Exonerated, Then Murdered: Chris Tapp's Tragic Final Chapter and The Pro Wrestler Charged

After serving 20 years for a crime he didn’t commit, Chris Tapp was fully exonerated in the murder of Angie Dodge and began rebuilding his life, using his experience to become an advocate for the wrongfully convicted. But in a tragic twist, Chris was found unconscious at a party in Las Vegas in 2023 and later died from his injuries.

In this follow-up to our original Angie Dodge episode, which we have also re-released, we dive into Chris’s tragic final chapter. We explore the bizarre and violent events leading up to his death, as well as the identity of the former professional wrestler-turned-congressional candidate who has now been charged with his murder. The case is still unfolding, and the search for justice for Chris Tapp continues. Both this episode and the original Angie Dodge episode are essential to understanding the full scope of this complex case.Check-out bonus episodes up on Spotify and Apple podcast now!

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TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Back in 2018, we covered the tragic murder of Angie Dodge and the wrongful conviction of a man named Chris Tap. After that episode, Kris was fully exonerated after spending 20 years in prison, and the real killer was found, but in a heartbreaking twist, Kris was murdered just a few years later. In today's episode, we'll dive into Chris Tap's life, his exoneration.

And his tragic death, along with the identity of the real killer of Angie Dodge. And if you'd like to hear the full story on Angie's case, we're also re-releasing that episode today, right alongside this one. Think of it as a deeper dive into where we left off as we uncover the layers of this heartbreaking story.

Hey guys, and welcome to the Moms and Mysteries podcast. A True Crime Podcast featuring myself, Mandy, and my dear friend Melissa. Hi, Melissa. I'm Mandy. How are you? I'm doing great. Perhaps not as good as you Miss [00:01:00] salty. Toes and sun kiss. Don't talk about my feet. I know. Why did I go to feet immediately?

Immediately? I'm horrified. Yes. I got to go to the beach a few days with my kids. Uh, my husband wasn't able to go. It was, oh, I didn't know that part. I didn't realize you got to just go with the kids. Yeah. I, that was, I called it a nine out of 10. Um, it was really fun except when it came to like putting the 10 up and stuff and then I was like.

I wish he was here. You know, that would've been nice. Um, but we had a really good time. The kids enjoyed it and uh, yeah, it was very relaxing and yeah, just what I needed. I love that. It was great. Yeah, I love that. Thank you. And it's obviously the perfect time of year for that. I'm sure lots of our listeners are either taking summer vacations or maybe getting ready to take a summer vacation.

So, uh, yeah. I envy everybody who's getting to take a summer vacation. I don't know if we're gonna take an actual vacation this year. Okay, girl. I know maybe you're not taking a eva. You've taken some trips. It been [00:02:00] some trips. I know. I always call everything a trip, even if it's like a full on, full on vacation.

I know you're like, it was six days, so it was just a trip. That's okay. No, I don't know. I just, to me a vacation though, like, I mean. I guess what I do is vacation. What's the difference? Difference. I know there's no difference. No, I get it though. It's nice when it's like a planned thing that you get to do that's different and out of the ordinary, right.

Or whatever. This was very much, uh, my husband's aunt has condo, uh, beach condo, and the person canceled the night before and said, would you like to go? And I said. Abs of Absolutely. Of course. Um, yeah. So it was very nice to be able to do that and I am very appreciative either way. If you can get to the water, that's what I wanna do this summer and it's perfect.

Awesome. So we'll get into the story for this week. Uh, as I was saying in the very beginning, it has been six years since we covered the tragic and brutal murder of 18-year-old Angie Dodge, which time. Remains a [00:03:00] mystery to me, but mm-hmm. I remember this story very, very well, and it's hard to believe that we covered it six years ago.

Right? Yeah. At the time of our episode, Chris Tapp had been convicted of her murder, but even back then, things just really didn't add up. His confession was inconsistent. The physical evidence didn't match, and it was clear to a lot of people that something had gone terribly wrong during his interrogation.

Ultimately, Kris was sent to prison where he spent 20 years of his life for a crime he didn't commit. His conviction still stood, though evidence strongly suggested that he had been wrongfully convicted to begin with. Well, a lot has happened since then. This episode is sort of a part two to Angie Dodge's story, but it's also the story of a man who lost half his life to a system that failed him, and just as he was starting to put the pieces back together, his own life was taken from him.

Chris Tapp was born on July 11th, 1976 in Idaho Falls, Idaho. [00:04:00] He was the type of kid that wore his heart on his sleeve, and he would do anything to help anyone in need. His parents, Vera and Peyton raised him in the kind of small town community where everyone knows each other's business and kids just grow up playing sports and riding their bikes along the same streets their parents did.

Chris was no different. He loved basketball, baseball, and wrestling, and he went on to attend Skyline High School, where his friends described him as being a gentle giant. He was kind, funny, and always willing to help. He was just this big teddy bear of a guy. Sadly, everything changed after high school. In 1996, 18-year-old Angie Dodge was raped and murdered in her apartment just a few miles from where Chris grew up.

Her body was discovered after she failed to show up for work and her death shook the community. The police were under tremendous pressure to solve the case quickly. Chris, who was 20 years old at the time, became a target. [00:05:00] He wasn't the first person that the police actually looked into. They first had their eye on a man named Ben Hobbs, who had been arrested for sexual assault in Nevada.

And when Idaho authorities heard of his arrest, they interviewed him and started reaching out to his acquaintances, one of whom was Chris Tap. And Chris had unfortunately been at the very same party that Angie Dodge was at the night before her murder. Chris voluntarily went in for questioning on January 7th, 1997.

