The Cigarette

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Snare – Episode 5: The Cigarette
ABC News, July 14, 2026 | Hosted by Maggie Rulli

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Main Theme

This episode delves into the forensic breakthrough that reignited one of Idaho’s most infamous cold cases: the 1996 murder of Angie Dodge. Focusing on advances in DNA technology and the persistent advocacy by Angie’s mother, Carol Dodge, the episode explores how overlooked evidence—specifically a cigarette butt—eventually leads investigators to a long-sought suspect, Brian Drips.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Lingering Questions of Angie Dodge's Murder

• Initial Evidence Collection (00:29–02:11):

  • Jeff Pratt, a police officer from the original case, recounts the extensive collection of over 400 pieces of evidence, emphasizing certain items (e.g., Angie’s purple sweatpants) and, most of all, DNA samples kept preserved for decades.
  • “This is DNA evidence, biological evidence that we have to keep in this, this method to keep it preserved.” – Jeff Pratt (01:54)

• Haunting Impact (02:58–03:21):

  • Pratt describes the case as haunting, highlighting his personal connection with Carol Dodge and his motivation to help her find the truth.

2. Persistent Legal and Investigative Struggles

• Legal Hurdles & Uncertain Justice (04:24–06:37):

  • John Thomas, Chris Tapp’s appellate lawyer, discusses the repeated legal appeals to overturn Tapp’s conviction—all denied despite mounting doubts.
    • "We filed five post conviction petitions for post conviction relief, and they were all always struck down. Struck down, struck down." – John Thomas (04:24)
  • Bonneville County Prosecutor Daniel Clark questions the confession’s validity but feels there’s insufficient exonerating evidence.

• Conditional Release of Chris Tapp (05:44–07:26):

  • A deal vacates the rape charge against Tapp, releases him after 20 years, but leaves his murder conviction intact.
    • "The deal I took to come home to get my freedom wasn't the greatest deal, but it got me Home. It's a win. You know what I mean? It got me out." – Chris Tapp (07:04)
  • Chris Tapp’s emotional release is marked by support, uncertainty, and the bittersweet knowledge that justice remains elusive.

3. Carol Dodge’s Relentless Advocacy

• Pushing for DNA Breakthroughs (10:42–11:37):

  • Tapp distances himself from the case post-release, but Carol Dodge and John Thomas continue to focus intensely on finding the true killer through DNA.
  • Carol becomes well-known in forensic circles for her determination and research.

• Adoption of Genetic Genealogy (15:12–18:24):

  • Carol advocates for advanced DNA techniques, bringing in Parabon, a company utilizing genetic genealogy and phenotype rendering.
  • The process includes generating a visual profile of the suspect and building a family tree from distant DNA matches.

4. The Search for the Real Killer

• Narrowing Down the Suspect (19:21–22:16):

  • Investigators identify Brian Drips, a former neighbor of Angie Dodge who had never provided DNA, as a prime suspect through the genealogical database analysis.
  • “He can't really account for his time. He tells the officer that he doesn't remember what happened that night.” – Detective Sage Albright (21:19)

• Careful Surveillance and Planning (22:50–29:06):

  • Avoiding direct confrontation, police devise an undercover operation to discreetly obtain Drips’ DNA.
  • Their first day is unsuccessful in retrieving a cigarette butt due to logistical complications.

5. The Cigarette Sting

• The Breakthrough Moment (29:06–31:52):

  • On the second day of surveillance, police successfully recover a fresh cigarette butt discarded by Drips.
    • "Ceremoniously...arms in the air, super excited...a huge hurdle..." – Captain Bill Squires (30:52)
  • The lab expedites the sample—returning a match to the crime scene DNA in days, not months.

