An innocent Idaho man who spent 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit was mysteriously killed one month after he appeared on Dateline NBC to speak out about his wrongful conviction.
Christopher Tapp was just 21 when he was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted in the 1996 rape and murder of his friend, Angie Dodge, then 18. He was exonerated in 2017 after the Idaho Innocence Project in intervened.
The real killer, Brian Dripps, Sr., 55 confessed to the murder and pled guilty to the crime in 2021 and was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years and up to life in prison.
But after an exclusive September 2023 interview with Dateline, Tapp, then 47, turned up dead in a hotel room in Las Vegas. He died of blunt force trauma and in January, his death was ruled a homicide.
In Dateline NBC episode 'True Confession,' due to be aired Friday, Tapp tells host Keith Morrison: 'I am just trying to be the best person I can be - blend the two people together. The guy that was in the prison and the guy before prison.'
'We all make mistakes good or bad. We may do things right or wrong, but I am just trying to be the best person I can.'
Morrison asked Tapp, though he has moved on, 'if he was still a little annoyed inside.'
'Of course I will be. These people robbed my life for 20 years,' he said during the sit down. 'I will always be mad. I will always have that little bit of tension and resentment because of what these people did to me.'
Christopher Tapp, 47, was just 21 when he was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted in the 1996 rape and murder of his friend, Angie Dodd, then 18, but was freed in 2017 after the Idaho Innocence Project proved his innocence
Christopher Tapp, 47, was just 21 when he was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted in the 1996 rape and murder of his friend, Angie Dodd, then 18, but was freed in 2017 after the Idaho Innocence Project proved his innocence
The real murderer, Brian Dripps, Sr. in Dodd's murder confessed to the killing and pled guilty to the crime in 2021
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Angie Dodge, was 18, when she was raped and stabbed to death in her apartment in Idaho Falls in June 1996
Tapp told Morrison: 'I wish I can say I have moved on and I have moved on because again look at what all these things I have been able to accomplish since the exonerateration with the compensaton bill here in Idaho and Oregon.
'I have helped across the country passinig bills to help the wrongly convicted for the next individual.'
NBC Dateline has been following the case for decades, providing viewers with in-depth coverage.
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Its latest two-hour broadcast will include new interviews with investigators, other suspects, family members of Dodge, and more key figures including the lead investigator Bill Squires, who is now retired, and Jeremy Sargis, a friend whom Tapp falsely accused of involvement.
Additional interivews includ, Drizin a false confession expert who worked to free Chris (he was not his lawyer) and CeCe Moore, an investigative genetic genealogist who pointed police toward the real killer.
On Thursday, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told DailyMail.com the homicide investigation is ongoing, with no new developments at this time.
Angie Dodge was raped and stabbed to death in an apartment she had recently moved into in June 1996.
Tapp was interrogated nine times and subjected to seven polygraph tests, which he was told he failed and as a result may face the death penalty.
Tapp was convicted after a jury heard what experts would later say were false confessions under extreme duress, and was found guilty even though his DNA did not match evidence found at the crime scene
Angie Dodd's mother, Carol, has been one of his most staunch supporters and has worked for years to help free him.
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