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By Shane Bishop
The moment a mother of Idaho Falls waits for decades arrives today, while the police announced the arrest of the murder of her daughter in 1996.
Police in Idaho Falls announced that Brian Leigh Dripps, 53, of Caldwell, Idaho, had been charged with murder.
"His DNA corresponds to the DNA left at the crime scene and he also confessed to the crime during the interview – of rape and murder," said the police chief of Idaho Falls, Bryce Johnson, at a press conference.
Dripps is alleged to have raped and stabbed Angie Dodge, 18, in her apartment in June 1996 to death. Police on Thursday revealed that at the time of the homicide, Dripps was living on the property. On the other side of the street from Angie's apartment.
"He knew Angie as acquainted," said Captain Bill Squires of the Investigative Bureau of the Idaho Falls Police Department at the press conference. "No friends, he just knew of her."
Captain Squires continued to say that police had contacts with Briggs at the start of the investigation.
"There was a contact on the ground with him, yes, there was a solicitation interview with him at the time, just days after the homicide," Squires said Thursday. "We had his name in a file – on a report like this."
The authorities claim that Dripps was linked to the murder using forensic genetic techniques similar to those that led to the arrest of the suspect in the infamous Golden State Killer case in 2018.
"The story of the case is long. I can not count the number of hours spent by so many people, "said Chief Johnson. "I think we submitted more than 100 samples to the state laboratory for DNA testing. Negative, negative, negative, negative, negative. Frustration. At one point we thought we would never arrive here, I think, but it was a long, long walk.
CeCe Moore of Parabon Labs said at Thursday's press conference that genetic genealogy has "never been done in a suspicious case with such a degraded DNA sample".
"What we learned from this case will continue. And that will inform other cases. So, Angie gave us something here, "Moore said. "It will be felt in waves that go far beyond this one case."
Angie's mother, Carol Dodge, has also worked tirelessly to find her daughter's killer. At the press conference, Dodge thanked the investigators for their efforts over the years.
"What an overwhelming day," said Carol. "I can not even say how difficult this trip was and how many hundreds of people were affected by choosing someone to take my daughter's life. Not only did he take his life, he took a part of our life and touched so many people around the world. "
Chief Johnson thanked Angie's mother on several occasions for her commitment to ensuring justice, saying, "Carol has made us all go for extra effort and do better."
"Carol, for 23 years – every day, every second of every day – she watches over her daughter," said Chief Johnson. "This case begins and ends with Carol."
For years, the authorities said the case was closed, because a year after the murder, a young man, Christopher Tapp, had confessed to having participated in the murder of Dodge.
Tapp later retracted his confession. But a jury found Tapp guilty of murder and a judge sentenced him to 40 years in prison. This, even though his DNA does not match the material found in the sperm left on Angie's body.
Over the last 10 years, Angie's mother, Carol, was convinced that the wrong man had been convicted and that Angie's real killer was still on the run. For years, she fought police and prosecutors convinced that Tapp was guilty, and explained that the DNA belonged to an unknown accomplice of Tapp.
Tapp has never been exonerated, but he was released in 2017 after a judge overturned the conviction for the murder and sentenced Tapp to 20 years of his detention in a state prison. .
"Chris Tapp is another very important element in this case that deserves to spend the day in the sun and we will do it," said Chief Johnson. "But this day is not today. It will probably be in a few weeks. We need a little more time to detect Is and cross Ts. "
The man arrested this week, Brian Dripps, is currently held without bail in a prison in the Boise area. His lawyer has not yet responded to Dateline's request for comment.
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