How you can help solve the 1996 Angie Dodge murder
We are going to solve Idaho Falls’ 1996 Angie Raye Dodge murder. This is an extremely ambitious goal, but solving this murder is vital for a local family to get closure, for our community to finally know what happened, and possibly to expose official misdeeds at that time. The stakes are high to solve the murder now, because the more time that passes the less likely folks will remember what happened.
Twelve years have passed since Angie Dodge’s brutal rape and murder, so every passing day reduces the chance to uncover what happened and solve this mystery. New details have been revealed by Carol Dodge, Angie’s mother, and it seems the Idaho Falls Police Department botched the murder investigation. Authorities may also have intentionally not pursued suspects because of narcotics informant relationships. IFPD blunders are part of this story, but I don’t want to solely focus on them because the main story is about Angie Dodge’s murder.
Carol Dodge observed her daughter’s murder mystery has never been picked up by a major media outlet. We see all the time on Oprah and other outlets how murder mysteries get re-enacted and an hour dedicated to airing the story nationwide. The hope is always that someone out there knows something and will be brave enough to finally come forward. If you know anyone who works at a major media outlet that produces this content, please contact them immediately and ask what needs to happen for Angie Dodge’s story to get aired.
Immediately after Angie’s murder, many possible suspects and witnesses were involved in drug business. Witnesses who knew some things may have been understandably reluctant to come forward with their information, possibly fearing prosecution or retribution. However, now twelve years have passed, we would hope most of those people are not involved with the same folks they were back then, and hopefully they now feel safer to share their information.
The following excerpt is reprinted with permission, and contains several details of Angie’s murder investigation which I had not heard before:
Mother still seeks closure of her daughter’s murder case
By Elizabeth Laden
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[Angie Dodge] graduated from Idaho Falls High School with the class of 1995. In high school she participated in track, honor society, and the Renaissance Club, an organization honoring academic achievers. Her friends describe her as upbeat, outgoing, likable, and caring.
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…she was raped and murdered in her Idaho Falls apartment on I Street, not far from the greenbelt, early in the morning of June 13, 1996. She was 18 years old.
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…the one person convicted of the rape and murder is now claiming he was unjustly convicted and is asking for a new trial.
Christopher Tapp is serving a life sentence for the crimes, but claims in a civil suit that his attorney did not adequately represent him.
…
In a detailed, graphic, videotaped confession in January 1997, Tapp told police investigators he held Angie down while a man named Benjamin Hobbs and a person he knew only as “Mike,” raped her. Tapp told detective Jared Fuhriman, now the mayor of Idaho Falls, that Hobbs forced him to stab Angie. He also testified that Hobbs slit the young woman’s throat. Angie’s neck was nearly severed from her body.DNA evidence has not been linked to Hobbs, so Tapp was the only person charged in the crimes. District Judge Ted Wood sentenced him to 30 years to life in prison.
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[Tapp is also trying to work a learning disability into his defense argument.]
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[Mother Carol Dodge] says. “I want to know how my daughter died, who was there, why it happened.”
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[Bonneville County Prosecutor Bruce] Pickett argued that the videotapes show that Tapp was aware of the seriousness of the charges he was facing, and knew his rights.Dodge says Tapp describes the murder and rape in horrific detail, so much so that any claims that he was repeating anything he had heard from another person cannot be true.
…
Also of great concern to Dodge is frustration with those who investigated the crime scene and interviewed witnesses. Idaho Falls police did the typical thing of first looking for suspects among family members. Dodge says this wasted valuable time.The Dodge family also charges that investigators did not handle all the physical evidence properly. For example, Dodge was given some items that were in her daughter’s apartment. She put them in storage, not having the heart to go through them. But after some time had passed, a friend helped Dodge open the storage containers. Dodge said they were shocked to find substantial physical evidence that demonstrated a violent act. Police were notified and an investigator cut some of this evidence from the items and claims to have taken it to a lab. Dodge has never heard the results.
Also puzzling is that the city of Idaho Falls claims it has no taped records of any 911 calls the night of the murder. Dodge says this means there is no evidence that Angie had tried to call for help.
Dodge is also angry that the crime scene was released within the 24-hour period after the discovery of Angie’s death. Reports state that Angie’s body was taken from the crime scene at 5:05 p. m. However. the chief of police released the crime scene shortly after 10 a.m. the following morning to the owner of the apartment building.
“Less than a 24-hour crime scene investigation on a brutal murder?” says Dodge.
The owner then called a cleaning and restoration service that painted the walls and removed the carpet. Dodge said she contacted this service and was told that investigators had not removed any pieces of the carpet. Knowing that the carpet could have held physical evidence, Dodge asked investigators why no samples were taken. She later learned that after she had called the investigators, they contacted the cleaning service to obtain a carpet sample, and the service said the carpet had been hauled to the landfill.
Dodge also said that the police department removed a wallet that was found in a shoebox taken from the crime scene at Angie’s apartment. However the wallet belonged to someone that a police department employee knew. This wallet was released to the owner’s father immediately. The young man was interviewed, and he claimed he had lost the wallet outdoors, he barely knew Angie, and she must have found it on the ground. Dodge questions the legality of releasing any evidences within the first 72 hours into a murder investigation.
Because Angie had known Tapp, although not well, and Tapp was in a circle of people who were known to have been playing around with drugs, Angie’s autopsy included a toxicology report. It was clean for drugs and alcohol. Although some may say Angie may have been involved in some risky behavior on a limited basis, it is more likely that she would have encouraged others to stop using drugs. Angie was an honor student and a hard worker with specific goals she hoped to achieve, Dodge notes.
However, some say Angie seemed troubled and withdrawn a week or so before her death. In fact the night Angie was murdered, Carol said, Angie came and visited with her for a few hours and Carol recalls those lasts moments of seeing Angie alive. Angie pulled out of the drive-way at 10:24 p. m. Carol will be forever grateful for her last words to Angie, which were, “I love you.”
During that visit, Angie told Carol she had “done something stupid,” Carol says. Carol replied that everyone does stupid things sometimes, and Angie replied that she had done something “really stupid.” Carol said she did not press her daughter for an explanation. She said Angie also told her she wanted to get out of town and planned to visit her father the next day. He was working in security at Colter Bay on Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park.
