The Snare, Episode 3: "No Good Explanation"

Summary

20/20: The Snare, Episode 3 – “No Good Explanation” (July 1, 2026)

Podcast: 20/20
Host: ABC News
Summary by: Podcast Summarizer

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Episode Overview

In Episode 3 of The Snare ("No Good Explanation"), host Maggie Rouley takes listeners deep into the tangled web of police interrogations, shifting stories, and relentless grief that followed the murder of Angie Dodge in Idaho Falls in 1996. The episode centers on Chris Tapp—his multiple interrogations, polygraph tests, shifting accusations against friends, and eventual conviction—while raising stark questions about false confessions and unresolved justice. The community’s ordeal, especially that of Carol Dodge (Angie’s mother), is poignantly explored, setting the stage for a late-twist that challenges the foundational assumptions of the case.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Interrogations and DNA Evidence

• Chris Tapp’s Fifth Police Interview

  • Police intensify pressure, bringing up DNA evidence found at the crime scene, and expressing fears it might match Chris.
  • Chris maintains uncertainty:

    “I don't remember touching anything, but it might be.” – Chris Tapp (01:00)

• Lab Results & Police Focus

  • January 1997: DNA from the crime scene does not match Chris Tapp or Ben Hobbs, eliminating physical evidence tying them to the scene.
  • Despite this, investigators continue pressing Chris, suggesting he may be protecting someone else.

    “They ask, was there another person in Angie's apartment he can tell them about?” – Narrator (02:24)

Increasing Pressure and Shifting Allegiances

• Polygraph Manipulation

  • Chris undergoes his third polygraph (01/18/1997); the officer claims he was previously “off the charts deceptive”, urging Chris now to be more truthful.
  • Officers repeatedly push Chris to name another person at the crime scene, focusing on friend Jeremy Sargis (aka “Jer”/“Jerry”).

    “Let’s just put Jer there.” – Chris Tapp (05:09)

• From Speculation to Accusation

  • Initially hesitant, Chris progressively describes Jeremy’s supposed involvement under persistent questioning, now saying Jeremy held Angie down and raped her.

Police Interview with Jeremy Sargis

• Jeremy’s Defiance
  • Jeremy is brought in for his own polygraph and interview, maintains his innocence, demands to see evidence, and rebuffs officers' accusations.

    “No, you’re wasting your time. You're barking up the wrong tree. And you're making absolutely evil out of yourself.” – Jeremy Sargis (08:51)

  • Jeremy is confrontational and refuses to be worn down. He’s soon cleared and not further pursued by police.

DNA Exonerates Jeremy; Pressure on Chris Intensifies

• New DNA Results

  • DNA results confirm Jeremy is not a match.
  • Police return to Chris, pressuring him for the name of the “real” perpetrator (11:30–13:21).

• Interrogative Suggestion and Confession

  • Officers suggest Chris may have held Angie down or cut her. Initially, Chris resists (“That's not my style. That's not me.” – Chris Tapp, 13:31) but then—after hours—agrees he cut Angie, shifting from denial to confessional mode (13:33–13:42).
  • Chris is eventually charged with first-degree murder and rape; Jeremy and Ben Hobbs are cleared (14:50–16:00).

Chris Tapp’s Trial

• A High-Profile, Contentious Case

  • The trial in May 1998 draws major attention. Chris has recanted, claims the police fed him all the details under intense pressure, but only selective confession tapes are shown to the jury.

    “They were selected pieces the jury didn’t watch. Hours of interrogation—they saw him confessing to doing it, to participating in the crime.” – Brian Clark, reporter (17:23)

  • Angie's friend describes grief and powerlessness in the courtroom.

    “At trial, Chris Tapp was silent. Just seemed like no emotion. Carol had uncontrollable pain, sobbing and crying… very difficult to be there knowing that you couldn’t do anything.” – Tim Quick (17:44)

• Closing Arguments

  • Prosecutor insists Chris knew too much to be uninvolved; defense frames his confession as coerced, asking the jury to imagine withstanding so many hours of questioning.

