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Chapter 1: What led to the investigation of Angie Dodge's murder?
This is Deborah Roberts here with another weekly episode of our latest true crime series from 2020 and ABC Audio, The Snare. Remember, you can get new episodes early by following The Snare on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you're listening now. Now here's the next episode of The Snare.
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It's January 1997, about seven months since Angie Dodge was brutally murdered at knife point. For months, police have had no solid leads, no suspects in Angie's murder. They talked to dozens of local Idaho Falls residents, collecting DNA samples, chasing tips, but it hadn't brought them any closer to solving this case. Until they got word about an arrest in Nevada for sexual assault.
Idaho Falls investigators were told by Nevada police that the alleged perpetrator held a knife to the victim's throat. To detectives, this detail about the knife seemed similar to Angie's murder. They made the trip to speak with the man in custody.
How did you know Angie? She's a very good friend of mine. You guys used to hang around together.
Because he also happened to be a friend of Angie Dodge. His name is Ben Hobbs. Just seven months earlier, Ben had been at Angie's funeral, a 24-year-old with short blonde hair and a mustache. Ben had carried a flower arrangement in the processional line, wearing jeans and a checkered shirt. Now, he's sitting in front of Idaho Falls investigators in an orange prison jumpsuit.
And investigators tell him something shocking. One of his friends told police that Ben had something to do with Angie's death.
We've got Chris admitting to knowing about it and implicating you in the homicide. That's doing it. He's got details about what happened, how you did it, and what went on.
Chris, as in Chris Tapp, who you heard talking to police in the last episode. Chris is someone Ben thought was a close friend.
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Chapter 2: How did detectives begin to connect Chris Tapp to the case?
Chris is a high school dropout with some minor run-ins with the law. But now he says he's focused on getting his life straight. He's been living a quieter life at his mom's house. He even tells the detective that his girlfriend might be pregnant.
Does your mom and dad know?
Yeah. There's a familiar rapport between the two. This detective was a former school drug counselor, someone Chris has known since he was a kid.
You got a lot to lose now, don't you? Even if you're going to be a dad. Well, we got a lot of crap going down right now, okay? I'm going to share some of it with you. I mean, I trust you, and hopefully you trust me.
The detective tells Chris that Ben's been arrested for sexual assault. And they think Ben might have something to do with Angie's murder. But the investigator tells Chris that they suspect he is also somehow involved. That people they've talked to keep mentioning Chris's name. Chris looks confused. He says he had nothing to do with Angie's murder and doesn't know who could have done it.
I mean, my name keeps coming up, which I can't understand why. I'm going to try to clear it up.
Chris tells the detective that on the night of Angie's murder, he thinks he was at the Snake River with some friends. He says Angie was there too, but they didn't talk. They weren't really friends, more like acquaintances. He says he's never been to her apartment and doesn't even know where she lives. Eventually, Chris says he left the river and went home.
He says he doesn't know where Ben was that night. And that's all he knows. The detective seems skeptical.
Well, let's put it this way, okay? Did you kill Angie? No.
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Chapter 3: What accusations did Chris Tapp make against Ben Hobbs?
He and Chris are now sitting face to face. The examiner tells him that the polygraph machine showed Chris was deceptive when he was asked about Angie, that based on his polygraph results, Chris was either directly involved or knows who did it. In other words, Chris knows more about Angie's murder than he let on. Chris's voice turns meek. He spoke to police because he wanted to help.
He offered to take a polygraph test to clear his name. And now investigators are even more suspicious of him. He tells the examiner that he's scared. Chris repeats over and over that he doesn't know anything about Angie's murder. Polygraphs aren't admissible in court, but the examiner tells Chris that for his own sake, he needs to be honest.
Or else he could be facing an accessory to murder charge. He starts to explain what that charge could lead to.
The thing in life is pretty much a gas chamber hanging, the person staying.
The examiner says an accessory to murder charge means the person watching the crime happen may be just as guilty as the one who did it. And that if Chris didn't speak up, he could be looking at life in prison. He mentions the gas chamber and hanging, meaning the death penalty was a possibility and that the stakes are high. But Chris can avoid the worst if he just starts talking.
Chris tells him he has a hard time remembering things, but the examiner says that's just an excuse. He tells Chris that subconsciously he knows what happened, that something is stopping him from telling the truth. He says it could be fear or loyalty to his friend Ben Hobbs, but the examiner tells Chris he needs to start looking after himself.
You need to protect yourself.
Chris is quiet for a few moments before he starts talking about Ben.
Maybe he did tell me something. I'm just afraid to say anything.
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Chapter 4: How did Chris Tapp's story evolve during police questioning?
I appreciate that, Chris. I'm done. Should I go home?