• Reactions to the Match (32:07–32:36):

  • The confirmation of a 23-year-old mystery brings huge relief and emotional catharsis to the team.
    • “To have that confirmation now that this is it, that's really when it sunk in with me, man. This is the guy. This is the guy we've been looking for for 23 years.” – Captain Bill Squires (32:36)

6. The Confrontation with Brian Drips

• Setting Up the Interrogation (33:20–36:00):

  • Investigators carefully surveil and intercept Drips, prioritizing calm engagement to avoid panic or obstruction.
  • Captain John Marley’s nerves reflect the gravity of finally confronting the long-sought suspect.
    • “I’m getting nervous right now. Just, just remembering was hard not to get swept away with the gravity of this case.” – Captain John Marley (35:32)

• Ensuring Cooperation (36:12–38:11):

  • Strategy includes accommodating Drips’ request to care for his dog before the interview to foster comfort.
  • Despite the DNA match, officers are cautious about presuming guilt, insisting the interview is key.
    • “We didn't want to just lock in on this idea that because his DNA was there, he absolutely was the person who murdered Angie.” – Detective Sage Albright (37:26)
    • “Our really only focus is to try to find the truth, the total truth, what happened.” – Captain Bill Squires (38:11)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “This was a case that really haunted me... I really wanted to do the very best thing I could for her and I wanted to close this for me as well.” – Jeff Pratt (02:58)
• “Carol Dodge was a force to be reckoned with... she never once let up. She was relentless.” – Captain John Marley (15:04)
• “We thought, oh, great. We’re going to be basically back at square one.” – Captain Bill Squires, on a failed DNA lead (20:01)
• “He flicked it. I got it and made my day.” – Surveillance team member, on retrieving the cigarette butt (30:52)
• "This is a day of celebration, right, Chris?" – Carol Dodge, to Chris Tapp upon his release (08:35)
• “This is the guy we’ve been looking for for 23 years.” – Captain Bill Squires (32:36)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Evidence Storage & DNA Reflection: 00:29–02:11
• Legal Battles & Tapp’s Release: 04:24–07:26
• Carol Dodge’s Advocacy: 10:42–12:00, 15:12–16:37
• Introduction to Genetic Genealogy: 16:37–18:24
• DNA Family Tree Breakthrough: 19:21–22:16
• Surveillance and The Cigarette Recovery: 25:21–31:52
• DNA Match Confirmed: 32:07–32:36
• Operation to Intercept Drips: 33:20–38:11

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Episode Tone

• Determined: The relentless drive of Carol Dodge and the new investigative team is palpable.
• Cautiously Hopeful: New technologies and persistent advocacy gradually build optimism.
• Emotional: Scenes of Chris Tapp’s release and investigators’ emotional reactions add poignant weight.

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Concluding Themes

The episode underscores how the combination of new scientific techniques and unwavering advocacy can finally break through even the most stubborn barriers to justice. The “cigarette” was the linchpin—a humble clue connecting decades of evidence, heartbreak, false confessions, and technological evolution to the real perpetrator, setting the stage for long-awaited answers.

Transcript

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[Jeff Pratt]

these are the bins of evidence from the Angie Dodge homicide case. There are over 400 pieces of evidence on this case.

[Maggie Rouley]

Jeff Pratt was one of the police officers who collected the evidence from Angie Dodge's apartment back in 1990. Six years later, he looked back at some of what he found at the crime scene and reached for one of the clear plastic bins stacked high on a shelf in the Idaho Falls police station.

[Jeff Pratt]

This is, this is going back for me, going back to that day when we collected all this.

[Maggie Rouley]

We heard him back in our first episode. He was the officer who took photos of the crime scene with his Pentax camera.

[Jeff Pratt]

This is the purple sweatpants collected at the scene from the victim, Angie Dodge. This is a shirt collected at the scene.

[Maggie Rouley]

There was one thing out of all of the evidence that stayed on his mind, but it wasn't in those bins. Instead, he opened the door of a small freezer jam packed with manila envelopes and pulled out one in particular.

[Jeff Pratt]

This is DNA evidence, biological evidence that we have to keep in this, this method to keep it preserved. This one in particular is the. Is a DNA extract from the Dodge case.

[Maggie Rouley]

It's been more than 20 years since, since this DNA evidence was collected from Angie's room. Pratt says he always thought this evidence would unlock the case. But he says after Kristaps conviction in 1998, the leads on whose DNA that was seemed to go cold. Even though police knew the killer was still out there, someone who left their DNA at the crime scene somehow seemed to have vanished. So when the Idaho Falls Police Department called Jeff Pratt back in decades later to take another look at the case, he agreed.