• Jury’s Verdict

  • Jury finds Chris guilty after only two days’ deliberation. Chris maintains composure in court but breaks down outside.

    “My heart’s telling me no way, no way. I know the guy. I’ve never seen him in a fist fight… what in the world are they thinking?” – Jeremy Sargis (22:06)

Community Fallout and Sentencing

• Impact on Jeremy Sargis

  • Despite being cleared, Jeremy is ostracized in Idaho Falls, eventually leaving town.

    “One day we’re just kids hanging out… next day, my two best friends are in prison. And now I’m looked at like I am capable of hurting somebody to that level… I had to find another place to be.” – Jeremy Sargis (23:30)

• Chris’s Sentencing

  • In December 1998, the judge notes numerous mitigating circumstances: Chris’s youth, lack of criminal history, influence of drugs, and the prosecution’s own suggestion that Chris did not inflict the fatal wound.

    “Christopher Taft did not personally inflict a mortal wound on Angie Dodge.” – Police Officer (25:22)

  • Chris is sentenced to 30 years to life in prison (25:28).
  • Carol Dodge’s fury and pain are palpable.

    “This town needs to wake up. Take your blinders off, for hell’s sakes.” – Carol Dodge (26:00)

The Unanswered Mystery and Carol Dodge’s Relentless Advocacy

• An Unidentified Killer?

  • The prosecution’s own theory assumed another, unknown man delivered the fatal wounds—the DNA at the scene never matched any suspect.

• Carol Dodge’s Crusade

  • Angie's mother becomes a persistent force, conducting her own investigation and pressuring the police to do more.

    “Carol Dodge is a force of nature… regularly coming over, walking right into the chief’s office… they eventually put in a set of doors that are now called the Carol doors to keep her from doing that.” – Brian Clark (26:56)

  • Carol reviews nearly 60 hours of Chris’s interviews herself, realizing her understanding of his guilt may have been profoundly mistaken.

    “Everything she thought she knew about Kristapp’s role in her daughter’s murder might be wrong.” – Narrator (30:27)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Chris's Frustration with Police Pressure

  “I don’t know what the hell you guys want from me, but I’m trying to give it to you.” – Chris Tapp (12:10)

• Jeremy’s Reaction to Accusations

  “You’re making absolutely evil out of yourself. You really are.” – Jeremy Sargis (08:51)

• Carol Dodge’s Deep Emotional Pain and Determination

  “I look at Angie’s case, and there’s so many pieces. I’ve been trying to put this puzzle together, and the center’s missing.” – Carol Dodge (28:38)

• Community Heartbreak and Fallout

  “One day we're just kids hanging out down by the river. The next day, my two best friends are in prison...” – Jeremy Sargis (22:56)

• Twist Ending

  “Everything she thought she knew about Kristapp's role in her daughter's murder might be wrong.” – Narrator (30:27)

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Important Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment Highlight | |-----------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:36 | Fifth interview with Chris Tapp; DNA evidence discussed | | 01:39 | DNA results: Chris and Ben ruled out; pressure remains | | 03:50 | Focus shifts to Jeremy Sargis; Chris's story changes | | 05:09 | Chris accuses Jeremy under questioning | | 07:31 | Jeremy Sargis's heated police interview | | 11:30 | DNA returns—Jeremy cleared, Chris questioned anew | | 13:33 | Chris’s confession to cutting Angie under police suggestion | | 16:01 | Chris’s trial begins | | 17:23 | Observations on limited interrogation footage shown to jury | | 19:03 | Carol Dodge's faith in justice before the verdict | | 21:06 | Chris’s attorney comments on the devastating guilty verdict | | 22:06 | Jeremy Sargis expresses disbelief and trauma | | 24:36 | Chris’s sentencing: Judge weighs mitigating factors | | 26:42 | Recognition that the DNA at the crime scene remains unidentified | | 26:56 | Carol Dodge’s relentless pressure on police (Carol doors anecdote) | | 28:52 | Carol embarks on her own review of the case evidence | | 30:27 | Carol’s realization after viewing the full interrogations |

