The Snare, Episode 3: "No Good Explanation"
20/20
This episode explores the controversial conviction of Chris Tapp for Angie Zapata's murder, despite lack of physical evidence. Police pressured him through prolonged interrogations and polygraphs, leading to shifting con
Key takeaways
- Polygraph pressure led to false confessions
Transcript preview
This is Deborah Roberts here with another weekly episode of our latest true crime series from 2020 and ABC audio, The Snare. Remember you can get new episodes early by following The Snare on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you're listening now. Now here's the next episode of The Snare. If you like your true crime, like you like your coffee, Red-handed is the podcast for you. It's dark, intense and might just keep you up all night. I'm Hannah. I'm Sire. I'm Sireuti. I'm Sire. I'm Sire. I'm Sire. I'm Sire. I'm Sire. I'm Sire. I'm Sire. And every week on Red Handid, we break down a different fascinating case. From the most recent US trials everyone is obsessing over, like Brendan Banfield, Karen Reed and Ellen Greenberg, to the most unbelievable stories from around the world. There's nothing we love more than digging into every detail of the cases we cover. Getting beyond a basic analysis and cutting to the heart of the story. Red Handed has over 400 episodes ready to binge right now. Plus, be sure to check out our weekly sister show, shorthand, shorthand, where we unpack everything from the Black Death to Area If you're looking for smart, detailed true crime with personality, check out red-handed wherever you get your podcasts. By mid-January 1997, the Idaho Falls Police have interviewed Chris Tapp four times. As Chris sits for his fifth interview, officers bring up the DNA evidence found at the crime scene. It's something they've mentioned to Chris before. Chris asks, will my DNA be there? during their canvas of Angie's neighborhood and their interviews with people who knew her police say they collected around a hundred DNA samples. The officers tell Chris their biggest fear is that the DNA samples will match him. Our biggest concern right now is that DNA is that DNA right now is that DNA of mine. So we just have to, you know, we just have to think about that. he doesn't think the DNA will be his. I'm not cold, but it I'm not hit my view. That afternoon, the officers get a call from the forensic lab. It's not news of a breakthrough. Officers learn that the DNA does not match Chris Tapp, which means the physical evidence that investigators are working with does not tie Ben Hobbs or Chris Tapp to the crime scene. But the police don't stop focusing on Chris. Instead, they bring Chris in for another polygraph. They press him for more information. They ask him what he could still be hiding. Who he could still be hiding? Your ass is a deep trouble. To you protect me sooner. I protect nobody no more. From ABC Audio and 2020, I'm Maggie Rooley. And this is the snare. Episode 3, no good explanation. on January 18th, it's the third time he's been hooked up to the machine. The third time his reactions have been charted and assessed for deceptiveness. The officer running the polygraph starts off by telling Chris that during his first polygraph he was so deceptive that he was going off the charts. But during his second, the officer says he was getting close to being completely truthful. Now, the officer urges Chris to be more truthful. About 10 minutes in, after the same questions Chris had been asked during his other polygraphs, did he kill Angie? Was he in the apartment when she was killed? The officer asks, were you, Jeremy, and been there? Remember, no evidence ties Ben Hobbs to Angie's rape and murder. Even though his name will continue to come up in these police interviews, he'll never be charged in the case. So police start to turn their attention to another young man who spent the summer of 1996 hanging out at the Snake River. Jeremy Sargis, a friend of Ben and Chris. At first, when the officer asked Chris if Jeremy was there, Chris says no. But 20 minutes into the polygraph, the officer insists. Tell me the other person, who's there. And Chris replies, Maybe Ger was. Maybe Ger was. This was another big shift in Chris's version of the night Angie was killed. He was now saying that maybe there was another person there during the crime. And maybe that person was his friend, Jeremy. So it's you and Jerry. Let's just put chair there. Let's just put chair there. Let's just put chair there. Let's just put jare there. But as the officer asks him more and more, Chris doesn't seem fully confident that Jeremy was there. He says he's only speculating. But as the officer asks him more and more, Chris provides more and more details on what he claims By the end of the hour and a half long polygraph, Chris now claims Jeremy held Angie down while she was stabbed. The officer tells Chris, you've done great this morning. After the polygraph, the officers conduct another interview with Chris. At this point, he has spoken with them for nearly nine hours. of a week and a half. But this time officers have that new allegation from Chris that according to him there was a third man at the crime scene and after officers brought up Jeremy's name this time Chris tells investigators Jeremy held Angie down by her arms and eventually raped her. Officers ask why it's taken Chris so long to tell them this. You know that you could still go on the moon. Well, hold this ger have on the kids just friendship. Chris says he and Jeremy were good friends that they spent a lot of time over the summer at the Snake River together hanging out. The officer