The Snare: Peacekeeper

Summary

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20/20 Podcast: The Snare – Episode 1 “Peacekeeper”

Date: June 17, 2026
Host: Maggie Ruley (Narrator)
Key Contributors: Carol Dodge, Detective Jeff Pratt, Tim Quick, Jeremy Sargis, Brian Clark

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Overview:

Main Theme:
The premiere of “The Snare,” a compelling six-part true crime series, opens with the story of Angie Dodge, an 18-year-old woman found brutally murdered in her Idaho Falls apartment in 1996. The episode explores the immediate aftermath of her murder—community shock, the crime scene investigation, the impact on Angie’s family and friends, and the start of a decades-long pursuit of justice by her mother, Carol Dodge. The narrative sets the foundation for a story of trauma, persistence, and a search for truth, hinting at both investigative missteps and the extraordinary determination of ordinary people seeking answers.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Idaho Falls in ‘96

• Idaho Falls’ Character:

  • Small, outdoorsy town with a tightly-knit community (04:56)
  • Described by Jeremy Sargis as “a good place to grow up” with rituals like swimming, river hangouts, and community events.
  • The town has a significant LDS (Mormon) presence, with the temple as a local landmark (05:43).

• Angie’s Life and Freedom:

  • Angie Dodge embraced newfound independence after graduating high school, taking a job, and moving into her own small apartment (07:00).
  • Her upbeat spirit shines; friends recall her excitement over her apartment even though it was modest:

    “You would have thought she was moving into a mansion. She was super excited. It was the best house in the world. Just pure joy when she had her own place.” — Tim Quick (08:30)

2. Discovery of the Crime

• Timeline of Events:

  • Angie misses her early morning shift at a makeup store; coworkers grow concerned (08:40).
  • Two coworkers perform a welfare check, find her apartment unlocked, and discover her body in a grisly crime scene (08:40–09:46).

• Initial Police Response:

  • Detective Jeff Pratt, a veteran Idaho Falls officer, called in to process the scene.
  • Pratt recalls the violence and shock:

    “They gave me a briefing... cautioned me that it was a pretty graphic and violent scene. A lot of blood.” — Det. Jeff Pratt (10:59)

  • No signs of forced entry; the apartment was orderly except for the area around the victim (11:29).

3. The Crime Scene

• Details of the Attack:

  • Over a dozen stab wounds, including a severe cut to Angie's throat, and evidence of sexual assault (12:12–13:13).
  • Notable lack of struggle in the rest of the apartment.
  • Detective Pratt’s lifelong impression:

    “It’s still one of the worst cases I’ve ever seen... It’s the nightmare. It’s the one you desperately want to solve.” — Det. Jeff Pratt (13:13)

• Forensic Evidence:

  • Police collected blood, semen, and a pubic hair not matching Angie’s from various locations (15:16).
  • DNA technology was new at the time, but officers hoped for a match:

    “The killer absolutely left his calling card there.” — Det. Jeff Pratt (15:56)

4. Angie Dodge: Character and Relationships

• Family and Friends Reminiscences:

  • Angie is remembered as both determined and compassionate:

    “She would always, always bring a stranger home... listen to music. She was very compassionate.” — Carol Dodge (18:36)

  • Organized: handled family finances as a teen, interested in entrepreneurship (19:17).
  • Beloved by friends for her inclusive and peacemaking spirit:

    “She was always a peacemaker, always, always wanted everyone to be happy.” — Tim Quick (20:39)

  • Recent argument and reconciliation with her mother:

    “I rocked her and I said, I’m so glad you’re not mad at me anymore. And she just looked up. She said, not even in a blue moon. That was a God given night.” — Carol Dodge (22:38)

• A Haunting Mystery:

  • Angie confided she’d “done something really stupid.” Carol did not ask at the time and would later deeply regret that:

    “I keep going back when Angie said, I’ve done something really stupid. What is it that she did that possibly was the reason why she was killed?” — Carol Dodge (23:29)

5. Community Response and Fear

• Shock and Mourning:

  • Large turnout for Angie’s funeral, with police surveilling attendees for possible suspects (27:00).
  • Entire community was unnerved:

    “Nothing like that happens in Idaho Falls... It scared people. It really did.” — Jeremy Sargis (28:23)

  • Police had no immediate suspect, increasing communal anxiety.