[Jeff Pratt]

This was a case that really haunted me. I have run into Carol Dodge innumerable times. We've spent hours chatting and I really wanted to do the very best thing I could for her and I wanted to close this for me as well.

[Maggie Rouley]

He was going to help a new set of investigators take on Angie's case. And they turned to that DNA evidence again. Technology had advanced. Would this DNA, tucked away in storage for decades, finally lead them to an answer? From ABC Audio in 2020.

[Shannon Maldonado]

Maggie.

[Maggie Rouley]

I'm Maggie Ruley and this is the Snare. Episode 5 the Cigarette. For years, Kristaps appellate attorney John Thomas worked closely with Carol Dodge to overturn Chris's conviction. But even as experts in false confessions and organizations like Judges for Justice and the Innocence Project joined their efforts, they still were not successful.

[John Thomas]

We filed five post conviction petitions for post conviction relief, and they were all always struck down. Struck down, struck down.

[Maggie Rouley]

The Bonneville county prosecutor's office also ordered an independent review of Criss's conviction. It concluded that Chris was present when Angie was attacked and stabbed, but cast doubt on his confession regarding his personal involvement in her death. Daniel Clark, the county prosecutor, issued his own report in 2016. He determined that the statements Chris's attorney said were coerced were similar to statements Chris made to acquaintances. When asked about the outcome of the two reports, Clark noted, the question for

[Jeff Pratt]

me was whether there was new, clear and convincing evidence of innocence. There simply was not.

[Maggie Rouley]

But Clark says, at the same time,

[Jeff Pratt]

we had some concerns about the confession. I had some concerns about the level of sentence as it related to Tapp's admitted involvement.

[Maggie Rouley]

Based upon Clark's concerns, he and Chris's defense team agreed on a deal.

[John Thomas]

Chris Tapp is offered a deal where the rape charge is completely vacated so he's no longer a sex offender, but the murder charge would stay in place.

[Maggie Rouley]

Under the deal, Chris would be released from prison. He'd be a Free Man After 20 years behind bars, but he wouldn't clear his name. Legally, he'd still be a convicted murderer. But John Thomas says the alternative wasn't much better.

[John Thomas]

Why would we make this deal knowing that Chris Tapp was an innocent man? And Chris and I talked about this and we looked at each other and we thought we just didn't know what was going to happen. There was too much uncertainty.

[Maggie Rouley]

So Chris Tapp took the deal. In March 2017, Chris walked into the same courthouse where he had gone on trial as a young man. This time he was 40 years old and there to formally accept his deal with the state. He wore a white button down shirt and had a tight buzz cut and a cleanly shaven face.

[Chris Tapp]

Time served, 20 years, 54 days and I'm free. No parole, no probation, no nothing. So the deal I took to come home to get my freedom wasn't the greatest deal, but it got me Home. It's a win. You know what I mean? It's a win. It got me out.

[Maggie Rouley]

When Chris walked out of the courtroom, people were standing in the halls clapping for him. Chris looked kind of nervous. He wrung his hands. East Idaho News captured the scene. How does it feel to not have handcuffs on?

[Captain Bill Squires]

Different.

[Maggie Rouley]

Yeah, different. And then he stepped out of the Bonneville County Courthouse a free man.

[Chris Tapp]

It was just nice to be able to look out and not see barbed wire, see a fence, see a guard dog. It was nice to be able to actually know that I could walk down the road if I wanted to. Lord knows I couldn't because I was still in so much shock and so used to confinement, but I knew I could.

[Maggie Rouley]

His attorney was by his side, and so was Carol Dodge. Carol even held his hand as the three of them took questions from reporters.

[Captain Bill Squires]

Carol, what are your thoughts here?

[Maggie Rouley]

Oh, it's just a day of celebration, right, Chris?

[Chris Tapp]

Yes, ma'.

[Captain Bill Squires]

Am.

[Captain John Marley]

I didn't bring any cookies.

[Carol Dodge]

No, it's all right.

[Maggie Rouley]

It's a great day, you know. Carol, Angie's mother and now one of Chris's fiercest advocates, was beaming as they stood side by side. Chris was finally out, in no small part due to her efforts. Afterwards, she turned to Chris and asked if he wanted to go down the steps to greet the dozens of people cheering him on.

