and certain experience in life help minimize the blindness that is inherent in human kind. ♪ >> god, no, please, no. this can't be real. a teenager, home alone and a night of terror. >> just scared the wits -- and just trying to figure out how scared she must have been. >> on her body, like a signature, a hand print in blood. >> it was a crime of passion. there was a lot of anger involved in this. >> but hang on, because that hand print doesn't belong to the man police put in prison.

>> the anger just surged through me. >> now, a mother turns detective. >> her words to me, i'll never forget were, i just want to know what happened to my daughter. >> join in as she hunts for a killer and searches for the truth. >> i wanted to put my fists through the tv. >> still brings my the hair up on my neck. >> "the confession." 18 years old, amy dodge was eager to live life on her own terms finding a job, a new apartment, and then she was stabbed to death in her bedroom, within months, a local named christopher admitted to be one of the killers. a grizzly murder captured on videotape, but for her mom, the details on tape did not give her answers. in fact, they raised more questions. here's keith morrison.

♪ >> they kept him here. deep inside the multiple walls and the armed doors, the rolls and rolls of razor wire, the confessed stabber, convicted killer that stabbed a sweet woman all those years ago. lucky to be alive, probably, given the nature of the crime and the appeal from the girl's mother for the death sentence which made what he said later on very puzzling indeed. >> it's the only thing his mother has. it's her only child, let him go. >> that's carol dodge, and the amazing story she told us began on the worst day of her life. it was a thursday, june 13th, scene of this accident. mid-morning. she placed a call to a beauty salon to talk to her daughter, angie. >> i dialled angie's number at

work, and a lady answered, and i said, this is carol dodge, angie's mom, and she said, angie's been found dead. i remember saying, god, no, please, no. this can't be real. >> it happened, turned out, the night before in the tiny second floor walkup where the independent 18-year-old just started to live her life, stabbed to death, throat cut, and she was haunted with a conversation she had with angie that very week. >> she said, mom, i did something really stupid. >> did you say, what did you do? >> no, i didn't want to pry. >> what was it that stupid? did it lead to murder? idaho falls, idaho, dazzling white mormon temple to anchor the town and signal the beacon,

moral core of american virtue, great place to raise a family, three dodge boys, a girl named angie, whose birth occasion, brother brent remembers, the biggest celebration of all. >> that was a pinnacle of all for my parents to have a baby girl. >> she learned about independence early on. who grew up busy and strong and stubborn. >> nobody got in her face because she would take care of you. she was 5'11" and strong. >> but, of course, big could be a problem for a girl. as a teenager, she was too tall, too awkward. she struggled. to make it worse, her parents marriage fell apart. >> that's when angie went and just made friends with whoever accepted her. >> among her new friends, jessica martinez. >> we both had very poor image because we had weight problems, and we wanted to be accepted not

for what we looked like, but for the people that we were. >> reporter: jessica has since turned out fine, of course, but back then, carol worried a lot about the new friends, didn't know they, like angie, had big plans. >> she wanted to go to college and just be the best person she could be. >> reporter: now, this this little apartment, angie's life was over, and grief stricken and dazed endured a murder investigation. >> we clearly knew there was a relationship there because it was a crime of passion. >> jared and ken brown were, back then, detectives in the idaho falls p.d., and angie's boyfriend was out of town. her other friends? seemed to have alibis too. so they turned to the physical evidence, like this bloody hand print on her stomach, must have been left after she was dead, they figured, when the killer did something that was beyond safe, pulled down the pants,

shirt, and left a deposit of see men on her body, his mark, and dna. >> a lot of anger and humiliation involved in this. >> and frustration for the cops because that dna did not match any of their possible suspects. month after month, they chased leads into disappointing dead ends, and all the while, carol dodge haunted the investigation, practically stalking the detectives, desperate for information, begging them to find the killer. >> i drove to the police department every day that they were open. >> and then one day, seven months later, dead of winter, january '97, an arrest next door in nevada broke the case open. in custody was one of the less savoring friends, there he is in the funeral, carrying flowers. now she was charged with sexually assaulting a woman at knife point. sound familiar? while detective ken brown rushed

