Murder of Angie Dodge

rdf:langString Murder of Angie Dodge

rdf:langString The rape and murder of Angie Dodge was a cold case in Idaho Falls, Idaho, that remained open from the crime's occurrence on June 13, 1996, until May 2019. For 20 years, Tapp served time in prison for Dodge's rape and murder while authorities searched for suspects that matched DNA left at the crime scene. In 2017, Tapp's rape conviction was vacated and he was released from prison. Over the course of Tapp's sentence, authorities continued searching for remaining suspects, partially at the insistence of the murdered girl's mother, and in 2014 accused Michael Usry Jr. of rape and murder. Authorities identified Usry as a suspect through Y-chromosome familial searching, a process by which partial DNA matches to relatives are used to identify an individual. After conducting a DNA test, authorities discovered that Usry did not match the DNA found at the crime scene. In 2019, authorities used autosomal familial searching to find and convict Brian Leigh Dripps Sr., who was found to have a full genetic match and confessed to the crime after interrogation. This cold case received notability as one of the example cases for familial searching, where genetic testing for relatives lead to the discovery of a suspect. With both false accusations and the ultimate conviction obtained through familial searching, the case is an example for how non-criminal genetic repositories are used in criminal investigations and the debates on the appropriateness of their use.