Second Chances

Murder in the Heartland explores real crimes across small town America, towns that might

“look a lot like your own, every week uncover shocking stories of murder and betrayal.”

From a suspicious hunting accident, to a college student who disappears after her shift at the local bar. Here from investigators, witnesses, and family members as they share the chilling details behind each case. If you're interested in true crime with a small town twist, you might love this podcast.

Listen to Murder in the Heartland wherever you get your podcasts. At a police station in Caldwell, Idaho, Idaho Falls, police captain John Marley gave Brian Drip's a quick pat down, before sitting across from him to talk. Drip's at a long gray beard, he wore a black t-shirt and camo pants that matched his trucker hat.

While the officers were suits, they were set up in a small room with green walls.

Captain Marley says everything about this meeting was meticulously planned, down to the furniture. We didn't want any distractions in the room, we wanted to table and we wanted three chairs. We didn't want for us to sit between him and the door and for him to feel like he was trapped. We didn't really want to bury him between a seat here like a table. We wanted to have that open dialogue.

Drip's rested his arm on the table beside him, investigators gave him a couple of water bottles and a Pepsi. I'm sure you got a lot of questions for us, and there's a deal that's going on here. It's on the way. I obviously wanted to talk to you, but I wanted to tell you I appreciate you coming in here

and talking to you. And it has something to do with the case and to the place, you know, years ago and we're going back and reinvestigating everybody from the beginning of that case. Investigators already knew that the DNA collected from Drip's escorted cigarette butt, matched the DNA found at the crime scene.

But this match didn't mean Drip's was Angie's killer. Detective Sage Allbrake, who was also in the room, says they needed to rule out any innocent explanation for why Drip's as DNA might have been at Angie's apartment.

“Did she have a personal relationship with Brian Drip's?”

Did she have a romantic relationship with Brian Drip's? Did Brian ever come over to her house? Is there any theoretically possible legal reason that his DNA would be at her residence and specifically at that crime scene? And if there wasn't one, then investigators wanted answers.

Why Angie? Why, how did this happen? You know, why did it happen? What were some of the details that went on? Another question, police still needed to figure out?

If Chris Tap was involved in Angie's murder, by it all depended on if investigators could get Drip's to talk, and they felt like they might only have one chance to get it right. This is our only chance to get the truth. You may only get one shot to talk to them. You'll only get one shot to get the answers to some of those details that have been nagging

this case for years. From ABC Audio and 2020, I'm Maggie Raleigh. And this is the snare.

Episode 6, Second Chances.

Captain John Marley says they wanted to build a report with Drip's and establish a sense of trust, so he might feel comfortable speaking openly. Drip's had put their plan into action. The moment Drip's was in their car on the way to the police station. Captain Marley says he's spent a 45-minute drive making small talk with Drip's.

“The dialogue's important because if you can get people to answer the easier questions,”

it's easier to transition into some of the harder questions that will come later. Captain Marley says Drip's told him he moved from Idaho Falls to California. He learned Drip's liked Pepsi and peanut butter sandwiches. Captain Marley also learned he suffered from serious chronic pain. When Drip's walked into the interrogation room, he seemed uncomfortable.

You're right? Say back? Go and go. Because it's hard to get comfortable no matter where you are, I am.

All bright says they were concerned Drip's pain would distract him from answering their questions, or possibly end the entire interview. He would make any indication that he was in discomfort or that he was in pain. That seemed like an opportunity that he could eventually use to say, "I'm just talking with you guys."

So investigators say they try to make Drip's as comfortable as possible. They got him a better chair, an officer even went out to buy bread and peanut butter to make him a couple sandwiches. And they planned to take breaks whenever necessary, because detectives didn't want this interview to end before they got the information they needed.

Well, what questions did you have for us to begin with? Where is Nards? Yeah. What's the base of it going on? The one thing I can think of is the, the, the, the, um, that part of the case.

“The only thing I can think of that happened when I was living down.”

That murder case. Drip's is the one who brings up the murder. Captain Marley says up until that point they still hadn't mentioned anything about Angie. To investigators, this signaled that her murder was on his mind. That tells us that now we're on the same page.

He's never been questioned as a suspect in this.

And now two detectives are there to talk to him about this murder that took place across the street from your house 20 years ago. And we knew that he knew that we were going to, you know, get some information. But when the officer has asked him, what he remembered about that murder case. Drip said not much.