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Tone and Style

The episode captures a mix of grim procedural detail, community anguish, and the personal devastation of both the accused and the victims’ families—a tone that is intense, compassionate, and unresolved. The narrative weaves between dry factual retellings (from police reports and interviews) and emotional, first-person testimony. The lingering puzzle of the “real” perpetrator’s identity, and Carol Dodge’s slow-turn realization, gives the episode its haunting edge.

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Summary in Brief

No Good Explanation meticulously traces Chris Tapp’s journey from suspect to convicted murderer—despite the complete absence of incriminating DNA—under relentless police questioning and psychological pressure. Friends are accused, then cleared, while the town of Idaho Falls is left polarized and haunted. Carol Dodge, torn between grief and determination, emerges as an unstoppable advocate for her daughter, reopening the core mystery: If Chris Tapp isn’t truly guilty, then who is Angie's killer? The episode closes with Carol confronting the shattering possibility that the whole case may have taken a grievous wrong turn, ensuring listeners will come back for the next chapter in this true crime saga.

Transcript

[Deborah Roberts]

This is Deborah Roberts here with another weekly episode of our latest true crime series from 2020 and ABC Audio, the Snare. Remember, you can get new episodes early by following the Snare on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you're listening now. Now here's the next episode of the Snare.

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[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

By mid January 1997, the Idaho Falls Police have interviewed Chris Tapp four times. As Chris sits for his fifth interview, officers bring up the DNA evidence found at the crime scene. It's something they've mentioned to Chris before. Chris asks, will my DNA be there?

[Chris Tapp]

I don't remember touching anything, but it might be.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

During their canvass of Angie's neighborhood and their interviews with people who knew her, police say they collected around 100 DNA samples. The officers tell Chris their biggest fear is that the DNA samples will match him.

[Chris Tapp]

Our biggest concern right now is that DNA of Lyme grapes, right? So we just have to, you know, we just have to think about that.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

Chris says he doesn't think the DNA will be his.

[Chris Tapp]

I'm not cold blooded. I'm not sick minded.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

That afternoon, the officers get a call from the forensic lab. It's not news of a breakthrough. Officers learn that the DNA does not match Chris Tapped. Which means the physical evidence that investigators are working with does not tie Ben Hobbs or Chris Tapp to the crime scene. But the police don't stop focusing on Chris. Instead, they bring Chris in for another polygraph. They press him for more information. They ask him what he could still be hiding, who he could still be hiding.

[Chris Tapp]

Your ass is in deep trouble.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

They ask, was there another person in Angie's apartment he can tell them about?

[Chris Tapp]

Are you protected? I ain't protecting nobody no more.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

From ABC Audio and 20 20, I'm Maggie Ruley and this is the Snare. Episode three, no good explanation. When Chris sits down for his polygraph on January 18, it's the third time he's been hooked up to the machine. The third time his reactions have been charted and assessed for deceptiveness. The officer running the polygraph starts off by telling Chris that during his first polygraph he was so deceptive that he was going off the charts. But during his second, the officer says he was getting close to being completely truthful. Now the officer urges Chris to be more truthful about 10 minutes in, after the same questions Chris had been asked during his other polygraphs. Did he kill Angie? Was he in the apartment when she was killed? The officer asks, were you, Jeremy, and Ben there? Remember, no evidence ties Ben Hobbs to Angie's rape and murder. Even though his name will continue to come up in these police interviews, he'll never be charged in the case. So police start to turn their attention to another young man who spent the summer of 1996 in hanging out at the Snake River. Jeremy Sargis, a friend of Ben and Chris. At first, when the officer asks Chris if Jeremy was there, Chris says no. But 20 minutes into the polygraph, the officer insists, tell me the other person who's there. And Chris replies, baby, Jer was. Maybe Jer was. This was another big shift. In Chris's version of the night Angie was killed. He was now saying that maybe there was another person there during the crime, and maybe that person was his friend Jeremy.