• Rumors and Fallout:

  • Rumors circulated widely, and police questioned hundreds of people (28:48).
  • The murder was a classic “whodunit,” with physical evidence but no clear suspect (29:05–29:17).

6. Carol Dodge: Relentless Pursuit

• Mother Turned Investigator:

  • Carol Dodge launches her own investigation, interviewing people in the local drug scene, hanging flyers, and offering rewards (30:23–30:46).
  • Friend Tim Quick helps her canvass for information:

    “We thought we were our own investigative team, went and asked questions, everyone, anyone who would know.” — Tim Quick (30:55)

• Police DNA Swabs:

  • Investigators collected DNA samples from about 100 people but failed to find a match (29:43).
  • Months passed without arrests—until a new lead surfaced.

7. A New Lead

• A Break in the Case:
  • In January 1997, Idaho Falls police hear of a similar crime in Nevada involving a man known in Angie’s social circles and seen at her funeral (31:05).
  • The implication: the investigation turns in a promising—if chilling—new direction, laying the groundwork for later episodes.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|-------------------|-------| | 08:30 | Tim Quick | “You would have thought she was moving into a mansion. She was super excited. It was the best house in the world. Just pure joy when she had her own place.” | | 13:13 | Det. Jeff Pratt | “It’s still one of the worst cases I’ve ever seen... It’s the nightmare. It’s the one you desperately want to solve.” | | 15:56 | Det. Jeff Pratt | “The killer absolutely left his calling card there.” | | 18:36 | Carol Dodge | “She would always, always bring a stranger home... and they would cook and do all sorts of things and listen to music. She was very compassionate.” | | 20:39 | Tim Quick | “She was always a peacemaker, always, always wanted everyone to be happy.” | | 22:38 | Carol Dodge | “I’m so glad you’re not mad at me anymore. And she just looked up. She said, not even in a blue moon. That was a God given night.” | | 23:29 | Carol Dodge | “I keep going back when Angie said, I’ve done something really stupid. What is it that she did that possibly was the reason why she was killed?” | | 28:23 | Jeremy Sargis | “Nothing like that happens in Idaho Falls... It scared people. It really did.” | | 30:23 | Brian Clark | “She started hitting the streets like a cop, interviewing people, trying to find out who killed her daughter.” | | 30:55 | Tim Quick | “We thought we were our own investigative team, went and asked questions, everyone, anyone who would know.” |

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [04:56] – Life in Idaho Falls & Angie’s coming of age
• [08:40] – Discovery of Angie’s body
• [10:59] – Detective Pratt’s first impressions & crime scene description
• [12:12-13:13] – Forensic details of the attack
• [18:06–19:45] – Carol Dodge and friends reflect on Angie’s personality
• [22:38–23:29] – Angie’s last night with her mother; the cryptic statement
• [27:00–28:15] – Memorial service and community fear
• [28:48–29:43] – Police efforts and collection of DNA
• [30:23–30:55] – Carol Dodge’s independent investigation
• [31:05] – Emergence of a new suspect in Nevada

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Tone & Atmosphere

• The episode’s narrative is empathetic and community-focused, blending detailed procedural investigation with intimate, emotional remembrances.
• Tension and sorrow permeate every segment, but especially the testimonies of Carol Dodge and Tim Quick. The sense of injustice hangs heavy, as does admiration for Carol’s relentless drive.

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Conclusion

Episode 1 of “The Snare” masterfully sets up both the central mystery of Angie Dodge’s murder and the emotional heart of the series: a mother and community’s refusal to give up on justice. The case remains unsolved at episode’s end—with the promise of new developments ahead—and listeners are left with a vivid sense of loss, uncertainty, and dogged hope.

