Going West: True Crime - Katie Poirier // 197

Episode Date: May 4, 2022

In 1999, a 19-year-old woman was working an overnight shift at a Minnesota gas station when she was abducted from behind the counter. With the help of numerous tips, a clear suspect was uncovered. And thanks to NASA and a very specific dental filling, answers came to the case. This is the story of Katie Poirier. LUMI: https://lumigummies.com Use code GOINGWEST for 30% off your first order AND free shipping! IMPACT:Disclaimers and Disclosures (to be included in the show notes/description) Note: The podcast ad for the IMPACT app is unscripted and being recorded live. It may contain some slight differences. Please visit https://impact.interactivebrokers.com/ for full details of products and services. Interactive Brokers, LLC member FINRA/SIPC. The projections or other information generated by IMPACT app regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual investment results and are not guarantees of future results. Please note that results may vary with use of the tool over time. The paid ad host experiences and testimonials within the Podcast may not be representative of the experiences of other customers and are not to be considered guarantees of future performance or success. The opinions provided within the ad belong to the host alone.   BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES 1. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6781809/kathlyn-elizabeth-poirier 2. https://murderpedia.org/male.B/b/blom-donald.htm 3. https://caselaw.findlaw.com/mn-supreme-court/1402520.html\ 4. https://groups.google.com/g/alt.true-crime/c/9_LMzNS7cEQ?pli=1 5. https://www.newspapers.com/image/195030550/?terms=Katie%20Poirier&match=1 6. https://www.mesabitribune.com/news/state-fines-poiriers-employer/article_81596366-1fef-5a7a-9c78-2a9bd472a3c5.html 7. https://chippewa.com/poirier-family-reflects-on-life-without-daughter/article_2099ea4e-94e9-5809-a192-efefe03406e8.html 8. https://www.newspapers.com/image/196089702/?terms=Katie%20Poirier&match=1 9. https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/video/see-no-evil-investigation-discovery/mr-reed-will-see-you 10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FykyEtMgMHw 11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RRyYRjZc28&t=1s 12. https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2006/11/20/cold-case-is-donald-blom-a-serial-killer/ 13. https://www.postbulletin.com/news/bloms-wife-takes-stand 14. https://www.mesabitribune.com/news/business/bloms-wife-says-he-was-home-on-night-of-abduction/article_5a293949-85ed-5bbc-a4fa-0cd5ea48c816.html 15. https://fdltcc.edu/students-receive-katie-poirier-memorial-scholarship/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans, I'm your host Tee Tha and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. So sorry for the minor delay on this episode as As you guys know, we were at CrimeCon over the weekend, but then we went to record it late, you know, like later than usual, and there was a tree being cut down outside our studio windows. It was a little bit busy this last week. But CrimeCon was so amazing, really.

Oh, it was so fun. Got to meet a lot of great listeners, a lot of great podcasters, just great people all around. Yeah, so if you came, thank you so much. We genuinely had the best time talking to you guys. Some of you brought us some goodies. I'm so sorry for your name, but somebody brought me a candle from Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem.

From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem.

From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem.

From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. From Salem. And thank you Rachel for bringing me booze to the booth. I was sitting there needing a drink so thank you so much for that for that beer. Yes and mag and staff everyone is so nice Thank you everybody who came by we really really appreciate you guys and also big shout out and thank you to Michael for suggesting today's case that we are about to dive into right this this case is a really sad one But it led to a monumental change in how we identify bodies

and prosecute repeat offenders. So at least some good came out of something that was so senseless. Absolutely. All right, guys, this is episode 197 of Going West. So let's get into it. In 1999, a 19 year old woman was working an overnight shift at a Minnesota gas station when she was abducted from behind the counter. With the help of numerous tips, a clear suspect was uncovered, and thanks to NASA and a very specific dental

filling, answers came to the case. This is the story of Katy Poir, who went by Katie, was born on February 28, 1980 to parents Pam and Steve, and when she was born she had a two-year-old brother named Patrick. And, Katie was born in the port city of Duluth, Minnesota, located right on Lake Superior, which we touched on a few weeks ago in the Glandshin Mansion murders episode. Katie's father Steve was a biologist who owned an environmental consulting and testing company, and her mother Pam was a social worker. The family later relocated to Barnum, Minnesota, about 40 miles or 64