From what I've remembered at night was we were drinking a lot of drinks with my buddies. Drip's told investigators that back in 1996, he was interviewed by police and told them he had passed out at home the night of Angie's murder. He said he woke up the next morning and saw a cop car on his street. And that's all he said he really remembers.

“What about the house practically across the street?”

Angie's apartment investigators asked Drip's, if he knew who lived in the house where the murder happened. Now I thought, you know, girl coming and going a couple times, you know, but that'd be about it. But I don't really remember a whole lot.

Do you remember what her name was? No. The officers asked Drip's again if he remembered anything about the murder or anybody talking about it. I remember hearing it on the news that I was dead, and didn't really talk about it, because

I didn't know her or nothing at all, but, you know, we thought, well, it's kind of crazy

that I never know across the street, but you know what I was just about to do.

“So you guys were neighbors that you had to smoke together, hung out together now, okay?”

You were never over at the house, okay? Now, even though Drip said he never knew Angie and had never been to her apartment, investigators needed to be sure. They asked him more questions about his former neighbor. Did you in that neighbor hang out in the same circles?

Did you have mutual friends? Did she ever come over to your house? Drip said no. And so there would be no evidence that would put you at her place or for a year, but crap.

That was never that reason, never out of place, all right.

There it was. Drip's had eliminated any innocent reason for his DNA to be at Angie's house. They weren't dating, they weren't friendly. During the Drip's he never even been in her apartment, investigators knew otherwise. We knew that in our pocket we had his DNA, and it was no longer a tip.

It was absolutely 100% conclusively his DNA at the crime scene. But the officers held off from telling him what they knew. Instead, they asked him if he was willing to provide them with a DNA sample. Drip seemed hesitant.

"If I take one, he takes home, and well, he still wants something, and we still have some

questions to ask. Ask ya.

“Once the same old question, you've been asking, I'm not going to take a story.”

I'm going to be the same old story." Drip's agreed to give them a Cheekswab. Investigators asked him what he thought the results would be. Drip's said negative. Another officer came into the room to collect the DNA sample.

"I'm just gonna sit inside here to take a little bit." Drip and Marley and Detective Albright stepped out of the room.

"I'm sure I'm going to check on that food, or you're going to be right back."

Drip's left alone in the room. Albright again. He now has to really process what information has just been given to him. And that will be it creates a lot of emotions and a lot of thoughts. He has to start coming to terms with what is his plan.

What is he going to do? Am I going to continue to fight this? Or is now the time where I realize that the gig is up and I'm gonna come forward with as much information as I can." Officers were watching Drip's on the cameras in another room.

He stayed seated in his chair with his hands on his knees. His back was hunched over as he stared at the ground. About ten minutes in, he took a series of deep breaths before calling out to investigators. "Guess what brings back his in here." Suddenly, he swung around in his chair and started heaving.

He stopped himself from throwing up in the corner of the room.

“I think the overall tension of the circumstance, I mean, I think he legitimately had some”

real serious physical ailments. And then you couple that with the emotional and mental exhaustion. That was the moment where I felt like he knows things are really, really bad now. The officers were back in the room and Drip's asked them how much longer investigators told him not much, they still had some more questions.

The tough question here is, as you know from the beginning, we were able to, but being a lot of DNA from that scene, we were able to reprocess things that weren't processed good enough, we were able to do a lot more things that we were able to do 20-plus years ago. "So, there you go."

If your DNA comes back to being on scene, that means everything you told is a lie. Drip's insisted that he'd been truthful the entire time.

He repeated that he'd never spoken to Angie and had never been to her apartment, but

police were about to ask their toughest question yet. If Drip said he had never been to Angie's apartment, then why was his DNA in the room where she was killed? The Hulu original series, Furious, is coming to Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus July 27. "There are three victims we know of.

The suspect is female, white, late 20th." Female serial killer is killed for power and troll. I believe there's a deeper motivation here.

“"You have to know how I care what you're telling us and you are going to end up dead."”

"I've been waiting for you." Was the Hulu original series, Furious, on July 27, streamed on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for Bumble's subscribers in terms of lie. "The best answers from across the globe are about to join me for the audition of a lie time."

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"Hello, did you find it?" "Friedays." "Yeah, full of surprises this season."

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"This has never happened in Roger V.H. history."

"Everyone is stressed." "What in a struggle has happened?" "I would wear that as fantastic."

“"This is the type of thing that you should say."”

