor of Idaho Falls.

That's kind of interesting, huh?

Maybe he got famous from this case?

Name recognition. Yeah.

So, you got Finn to talk for an hour.

Yes.What happened with Fuhriman?

Whoa, Fuhriman.

So, when Joe and I are walking up,

Fuhriman is coming out...

him and his wife are in the car.

And this guy looks,

and he says something funny to us.

No. No, no, no.

But when we announced who we were and what we were there for,

all of a sudden, he couldn't remember certain things,

and his wife started talking for him.

Yeah.

Yeah, but th-- but that's okay.

We just... We just want to just kind of talk to him

about some of the stuff, and it's nothing, you know...

we're not trying to, like, drill him down

or "What about this? What about this?"

Now, Finn had already told us

Fuhriman's having some problems with his memory.

Early stages of Alzheimer's he'd been diagnosed. Yeah.

Oh, wow. Uh-huh. Okay.

And his wife said that he couldn't run for mayor again...

Right....because his memory is bad and things like that.

Right. Yeah, I know.

Sure. Sure.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Now, Fuhriman's the driver,

and I said, "Well, can you drive?"

You know, if you lost your memory, would you remember a stop sign?"

I mean, he...

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

My... My...

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

-Yeah. -Yeah.

His wife's body language clearly changed.

Oh, yeah. Very defensive.

And he was trying to stare through us, so... Yes!

I mean, it was almost like we'd ask him a question,

and he was just, like... Now he's staring straight ahead

as if he's trying to recall. Yes.

His mannerisms, his nonverbals,

all those little indicators changed, like, immediately

as soon as he found out what we were there for.

Well, we... I-I mean, in fairness to him,

the Alzheimer's has been diagnosed.

I-it has.

But he's still sharp enough to know to shut up.

Yeah.

I mean, he was not gonna do himself any favors

by... by talking with you guys.

-Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. -Okay.

Thank you for your time.

We definitely appreciate your time.Yeah. Thank you.

Danny called me.

He's got some very important information to pass to us.

So, I thought what we'd do is reach out,

try to catch him on Skype this morning to see what it is.

Good morning.

What's going on? What's going on, Danny?

So, the prosecutor is in negotiations

with Chris' attorney,

and they are looking to offer him a deal.

What?! Wow!

Basically, he gets out of prison,

which of course for him, that's great,

but the rest of it's really bad news.

He will remain convicted of first-degree murder,

he will remain convicted of rape

and be a registered sex offender,

and have probation anywhere from 7 to 10 years.

So, any offense at all, you know...

Will land him back in.

Exactly.

I mean, he could go back in and do significant time.

It's pretty obvious

that with some of the hearings coming up,

their case is crumbling,

and I think they're trying to avoid additional publicity.

But if he takes this plea,

he's throwing away his chances of any type of civil suit.

Is Chris thinking of taking the deal?

My impression is that John Thomas, the attorney,

is not thrilled about the deal, but Chris wants out of prison.

Although he's hopeful we will find out who the killer is

and get him out of prison,

he has to legitimately say, "But when?"

All right. See you, Danny.

Bye-bye.

That's fucked up.

Yeah, that's... that's a little interesting.

Feels like extortion to me.

If he's on probation,

- he has prison hanging over him at all times. - Oh.

He can't do anything, really.

Having prison hanging over him and being in prison...I agree.

...I suspect, are two radically different things, so...

Look, people will still look at him

like he's a murderer.

Absolutely. Yep.

You know, he'll... he'll... he'll carry that reputation

for the rest of his life, you know?

Absolutely, Ira.

We've been, uh, pulling some DNA

Mm-hmm.

And we were hoping you could tell us

if these individuals matched the DNA from our suspect.

Not a match.

I'm watching you like you're grading my final exam.

That's what it feels like.

I'm looking for any sign.

Not a match.

Now, just out of curiosity, what exactly are you looking at

when you're... when you're reading those?