off to question him, the other detective spoke to his friends. >> why do you think your down here? >> honestly, i have no idea. >> one of whom was a 20-year-old named christopher taft. he was no felon, but he was an admitted druggy and, what do you know, he had a bit of a history with ex-school resource officer, now detective. >> he was in trouble a time or two? >> he was. just trying to help him out. >> i trust you, and hopefully you trust me, okay? >> yes, he said, trusted him, but didn't know anything about the murder. >> i didn't know anything about this. but i do not know, that's the truth. >> making the statement, christopher went home in the clear, apparently. days later, the detectives asked him to come downtown again. >> i told him, i says, what are you doing? i says this is a murder case.

>> his mother, vera, understood what he did not, that her son was quite possibly talking himself into big trouble. >> he said, mom, i don't have anything to hide, and i want to tell them that i don't know anything. >> that did not quite work out that way. before long, chris wrote a statement for police saying, ben hobbs said he killed her, and i laughed it off like he was just telling me a joke. oh, but that was just the beginning. over the next several weeks, he was in nine times, questioning him 20 hours. even gave him an immunity deal, and that's when his story began to evolve. yes, he admitted to being there when ben killed angie and held her down, he admitted, when ben stabbed her, and finally, he said, he stabbed her one himself. the motive? revenge. supposedly angie was meddling in ben's marriage, and christopher did not like that one bit, so detectives confronted ben, who

denied any part of the murder, and asked them a question about angie. >> was she raped? tell me. >> i don't know, if she was, we could figure it out. >> and low and behold, he was right. that dna result came back, and the semen on her body did not belong to ben or chris. neither one of them. >> what went through your heads when the dna results came back showing the attacker was not ben hobbs? >> if you're going to nail it down to a word, it's frustration. >> detectives decided that did not mean chris was lying or theory of the crime was wrong. it could only mean, they decided, they had to expand the theory. ben and chris were guilty. they were sure of it. that mystery dna had to come from a third man, third attacker, so they put chris back

in the interrogation room asking, was a third man involved in the crime? and sure enough, chris said, yes, there was a third man. but no matter how many times detectives asked, he couldn't or wouldn't tell them who it was. so prosecutors made a decision. if he was not going to tell them the whole truth, he would not get his deal. chris was charged with murder, but only chris. not enough evidence to go after hobbs or anyone else. the announcement caught carol by surprise. detectives kept her in the dark until now. one look at christopher in court, and she knew she wanted him dead. >> i mean, it was finally looking somebody in the eye, i thought was the devil who had taken my daughter's life. >> chris was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison for angie's murder and 20 years for rape. which is when carol's search

began. her own investigation filled with danger and surprise and troubling discoveries. one discovery so disturbing that angie's mother reached out for help. coming up -- >> the anger just serged through me. the search for the truth would hold some chilling surprises. >> still brings the hair up on the back of my neck. >> when "the confession" continues. t, just hit me on the old horn. man: tom's my best friend, but ever since he bought a new house... tom: it's a $10 cover? oh, okay. didn't see that on the website. he's been acting more and more like his dad. come on, guys! jump in! the water's fine! tom pritchard. how we doin'? hi, there. tom pritchard. can we get a round of jalapeño poppers for me and the boys, please? i've been saving a lot of money with progressive lately, so... progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents. but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us.

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like magic. at comcast, it's my job to develop, apps and tools that simplify your experience. my name is mike, i'm in product development at comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome. in the years after angie dodge's murder, the man who confessed to taking part in the killing, christopher taft, was tucked away in state prison, az accomplice, tucked in prison for another felony was never charged with the murder, and idaho falls police told the mother, carol, they still couldn't find the third man, the one who left dna

on her body. that's when carol become, her word, obsessed. if the police could not track down the daughter's killer, well, then, she would. >> the anger just surged through me. and that's when i went to the streets, and i lit -- literally put 60,000 miles on my truck searches for the killer. >> putting yourself in harm's way. zblo >> absolutely. i remember going to a place, you need to leave already somebody hurts you. i had gun put to my head one right. >> leads that never worked out, but ended up in front of the apartment where she was murdered. >> i stared at that house, stared at windows, and tried to figure out how scared she must have been. >> something else she couldn't stop doing? reading police reports, practically memorizing them. >> i don't sleep, and i get up, and i just felt, what part of

