You can listen to episode seven of “Aren’t You the Girl?” podcast here:
Posted is the transcript for the episode for those who would like to read the story instead.
Sources used in this episode are listed at the end of this post.
In May of 1999, 19 year old Katie Poirier went missing from a Moose Lake convenience store where she was working alone as a night clerk. A grainy black and white surveillance video captures a man with his arm at the back of Katie’s neck as he forces her out of the store.
What would unfold within the next few months would shock and disgust Minnesota along with the nation.
In this episode of “Aren’t You the Girl?” I’ll be covering the homicide of Katie Poirier and the courageous work of her family who fought to set in place Katie’s Law.
Katie’s story has been told numerous times within American true crime culture and media. She’s been covered on episodes of Forensic Files, On the Case with Paula Zahn, See No Evil, and more including countless podcasts.
Her case is nationally known for the incredible forensic science used to convict the man guilty of her murder Donald Blom.
Technically, Donald was convicted without Katie’s body which is extremely rare. And the first of its kind.
It also brought an end to the trend of perpetrators abducting convenience store workers in rural Minnesota – which happened a lot. Not only did forensic technology catch up with Donald’s crimes but technology in general.
Like surveillance cameras.
Something I don’t believe Donald was aware of when he took Katie from the store. Though grainy and black and white, his New York yankees t-shirt in the surveillance video also helped ID him.
I cover a lot of cases where unfortunately the victims don’t get the coverage they deserve or funds towards their case to adequately investigate it. Katie Poirier is a case of the justice system and media all working well together.
The way it should be working for every victim.
The Poirier family fought for the public’s rights afterwards which saved many future victims by tightening up our sexual offender laws.
As Dakota County attorney James Backstrom said in response to the case,
“Blom is a classic example of a person with a criminal history that led to changes for patterned and sexually dangerous offenders that now exist in Minnesota law.”
Katie was working at a Conoco convenience store. The store sits by itself, a few hundred feet away from interstate highway 35 on the southern outskirts of Moose Lake.
Its round the clock hours and large driveway made it a popular spot for truckers.
Katie had just started her night shift and about a half an hour later, customers notified police that the store was unattended. This was about 11:40 pm.
Katie’s denim shirt, checkbook and car keys were left behind. The store was completely empty.
No money or merchandise appeared to be missing from the store.
At about 1:50 am, Pam and Steve Poirier received a phone call that Katie was missing from the store.
The family left Mankato at 2:30 am and were in the convenience store parking lot by 6 am that morning, desperate to find Katie.
A grainy black-and-white surveillance video from inside the store showed Katie being forced out of the store.
He had his hands at the back of Katie’s neck and was forcing her out of the store. He may have had a cord wrapped around her neck.
Police estimated the suspect was described as in his 20s, 5 foot 10 about 170 pounds and wearing a New York Yankees jersey.
Katie was just over 5 feet tall with blonde hair and was wearing slacks and a light colored top.
Throughout the day, authorities widened the search to include I – 35 ditches and other woodlands nearby.
Busloads of volunteers began a ground search through dense woods and along deserted roads. Also an air search. Deputies with dogs searched brush and areas near the store.
Local police were getting assistance from Carlton County, State Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the FBI.
Within a few days then governor Jesse Ventura activates the National Guard and hundreds of volunteers help with the search.
Investigators have eye witness reports from a nearby store the night of Katie’s disappearance.
A report of a man driving around Moose lake earlier Wednesday night, the night Katie went missing, staring at women and girls.
With this witness they secure a sketch of the suspect to be released.
Ten days into her disappearance, Pam and Steve Poirier sat in their living room, remembering when Katie would have bad dreams and Pam calmed her by talking about getting candy at the July 4th parade in Moose Lake.
Or when Katie was nervous and started twirling her hair.
The Poiriers said they hope their current nightmare soon has a happy ending.
“This is the ultimate fear a parent has when their child is born.”
Said Pam.
Her parents showed no ill toward her abductor. But they pleaded with him to release her unharmed, adding they want to see her water skiing and fishing with her brother and cousins.
Signs of Katie are everywhere in her parents home, although she had moved to an apartment. Part of Katie’s doll collection was kept in her old room.
Her parents pleaded,
“I know there is some goodness deep down inside him, if he would just let it come out and just let her go. He doesn’t even have to call us – he can call anybody just tell us where she is.”
