In September, Chris Tapp recorded an interview with “Dateline” at his Idaho home.
He had served 20 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, and the interview was the last time he planned on publicly discussing the 1996 murder of his friend Angie Dodge — the 18-year-old Idaho woman whom Tapp was wrongfully convicted of killing.
Tapp didn’t want to be remembered as the man from the Angie Dodge case, he said, but rather as an advocate — someone who, after his 2019 exoneration, pushed lawmakers in his state and others to provide fair compensation to people who have been wrongfully convicted.
“I have to move forward,” he said.
But what came next was “incomprehensible,” as a local journalist put it.
For more on the case, tune into “True Confession” on “Dateline” at 9 ET/8 CT tonight.
Six weeks after the interview, Tapp, 47, died after he was rushed to a hospital from his Resorts World suite in Las Vegas, a spokesperson for Tapp’s family told “Dateline.” His death was initially described as an accident, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said, but the Clark County Coroner’s Office later ruled it a homicide.
Authorities have released few details on the incident. No suspects have been publicly identified, and the department has not discussed a possible motive.
To George Pahis, who knew Tapp for three decades, the arc of his close friend’s life was tragic: He’d gone from “failing through life” as a kid to losing 20 years behind bars. Then, he’d been “gifted” a new life and was living free from worry, Pahis said.
“Chris’ life being cut short is the exact opposite of what anyone expected from Chris,” Pahis told “Dateline.”
“Chris had expectations. Chris had dreams. Chris had ideas of what he was gonna do for the rest of forever. And it was taken from him,” Pahis said.
Confessing under pressure
Tapp was charged with first-degree murder in February 1997, roughly eight months after Dodge’s body was…
Read the full article here