this don't i understand? >> didn't make sense? >> none of it made sense. >> in one of the reports, she found a phrase, which, the more she read it, sounded out of play in the dna world. it was about pubic hairs, which, in addition to the semen was found on her body. >> it was written in the report as it's similar or the same as the victim. i said it's angie's or it's not. it's not either/or. not in today's scientific world. >> she read an arable about an internationally known dna expert that happened to live and work right in idaho. >> how does it feel to be recognized dna expert? >> it's fun. no, no, it's fun, i did fruit flies and nobody invited me to talk on television. >> this is the expert, dr. gray, a fruit fly study who now

spreads his excitement to the university. the work is not all in the classroom, and, in fact, his path changed in 2004 when she was asked to test dna that led to an innocent man being freed from prison in georgia. the doctor wrote a book, and just like that, the doctor found a new calling. he's now in high demand. in 2011, he was part of the team credited with freeing amanda knox, an american college student imprisoned in italy, and in his spare time, he's the founder and director of idaho's innocence project. >> it's an unfortunate thing our name is "innocence" because, honestly, i've worked on, i think, 13 exonerations now, four of the ones in georgia, they found the actual perpetrator, so to those four guys, i'm the guilty project. >> so, now, the coincidence you

just couldn't make up. the very week she left a phone message for the doctor asking for help, idaho innocence project had just taken on a new case. the case of the man convicted of killing carol's daughter, and the doctor called her back. >> her words to me, i'll never forget were, i just want to know what happened to my daughter. and, you know, still brings the hair up on the back of my neck. >> curiosity surprise you? >> the knowledge surprised me. she's turned all of that love and devotion for her daughter into a very careful record of this case. >> so she read that report to him, the one that said the pubic hairs found were similar to or same as the victim. >> he goes, they are hers or they are not. >> just as you thought. >> well, where are the hairs? i said, i assume they are still in evidence. >> she called the idaho falls

police department finding the hairs in the envelope in the evidence room where they were stored for years. they said the hairs were sent to the crime lab where state of the art dna tests could show that chris was there or ben was there at the crime scene, or that the entirety of the physical evidence was left by an unknown third man. that was the fundamental question that was huge, and the answer from the dna left no doubt. >> it's all one person who did this, in terms of the dna. >> one, killer. the science said there was no evidence there were three attackers in her apartment that night as the police said, but just one. and that remarkable news could be meaning only one thing according to the idaho innocence project. chris's story was a false confession. he was not there. he was an innocent man. the theory of multiple killers?

ridiculous, he said. >> to imagine that there is a group of criminals who know about dna and are so careful, what did they do? planted somebody else's semen and pubic hair and cleaned up their own dna? >> that conclusion that the killer was never caught came down like a hammer to the head on angie's mother. >> i was extremely angry when they have dna, not once, but twice, that belongs to the same person and it's not chris, something cease wrong. >> so what did you do? >> i met with the chief. i asked for copies. >> the videotapes, in which christopher confessed to taking part of the murder, in most accounts, she knew more about the case than anyone, but what she had not done was watch the

more than 20 hours of the interrogati interrogation. now, she did. watched every minute. when she was done, she was a changed woman. looking at a brand new case. coming up -- >> there's times i wanted to put my fists through the tv. >> the tale of the tapes. what exactly had she found? when "the confession" continues. . i switched to geico and saved hundreds. excuse me... winner! that's a win. but it's not the only reason i switched. hi! geico has licensed agents who i can reach 24/7. great savings and round the clock service? now that's a win-win. winner. winner. yay me! oh, hi! good luck. switch to geico®. it's a win-win.