So far no sign of Katie nor the man sought in her disappearance though she receives massive media coverage and tips.
Katie is featured on an episode of “America’s Most Wanted” and a website is created dedicated on Katie’s behalf named findkatie.com.
Gail Hayden is a mom in Minnesota who had a daughter who also worked late nights at a convenience store at this time. Gail made it her mission to find Katie. She worked as a banker and took two weeks off from work to help search.
When she arrived in Moose Lake, she restored Pam’s faith – a faith that has been tested.
Detectives had multiple witnesses report a suspicious black pickup truck along with a partial license plate.
With this information investigators are led to a man named Donald Blom.
Donald was working at the Minnesota Veterans Home prior to Katie’s disappearance under the name “Donald Hutchinson.”
On June 18, a former co-worker of his called the police tip line and said Donald Hutchison looked similar to the man in the composite sketch. He said Donald was absent on the day after Katie’s abduction, had recently cut his hair, had stopped driving his black pick-up truck and without notice quit his job.
Blom owned a 20-acre property in Moose Lake, 12 miles from the convenience store from which Katie was abducted.
He also had an extensive violent history within Minnesota that spanned decades.
Blom at this point was a 6 times serious violent sexual offender.
Minnesota was furious at the news of Blom’s arrests and criminal history once it was released.
While Donald was held, he refused to speak with detectives and asked for an attorney.
Meanwhile, detectives get warrants to conduct searches for any evidence regarding the disappearance of Katie on any of Donald’s properties. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources sent 80 fire fighters and six supervisors from around the state to help with the search on the properties.
Donald’s trailer home is twelve miles from the convenience store where Katie was working.
Carlton County Sheriff Dave Seboe asked firefighters to search several lakes with a soil type that had been collected during the investigation. The soil came from Blom’s clothing or vehicles.
Human remains were found on his land. Many small bone fragments and teeth were found on his property near Moose Lake.
The bone fragments were charred and came from the fire pit.
Forensic labs at the Minnesota BCA determined that the burned bone fragments represent many different parts of the body.
It is also possible that some of the recovered fragments are not Katie Poirier.
Donald Blom said he didn’t know whose remains were found on his property but they are definitely not Katie’s remains.
As Joe Friedhers a local defense attorney said,
“You’re not supposed to have anybody’s bones under your trailer.”
Evidence obtained in Katie’s case includes a chainsaw, a knife, knotted rope and a fire pit containing bones.
Also found was a 55 gallon drum of flammable material similar to fuel oil as well as a silver hoop earring in a front pants pocket.
In an earlier search warrant, authorities said they were looking for a pair of silver hoop earrings and one single hoop earring was found but Katie’s mother Pam said the earring found was not Katies.
Investigators had burnt tooth fragments and some remaining bone fragments that didn’t match Katie’s identified remains.
And also DNA from “blondish head hairs” found in his pick up truck also did not match Katie Poirier.
Searches of his homes in Richfield and rural Carlton County turned up several guns, illegal for him to possess as a convicted felon and what proved to be human blood.
They found newspaper articles mentioning Katie in the upstairs closet.
The firearms possession resulted in Blom being charged in federal court as being a felon.
After two months in prison on September 8th, Donald tearfully confessed to abducting and killing Katie Poirier and the remains found on his property were hers.
First however Donald signaled his willingness to a plea agreement during an interview with a Twin Cities TV station.
Soon after a deal was reached, and Blom called relatives before formally confessing to killing Katie Poirier.
His confession was vague and he referred to Katie as “the girl.”
He said that on May 26, he had gone fishing, and then driven home to Richfield.
However, later that evening, he had returned to his Moose Lake property.
On the way, he stopped to purchase liquor. He had seen Katie in the store working. He had not known her, but had made a grab for her. He had followed and forced her into his pick-up. Then he had driven her out to his mobile home.
“I don’t know if it was just out of guilt or somethin’ or whatever, feelin’ stupid but then I choked her and killed her.”
He had choked her from behind, saying it had taken about twenty minutes for Katie to die. He denied raping her.
Once he knew she was dead, he had placed her body in the fire pit, in a fetal position, and then gathered wood and paper to make it burn.
Donald soon recanted his confession and his plea deal was rescinded, saying he falsely confessed.