[Chris Tapp]

I can't help Jeremy at all. No. Okay. He's already. So it's you, Ben, Jerry. Jerk. Let's just put Jer there.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

Let's just put Jer there, Chris says. At first, Chris doesn't seem fully confident that Jeremy was there. He says he's only speculating. But as the officer asks him more and more, Chris provides more and more details on what he claims Jeremy did. By the end of the hour and a half long polygraph, Chris now claims Jeremy held Angie down while she was stabbed. The officer tells Chris, you've done great this morning. After the polygraph, the officers conduct another interview with Chris. At this point, he has spoken with them for nearly nine hours over the course of a week and a half. But this time, officers have that new allegation from Chris that, according to him, there was a third man at the crime scene. And after officers brought up Jeremy's name this time, Chris tells investigators Jeremy held Angie down by her arms and eventually raped her. Officers ask why it's taken Chris so long to tell them this.

[Police Officer]

What has Jerry got on you that

[Chris Tapp]

you know that you got on me?

[Police Officer]

What hold does Jer have on you?

[Chris Tapp]

Just crunch you.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

Chris says he and Jeremy were good friends, that they spent a lot of time over the summer at the Snake river together, hanging out. The officer asks if Jeremy ever threatened Chris.

[Chris Tapp]

Jared never threatened me.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

Jeremy Sargis had been on the police's radar for a while. He was known as one of Ben Hobbs best friends. So when Ben was arrested in Nevada in an unrelated case, investigators wanted to know what Jeremy knew. And days before the Authorities asked Chris if Jeremy had been there at the crime scene. Jeremy came into the police station for a polygraph exam and an interview. Just like the investigators did with Chris. They applied pressure to Jeremy. They told Jeremy that Chris was talking with them.

[Chris Tapp]

Chris has an attorney, and we're gonna work a deal out with him. Okay? What do you think accessory to murder is gonna get you? Give me. Yep. Not a damn.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

Not a damn thing, Jeremy said. Jeremy's tone with the officers was very different from Chris Taps. He sounded defiant and irritated. The officers told Jeremy that he failed the polygraph test. But Jeremy didn't take their word for it. He demanded to see the results. He was aggravated at the end of his rope.

[Chris Tapp]

Show me.

[Jeremy Sargis]

I want to see it.

[Chris Tapp]

I want to know how the polygraph works before I'm going to believe that.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

Jeremy kept pushing back on the officers, insisting he knew nothing and that they had things all wrong. Jeremy said he still doesn't know where Angie even lived and that he had no reason to kill her. Near the end of his interview, things reached a boiling point.

[Police Officer]

For real, Sue. You're not coming clean, my friend. That's for real. Okay. I know. I know. Why do you think we have you back in here? Do you think we'd be wasting our time and wasting your time if we didn't think you're involved here?

[Chris Tapp]

No, you're wasting your time. You're barking up the wrong tree. And you're making absolutely evil out of yourself. You really are.

[Police Officer]

Excuse me? I'm making a fool out of myself. Yeah, because I didn't be. I'm making a fool out of myself. I think you. I think you better stand up and look in the flipping mirror.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

The officer slammed the door of the interrogation room shut. Unlike Chris Tapp, Jeremy did not end up sitting in the interrogation room for multiple days. And the officers did not keep returning to him seeking information. This was it. But days after this interview with Jeremy Sargis, the officers now have Chris Tapp in the interrogation room claiming that Jeremy was part of Angie's murder. Has Jeremy been the missing piece in this case the entire time? Is he the DNA match?

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[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

Investigators ultimately get more DNA results back. And they find out the DNA does not match Jeremy Sargis. He's not the third man they've been asking Chris about. Once again, they do not have physical evidence supporting the version of events Chris has laid out in the interrogation room. And once again, the officers return to Kris Tapp. They bring Chris in for his seventh day of questioning. They tell him he's starting to come clean, but still holding back. And evidence is showing it.