kilometers southwest of Duluth. Katie was an active, outdoorsy and very upbeat teenager, and she's remembered by friends as having a mile-wide smile and a great zest for life. Her dad described her as a bubbly and very trusting person, so it's clear that Katie was very loved as much as she was loving. At Barnum High School, Katie was an honor student and in band and key club, and for those who don't know, key club is a student program where the members perform acts of service in their area, like organizing food drives, cleaning up parks, et cetera. So it looks great on a college application,

but it also helps the community so it's a win-win. Katie was also the runner-up in a beauty pageant competing for the title of Miss Barnum in 1997. Her mom said she loved French fries with ranch dressing, same, the soap opera Days of Our Lives, andbage Patch dolls. She was a very typical Minnesota kid growing up water skiing and fishing at the nearby lake, and she was a huge fan of the Green Bay Packers. She also loved animals, especially her two golden retrievers Goldie and Riley.

So after graduating from Barnum High School in 1998, 18-year-old Katie moved to an apartment in Moose Lake, Minnesota, with her boyfriend of two years, whose name is Mark Wilson. But Moose Lake was just an 8-minute drive from Barnum, so Katie was able to visit her parents pretty much daily. She had aspirations of becoming a police officer or a game warden, and if you guys don't know, basically a game warden is a law enforcement official that specializes in hunting, fishing, and boating laws, as well as wildlife conservation. So that fall Katie began attending Fondalac Tribal and Community College in Cloquet, Minnesota,

majoring in criminal justice. And around this same time, Katie's boyfriend Mike proposed, and she said yes. So with her being on her way to starting a life in career and being engaged to someone that she loved, it seemed like everything she wanted in her life was basically falling into place. So after her freshman year of college, Katie got a job at a convenience store called DJ's Expressway inside a conoco gas station in Moose Lake.

In this particular gas station was situated on Highway 73, which runs about 120 miles or 193 kilometers up through North East Minnesota and right off the exit to Interstate 35, which runs all the way from Laredo, Texas to Duluth. I think I said, did I say that right? Laredo? I think so, so it's basically a very long interstate, like many of them are, the travel from, they're through various different states. Exactly.

Sorry for the long explanation here, but DJ's expressway sat alongside a string of other gas stations and chain fast food restaurants, including a subway sandwich shop adjacent to DJs, which actually shared an internal door. Right. So basically, the important thing to know here is that there are other shops and gas stations like these nearby businesses. Businesses.

Yeah, thank you. But not very many. It's just next to a subway and it's right along an Interstate so be it right off the exit of an interstate. So there's a lot of travelers coming through here It's not you know like a very small townie area. It's more so Drifters travelers people just passing through right so it saw you know, it's fair amount of activity here So Katie and her mom had actually disagreed about the job as her mom worried about her safety working odd hours on her own, especially with drifters coming through this area. But with living away from home and her impending nuptials, Katie kind of wanted and needed

the money. So on May 26, 1999, 19-year-old Katie went to work for her graveyard shift as usual, and she was alone there. Around midnight on May 27, a customer at DJ's Expressway went inside to pay for a tank of gas, but they found the store completely empty. So nothing was out of place, all the lights were on, but it seemed abandoned. This person sensed that something just wasn't right, so she called 911.

When police arrived on the scene to, you know, check things out, they found nothing out of the ordinary except for one missing cashier, Katie. But there was no sign of a struggle and no money was missing from the safe or the cash register. And actually in a gesture of small town goodness, customers had been leaving cash and post it notes describing what they had taken, which is really awesome.

So it kind of goes to show you there are some locals coming in, there are some people obviously of this town coming in, but also like we said, a hundred times, some drifters. Yeah. And it didn't take more than a cursory check of the property for police to find Katie's keys and sunglasses still inside. And her car was parked in the lot out front. Now initially they wondered if maybe one of Katie's friends had like scooped her up as

a joke or a prank, but her family was sure that Katie would never have left this store unattended and unlocked, especially without notifying her supervisor first. I mean, she was responsible. This was a newer job, but she's not just going to go and do that. Yeah, and I don't know what kind of friends you would have to have to literally abduct you from your job while you're working. Yeah, and while nobody else is on duty. Yeah, I'm leaving the store completely empty.