Whether Blom had actually confessed falsely or not would now be for a jury to decide.
As authorities prepare to seek first degree murder charges, the family struggled to accept Blom’s revelation that they’ll never see Katie again.
The horror of the convenience store videotape, the weeks of searching woods and fields for miles, the fading hope, and the arrest and indictment of Donald Blom.
Early on, it was hard for Pam to get out of bed.
“I’d just sit with the covers over my head – I just didn’t care. It even took a lot to dust off my coffee table. I had to sit down. Leaving the house was very hard. And if I’d go, I’d want to come right back.”
She started back on cigarettes, lost 25 pounds, and stopped wearing makeup. How she looked to others became an afterthought.
First she prayed Katie would be found alive then she prayed the family would simply get an answer about what happened to her.
That prayer was answered with Blom’s confession.
Throughout the Poirier family became closer. Not taking any day together for granted.
The support and compassion of an entire state overwhelmed the family. Several boxes and grocery bags filled with letters, many unopened fill the kitchen and dining area of their home.
The letters come from all over the United States and from spots as far away as Europe and Australia.
Pam and Steve try to take 2 hours each night to read them.
Memories and pictures sustain Pam too.
Katie loved french fries with a side of ranch dressing, cabbage patch dolls and dresses, dogs and movies, Garth Brooks and Stephen King, “Days of Our Lives” and the Green Bay Packers.
Pam found it funny how Katie at 5 foot 2 and barely 100 pounds, could eat and eat.
She rolls her eyes at the memory of Katie’s search for the perfect dress for her junior prom.
She grows quiet when thinking back to Katie’s first days of kindergarten and how hard it was for Katie to leave her.
Pam gave Katie a necklace so she knew that her mom was always close.
Some of her favorite moments are the silly, quiet moments.
Like singing and dancing in the aisles of any store to make Katie blush. Or talking on football weekends when Steve and brother Patrick took over the tv.
“She’d come over and we’d just flop on the bed and we’d just sit and talk. She was so open in sharing with me. And sometimes she shared too much but that’s good.”
Sometimes Pam would rub Katie’s head and braid her hair.
“Sometimes, we’d be talking and we’d just fall asleep in the same bed. Even at 18 years of age, she was still that little girl.”
Pam always liked murder mysteries. Now she shuts them off.
“Just the violence of it. It’s not entertaining anymore.”
She’d rather watch a rerun of “I Love Lucy” or her favorite tv show, “Dallas.”
Pam is frustrated with the system of justice that allowed Donald Blom to be back on the streets years ago; with a plea agreement that has fallen apart.
“Every night at the dinner table, I have an empty spot.”
The trial began in June 2000 and would include over 50 witnesses.
Pam is angry Donald’s attorneys can’t even face her.
“I want them to look at me and realize we’re real. We’re not on TV, this is the real thing.”
Katie and her fiance Mark had moved in together and were students at Fond du Lac Community College in Carlton, both intending to become state conservation officers, maybe game wardens in Montana or Wyoming, after they were married.
He had been working and still intended to return to school. But the game warden thing was done.
Mark did not attend the first day of trial.
Upon the Poirier family seeing Blom in court for the first time – the family glared at the man who caused them so much pain.
Pam said,
“I don’t know if it was Katie or God but I wasn’t nervous. I had to look evil in the eye and I did. And he didn’t win.”
Prosecutors had a burnt tooth and human remains that were nearly incarcerated but no DNA evidence linking either to Katie.
The remains were burned so badly that forensic experts were unable to make a conclusive link. Though no DNA link was made – the dental work was consistent with Katie’s.
The tooth and human remains were the strongest piece of evidence in the case.
Not really one piece of conclusive evidence in the case. But all these little pieces of evidence piled on top of eachother.
Without his confession, the case would have been more difficult to prove.
Pertler told the jury that the state will prove Blom guilty with the following main elements:
- The recanted confession which jurors will listen to.
- Testimony of Subway store clerk who identified Blom as the man she saw outside the convenience store an hour before Katie was abducted. She identified his truck, correctly remembering the first three characters of his license plate. Other witnesses say they saw Blom’s truck cruising Moose Lake that night.