[Chris Tapp]

I don't know what the hell you guys want from me, but I'm trying to give it to you.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

The officers tell Chris that Jeremy probably was not there like Chris alleged, and that there was another person involved who Chris has not named yet. They also remind Chris of something he and his attorney were told before the interview. That Chris's deal has been dissolved by the prosecutor. But they say if Chris was involved in Angie's murder beyond what he's told them, a new deal could possibly be constructed. They ask him why he's having so much trouble giving up the unnamed person. Chris sounds exasperated as he replies, I

[Chris Tapp]

would if I could. I would. Jesus Christ, I would. But I know I can give you every goddamn name in the book.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

The officers start suggesting to Chris that maybe he held Angie down. Maybe he even cut her.

[Chris Tapp]

I know I didn't cut her, okay? Maybe I did threaten her.

[Police Officer]

Well, I'm sure you did. I mean, come on, man. I mean, you're the heat of the moment. She's putting up the fight. You get caught up in it, you know, you just.

[Chris Tapp]

That's not my style. That's not me.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

The questioning goes on for more than two hours. By the end, Chris has shifted his story again. He goes from that's not me to something entirely different, something that will change the course of his life. He says he cut Angie on her chest. He has now seemingly confessed not just to knowing what happened to Angie, but to being a part of it. Chris sits for more interviews and polygraphs. The officers keep asking him for names for the potential DNA match, but no one pans out. Eventually, according to police reports, Chris tells his attorney that he does not want to talk anymore, that if he remembers something, he will contact the police. Chris was charged with first degree murder and rape. The accessory to a felony charge was dropped. Jeremy Sargis was charged too, with being an accessory to a felony. But Jeremy was not a DNA match and had an alibi for the night of Andy's murder. Eventually, the charge was dropped and he was cleared as a suspect. Ben Hobbs wasn't charged. Besides Cruise's accusations during police interviews, nothing connected Ben to the crime. He was also cleared, which means that of the three friends investigators had focused on, only Kris Tapp continued to talk to police. Only Chris would stand trial. Only Chris would face Angie's mom in the courtroom. In May 1998, nearly two years after Angie's murder, Kristapp's trial began in the Bonneville County Courthouse. It's a beige brick building in Idaho Falls, not far from the banks of the Snake river, where Angie and the man charged with her murder once savored the freedom of youth and summer. Brian Clark, a reporter in eastern Idaho, says a high profile case like this was rare in Idaho Falls.

[Brian Clark]

It was a an unusual trial for around here was highly publicized.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

It was also a death penalty case. Chris's life was at stake as he entered the courtroom. He wore a loose fitting navy blue suit to the trial and his dark hair was neatly combed back. Carol dodge and Chris Tapp's mom, Vera Tapp 1, both in the courtroom. The jury for Chris's trial was carefully selected. According to the Idaho Falls Post Register, a pool of 100 people was whittled down to 12, nine women and three men. By the time the trial started, Chris had a new lawyer. He had also recanted his confession and said that police fed him all the details of the crime and he had repeated them. But authorities maintained that the interrogation was proper and that Chris had in fact volunteered information about the crime that they claimed only a perpetrator could know. During the trial, some videos of Chris's interviews with the police were played for the jury only about an hour total of the interrogation tapes.

[Brian Clark]

They were selected pieces the jury didn't watch. Hours of interrogations they saw him confessing to doing it, to participating in the crime.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

Angie's friend Tim Quick went to one day of the trial. He said he stopped going because it was too hard to watch Carol Dodge sit through it.

