A new 20/20 special, Stranger Than Fiction: The Murder of Angie Dodge, will feature best selling crime novelist Scott Turow taking viewers through the case which landed the wrong man in prison for 20 years.
What’s Happening:
- On a new two-hour 20/20, bestselling crime novelist Scott Turow (Presumed Innocent, The Last Trial) takes viewers through the case that keeps him up at night: the 1996 murder of Angie Dodge, which landed the wrong man in prison for 20 years. After Angie Dodge’s brutal murder in Idaho Falls, her mother, Carol Dodge, desperately tried to track down the killer. When a jury convicted Chris Tapp, Carol pushed for the death penalty in an effort to gain justice for her daughter’s death. However, when she later gained access to Tapp’s confession tapes, she became convinced Tapp was innocent and that her daughter’s killer was still at large.
- Through Carol’s tenacious search for the truth and investigative genetic genealogist CeCe Moore’s work, DNA evidence connected Brian Dripps to the crime and exonerated Chris Tapp. Now, as Dripps is scheduled for sentencing next month, Turow uses his years as a former prosecutor to provide insight into the circumstances that can lead to a false confession. The two-hour program features interviews with Carol about her daughter and her passionate search for justice; Tapp, following his release from prison, on life as a free man; and experts, including the Innocence Project and the Center On Wrongful Convictions. 20/20 also includes the stunning footage from an ABC News embed with the Idaho Falls Police Department as they tracked Dripps to collect a DNA sample from him, which ultimately linked him to the murder. Stranger Than Fiction: The Murder of Angie Dodge airs on 20/20 on Friday, March 12 (9:01-11:00 p.m. ET) on ABC.