He told police that he didn't know anything about Angie's murder, but they weren't satisfied with his answers. He was interrogated for over 30 hours over the next two weeks. At first, he said that neither he nor Ben were involved in Angie's murder. Then two days later, he said that Ben had killed Angie and asked him to provide an alibi.

Then on January 15th, he changed his story again and said that he had been with Ben when he killed Angie, and that Ben was angry at Angie for trying [00:06:00] to break up his marriage. During most of these interviews, police were recording and Chris's attorney was watching from a monitor in a separate room that I don't understand why is his attorney not with him?

I feel like I didn't understand that either. If you have your attorney, which a lot of people don't have in these situations, I feel like the whole thing is for them to be with you. So it feels like right off the bat things we're not off to a great start. So Chris was questioned by Officer Jared Furman, who had been a school resource officer and was seen as someone that Chris trusted.

On January 15th and 17th, Chris entered into a series of immunity agreements that said he had to provide truthful information about the crime, and in return, he would only be charged with aiding and abetting an aggravated battery. On January 18th, they interviewed Chris again, but now the DNA tests were back and it was revealed that the DNA found on Angie's body enclosed.

Did not belong to Chris or Ben Hobbs. At this point. Police suggested that their other friend, Jeremy Sarge, may [00:07:00] have been involved. At that point, Kris changes his story again and now says that Ben and Jeremy had raped and killed Angie on January 27th. DNA test results showed that Jeremy was also not a match and his alibi checked out.

Prosecutors at this point were angry that Kris had lied to them and they voided his immunity agreement. That same day Chris was taken to the crime scene. His attorney declined to tag along for the trip, which. Once again, what are you doing there, buddy? Right. Why are you even, why are you even practicing is what I wanna know.

So after visiting the apartment where Angie was killed, Chris changed his story again and said that he had personally held Angie down during the rape and stabbing. He said Ben was there, but Jeremy wasn't. Instead, there was supposedly another guy named Mike there. Chris said that he was a friend of Ben's.

On January 30th, Chris sat down for his. Fifth polygraph test. Police told him that he could potentially get a lighter sentence if he was in [00:08:00] fear for his life. After witnessing the attack on Angie, eventually Chris claimed that he joined in on the assault and cut Angie across the breast because Ben threatened to kill him.

The officer told Chris he passed this polygraph, but in private it was noted that Chris was deceptive in his answer about participating in the crime. Kris was formally charged with first degree murder, rape, and use of a deadly weapon during a felony. Ben was never charged in Angie's death, and Jeremy's initial charge of being an accessory was dismissed at the trial.

Everything hinged on Kris tap's false confession. His defense tried to have it thrown out and argued that it was coerced, but the judge allowed most of it in. Police testified that Chris knew details only the killer would know such as what Angie was wearing. But a later review of the case showed that he only described what Angie had on after he saw the crime scene photos.

One witness who admitted that she had been high on drugs at the time claimed she heard Chris and Ben bragging about the [00:09:00] murder at a party. Kris's alibi, which was confirmed by multiple witnesses, was completely ignored and dismissed. And on May 28th, a jury found Kris guilty of first degree murder, rape, and use of a deadly weapon, and he was sentenced to life in prison.

For the next two decades, Kris would maintain his innocence from behind bars. His mom Vera never gave up and worked extra jobs and took out loans, so she would have money to fill his commissary with whatever comfort items she could get for him. As time went on, even Angie Dodge's own mom grew more and more skeptical that the police had caught the right guy.

When she saw those tapes of Kris's interrogation, she realized what had been done to him, and she soon became one of his most fierce advocates. That is so amazing to me because she still wants to know what happened to her daughter, but, and we've seen it in other cases where people just never. You know, the DNA can fall apart and everything else, and the confession's thrown out and they say, well, I, [00:10:00] I think this person still did it.

But Angie's mom was able to like look past herself and her grief and everything and want to actually help him. Right. 'cause she knows this is not the right guy. And like why is his life right, you know, on the line for, for something and the right guy is still out there. Yes. You know? And because that's the whole other side to this, if you believe that Chris.

Did you know it was wrongfully convicted? Then you also believe that the real killer is still on, you know, at large and has not been found right. Chris filed a series of appeals only to have each one rejected, but in 2001, the appeals court did agree that his Miranda rights had been violated during several of his interviews with the police.

But they said these errors were harmless. Hmm. Eventually the Idaho Innocence Project got involved then the Innocence Project of New York Judges for Justice, and a professor named Steven Drissen, who's one of the nation's leading experts on false confessions. And at that point, Chris's case did start to gain some momentum.

His attorneys worked for additional testing of [00:11:00] evidence, and at the end of 2012, limited DNA testing was done on Angie's shirt and sweatpants and a teddy bear that was found with her body, and Chris and Ben were both excluded as contributors. Steven DRIs published a report in 2014 that concluded that Kris's confession was in fact coerced.

In May of 2016, Kris's legal team filed a motion for post-conviction relief and alleged police deception and coercion, and claimed that videotapes from three out of seven polygraphs showed evidence of coercion and deception. Additionally, Kris's confession didn't even fit the evidence. On March 22nd, 2017, an agreement was reached and the DA agreed to vacate Kris's rape conviction.

The sentence for his murder conviction was reduced to time served, and Kris was released from prison, but the murder conviction still stood, and that's where we left off in our Angie Dodge episode. So we're gonna get into everything that happened after Kris is released from [00:12:00] prison. After a quick break to hear a word from this week's sponsors.

