Murder of Angie Dodge

Angie Dodge was raped and murdered in Idaho Falls, Idaho, on June 13, 1996. The case remained unresolved for years, complicated by a wrongful conviction and a false accusation, before eventually being broken using investigative genetic genealogy. The person responsible was not identified and apprehended until May 2019, nearly 23 years after the crime.

In January 1997, about six months into the investigation, Idaho Falls police questioned 20-year-old Chris Tapp, initially seeking information about other suspects. After more than 100 hours of interrogation, Tapp confessed, although no physical evidence tied him to the scene and his statements were inconsistent and contradictory. He was convicted in May 1998 of aiding and abetting Dodge's rape and murder and was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison. Tapp recanted his confession in 2001, saying he had been coerced by police and fed details of the crime. In 2007, after he had served ten years, the Idaho Innocence Project revisited his case; researchers at Boise State University reviewed his interrogation tapes and concluded he had been heavily coerced. In 2017, an appeal rescinded the rape charge, reducing his sentence to 20 years — time already served — and he was released. He was formally exonerated of the murder charge in July 2019, after the arrest of Brian Leigh Dripps Sr.

In 2014, a New Orleans filmmaker was accused of the rape and murder after investigators used Y-chromosome familial searching on a DNA sample his father had donated to the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation for recreational genealogy purposes; that database was later acquired by Ancestry.com. A court-ordered search found a match of 34 of 35 tested alleles with the father's profile, and he was further suspected because travel records placed him in Idaho Falls. After police interrogated him and obtained a saliva sample, his DNA did not match the crime-scene sample, and the allegations against him were dropped. The episode drew criticism over the use of a recreational genetic database for law-enforcement purposes.

The investigation gained new momentum in late 2018, when authorities again turned to investigative genetic genealogy. Genetic genealogist CeCe Moore, working with Parabon NanoLabs, searched the public database GEDMatch and traced the profile to descendants of Clarence and Cleo A. (Landrum) Ussery, identifying six male descendants as suspects; one who had lived in Idaho in 1996 was ruled out after his DNA did not match. After further research, Moore identified a seventh, previously unknown descendant: Brian Leigh Dripps Sr., who had lived across the street from the Dodge household in 1996 and was by then living in Caldwell, Idaho. Investigators obtained a DNA sample from a discarded cigarette butt and found a complete match to the crime-scene profile. After interrogation, Dripps confessed, saying he had been impaired by drugs and alcohol, had intended to rape rather than kill Dodge, and had acted alone. He pleaded guilty in February 2021 and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years.

In October 2020, Tapp sued the city of Idaho Falls over his wrongful conviction, and the parties reached an $11.4 million settlement in June 2022. Tapp died in October 2023 after an altercation in a Las Vegas hotel room; the Clark County Coroner's Office ruled his death a homicide. In March 2024, Daniel Rodimer, a former professional wrestler and congressional candidate, was charged with open murder in connection with Tapp's death. The case became a widely cited example of both the promise and the privacy concerns raised by investigative genetic genealogy.