- The testimony of Blom’s co-workers at the Minneapolis Veterans home, one of whom first tipped police to the possibility that Blom was the kidnapper. They were willing to I.D him from surveillance tape. Co – workers will help establish that Blom had clothes like the kidnapper and that he changed his appearance, stopped driving his truck, quit work abruptly and did other strange things after the abduction.
- The testimony of experts who will say that burned remains were found on his vacation property were those of a female between ages 16 – 26 and that one of the teeth had dental working matching Katie’s records and x-rays.
- A taped interview police conducted with Blom when they were arrested about 3 weeks after the abduction.
The most damning witnesses were two of Donald’s previous victims.
Brooke, a woman who had searched for Katie and had attended most of the trial told reporters,
“If Katie could have got away, this could be her testimony.”
The two women from Donald’s 1983 Stillwater offence had their first chance to face Donald in court – something none of his other previous victims got the chance to do because of Donald taking plea deals.
The moment of truth arrived in the vortex of one of the most publicized trials in Minnesota history.
Now adult women, the survivors did not look at Donald though he often looked at them. He seemed bored and watched them with a blank expression.
The younger survivor broke into tears and said,
“It’s still scary.”
A recess was then called to give her a break to compose herself.
She returned to give her testimony.
Donald was hitchhiking and they picked him up. They said he was chatting and he said he was a surgeon before pulling a knife, taking over the wheel and ordering the girls onto the floor – out of sight.
Later, he locked the 16 year old in the trunk of the car before driving to a secluded road where he parked then forced them into the woods.
If one of them tried to run away he would say he would kill the other girl.
If they fought, he would get angry and choke them from behind – like he had admitted to doing to Katie Poirier in his confession.
At the time of the 1983 Stillwater attack the 16 year old girl was 5 feet 6, 115 pounds with blonde hair while the 15 year old was 5 feet 2 and 110 pounds.
The prosecution pointed out earlier how Donald liked his victims petite.
Katie Poirier was 5 feet 2 and was 115 pounds.
Jurors felt the enormity of the case during deliberation.
The first vote jurors cast 11 votes for a guilty verdict with only one juror not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt.
Bloms 2 hour taped confession sealed his fate for most of jurors
But after another 90 minutes, the last juror came around.
After 10 and a half hours of deliberations, the vote was unanimous.
The jury found Blom guilty of first degree murder of Katie Poirier.
After they left the courtroom, the jurors rushed to their cars and drove away with no comment, having just concluded one of the highest profile murder cases in Minnesota history.
Blom dressed in casual slacks and shirt and tie and showed no emotion as the verdict was read. He carried on a whispered conversation with his attorney both before and after the announcement.
Having just been dealt his fifth conviction involving the abduction of teenage girls, Blom shrugged slightly.
As a clerk read the guilty verdict, a collective gasp went up in the courtroom from about 60 of Katie’s family and friends.
Mark Johnson, Katie’s fiance, made it to the courtroom for the first time since the trial began to see Donald get convicted.
They pinned ribbons to their shirts in honor of Katie – the same yellow and gold ribbons that those searching for Katie wore last Summer.
It was a tension filled, chaotic sentencing which ended in a fiery exchange between Pam Poirier and Donald Blom.
Pam said to Blom,
“Get a good look at me. I want my face in your dreams always.”
She brushed aside defense attorney Rodney Brodin’s repeated objections that her comments were improper.
“Give it a rest. It’s my turn,” she said. The courtroom erupted in applause, and Blom stood up and cursed her.
“You’ve got the wrong (expletive) guy, lady. You look all you want. I’m not your (expletive) man.”
Deputies wrestled Donald back into his seat as the judge cleared the room.
When the hearing resumed, Donald repeated his assertion that he is innocent and said his recanted confession was “a stupid thing to do.”
“I’m not guilty. If there was something I could do to prove it, I would.”
To Poirier’s family, he said,
“I have respect for you, and feel sorry for what you lost … and I hope someday it will come out.”
Donald Blom received a life sentence for killing Katie.
The Poirier family began to pick up the pieces and look toward the future. The family sharply criticized the justice system for freeing the repeat sex offender who killed her.
Pam Poirier asked volunteers who helped search for Katie to now start lobbying to make sure convicted felons aren’t freed early.
More than 1,200 mourners filled the high school gym to pay respects to Katie and to bear a call to action on behalf of women and the vulnerable.