Later, Carol learned that Angie had gone to Stucki’s Gas station after their visit, and Angie told a friend there that if she did not have to work the next morning at Beauty of all Seasons, she would leave right then, because she needed to get out of town. This was at 10:45 p. m. on June 12.
Dodge said some of Angie’s friends recalled that Angie seemed quiet and withdrawn at times during the two weeks before the murder.
Also not long before her death, Angie had taken a short plane trip out of Idaho Falls. What happened on that plane trip, and who else may have been involved in the trip, could be clues to solving the crimes, Dodge says. Dodge said an airport security person who knew Angie saw Angie at the airport shortly after 5 p. m. a week or two prior to her death, wearing a long skirt and Birkenstock sandals, carrying a backpack, and appearing to be happy. And, she saw Angie return that same night. Dodge said investigators never followed up on that plane trip, to her knowledge.
This is another reason why giving the case regional and national exposure could help. Maybe a flight attendant, airport worker, ticket salesperson, or other passenger remembers seeing Angie and knows the flight’s destination. Maybe they saw Angie with another person at the airport or on the plane.
Another concern is that there were tips that a confidential informer working with narcotics agents was part of Tapp’s crowd.
Idaho Falls investigators have often reported that they did not think drugs were involved in the case, or that the murder was premeditated. Dodge said she has always felt uncomfortable with this because the investigators know that some of the people Angie hung out with were involved with drugs. Angie’s anxiety prior to her murder also implies that she feared she was in danger.
In an early story on the case, the Post Register reports that one detective said the case is “frustrating because people who might have valuable information about the murder are in the local drug culture and are not likely to speak to police.” But then the detective went on to say he did not believe the murder was drug-related.
Investigators interviewed around 200 people, once they got through with the family, said Dodge. These included Angie’s friends and strangers who hung out in the neighborhood and on the greenbelt.
More than 75 DNA samples were taken from people who were interviewed. In 2007, a Florida laboratory determined that whoever raped Angie was 96 percent Caucasian and 4 percent Asian.
When the DNA results were announced, Detective Capt. Roger Smart of the Idaho Falls Police Department said, “It is basically a cold case, but it is not a closed case. We run down every piece of information we get.”
Benjamin Hobbs — the man Tapp says slit Angie’s throat — has never admitted any role in the rape and murder. Hobbs is in prison in Ely, NV. for first degree kidnapping, sexual assault, and battery with a deadly weapon committed in January 1997 on a young woman from Nevada. Hobbs is originally from Las Vegas Nevada, and lived in Idaho Falls at the time of Angie’s death.
Again, because of the lack of regional and national exposure to the case, someone may be out there who knew Hobbs before he was arrested for the Nevada crime and could link him to Angie’s murder.
Dodge said it has also been difficult to accept that in June, 2001, Bonneville County Prosecutor Kipp Manwaring decided to not pursue an accessory charge against Jeremy Sargis, formerly of Idaho Falls.
Sargis faced the accessory charge in 1997 after he was accused of withholding information about Dodge’ s murder from authorities. The charge was dismissed after Manwaring said he would seek the charge again at the end of convicted murderer Christopher Tapp’ s court hearings, according to court records.
Sargis testified at Tapp’ s 1997 preliminary hearing on murder and rape charges, but he pleaded the Fifth Amendment when asked questions.
Dodge was found dead in her bedroom by a co-worker from the Beauty For All Seasons company, who was concerned that she had not come to work. There was no sign of forced entry into the apartment. There were signs of a short struggle. Dodge’s landlady, who lives downstairs, told police she did not hear anything unusual Wednesday night, just a stereo playing in the early evening.
Angie had moved into the apartment around a month before her death, and had no roommates.
Until just before her death, she worked part-time at Stucki’s, and then at Beauty For All Seasons.
In the early days of the investigation, some of Angie’s friends said Angie had learned that her then-boyfriend, Christian Grebstad, had been in touch with an ex-girlfriend.
Grebstad had dated Angie for around six weeks, until just before her murder, and was reported in a Post Register story as having said he’s “still in shock” about her death. The relationship ended when Angie found a letter Grebstad had written to his ex-girlfriend and got the wrong impression, he said.
The Dodge family have created a website dedicated to Angie Dodge, on which they state their appeal to the Idaho Falls Police Department. Their appeal consists of opening Angie’s case “for outside investigation by the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Department, the FBI or any other organization who may be able take a fresh look at her case and help to solve it”, “investigate areas above and beyond the Christopher Tapp version of what happened”, and “allow Angie’s family the same access to Angie’s file as the local news paper and others have had”. Does this seem unreasonable, since the IFPD has seemingly been stuck for twelve years on this important case?
Getting down to business: Did you live on around Angie Dodge’s I Street apartment in that summer of 1996? Did you know Angie Dodge in any way? Did you hear anyone talking about Angie Dodge? Did you know Christopher Tapp or Benjamin Hobbs or Jeremy Sargis or Christian Grebstad? Did you know who Christopher Tapp or Benjamin Hobbs or Jeremy Sargis or Christian Grebstad hung out with? Did you hang out with any of them, or did you hang out with people who hung out with them? Did you ever see them at a party? Please feel free to state people’s names and relationships, even if you do not think they are a realistic suspect, because those names and relationships may not have been explored before, and they could be clues that lead to the truth.
Do you know anyone affiliated with a national program who could possibly get this story aired nationwide? If so, please share this story with them so Angie Dodge at least gets a fair chance at national exposure to solve her murder.
Do you think the Idaho Falls Police Department should ask an outside agency to investigate how the IFPD handled this investigation? Do you think the Dodge family should have the same access to Angie’s files as the Post Register had, and/or do you think the Post Register should share all their notes from that story with the Dodge family?
What do you think?
*** Self edited, how about that? I said something about a feature that turned out to not work well, that’s all. ***
Why after all these years, hasn’t this family hired a private investigator to look into this case? If the IFPD bungled so much of the evidence and this investigatio in general, that should have been their first clue that they needed to hire someone from the outside to look into this case. They can’t expect the FBI to just pick up a random murder case, not when their are tens of thousands of random unsolved murder cases throughout the country.
Good luck to the Dodge family. Hopefully they’ll get the break they need in this case.