So before the break, we were discussing the case of Chris Tapp, a 20-year-old from Idaho Falls, who got caught up in the investigation into the murder of 18-year-old Angie Dodge. After being interrogated for hours, Chris was coerced into confessing to the murder, despite the fact that his DNA didn't match the DNA from the crime.

He was convicted and spent 20 years in prison before finally being released in 2017. But at that point, he still wasn't exonerated and Angie's real killer was out there. When Chris walked out of prison, he may have been technically free, but there were many challenges he faced in the real world. For one, he was still labeled a convicted murderer, so while he was thankful to be out, it really just didn't give him closure.

Life on the outside was also very challenging. Chris's friend, Matt later said that Chris struggled to adapt to modern life. When Chris went into prison, cell phones were. Hardly a thing, much less smartphones. He had actually never even seen one before, let [00:13:00] alone known how to use one. I remember actually us talking about this on the first, um, time that we talked about this case because we were like, oh yeah, that is wild to think of during that particular time that he was incarcerated.

Yeah. How much technology and everything changed in our society? Like if you think about from early two thousands into, you know. 2017 like that, a lot happened in that time period, especially with technology. It would be such a shell shock to come out into the world in 2017 when you haven't been out in the world for 20 years.

For sure. Even grocery shopping was too overstimulating and Chris actually had to walk out of the store the first time he tried and he later told Dateline that everything was new, everything felt loud, and everything moved fast. But he was determined to make something of his life. So Chris got a job at a bag making factory.

He bought a house and eventually he found love and married a woman named Stacy. [00:14:00] He was really so proud of himself and was quoted as saying, I've actually become the productive member of society that I truly thought I could become, but still, his name hadn't been cleared, and Chris wanted answers. Not long after his release, a new police chief came to town and brought fresh eyes and an open mind, which is something that Chris desperately needed.

Chief Bryce Johnson made it clear that it didn't matter how badly the investigation was done before, now they needed to focus on the simple task of finding the person who left the DNA. At the crime scene, the Idaho Innocence Project worked with Parabon Nano Labs to build a genetic profile. From the evidence found on Angie Parabon was able to use public genealogy databases to construct a family tree.

Eventually, they were able to determine that the family line was tied to the surname Usri. From there, they narrowed their list down to six men who were all about the right age and had lived in Idaho Falls in 1996. Detectives started trailing these men and collecting discarded [00:15:00] cigarette butts and soda cans like they were on a treasure hunt.

Unfortunately, all six men were ruled out, which meant they were missing someone from this family tree. The missing link ended up being found in an obituary. It mentioned a family member with a different last name, Brian Drips. Brian Drips had lived right across the street from Angie at the time of her murder, and he was even questioned the day her body was found.

But he was never asked to provide a DNA sample, and seven weeks later, he left town and moved 300 miles away. Authorities tracked him down and ran surveillance on him just like they had with the other men in his family tree. This time they waited until Brian tossed a cigarette butt and then they tested it, and the DNA was a match.

On May 15th, 2019, 23 years after Angie was killed, Brian was brought in for questioning. At first, he looked calm, but his hands were shaking. When they told him they had found his DNA at the scene, he [00:16:00] didn't even try to come up with any excuses. He just broke down and confessed to what he had done. He admitted that he had raped and killed Angie, and he said he had acted alone.

Angie's mom, Carol was understandably upset. She told CBS quote, I literally said, you've got to be kidding. He was right across the street. It took me 23 years when they had it. In the first 25 pages of the investigation, unreal Authority said it was Carol who inspired them to try harder and do better. She seemed to know more about DNA than the police even did.

Brian now in custody and his confession on record. There was really nothing more to argue. Chris Tapp had nothing to do with Angie's murder, and it was finally time. The justice system caught up to the truth that, you know, he'd been trying to get out for. Chris's legal team filed a motion to have his conviction officially vacated on July 17th, 2019.

The judge plainly told Chris that as far as the court was concerned, he was now cleared of the [00:17:00] charges. He'd been haunted by forever, and the judge acknowledged that nothing could fix what happened, but said he was glad to be able to correct it. Now. On the day of his exoneration, Chris wore a shirt that said Innocent and the courtroom was packed with friends and supporters who were wearing shirts that said, we told you So afterwards, Chris said, I'm so thankful that I've been given this second chance at life.

I've wasted 20 years of my life for something I never did, but I also grew up over those 20 years. He said the system thought that I could be thrown away. They thought that I'd never amount to anything they were wrong. I want people to know that I'm innocent. I've said it for the past 22 years. Finally, the truth is being revealed.

I'm appreciative and deeply humbled that this moment has finally come. Kris's lead attorney John K. Thomas said that it was a deep relief that the court acknowledged Kris's innocence. It's believed that Kris's case was the first, where genetic genealogy was used [00:18:00] to exonerate a defendant. And honestly, this, you know, we love a good exoneration story.

I love it. Yes. When someone can be exonerated and is able to be, have their name cleared, but that is such an important part of, of something like this, not just of being wrongfully convicted is already such a horrible thing, but. In that time where he was out of jail, yes, he was technically a free man, but you, he's still a convicted felon.

He still has a murder conviction on his record. He still can't get jobs at certain places. There's certain things he can't do because of that. The exoneration is such an important and critical part of people who are wrongfully convicted that it's just such a wonderful thing to see that they were able to actually clear his name.

Through genetic genealogy, which is still such a new thing in our world that we're kind of working with and is being used more and more and more. But it really is just such an incredible thing that they were able to track down the guy and find the real match to the DNA that was found at the crime scene.

