Inside his second floor Boise State laboratory, the memories of how a complete stranger turned into a close friend surround Dr. Greg Hampikian.

In another equally possible timeline, the two never meet, the stranger – Tapp – never sees justice, and the judicial system holds onto a lie. However, here, the truth wins.

“He was very famous for saying that we rejected him the first time,” Hampikian said.

A student investigator under Hampikian watched up to 30 hours of interrogation tapes; Hampikian asked her to pinpoint Tapp’s words and whether or not he was speaking on his own or under the interrogator’s influence.

“She called me back after watching them all, and sharing her notes, and she was just so upset and said, ‘No, he didn’t tell them anything that they didn’t feed him. I think he’s innocent.'” Hampikian said. “So we started investigating it.”

Hampikian and the Idaho Innocence Project team spent nine years to right a seemingly insurmountable wrong; they proved the DNA evidence used to convicted Chritopher Tapp in 1996 was faulty.

Tapp was released from prison in 2017 and later exonerated of both the rape and murder convictions; though, he had roughly six years to enjoy his rightfully owed freedom.

Tapp, 47, died Sunday after a recent accident, according to the Idaho Innocence Project.

“I got a call that he was in a coma. I think it was Wednesday,” Hampikian said. “I love Chris.”

The exact details surrounding Tapp’s accident are unclear. He was in Las Vegas, according to Hampikian. The two talked often on the phone.

“He called me his crazy uncle. You know, I think of him more as a son,” Hampikian said. “When he got out of prison, that’s really when we had a relationship.”

The two traveled together, sometimes for work with the Innocence Project. Tapp joined the team as policy advisor. They just recently took a trip to Missoula, Montana. High up in Big Sky Country just two weeks before his unexpected death, Tapp confessed a deep secret to his newfound crazy uncle.

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