How old was Katie Poirier when she was Killed?

Katie Elizabeth Poirier was 19 years old when she was kidnapped from a Moose Lake convenience store and later found murdered in 1999.

A bystander who noticed there was no attendant in the store reported the incident. Poirier was forced out of the store around 11:40 p.m. by a man wearing jeans, a backwards baseball cap, and a New York Yankees baseball jersey with the number 23 on the back, according to a grainy black-and-white surveillance video.

The man’s hand was on the back of Poirier’s neck, and the way she touched her throat suggested that there was a cord around her neck.

The culprit was Donald Blom, a convicted sex offender who had been involved in five known cases of kidnapping or sexual assault before the murder of Poirier.

Blom initially confessed to the murder, but later recanted, claiming that solitary confinement and medications forced him to confess.

Blom’s trial lasted five weeks and featured over 50 witnesses, including two women Blom kidnapped in 1983. Blom was found guilty after a 10-hour jury deliberation.

Blom served much of his prison sentence in Pennsylvania since his conviction in 2000, but he was transferred back to Minnesota in 2017 to serve out the remainder of his sentence.