So, next, of course, police visited Katie's fiance Mark at their apartment, questioning him about her whereabouts and his potential involvement. But Mark had been home and hadn't heard from her. So police immediately put the word out that she was missing. Thankfully, there were four security cameras inside the store that they could check, and with no other leads, police reviewed the footage to piece together what may have happened, and what they found was the beginning of a nightmare. Now, Katie's shift seemed pretty uneventful and quiet at first, nightmare. Now, Katie's shift seemed pretty uneventful and quiet at first, but at 11.32pm, she went

into the back storage room to retrieve something. For a moment, this store was just empty, but then, just one minute later, at 11.33pm, a man entered the store. Katie resumed her post behind the counter as he wandered the aisles for about three minutes, with the two of them chatting while he did so. Although the footage had no sound, investigators said that her body language seemed friendly and kind of relaxed, almost as if they knew each other, or at least she wasn't obviously put on edge by this person coming in. The man then exited the store and Katie went back

into the storage room to finish what she had been doing, but terrifying enough, just 10 seconds later, the man re-entered the store and cornered her in the back room where she was. What he did next was not caught on camera, but in that split second, things took a turn. The grainy security camera footage revealed Katie being escorted outside. He appeared to be holding her by the back of her neck as he marched her out to the parking lot. Her hands were clasped with the base of her neck as if maybe he had wrapped a cord or rope around them. At 11.38 pm, Katie Poyer was abducted from DJ's expressway, and then the pair just disappeared.

With no security cameras in the parking lot or on the exterior of the building, there was no indication which direction they had gone or what type of vehicle they had left in. And being close to two major highways, her kidnapper could have taken off in any direction at a very high rate of speed. So investigators had nothing else to go off of, except for the brief and fuzzy footage of this man who walked right in and just took her. And it must be so crazy, or it must have been so crazy to review this footage and just

see this horrible situation on Fold. But I can imagine that police were so thankful to have it because without this... We would have no idea. Yeah, it would seem like Katie just vanished from thin air since there was no signs of a struggle and nothing was missing. So after this occurred after police saw this footage, a ground search of nearby greenery began immediately, with thousands of people helping to look for any sign of Katie on foot. Because right, you know, remember, they don't know if she left in a vehicle or not.

Right, good point. Yeah, they could have gone. Right, absolutely. And Moose Lake is a small community with only about 3,000 residents, but family, friends, neighbors, and very concerned citizens from towns nearby really rallied together to aid in the search. One of Katie's friends provided a crucial break in the case, and her name was Catherine Hanuk, and she worked next door at the subway sandwich shop connected to DJ's Expressway, which remember they're not like in the same, they're essentially in the same building,

but they, they have an internal door connected, but they're not like within the same room. Right. Right. The morning after Katie's disappearance, Catherine Hannick gave police their first official lead. There had apparently been a man lurking around the property and acting strangely, shortly before Katie's abduction. Special agent Phil Haudab from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, or MBCA,

questioned Catherine in hopes of finding out more about this lurking man. So Catherine said that she had seen a man leering inappropriately at women going in and out of the subway and the convenience store. She said that it was clear that he had been drinking. When subway closed at 10 pm, Catherine had gone next door to say goodnight to Katie before returning to her own shop to lock up for the night. And remember, Katie was abducted an hour and a half later at 11.38 pm. This mysterious creep had approached to ask her if there was a bathroom that he could use,

and Catherine directed him next door to DJ's expressway. After locking Subway's doors and walking to her car, he approached her again and asked if she was leaving for the night. Catherine recalls that she had responded pretty rudely to get him to leave her alone. So with that, he backed off and retreated to his car, which was a black Ford F-150 pickup truck. Just knowing, you know, the kind of guy that we're dealing with, the kind of guy that

is haggling other people, it's interesting to know this this that she was very rude to him and then he kind of left her alone. I'm glad that happened, good for Catherine and that nothing happened to her, you know. See, she essentially just told him to fuck off. Yeah. Get out of here, man. Love it. So by happenstance, they left in the same direction and she had driven behind him for

a while before he had turned off into a business parking lot and she had continued toward downtown mousse lake and this also makes me wonder if he had felt like she was following him you know he's obviously being a creep and he's doing something wrong so I wonder if by her driving behind him for so long if he was getting kind of sketched out you know I wonder so she happened to remember that the first three digits of his Minnesota license plate were 557, and that it also contained a Y. So this is really good eye, obviously of her,

to be like, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna try at least to get most of that license plate. Right, and clearly she probably wasn't trying to maybe remember it fully, but she had been driving behind him for a while. So she must have been glancing at it multiple times This is amazing. Sure. So this was also back before vehicle records and registrations were digitized in a database though So investigators had to print out results and notify law enforcement all over the state to question anyone whose car and license

