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Blom stated that he walked out of the store with
Poirier and said she asked him to let her go several times, but did not fight with him until he started choking her at his property. Blom also said that he killed Poirier with his bare hands and burned her body with wood and paper. According to investigators, wood and paper alone would not have been sufficient to reduce a human body to ash. Blom denied sexually assaulting Poirier and said he did not know why he had committed the crime. When asked whether the remains in the fire pit were those of Poirer, he said, "I guess so". When pressed, he said he "didn't know the answer to this question." When asked whose remains they were, Blom replied, "Well, I was asking that myself, man."
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Blom had been home the entire night. She also accused the police of threatening to take her children away if she did not answer questions the way they wanted. She also denied seeing any baseball jersey in the clothing given to the family by Blom's brother. Brodin restated to the jurors that only one of six witnesses was able to identify Blom in a line-up. He also called upon his own odontologist to counter the testimony of the prosecution's dental experts. He stated that Blom's earlier confession was a mistake and should not be taken into account. He claimed that another man had confessed to the crime, but was not arrested.
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Investigators obtained search warrants and searched Blom's
Richfield residence and Moose Lake property. The search in Moose Lake was supported by over 100 National Guardsmen and several hundred local volunteers who were initially unable to find any trace of Poirier. They did find some firearms, which
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her for seven years. She said she did not know when she married Blom that he had been married twice before, and that when Blom adopted her surname, she was flattered, not knowing he did so to conceal his past. She said Blom went to the Moose Lake property frequently and told her little. She believed
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During his trial, Blom expressed angrily to
Poirier's family that he was not guilty and had a heated exchange of words with Poirier's mother. On August 10, he denied kidnapping Poirier. He said his wife had threatened to commit suicide due to media pressure and that he confessed to the kidnapping in
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Dr. Ann
Norrlander testified that the tooth portion recovered from Blom's property was consistent with Poirier's age, gender and dental work. Blom's barber confirmed that Blom's hair had blond tips at the time of the abduction, making him appear younger (the man in the surveillance video was assumed
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Blom owned a 20-acre property in Moose Lake, 12 miles from the convenience store from which
Poirier was abducted. Investigators learned of Blom's prior convictions for abducting seven young girls. They also learned from Blom's neighbors that Blom spent a lot of time at the property before Poirier's
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In 2004, an appeals court upheld Blom's conviction. In 2006, Blom expressed his willingness to answer questions about unsolved local crimes in exchange for transfer to a prison closer to his relatives. When detectives arrived with the transfer letter, Blom talked about other matters for three days
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Blom's defense attorney, Rodney Brodin, presented Blom's wife, Amy, as his first witness on August 7. She testified that Blom returned home at 9:30 on the night of
Poirier's disappearance, they went to bed and when she woke up in the morning, a pot of coffee had been made; therefore, she believed,
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September 8, Blom confessed to abducting Poirier, strangling her and burning her body in the fire pit on his Moose Lake property, an account which was somewhat inconsistent with the evidence. Surveillance video from the convenience store showed a man with his hand on the back of Poirier's neck.
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On the second day of the search, investigators found what appeared to be bone fragments in a fire pit on Blom's property. The fragments were sent to a lab, where they were identified as human bone and a charred portion of a human tooth. DNA tests proved inconclusive, but an examination by dental
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jersey with the number 23 on the back like the one worn by the man in the surveillance video; however, Blom's brother testified that he had given the Blom family a box of old clothing which included a
Yankees jersey. The two women who Blom kidnapped in 1983 and who resembled Poirier as children
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Witnesses reported that they had seen a black pick-up truck circling the area around the convenience store that evening. One of the witnesses gave a partial license plate number (three numbers and a letter). Another witness reported seeing a suspicious man leering at female passersby outside a
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Subway restaurant in the same building as the convenience store earlier that night. The suspect was allegedly driving the same black pick-up truck other witnesses had described. Based on this and three other witness statements, a composite sketch of the abductor was broadcast by local media.
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Blom was working at the
Minnesota Veteran's Home under the name "Donald Hutchinson" prior to Poirier's death. On June 18, his former co-worker, Darrel Brown, called the police tip line and said Donald Hutchison looked similar to the man in the composite sketch provided by police. Brown said
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that he had committed other crimes, including murder. No longer under his domination, she said she could tell the truth: he was not home on the night of
Poirier's kidnapping. Blom's sons confirmed the violent abuse, describing his wife's injuries.
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him from the time Blom was very young until he was around 13 years old. By the time he reached adolescence, Blom was a heavy drinker and exhibited behavioral problems. In the 10th grade, he went to a reform school, where he often skipped classes.