[Unidentified Police Officer]

What?

[John Thomas]

Chris.

[Chris Tapp]

It was just a madhouse for me to see everybody. You know what I mean? See, there was 50, probably 50 some people outside the courthouse that day when I was released, clapping and happy that I was free. You know, they were. How do I say it? They were happy that I was home. They didn't think justice was served, but they were happy that I was home.

[Maggie Rouley]

Hey, Chris. Welcome home, Chris. Thank you. Welcome home. Been rooting for you for a long.

[Chris Tapp]

One of the most overwhelming days I've ever had in my life and probably will ever have in my life, because, you know, you're in a closed environment and you're in a structured environment for so long, and. And then, you know, in prison, you don't really like to be touched. You don't like to, you know, certain things. And. And all these people wanted to hug. Everybody wanted a piece of my time. Everybody wanted to talk to me. And, you know, and it was out of true, true care and concern that they wanted to talk to me.

[Maggie Rouley]

But Chris was still a convicted murderer. He says it limited his job prospects and made life hard. He tried to stop thinking about the case and focused on moving forward.

[Chris Tapp]

I had to get a job. I had to get a car. I had to, you know, I had to get my stuff in order and in line. So I quit really paying attention to the case.

[Maggie Rouley]

But his attorney, John Thomas, says he and Carol never stopped paying attention to the case.

[John Thomas]

Ultimately, Carol Dodge and I decide that, hey, we're going to keep continue pursuing this. We need to find the killer. And I'm thinking if we find the killer, they'll have no choice but to exonerate Chris.

[Maggie Rouley]

And for them, finding the killer meant returning to the DNA. In fact, when Carol Dodge stood on the courthouse steps, she said she hoped Chris being released would get investigators to focus on finding the one DNA match, the one person who left his calling card at the crime scene. So she kept doing what she'd been doing for years, investigating.

[Captain Bill Squires]

She has always been on kind of the leading edge of the DNA technology. It was rare to talk to a lab person or a specialist in the field that hadn't already met Carol or talked to Carol.

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[Captain Bill Squires]

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[Maggie Rouley]

It was unrelenting.

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The cops need to figure out who he is and stop him before it's too late.

[Maggie Rouley]

How is he doing all of this

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[Captain John Marley]

Well, everyone knew of the Angie Dodge case. When I became a police officer in 2002, that was always a case that was kind of legend around Idaho Falls.

[Maggie Rouley]

This is Captain John Marley of the Idaho Falls police. He says he inherited the Dodge case when he was the sergeant of the investigations bureau.

[Captain John Marley]

My primary responsibility was to look at it and get it assigned to a detective. I signed that case to Detective Sage Albright.

[Detective Sage Albright]

Some of me says that it's because I was the only person who would say yes.

[Maggie Rouley]

Albright had just become a detective. He says that was actually why he was given the case. Fresh eyes on Idaho Falls most notorious cold case. He says it came with a lot of pressure.

[Detective Sage Albright]

This case had been so traumatic and difficult for everyone that it almost like a curse. It was extremely overwhelming to get this case.

[Maggie Rouley]

While Detective Albright was going back through the case, the binders and bins of documents, the sealed bags of evidence, the police department had also been hearing consistently from Carol Dodge.

[Captain John Marley]

Carol Dodge was a force to be reckoned with. The entire investigation, she never once let up. She was relentless on finding the truth.

[Maggie Rouley]

And Carol had been learning about major advances in DNA technology, including genetic genealogy. You've probably heard about how consumer DNA testing has led to breakthroughs in high profile cold cases like the Golden State Killer. Genealogical testing companies were mostly meant to help people find out more about their family history. You submit your DNA sample and that's used to create a family tree, people with very similar DNA to yours. When it was first introduced, it was often used to help people find parents and siblings and resolve family mysteries. Eventually, police departments started using this technology as part of their investigations. Captain Bill Squires was one of the officers re investigating the Angie Dodge case back in the summer of 1996. He was in his first year as a patrolman and was one of the officers who responded to Angie's apartment and helped secure the crime scene. Authorities had submitted the DNA sample to CODIS, the FBI's database of DNA profiles, but it didn't get them anywhere.