Fit that exact description. Right, but what a great description she was able to give. So good on her. And how eerie that this man had asked if she was going to leave for the night because this ultimate would be or this ultimately would mean that Katie, who is next door, would be in this area alone. Yeah, so this makes me think that he was trying to kind of gauge the situation. Yeah, like why would you ask that? Yeah, is she going gonna be gone away from there

so that he can be a predator? Right, very creepy. So the days began to pass and hope of finding Katie alive was dwindling because they did have this description of the car and of the man, which was great, but like Keith said, it was a very long and tedious process to try to figure out who this car belonged to and who this guy was. Yeah. Police were in agreement that it was

likely an experienced sexual predator who had taken her. So they set their sights on that demographic. But to make matters much more difficult, there was a Minnesota sex offender program treatment center right there in Moose Lake. So the number of local sexual predators was abnormally high. Oh no, that just makes this entire scenario so much more horrifying. Yeah, it's so terrifying and it also goes without saying that they had their work cut out for them with, you know, since that's they were looking for sexual predators and here's like a huge lot of them.

Yeah, a list of them. Now, with the low quality of the images of her kidnapper and no leads or evidence, the outlook was pretty bleak. So, police called in a favor with NASA. Who interesting, right? Solar physicist Dr. David Hathaway and atmospheric scientist Paul Meyer developed a process called

Vizzer or video image stabilization and registration. Based on trying to improve photoscent from space, this technique would stabilize grainy videos by adding together multiple frames. This type of technology is seriously ground breaking stuff. Mind blowing. So as Dr. Hathaway explains it, a video is comprised of two fields that make up one picture, but they change so rapidly that the human eye cannot detect it.

And by combining the frames, he can stabilize fuzzy images into a clearer depiction. And after removing some of the grain, detectives could establish some basic facts about the perpetrator because this is exactly what they did. NASA looked at this footage, they worked on it, they were able to minimize the grain and stabilize the footage, and with that, police had a better description of this man. Now he appeared to be a white man, about 5'10, average build with either blonde or gray hair because the video is black and white,

and he was wearing a Yankees jersey with the number 23 on the back. And it's so wild to me that they were able to do this back in 1999, but I mean, I guess that wasn't that long ago, but still. Yeah. Just very, very impressive. And also the fact that they could gather that information from the video footage because I watched it and it's very hard to see.

Like you can fairly see, like clearly he's forcing her out of the store, but it's not a very clear picture. And we did post the video on our socials if you guys want to check it out because it's very interesting to see you can see what's going on, But as far as his features since the camera is from like the side slash back or at least the one that you can see the best It's it's not very you know, it's hard to determine really anything. Yeah, it's hard to determine

But they did yeah, so this was amazing and Katie's story was featured on America's most wanted 9 days after her abduction occurred, and hundreds of tips started to pour in. With what little visual description that they had to go off of, investigators put together a wanted poster and police sketch of this suspect. Word continued to spread about the case, and Katie's missing posters papered the area. And because of these efforts, police zeroed in on their first suspect, a man named Donald James Christensen.

He had been called in as a tip because he had been in jail for a previous sexual offense, and he was released and in the general area at the time of Katie's abduction. However, he was a short-lived suspect because he had a large spider web tattoo on his left forearm that would have been visible in this, you know, security footage. But they didn't see this tattoo, so basically he was ruled out of having any involvement. Isn't that crazy how just a tattoo is like, you're clear? Yeah, exactly. That's all they needed was a tattoo.