I would expect that even with training, brutal murder cases are not easily worked by a small town police department that gets fewer than 1 such case a year on average. I would expect many mistakes to be made, and most of them to be innocent ones, by the persons handling this case. I’m also aware that they are as human as the rest of us.
From the outside looking in as a non law enforcement individual, it’s easy to armchair detective and say that mistakes were clearly made. What would make me more impressed is if the police department themselves asked for an outside and independent investigation, with the expected outcome being some lessons learned that they can use when/if this happens again. But maybe they don’t dare do this, for fear of admission of liability and the inevitable lawsuit.
But I’d be hopeful they believed solving this case, or learning about mistakes they made and can now avoid in the future, was more important than avoiding a lawsuit.
4% Asian? That’s news to me. I wonder if such a small percentage is even noticeable in an individual? (Don’t cry racism, we all tend to carry some physical characteristics common to our heritage.)
One more thing. Is it possible that some knowlege was made available but prosecution was traded off, due to intel on other drug situations? Who was our dear prosecutor at the time?
I’m a little confused here: the title of this blog refers to an “unsloved” crime, yet someone confessed and is serving a life sentence for the crime. . . is there reason to think this person was lying when he confessed to the rape and murder of this poor girl?
There were at least two others involved. It is unsolved in that we are not sure who those two others were. Benjamin Hobbs has not admitted his role, and his DNA was not found at the scene (although you have to wonder if his DNA could have been found on that carpet or items that the IFPD missed). The third person is almost completely unknown.
A few years ago this case was re-opened and investigated by IFPD and Bonneville County jointly. Asking for an outside agency to give a hand and maybe a different opinion has already happened. So now I guess we will hear that Bonn Co is too close to IFPD for this to have been a fair and impartial examination of the case.
I’ll just say that for now. No sense in throwing too much out there at one time.
Um, More of the story #6, you stole my argument!
I do think the Sheriff’s Department is too close to the situation to help the IFPD do a good review. Many of local law enforcement staff were either trained by the same people, or worked with the same people, and maybe even worked for the same agency before switching over (lots of that happens, I’m told) so there’s bound to be similar approaches (and therefore something that might stand out to an outsider would be accepted as SOP here).
I wasn’t looking for blame, I was looking for some insight on better ways to handle this situation. Someone from the outside might be able to have a fresh eye on the investigative techniques and could provide some beneficial tips for the locals to consider the next time they encounter this type of situation. I don’t think an outside review would solve this case, but it might provide ideas to use when the next case happens.
Even if I didn’t advertise that I was doing it, I think I’d want to invite this look just to help out my department for future cases.
And it’s established fact that many BCSO end up working for IFPD, so it’s difficult to imagine they want to step on IFPD toes.
When did BCSO jointly investigate, and what actually happened? Was BCSO asked to check some locations in the county, or was BCSO asked to review the entire case for places the IFPD may have missed and make recommendations?
Joe, actually the entire case was reviewed all over again. Also, either ISP, or someone else was on board as well, can’t remember who.
Looking back on this posting, I think it is just going to end up like all the other posts dealing with IFPD, where people either glorify them or castrate them. I don’t think that is the actual intent here. I think it was written more as a way to develop new leads, not argue the merits of what’s been done in the past. That way lies madness.
I don’t think posting all of Carol Dodge’s complaints was really fair. She has an agenda, and while it may be a justified agenda in her mind, we all know that that kind of thing can screw with you. Yes, the IFPD made mistakes, but that is done and gone. You can’t fix it. They also did a lot of good work too, despite Carols accusations. Some of those accusations are flat out wrong by the way. If you read above, some of them actually stick out on their own.
I feel Joe should have spent more time on this piece in helping to develop information for leads than repeating Carol’s accusations and tearing down the cops. It’s just going to lead to more of the same-ol-same-ol that goes on here all the time.
I really would like to see some new leads on this case. Someone really butchered this girl and they need to be caught. But no outside agency is really going to find anything buried in the old IFPD files. It will take new information to really get any where with this.
I’m going to make one more comment on this side issue and then give up, because I don’t think I’m making myself clear and it’s not really germane to the post, which was created to try to find out who killed this young woman.
I think the outside agency would not develop any new clues or reinterpret any old evidence for this particular case. But I do believe mistakes were made (from what I’ve read), and that’s where an outside agency could be of use…they could point out, “in this situation, you’d have been better served by doing x instead of y” or ” you missed out on this potential evidence when you forgot to do this”.
Nothing that could help Angie’s case but as it seems some missteps were made in this case, an outside observer would be able to point them out better than someone close at hand who might have done the same thing due to similar training. That kind of insight could help with the next murder investigation. If I were a police chief I might welcome the extra training for my investigators. (And who knows, maybe all their decisions would be validated, which would be good to know, too.)
Now. I’ll drop that issue for the remainder of these comments, and let the rest of the comments focus on new leads or possible evidence to help the local police solve this horrible crime. I did not mean to create a threadjack here.
If one of the killers was involved in this circle of people as a confidential informant, would he be given up by his handler to face the consequences of this crime or would he be protected so that he could continue to assist the narcotics agents? I can hear both sides of the argument now. Being an informant is not an excuse/pass for criminal behavior (although it happens all the time) or what’s done is done and giving up a valuable informant won’t bring Ms. Dodge back now. Nemesis may have a bigger point than he realizes. If an informant was involved, an outside agency would have no vested interest in protecting him/her, only in solving the crime.
Didn’t a national news show want to do this story a few years back and Chief Livesey refused to give permission to view the file as it was an ongoing investigation?
The original article asks why no national media covered this story. I don’t intend this to sound mean from a personal standpoint but the simple truth is that murders happen every single day and quite simply there is nothing about Angie Dodge’s case which makes it stand out from the rest. Rape / murders happen every day somewhere in this country. And Angie’s is very ordinary and average. There just quite simply isn’t anything about the case that is unusual or spectacular in a media sense to make it stand out compared to the rest. And its 12 years old to boot.
To be honest if any case in this area deserves more attention I’d say its the Tonya Teske case which I imagine most of you have probably forgotten about. Tonya is the girl whose body was found dumped along US 20 just outside Idaho Falls. Its never been solved either.