[Captain Bill Squires]

I mean, previously when we had looked at DNA as related to this case, it was from the perspective of either matching that CODIS profile or not matching it. It was one or the other. It Was either a match or it wasn't. But now, through a larger number of people being entered into these databases, it's actually possible then to dig deeper into the DNA and say, okay, well, it's not a match, but is it close to one of the other? Are they relatives to someone that's in there and be able to look at the familial lines of who this suspect is and be able to find it that way.

[Maggie Rouley]

Carol dodge had been talking with a company called parabon that was at the cutting edge of genealogical testing. Eventually, the Idaho falls police department and Parabon connected about the case. Parabon used the DNA sample from the crime scene to create a phenotype profile of Angie's killer. Basically, what would this person look like? Eye color, hair color, height, facial structure, things like that.

[Captain Bill Squires]

So when parabon completed that snapshot of what the suspect's traits look like, the department had done a big press release and had kind of made yet another public display and request for any other tips and unfound material that we might not have already. They showed that, hey, these are the characteristics this person might have, and if you have information that hasn't been provided to the police before or something we haven't looked at or haven't looked at well enough, Call us again and set up a hotline number for anyone to call in and give us those tips that we can follow up on.

[Maggie Rouley]

Police released a rendering of what Angie's killer possibly looked like. A white male, around 40 years old, with brown hair and eyes, and there was about a 50, 50 chance that he had freckles. They didn't get any new leads, but parabon could also compare the DNA sample to DNA from millions of other people to answer who shares DNA with the killer, who is the killer's family? The idea was to create a family tree, A web of people the killer is related to, and then reverse engineer the killer's identity from that. Parabon didn't find any real close family matches, no parents or siblings. But there were more distant relatives, People who looked more like third and fourth cousins.

[Captain Bill Squires]

One of them kind of came to the forefront because of proximity. This person lived not too far away, could easily have connections to southeast Idaho because of where he even currently lived. And so very exciting. It's very exciting for us to have something to actually go do. It was not only the first big lead, but really just about the only lead.

[Maggie Rouley]

Idaho falls sent investigators to another part of Idaho to collect DNA samples from a father and son. But when parabont analyzed the samples, they were Not a match.

[Captain Bill Squires]

And it was really deflating. So we thought, oh, great. We're going to be basically back at square one.

[Maggie Rouley]

But Squire says weeks later, Parabon identified another potential match. A man who took his stepfather's last name and was missed in the initial family tree search.

[Captain Bill Squires]

And our jaws about dropped. We didn't break down and cry then. We sure could have. We were jumping for joy. How exciting. And to get that information, to be able to have hope of wrapping this case up. Oh, my gosh.

[Maggie Rouley]

After more than 20 years, they finally had a major breakthrough. The man identified was named Brian Drips. Detective Sage Albright actually recognized that name. When Albright was reviewing Angie's case, looking through the binders and binders of rock records, he had sorted through all the interview cards, all the people investigators had talked to, and even before the genetic genealogy analysis, one of those people stood out to him. Angie's neighbor when she was killed, Brian Drips.

[Detective Sage Albright]

There's this man who lives across the street from where the murder happened, where Angie was living, and he can't really account for his time. He tells the officer that he doesn't remember what happened that night.

[Maggie Rouley]

Detective Albright looked into whether Drips DNA was ever collected and if it was, how it could be tracked down.

[Detective Sage Albright]

I think just the reality of so many people having their hands in this case over the, you know, the decades that we'd had it, some of the records were. Were just kind of hard to track. They were hard to keep track of everybody. And we collected, like, 100 DNA samples on this. And so when I started asking questions, people were like, well, if he was identified as somebody in the area at the time, I'm sure we got his DNA. And I kept asking, and we couldn't really lock down if we had a DNA sample from him, and it didn't seem like we did.

[Maggie Rouley]

So now investigators had a man who, at the time of the murder, had lived across the street from Angie's apartment, who hadn't been able to account for his time during Angie's murder and who hadn't seemed to have had his DNA collected or tested. And they also had a family tree telling them this man could be the killer. To the investigators, it seemed like a breakthrough.

