Examining the Alleged Wrongful Conviction in the Angie Dodge Murder Case

Retired FBI agent Steve Moore joins former FBI profiler and author Jim Clemente to discuss the brutal murder of 18-year-old Angie Dodge in 1996, as well as questions now being raised about the man who was convicted in the case.

“They haven’t caught the murderer yet – they think they have, but they haven’t, so that leaves the murderer out on the street,” Moore said.

Dodge was a practicing Mormon born and raised in Idaho, Falls, ID, and had left her parents to move out on her own about three weeks before she was murdered.

Moore and Clemente dissect every part of Dodge’s life – including the security of her living situation - to look for any clues that would help solve her murder.

“She was not very security conscious,” Moore said about the elderly landlady who lives downstairs from the apartment where Dodge was killed. “She frequently kept the porch door open to let fresh air in, and it was that way on that night – it was propped open.”

Clemente reveals that this is a very common theme he’s learned from the many cases he’s investigated throughout his career. “This is an unfortunate thing, but the fact is that many rapists and murderers choose somebody who lives on the second floor, for the sole reason that people who live on the second floor, do not lock their doors and windows as much as people who live on the ground floor.”

Moore said investigators determined that Dodge would typically get up at around six in the morning to make it to her job.
“So the night before at around 11 p.m., friends dropped by her house, knocked on the door, and they said it took awhile for her to get to the door. And they believe she had already gone to bed.” The friends stayed around for about an hour and a half socializing.

“If (police) are telling the truth on this and they’re accurate, her curtains were halfway open, and the lights were off in the room,” Moore said about the night of the murder. “So it didn’t appear she was very careful with blocking – and her bedroom window faced out to the street.”

The panel also takes an in-depth look at the crime scene photos entered into evidence in the case.

Moore notes from the crime scene photos of the room where Dodge was discovered that the curtains were open and the lamp was turned off. “What that would indicate is that at the time she was murdered, at the time the murderer left the room, the lights were off and the curtains were open.”

Blood splatters and blood smudges are visible in the photos, indicating Dodge was taken completely surprise and was the victim of a so-called blitz attack.

“Immediately, without any kind of warning, she was attacked, viciously stabbed, possibly 16 times,” said Moore, who adds that her throat was also cut, “pretty significantly down to the bone.”

The blood evidence is also comprehensively examined in an effort to piece together how the crime occurred, and it is noted that although there was no finding that Dodge had been raped during the attack, the killer did leave behind semen at the scene.

“I think we’re looking for somebody who has 1) a history of violence, 2) a history of peeping, 3) a history of treating women with disrespect and anger. That’s the kind of profile I’d put together for this,” Clemente concludes.

The man arrested and ultimately convicted in the case, Christopher Tapp, had no prior felony convictions or history of violence. In addition, no DNA or other physical evidence was linked to Tapp, but police said he had confessed to the crime.

Watch the full episode to get a thorough analytical profile of Dodge’s killer, and why Moore believes police convicted the wrong man in the case.