Transcript

[Deborah Roberts]

This is Deborah Roberts. You are about to hear the first episode of the latest original true crime podcast from 2020 and ABC Audio, a shocking six part series called the Snare. It's a story about loyalty, persistence and a decades long fight for justice. In 1996, 18 year old Angie Dodge was found brutally murdered in her apartment in Idaho Falls. The police soon identified a suspect and put him behind bars, but some evidence still didn't line up and doubts lingered about who was really responsible. For years, Angie's mom continued to search for answers and two decades later, a surprising revelation changed everything. Hear the true story of what happened to Angie Dodge on our new podcast, the Snare. We'll be sharing weekly episodes on Wednesdays right here on the 2020 podcast feed over the next six starting right now with episode one. But if you don't want to wait, 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 episode one of the Snare.

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[Carol Dodge]

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[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] On a cold winter night in 1997, police in a small city in Idaho have brought a young man to the station to help answer some questions. His name is Chris Tapp. He shifts around in his chair inside a spare interrogation room, propping a baseball cap on the knee of his faded blue jeans. Chris is 20 years old. The detective asks if he's comfortable and says he can leave anytime.

[Chris Tapp]

Not unrest. You're not in trouble. You can get up and say, hey, I'm done. Take me home. Just want to kind of picture grade and kind of go from there.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

The detective seems to think Chris knows something about the death of a young woman he knew, the brutal murder of 18 year old Angie Dodge, who'd been found stabbed and sexually assaulted in her apartment more than six months before. Chris is confused about why police would want to talk to him.

[Chris Tapp]

What more can I say? I mean, I'm going to be helpful.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

I'm going to try to do everything

[Chris Tapp]

I can, but I really don't know that much.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

But the detective doesn't appear to believe him. He shifts gears, saying if Chris is lying, he's going to pay a heavy price.

[Chris Tapp]

Starting to shape up that some heads are going to probably roll for a little bit. And it appears jurors is probably on the chopping block.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

He says things will only get worse if it turns out Chris is hiding something. But if he cooperates and fesses up now, then maybe police can throw him a lifeline.

[Chris Tapp]

I can't make this promise to you, but I can tell you that because of my position and everything, I could pull a tap to pull some serious strings. Okay.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Chris thought he was here to help the police, but now he's starting to realize this might not be a friendly conversation. He tries bargaining with the detective.

[Chris Tapp]

I'll take a lie detector test. I would find anything that would just verify what I said. You can take it to court. I'm being a scared little man.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Chris has just said he's escaped. Scared little man. He's also volunteered to take a lie detector test. Soon detectives will take him up on that offer and it will set him and others on a dark path. A path they could never have predicted. From abc audio and 20 20, I'm maggie rouley. This is the snare. Episode 1 peacekeeper. In June 1996, young people in Idaho Falls, Idaho were starting to settle into summer. Jeremy Sargis, Angie Dodge's classmate all through high school, was one of them.

[Jeremy Sargis]

It's an outdoorsy place. It was a good place to grow up. We all were dorks back in the day, you know, we all had good times and hooky bobbing and water fights and yeah, driving around with your feet hanging out the window.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Idaho Falls is a town of around 50,000, not far from the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park. It's known for having some of the best fly fishing in the country and is home to Idaho's oldest rodeo, the Warbonnet Roundup. The town is named after a set of man made waterfalls in the Snake river, which cuts it in half.

[Jeremy Sargis]

My friends and I spent a lot of time hanging out down at the river. Being kids, we seemed to all get along really good.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Right along the river there's a sprawling white Mormon temple. It's one of the town's defining features. There's a big Latter Day Saints community in Idaho Falls and the temple with its massive steeple towers over everything else. But for Jeremy Sargis and his friends, the Snake river was what mattered. In the summer of 96, everybody kind

[Jeremy Sargis]

of cruised around earlier in the morning to see who'd stopped and was swimming or picnicking. And then one person would stop and another person would stop. And you know, sometimes by the end of the night they would. There wouldn't be anywhere to park. I mean, it's certain points. There was hundreds of people down there hanging out and having a good time.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Angie Dodge hung out at the river too.

