world
Michigan Man Arrested in 1993 Alaska Killing, Awaits Extradition
Christopher Popps, 54, was taken into custody near Kalamazoo on July 16 in connection with the death of Patrick Orville Dearth. The arrest followed a year-long investigation that began with anonymous tips in January 2025 and recovered remains in May.
Jul 20, 4:24 AM·1m read4 sources
+1
New York PostAudio version
Tap play to generate a narrated version.
Christopher Popps, 54, of Michigan, was arrested near Kalamazoo on July 16 in connection with the 1993 killing of Patrick Orville Dearth near Fairbanks. Alaska State Troopers traced the case to multiple anonymous tips that began reaching law enforcement agencies on January 22, 2025, including one in which a caller claimed responsibility for a murder in the Fairbanks area that year.
Investigators could not search the reported site until May 2025 because of snow cover.
Searchers then found human remains inside a barrel down an embankment near Mile 47 of the Steese Highway. The Alaska State Medical Examiner’s Office identified the remains as Dearth, 34, who had been reported missing in November 1993, and ruled the death a homicide. Dearth and Popps had worked together in Fairbanks.
An altercation at an auto shop ended with the shooting of Dearth, according to Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Austin McDaniel. “Based on our investigation, we determined there was an altercation at an auto shop, which led Popps to shoot Dearth,” McDaniel said. A Fairbanks grand jury indicted Popps on two counts of second-degree murder on June 25.
Michigan State Police took him into custody on July 16. He remains jailed in Kalamazoo County awaiting extradition to Alaska. As of July 18, no attorney was listed for him in Alaska court records and no hearings had been scheduled.