Was Tonya the runaway whose body was dumped at the Ucon off-ramp on US 20?
yes
I disagree, the unexplained plane trip a week earlier, the warning sign of Angie saying she did something stupid, the warning sign of her saying she would get out of town immediately if she did not have to work the next morning, at least three guys involved but only one admitted it, one guy completely out on the loose no idea who he is, the police messing up the investigation by not collecting the carpet samples and other clues, the possibility suspects or people who knew the suspects were involved in undercover narcotics operations?
I’ve seen plenty re-enactments that didn’t come close the “interesting” aspects (if that is not too vulgar a term) of this case. Plus they seem to always depict the pretty young blonde girls anyways, so should Angie be excluded?
If you know remember your son or daughter went to school with or worked with or hung out with these people for awhile back then, call them up and ask them about it, try to get more information and comment it here.
Here’s my uninformed theory after reading about and talking with friends about Angie’s case for 12 years.
I don’t think Angie was doing drugs herself, the toxicology report found no drugs or alcohol in her. Metabolism and such create different factors, but anyone know generally how long a time period back they can detect drugs (like if drugs were taken a week before, or a month before?)
I think Angie did get mad about her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend, and I think she did something like threaten to kick her butt or talked spit about the girl at a party, the word got around to the ex-girlfriend, and this ex-girlfriend probably had a posse of homies who were hopped up on drugs and aggression. When they heard of a “preppy girl” dissing one of their own, they made some threats of their own, either in person or over the phone, and Angie realized she had run her mouth and probably should not have.
Then I think those three guys went over to rough her up, and while roughing her up they had her pinned down and decided to rape her, and after raping her decided to cut her throat, probably realizing they were getting in deeper trouble and not wanting to get caught. They probably spent some time in the apartment cleaning up after themselves to get rid of as much evidence as possible.
That’s just my theory at least, but if true it means others in their posse of friends would have certainly heard them talking about going to “get that girl” beforehand, probably a couple days beforehand.
Does anyone know the exact I-street address of Angie’s apartment? Is it one of those buildings around the corner from Midget Market?
El Diablo, although I agree that there are murders every day around the world, doesn’t the handling of this case sound rather like the Ramsey case in Colorado? Look at the media coverage on that one. I would imagine it would be difficult despite all the training for our local officers to know exactly how to handle a murder case as we all know book-learning and hands-on are two entirely different things. Thankfully we don’t have many murders here. Some of that would be due to our community make-up in general and some of that is to be credited to the police for doing a good job of detecting and defusing problems before they escalate to that point. I lived outside the area for a few years and was appalled at the local attitude in those areas towards this kind of violence. It was so every-day to them. It was good to come home.
I agree with Joe. I think someone out there in our community has the key to this mystery and I believe Carol has the right to some closure. I cannot even imagine the burden she bears not knowing who did this to her darling child. God bless her and let’s hope we find the answers she seeks and that she gets some small comfort at the very least from our efforts to help her.
I agree with Another Guest on this one. And Joe, given what’s been written here and what I remember, I think this is a reasonable assumption.
It also seems to me, that given the fact that Tapp obviously did not act alone, he knows the others who were part of this. And it seems that as long as he’s not willing to cooperate by giving up those names, he should have the book thrown at him in every way possible. No quarter.
Everybody watch Judge Joel Tingey give Tapp a new trial. Remember Tingey is a liberal judge we have been commenting about his light sentences on sexual offenders. I suspect the decision will be coming down in a few weeks.
On another front, Hobbs was on felony probation at the time of the murder. He had taken off and stopped reporting. Perhaps the Correction records should be scowered by police to tie any associations or references in the files. Perhaps Hobbs went to treatment or counseling with some of the suspects or friends of the suspects. These guys meet and start hanging out together. It is all about establishing relationships and examining the circle of friends here to arrive at a pool of suspects or persons that can lead an investigator to more suspects. From my understanding, the police never checked this angle out either.
Joe:
Thank you for your support, your time and your efforts in helping to put the Island Park news story on your website regarding Angie’s murder.
I am so thankful for you and your efforts.
I would love to talk to you if you have some time.
Please call me:
***-**** (Cell)
***-**** (Home)
Again thank you,and then a million Thank you’s for your kindness,support and concern.
Carol Dodge
From The Island Park News 2008-03-28
Mountain Views
The tragedy of unsolved crimes
We are committed to being a true local newspaper that also covers greater Yellowstone issues, so we seldom print stories about events outside Fremont County or Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks.
We made one of those rare exceptions by publishing the Angie Dodge story.
The story does have a small local angle. Stonegate resident Richard Nelson, a relative of Angie Dodge’s mom, Carol Nelson Dodge, told me about Angie’s case two years ago. Richard spoke with deep passion about Carol’s search for answers and closure. He reminded me of the case a few times after that until I finally visited the Angie Dodge Web site to learn more, and then contacted Carol to ask what I could do to help.
I was working in Hardin, Montana, when the murder took place and read the Billings Gazette every day. Although that paper covers regional news, we never saw a story about the Angie Dodge case. After we moved back to Island Park to start this paper, we read the Post Register from time to time, but apparently never when the paper printed an update of the story.
We then learned that the story has received little coverage beyond Idaho Falls. This is a travesty because crimes like the Angie Dodge murder can be solved when they have regional coverage. People in her circle and age group are often transient, and someone out there knows something. There are people or maybe just a person who can help break this case.
The Dodges have not had the network or other resources that people like Utahan Elizabeth Smart’s family were able to employ when Elizabeth went missing. If Elizabeth’s face and story had not been nationally published and kept in the news month after month she may not have been recognized and rescued.
And so we are helping by taking the first step - writing a story that will be used as the foundation of a television news story on the case.
Besides the need to cast a wider net to search for Angie’s killer or killers, there is something else that the Angie Dodge story shows us. Idaho is a fast growing state, and crime increases when communities grow. Although Bonneville County and Idaho Falls put considerable resources into the Angie Dodge case, more resources and better trained investigators could have been employed.
Anyone who reads the story in this paper about the other unsolved crimes in and near Idaho Falls will conclude that the community has too many cold cases.
Communities that embrace growth should have the money to pay for increased law enforcement and highly trained investigative staff and courts that can adequately handle addressing heinous felonies like murder and rape.
Fremont County’s jail is overcrowded, yet developments are being planned that will double the county’s population in a short time. Who will pay for a new jail, more law enforcement officers, and more court services?