[Captain Bill Squires]

We felt great about him as a suspect.

[Maggie Rouley]

But Squire says they knew they had to play this new lead very carefully, you know, easily.

[Captain Bill Squires]

I think we probably could have justified getting a warrant, just go contacting him, getting a sample from him. But if it's not him, then it. We don't know what the familial relationships are. And we didn't want our suspect to get a heads up if it wasn't him or to have any kind of tip off that we were looking at him or even that close. So we thought the best course of action was to try to do it surreptitiously so we didn't ruin the other investigative efforts down the road.

[Maggie Rouley]

They'd have to be creative. They'd have to travel across the state and get his DNA sample without him knowing.

[Captain Bill Squires]

Hello, designers.

[Maggie Rouley]

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[Maggie Rouley]

Everyone is stress. What in the strut was happening?

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It's fantastic.

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This is the type of thing that gets you sent home.

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[Harvey Guillen]

I'm Harvey Guillen, and this is Killer Stories. Every Monday, I'm cutting the lights and

[Maggie Rouley]

telling you a bedtime story.

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[Maggie Rouley]

okay, good.

[Captain Bill Squires]

All right, guys. So Sage, everybody get a brief sheet.

[Captain John Marley]

I need a brief sheet.

[John Thomas]

Right?

[Captain Bill Squires]

How about swabs? Has everybody else got a kit?

[Maggie Rouley]

A handful of Idaho Falls police officers traveled about four hours west to Caldwell, a small city just outside the state's capital. They were gathered in an empty parking lot to go over their plans for the day. The sun hadn't even risen yet. It was the first day of their surveillance operation on Brian Drips, who had left Idaho Falls and now lived in Caldwell. The mood was light, almost buzzing. But Captain Squires told his team to stay vigilant.

[Captain Bill Squires]

You know what? The only thing I do I want to make sure that we remember here is that we're here to get this sample and to try to help prove the case. But remember that we're potentially looking at a homicide suspect. We got no idea what this guy's personality is like he could have already made a decision on what's going to happen if the police confront him on something like this. So be diligent.

[Maggie Rouley]

Captain Squire says there is a real art to undercover operations.

[Captain Bill Squires]

If the person you're surveilling sees the same car or the same couple of cars all the time, every time he leaves, you know, even the most aloof person is going to figure out that you're being followed.

[Jeff Pratt]

Yep,

[Captain Bill Squires]

Missed a turn back here. That's what I get for not looking at my GPS.

[Maggie Rouley]

They got to drips, his home, around 6am they didn't want to miss anything about his day.

[Captain Bill Squires]

Okay, so right here in the area, The subdivision over here to the right is where he lives. But we're gonna keep an eye on entrances coming out so we can

[John Thomas]

follow

[Captain Bill Squires]

if he does leave.

[Maggie Rouley]

Captain Squires says he and his team were posted around Drips house all morning, waiting.

[Captain Bill Squires]

And it wasn't until about noon that he first left and went to a convenience store that was nearby. When he pulls into the parking lot, we have another guy pull up to the gas pumps to keep an eye on, pretend to get gas and get a really good eye on him. And he goes in and gets two fountain drinks and gets right back in his same truck and heads right back home.

[Maggie Rouley]

From watching him that day, they also noticed something crucial. He's got his arm out the window of his red pickup truck with a cigarette in his hand. He's a smoker. Squire says discarded cigarettes can be great for collecting DNA samples. After following Drips for hours, police finally saw Drips flick the cigarette out into the middle of the road. They hurried to retrieve it, but it was too risky without running into traffic and drawing people's attention. They just weren't in place to get it.

[Captain Bill Squires]

And we watched for the rest of the day until late. And he really, he had taken another trip to another store, smoked another cigarette on that one. But he dropped the cigarette butt in the back of his truck. And that's not discarding it where anybody in public could get it.

[Maggie Rouley]

They didn't have a warrant to search the truck, and Drips didn't go out again that day. But the team was starting to have a sense of his routine. On day two, Squire says the officers were better prepared.