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welcome back to "dateline extra". in the eyes of the doctor of the idaho innocence project, the dna evidence in the murder of angie dodge spoke loud and clear. there was just one killer. it was not christopher taft. why, then, would chris confess to the crime? police had no doubt he had told the truth, but did the interrogation tapes tell a different story? here, again, is keith morrison. ♪ >> more than a dozen years after

her daughter's murder, the ground beyond her feet were quaking. dna tests revealed none of imp kated confessed murder of christopher kaft, but pointed to a mystery man still at large. and the woman who relentlessly prodded the police to find her daughter's killer began to doubt everything the detectives had been telling her. >> for 13 years, they had me confessed chris was the murder. they said, he confessed, he confessed. >> but, was it a real confession? she asked for, and got, a complete set of the videotape confessions. what she saw amazed her. by this time, she knew more than she did a decade before, knew, for example, the then detective, who ran the interviews, was a school resource officer,

well-known to a young chris. >> i trust you, and hopefully you trust me, okay? >> ferman told chris, trust me, chris, you got to trust me, okay, we go way back, chris. and i think that it was tied to respect adult, and he was a follower. >> he watched as chris insisted he knew nothing, and then she saw detectives as they are trained to do subtly make him an active apartment. >> listen, for example, hypothetically, chris, you were there, okay? >> okay. >> hypothetically, chris, how do you think it happened? i remember chris saying, you mean, like a tv show? >> next, police administered polygraph after polygraph with the same result, saying he was deseptemb decepti deceptive, and when promised immunity, the story about ben hobbs changed. >> got a knife. then just cut her.

>> but, perhaps, what troubled her the most was seeing how confused taft was, even ten days after the first interviews, he still seemed not to know what house she lived in. >> lived on the corner? >> on the block. >> police kept correcting him. for a guy who took part in a murder, he seemed not to know much about the layout of her apartment. >> it's easier to draw it out. >> when asked to draw it, he couldn't do it. >> detectives even showed him where the murder occurred. >> happened here in the bedroom. that's back here. >> oh, yes, and there was more. police had always told her that chris did things only a killer would know, location and position of angie's body, the clothes she was wearing.

now, she could see for herself, on tape, the reason chris would know those things. she was stunned to see police had shown taft photos of the crime scene. >> if you don't remember it, this jogs your memory and we'll go from there. >> there's times i wanted to put my fist through the tv. >> finally, remember that the police theory of the crime, after dna did not match taft or hobbs was that three people committed the murder together. detectives spent hours, literally, trying to drag the name of that third man out of taft, and when carol saw the tape, well, you watch it. >> the name doesn't come to my head. i'm just going to say jeff. >> by the time you went through all the tapes, what did you

think about chris taft, the man you believed all the years -- >> how did they do this to me? managed to keep someone in prison for all these years, and it's a responsibility it's not there. >> after that moment, she made a decision. she would do more than search to find her daughter's killer. she would actively work to free christopher taft, the only man convicted of the murder. >> i think that chris's case truly got taken seriously after i made my contact with boise state. >> she was the first victim's family member who came forward to work with the innocence project on a case. i mean, she's the leading edge of a group of people who have come forward and said, you know, we just want to know what happened. >> no matter who was now on his side, chris taft was face-to-face with two very uncomfortable truths. one, years of appeals had done nothing to overturn his conviction and prison sentence.

and, two, the detective who put him behind bars went on to a much more powerful position in idaho falls, and he was still absolutely certain that chris taft was as guilty as sin. the former detective reveals what makes him so sure of the guilt. coming up -- >> he took us into the bedroom and relived that night. you could see it on his face. he was reliving it. when "the confession" continues.

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a search and rescue effort has been launched for the boeing plane, and they report at least one ship in the area saw debris believed to be from the plane, but no sign of surviving passengers and crew. we should note, though, this is preliminary information; and it's not yet been confirmed by nbc news.

we'll continue to follow this story as we get new information. now, back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline extra," i'm craig melvin. it was more than a dozen years since angie dodge was murdered, and in that time, her mother believed christopher taft was innocent, pouring over the interrogation tapes and stunned to see a confused young man grasps for details. she now believed chris's confession was coerced, not true, the investigators told us, but why were they so certain? listen for yourself. here, again, is keith morrison. >> by the time we visited the city of idaho falls in march 2012, the angie dodge murder case was to some, a piece of city history, but no idaho's innocence project and the