Right, so very easy to rule them out. Three weeks after Katie's abduction, police received tip number 1,960. My God. That's a lot of tips. Yeah. People call this tip, um, 1,960, because this is a huge tip. The caller worked at the Minnesota Veterans Home in Minneapolis, and they explained that there was a janitor there who had just quit unexpectedly, and happened to have changed his appearance around the time of Katie's disappearance, getting his haircut and shaving off his beard.

According to co-workers, he had been acting strangely that week. The caller claimed that he had also been seen wearing a number 23 Yankees jersey to work on multiple occasions. So this is amazing of this person. They're like, I've seen a guy wear that jersey. He was also acting very strangely and he changed his appearance. Great. I just take in great tabs on the appearance like great. I just taking great tabs on that I just feel like every witness in this entire case is just fucking superstars spot on This guy's name was Donald Hutchinson not to be confused with the first man taken into custody that lovely Heath just explained to us whose name was also Donald. Yeah, the different dude

This Donald Donald Hutch, was 50 years old, married with four kids, and he resided in Richfield, Minnesota, which is a suburb of the Minneapolis St. Paul area, which was about, you know, like a two-hour drive from Moose Lake. And he had actually been questioned before, like during this case, as an owner of a Ford F-150 pickup truck, the same vehicle that the Perp supposedly drove. Donald's wife Amy had answered the door

and apparently been cooperative, but consistent with vehicle records had maintained that their pickup truck was white, not black. And that it had recently been sold. I will say though, anytime somebody sells a vehicle, and they're being questioned for a disappearance, I'm always very suspicious. Yeah, not to say that people can't sell their vehicles,

but yeah, definitely. They always can. In cases, it's just like it makes you suspicious. Yeah, it's just like changing your appearance. It's like there's certain things, or like going out of town, there's like a list. It's got them red flags, you know, right. There's a red flag list. However, a quick search of Donald's records revealed some very chilling things about his past.

He had to take it away. So not only did Donald Hutchinson have an extensive criminal history including kidnapping, sexual assault, and rape? His name wasn't even Donald Hutchinson. It was Donald Albin Blom, one of the multiple names that he used to avoid his sorted past from following him around to new jobs and relationships. So as far as investigators were concerned, this was definitely enough to search his rich-field Minnesota property. So they got a warrant and they did just that. Meanwhile, Donald maintained his innocence and police found no trace of Katie even after an extensive search of his property. But in his garage, they did find a black Ford F-150 pickup truck with the Minnesota license plate 557 HDY matching Catherine Before that break, we revealed that police had turned up the exact vehicle that Catherine

Hanuk had described seeing at the scene of the crime the night Katie went missing. Now this black Ford F-150 had been tucked away in a garage on Donald's property. Despite the fact that his wife had told police their F-150 was white and had been sold. Lier. Well it turned out that the truck being registered as white was a clerical error, but I will say if his wife had confirmed that it was white and that it was sold, she's still lying. She still said that it was sold, which it was not.

And it's freaking right, and it's black, and it's sitting in the freaking garage. So this was more than enough to indicate his involvement in Katie's disappearance, but with no hard evidence, a conviction would be tough. Also this had just been the truck that Catherine had seen and followed when she got off work. Because as we mentioned, there was no footage of the car that Katie was taking in. So was this creepy guy even the same person

like this could have just been the guy that Catherine had seen. That doesn't mean he's connected to Katie's case, you know? True. So they couldn't be sure of what the situation was just yet, but then investigators discovered that Donald and his family owned a 20 acre vacation property in none other than Moose Lake. Because remember, the property of his that was searched was about two hours away from Moose Lake in Richfield. So he has another property, and it's in the town where Katie disappeared.

Exactly. So the fact that his family had this property in the same town Katie was taken from, felt like a huge lead. Now at first glance, it seemed like there was no definitive evidence at this property either. But when they found a fire pit and on a hunch sifted through the ashes, they found what

looked like human remains. So with that, police collected the remnants that were then verified to be a mixture of human and animal bones and teeth. But were they caties? They didn't know quite yet. They tasked forensic anthropologists Dr. Susan Thurston-Mistur with identifying these remains. She started by distinguishing which remains were human and which were animal. In under a microscope, human bone cross-sections are circular and animal bones are linear.