Absolutely. So after he confessed, Brian stood before the judge and pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison with the [00:19:00] possibility of parole after 20 years. He told the court he was high on cocaine and alcohol the night he killed Angie, and that he never meant to murder her. His intent was to rape her.

He said, I know you'll never forgive me, but I am sorry. Angie's family was present in the courtroom, and her brother Todd stood up and spoke about the pain that his family had endured. He said. He sentenced me to a lifetime of hell. So far, I've served 9,126 days. Todd also addressed the massive failure that led to Chris Tapp being imprisoned for two decades.

He said that Kris should have been given the opportunity to voice his own nightmare to the court. He had also lost 20 years of his own life because of Brian Drips. Totally agree. Chris should have been able to talk at this, uh, sentencing hearing. Angie's other brother, Roger, called her murder the most devastating experience of his life, and Carol Dodge had the chance to look her daughter's killer in the eye and say, [00:20:00] quote, I can't forgive you ever.

You have shattered our family and there is no way to pick up the pieces ever again. The judge acknowledged the irreversible damage done and said 25 years was an awfully long time for Angie's family to have waited for some type of closure. After being exonerated, Chris Tapp could have easily just kept to himself and worked to rebuild what was left of the life that had been taken from him.

But. That's not who Chris was. Instead, he made it his mission to make sure others were spared the same fate as him. Chris partnered with the Innocence Project and advocacy groups across the country working with Beth Powers and Rebecca Brown from the Innocence Project's policy team, along with the Idaho Innocence Project and other activists to push for real reform, especially in Idaho.

He shared his story with lawmakers and urged them to pass laws that would ban the use of deception during police interrogations, which is something that led directly. To his false confession. In 2021, Idaho passed a law to compensate [00:21:00] wrongfully convicted individuals. They would now be rewarded $62,000 for every year they spent behind bars and more.

If the person had been on death row for Chris, that meant $1.2 million. Honestly, that is not nearly enough for spending 20 years in prison. At all. At all that it's almost, I would say it's insulting, but I know it's great to, at least they're getting something, I guess, but I can't, it is insulting actually.

It's, and for Chris, that meant just $1.2 million, which for 20 years of your life is nothing. Chris went on to help Oregon pass similar legislation. In 2019, just months after his exoneration, Kris also filed a civil lawsuit against the city of Idaho Falls. In it, he detailed what those 20 years behind bars really looked like.

There was physical assaults, undiagnosed tuberculosis even, and just the grind of surviving in a place that he never should have been sent in [00:22:00] the first place. The city tried to have the lawsuit thrown out, but it didn't work. In 2022, Idaho Falls agreed to pay Kris $11.7 million. The settlement included more than just money.

It also came with a written apology from the mayor and a promise to have a public discussion with experts on interrogation techniques. Kris said that nothing could make up for the time spent in prison for crimes he didn't commit, but the settlement would help him move forward with his life. The mayor's letter read in part.

Please accept this sincere apology to you and your mother, Mrs. Tapp, for the city's role in your wrongful conviction. We hope this apology and the resolution of your civil case help bring healing enclosure. The city also committed to reviewing and improving their policy so that what happened to Kris would never happen to anyone else.

Through it all, Kris never stopped showing up and telling his story. He wanted to turn the worst thing that ever happened to him into something meaningful. After the civil settlement, Kris finally [00:23:00] had the means to chase the dreams that had been put on hold for so long. Friends say that Kris really tried to make up for lost time, and he was truly living life to the fullest.

He traveled across the country visiting numerous states, including Tennessee, Texas, and New York. He went to an NFL game. He watched live WWE fights and he saw Metallica and KISS in concert. He met new people everywhere he went, and he was always open and curious. Though he spent his entire young adulthood without even owning a car, Chris fell in love with street racing and dreamed of owning a race car of his own.

Chris was finally getting to know himself and exploring parts of life he never got to experience. But a friend from the Idaho Innocence Project named Greg said that Kris started surrounding himself with new people. These were people that Greg didn't know and Greg started to get worried about him. He said he thought people might take advantage of Kris.

Unfortunately, not every aspect of Kris's life on [00:24:00] the outside was so rosy. In August of 2023, his marriage to Stacey fell apart and the couple decided to get divorced. Just as their divorce was set to be finalized, Stacey was killed in a single car crash while she was driving a Corvette, and this was one of several cars that Chris had bought after his settlement.

A month later, Chris recorded an interview in his home for Dateline, where he said he didn't want to just be remembered as the man wrongfully convicted in the Angie Dodge case. He also wanted to be remembered as someone who did something about it. But he unfortunately never got that chance. In late October of 2023, Chris went to Las Vegas to do something.

He'd come to love so much to be around fast cars and racing culture. On the night of the 29th, he attended a Halloween party, a Resorts World, an upscale hotel on the strip. This event was hosted in a luxury suite by former professional race car driver John Odom, and promoted under the Odom racing [00:25:00] name with Chris listed as a sponsor of the party.

And this was no small event. The guest list included influencers, former congressional candidates, and even an F1 driver. But sometime between the party and the early hours of October 30th, something went terribly wrong around 2:00 AM hotel security was alerted after getting a report that a guest had slipped and fallen.

A man identified only as Odom answered the door and led security to the primary bedroom where 47-year-old Chris Tapp was lying on the bed, unresponsive, but still alive. One of the responding officers, Dustin Hannah, later said that Chris had a bruise on his jaw, visible markings on the left side of his neck, and another circular mark on the back of his head.

