by Donald Blom Death, Obituary – The Department of Corrections announced on Wednesday that Donald Blom, the man who was convicted in the 1999 killing of convenience store clerk Katie Poirier in a case that shook Minnesota, passed away while serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The incident occurred in 1999 and shook the state. Blom, age 73, passed away on Tuesday in the state’s maximum security prison located in Oak Park Heights, according to a statement made by department spokesperson Aaron Swanum, who referred to it as “an expected natural causes death due to sickness.”
Soon after Blom’s conviction for first-degree murder in 2000, officials from the corrections system transferred him to a facility in Pennsylvania for his own protection. In later years, he did time in both Oak Park Heights and a prison in Faribault with a medium level of security. It was a case that caused the state of Minnesota to shake. Poirier, 19, from Barnum was working alone at DJ’s Expressway Conoco on Interstate 35 in Moose Lake when she was allegedly abducted by the man from Richfield. The alleged crime occurred in Moose Lake. The terrifying events that occurred during the abduction were captured on a surveillance tape that was broadcast multiple times on Minnesota television stations at the time.
Blom, who had previously been convicted of a sexual offense, confessed to suffocating her and setting fire to her body on his vacation house close to Moose Lake. The authorities were able to establish that Poirier was the owner of the burned bone bits and tooth that they discovered in his fire pit. During his evidence after the trial and during his unsuccessful appeals, he insisted that the confession he provided to the authorities was the result of being forced. The highest court in Minnesota came to the conclusion that his confession was voluntary and that he had intentionally renounced any claim to have it suppressed. This led the court to the conclusion that his confession was voluntary.