The world is watching, "Project runway, new episodes Friday, stream on Hulu in Disney Plus." "You made it very clear throughout the entire time that we talked that you don't know her or that you've never been to her house. You've never been to yours that I'm going to call for them."

Investigators hadn't yet told Brian Drips that they found his DNA in Angie's apartment,

but they gave him a chance to explain why it could be there. So they asked him hypothetically if his DNA was found in Angie's apartment, how might it have gotten there? He said maybe he'd been invited by some friends to get high at Angie's place, and he just didn't remember.

If he did go over, he said the only DNA he could imagine he left behind was hair. "We'd given him plenty of opportunity to, you know, tell us why his DNA would be there. It was the build up to the DNA evidence." Captain John Marley. "It was the point when we asked him, what are some of the other ways that somebody,

a man, can leave DNA on a scene?"

“"A lot about, I guess, he and Simon, I don't think that's what the man can think of.”

Is that a reason you're seeing him, putting on a scene?" And he was the one that brought up Simon, and we knew then that we had him there." Investigators had been talking to Drips for hours. Lowly building to this moment. It was time to tell him what they knew.

"I don't want to go over there, I'm not, I don't know." So if it is you, well I don't just want to listen to me, if it is you, and you go in front

of a jury, that's the story that you're going to give, because I was never over there.

And you had just that every one of the beliefs that DNA DNA evidence was wrong. "Yeah, I don't, I guess, I don't want to be under." So you just completely shocked if we had your DNA at the scene. "Yeah. We had your DNA at the scene.

That's why we're here." The officers finally revealed their biggest piece of information, that despite what Drips had told them, they had evidence that connected him to Angie's murder. Drips seemed confused. He asked investigators about the cheek swab he just took.

“And that's what they explained to him what had happened.”

The officers told Drips that they identified him as a person of interest in their investigation. They said they retrieved his DNA without him knowing, tested it against the crime scene evidence, and it came back, a match. Drips told them again, he didn't know Angie, and didn't recall ever being at her apartment. The officers told him that DNA doesn't lie, and that they had a warrant for his arrest.

But they weren't just there to arrest him. We had sufficient evidence to convict him without a confession, but we wanted the details. We wanted to know the why, we wanted to know the how, we wanted to know Drips' story of why he did this. And that was the big reason to keep continuing on with the interrogation.

They told Drips that he's the only person who can tell them what happened the night Angie was killed. Drips had his head in his hands. For a moment, he and the detectives were silent. Before Drips asked the officers for one last smoke break, the officers obliged.

And they all returned to the room, Drips started talking.

Brian Drips had just confessed to killing Angie Dodge.

“For more than two decades, police have been looking for the man who raped and killed her.”

And now he was sitting in front of them. The moment wasn't lost on all bright.

When he finally started to tell us what had happened, it was, I mean, almost felt like

a dream. It did just, I almost didn't feel real. We had been chasing this from all the research, all they had, like, prep that we had done coming into the interview. It was surreal.

It just, yeah, it didn't, I almost didn't feel like it was actually happening. This is what Drips told investigators happened on the night he killed Angie. He said he'd been out drinking with friends, told the officers that one of his friends walked him back to his apartment and then left shortly after they got to his home. And he's left at his apartment by himself.

He says, at that time he was drunk and he was high on cocaine and he had known that

Angie lived across the street and he ultimately decided that he was going to rape her.

Drips told investigators that this was a spur of the moment decision, that nothing about his attack was planned. He said he walked across the street with a pair of gloves and a knife. Drips told them he entered Angie's home, found Angie in her bedroom, and attacked her. And just got on top of it and then turned around and he said he'd run from around and

tightened me back.

Drips said that's when he thinks he used his knife to cut Angie.

He told the officers that he eventually left the apartment, thinking Angie was still alive.

“He said he didn't mean to kill her, you know, how did he get to that one?”

Pure gas, turtleneck. Drips said killing Angie was an accident that he only had intentions to rape her. He told investigators that he didn't find out that Angie was dead until the next day when he saw it on the news. He said he then threw his knife into the river.

Drips gave investigators answers they've been seeking for years, but there was one more thing they needed to know. Did Drips act alone?

“Do you think there's any possibility that something else was there with you?”

Drips said he's pretty sure he acted alone. The police mentioned that there was another person convicted of Angie's murder. This tap, Drips said he'd heard about Chris, how he'd been found guilty of the crime and was eventually released. That's where everybody else, why'd you feel bad for him?