[Captain Bill Squires]

We had units pre staged by that parking lot into the convenience store already. They're already sitting there and able to pick him up in hopes of getting a better opportunity. A cigarette butt, if it gets flicked. Is that you behind him, Joe? Yeah, he's up there. Ways Though I can't see anything yet.

[Maggie Rouley]

Like clockwork, Brian Dribbs drove to the convenience store, and officers waited there, watching for him to toss his cigarette. They spotted their target.

[Captain Bill Squires]

Cigarette is in hand.

[Maggie Rouley]

Now. Officers were waiting to see when he'd drop it so they could swoop in and recover the cigarette.

[Detective Sage Albright]

That's good.

[Captain Bill Squires]

Just flipped it out. Just getting it out to get. Slow down a little bit.

[Maggie Rouley]

The officer saw drips flick his cigarette butt out the window. Just like they predicted. They waited until Drips left before going in to retrieve the discarded butt.

[Captain Bill Squires]

Bear with me for a second here. Well, he's still standing there. Oh, my gosh. Don't get out.

[Captain John Marley]

Bingo.

[Captain Bill Squires]

Looks like got it.

[Maggie Rouley]

When officers grabbed the cigarette butt, it was still burning. Captain Squires was waiting nearby, listening on

[Captain Bill Squires]

the radio, and I hear one of my guys say, he flicked it. I got it and made my day. Everybody, I think ceremoniously is, you know, arms in the air, super excited because it was a huge hurdle and to be able to get that. And by the time I got up to that scene, you know, close to the parking lot where our subject couldn't see us, my guys had already gone out. It was still smoldering. Got it. I mean, the detective was able to actually see it land. Exactly where to know exactly it was the right cigarette butt, and it was the one. So we were able to take it, package it right there and had it.

[Maggie Rouley]

They sent it off to a lab for testing. Normally, these tests took months to process, but captain Squire says they placed an expedited order instead of months. They would find out if they had a match in a matter of days.

[Captain Bill Squires]

My guys hadn't had a day off for a long time. I told them, look, try to get some time off right now. When we get the. Not expecting to get it back till Monday, we'll, you know, go back and actually see your family for a while. Because we'd really been going hard on following these rules before then.

[Maggie Rouley]

Their break was short lived because the next day, Captain Squires got a call from his lieutenant.

[Captain Bill Squires]

So I'm out on my lawnmower on Saturday trying to get my yard mowed. He calls me. And I know he would only be calling me about this at this time. And Joel says it's a match.

[Maggie Rouley]

Idaho Falls police finally had a match to the crime scene DNA.

[Captain Bill Squires]

It was huge, man. I'm here to tell you it was huge. To have that confirmation now that this is it, that's really when it sunk in with me, man. This is the guy. This is the Guy we've been looking for for 23 years.

[Maggie Rouley]

But getting the DNA match was not the end of their time tailing Brian Drips. Now investigators wanted to talk to him. About a week after Idaho Falls, police retrieved the cigarette butt. They were back in Caldwell. One of the officers gave a briefing on how they planned to bring him into the local station for questioning.

[Unidentified Police Officer]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for being here. This is a big day. Hopefully it's going to be one of those everybody remembers when their grandparents and telling the little, little ones about the things they did today.

[Maggie Rouley]

He described Brian Drips in detail.

[Unidentified Police Officer]

Brian L. Drips Sr. Is a white guy in his early 50s. Looks like the Grateful Dead concert attendant attendee. Long beard, kind of ZZ top, but thin, you know. Yeah, he is built somewhere on the order of 5, 10 ish, 150 ish pounds. A little bit of a pot belly.

[Maggie Rouley]

He also described the routine officers had carefully observed. Two sodas at the convenience store around noon. Another trip later in the afternoon, and then home. The officer explained that the goal was to calmly intercept Brian Drips as he went about his typical day. They wanted him to feel comfortable, to talk, not to panic. After the briefing, officers set out to follow Drips again. But right away he veered from his routine.

[Captain Bill Squires]

We don't really know where he's going. This is a little bit out of. We haven't taken this trip before when we've tailed him in the past. People.

[Maggie Rouley]

They realized he was stopping at a bank instead of going to the convenience store. The officers decided to keep their plan the same. Calmly intercept him when he leaves the bank.