Some of the fragments were animal remains and some were so badly burned that it was impossible to tell. But of the human samples that she could identify, she was able to determine that the bone fragments belonged to a female between the ages of 17 and 24. And remember folks Katie was 19. Exactly. So in these fragments, Dr. Thurston Meister had also found a human tooth, which was then passed on to forensic odontologist Dr. Anne Norlander, who specialized in identification

through X-rays. She determined that while the enamel was missing, the shape and size was consistent with Katie's lower left molar, called tooth number 18, and she also noticed remnants of a filling. Dr. Norlander then passed it off to a forensic scientist named Mark Neilsson, who analyzed the filling via a scanning electron microscope, and this determines which elements are present based on how they react with the electron beam. This part is so insane. Oh, so crazy. This was no ordinary filling.

Mark found a high concentration of zirconium and silicon present inside of this filling. So in order to finally make the connection to Katie, authorities contacted her dentist, Dr. Melanie Meyer. Dr. Meyer had just replaced Katie's filling two weeks before her disappearance. She was using samples of a new dental bond given out at a dental conference that she attended and this was called ReliEx Arc, manufactured by 3M, which is a supply company based out of Minnesota. This product was not even on the market yet, and chemists

at 3M confirmed the elements in their new dental bond were zirconium and silicon. So this is like one and a million here? Yes. Now on June 22nd, 1999, while returning home from a camping trip of this family, 50-year-old Donald Albin Blum was arrested for the kidnapping and murder of 19-year-old Katie Poyer. And this is so wild because, like you had said, that 1-2-th number 18 was consistent with her lower left molar, but still, you can't really confirm that for sure, just based on this 1-2-th of it belongs in her mouth. You know, that's kind of hard to do.

So knowing that she had this very specific chemical bond in her tooth is filling that was not on the market yet that her dentist happened to like use on her just two weeks earlier. That is the way that they determined that this was her body that was burned on Donald's property is mind blowing. And determined that he was the killer. Yeah, and just the details of how that was uncovered and all the work that was put into this is so... Truly amazing.

Fantastic. Donald initially did not put up a fight when he was arrested, but he refused to speak with investigators and requested the help of a lawyer. Of course he would, he was eventually held in solitary confinement, and because of that he confessed with police claiming that he sounded calm and unapologetic. On the evening of Katie's abduction, which again was May 26, 1999, Donald had purchased alcohol from a liquor store nearby at 5 p.m. before heading to the Conoco Station and setting his sights on Katie while ogling other women, including Catherine Hannick. He then went back to his moose lake property, which was 12 miles or 19 kilometers away, to change

into what we now know was his number 23 Yankees, Jersey, which is a very specific thing to wear if there's cameras like, what do you think? Most definitely, yeah. And that actually helped catch him because of the coworker that had said, oh, and he was wearing this Jersey. Right. It's not like he was wearing like a black sweatshirt. Yeah, this picking this outfit did not help him. So after he changed, he headed back to the Connico gas station

to kidnap Katie. He said he'd brought her to his vacation property, choked her to death from behind, and then burned her remains. But two weeks later, he recanted his confession, right? He thought he did. Oh, God. Claiming that it was coerced, but the jury was not having it. On September 8, 2000, nearly 16 months after Katie's murder, Donald was convicted unanimously and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Throughout the trial, he was angry and hostile, even at one point yelling and cursing at Katie's mother, Pam Poyer, telling her, you have the wrong fucking guy. No, no, we don't. Like, how do we have the wrong guy? I'd love to know why he thinks. Yeah. Due to this, court had to be adjourned, you know, due to him do this like outbursts. Yes, yes. Court had to be adjourned, you know, due to him due to this, like, outbursts, yes. Yes. Court had to be adjourned for 40 minutes for Donald to kind of maintain his composure. He was that upset that it's like, and I love this because it's like, you're such an

asshole and you're making a scene, but guess what, you're still going to prison. Well, this is what's annoying to me is that I hate, you know, any case where somebody is wrongfully accused or wrongfully imprisoned, imprisoned very upsetting. But to me, this case is not one of those where I have any doubts. No, there's evidence. Her remains were in your fire pit. You have the same outfit and look and description as the man in the video. You have the same car as was described at the scene.