That night if anyone helped him attack Angie, Drips told them no, it was just him. At this point it seemed to detectives that they got what they came for, a confession. Now, they were ready to make an arrest. Officers had pressed Ryan Drips to answer questions that had haunted Idaho Falls for decades. Now, police had him in handcuffs.

There's so many emotions that are going on, like I honestly felt terrible for Angie.

“I felt tell her terrible for her family.”

I know that their family will never completely overcome what this is done to them, but

you want to bring resolution for people. Police called Carol that night to tell her they'd arrested the man who killed her daughter. News, she's been waiting years to hear. In May 2019, one day after Drips confessed to raping and killing Angie, the police invited Carol and her loved ones to the Idaho Falls police station for a private meeting.

Captain Bill Squires greeted her with a hug.

“He escorted her into a conference room, packed with family and friends of the Dodge family”

and law enforcement. The many people who've had some hand in Angie's case. Captain Squires took the floor. We've charged a 53-year-old man named Ryan L. Drips with the murder and rape of your daughter. And he is in the county county jail right now.

And he will be transported here back to Bonneville County to face those charges. He gave a play-by-play of how it all happened. From genetic genealogy identifying Drips as the

person of interest to his eventual confession, police had it finally caught and his killer.

Carol, tearfully, addressed the room. "I would just like to take everybody to prison and to support me." Just 23 years ago we were in this same building hearing this sadness that she was gone. But thank you for being on the journey with me. It's been hard and thank you for having done all my grandchildren that I've failed to be a part of her fault. It was a bad craziness.

But it took craziness to get where we are at today.

In 2021, Brian Drips pleaded guilty and was convicted of first-degree murder and rape.

He was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years and up to life in prison for the murder of Angie Dodge.

“With Drips in prison, what did this all mean for Chris Tap?”

Chris Tap said once he was released from prison, he wanted to move forward and put this case behind him. Then two years after his release, he heard about Brian Drips' arrest from a friend. He started making a bunch of calls and one of the first people he spoke to was Carol. She says they got him Chris. When I was ecstatic for her, I didn't even think of me. I was just ecstatic for her and her family. That they can go to beddies you're now in arrest because it's to actually have the true killer.

The Idaho Falls Police Department hosted a press conference to announce Drips' arrest. Chris was in the audience. They are to show his support for Carol and her family. Thank you for being here. Today we're here to announce that we have arrested Brian Lay Drips for the murder and rape of Angie Dodge. Drips is 53 years later. Chris said being there was overwhelming, but he couldn't help but feel vindicated. After all these years of proclaiming

his innocence, the moment seemed to confirm he was right. But Chris was still a convicted murderer. A reporter asked police about the elephant in the room. What was next for Chris Tap?

I recognize it was another generation of officers, but at this point this Christopher Tap hit an ecology and/or

reparation or something. So what we're here today for with Angie talk about Angie talk about what's happened.

“Chris Tap did another very important part of this case. The deserves it's day in the sunlight and we will do that”

that day is not today. In July 2019, about two months after Drips was charged, Chris's defense team filed another petition for post-conviction relief. Chris's sixth petition over the course of 22 years. But this filing was different because it said there was new evidence that proved Chris's innocence.

It argued that the discovery of Brian Drips's DNA matching the crime scene evidence along with his

admission that he attacked Angie and acted alone were grounds to overturn Chris Tap's murder conviction. The court granted Chris an exoneration hearing that same month. The courtroom was packed with Chris's supporters. A few of them in the audience wore white T-shirts with the word "innocent" in bright red letters. Bonneville County Prosecutor Daniel Clark was there.

“Remember, his office had ordered the independent investigation into Chris's conviction,”

and then he issued his own report that determined there was no new, credible and material evidence that Tap was innocent. However, because of concerns about Chris's confession and sentence, Clark extended Chris a deal that released him from prison, dropped the rape conviction, and left the murder conviction in place. When Clark stood to address the courtroom, he said given Brian Drips's confession and the DNA

match, there was clear and convincing evidence that Chris was convicted of a crime, he did not commit. He moved to vacate the jury verdict and dismiss his conviction. The judge agreed and delivered his ruling.

After years of trying to prove his innocence, Chris finally heard the words he'd been fighting for.

