Fairbanks cold case cracked after suspect called in his own tip

A Michigan man is being held in a Kalamazoo County jail awaiting extradition to Alaska, charged with killing a Fairbanks man whose remains lay hidden in a barrel off the Steese Highway for more than 30 years.

Christopher Popps, 54, was arrested near Kalamazoo by Michigan State Police on July 16, 2026, on a warrant from a Fairbanks grand jury indictment handed down June 25. The indictment charges him with two counts of second-degree murder in the death of Patrick Orville Dearth. Dearth was 34 years old when he was reported missing to the Fairbanks Police Department in November 1993. He was not found for more than three decades.

The investigation advanced on Jan. 22, 2025, when Alaska State Troopers received an anonymous tip from someone claiming to have committed a murder in the Fairbanks area in 1993. The Alaska Bureau of Investigation's Cold Case Investigation Unit took over. Investigators later identified the tipster as Popps himself.

In May 2025, troopers traveled to the location the tipster described. They found human remains inside a barrel near mile 47 of the Steese Highway, down a steep embankment. The State Medical Examiner's Office confirmed the remains belonged to Dearth.

Dearth's next of kin have been notified, according to an Alaska Department of Public Safety dispatch posted Friday morning.

Popps remains in Kalamazoo County Jail. Extradition proceedings to bring him to Alaska are pending. The charges in the indictment are accusations. Popps is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.