Right, it was identified. Hello, also, you know, the fact that he had a past history of rapes sexual assault kidnappings like you're a bad dude already yeah no and get this so donald was also called the most hated man in all of men a soda by his own attorney that says a lot that says a lot donald's wife Amy initially testified on his behalf, claiming that he had arrived home around 9.30 pm on the night of Katie's abduction, and that after watching some TV,

he had gone to bed as usual about an hour later. She said he was also up early the next morning, and had left her a fresh pot of coffee, and that the timing didn't add up, so there was no way that he could have committed this heinous crime that he was accused of. So she's backing him up, you know, obviously. Just like she lied about the truck. Right. So Donald and Amy also agreed that he had never owned a Yankees jersey, but Donald's brother claimed that he had given Donald a box of his old clothes, which included the

number 23 jersey. So he's like, oh yeah, I old clothes which included the number twenty three jersey so he's like oh yeah i never i never bought a number twenty three jersey yet but your brother gave you one which makes me wonder if he did put on that jersey to kind of throw people off because it's not something he wore but then again the co-worker said that they had seen him wearing his movie did wear it i'm kind of weird here so after he was sentenced Amy wrote Minnesota state legislators claiming that she was afraid of what he would have done to her had she not testified for him, and

that he had been abusing her for the last seven years of their marriage, a claim which was corroborated by the couple's children. So the children were like, yeah, my dad has been abusing mom. I'm not surprised. So if this is true, you know, us saying that she was lying, of course, if she was lying because she was afraid, I completely understand and, you know, definitely not trying to call her out or say she's a liar because if she did this out of fear, then that's a different thing.

So that it does seem like that was the case, though. So I just wanted to kind of clear the air there. I mean, it makes sense. She definitely should have told the truth when she had the opportunity, but, you know, I can see it from that side as well. So she also told them that when they got married, Donald asked to legally take her last name instead of the other way around, which she found progressive and flattering, but later realized that it was so that he could add yet

another alias to his arsenal of fake identities. And a little background on Donald, so you know what a real piece of shity was, Donald grew up abused by his father, which is horrible, but not an excuse to murder people. By the time he was a teenager, he was drinking and exhibiting major behavioral issues, badly enough that he was transferred to a reform school, or a school I guess you could say for troubled kids during his sophomore year of high school. Years later, in 1975, at 26 years old, he kidnapped and raped a 14 year old girl. He had her locked up in his car trunk, but she was able to escape and eventually testified against him.

Yeah, he probably would have killed her if she didn't escape. He was 26 and she was 14. Yeah. Come on. Eight years later in 1983, a then 34-year-old Donald held two young women at knife point and tied them to a tree, shoving socks in their mouths, choking and reviving them repeatedly, and then threatening to rape them.

Thankfully they were found before anything else happened, and he did serve jail time for that crime as well. And as horrible as these crimes all are, those are just a few of the charges on his rap sheet. As psychologists once proclaimed that if he were not locked up or at least monitored closely, he would continue to do worse and worse things. It had been speculated that he may have committed more deaths than just Katie's, or more murders, will say, and may be responsible for some of Minnesota's unsolved murders,

including another 19-year-old woman named Holly Spangler, whose decomposed body was found in a park in Bloomington, Minnesota in 1993, so about six years earlier. And guess what? Donald lived nearby at the time. There was also Wilma Johnson, who was strangled and left near the St. Paul Cathedral in St. Paul Minnesota in 1983, so 10 years before Holly's murder. And Donald even admits to having been at the scene of the crime for this case, and yet he won't admit involvement. So he literally is saying that he was there, but he's saying he didn't do it.

Yes, which is why there's so much suspicion that he did murder other young women throughout his life. Exactly. He also told police that he once killed a man near the St. Paul High Bridge, but nobody was ever found. So agents from NBCA, which again is the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, are still just chipping away at him and trying to uncover what else this horrific guy did.