founder, it was a misjustice and a cause. >> if there's dna, for god's sakes, believe the science, people are not that accurate. the dna is very precise. >> and 15 years after the murder of her daughter, angie's own mother did what was once unthinkable. she had joined forces with the innocence project. >> the city of idaho has got it wrong. >> wanted somebody to take you seriously. >> yes. >> and in the years since the murder, finding the killer was her reason for living, through three heart attacks. the death of an estranged husband, off on on battles with the idaho falls police, and now she had to fight that power in a whole new way because? remember the detective who befriended chris in a previous position as a school resources

officer? the fellow got that confession as planning to be the mayor of the town? >> true. >> does that anything to do with it as far as you can tell? >> people have to protect their story without looking any deeper and saying, you know, is this really accurate? >> the idaho falls police had taken a false confession, put the wrong man if prison, and failed to find the real killer? we spoke to the former detective and then mayor, and he said, no, just not true. how did he know? it was ferman who took taft to visit the crime scene in the many interviews all those years ago. >> let me tell you, they were not in the room with me when he took us up the stairs, into the bedroom, and relived that night. you could see it on his face, he was reliving it. >> of course, the critics would not be able to see that because it was one of the only times

during the investigation when the police did not videotape chris. but -- >> i have no doubts in my mind that chris taft is part of a homicide itself. >> right. >> you can't fake that. >> you can't because, what is it, 25% of all dna resolved cases, where someone is released from prison, turns out there's a false confession. people confess to things they do not do. >> when know that, but they don't know the details of the case. chris knew and knows the minute details of that case. >> he, of course, claims he knows them because he was fed them. >> we politely disagree with that. >> is it possible, at least, there was suggestion involved in these things before he actually said them? >> for us to say there's no possibility, anything could have happened, we can't say that, but we can say we reviewed the tapes over and over, and we had a jury who reviewed those tapes --

>> the two guys who interviewed this person over and over again, and found that the first interview, the second interview, the third interview, the fourth interview, the fifth interview, he lied like a sidewalk, and you get to the seventh, and that's the gospel truth? >> no. each interview, he brought out information he absolutely knew, was not fed to, the color clothes she was wearing, the position of the clothes, how many stabbings, the diagram where she was at in the room. >> interesting. many times, as the interviews progressed, chris claimed to know nothing about the clothes angie dodge was wearing. >> do you know what she had on? >> no. >> recall any clothes? >> i don't know. >> but some details in the interview could be interpreted to back up the claims by the police. once, for example, before christopher was shown the photos, he seems to, in a

guessing way, know what she was wearing. >> i have in mind a t-shirt and sweats. >> although, he's wrong about the color of the clothes, after being asked many times, if the clothes were half on or half off, pulled up, pushed down, he does correctly say this about her pants. >> one leg, like -- >> the detectives said chris talked about ben hobbs hitting angie behind the ear. >> we have evidence to back it, bruising where he says that ben hit her. >> so, detectives insisted they were right. ben hobbs was the ring leader, chris taft was involved in the attack, an an unknown third man left the dna in the form of semen. three attackers, identity of the third a secret, unrevealed by the other two all those years later, and the fact that dodge disagreed with the theory and

support the chris taft, the only man in prison for the murder? >> what's it like to know that carol is actively campaigning for release and believe he's an innocent man. >> i think it's part of the process in some respects, her heart has been broken. >> she's convinced it's the wrong guy. >> when i heard that, was surprised. >> it's been a roller coaster ride for 16 years, she needs closure, tomorrow, the next day, chris could be guilty in her mind again. >> so, perhaps now would be a good time to talk to the man in the middle of all of this. the serial confessor, christopher taft. coming up -- >> i didn't kill nobody. >> so why would he confess? tackling the biggest mystery of all. when "the confession" continues. so it's no wonder we announced our new 9-grain wheat sub in the middle of a wheat field. when you've got news this big, it's not enough to just add it to the menu.