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Blom's trial began in June 2000. Over 50 witnesses were called to testify during the case. Video surveillance, witness reports, testimonies from two women who Blom kidnapped in 1983 and his confession were presented as evidence against him.
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By the time of Blom's conviction, over $ 200,000 had been spent on the case. The state legislature strengthened Minnesota sex offender laws with longer prison terms for repeat offenders, a bill informally known as "Katie’s Law."
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who were able to enhance the image so more details of the suspect could be seen. The police estimated that the abductor was 5'10" and weighed around 170 pounds, had long light-colored hair and appeared to be around 25 years old.
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with the number 23 on the back. The man's hand was at the back of Poirier's neck, and from the way she touched her throat, there might have been a cord tied around her neck. The video was sent to imaging specialists at
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the wrong way and investigated. Blom fled into the woods and later changed his appearance by dyeing his hair. He was arrested two months later when one of the girls recognized him. He pleaded guilty to the crime.
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experts established that the filling on this tooth matched that of a very rare filling material used by Poirier's dentist. The examination showed the tooth belonged to a young female and was likely Poirier's.
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At the time of his arrest, investigators were looking at similar crimes, including the murder of 19-year-old Wisconsin student Holly Spangler. In 1993, Spangler's decomposed body was found in the woods of a
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Another case studied by investigators was the strangulation of Wilma Johnson, whose body was found near St. Paul Cathedral in 1983. Blom admitted to being at the crime scene, but denied killing Johnson.
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Blom about his confession, but Blom gave only "yes" or "no" answers. Blom also said he had never seen the baseball jersey before and that people who claimed to have seen him wear it were mistaken.
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In 1975, Blom kidnapped a 14-year-old girl, gagged her and raped her. He locked her in his car trunk, but she managed to escape and turn him in. Blom was tried and convicted. In 1978, he committed
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Blom was investigated soon after Poirier's disappearance since he was the registered owner of a pickup truck with a license plate number matching the partial number provided by a witness.
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order to get out of his cell. He said he had been fishing at Moose Lake on the evening of the kidnapping and returned home by 10:00 pm, well before the time of Poirier's abduction.
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Hutchinson was absent on the day after Poirier's abduction, had recently cut his hair, had stopped driving his black pick-up truck and without notice quit his job as a janitor.
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was to change his name and appearance after each incident. Dennis Fier, a Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent, has long suspected Blom to be a
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Blom appealed his conviction. His wife emailed two Minnesota legislators, stating that she believed him to be Poirier's murderer and that Blom
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in a remote area, tied them to a tree and put socks in their mouths. He choked and revived one of them several times and said he was going to
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Investigators believe Blom may have been involved in a series of murders, possibly dating back to the 1970s. They believe that his
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The story of Poirier's murder has been the subject of many television true crime documentaries. HLN TV reported the story in the
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Donald Aubin Hutchinson, Donald Albin Prince, Timothy Edward Whitmore, John Fitzgerald Koppel, John Koppels, Dennis Allen Franklin
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and sentenced to life without parole. He was also given a 19-year sentence for possession of firearms found at his property.
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On May 26, 1999, 19-year-old Katie Elizabeth Poirier went missing from D. J.'s Expressway Conoco convenience store in
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161:(February 5, 1949 – January 10, 2023) was an American convicted of the murder of Katie Poirier in 1999. A registered
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showed Poirier being forced out of the store around 11:40 pm by a man wearing jeans, a backwards baseball cap and a
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series episode "Fatal Abductions". In 2010, the case was featured in the "Out of the Ashes" episode of the
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to be around 25 years old while Blom was 50 at the time of the crime).
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and hallucinations due to "ten medications" had prompted him to make a
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Blom told investigators he might have killed a man near St. Paul's
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after having been transferred there from maximum-security facility
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episode titled "Snatched on Camera" reported on Poirier's murder.
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them. The girls were rescued when a police officer saw their car
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Blom was not allowed to carry given his prior convictions.
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prior to Poirier's murder, he was suspected of being a
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Starting in 2021, Blom served his prison sentence at
671:"Donald Blom: A Repeat Sex Offender Finally Stopped"
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859:Prisoners who died in Minnesota detention
501:List of murder convictions without a body
281:abduction, but had not been there since.
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242:Moose Lake, Minnesota
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488:United States portal
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286:Richfield, Minnesota
178:MCF-Oak Park Heights
353:first-degree murder
230:antisocial behavior
111:First-degree murder
776:2012-10-18 at the
496:Crime in Minnesota
435:The New Detectives
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