Murder of Angie Dodge

The rape and murder of Angie Dodge was a cold case in Idaho Falls, Idaho, that remained open from the crime's occurrence on June 13, 1996, until May 2019.[1][2][3][4] For 20 years, a falsely accused Chris Tapp served time in prison for Dodge's rape and murder while authorities searched for suspects that matched DNA left at the crime scene.[4] In 2017, Tapp's rape conviction was repealed and he was released from prison.[4][5] Over the course of Tapp's sentence, authorities continued searching for remaining suspects, partially at the insistence of the murdered girl's mother,[6] and in 2014 accused Michael Usry Jr. of rape and murder.[3] Authorities identified Usry as a suspect through Y-chromosome familial searching, a process by which partial DNA matches to relatives are used to identify an individual. After conducting a DNA test, authorities discovered that Usry did not match the DNA found at the crime scene.[3] In 2019, authorities used autosomal familial searching to find and convict Brian Leigh Dripps Sr., who was found to have a full genetic match and confessed to the crime after interrogation.[1]

This cold case received notability as one of the example cases for familial searching, where genetic testing for relatives lead to the discovery of a suspect.[2] With both false accusations and the ultimate conviction obtained through familial searching, the case is an example for how non-criminal genetic repositories are used in criminal investigations[6] and the debates on the appropriateness of their use.

Investigation

Conviction of Chris Tapp

During the first stages of the investigation, Idaho Falls officials suspected 20-year-old Chris Tapp to be one of multiple participants in the rape and murder of Dodge.[4] After over 100 hours of intense police interrogation,[6] Tapp confessed to the crime, though no physical evidence tied him to the scene and Tapp's confessions were inconsistent and contradictory. Tapp was convicted for aiding and abetting Dodge's rape and murder, and sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison.[7]

In 2001, Tapp recanted his confession and claimed he was coerced by police and fed information about the crime.[5] In 2007, after serving ten years in prison, Tapp's case was revisited by the Idaho Innocence Project.[4] A professor and undergraduate at Boise State University who work with the project reviewed Tapp's interrogation tapes and arrived at the conclusion that Tapp had been heavily coerced into his confession.[8] Tapp's case was appealed in 2017 and the rape charge was rescinded, lessening his sentence from 30 years to 20 years. Tapp had by then served his full 20-year sentence and was released.[8]

Chris Tapp was exonerated for the murder charge in July, 2019, after Brian Leigh Dripps Sr. was arrested as a suspect for Dodge's murder.[5]

Accusation of Michael Usry Jr.

Michael Usry Jr. is a filmmaker from New Orleans, Louisiana, once suspected in the murder of Angie Dodge.[3]

Authorities began to suspect Usry through familial searching. Michael's father, Michael Usry Sr. contributed a DNA sample to the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation. The Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation was later acquired by Ancestry.com, along with the Y-Chromosome database, a collection of genetic data for tracing paternal ancestry.[3] Idaho Falls authorities obtained a court order to search Ancestry.com's Y-Chromosome database and found a match of 34/35 searched alleles with Michael Usry Sr., a result that strongly indicates a close relative of his (”..would probably be within three or four generations”) to be a close match.[3] Michael Jr. was further suspected because of records of his trips to Idaho that have him going through Idaho Falls, as well as the dark nature of his films such as Murderabilia which involves the brutal murder of a young woman.[9][3]

After Idaho Falls officials interrogated Usry and obtained a saliva sample, they uncovered that he did not have a genetic match to the sample found at the scene of Dodge's murder.[3] Allegations against Usry were dropped and the trail went cold once again.[4]

The accusation of Michael Usry Jr. was met by dissent from the public. Critics claimed that the use of the Ancestry.com database was unethical and a breach of privacy.[3] Opposition argues that since Michael Usry Sr. donated his DNA sample for recreational/religious purposes, that data should not be used as grounds to accuse members of his family for crime. Ancestry.com met public disapproval in allowing law enforcement access to this database. Michael Usry Jr. stated that the investigation was a severe breach of his and his father's privacy.[3]

Arrest of Brian Leigh Dripps Sr.

