Tipster charged with murder after police say anonymous call helped solve 30-year disappearance

More than 30 years aft an Alaska antheral vanished without a trace, an anonymous confession breathed caller beingness into the acold lawsuit and yet led investigators to the alleged killer.

Christopher Popps, 54, of Michigan, was arrested aft Alaska State Troopers said they traced the confession backmost to him, accusing him of fatally shooting his erstwhile co-worker, Patrick Orville Dearth, successful 1993 earlier dumping his assemblage wrong a tube disconnected a distant highway.

Dearth, 34, disappeared successful November 1993 aft helium was reported missing to the Fairbanks Police Department. For decades, investigators had fewer answers.

The breakthrough came connected Jan. 22, 2025, erstwhile Alaska State Troopers received an anonymous extremity from idiosyncratic claiming to person committed a execution successful the Fairbanks country successful 1993, according to the agency.

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Fairbanks Police Department progressive successful decades-old missing idiosyncratic investigation. (Fairbanks Police Department Facebook)

The Alaska Bureau of Investigation's Cold Case Investigation Unit took implicit the case, but investigators couldn't instantly hunt the country due to the fact that it was buried nether snowfall and daylight was limited, Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Austin McDaniel told Alaska Public Media.

When investigators returned successful May 2025, they recovered quality remains wrong a tube down a steep embankment adjacent Mile 47 of the Steese Highway. The Alaska State Medical Examiner's Office aboriginal identified the remains arsenic Dearth and ruled his decease a homicide.

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A Fairbanks Police Department patrol vehicle. Patrick Orville Dearth was reported missing to the section successful November 1993 earlier his lawsuit went acold for much than 3 decades. (Fairbanks Police Department Facebook)

As investigators dug deeper, they identified the anonymous tipster arsenic Popps.

McDaniel told Alaska Public Media that Popps had made aggregate anonymous tips to antithetic Alaska instrumentality enforcement agencies claiming work for Dearth's death.

Investigators person not said wherefore they judge helium began confessing much than 3 decades aft the killing.

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Alaska wilderness adjacent Fairbanks wherever troopers investigated the cold-case homicide. (Getty Images)

Authorities said Popps and Dearth worked unneurotic successful Fairbanks and that an altercation astatine an car store ended with Popps allegedly shooting Dearth.

"Based connected our investigation, we determined determination was an altercation astatine an car shop, which led Popps to sprout Dearth," McDaniel told the outlet.

A Fairbanks expansive assemblage indicted Popps connected 2 counts of second-degree execution connected June 25, 2026, and a warrant for his apprehension was issued the aforesaid day, according to tribunal records.

Michigan State Police arrested Popps adjacent Kalamazoo connected July 16. He remains jailed successful Kalamazoo County awaiting extradition to Alaska.

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As of Friday, Popps did not person an lawyer listed successful Alaska tribunal records, and nary aboriginal hearings had been scheduled, according to Alaska Public Media.

Fox News Digital reached retired to the Alaska State Troopers and Michigan State Police for further information.