Where is Derrick Torian today? Whereabouts explored ahead of A Time to Kill on ID

In an unsurprising turn of events, Derrick Torian was arrested in 2011 in connection with the 2000 case of a native Alaskan mother, Genevieve Tetpon, whose brutally stabbed body was found in a roadside ditch in Anchorage. The case remained unsolved until DNA, and other evidence put detectives on Torian's tail.

Torian, a father-of-two, maintained his innocence, claiming that he only helped his friend De Jesus, who killed Tatpon, dispose of the body. He was charged with first-degree murder. In 2013, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was given a 15-year prison term.

Reports state that Derrick Torian was released in 2016 on parole after serving only three years. As per his Facebook profile, which was last updated in 2021, he currently resides in Fairbanks, Alaska.

An upcoming episode of A Time to Kill on Investigation Discovery will chronicle the decades-old killing of Genevieve Tetpon and the unexpected twist in the case. The episode, titled Anchorage Cold Case, airs on March 9, 2023, at 9 pm ET.

The synopsis of the episode reads:

"When the body of a single mother turns up in a snowbank outside Anchorage, Alaska, the evidence points to the victim's fugitive fiancé; the shocking murder of a second native Alaskan sparks investigators' fears that a serial killer is on the loose."

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Derrick Torian was arrested from a South Dakota restaurant where he worked in 2011

Derrick Torian was arrested in Genevieve Tetpon's killing more than a decade later (Image via Derrick Torian/Facebook, The Cinemaholic)

In 2011, an Anchorage homicide detective told murder victim Genevieve Tetpon's mother, Pat Fulton, that the police had cracked the cold case. After hearing the news, Fulton said:

"I thought it was a joke. I said, 'No ... say that again?'"

Tetpon was stabbed 30 times, her body was stuffed inside a sleeping bag, and dumped in a roadside ditch in Anchorage in March 2000. A motorist found her body on March 22 in the brush and snow off Arctic Valley Road.

Police and U.S. marshals arrested 28-year-old Torian at a Spearfish, South Dakota, restaurant where he worked in February 2011. He was charged with first- and second-degree murder in Tetpon's death. At the time, the accused was a 17-year-old East High School student.

Reports state that Genevieve Tetpon was among the many Alaskan natives and other minority women murdered savagely in Anchorage between 1999 and 2000. Back then, law enforcement and the community started to believe that they might have a serial killer on the loose. Most of these murders were solved, including the 1999 killing of Della Brown by serial killer Josh Wade.

According to Anchorage police Sgt. Slawomir Markiewicz, Torian spent most of the decade following Tetpon's murder in the city. Still, they had no proof connecting Torian to any of the other killings, and back then, he did not have any criminal history.

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Derrick Torian pleaded guilty to manslaughter, receiving a 15-year term, but was released after serving only three

Derrick Torian pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Genevieve Tetpon's 2000 killing (Image via The CInemaholic)

Detectives only made a breakthrough in Genevieve Tetpon's case in 2009 when David Cordie, a new case investigator, re-examined the evidence at the crime scene "that led him to a person, a female, who ... turned out was a relative of the suspect."

According to court records, Derrick Torian was in Anchorage until 2009, when he received a ticket for driving without a valid operator's license. He left the city sometime after authorities asked him for a DNA sample.

Torian was later linked to the crime through DNA, found under the victim's fingernails and the sleeping bag her body was discarded in. He was scheduled for trial in April 2013 but made a plea deal instead.

In July 2013, 31-year-old Derrick Torian pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He immediately began serving his prison term.

According to The Cinemaholic, Torian was released from prison in 2016 on parole after serving only three years of the given sentence.

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ID's A Time to Kill airs on Thursday at 9 pm ET.