Angie Dodge’s case is a tragedy that extends beyond the broken hearts her family and friends live with every day. It is a tragedy on a social, community level because the media and the criminal justice system, although they maybe worked as hard as they could, did not have the resources to solve the case and ensure that the story spread far beyond the Idaho Falls community.
It is never too late. Help spread the word about this unsolved crime that took away a young girl’s life. Please take the time to read Angie’s story and the summary of other cold cases. These are also available on line at http://www.IslandParkNews.net and http://www.HenrysForkCountry.com. Please copy the on line versions into your e-mail program and forward to everyone you know.
Elizabeth Laden
ipnews@mac.com
Awesome write up Joe. Kudos. I have a suggestion/idea for anyone who reads this link and would like to try and help. I didn’t live here, but some of you did. Either way, let’s do this: Copy and paste the link to this article into a personal email to all of your associates, friends, etc. who did live in IF in 1996. Ask them to read it and forward it on to their contacts who were living here then. Then they can forward it, on and on. Say something like, if you have info, contact the IFPD or something like that.
Life experience and common sense tells me we all have connections, who have connections, who have more connections who will eventually link into someone who might know something. It’s won’t take but a few minutes to copy, paste, and email. Why not? If it was your daughter you would want all the help you could get.
P.S. Mrs. Dodge, did you see this story on dateline nbc a few weeks ago? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23592456/
It was about a family who had no idea who their father’s killer was. He was a respected Chicago doctor. The trail seemed cold, and what few clues they had, they created a myspace page about the murder, knowing the likely suspect was now part of the myspace generation. They found the killer but the story is not over yet, the French are trying to decide what to do with him. Might be an idea? Read it and see what you think. Good luck, from one mother to another.
I don’t know about the whole email suggestion, but it couldn’t hurt for Mrs Dodge to try and contact Dateline with her story to see if they’d be interested in airing it. All they can do is say “no”. But if they say yes, that could make all the difference in the world.
Here’s their email….send them the facts about your case and ask if they can help. It’s worth a shot. dateline@nbcuni.com
The Idaho Falls Police Department considers the Angie Dodge case active and will not release any files. This is making it difficult for Carl Dodge and me to get a national producer to agree to do the story - we have been working on this for a while now. Our next step is to petition the court to overrule IFPD’s decision. Surely some of the files can be released.
Thanks to all who are the sending story link.
Elizabeth
Oh, for a case this old, to say it’s still “active” and therefore they won’t release files to a national news show and accept that extra kind of help seems a little suspect…
Unless, they REALLY have some hot new leads they are in the middle of, then I can see them not wanting to jeopardize anything.
Someone who knows insiders stuff on this, unless there’s something breaking now, why would it be unreasonable to release these records after all this time and ask for help?
The IFPD’s position does not sound logical, I would like to hear from someone in their shop on this. Maybe they do have a logic to it that makes sense. However, why do other murder cases get files released sooner so national programs can do stories on them?
Does IFPD blocking this lend credence to the idea that a drug informant was involved?
Hi Carol god bless you and Roger we all love you so much. Sorry about dad passing away. I hope you find the jerks responsible. does anyone know a guy who uses a st name of Panther?? I heard he might actualy know alot. But its all hear say unless someone actualy knows him.
Not a cop again but I am good friends with an IFPD officer who wasn’t working for the IFPD at the time of the murder and as suchis in no way involved in the investigation but he did mention to me one time that he’s heard there have been 30 or so different people confess to the murder. There is nothing like an unsolved murder to bring out the attention seeking kooks. Thats why police in real life and on TV often hold back key pieces of evidence from the public so they can weed out the false confessions. Just a guess but that might be why they aren’t releasing the files.
I doubt it….but like you said, “just a guess”.
Guess again I say. There’s something fishy going on and it stinks to high heaven. The records should be made available to the family after all these years. Period!
Hey, 007, welcome back. I agree that something doesn’t seem to be right, here. The speculation about the informant is looking like more than speculation.
I do know that what made Chris Tapp’s confession stand out from all the other confessions is that he accurately knew things about the murder scene that only the police knew. Thus his was judged to be real.
Thanks Nemesis! Good to be back. Looks like I’ve got alot of “catching up” to do this weekend.
Take care & have a great wknd everyone!
Once again this is turning into a dump on the police blog instead of actually trying to develop any leads. By the way, the IFPD currently has, and had during this case, several officers who have been to the FBI academy in Quantico Va, and other high profile criminal schools, just like other big city departments. It has nothing to do with the so called “small city inexperience” which has been alluded to. The IFPD made mistakes for sure. But so did the LAPD during OJ. So stop cop bashing and get to the point of this post which was to develop new leads. The police would love to solve this case just as badly as Mrs. Dodge would, there is no reason to accuse them otherwise. If they are withholding information then there is a reason, not some secret sinister plot to let killers roam free. Maybe someone would like to contact the new Chief and see if he may be willing to open up this case to others. I doubt anyone has actually discussed this with him yet.
But conspiracy theories and police bashing are much more fun!
Well said Here We Go Again.
Wouldn’t the IFPD be able to release copies of their files with the 2 or 3 key secret factors blacked out?
To be quite honest I find it laughable and absurd that anyone would think the IFPD would sabotage an investigation for the sake of not outing a drug informant or whatever the conspiracy theory is.
I’m sure forensic mistakes were made. I’m sure that with 20/20 hindsight there are avenues of investigation that should have been taken differently back then. I’m sure this is true of any investigation by any police. And while criticizing the police back then, many of whom no longer work for the IFPD, may be warranted it doesn’t help solve the crime. All it does in fact is create a wall between current police and you guys because the police are going to look at this thread, see the police bashing, and think “here we go again” as the previous poster alluded to. To do anything productive with this thread except police bashing we need to stick with reality not absurd fantasy conspiracy theories.
Here for example is a possible avenue of investigation for going forward. Who has the key to this investigation: Chris Tapp does. Obviously he isn’t talking though so he needs an incentive. Right now he is trying to get a new trial. Perhaps the best thing that could happen would be for him to get a new trial. Then perhaps the prosecutors could cut a deal with him - plead guilty to manslaughter, give us names that lead to an arrest, and we’ll recommend time served. Yes Tapp would probably be getting off easier than he should but better that than the others going free which is where we are at now. And since Tapp’s DNA apparently does not match that found on Angie’s body it sounds as if he was probably not the main bad guy of those who were there.