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have. welcome back. chris taft's supporters insisted dna evidence proved he was not involved in the murders of angie dodge, but police were convinced he was the killer. according to the detectives, he shared grizzly details of the crime only the killer could know. what did chris have to say about that confession so many years ago? you're about to hear his side of the story. here, again, is keith morrison. there comes a time in every tale to meet the man in the center of the story, and here he is. christopher taft. no longer the endless pot head seen in the videotapes in sne19. when we met, he had done a decade of hard time. when people look at you, what do

you want them to know about you? >> i've been so wronged all these years. how could individuals do something to another human being like they've done no me. >> innocent man? >> yes, sir, i am. >> of course everybody in prison is, innocent, right? >> if you look at the entire case, the dna, none of it points to me. >> on that point, there's little dispute, of course, but how did chris taft get here? that's a familiar story to many families. the sweet little boy shown in all the pictures of a typical childhood, carefully kept by his mom, vera, smoked marijuana at 13, and then at 16, turned to meth. chris dropped out of high school, got and stayed high every minute he could. he says, hanging out down by the river in idaho falls with all the kids his mother warned him about. and that, he says, is how the name came up after the murder of angie dodge when police scoured the city for suspects who could match the dna left behind after

the murder. so, too, he was asked to submit dna. did you think anything of it? >> no. i had no reason to be scared. >> reporter: but then, not a word, for months, until, you'll recall, january of 1997, when taft was brought in for questioning after his friend, ben hobbs was arrested for a nevada sexual attack, police said was similar to the murder of angie dodge. >> i didn't know what i was brought in for. >> didn't connect with the angie thing at all? >> no. i thought i was going in for drugs. >> reporter: as you saw over the course of several weeks, he went from saying he knew nothing about angie's murder to being the only man charged in the case, just as his mother warned him. where was your mother during this? >> frantic. i was honest, i had nothing to do with this, mom, and i tried to explain to her, i didn't really confess. it took days to get to a story

where i actually made a confession. >> one of the difficulties was your story kept changing, right? >> very much, it did. >> i mean, you went from saying, i don't know anything about this to then saying, well, maybe ben had something to do with it to then, well, maybe there's a third guy involved, to, wait, i was there, and, oh, yeah, and i cut her. where did that come from? >> trying to give them what they wanted to hear just to appease them. >> wait a minute. why would you say you cut her? >> during the time, mr. ferman, he said, hip thetically, even if you did cut her, it doesn't matter, we'll get you a deal and help you. you just need to help us. >> and, indeed, here it is, on tape, with then detective jared fermen in charge of the interview. >> hypothetical, if holding on to angie or if chris took part a

hold of the knife in cutting her, okay -- >> but i didn't. >> would you listen? >> i'm sorry. >> okay. hypothetical hypothetically. >> okay. >> if you took part in any of that, that's okay because you're still here, you're still showing some good faith if you want to cooperate and a prosecutor will reconsider another possible deal. >> do you believe that story? >> hook, line, and sinker. what's going on inside your stomach and brain? >> scared. trying to figure out what they want, just for them to leave me alone. >> why? >> i didn't kill nobody. i was never there the night the murder happened. they kept focusing on if you were there, if you did do it, if you held the knife, if you did, okay, we'll help. i was an idiot, i believed them. >> and you were charged with murder? >> yes. >> fighting to clear his name, with the support of his mother

and innocence project, but now the victim's mother. >> carol dodge came around to your side. what was that like? >> amazing feeling. i appreciate her finally understanding. i'm innocent. >> and as we spoke, for the first time in years, chris taft had reason to feel one spark of possibility. someone in a position to change his future was going to listen. coming up -- >> a new chance at freedom. could that controversial confession get thrown out of court? >> with this confession goes, the state has lalmost no evidence. >> a high stakes trial with carol dodge front and center when we continue. an autonomous-thinking vehicle protecting those inside and out.

