'The Genetic Detective': CeCe Moore finds Angie Dodge's killer in 23-year-old murder case via genetic genealogy
In the latest episode of ABC's 'The Genetic Detective', CeCe Moore uses her expertise in genetic genealogy to help the Idaho Falls police department crack a 24-year-old cold case. 18-year-old Angie Dodge had been living on her own in her first apartment at 444 I Street Idaho Falls when her body was discovered on June 13, 1996. She had been raped and brutally murdered. The case had gone unsolved for over two decades until Moore came on board after Angie's mother, Carol Dodge had sought her out. It was the first time that parent of a victim had reached out to Moore and requested her to assist in solving their child's murder case, and hence it felt personal to her. More than two decades later, Carol hadn't given up finding her daughter's killer and it was a persistence that also kept the police department from closing the case.
Murder of Angie Dodge
Angie was extremely gifted and intelligent. She had moved into her first apartment at 18 years old and had been employed at the time of her death. In the early hours of June 13, 1996, somewhere between 12:45 am and 11:15 am Angie, had been raped and murdered. Her body was discovered by two workers who came by her residence after she failed to show up at work that morning. The Idaho Police Department was immediately called to the scene where they retrieved semen and strands of hair from Angie's body, which from DNA testing available at the time concluded was from the same suspect.
Initial suspects
Dodge's friend Benjamin Hobbs first emerged as a suspect when he was arrested in Nevada for raping a woman at knifepoint. The circumstances had been similar, for Dodge's breasts were slashed when she was murdered. However, the DNA sample collected from Hobbs didn't match that from the crime scene. The following January, police arrested Christopher Tapp, a 20-year-old man that had been living in Idaho Falls. Despite the DNA profile of the suspect and Tapp rendering no matches, he was convicted of Dodge's murder, after he confessed to the crime, following an extensive investigation. The police were of the suspicion that multiple people had been involved in Dodge's rape and murder. However, none of the details provided by Tapp gave them leads to identifying the other suspects. Tapp later maintained his innocence saying he had been coerced into confessing and appealed the conviction which was upheld in 2001. Finally, after a combined effort by the non-profit organizations, Judges for Justice, and the Idaho Innocence Project, Tapp was exonerated in 2017, his murder sentence was reduced to the time he had served and he was released. Though, the prosecutors refused to expunge his record.
CeCe Moore's investigation
The investigation had once again reached a dead end again, and the police hadn't known how to proceed either. In 2018, the Idaho Falls PD approached Parabon Nanolabs, based in Reston, Virginia, a laboratory that specializes in genetic genealogy. The DNA samples are usually tested, and the profile obtained is uploaded on to GEDmatch, a genealogy website that narrows down a list of relatives that share DNA with the suspect. However, there was a problem with the DNA sample from the Angie Dodge case, as it had degraded over time. There were times when Moore was very doubtful that the would be able to do anything with this case because of the many roadblocks it had posed. But Carol's determination helped her move forward with her own, and she was unwilling to give up. She could not fail Carol, who had demanded answers and deserved them. Parabon had managed to design a visual profile for the suspect from the details that they could salvage out of the DNA, via genetic phenotyping.
While hunting for the suspect via genetic genealogy, Moore found that he had to be the descendant of Joseph Lathrom and Orlena Gaither, but things were just not adding up. There were possibly some missing links in the genealogy tree, and Moore had to dig deep into marital records, social security numbers, death records, even library documentation to scour out obituaries that would fit in with the narrative. Finally, she had a lead and a huge one at that. She had found their suspect, and to her utter surprise, he lived in Idaho Falls. She immediately contacted Idaho Fall PD. And although this was a breakthrough in the case, Moore had her qualms about the identity of the suspect, but at this point, over two decades after the murder, they didn't want to take anything for granted.
The suspect
The suspect identified was Brian Dripps, who was 30 at the time Dodge was murdered and lived directly across the street from her, and had been going through a divorce. This was a solid lead, and pictures of Dripps showed that he resembled the genetic phenotyping profile that Parabon had generated as well. The investigative team then tracked his whereabouts to Caldwell, Idaho. The detectives observed his movements, to the point that they even risked their lives to recover a cigarette butt that Dripps had discarded in live traffic. The cigarette butt was tested for DNA and positively matched with the evidence from the crime scene. The police finally arrested the now 52-year-old Dripps on May 15, 2019, and he later confessed to his crime. He said he had only gone over to Dodge's apartment with the intention to rape her, and not murder. When asked if anyone else had been involved, he clarified that it had been just him.
The nightmare had finally come to an end, justice had been served and Carol Dodge's fight for justice for her daughter had culminated with her murderer's conviction. This was a huge victory for Moore as well, overcoming so many obstacles and dead ends to finally get to that moment where they were able to identify Angie Dodge's murderer.