I had brought the grant in state's motion to dismiss both the bank conviction and the murder conviction on basis of actual innocence. The room erupted. Chris felt back tears. He got up and gave his lawyer John Thomas a tight hug. He then turned around to embrace his mom, Vera. Chris was officially exonerated. Carol Dodge was just a couple of rows behind Chris,

applauding alongside his supporters. She had become one of his biggest advocates, and Chris said one of the biggest reasons he was free. She thought I was a devil for years and then then her opinion changed and it made things so much better for me. You know, part of the reason why I'm home today is because of Carol. You know, her fighting for me to help get released and to helping to get

something better for me. It's part of the reason why I'm home today. And I'm greatly indebted to that woman. She has no idea. Carol's family was also there. Even Jeremy Sarges was in the gallery, supporting his old friend.

“Remember, Chris had falsely implicated him in the crime, and Jeremy was charged with being an”

accessory to a felony. Jeremy denied all allegations of any involvement. His DNA didn't match, and he had an alibi for the night of Angie's murder. The charge was dropped, and he was cleared his suspect. Now, Jeremy was in the courtroom, wearing a white and red innocent shirt in support of Chris. Three months later, in October 2020, Chris Tapp's team filed a civil lawsuit for wrongful conviction against the city of Idaho Falls

the lawsuit, but the judge denied the motion. While the former officers denied any wrongdoing,

“Chris and the city of Idaho Falls ultimately reached a settlement. The city agreed to pay Chris”

$11.7 million in damages, and issue a formal apology to him and his family. When ABC News

interviewed Idaho Falls Police Chief Bryce Johnson, he acknowledged that some people made honest mistakes. Look, we put the wrong guy in prison to people making mistakes, she asked people made mistakes, but they were honest mistakes. They had what they thought was a confession, and we know it's different now. We paid a price for that a pretty big price for it, but they were doing the best that they knew how to do it the time. In the city's official apology to Chris,

it's at in addition to the settlement, the city pledged to review its policies, procedures,

and training, and revise them as needed to prevent what happened in Chris's case.

“Prison life, you know, for most people, it changes who you are. You have to adapt. You have to”

become sometimes something you're not to survive. Chris spent 20 years of his life behind bars. Serving time for a crime, he had repeatedly maintained he did not commit. After his release, Chris worked closely with the Innocence Project, and became an advocate for post-conviction reform. He met with lawmakers and traveled the world sharing his story. In 2021, Idaho signed into law a wrongful conviction act, which mandated victims of wrongful

convictions can get up to $75,000 for each year they spent in prison. Even after all Chris had

“been through, he said he didn't see the need to be resentful. Anger left a long time ago for me,”

and I've just accepted it and moved on and pushed forward. If you hold on to Anger, then we'll just tell you up inside. Everybody got to see me break once. You know, when the

Drake found me guilty and the guilty verdict came, and I vowed that I promised myself I would never

break again. There was so much more Chris wanted to accomplish that he would never get to. According to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, in October 2023, four years after his exoneration, Chris had gotten into an altercation and was later taken to the hospital. On November 5th, 2023, Chris Tap was declared dead. He was only 47 years old. The Clark County Corner's office ruled his death a homicide. They determined he had died from

blunt force trauma to the head. A suspect has since been arrested and charged with Chris' murder. The man pleaded not guilty, and a trial is expected to start in early 2027. Chris's funeral was held about three weeks after his death in November 2023, at a local Idaho Falls mortuary. Friends and family filled the fuse. Chris's black casket sat at the front of the room, adorned with a pink and purple flower arrangement. His mother Vera was seated in the front

row. Carol Dodge was there. Two mothers now bound together by the loss of their children. Chris Tap and Angie Dodge. Chris and Angie's journeys will forever be intertwined. Two young lives forever changed by the same brutal crime. And over the course of two decades, the case left multiple victims in its wake. But even amid the tragedy, their stories are also marked by love and forgiveness.

The snare is a production of ABC Audio in 2020. Hosted by me, Maggie Rooley,

“produced by Camille Peterson and Sabrina Fang, with help from Emily Silinder and Emily Schutz.”

Edited by Tracy Samelson, our supervising producer, is Susie Lou, music by Evan Viola,

mixing by Bob Mallory. Special thanks to Katie Dendos, Janis Johnston, Nancy Rosenbaum,

“Sasha Aslinian, Suzanne DeCunto, and Michelle Margallis. Josh Cohan is our director of podcast”

programming. Amy McNiff is our executive producer.