Katie was described as loving, family orientated, funny, mischievous, and now at peace. With the dominant theme of the service being light over darkness and a call against violence.
Hope pastor Owen Christianson
“Never again need Katie suffer.
Never again will any of our sisters and brothers suffer as she did.”
Pam became a force for crime prevention laws at the Minnesota legislature.
She joined forces with Connie Larson and Patty Wetterling – the mothers of Cally Jo Larson and Jacob Wetterling who were victims of other highly publicized crimes in Minnesota.
The Katie Poirier abduction task force of legislators, law enforcement officers and families of crime victims helped get a passage of a measure dubbed “Katie’s Law” to tighten registration of sex offenders and link law enforcement computers to improve tracking of criminals.
A bill to require surveillance cameras in convenience stores stalled in the legislature.
Tougher laws were sparked by several highly publicized cases throughout Minnesota history.
Those cases were:
Two parking ramp rapes in 1988 by men with history of sexual violence and the abduction of Jacob Wetterling in 1989 and subsequent decades long advocacy work of his mother Patty.
In terms of laws specifically in Minnesota that could have protected Katie Poirier from a man like Donald Blom, he was released from his last offence before any serious, protective laws were in place.
By mid 1989, patterned sex offenders had just begun to receive longer sentences.
In 1991, sex offenders began registering their addresses with authorities.
In 1992, probation officer supervision of released repeat sexual offenders was increased up to ten years longer than under previous law.
In 1994, indefinite civil commitments of sexually dangerous offenders which I cover in episode four with the case of 14 year old Barbara Iversen.
In Jan. 1997, authorities began notifying communities where certain released sex offenders will live.
In 2000, Katie’s Law.
The loopholes Donald Blom has walked through have been closed.
The Poirier family knew more tough times were ahead.
The next Christmas, the next birthday, the next trip to the Twin Cities. The funeral service that will take place once Katie’s remains are secured.
Katie was laid to rest alongside the grave of her grandmother.
“Everywhere I turn, it’s Katie. Everywhere I am, it’s Katie. It’s going to be hard for me thinking of her taking care of me now, rather than me taking care of her.”
Pam still finds herself stopping and glancing at the backdoor of her home hoping Katie will walk through.
Marvin Repinski shared,
“As the pastor who presided at the wedding of Steve and Pam Poirier at the United Methodist Church in Duluth and as the officiant minister who baptized their daughter Katie, I offer a reminder of the larger history. Some months before Katie’s abduction from a convenience store in the Moose lake area, I spent time with the Poirier family; I still have photographs I took of this beautiful, smiling, energetic, and trusting young woman.
Now gone. Only ashes. Why?
The public needs to be reminded of the predatory behavior of Mr. Blom. During the trial some witnesses and evidence were excluded. We know of the 15 aliases used by Mr. Blom in his “career” that seemed to be made up of lies, manipulation, and conflicted behavior.
During the trial, family and friends stayed at a hotel and restaurant complex in Eveleth, Minnesota. I think of conversations while sitting around a large table with family members on one of these days.
I recall persons so incensed over Blom’s damaging, frightening years of despicable behavior. These persons were some of the persons, who in their young adult years, were assaulted by Mr. Blom.
The pain of assault was still present in the terrifying memories.”
The next two episodes will be covering the victims and supposed victims of Donald Blom. Other evidence obtained from his properties, the defense side of Katie’s trial and an in depth look on just how horrific his crimes were before Minnesota even knew who he was publicly in 1999.
Donald has since passed away while serving his sentence and took every other case unsolved to his grave.
Katie’s brother Patrick said it best,
“It’s not a victory for us. But it was a victory for the state of Minnesota, because now all your children can be safe from this one man.”
Thank you to the Poirier family for sharing Katie with Minnesota.
Please return for episode 8 where I’ll be taking an in depth look into the life and crimes of Donald Blom and the nameless other remains in Katie’s Poirier’s evidence.
Sources:
- St. Could Times, Star Tribune, the Albert Lea Tribune, the Austin Daily Herald, the Winona Daily, and the Bismarck Tribune.
- Forensic Files: Tooth or Consequences.
- Crime Library: A Repeat Offender Sex Offender Finally Caught by Katherine Ramsland
- State v Blom transcripts.
Rest in Peace Katie Poirier.
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