[Tim Quick]

At trial, Chris Tapp was silent. Just seemed like no emotion. Carol had uncontrollable pain, sobbing and crying and just very difficult to be there knowing that you couldn't do anything to make it better for her.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

The trial lasted two weeks and as the summer of 1998 was about to begin, attorneys delivered their closing arguments. The prosecutor reiterated that Chris knew far too much about the exact details of the crime scene to not have been involved. The defense attorney said he had no good explanation for why Chris confessed, but asked the jury to imagine being subjected to that many hours of police interrogation. He also argued that if Chris had simply stayed silent, he would not be on trial. What would the jury think? Would they see a man who gave a false confession like the defense alleged, or a man responsible for Angie's death?

[Carol Dodge]

This is in God's hands now there will be justice.

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[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

Just two days after closing arguments, the jury returned a verdict. In one of the biggest trials in Idaho Falls history, Chris Tapp was found guilty of murder and rape and of using a deadly weapon to commit both crimes. After the verdict, local TV station Kifi interviewed Chris's attorney outside the courthouse. He said Chris maintained his composure inside but sobbed on his shoulder once they left.

[Tim Quick]

It is definitely the most difficult verdict I've ever had to be a part of. There's not much to say to a 20 year old kid who's being faced at this point with the possibility of the death penalty or life in prison.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

Carol Dodge was interviewed outside the courthouse too, and said she wanted to thank the jury.

[Carol Dodge]

You were Angie's voice and the verdict was God's will. And thank you everybody for standing by us and for all of your prayers and your comfort and your support and thank you.

[Chris Tapp]

Thank you.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

Jeremy Sargis, once implicated by Chris and Angie's murder during police interviews but ultimately cleared as a suspect, found it hard to believe his friend Chris was guilty.

[Jeremy Sargis]

My heart's telling me no way, no way. I know the guy. I've never seen him in a fist fight and never seen him yell at anybody. And what in the world are they thinking this guy did? I felt a lot of emotions when Chris went, went away. Anger. I was hurt. I was worried. I was glad. Then he was gone. He was locked up. You know, I mean, you feel a lot of, feel a lot of emotions through something like that. A lot of emotions and you just can't unfeel. It was a difficult time of life.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

Jeremy felt that even though his accessory to a felony charge had been dropped, people in Idaho Falls were still suspicious of him.

[Jeremy Sargis]

One day we're just kids hanging out down on the river. The next day, my two best friends are in prison. And now I'm looking at being looked at like I am capable of hurting somebody to that level. I mean, it was brutal. A lot of people thought that I should have been in prison, too.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

Jeremy said the scrutiny, the rumors, they all got to be too much. He moved out of Idaho Falls.

[Jeremy Sargis]

I'm angry about being chased out of my hometown, missing my opportunity to grow and learn how to operate my family business with my little brother and cousins. And I'm really sad that I missed out on that. I'm really sad that I missed out on time with my mom. Sad that I had to give up friendships for my Doe Falls. That was my home. I was born there. I was supposed to stay there. I was supposed to be a part of that society, but instead, I had to find another place to be.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

In December 1998, Kristapp returned to the courthouse in Idaho Falls, facing either the death penalty or decades in Idaho State prison. Tim Quick says he and his friends wanted Chris to get the death penalty.

[Tim Quick]

We felt that he should be taken care of like he did to our friend.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

The judge said he was considering a lot of mitigating circumstances in his sentencing, that Chris was young, not even 20 years old yet when Angie was killed, that he was under the influence of drugs during the crime, that he has attention deficit disorder, and that he has no history of violence or prior felony convictions. He also said Chris would not have been in the courtroom if he had not been forthcoming with the police and that the prosecutor had not argued that Chris was the one who actually cut Angie's throat.

[Police Officer]

Christopher Taft did not personally inflict a mortal wound on Angie Dodge.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

Given all those factors, the judge said he did not think the death penalty was just. He sentenced Chris to 30 years to life in prison. Chris's attorney said in an interview that he believed there were plans to appeal the conviction, but that Chris was relieved he did not receive the death penalty. But life in prison didn't feel like enough for Carol Dodge. She thought Chris should be put to death for what he'd done to her daughter.