Police let Chris go home that night, but the next day they arrest him, accusing him of withholding information about the murder. So after talking to detectives, Chris is charged with being an accessory to a felony. But it won't be the last time Chris talks to investigators. He'll take more polygraph tests and spend more days being questioned by detectives.
For investigators, Chris's allegation about Ben being Angie's killer is a break in the case. But first, they have to talk to Ben Hobbs, who at that moment was sitting in a jail cell in Nevada.
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Chapter 5: What was Ben Hobbs's response to the allegations against him?
I can't even remember what I did three weeks ago.
The investigators don't buy it. They keep pressing him.
Where were you at? Where were you at? I just told you, I don't know. So you very well are a kid of Coralante, and you don't know. Ben doesn't budge.
He denies having anything to do with Angie's murder. He says even though he doesn't remember what he did that night, he would never do something that awful to one of his friends. But Chris Tapp had told investigators something different.
So they confront him with Chris's allegations that Ben and Angie had had a disagreement, that he'd talked about killing her, that the tension between them eventually led to Ben murdering Angie in her apartment. This was the story Chris told detectives.
Why would Chris start turning on you for this? I don't know. It's a good question. Something out of it.
Ben denies Chris's accusations and stands by what he said, that he and Angie didn't even talk that night. He never talked about killing her, and he did not murder her. But the detectives make clear that they think he's hiding something.
Like I said, this guy is implicating you pretty heavily in this, and that's what we want to do is we want to get it cleared up, find out why and what's going on. You know, you may not believe us, and there's a lot of things that, to be truthful about you, I don't believe you what you're telling me.
Just like they did with Chris, detectives ask Ben what's the possibility that he could have killed Angie, but just doesn't remember.
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Chapter 6: What new details emerged from Chris Tapp's polygraph test?
Chris cooperates, answering whatever questions detectives ask of him. He takes a second polygraph test. He spends hours talking to the police.
We appreciate you coming and talking to us. And each time Chris meets with them, he shares new details about what allegedly happened the night Angie was killed.
Investigators are piecing together Chris's story, starting with the moment he says he sees Angie at the river. He repeats what he told officers during his first polygraph test, that he was hanging out at the river when Ben showed up in his blue escort. Angie was there. Chris says Ben and Angie got into a disagreement before she left, and the two continued to hang out until the river closed down.
But after a couple days of intense questioning from investigators, this is when Chris's account starts to change. Chris says he didn't go home alone, like he initially told police. Instead, Chris now claims he actually left the river with Ben. And they got in his car and spent an hour driving around town.
Did you end up going over there and he's asking to come out?
The detective asks Chris if he ended up going to Angie's apartment. Chris says, yeah, I did. This is the moment that Chris changes the version of events again. He says that Ben didn't tell him what allegedly happened to Angie, like Chris initially said, because now Chris is claiming that he was there.
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One online predator unleashed hell on his targets.
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Chapter 7: How did the DNA results impact the investigation?
Ben, look out.
Chris tells investigators Ben pulled out a knife and stabbed Angie in the chest twice. That's when Chris says he panicked and ran out of the apartment. Chris says he walked around the neighborhood for a while. Eventually, he decided to go back to Angie's apartment to see if she was okay. He says Ben's car was still down the street, so he hid and waited for him to leave before going back inside.
Detectives asked Chris what he saw inside the apartment.
He says Angie was lying on the ground, motionless. He describes seeing blood everywhere. He says it looked like the life had been drained out of her. He left Angie's apartment still processing what he just saw. He says he doesn't know where Ben went that night. But when they got together the next day, Chris says Ben wasn't shy talking about killing Angie.
He tells investigators Ben almost sounded like he was proud of what he did. Chris says beyond just stabbing Angie, Ben told him that he did her. He says when he asked Ben to elaborate, Ben said he had sex with Angie. Chris says he doesn't know what Ben did with the knife or his bloody clothes, but thinks he could have thrown it in the river.
Yeah, I mean, that's normally... Did he go up on me?
Chris says he didn't come forward because he was scared. He had to keep acting like everything was normal. He says he was terrified that Ben could hurt him next. Chris Tapp's version of what happened to Angie kept evolving. And after hours of questioning, he went from not knowing anything to now claiming he was at the scene of the crime.
Now detectives are just waiting for his DNA results to come back. If Ben is the killer, like Chris alleges, his DNA should match the samples investigators collected at the crime scene. Ben's waiting too. He denies Chris's allegations that he killed Angie or knew anything about the crime.
Like he said in his interview with police, he thinks the results will prove his innocence and show that whatever Chris told detectives was a lie. And that's when investigators hit a wall. Turns out Ben's DNA is not a match. The DNA results show that Ben was not in her apartment the night she was killed. What Ben insisted was true. He had nothing to do with Angie's rape and murder.
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