Odom claimed that he'd been in the kitchen when he heard Chris cry out for help. He claimed that Chris had slipped on a pair of slippers and hit his head on a metal end table before losing consciousness. But when the security guard looked around the room, he didn't see any slippers. [00:26:00] Chris was conscious, but completely unresponsive.

He was looking at them, but he couldn't answer even the most basic questions like what his name was. Even more troubling was the fact that Odom admitted he waited about 30 minutes to an hour before calling for help. Chris was rushed to the hospital and placed into a medically induced coma while they tried to figure out what was wrong.

Scans showed that he had several brain bleeds, and his toxicology report showed that he had cocaine, alcohol, and marijuana in his system. Doctors at the hospital said the prognosis was grim. Less than a week later on November 5th, 2023, Chris Tapp passed away. As of now, it doesn't appear that Las Vegas police were ever called to the hotel.

An investigator from the Clark County Coroner's Office responded to the hospital and was told that Chris suffered a fall. An autopsy confirmed blunt force trauma to the head, and recent cocaine use. Chris's death was ultimately ruled accidental, but the whole thing raised a lot of questions. So at [00:27:00] first it seemed like Kris died in a tragic accident, but right away, those who really knew him started to question that theory.

His longtime attorney, John Thomas said he started to hear conflicting accounts about what happened. First it was Kris slipped on a pair of slippers. Then maybe he tripped over his shoes or his own feet. At Chris's funeral, the stories started unraveling even more. John learned that Kris had brain bleeds in two separate areas of his head.

He had one on the side and one in the back, and of course that doesn't align with a simple slip and fall. It seems more like someone intentionally hit Kris, not just once, but twice. Sometime around November 22nd, John took these concerns to the police and thankfully they listened. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department opened a suspicious death investigation, but because no police had been involved in those critical first hours, there were no photos, no statements, and this meant that the police were just really not off to a [00:28:00] great start.

They tried to piece together the puzzle of the party, you know, that had led to Kris's death from interviews, text messages, and whatever surveillance or witness testimony they could recover. One of the first people they spoke to was a man named Ryan. This was a social media manager hired by John Odom.

That was the guy who was hosting the party who Ryan had actually flown John Odom to Vegas specifically to work this event that night. Ryan said he was in the Suites theater room with several others, including former pro wrestler, Dan Roder, Dan's wife, Sarah, a guy named Jake, and two young women named Bella and Danny.

So one of these young women was Dan's stepdaughter. At one point, the two girls came into the theater room and told Dan that Chris, the guy who'd just gotten out of prison, had offered Bella cocaine in the primary bedroom. According to Ryan, Dan was visibly angry and stormed out of the room. Ryan said he didn't see what happened next, but he heard it.[00:29:00] 

Dan yelled, if you ever talk to my daughter again, I will effing kill you. Immediately after that, Ryan heard two loud banging sounds. After that, Ryan texted the party's event planner, the guy named Mark, who was at the nightclub at the time, and Ryan said, yeah, dude, I heard him screaming. I was in the bathroom, and he threw something for sure, but it definitely got that.

I'm sure John will tell you about it. Mark replied to this text. Do I need to come back? And Ryan said, I think right now you're fine. I have no idea what's going on though. It's all happening behind closed doors. So I think John is trying to take care of it. And then he added between you and I, I don't know if John would want me to say anything.

And then Mark wrote him back and said, you're good, John neutralized. It just got confirmation from one of John's boys here. Based on Ryan's statement, the police now knew that Kris had been in an altercation before he [00:30:00] was supposedly found with head injuries. Now they needed to look further into Dan Roder, and we're gonna get into that after a quick break to hear a word from this week's sponsors.

So before the break, we were discussing the life Chris Tapp was living after being fully exonerated in 2019, after he was wrongfully convicted in the rape and murder of Angie Dodge. Chris has dedicated his life to advocacy and helped pass laws to compensate the wrongfully convicted. But then in October of 2023, Chris attended a party in Las Vegas, hosted by a former race car driver, and just hours later, he was found unresponsive in a hotel suite with serious head injuries.

Chris passed away the next day and his death was ruled accidental. But a further investigation revealed that Kris had actually been involved in an altercation and police were now looking for the man witnesses, say assaulted him, Dan radR. Chris had actually known Dan through the classic car and racing scene, but Dan was more than just a car guy.

He was actually somewhat of a public [00:31:00] figure with a history that raised some eyebrows. Dan first made a name for himself in the world of professional wrestling. Back in 2004. He was a contestant on W's. Tough enough competition. He went by Dan Roder and later Dan Rodman, and spent time in Wws developmental territories, including Deep South Wrestling, Ohio Valley Wrestling and Florida Championship wrestling.

By 2007, Dan had been released from the wwe. From there, Dan entered into, what else would he do? But the world of politics, why is this always a thing? I feel like sometimes like. It's like a weird lateral move that you're like, why? It's no sense. Nowhere in my life do I ever think like, and now politics. Yes.

Right. No, thank you. So in 2020, he ran for congress in Nevada's third district. He pitched himself as a six foot seven pro wrestler turned entrepreneur who was ready to. Get in the ring for us. His campaign even compared Washington's politics to a [00:32:00] wrestling cage match, so he ended up losing by about 13,000 votes, but that didn't stop him.

After that loss, he packed up and moved to Texas where he launched another unsuccessful political campaign. Long before politics and even wrestling, Dan had developed a reputation for violence. Court records and police reports from Florida showed evidence of multiple incidents between 2010 and 2013 where Dan was accused of punching or attacking people, usually during arguments at nightclubs or restaurants.