[Carol Dodge]

Doesn't anybody understand what's going on in this town? Won't anybody wake up? This town needs to wake up. Take your blinders off, for hell's sakes.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

Chris. Trial was over, but the police's investigation was not. After all, the whole theory of the case, the theory that had convicted Chris, was based on another person being involved in Angie's murder and someone besides Chris inflicting the mortal wound. There was still that unidentified man whose DNA was found at the crime scene.

[Brian Clark]

They hadn't caught everybody. There was still a murderer out there.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

And Brian Clark says there was one person in particular who applied pressure on the Idaho Falls police to keep investigating.

[Brian Clark]

Carol Dodge is a force of danger. She worked on this in a way that families don't do. She continued to just try and find a break in the case. Carol Dodge was, in fact, such a presence at ifpd, regularly coming over, walking right into the chief's office, telling him what she thought and requesting that he do more to find her daughter's killer. That they eventually put in a set of doors that are now called the Carol doors to keep her from doing that.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

Carol says when Angie was murdered, she felt like her body shut down. She says she couldn't walk or talk. She would forget how to get home. But despite her grief, she always checked in with police. She wanted constant updates on her daughter's case.

[Carol Dodge]

I'd walk in there and I say, what's happening today? Well, just nothing. I go, will you just sit there? Because I'm going out to the streets tonight.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

Carol didn't wait for police to turn up leads. She says she started conducting her own investigation, interviewing people, staking out rough neighborhoods. She says there were nights she'd be out until 4, 5 o' clock in the morning chasing down leads, and she'd bring whatever she found to the police, desperately hoping that it would lead to a break in the case. But none of her efforts brought her any closer to identifying the killer.

[Carol Dodge]

I look at Angie's case, and there's so many pieces. I've been trying to put this puzzle together, and the center's missing.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

That sense of not being able to put the puzzle together, it went on for years and years. But in 2008, a full decade after Chris was convicted of Angie's murder, Carol Dodge made a decision that would change her life and Chris's. Carol had been revisiting every aspect of the police's investigation.

[Carol Dodge]

I kept going back and forth, and I kept reading all of the documents and reading the different reports that I had accumulated.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

As part of that, Carol got a hold of recordings of Kris Tapp's many interrogations and polygraph tests. It was nearly 60 hours of footage. She thought maybe there was something in those tapes that. That could lead her to some answers. So she decided to watch all of the footage.

[Police Officer]

You went from no involvement to where you're starting to come clean on some stuff, but you're still holding back.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

She says it was her first time sitting down to watch the videotapes. Until that moment, she'd only seen snippets of Chris's interrogation, Just the parts that were played during his trial.

[Chris Tapp]

I mean, okay, I willing to work with you guys. I don't know what the hell you guys want from me, but I'm trying

[Police Officer]

to give it to you.

[Chris Tapp]

I mean, that's all I can do.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

Then, as Carol watched those hours and hours of footage, she says she realized something. Everything she. She thought she knew about Kristapp's role in her daughter's murder might be wrong. The Snare is a production of ABC Audio in 2020, hosted by me, Maggie Rouley. Produced by Camille Peterson and Sabrina Fang, with help from Annalise Linder and Emily Shutz Edited by Tracy Samuelson. Our supervising producer is Susie Lu. Music by Evan Viola Mixing by Bob Mallory. Special thanks to Katie Dendas, Janice Johnston, Nancy Rosenbaum, Sasha Aslanian, Suzanne DiCunto and Michelle Margulis. Josh Cohan is our director of podcast programming. Amy McNiff is our executive producer.

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Spotify It's Jay Shetty. Are you one of those media strategy people scrolling through spreadsheets searching for an audience that pays twice as much attention to your ads than they do on social? Let me introduce you to fans, and they're here with me on Spotify. Trust me, I know fans. They don't skip. They stay for hours. They don't move on. They manifest. They're not a demographic group. They're fans.

[Narrator (Maggie Rouley)]

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[Harvey Guillen]

You're among fans.

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