Our community needs to wake up. Crime is running rapid in Idaho Falls.
Our community is sleeping, in denial and being fooled. The WAKE-UP call comes when YOU are a VICTIM of a violent crime or a VICTIM of the judicial corruption. Only then… your eyes are truly opened, and harsh reality smacks you in the face. It’s sad but true; the system will give you an education and hardcore lessons that you will never forget. Through out the past 11 years many individuals have suggested that the murder case of Angie Dodge needs National media attention. However, little does our community know… that the Angie Dodge murder case has an untold story! The police records in the Dodge murder case are not accessible to anyone outside the law enforcement department. A national media entity needs access to police records and that will never happen. The former Idaho Falls police chief made sure of that. According to the Idaho Statistics register the Angie Dodge murder is listed as a solved case. However, the City of Idaho Falls classifies the case as unsolved and no one can access the records in an open investigation. Christopher Tapp was convicted in 1997 by his confession only, there is no physical evidence linking Tapp to the murder of Angie Dodge. The case remains unsolved because of an unidentified DNA found at the crime scene, which has never been matched to anyone. WHY?…. because, Christopher Tapp will not give up the true identity of the other people involved. In TAPP’S confession he implicated that Benjamin Hobbs slit Dodge’s throat and that Jeremy Sargis raped Dodge before and after her death. However, Hobbs and Sargis were never charged with murder because their DNA did not match either. December 1996 - Ben Hobbs was arrested in Ely, NV for assault and rape of a Nevada woman. Hobbs was convicted and is now serving time at a Nevada prison. January 1997- Jeremy Sargis and Tapp were both arrested for being an accessory to a felony in the Dodge murder case. However, the case against Sargis was quickly dismissed and his records were sealed by the courts. The accessory charges against Tapp were also dismissed but Tapp was then charged with First degree murder and rape of Angie Dodge. Sargis pleaded the Fifth Amendment at Tapp’s trial. The scale of justice was out of balance. Within the Idaho Constitution a VICTIM has few constitutional rights, but the CRIMINAL on the other hand has many rights. Within the Federal constitution the VICTIM has no rights at all, while the CRIMINMAL is given an abundance of federal rights. Very few people lobby for changes in Crime Laws. The laws are in desperate need of change because the laws were written decades ago for the crimes of those times. The crimes committed in today’s world are punished by old laws. However, the out cry for change falls on deaf ears when the evil dollar has more value than a man’s integrity and honor. It is time our community stands together and demand answers from our elected city leaders, including elected county commissioners who consistently divert justice and deny funding for law enforcement training, equipment, and adequate police staffing that is desperately needed in our community. In closing, shame on the elected City and County officials for turning their backs on all the unsolved crimes in our community and shame on former Idaho Falls Police Chief and fellow-officers for the spiteful actions and words towards survivors of horrific crimes.
IT IS TIME TO VOTE FOR NEW CITY AND COUNTY LEADERS….WHO HAVE HONOR AND INTEGRITY. Politics and Religion are a horrible combination; it plunders all honor and integrity to nonexistence.
I don’t know what post SOME of you are reading, but I haven’t seen anybody “bash” any cops here. All some of us are saying is “why won’t they at least let the family see all the evidence and files regarding this case”???? There’s no reason for it, period! So if some of you want to call that “cop bashing”, than I’ll say it to your face……I’m a HUGE “cop basher”!
I’m sure if this was YOUR child, you’d feel the same way. But obviously you feel that surpressing evidence is just fine and dandy for the local police force. Perhaps you have some cop friends and are a little sensitive to the issue or perhaps you are a cop yourself and the truth hurts. (it often does in debates like this)
Wow, well said Open Minded!
I don’t think this is about cop bashing, however I do think many of the cops on this site are way too sensitive.
Joe, good for you for doing this, so many people are haunted by this case. I also heard (from very reliable sources) that the investigation was not handled properly, I.F. just didn’t have the know how.
What has always bothered me about the infamous “mike” is that there was never a description of him. Has anyone ever heard other wise? Considering most crimes are solved by citizen input not police investigation, withholding that info seems stupid.
I had to self censor my comments about 3 times because I kept getting too snarky and that doesn’t further the debate, it only inflames others who are already looking for a fight.
We do question things that seem very weird, untoward, and out of the realm of realistic expectations. That questioning arises out of information contained in other comments, and I agree it is a kind of threadjack to the “who has information to help solve this murder” point of this post.
To suggest about the questions ” All it does in fact is create a wall between current police and you guys because the police are going to look at this thread, see the police bashing, and think “here we go again” as the previous poster alluded to.” doesn’t give credit to the good people on the force who realize that outsiders like most of us would be confused by what we’re reading, and would be genuinely interested in knowing what’s really going on.
After all, isn’t that what they have a spokesperson for? Couldn’t someone enlighten us without telling us we’re bad people for asking these questions and raising these concerns?
Maybe, when threads get hijacked like this, we should have a link that we can go to, to express our questions and concerns. That way, the actual post and comments following are on point and people don’t have to wade through all the off topic stuff if they don’t want to…
Joe? Can that be done here, since the off topic stuff is a valid concern, but not germane to the actual post?
On of the main reasons the IFPD may be sensitive to releasing information could be due to Carol Dodge herself. When this investigation first came about, Carol was kept well informed of all leads and information that the IFPD came across. Because the police were not arresting people left and right to Carol’s satisfaction, she began to go out and badger and harass witnesses, suspects, and anyone else she could associate with this crime. Pretty soon people began to stop cooperating. Also, she began to stalk people and yes, even cops in the city. She would accost officers who were taking calls in an area where she was doing her “surveillance” while the officers were in the middle of other crime investigations. After a while she became a thorn in every one’s side.
Now I know some of you will say it is her right to do these things given what happened to her child, and you may be right. You may also wish to then ignore the fact that by her own behavior, Carol Dodge may have inadvertently scared off or p*ssed off a lot of people who could have helped her and the police solve this crime. In the end, the IFPD felt it was better to cut off their information to Carol, than continue to detail to her any leads that she might then interfere with. I’m sorry it happened but that’s thee way things go sometimes.
