Brian Dripps’ confession and the future of Christopher Tapp
Investigators release documents into new murder suspect Brian Leigh Dripps.
The report gives more information on how Dripps confessed to killing Angie Dodge in 1996. Courts documents show, at first, Dripps continually denied being in Dodge’s apartment or having anything to do with her. It wasn’t until officers confronted him with results from a DNA test that he confessed to the killing.
Documents show Dripps told officers he intended only to rape Dodge and did not mean to kill her. He said he entered her apartment by himself with a knife. He said he raped her while holding a knife to her throat and cutting her. He also said he washed his gloves in the bathroom, because they were covered in blood. He left the apartment believing Dodge was still alive and returned to his apartment across the street, documents state.
The court documents also revealed Idaho Falls Police did speak with him a few days after Dodge was found murdered. He told an officer that he was out drinking the night before and came home at 11:30 p.m. and went back out. He said he returned home at 3 a.m. He said he was extremely drunk and couldn’t remember any vehicles or people in the area.
KIDK Eyewitness News 3 anchor Todd Kunz wanted to know what the status of Dripps is Friday. Kunz talked with Idaho Falls Police Chief Bryce Johnson and Bonneville County prosecuting attorney Daniel Clark.
Clark said Dripps is in the process of being transported back to Bonneville County from Canyon County.
Kunz asked him about some of the statements made by Dripps in the probable cause statement.
“Yeah, over the course of the investigation, the detectives interviewed Mr. Dripps. Anytime that occurs, the next step is then to verify the legitimacy of those statements. And we’ve got to remember, this interview was pretty lengthy. He denied involvement for quite some time, which I’m fairly comfortable saying that was probably a lie, because his DNA was found at the scene and matched him and so a bunch of statements were made and we are going to go through the process of verifying those statements,” said Clark.
Dripps’ next court hearing is May 29.
Christopher Tapp was released from prison in April 2017. He maintained his innocence. In an agreement, he was released after serving nearly 20 years, but his murder conviction would still stand while the rape charge would be dropped.
Kunz asked Clark what this new evidence and confession from Dripps means for Tapp.
“With regard to Mr. Tapp, we now have new evidence. There is new information. The statement that Mr. Dripps gave was that he acted alone. You know, if there was a case ever in the history of mankind that suggests you ought to test the veracity of a statement, it’s certainly this case we’re talking about because that has always been the issue with the Tapp portion of this story. And so we are now going to go through the process of determining the accuracy of those statements and that could affect the conviction of Mr. Tapp,” said Clark.
“We are focused on finding the truth and finding what happened. If that truth ends up exonerated someone or proving guilt, we’ll take it because it will be the truth,” said Johnson.
