Investigative genealogy is not just helped solve violent crimes that were «cold cases» and allowed the police to arrest dozens of murderers and rapists.
Now , DNA and investigative genealogy helped to dismiss all charges against the resident of Idaho Christopher Tapp to the murder and rape of 18-year-old Angie Dodge in 1997.
Angie Dodge. Photo: GoFundMe
TEPP was the first wrongly convicted person was acquitted due to such a method. Now experts in this new field say their research could lead to the release of other innocent prisoners.
«It’s a new life, a new beginning,» said Christopher Tapp Wednesday near the courthouse in Idaho falls, where he was officially cleared of all charges.
A first: a genealogy database led to charges being dropped against Christopher Tapp, a person convicted in a decades-old case. There is now «clear and convincing evidence» that Tapp, who served 20 years in prison, was wrongfully convicted. #CJreform https://t.co/XmEQ68a1hm
— JPO at AU (@AU_JPO) July 19, 2019
TEPP has spent 20 years behind bars after he confessed to the murder of Angie Dodge. But its recognition, according to the lawyers, it was simply «broken» with the result.
Group Idaho Innocence Project’s business Teppa back in 2007 and, after it has exhausted other possibilities, could force law enforcement to test DNA found at the crime scene.
Police in Idaho falls then drew Parabon NanoLabs, a company’s DNA and its leading genealogist, CECE Moore to use genealogy websites and hunt down the real killer.
In 2017 with Teppa dropped the rape charges after the Idaho Innocence Project’s proved in court: DNA from the crime scene did not match the DNA of the convict.
The judge pardoned him, thinking that he’s too old to kill again. In 77, he stabbed your mother in front of her children.On Wednesday, the court found albert flick guilty of the brutal premeditated murder of a homeless woman in front of her 11-year-old twin sons on the steps of the Laundry room in Lewiston (Maine). The maximum sentence for murder …July 19, 2019, 10:44
However, the murder charge remains.
And in may of 2019, using 22-year-old «degraded» DNA sample from the crime scene and investigating the genealogy, the police announced that they had found the man behind a brutal murder.
Brian Lee Dripps, who once lived on the same street as Angie Dodge, confessed to the murder, and his DNA matched the original profile of the suspect.
According to genealogist CECE Moore, a sample, which she worked greatly degraded, and when she ran it through GEDmatch public database, we found only a distant family connection, but keep looking. Reach out to Brian Lee Dripps managed through his second cousin.
On Wednesday, Christopher Tapp, was officially acquitted in court.