[Tim Quick]

You'd have the cowboys over here and the jocks over here. And Angie was a social butterfly. So she would be in all the groups. It wouldn't be just our clique that she would be with. She would be with them all.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Tim Quick was one of Angie Dodge's best friends.

[Tim Quick]

Angie's mom and my mom went to high school together. So I met Angie at a very young age. And then we grew up together. Families did a lot together.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Tim says that summer, Angie was really feeling her freedom. She was 18 and had a job at a makeup store in town called Beauty for All Seasons. She answered calls and processed orders and when she wasn't working, she was socializing at the river.

[Tim Quick]

Being a teenager in Nydahl Falls was like freedom. It was like you could go hang out where you wanted. You could pretty much do what you wanted.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

But Tim says the real taste of freedom for Angie that summer came in the form of an apartment. She had moved out of her family home into her own place. After the boat docks officially closed at 10pm Angie and her friends would go to someone's house to hang out. In the weeks leading up to Angie's murder. Her new apartment was one of those hangout spots. Angie's place was on the top floor of an older wood shingled house with creaky floors. The bathroom had a water stained porcelain sink and pink floral wallpaper. Angie had only been living there for a few weeks. She hadn't even gotten a real bed yet and was still sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Still, she'd set up her kitchen with a spice rack. The apartment was small and it wasn't fancy, but it was hers and it was what she could afford. The rent was just $250 a month. Tim remembers how happy she was about getting her own place.

[Tim Quick]

You would have thought she was moving into a mansion. She was super excited. It was the best house in the world. Just pure joy when she had her own place.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

On the morning of June 13, Angie was supposed to clock into her shift at Beauty for all seasons at 7am but she didn't, which was unlike her. So by 7:30, her co workers tried calling her home phone. No answer. They left a message on her answering machine. They tried calling her again a few hours later. Still no answer. That's when two of her co workers decided to go to her house and check on her. They checked the front door, which was closed but unlocked. They made their way up the carpeted stairs and walked to her bedroom. But instead of finding that Angie had overslept, her co workers found Angie's body lying on the floor, covered in blood. They rushed to Angie's home phone to call 911. Around 11:15 that morning, Detective Jeff Pratt was sitting at his desk following up on some case reports when he got a call from his sergeant.

[Detective Jeff Pratt]

And he. He basically told me, we have a suspicious death. I want you to come and process this crime scene.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Pratt had first joined the Idaho Falls Police Department as a patrol officer. By the time he was promoted to detective in 1996, he'd been on the force for 15 years. As part of his new detective assignment, he'd taken some photography classes to learn how to document crime scenes. After hanging up the phone, Pratt grabbed his personal camera, a 35 millimeter Pentax, and drove over to Andrew's apartment in an unmarked car. Pratt was familiar with Angie's address, 444i Street. He'd lived nearby when he was starting out as a rookie cop.

[Detective Jeff Pratt]

That's what we call the lettered streets. They follow the alphabetic letters. And it had seen better days.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

By the time Angie moved in, the neighborhood was kind of dilapidated and had a reputation for being unsafe. There were reports of drug dealing and other crime. When Detective Pratt pulled up to Angie's house, he was met by a handful of law enforcement officers who'd already been inside.

[Detective Jeff Pratt]

They gave me a briefing of that they had been in the building, that they had found the victim, and cautioned me that it was a pretty graphic and violent scene. A lot of blood.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

At this point, Pratt didn't know the name of the victim or anything about Angie. His job was to document evidence from the crime scene. And so he focused his Pentax camera as he made his way inside. At first he didn't see any obvious clues that something was off.

[Detective Jeff Pratt]

I noticed that the apartment is really clean. It seems to be fairly orderly.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Nothing seemed out of place and there was no sign of forced entry. But when Detective Pratt turned a corner into Angie's bedroom, the outlines of a violent crime scene came into focus. There was blood splattered on the walls next to Angie's body, a white wicker laundry basket piled high with stuffed animals, including a blood stained teddy bear. Tucked under Angie's left arm, a white stuffed bunny rabbit. Still, there were no signs of a struggle. A pink table lamp on Angie's nightstand appeared to be untouched.