Now with a new Chief, maybe IFPD would be more interested in getting some outside help. Due to the actions mentioned above, many people involved have left this area and national coverage may reach some of those who are now gone. They might feel more secure in giving information now than they did back then. Some may not even know the investigation is still active. I absolutely support a national outlet covering this case.
In the end I could really care less about Carol Dodge or the IFPD on this issue. What I care about more is that Angie Dodge was brutally murdered and I have never felt the true killers and their accomplices were held accountable for this crime. But if we are to help in solving it then all the facts, no matter how unpleasant need to be thrown out on the table, and not just one slanted view of things.
Still doesn’t answer my question, was there ever a description of Mike.
Nemesis: yeah I’ve thought of scenarios for that, but there are big obstacles to make work, and to explain it would threadjack it more! 8^) I’m not too concerned, conversations meander and sometimes the off-topic comments on old stories actually regenerate the original discussions.
guest22: I’ve also wondered if there was ever a description of Mike, the person Tapp identified as being there. Maybe that description is one of the clues the cops are keeping secret so they can weed out the egomaniacs? It seems difficult to get the public to help though.
Someone wrote that Jeremy Sargis was involved in the murder? I thought he was just a person of interest? Where did you get that information?
For the cops, I hear your concerns about more cop-bashing, but what are we supposed to do? If nobody talks about this case or tries to help, we have twelve years of unsolved murder. If we try to get involved and help, we get accused of cop-bashing. Is there a boundary you could help define for us, or at least give us some directions to go?
Wow. Good info #42, and I can totally see Carol’s point of view, as a mother trying to get some justice.
But as an outsider I can also see why it would really create problems for the police, too (if there was a genuine effort being made by the police to solve this case, her actions could be a hindrance).
Joe, thanks for the explanation about side threads, too. I’m okay when things stray a bit (obviously, as I participate!) but I thought the persons who had the complaint had a valid point.
It’s possible that someone who doesn’t realize they have some information might get bogged down in all the side issues and stop reading. (The implication being that had they continued on, something later might have jogged their memories…)
I don’t think the appropriate term for the case is “active”. It seems “actively stagnant” or “actively going nowhere” is better.
Therefore, national attention and new ideas for exposure is altogether appropriate more than a decade later! I wonder if the young IF mother who is still missing, who left the infant at home alone, is still considered “active”. Perhaps the IFPD needs to lay down a few egos and think out of the box on these two cases. Clearing homicides will only help them at this point. Look at all the recent media attention Pocatello PD has been giving their unsolved female homicides from the 1980’s over the last year. The have willingly participated in newspaper and local tv exposure. Why is IFPD so close lipped? Suspicious. I do understand case loads may be tight now, but have they considered a one time national media blitz on the two?
This is only one of many articles on the Pocatello girls. Investigators are still actively having summits and meetings and interviewing people. Is IFPD doing this much, or are both cases effectively filed?
http://www.idahostatejournal.com/articles/2007/01/20/news/local/news02.txt
Comment #42…. ALONG FOR THE RIDE
It must have been a rough and spiteful ride for you this past nearly 12 years.
Wow! I can’t imagine anyone being so important that they are chosen by the IFPD to be there just for the ride on a brutal murder case. What a profound pitiless statement you have made regarding Carol Dodge, the mother of a brutally murdered child.
My your observation of the ride cuts deep into a soul. I must ask you!! When you were there for the ride, did you also walk in Carol Dodge’s shoes and take the pain away from her even for a moment? DID YOU CARE LESS back then too?
If she became the thorn in your side,
WHAT DID YOU BECOME?
“Quotes from your statement”…
1. In the END, the IFPD felt it was better..etc.
2. In the END I could really care less about Carol Dodge or the IFPD on this issue… ETC.
My question is! What END are you referring to?
I am not aware that there was an END.
Do you also care less… about the effect that your words have upon others; Everything that we say has a positive or negative impact. Although, you could care less… WE CARE! Even a small mustard seed can make a difference.
TITLE CORRECTION
Comment # 42
WAS THERE FOR THE RIDE
Anyone know the truth to this? I don’t how true this is but I’ve heard it more than once. I didn’t say anything before this because I can’t confirm it but post #42 dovetails with it. I fully admit this is all hearsay and I can in no way back it up so if I’m wrong I’m wrong. Story I hear is that Carol Dodge really screwed up the investigation in the early going. She apparently hadn’t been happy with the crowd that Angie was hanging out with and was trying to scare her away from it. One of the ways she tried to scare Angie straight was by leaving threatening anonymous notes to her daughter on her car. So when Angie gets murdered the IFPD jumped at the possible stalker angle and Carol didn’t admit it had been her doing it for several weeks thus forcing the investigators to start all over on the investigation.
I also heard some of the same things that #49 is saying. I am willing to bet that one of the reasons that we aren’t hearing from Law Enforcement on this is because they are trying to spare Mrs. Dodge any additional pain and throwing stones doesn’t help anybody.
All good possible ideas for why this investigation may have stalled. But again, does anyone know if they have any fresh leads they are working on?
Because unless they do, there should be no reason why a national news organization couldn’t take the pieces that the police can release publicly, and run with it to generate fresh leads, as they have in other stories.
People mention this “Mike” guy. I remembered that at the time I first heard the name I was wondering, was this Virginia’s son? But I had forgotten all that until I read the comment.
Seems to me that the popularity of those shows couldn’t hurt the investigation, and as someone mentioned above, could be combined with the investigation for the other missing young women.
It disturbs me to read insinuations that Carol is to blame for the IFPD’s failure to solve the case. The IFPD should have pursued more than one idea or theory from the very start. Do you think IFPD released the scene so fast and let a cleaning service restore the apartment, removed a wallet from evidence, gave the family a container filled with physical evidence without testing it first, etc. because they thought a stalker was involved?
And how about their failure to investigate where Angie went on the airplane?
They did these thing and more for reasons we may never discover.
In all the murder and missing person cases I have written about that include a slow moving PD and things the Dodge family has had to deal with, the parents and other family members and even close friends involve themselves in the search for truth out of frustration.
Law enforcement officials have to remain detached from the emotional reactions these caring people so often have and stay on a professional path. In the Dodge family’s case, their reactions and criticism are justified.
This should be all about finding the rapists and killers.
