Updated

Updated · The Guardian · Jul 21

Christopher Popps Arrested in 1993 Alaska Murder After 2025 Anonymous Tip Led Police to Body

Updated

Updated · The Guardian · Jul 21

Christopher Popps Arrested in 1993 Alaska Murder After 2025 Anonymous Tip Led Police to Body

Q: What secrets did a Michigan man hold while living a quiet life after a 1993 Alaskan murder?

The secret Christopher Popps allegedly carried for more than three decades was that he had killed his former co-worker, Patrick Orville Dearth, in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1993 and hidden the body where it would remain undiscovered for years. According to investigators, Popps and Dearth were co-workers at an auto shop when an altercation turned deadly. Authorities say Popps fatally shot Dearth, then placed his body in a barrel and dumped it down a steep embankment near Mile 47 of the Steese Highway, north of Fairbanks. Dearth, 34, was reported missing in November 1993, and the case went cold. What makes the case especially striking is that Popps allegedly kept that secret while living a quiet life in Michigan. Investigators say the break came only after a series of anonymous tips to Alaska law enforcement, including a January 2025 confession to Alaska State Troopers. Authorities later traced those tips back to Popps. That information led the Alaska Bureau of Investigation’s Cold Case Unit to the remote site in May 2025, where Dearth’s remains were found inside the barrel. The Alaska State Medical Examiner’s Office identified the remains and ruled the death a homicide. A Fairbanks grand jury indicted Popps on two counts of second-degree murder on June 25, 2026. He was arrested near Kalamazoo, Michigan, on July 16 and is awaiting extradition to Alaska. Investigators have not publicly explained why he allegedly began confessing after so many years.

Q: Beyond his confession, what evidence connects the suspect to the decades-old auto shop crime scene?

There is no publicly detailed evidence, beyond Popps’ own anonymous admissions, that specifically ties him to the auto shop scene. What authorities have disclosed is that investigators traced multiple anonymous tips to Popps, then used that information to find Patrick Dearth’s remains inside a barrel near Mile 47 of the Steese Highway. The remains were identified by the Alaska State Medical Examiner’s Office, which ruled the death a homicide. Investigators also said they re-interviewed witnesses from the 1990s and concluded that an altercation at a Fairbanks auto shop preceded the killing. But the reporting provided does not describe any independent forensic link from the shop itself, such as fingerprints, DNA, ballistics, or preserved physical evidence, nor does it quote any witness placing Popps at the scene in newly disclosed detail. In public accounts so far, the strongest corroboration appears to be that Popps’ tips led investigators to the body disposal site and matched facts of the case that had not been resolved for decades. So, based on the available information, the known evidence beyond the confession is the recovery of Dearth’s remains where Popps’ information led investigators, along with witness work that supported the account of an altercation at the auto shop. Publicly released details do not show a separate, clearly described piece of physical evidence from the shop connecting him to the crime scene.

2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jul 21

Michigan police arrested 54-year-old Christopher Popps on July 16 after Alaska prosecutors charged him with second-degree murder in the 1993 killing of Patrick Dearth.
A January 2025 caller who tried to stay anonymous told investigators where Dearth's body was hidden and admitted responsibility; police later determined the tipster was Popps.
In May 2025, searchers found Dearth's remains in a barrel at the bottom of a steep highway embankment near Fairbanks, where snow and limited daylight had delayed the search for months.
Investigators say Popps and Dearth were co-workers at an auto shop, and Popps allegedly shot Dearth during a workplace altercation before the case went unsolved for more than three decades.
A Fairbanks grand jury indicted Popps on June 25; he is being held without bond in Kalamazoo County pending transfer to Alaska, where second-degree murder carries 10 to 99 years.