[Detective Jeff Pratt]

The room was pretty much intact. The bed was messed up and the bedding was flowing off of it, the sheets and blankets. But other than that, in the immediate vicinity, within a few feet around the victim was the only real chaos of the room. I can see that she has some extensive lacerations or incisions, stab wounds. And there is a horrific wound to the throat. Obviously a lot of blood spatter.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

He documented more than a dozen stab wounds, including a 6 inch gash across Angie's left breast, which was exposed. There were a few small defensive wounds on her arms and hands. Angie's purple sweatpants had been pulled down to her knees. She wasn't wearing any underwear. It appeared she'd been sexually assaulted. And most striking of all, There was a 14 inch gash across Angie's throat. Detective Pratt had a theory about that.

[Detective Jeff Pratt]

The injury to Angie's throat, I believe really early on, would have severed the larynx and the voice box. I don't believe she could have screamed. I've always thought that it was probably the worst case I've ever seen. Even to now, you know, a number of years later, it's still one of the worst cases I've ever seen is the one that sticks with me. It's the nightmare. It's the one that you desperately want to solve. To know I can't imagine anyone wanting to do that, to cut someone like that.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

As Detective Pratt took in the totality of the crime scene, it seemed to him that whoever had done this had been motivated by pent up emotion and rage. He thought this was the type of crime that was likely perpetrated by a lone killer. Still, he noticed this pattern in the blood spatter along one wall in Angie's bedroom that made him question this lone killer theory. Imagine if you flicked a wet paintbrush at a wall. If someone happened to be standing in front of that wall, the spatter would land on them and leave a blank space on the wall behind them, essentially an outline or avoid. That's what Detective Pratt noticed on this one wall in Angie's bedroom. And it made him wonder if maybe the killer hadn't acted alone.

[Detective Jeff Pratt]

So it's possible that there was something or someone in the path of where the blood was spraying that created a voided shadow. So I couldn't out and out categorically say there is more than one person, but it kind of appeared that that was a possibility.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Over the next 24 hours, Detective Pratt and Idaho Falls law enforcement collected physical evidence from the crime scene. They swapped blood from the wall in Angie's body. They collected samples of semen and samples of hair from a hair clip, a pink fuzzy toilet seat cover, and from Angie's purple sweatpants.

[Detective Jeff Pratt]

We found one hair that we believed was a pubic hair that was obviously different than the others.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

DNA technology was just starting to emerge at the time. Detective Pratt says he knew collecting all these samples could lead to a DNA match and to Angie's murderer.

[Detective Jeff Pratt]

The killer absolutely left his culling card there.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

According to police, officers in Idaho Falls were mostly used to dealing with thefts or drug crimes, especially meth. The year before Angie's death, there had only been two murders in the town. And while the police investigation began, Angie's family, friends and community began asking their own questions. Why would anyone want to hurt Angie? And who could have committed this brutal murder? Choice hotels get you more of what you value.

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[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

The night before Angie died, she visited her mom, Carol. In photos, you can see how similar they look. Blonde hair, heart shaped faces, and gray blue eyes. Angie was Carol's only daughter and the baby of the family. She had three older brothers.

[Carol Dodge]

You know, they wrestled, they played football.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Carol says Angie was tough and didn't take no for an answer. She was known for being outspoken. If someone was being pushed around, Angie would have something to say about it.

[Carol Dodge]

She'd get right in your face. She'd tell you how it is because she really went through some hard times when she was younger, because she was big for her age.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

But she says that toughness came with a lot of compassion.

[Carol Dodge]

She would always, always bring a stranger home, and they would cook and do all sorts of things and listen to music. She'd see some new kid come to school or, you know, and she. She was very compassionate.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Angie was also serious, determined, and seemed eager to grow up. She'd graduated from high school with honors the year before and was working full time. Angie was interested in entrepreneurship and had taken some classes at Idaho State. Actually, one of the pieces of evidence detectives collected from her apartment was a textbook about entrepreneurship sitting on her nightstand.