Elizabeth Laden
Reply to Comment 35.. We are filing a request in court for the files since IFPD sent us a letter refusing to provide them
Elizabeth at IslandParkNews.net
Comment # 42- Was there for the ride
Several people called me after reading your comments on the blog. Your true identity was shared with me. Yes, you were there for the ride… I remember it very well.
Comment 43 - Guest 22
Chris Tapp’s describes “Mike” as being one of Ben Hobbs friends from the Vegas area. He is about 5’8”, 170#, medium built, dark hair.
Comment # 49 - El Diablo
Yes, I know the truth about the note left on Angie’s car. I was the author. In fact,the note was part of the conversation that Angie and I had the last time I saw her alive. The note had nothing to do with the crowd Angie was running with and it definitely was not written to scare her. The note was about someone Angie had been dating. Regarding your comment of the story you heard; Quote …. “Carol Dodge really screwed up the investigation in the early going”. FYI …When Angie was murdered IFPD immediately focused on the family. Within 72 hours DNA samples and finger prints were taken from the immediate family and Angie’s boyfriend. DNA results were back in the hands of IFPD 5 weeks later. The investigation started over when the DNA results did not match the family. IFPD had my finger prints 72 hours into the investigation. My prints were on the note? IFPD failed to give me an instruction book of their rules on do and don’t. Remember,I was labeled by IFPD as the“Crazy grieving mother” or known as the thorn as comment # 42 put it.
Comment # 51 - Nemesis
No, there are no fresh leads.
The name “Mike” is just a name Christopher Tapp through at the investigators when the DNA did not match Ben Hobbs or Jeremy Sargis.
By the way… who is Virginia?
Please call Detective Hoffman if you have information
Thanks to Elizabeth Laden at Island Park News.
The article has generated a lot of good things.
We have created a blog on the Angie Dodge case at Blog Spot:
http://angiedodge.blogspot.com/
We have also created a Care2.com group
Unsolved murder of Angie Dodge
I invite you to join Care2.com and to then join the Angie Dodge group. Care2 is an awesome networking community. Much better than MySpace in my opinion and it has been around much longer.
Elizabeth
I don’t have a problem that the police immediately looked into family members first. Thats simply good police work as statistically most murders are committed by a family member, neighbor, or so called friend. So the police would not have been doing their job if they not eliminated family first - imagine if the police in California had ignored family in the Lacy Peterson case and how everyone would howl if much later they had finally looked at family and considered Scott. Naturally that is going to upset the family but the police don’t work for the family, they work for Angie.
Something else to consider about all the forensic evidence and possible lack thereof. This murder was in 1996. The world wasn’t like CSI back then and the real police world isn’t like it now. But especially not in 1996. For sure some things could have been collected and if there was a failure by the police at that time then I don’t defend that. But lets not forget that forensic technology has changed as much since 1996 as cell phone technology has changed - anyone remember those big shoe box phones people carried around that time?
Furthermore, did anyone read the recent Post Register articles about the time delays at the state forensic labs. The article talked about the Ruben Diaz case, he is the samarai sword attacker who just got sentenced last week. It took the state lab over TWO YEARS to get the results back to the IFPD on it. I doubt it was any better in 1996. So fingerprint and DNA evidence from anyone, including the family, wouldn’t have told investigators anything after collection - for instance the note on the car that has been brought up - as it would have been quite a while before it was determined whose fingerprints were on it.
My real point is that DNA and forensic evidence are useless if they don’t match anyone and matching could take months or years. So of course in the case of a true who-dunnit the police are going to start the investigation with those close to Angie, including family, and work their way out.
live free: In post #27 you ask about someone who goes by the st name “panther”. Yes there is someone around that is known as “panther”. His mother named him William I believe, and he DJs around town. I know that he DJs at Ford’s Bar occasionally and is known to hang out at the local restaurants for coffee with his friends. Most of the wait staff woudl know who he is even if they do not know his given name.
Would William be William Alan Fountain? Fountain has a criminal record in Bonneville County and hung out with the drug crowd back then.
Also, the police should checkout Deborah Elaine Rogers. She was in with the drug crowd about then and suprisingly looked alot like Angie. I always suspected she knew alot about this group.
I can’t believe any DECENT human being would stoop so low as to insult Carol Dodge. I can’t imagine a worst nightmare than what she goes through. I’d go crazy too, the fact that someone who raped and murdered my child was free….
Post #59: No it is not William Fountain. I happen to know who he is, not a friend, but know who he it.
The person I am talking about had shoulder lenghth hair and often wore a trench coat, fingerless gloves and a large brimmed hat. Some said he looked like the professional wrestler “Undertaker”, but that was a while back.
And remeber, I said he DJ’s around town (I know for a fact he has been at Ford’s bar recently) and William Fountain works at the Toyota dealer (last time I saw him a couple of years ago).
This is in response to the comment about 1996. I have sent my file on Angie’s case to the person who fact checked my novel on abortion clinic terrorism, Angels of the Unborn, who is retired FBI, and to two working CSI’s. You do not just gather and catalog and PROTECT evidence for lab reports. You do it because it tells a story. Maybe the first few reads do not produce any leads. You keep reading. You protect and take care of the evidence to honor the victim.
All three of the people I contacted for help are experts who have dealt extensively with violent crimes. All have critical things to say about how the evidence was handled and say it has nothing to do with the year the crimes were committed.
Also, DNA analysis had been around for quite some time, although the length of time for the tests to return has been shortened.
Far more difficult crimes have been solved than this in our nation’s history. One factor that breeds success is a focused and devoted police department working hand in hand with a well trained, focused crime reporter in at least one media outlet.
I have to challenge the “small town” excuse. It does not matter. My grandfather was a detective in a small town in New York that even now is still smaller than Idaho Falls is today. He solved all kinds of cases that at first seemed impossible. I grew up hearing about how he would leave town for days in search of killers until he found them. And he often “partnered” with reporters at the morning and evening papers.
It’s all about PASSION. I believe anything can be accomplished if people have fortitude and passion. Carol Dodge has both - she needs our support and she needs others who share her passion and fortitude.
If we make excuses for law enforcement, we say we accept mediocrity. We make it part of our community. Let’s not do that!
Sorry- I forgot to sign the above post.
Elizabeth Laden
Island Park News
well I would really like to see the police go test his DNA.