So, this is really simple analysis.

I mean, if I were able to show it to you,

it would look kind of like, you know, two bingo cards,

uh, and you're just comparing to see

if those two bingo cards are identical.

And I'm just looking to see if they align.

Just to double-check.

Yeah, not a match.

Okay.

Not a match.

Yeah, might be a tiny bit closer,

but not... not close enough

to be an interesting lead, genetically.

Well, that is disappointing, but, um...

Well, I'll tell you,

you're not the first to try to solve this,

and I think this is gonna be a very tough case to break

because I've seen so many good suspects.

I just learned long ago

that all of the people I thought were good candidates,

nobody's panned out.

So, um, I j-- It's just a complete mystery to me.

The last two weeks have been insane.

The negotiations have been a roller coaster.

It's gone from no deal to there's absolutely a deal,

back to no deal.

The judge is ready to talk to you guys

over in the Centennial Chambers.

Okay, I'll be there in a minute.

Thanks.

Okay, let's shut it down, guys,

and, uh, right before 11:00, okay?Okay.

I want to make sure everybody's over there.

I don't know what to feel.

We have done a complete 360 turnaround

from just days before.

Yeah?

Let me get him in there.

The prosecutor asked me what I wanted,

and I told him,

"Chris doesn't want to be on probation or on parole.

He doesn't want to be a sex offender.

He doesn't want to have to answer to anybody.

He just wants to be done completely."

And the prosecutor said, "Let's do it."

But until the judge has accepted it, it's not a deal.

Will there be any victim-impact statements today?

There will, Your Honor.

We'd like the court to first hear from Carol Dodge.

Okay. Go ahead, Ms. Dodge.

Sitting here today,

a whole flood of memories came back, Chris,

the day that we stood here and chose your jury...

...the jury that convicted you.

Little did we know what we know now,

and with great sadness...

...20 years of your life has been taken from you.

I can't imagine that...

...knowing what we know now,

that anyone can convict someone...

that there's no DNA,

but we've learned a lot, Chris...

a great deal.

I have definitely learned a lot,

and I'm saddened that I don't see

any of the Idaho Falls Police Department here,

representing my daughter,

saying that they'll help me find justice.

I'm so saddened, but I'm extremely, extremely...

...happy for you that you have your life back.

Although it's not the deal that your mother wanted.

It's not the deal I wanted.

It's a-a cynic saying that for right now, we'll set you free.

Somewhat.

Your new journey is not going to be an easy one, Chris,

but stay clean and stay sober.

Stay on track.

Thank you, Ms. Dodge.

I hereby rule as follows...

the rape charge is hereby dismissed with prejudice,

and the defendant, Mr. Tapp, having been found guilty

of the charge of murder in the first degree,

that the defendant is guilty of that offense.

And his sentence on that offense is amended to

a unified, fixed term of 20 years

plus any additional time that you, Mr. Tapp,

have served up to and including today.

You are receiving credit by order of this court

for all the time served with the intent

that you be released from custody today,

your sentence having been completed or satisfied.

You will be free to go.

Bye, Chris.

Tell 'em, brother!

No, we're good.

You're gonna go all the way out.

Victory! Victory!

Yes! Whoo!

An innocent man is free.

Innocent man! Victory!Freedom!

Freedom!Freedom.

Yes!

We are ecstatic that Chris Tapp is walking free.

Chris Tapp is innocent,

and I will shout that from the rooftops until the day I die.

And for the person, uh, who did kill Angie Dodge,

uh, there's a bounty on your head.

There are 50 cameras here,

and there are people coming for you.

And we are looking for you,

and we will not stop until we find you.

And when we do find you, we will bring you to justice

because that's the right thing to do.

We are sorry.

It's so good to see you.

I never in a million years

thought that this was gonna happen

without actually finding the killer.

Should we go back in?

Yeah. Let me say goodbye to people.Okay.

A lot of people told Chris, "Don't take the deal.

