BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (WOOD) — A man authorities say anonymously admitted to a decades-old murder nearly 3,000 miles away in Alaska is under arrest and awaiting extradition, Michigan State Police say.
On Thursday, MSP troopers arrested 54-year-old Christopher Popps in Battle Creek following a request for assistance from the Alaska Bureau of Investigation’s Cold Case Investigation Unit. He was arrested without incident, MSP said in a release.
In January 2025, Alaska State Troopers received an anonymous tip from someone claiming to have committed a murder near Fairbanks in 1993. The cold case unit subsequently opened an investigation and months later, once enough snow had cleared, traveled to a remote area north of Fairbanks where the anonymous tipster said he had left the body, Alaska state troopers said in a release. There, inside a barrel down a steep embankment off the side of a highway, they found remains later identified as belonging to 34-year-old Patrick Dearth…