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welcome back. chris taft had spent a decade behind bars convicted of a murder he now said he did not commit. he was scared he said and confessed only to end the interrogation. now all these years later chris was headed back to court in an attempt to have the confession thrown out. if successful it might mean a new trial, but there was another possible path to freedom, one with a very steep price. hear what the conclusion of our story is with keith morrisson. >> on a quiet street in idaho falls, something was about to change in the case of her confessed killer christopher taft. for the first time since his trial a hearing on evidence was about to be held before a judge. as chris taft entered the courtroom he and his supporters finally had reason for hope. not that the judge could review

the evidence and just declare taft innocent. no, this would have to be based strictly on points of law. idaho court of appeals had over the years thrown out all but one of taft's videotaped interviews, that being pone where he said he took part in the crime. but in this hearing it could be thrown out, too. if the court decided taft believed he was in custody when he said those incriminating things. if he thought he was unable to leave this little room. because that would have violated his basic constitutional rights. what's the best result from this? new trial or is it possible to have an exoneration? >> if this confession goes, the state has almost no evidence. >> i think they'd have to dismiss the case. >> the stakes could not have been higher for mr. taft. his mother sat right behind him. carol dodge was there, too. two of her sons also. >> they've got a lot at stake.

if chris taft walks free, then what? then it's who is the killer? >> the prosecution would rely on the word of the detective who later became idaho falls mayor. reviewed the interviews and said chris taft was never technically in custody. >> was chris taft free to leave? >> yes. >> that's funny his lawyers argued when it was their turn, how could a 20-year-old leave as the door was barred during his interview? how could that young man who had been questioned on and off, had been spent more than a week locked up in jail watched as immunity deals were offered and later torn up, how could that kid, the lawyer asked, be expected to know he could leave whenever he wanted. >> did you think if you decided not to talk to the police you would have been able to go home? >> no, i would not have been

able to go home. >> but taft had to acknowledge he had indeed lied over the years, many times including in sworn affidavits used in past appeal. you've admitted the fact that you've lied on any number of occasions. and if you've lied before, how can we believe you now? >> well, of course you're going to say i'm a liar now. he's just trying to save himself, but it's the truth. i'm innocent. i've never committed this crime. >> when testimony was over, it was up to the judge. would he order a new trial for chris taft or would he send him back to prison maybe for good? and then four months later a ruling. chris taft was never threatened, restrained or handcuffed, said the judge. and thus was not in custody. appeal denied. >> the truth will set me free someday. >> and you're pretty convinced

of that? >> as the years go on, yeah. >> taft's lawyers vowed to continue that fight for as long as they had to, and for the first time since the murder the two mothers at the center of the case could agree. >> you come home every day and you think i had a son. sooner or later something's got to break. >> let him go. it's the only thing his mother has. it's her only child. let him enjoy his mother. let his mother enjoy him. there's just two of them. that's all they have. >> and chris' case was far from over. there were more motions, more hearings. but all was the same result. then two decades after his conviction in march 2017 a stunning twist. prosecutors offered chris taft a plea deal downgrading his conviction to second degree murder and vacating his rape

conviction. chris had a decision to make. this was not an exoneration. he'd still be a killer in the eyes of it law, but he'd be a free man. he accepted and was resnsed to time served, no probation or parole. after 20 years behind bars he left the hearing a free man. >> how are you feeling? >> overwhelmed. completely totally overwhelmed. >> as for van hobbs he still denies any involvement in angie's murder. he declined dateline's request for an interview. for the idaho innocent project the answer still lies not only in the machinery of law but in science. that dna left at the scene, it points, he says, to the simplest explanation. not to a third man or even a second one but just one. what are the chances that a story could remain a secret for that many years if three people

were involved? >> secrets can be kept, but, you know, science reveals those secrets. someone went in and committed a typical violent rape murder and left typical evidence. there's no other person there by dna. where is he? >> where indeed. and carol dodge is still tortured, still pondering that last message from her angie, that she had done something stupid. sounds to me that you believed she had crossed or double crossed somebody who was very dangerous. >> she had crossed the line and didn't have any clue of what she had gotten herself into. >> and neither did she, carol admits, when she setout on a quest to find a killer. not finished, not yet. >> i'm never going to stop looking. one day i'm going to look that man in the eye. one day he will be found.

he'll be found. >> that's all for this edition of dateline extra. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. does the government have any compromising material on president trump and his family? >> does donald trump fear vladimir putin? personally i believe he does. why does he fear him? i don't know. >> he has loomed over the trump presidency. >> there's no doubt among the american intelligence agencies the cyber attacks on the american election in 2016 were ordered by vladimir putin. >> here it comes, fake news. here comes cyber attacks. it comes right out of an intelligence