It's a terrible deal."

But Chris said, "John, this is what I want.

This is the safest route to get me out, you know?"

And he was having to talk me into it

'cause we're giving something up.

There's still a murder conviction.

So glad to see you, Chris!

But Chris said, "John, how many post-convictions have we filed?

How many times have we been, you know,

u-up to the Supreme Court,"

and he's like, "Every time, we've lost.

We've lost, we've lost.

This time, we can walk away.

How you feeling, Chris?Overwhelmed.

For Chris Tapp, the deal that he struck is,

to me, the last shameless manipulation of Tapp

by the criminal justice system.

It is a sad day for justice

because Chris Tapp is a convicted murderer

of a crime he had absolutely nothing to do with,

but Chris Tapp is free today.

And that's what we started out wanting to do.

Let's do the victory, everyone.

Yes! Victory!

And I think the message came across really clear...

he's an innocent man.

I says, "For you to take this deal,"

I says, "I don't appreciate it."

I says, "But you know what? I'll take it."

He's home.

Mm! Man!

I've been waiting 20 years for this.

Oh! Oh!

Jer.

How you doing?

I'm scared and frustrated.

Yeah? Overwhelmed, really.

Well, what's your plan?

I'm gonna be around for a few days.

I'd like to be able to just spend some time with you.

I know you're gonna be really busy.

Today's gonna be really bad,

but, like, they're coming over tomorrow night.

Let's get together in th-- tomorrow.

Okay. Your mom and everybody's got my phone number.

We're on our way to pick up Chris Tapp.

Yesterday was the first time I-I seen him in person in 20 years.

I did not visit him in jail.

I was, uh, a little upset with him

for most of his stay in jail.

There was about 17 years, and, yeah, I didn't want to...

didn't want to think about it or accept it at all.

Okay.

I hated Chris so bad.

"How could he name me? What the hell?

I thought we were friends."

It hurt so bad.

I couldn't go anywhere or do anything

without this being a huge part of it,

so I left town,

and i-it's affected me for a long time.

All of a sudden, Judge Heavey comes out

with his Judges for Justice videotapes,

and... and what an eye-opener.

What an eye-opener to see

the way that they were behaving to Chris and...

At that point, I felt so bad for hating him

and... and being so mad,

sitting here watching what he went through.

Hey, Jer.

Uh, I'm lost.

I'm at 816?

I will be standing on the front porch right now.

Aha! We found him.

That's right.

Okay, so...

Hi, buddy.

Are you all right?

Yeah, it's been a while, you know?

How you doing? Good, bro.

Did you sleep? No.

It's kinda hard.Wigged out already.

Yeah. When we went to Kohl's to go shopping,

I already wigged out.

Had my first... Aah?

Aah! And ran out of the store.

Yeah? So, yeah.

It's been... been one of those pieces.

We can do whatever you want to do this afternoon.Yeah.

Yeah, dude.Don't trip on me.

You're free, man. Dude.I know. So...

It's so overwhelming. So much to do.

Yeah? But...

Well, we got years to get through it.That's it.

Let's get out of here. I'm hungry.

Thank you, everybody, for being here today.

In June 1996,

the Dodge family and the city of Idaho Falls...

experienced the death of a young girl named Angie Dodge.

We're very empathetic to the Dodge family...

especially Carol.

For the loss of her daughter,

we continue to look for new ways to identify Angie's killer.

So, today, we're here to introduce a picture

referred to as a DNA phenotype

in hopes of providing the department with new leads.

This DNA phenotype gives a profile

of what the DNA donor could look like,

and then it was age-enhanced

to 20 years later.

Thank you, everybody, for your cooperation of this,

and please, get this out in the public

so that we can receive tips.

Phenotyping has proven to be reliable

in terms of actually getting a suspect.

You know, basically, they're looking at eye color,

hair color, freckling, that type stuff.

This right here is a way

of pointing us in the right direction.