In one case, from 2010, Dan was arrested for battery after allegedly assaulting someone at a Waffle House in Naples, Florida. That makes sense. Yeah, I know of like, tell me it was in Florida without telling you. It was in Florida. He entered a deferred prosecution agreement and completed a six week anger management program, and the charge was eventually dropped.

Then in 2011, he was accused again this time of punching a man in the head outside of a Naples nightclub. The man [00:33:00] was someone he knew personally and said that Dan had attacked him. Unprovoked, which was actually confirmed by four other witnesses. Dan just hit the man and then ran off. Dan later told police a man had actually attacked him.

After getting mad that Dan winked at his girlfriend, he said the man had poked him in the eye and caused damage. In the end, the state attorney's office declined pressed charges. The more they dug into Dan, the more they ended up finding he wasn't just a guy with a single outburst in his past. Oh no. He had a long history of alleged violence, intimidation, and just walking away without consequence for these things.

In March of 2013, a bartender at a Naples nightclub told the sheriff's office that Dan Sucker punched him after the bartender asked Dan's girlfriend to lower her skirt because other male customers were trying to look up it. So trying to help. Right, right, right. Trying to just say, Hey, these other guys are being creeps.

Maybe you know. You know, just to take care of yourself, but Dan's response was to punch him in the face and storm off. [00:34:00] The bartender said his boss actually told him not to report this incident, you know, being assaulted at work because the restaurant didn't have insurance and he wasn't on the books as an employee.

So once again, Dan was able to walk away with no criminal charges. And that, of course wasn't all. In 2006, a neighbor called the police about a loud domestic dispute taking place at Dan's apartment in Dunin, Florida, and this was a time where he and his girlfriend had been arguing over another man calling her.

Both of them admitted that things got heated that night, but they said nothing physical happened, and as a result, there were no arrests or charges. Fast forward to 2018. Now, Dan's in Vegas that year. Police responded to two separate 9 1 1 calls by his wife, Sarah. In the first call, she alleged domestic violence, but officers later claimed that there was only a verbal argument and said that they didn't wanna embarrass the couple or make them any more upset.

So they, you know, they showed up and then they just left. What? Yeah. [00:35:00] Yeah. God forbid you embarrassed them. Right. So in the second call months later, Sarah told police that Dan had taken $200,000 worth of cash, jewelry, and guns from their home, and that he'd been gone for five days. She believed he was holed up inside a casino.

The police, however, determined that this was a civil matter and told Sarah to just give it a week for things to cool off, which at, I guess I do understand that one. If they're saying, oh, he took belongings from our home and he's been gone for five days, like, I don't really know what the police would do for you in that case, like.

These are his belongings. Well, like he left as well. Right. It sounds like a married couple. Just having, like they said, a dispute that, on that one I can see where the police didn't really get involved 'cause she wasn't reporting that he had done anything to her. He just Right. Was gone for five days and took some things from their house.

When these incidents later resurfaced though during his congressional campaigns, the campaign manager tried to spin them in a way that was just less ugly by saying that Dan and Sarah were happily married. You know, they have a new baby. They just have disputes like any [00:36:00] other couple. Oof. The police kept digging though, and they kept interviewing witnesses and collecting digital evidence that slowly helped them piece together a picture of what happened that night inside this luxury suite at Resorts World.

So just a quick note here. This case actually hasn't gone to trial yet, so everything we actually know so far comes from the arrest warrant and grand jury testimony, but the details that have emerged paint a disturbing picture of excessive recklessness and rage. The party that night was extravagant, as we said before.

It was hosted by John Odom, who's the same guy that told hotel security that Chris Tapp had slipped on slippers and hit his head. The party was held in a sprawling suite, filled with. Influencers, race, car people, and high profile guests. It was Halloween and the vibe was over the top that night. Dan Roder was dressed as Ken from the Barbie movie while his wife came as Barbie, and with them were Dan's 21-year-old stepdaughter, Bella and her friend Danny.[00:37:00] 

In the sweets bathroom, guests had set up what they referred to as the fun room, which is exactly what you probably think it is. This was a space with lines of cocaine laid out next to a hundred dollars bill. One of the rules though, was that Dan's stepdaughter, Bella was not allowed to use the drugs.

What a weird, weird thing to have her at this party that you know has drugs in it. Right. And it's like, everyone, you, I can bring her here. You cannot give her drugs. That's just so like, I feel like in parenting arrest me for disaster. Something got missed. Yes. Yeah. So meanwhile, resorts World had provided in-House Butler and staff to support the event, but there was no outside security.

There was just an event planner. Mark Snyder in charge of escorting guests. In and out officers spoke with Danny, which was the friend of Dan's stepdaughter Bella, who was there that night. She explained that she and Bella had been friends since middle school. She said that night she and Bella, along with another woman named Tara, were in this infamous fun [00:38:00] room where guests were casually doing cocaine.

Danny admitted that she did use cocaine that night, but said that it didn't affect her memory of what happened according to Danny, while the three women were in the bathroom, Chris walked in. He introduced himself. He pulled out his own small bag of cocaine and he used some and then started telling them about his story, which likely was the one about his wrongful conviction, exoneration and everything he'd been through.

Then Dan comes in. He was furious when he saw the cocaine and rolled up a hundred dollars bill. Danny remembered hearing Dan say, if you give my daughter any of that, I will effing kill you. Dan's wife, Sarah comes in and tries to diffuse the situation and urges Dan not to cause the scene. She eventually was able to pull him out of the room.