The investigation once again gained momentum in late 2018, when Idaho Falls authorities made another attempt to use familial DNA searching to find Dodge's killer.[4] CeCe Moore, at Parabon NanoLabs in Virginia, agreed to assist authorities in searching GEDMatch, a public repository for autosomal DNA, for near-matches.[7] Results indicated that the murderer had to be a grandson or great grandson of a couple called Clarence Ussery and Cleo A. Landrum.[6] Moore identified six known male descendants of the couple as possible suspects. Investigators identified one of the suspects had been living in Idaho in 1996 at the time of Angie Dodd’s death. Police tailed the suspect to collect a DNA sample,[6] but it returned negative for a match against the DNA left at the crime 23 years earlier.[7][4]

After a further three months of genealogical investigation, Moore discovered a seventh previously unknown suspect descended from the same couple and called Brian Leigh Dripps Sr.[6] He had lived in Idaho Falls in 1996 and in 2019 was living in Caldwell, Idaho, not far from Idaho Falls.[7] Investigators obtained a DNA sample from a cigarette butt thrown from his car window and found a complete genetic match.[1][2]

Brian Leigh Dripps Sr. had been living in Idaho Falls, across the street from the Dodge household, during the period surrounding Dodge's death.[4][2] After interrogation, Dripps confessed to the rape and murder of Angie Dodge.[1][2] Dripps was reported to have said he only meant to rape Angie Dodge and had not meant to kill her.[10]

Familial searching controversy

Familial searching is the process of finding an individual for which one cannot find a genetic match through finding approximate matches to their relatives and using genealogical data to identify the individual in question.[11][3][4] Investigators of this case were scrutinized for their use of non-criminal databases to find potential suspects, with the primary concern being a breach of privacy for the individuals involved. In the case of Michael Usry Jr., they located him and his father through the use of one of Ancestry.com's databases (Y-DNA STR data from the former Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation) created as a recreational genealogy project. Michael Usry Sr. donated his genetic data to the Sorenson project for recreational/religious purposes, without the knowledge that it might one day be used for investigative purposes and potentially to implicate him or his relatives in a crime. Michael Usry Jr. stated that this conduct by the authorities was a severe breach of both his and his father's privacy.[3]

The use of this technique is not just limited to this case. The same method of familial DNA searching that was used to identify Dripps and Usry was used in the discovery of the Golden State Killer.[2][11] Consensus among surveyed individuals indicates that the public overall approves of the use of personal genetic data in the investigation of violent offenders.[11] However, there remain concerns over genetic data collected by companies such as 23andMe and Ancestry.com for recreational purposes being used to implicate a relative in a crime, without the contributor of that genetic sample consenting to its use in the investigation.[11] The appropriateness of such usage of genetic data remains in active debate. While some states such as California, Idaho, Texas and Florida allow the use of familial searching, some areas of the United States like Maryland and the District of Columbia prohibit its use in criminal investigations.[11]

Impacts

While the Angie Dodge case is not the first case to use familial searching, officials involved in the investigation claim its success will propel its use in future criminal investigations.[4] The long-term impact of this case on familial searching opinions and usage remains to be seen.

References
  1. Brown, Ruth (May 21, 2019). "Caldwell man arrested as suspect in the 1996 rape, murder of Angie Dodge". Idaho Statesman. Retrieved October 17, 2019.
  2. Shane, Bishop (May 16, 2019). "Police arrest Idaho man in 23-year-old cold-case murder of Angie Dodge". NBC News. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  3. Mustian, Jim (March 12, 2015). "New Orleans filmmaker cleared in cold-case murder; false positive highlights limitations of familial DNA searching". The New Orleans Advocate. Retrieved October 17, 2019.
  4. Armstrong, Mia (July 16, 2019). "In an Apparent First, Genetic Genealogy Aids a Wrongful Conviction Case". The Marshall Project. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  5. Shapiro, Emily (July 17, 2019). "'A new beginning': Man convicted of murder in the '90s exonerated thanks to genetic genealogy". ABC News. Retrieved October 21, 2019.
  6. Evans, Gareth (2020-07-05). "The mother and the murderer". BBC News. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  7. Sewell, Cynthia (May 16, 2019). "DNA family tree leads to new suspect in Angie Dodge murder case -- and a confession". The Idaho Statesman. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  8. Brown, Ruth (May 16, 2019). "Who is Brian Dripps? Caldwell man arrested for long-unsolved murder of Angie Dodge". The Idaho Statesman. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  9. "Murderabilia (2010) Plot". 1MDb. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  10. Eaton, Nate (2019-05-17). "Dripps says he didn't mean to kill Angie Dodge and acted alone, according to court documents". East Idaho News. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  11. Staff (April 27, 2018). "Privacy concerns after public genealogy database used to ID "Golden State Killer" suspect". CBS News. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
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