And they won't try to tell you

that it's gonna tell you who the suspect is.Right.

They make that disclaimer right up front,

but what it does is it... it... it at least gives you

a guide path of someone

or, hey, this is what, in all probability,

what your suspect should look like.

Right. It's almost perfect for a cold case...

Oh, yeah. ...where we've got nothing.

So, it gives us something. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm on my way over to Chris Tapp's house.

I want to talk with him about why he felt pressured to confess

and just kind of get a feel for...

what kind of person he is

and if he's 100% innocent.

So, let's go all the way back there.

Were you on drugs during that time?

I was trying to get clean.

I was smoking some weed off and on, here or there,

but methamphetamines and stuff like that, no.

Okay, and they take you directly to the station?

Right.Were you under arrest?

No. They told me I wasn't under arrest.

But were you free to leave?

After they were done with me.

And why didn't you think you were free to leave?

Because you could hear the lock on the door.

So, they locked you in? Yeah.

And so, all the stuff you told them was a lie?Yeah.

Total lie? Yeah.

So, you never cut Angie at all? No.

Ever? I never... Like I said, I never cut Angie.

I never held Angie down.

I've never been to Angie's apartment

till the police department took me there.

You ever stabbed anybody? No.

You ever shot anybody? No.

Ever killed anybody? No.

You had no idea who killed Angie?

None.

So, why would an innocent man

confess to a crime that he didn't do?

'Cause I wanted to go home.

'Cause I kept believing that it was gonna be okay.

I kept believing the words that they would keep telling me,

that it was gonna be all right.

They could help me, and it'd be okay.

You ever wanted to talk to them?

No. Hell, no. Why not?

The Idaho Falls Police Department

will never admit they made a mistake. You hate them?

If they were on fire, you wouldn't piss on them to put them out?

I wouldn't.

I'd just turn my back and walk away.

That's what they did to me.

Wow.

How do you feel about it right now?

What about the pain you're going through?

I see it, too. Y-You got to let it go, man.

You got to... I'm good.

No, but you got to let it out. I'm good.

You're full. Talk to me about it.

It just hurts.

How does an innocent person sit in jail the whole time,

knowing that he's innocent?

Y-You lose yourself in prison.

I lost myself in prison for years.

One of my true friends,

he told me I'm one of the most nicest,

caring persons in the world.

And to a certain degree, I am.

But you do things in prison to survive.

And I know that there's a mean streak in me now.

What do you think about?

Everything you lose.

What'd you lose?I had a father.

I had family. You know what I mean?

At the start of all this,

I had people turn their back on me and my family.

You know, I lost a lot.

For... For the... Ever since I've come home,

I just tell people that I'm good.

You know what I mean?

But you're not. I survive.

You know what I mean? Yeah.

For that, I guess, I'm thankful.

I walked away from there thinking like,

"This guy is the most honest guy I ever met in my life."

I'm sitting there looking at him,

and he's reliving it,

and, you know, watching him tear up,

and this guy just seems so genuine to me.

And all it'd take, really,

is for someone to stop the madness, you know?

Say, "Hey, we made a mistake."

No one's willing to say that.

So, here we are, 21 years later,

trying to find out who killed Angie Dodge.

Police work and the justice system

is not about closing cases.

It's about getting it right

'cause everybody suffers when the wrong person is locked up.

I think you better make dang well sure

that you got the right person,

because let me tell you, they have ruined this family.

But that's okay.

We'll figure it out.

We'll just take it one day at a time, you know,

and just go on and, you know,

it's just like having a kid.

They don't give you a manual when you have a kid.

No. And that's just what we're gonna do,

is start all over again, you know?

You've been gone for 20 years.

They don't give us a manual about when a-a person comes back

out of being incarcerated, you know?

I think there's a book, but don't quote me.No, yeah, well,

we... we better hurry and find it because we're gonna need it.

We're fighters.

We'll bounce back.