Danny said that she, Bella and Tara were shaken by what happened, so they left too. Chris ended up staying behind in the primary bedroom. A short time later, Danny saw Dan running back into the bedroom, which she assumed was so that he could confront Kris again. [00:39:00] But this time things escalated quickly. She and Bella followed behind him and saw Dan knock Chris to the ground, causing his head to slam into a small table.

Then according to Danny, Dan began punching Kris repeatedly in the head and body. She said Kris did not fight back. Dan was the clear aggressor, and he even choked Kris a little bit during this attack. Sarah was in the room at the time and Danny believes two or three other men were also in the room as well, but she couldn't remember who they were.

She said it did look like Sarah and these other men were trying to break up the fight. Danny said it was just too much to watch, so she had to leave the room, but she said that what Dan was doing to Chris was disgusting. Later she waited in the lobby of the hotel and saw paramedics wheeling Chris out on a gurney.

He was unresponsive at that point. Sarah Roder later pulled Danny aside and told her not to talk about the incident. She said that if anyone in law enforcement asked about [00:40:00] it to just say she didn't see anything, and she told Danny that she didn't wanna get involved in this. As the investigation continued, investigators found more witnesses to corroborate the same explosive chain of events that led to Kris's death.

When investigators spoke to the woman, Tara, she backed up the story. Danny gave them only with even more detail. Tara said it was Sarah Dan's wife, who personally introduced her to the fun room, and the drugs were already laid out when she got there. Later when Bella and Danny said they wanted to try the drugs, Tara reminded them about the existence of this fun room, and they all went in there to use the cocaine.

Then Chris came in with his own cocaine and started telling the women a little about himself, and suddenly Dan entered the room in a visible rage and things escalated fast. Bella tried to calm things down and pulled Dan from the room. Then Bella Tara and Danny left and Chris was alone in the bathroom, but Tara said she just didn't feel good [00:41:00] about the situation or what she saw.

Shortly after Dan AKA, as they were calling him angry Ken, he was dressed up as Ken ripped his fur coat off and stormed toward the bedroom. Tara said that she immediately ran to tell John Odom what was going on. She told him, you better go stop, Dan. He's going to fight Chris. Tara later learned about the so-called Bella rules, which had been set out before she even arrived.

And one of those rules was that no one was to give Bella any cocaine. And of course, like you said, how is this, uh, the responsibility on the rest of the party goers to know about these rules and why are you having a, a young woman, uh, you know. I'm not quite sure exactly how your stepdaughter Bella was.

Right. Why is she even at this party where there's these high profile people with bringing cocaine and it doesn't sound like a party that she should have been at in the first place if you don't want her to do it. Yeah, right, exactly. Investigators re-interviewed Ryan, that social media manager who was involved in this evening, and his story was the same.

He said he was in the [00:42:00] theater room with Dan, Sarah, and a man named Jake. When Bella and Danny allegedly came in and said, Chris offered Bella drugs, Ryan said, Jake left the room first, and then Dan followed. Ryan said he didn't wanna be around whatever was about to happen, but he did text the party planner Mark, and then he ran to find John who was outside, near the pool.

Ryan told John that there was a serious issue in the room between Chris and Dan, so John made his way toward the room while Ryan stayed back at the pool and waited a short time later the paramedics arrived. By the time party planner, mark returned to the hotel. It was already too late. Chris was lying on the bed in the primary bedroom, awake, but completely unresponsive.

Mark could tell right away that something was wrong. Chris's face was swollen, and there was a large red mark on the side of his neck. When Mark asked John Odom what happened, he gave the same story that he gave that hotel security that Chris slipped on a slipper and hit his head on a table. Mark though didn't buy it, and he said that [00:43:00] he was concerned because Chris seemed dazed and was trying to fall asleep, which obviously is a huge red flag if someone has suffered a concussion or worse, that's when someone finally called for help according to a wrongful death lawsuit later filed by Chris's family.

After Dan attacked Chris, he and John walked out of the bedroom and John Loudly told the others not to call security. They knew that Chris was severely injured, yet no one called for help right away. Instead, they left Chris lying on the bed with brain bleeds unattended while people debated over whether calling for help might get someone in trouble.

Eventually security was called, but there was a significant delay. The hotel security quickly realized that this was way more than just slipping and falling. His body showed signs of trauma that just didn't line up with the story. Roughly 20 to 30 minutes later, paramedics finally arrived and rushed Chris to the hospital.

But by then his chances were already fading. Investigators obtained phone records for Dan, Sarah, Bella, and John, and [00:44:00] what they found was damning. On October 30th, the same day Chris was taken to the hospital, Sarah sent Dan a series of texts that blew the slip and fall lie apart. She wrote quote, you are going to be in prison for attempted murder, and she also wrote.

I watched you nearly murder somebody, and I had to take your blank hands off from his neck as he laid there and you ran away. I spent the next two hours trying to take care of him. Nobody should have to watch their husband murder somebody. Oh my gosh. I can't even fathom having a type of message like that.

That's wild. No, and Sarah followed it up with one final message. I watched you murder somebody. Let that sink in you psychopath. Sarah also told Dan she wanted a divorce and she had proof of him abusing her as well. The investigation was now clearly pointing to a violent assault, and on December 30th, 2023, a authorities secured an order to monitor the calls and communications of Dan, Sarah, Bella, and John via wiretaps.

They hope that one of them [00:45:00] would slip up and contradict themselves or admit to things they'd been trying to downplay and deny, and it worked. A few days later, on January 2nd, Dan and Sarah were recorded discussing the case. They were specifically discussing the things they didn't want. Dan's stepdaughter Bella to say.