[Carol Dodge]

There is no doubt that Angie would have become an entrepreneur. She was very business minded, and when she was a freshman in high school, she ran our finances for a whole year. When I see her day planner, she had her money. This is what I owe. This is how much money I have in the bank. This is what I need to write checks for. It was like she was so organized with her money.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Angie had secured her apartment, and she'd also bought a car, a Chevy Geo Metro.

[Carol Dodge]

You know, it wasn't an expensive car, but it was a brand new car, and she was just as excited as can be that she got a loan.

[Tim Quick]

At 18, Angie's car was called the Boat.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

This is Angie's longtime friend, Tim Quick Again.

[Tim Quick]

She would pull up to anything with her foot. Out the window of her car, you would see her foot, and then you'd see her face, and it's just big smile like, I've arrived. The party has started, it has begun. You know, it's just like pure joy.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Tim recalls how special Angie's smile was.

[Tim Quick]

Her smile would light up any room you were ever in.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Aside from being outgoing and boisterous, he says Angie was also a peacekeeper.

[Tim Quick]

I used to get in a lot of scuffles when I was younger. Angie would step in all the time and tell me it wasn't worth it, tell me it wasn't worth the trouble I was gonna get into or worth hurting myself or the other person. She was always a peacemaker, always, always wanted everyone to be happy.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Tim says this continued all the way through high school and to Angie's time hanging out at the river, where he says it wasn't uncommon for people to get into fights or for the cops to show up.

[Tim Quick]

And Angie would love to get in the middle of it, to break it up, just to make peace so we wouldn't get removed from our hangout.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Tim says Angie and her mom were both strong willed and opinionated. And Angie had argued with her mom a few weeks before her death.

[Carol Dodge]

One of the reasons why she moved out is because she disobeyed a house rule. And she said, why don't you just let me grow up? And, you know, just. I'm 18, mother. Just let me grow up. That's how we learn, you know.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

On the night of June 12, 1996, the sun was setting and Carol Dodge was outside the house doing yard work.

[Carol Dodge]

And I heard her come through the back way up the patio. And her and I were always known to be barefooted. We just never wore shoes. But she had her Birkenstock son. And anyway, she just says, mom.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

I hear Carol hadn't seen her daughter since the fight, since Angie had moved into her own apartment.

[Carol Dodge]

I was so grateful that she had come over because I hadn't seen her for three weeks.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Carol says Angie had come over to make peace, to put their big fight behind them.

[Carol Dodge]

We sat down and we talked and I just took a hold of her and she laid her head on my shoulder and I rocked her and I said, I'm so glad you're not mad at me anymore. And she just looked up. She said, not even in a blue moon. That was a God given night.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

As Carol held her only daughter, Angie confided in her mom about something that had been weighing on her.

[Carol Dodge]

She says, you know, Mom, I've done something really stupid. And I said, sweetheart, we all do things stupid. Look at the stupid things that I've done. And she says, no, mom, this is really stupid.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Carol didn't ask Angie what that stupid thing was for years. She says she would regret this decision a million times over.

[Carol Dodge]

I keep going back when Angie said, I've done something really stupid. What is it that she did that possibly was the reason why she was killed?

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Before long, police would ask Carol about these last moments with Angie. What did she remember about Angie that night?

[Carol Dodge]

All I can remember is how her. How her hair smelled and how she smells so clean and just I remember how cute her hair looked that night.

[Tim Quick]

So the time Angie passed away, I found out by her mother calling me. It was before all the news stations came on with it and before. All I can remember really is Carol. I said, hello, and Carol said, she's gone. It was one of the hardest days of my life. I would love to know Angie now. That's the hardest part. But who in their right mind would want to kill someone with such a pleasant someone so pleasant, someone so joyful someone so perfect for life, someone that could bring happiness to the saddest moment in someone's life. Carol was destroyed. I've got a daughter that's the same age as Angie was when she was killed. I can't even imagine what that would be like.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Tim says he and Angie's other friends wanted to do whatever they could to help Carol. And in the days and weeks after Angie's murder, helping Carol would mean trying to find Angie's killer. Teens share everything that may include the bacteria that can cause meningococcal disease, known as meningitis.