[Captain Bill Squires]

I still feel pretty good about it. I think, I don't think he is on to us. I don't think he's suspicious in any way. I think we're in good shape.

[Maggie Rouley]

In the car, the officers described what they were going to say to him.

[Captain Bill Squires]

Yes, following you for this. We're following up on old reports and you know, yada yada yada.

[Captain John Marley]

As he exited the bank and approached his vehicle, Detective Albright and I approached him and introduced ourselves. And that's where it all started.

[Maggie Rouley]

Captain John Marley says it was one of the most nerve wracking moments of his life.

[Captain John Marley]

I'm getting nervous right now. Just, just remembering was hard not to get swept away with the gravity of this case. This, this was a case that, that was a, a black mark on the, you know, Idaho Falls Police Department for, for many, many years. There was so many unanswered questions. The family wanted to know. There was just so much weighing on this, and I didn't want to be the one to screw it up.

[Maggie Rouley]

He says Drips did not want to go with them. Drips had his dog, a German shepherd, in the car and wanted to go back home to drop the dog off.

[Captain John Marley]

And so I made the decision then to work with him and say, hey, how about I get in your vehicle and we drive your dog home together and we make sure your dog's taken care of? And then after the. You get in the vehicle with Detective Albright and I, and we'll go to the station to talk. We want to make sure. We want him to feel comfortable with us and establish some kind of relationship with us.

[Captain Bill Squires]

Our guys are going to try to talk him into riding with them in our car to get him there. If that's. If he's reluctant or if that's a point of contention, then we're going to let him drive his truck.

[Maggie Rouley]

After they dropped the dog off together, Drips agreed to get into the car

[Captain Bill Squires]

with the officers, the suspect with our sergeant detective. And we're headed for the Caldwell Police Department to try to do a formal interview.

[Maggie Rouley]

Police were about to see what Brian Drips, a neighbor who had once lived across the street from Angie Dodge, knew about the murder and what. What he might share. Even with the DNA match. Detective Albright says they needed more evidence, more cooperation.

[Detective Sage Albright]

We didn't want to just lock in on this idea that because his DNA was there, he absolutely was the person who murdered Angie. There was a real possibility that he was not guilty of homicide. There was a real possibility that he had had a intimate relationship with Angie and that his. His DNA ended up there in an innocent way. We couldn't conclusively say that absolutely 100%, because his DNA is there. He had to have murdered her. And so we had to. We had to make sure that we were open for other possibilities.

[Maggie Rouley]

So the officers felt this interview with Brian Drips was crucial.

[Captain Bill Squires]

Our really only focus is to try to find the truth, the total truth, what happened.

[Maggie Rouley]

And it needed to be done just right. The Snare is a production of eight ABC audio in 2020, hosted by me, Maggie Rouley. Produced by Camille Peterson and Sabrina Fang. With help from Annalisa Linder and Emily Shutz. Edited by Tracy Samuelson. Our supervising producer is Susie Liu. 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.

[Dr. Death Narrator]

When a charming neurosurgeon rode into western towns selling a Persona of confidence and care, patients trusted him. He wore cowboy boots in the operating room and became sought after by patients. He promised to heal them. Instead, he left a trail of broken bodies. This is a story of greed, betrayal and a fight for justice. Listen to Dr. Death the Cowboy wherever you get your podcasts or binge the entire series. Right now only with audible.

[Captain John Marley]

The best dancers from across the globe are about to join me for the audition of a lifetime.

[Robert Irwin]

ABC Mondays. Do they have what it takes to compete and be the next Dancing with the Stars pro?

[Maggie Rouley]

I'm here to win.

[Captain Bill Squires]

Nothing is going to stop me.

[Robert Irwin]

Our star judges will decide.

[Carol Dodge]

This is what hunger looks like.

[Saroti (Red Handed podcast)]

It was 100% the wrong choice.

[Robert Irwin]

Robert Irwin hosts.

[Maggie Rouley]

The next era of ballroom starts right

[Captain John Marley]

here on Dancing with the Stars.

[Maggie Rouley]

The next Pro.

[Robert Irwin]

All new Mondays, 8, 7 Central on ABC. Next day on Hulu.