Idaho Falls Police identify man suspected of raping, killing Angie Dodge
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UPDATE:
Idaho Falls Police Chief Bryce Johnson announced Thursday that a man has confessed to the June 1996 murder of Idaho Falls resident Angie Dodge.
Brian Leigh Dripps Sr., 53, was arrested by Caldwell Police on Wednesday night on a warrant for first-degree murder in perpetration of a rape. He was booked into the Canyon County Jail around 6:45 p.m., according to the Idaho Statesman. He is also facing a rape charge.
He appeared in court in Canyon County on Thursday.
Johnson says police have a DNA match and a confession connecting him to the murder.
RELATED | Idaho Falls Police reveal DNA phenotype snapshot of Angie Dodge’s killer
In 1996, Dodge, 18, was brutally killed in her Idaho Falls apartment after being raped. Christopher Tapp was arrested for her murder and spent some 20 years in prison. However, he was eventually freed in 2017 following the intervention of the Idaho Innocence Project.
RELATED | Tapp walks free after 20 years: ‘I never thought this day would come’
Dripps is expected to be transported to Idaho Falls in the near future.
EastIdahoNews.com will post an updated story on the news conference later today.
ORIGINAL STORY:
IDAHO FALLS — The Idaho Falls Police Department is holding a news conference inside the City Council Chambers on Park Avenue beginning at 2:30 p.m. Chief Bryce Johnson and Capt. Bill Squires are expected to make significant new details in relation to the case.
Dodge was brutally killed as she slept in her Idaho Falls I Street apartment. Although Christopher Tapp was arrested for her murder, serious questions remained, and Tapp was released from prison in 2017. Nobody else has been named as a suspect.
Watch the live stream of the news conference here. We will have a complete story later today.