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[Jay Shetty]

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.

[Detective Jeff Pratt]

Spotify advertising, you're among fans.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

A couple of days after Angie's murder, her friends and family gathered for a memorial service. In grainy video footage, you can see people wiping away tears and carrying big flower arrangements, a mix of carnations, roses, and lilies. The police were there, too, including Detective Jeff Pratt, the officer who took photos of the crime scene at Angie's apartment on this day. He's wearing a gray suit and navy blue tie. He has his Pentax camera strapped around his neck. Pratt and another detective are here to investigate. They're watching, even recording, with a video camera. Could Angie's killer be mingling among her friends and family? After the service ends, police follow the crowd outside to a nearby cemetery with the video camera. It's a windy June day, and the camera zooms in on different faces as if it's hunting for clues. At that time, there Were no suspects. The police chief was open about that when he previously spoke to the press.

[Jeremy Sargis]

It was a brutal homicide, and we

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

do not have a suspect at this time.

[Carol Dodge]

And there is reason for people to

[Jeremy Sargis]

be cautious right now.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

And people in Idaho Falls were cautious. Jeremy Sargis remembers the fear in the community.

[Jeremy Sargis]

Nothing like that happens in Idaho Falls. It just doesn't. There's some crazy stuff that happens in every town, but. And that was pretty extreme. I know that I started carrying a knife. It scared people. It really did.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

He also remembers how quickly rumors started swirling about who could have killed Angie.

[Jeremy Sargis]

Everybody had an idea of who might have done it and what might have happened. And, you know, I guess that's just the nature of people. I remember the police pulling in hundreds and hundreds of people for questioning. All of us, really.

[Brian Clark]

What was highly unusual for this case and especially unusual for Idaho Falls, is it was a whodunit.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

This is Brian Clark, a reporter in eastern Idaho who has covered the Angie Dodge case.

[Brian Clark]

There were no witnesses, There was physical evidence, but no obvious way to tell who it came from.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Brian Clark says police looked at other items found in Angie's apartment.

[Brian Clark]

Like a planner, they wanted to find out what her routine had been, who she'd been speaking with.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

There were also voicemails on her home phone.

[Brian Clark]

And so they started looking into the people who had called police.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Officers interviewed Angie's family and her ex boyfriend and cleared them. They also interviewed her neighbors and friends. Basically, they wanted to talk to anyone who knew Angie. But after all that, they didn't identify any suspects. As they did all these interviews, investigators collected DNA samples from around 100 people trying to get a match to the physical evidence from the crime scene. But officers weren't the only ones asking around and trying to figure out who had killed Angie. Brian Clark says Carol Dodge got very involved in the hunt for her daughter's murderer.

[Brian Clark]

She started hitting the streets like a cop, interviewing people, trying to find out who killed her daughter. She tracked down people. She started looking into the drug scene in the area and finding people who were involved in the drug scene, interviewing them. She put 2,500 flyers up offering rewards for information.

[Carol Dodge]

I'd go home three or four, five o' clock in the morning.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Tim Quick remembers helping Carol Dodge with these efforts.

[Tim Quick]

We thought we were our own investigative team went and asked questions, everyone, anyone who would know.

[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

Still, as the summer of 1996 went on, neither the police nor Angie's family and friends had any leads. Summer became fall, fall became winter, and there were no suspects, no arrests. The investigation seemed to be at a standstill until one day in January 1997 when Idaho falls police learned about a crime that seemed strangely similar. There was an arrest hundreds of miles away in Nevada of a man who hung out down by the Snake river, too. A man who knew Angie Dodge. A man who was even captured on video at Angie's funeral. The Snare is a production of ABC Audio in 2020, hosted by me, Maggie Ruley, produced by Camille Peterson and Sabrina Fang, with help from Annalisa Linder and Emily Schutz, and 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 Dacunto and Michelle Margulis. Josh Cohan is our director of podcast programming. Amy McNiff is our executive producer.

[Chris Tapp]

Foreign.

[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Narrator (Maggie Ruley)]

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