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Donald Blom, convicted of killing Katie Poirier, dies in prison

The 1999 kidnapping and murder of the 19-year-old Moose Lake convenience store clerk captured the attention of the state and the nation.

OAK PARK HEIGHTS, Minn. — Donald Blom, the man convicted of kidnapping and killing convenience store clerk Katie Poirier in 1999, has died in a Minnesota prison.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections confirms Blom died Tuesday at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Oak Park Heights due to natural causes because of illness. He was 73.

Poirier's disappearance and Blom's subsequent arrest and trial for her murder captured the attention of the entire state of Minnesota. The 19-year-old was working at a convenience store off I-35 in Moose Lake when she was kidnapped in May 1999. A grainy surveillance video proved key to solving the case, showing a man forcing the 19-year-old Poirier out of the store.

Blom's co-workers identified him as a possible suspect, leading to his arrest. He initially confessed to kidnapping and strangling Poirier, then burning her body in a fire pit at his vacation home near Moose Lake However, Blom later recanted his confession and was put on trial, where a jury found the convicted sex offender guilty of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Corrections officials sent Blom to a Pennsylvania prison for his own safety soon after his conviction in 2000, but he was eventually returned to Minnesota where he served time at both Oak Park Heights and a medium-security prison in Faribault.

Poirier's murder led the Minnesota Legislature to pass a package of proposals tightening the state’s sex offender laws.

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