Sarah told Dan that Bella had already talked to the police and admitted she'd been at the party with her friends. Sarah was clearly frustrated in this call and asked, you know, was questioning why Bella had even said anything at all, which I'm like, okay, that's where we're falling on this. Right, right. So, Dan wanted to know if Bella had named any names and Sarah said No.

This conversation, of course, wreaks of damage control. Sarah and Dan were really nitpicking Bella's choice of words and scrambling to figure out just how much information she might have already given to the police. Sarah told Dan, she already told Bella what to say and couldn't believe Bella had gone off script and didn't follow the plan.

They also brought up Bella's friend Danny, who Sarah called the [00:46:00] dumbest girl alive, claiming that she was probably so drunk and high. She didn't know what she even saw. At that point, Dan suggested that Danny might possibly be able to be coached into saying that Chris simply fell, and Sarah floated the idea that Danny could simply just be reminded of the version of events where nothing happened, and it was just a guy stumbling over a table.

It was clear that Dan and Sarah were doing more than just working out their own confusion. They were actively trying to reshape the narrative. When the police reached out to Sarah, Bella and John to schedule interviews with them, all three of them declined, and instead they got lawyers. By this point, Dan already had an attorney, so he definitely wasn't talking either.

But with all that surveillance and now with these wiretap phone calls, the case against Dan was becoming stronger by the day. Ultimately, Sarah and Bella retained an attorney who advised that they would not be providing a statement, and John also declined to provide one. By early 2024, the pieces had fallen into place and officials were [00:47:00] finally ready to acknowledge it.

The Clark County Coroner's Office ruled Kris's death, a homicide citing blunt force trauma to the head. The announcement was made in January, though authorities didn't release a ton of details at that time. On March 6th, 2024, Las Vegas police publicly announced what Minnie already suspected. Dan Roder had been identified as a suspect in Kris's murder, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Dan didn't exactly get the dramatic takedown that you might expect in a case like this. His attorneys had arranged everything in advance, and he posted bond before he even turned himself. In that same day, he flew to Vegas, walked into the police station to surrender, and then walked right back out. He never even spent one night in jail.

Dan's legal team released a carefully worded statement that Dan intended to contest the allegations and ask that his right to be presumed innocent is respected. Meanwhile, Chris's family was also taking action of their own. In November of [00:48:00] 2024, they filed a wrongful death lawsuit against John Odom Resorts World and a long list of others who were involved with the party.

Interestingly enough, Dan Roder was not named as a defendant. This lawsuit wasn't about him. It was about everyone else who could have prevented the attack, or at the very least, acted faster in getting help after it happened, the lawsuit argues that the hotel and others failed to take reasonable precautions to keep guests safe, and if they had intervened sooner.

Chris may still be alive. The defendants tried to get the case thrown out, but as of May 21st of this year, 2025, those attempts have been unsuccessful and the case is still making its way through the court system. As of now, the case has yet to go to trial, and Dan's defense team has done all they can to limit what gets brought into the courtroom.

They filed a motion to suppress the text messages and wiretap calls between Dan and his wife Sarah, because they argued that those communications should be protected as private marital communication. They [00:49:00] also tried to get the entire indictment thrown out. But in April of 2025, an appeals court denied the request.

Dan has since appealed the decision to the Nevada Supreme Court and a status check on that appeal is scheduled for July 17th, 2025. So now we wait and there's still a lot of unanswered questions about what happened in the hotel suite, but one thing's for sure. Chris Tap didn't deserve this after being locked up for 20 years for a crime he didn't commit.

It's nothing short of a tragedy that he only had a. Few short years of living life on his own terms. Wow. This case is just devastating all around us. When you think about how short a human life really even is to start off with, oh yeah. You know, we are all only here for such a, a small amount of time in the grand scheme of things.

And just to think about, you know, at 20 years old being locked up and you know, and spending 20 years behind bars and oh, it's just. So sad to think that something like this happened to him. And because at the [00:50:00] hands of a man who was very clearly had a history of not being able to control his anger and rage, um, and acting inappropriately, you know, and, and, and hurting others, and like it's just so senseless to think that Chris.

Died in this way. And so horrifying when you hear the details that he was conscious and like was alive. Yeah, but not alive. Oh my gosh. You know, whenever they found him like that was just, it's just, oh my gosh. Everybody who was there and saw that, like, I can't imagine living with that. My, you know, for the rest of my life.

No, I, I can understand in that room with that guy that there would be like. You, you may not feel safe to make a call or like he could be wa I understand all that 'cause, so I'm sure there is some of that, but I feel like, yeah, there's somebody in there that could have done some, somebody could have done something, period.

But I also feel so bad for Kris's family and the fact that like his mom has now been on the side of him being accused of murder, people hating him because they think he did this horrible thing. Now she's on the victim side [00:51:00] of dealing with this. Long drawn out court process, you know, it's gonna take forever for this guy.

And it just breaks my heart how much of her life, her family's, his family's life, has been spent in a courtroom. No fault of their own. It's just the whole thing is heartbreaking. When I heard that he was killed, I was. Truly heartbreaking, broken because I knew, you know, it had only been so little time and I don't know, just, it's just awful.

Very much. Not fair. No, very, I mean, mean, that's like the, you know, lightest thing I could say. But yeah, it's, yeah, it's, I can't imagine, yeah, this is definitely a very heartbreaking story, but we will be for sure following along and seeing what happens, um, as this case kind of makes its way through the court system and we just definitely hope that there will be justice served for Chris for sure.

Absolutely. All right guys. Thank you so much for listening to the episode this week. We will be back next week. Same time, same place. New story. Have a great week. [00:52:00] Bye.