In 2006, he told investigators he was ready to talk, but instead, use the time to try to broker a transfer to a different jail. So he seems he's just one of those guys. It's like, oh yeah, I'll give you details if you give me what I want. And that just doesn't talk. Yes, totally. Biggest, biggest asshole. So after being convicted of killing Katie, he was locked up at a maximum security prison

for violent felons in Pennsylvania. However, as the years wore on, he was eventually transferred to a much lower security prison, Donald himself described as a retirement home. Ah, makes me mad. More than a decade after his conviction, news anchor Bob McNanny from Channel 5 eyewitness news in St. Paul met with Donald in person and reported his findings directly back to the

Poir family, who petitioned his removal. And thus, he was transferred back to a maximum security prison. So it's like they they probably weren't happy that he was in a lower security prison because he's such a dangerous guy he doesn't deserve to be in a quote-unquote nicer prison yeah or quote-unquote retirement home prison right because if you're gonna call it that it's probably not that bad yeah so in the aftermath a lot of good came out of Katie's murder though we all wish that this crime and any any other ones that Donald committed or planned to commit in the future never occurred. It's always really bitter sweet, you know, more bitter when good things come out of murder cases because it's like, oh, this is so great, that change happened, but it's like, why did somebody have to die for it to be this way? Yeah. it's just, it's so terrible. So Minnesota passed Katie's law, which includes stiffer penalties for convicted sex offenders and mandates better ways to track past offenders.

Since Katie had been working alone that night, conical gas stations were fined heavily in a lawsuit and now required two workers per shift. So that's actually amazing. I love that and let me just say really quick, sorry. I think I've talked about this in a previous episode how it makes me so uncomfortable when young women are working late at night by themselves. You know, like I used to work at a cupcake shop and I would have to close as a teenager by myself at night. And I remember I got haggled in an alleyway next to my job

where this guy cornered me asking me for money and I was all by myself. And so I always felt so uncomfortable like, why is this a thing? Yeah. Why was there another coworker there, you know, with you? Especially in a place where, you know, it's a gas station where anybody can come through. There's a lot of drifters, there's no outdoor cameras. So this is great that they made this change, but again, I wish it would have been like that in the first place. Yeah, I wish that they had made that change before Katie's murder.

Because I wonder what the difference would have been if she had somebody there with her that night. Yeah, definitely. So Katie also received an honorary degree from her alma mater, Fondue Locke Tribal and Community College, and a scholarship was established in her memory for hopeful law enforcement students and a victim's advocate group was founded in her name, so a lot of really great things here. The superintendent of the Minnesota

Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Drew Evans, stated, quote, Out of that tragedy, a lot of advancements have come and will continue to see more. Katie's dad told Press that no matter how much time passes, it just never gets easier. Her dad eventually went back to work and still owns his company based in Superior Wisconsin. Katie's brother Patrick went to work alongside his dad and also planned on attending the same school as Katie. He's now married with four kids including three daughters and says that he sees a little bit of Katie in each of them.

The really sad thing about this case is that there's way more coverage on Donald than there is of Katie and what she was like, you know, who she was and her contributions to the world. Because of her, her mom said, the system cannot fail another family again. [♪ music playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. Sorry the episode came out late But you guys will have another one on Friday to dive into indeed this case I'm so glad that it was solved and like we've said that that things have changed But what is senseless case like he just abducts her from her job and then just murders her and burns her remains And it's like what why I know it's just such a violent dude. Yeah, he should, obviously, he's never gonna get out. Um, but yeah, it's just so senseless and it's so tragic for her, for her family and her friends.

But I'm so glad that all these different changes were made, like you said. Yeah, I agree. So, a heart's really go out to her family. Thank you guys so much for listening to this one. Again, thank you, Michael, for suggesting it. Also, we're three episodes away from 200. Woo, I think we're gonna do, I don't know. A lot of you guys have asked for a Q&A.

We haven't done a Q&A in a long time, so let us know if you're into that, you know, alongside kind of a more special episode. For our three year anniversary, we did do that Ruth Price 911 call, which was super interesting and fun. If you've not listened to that one, go listen because our listeners literally solved that case

and we didn't update and it was wild. So go check that one out. I think we're gonna try to do something a little different for episode 200, but less enough if you have any ideas. So not to say that we're just gonna do the Q&A. We are gonna do a case. Yeah, sorry, that's what I mean.

Just the long side, the case will go Q&A. Like maybe do a kind of different case like we did with Ruth Price, potentially, but still true crime, and then do a Q&A as well. Yeah, so let us know if you guys have any suggestions. We'd really love to hear what you guys want to hear. Yes, thank you guys so much again.

We love you, we love you for all the reviews, all the kindness, all the sharing, it means the world to us. All right, guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. Thank you. you