Donald Blom: A Repeat Sex Offender Finally Stopped
What Blom Said
On September 8, Blom made a tearful confession, which lasted two and a half hours. He said that on May 26, 1999, he had gone fishing, and then driven home to Richfield. However, later that evening, he had returned to his Moose Lake property. On the way, he had stopped to purchase liquor and have a beer at the bar. He had seen Katie in the store, doing some chores. He had not known her, but had made a grab for her, and he said, she had run outside. He had followed and forced her into his pick-up. Then he had driven her out to his mobile home.
"I don't know if it was just out of guilt or somethin' or whatever, feelin' stupid," he said, "but then I choked her and killed her." He had choked her from behind, saying it had taken about twenty minutes. He did not admit to any other type of assault. Once he knew she was dead, he had placed her body in the fire pit, in a fetal position, and then gathered wood and paper to make it burn.
Blom's account was somewhat inconsistent with the evidence, both from the videotape and the burn pit. He claimed he had walked out with her, with his hand on her arm or shoulder, but the videotape showed two people emerging from the back of the store, the man behind the girl with his hand on the back of her neck. Blom claimed he recalled her asking him several times to let her go, although she had not fought him until he was choking her on his property. He said he had managed to kill her with his bare hands. His account of the incineration of the remains was also problematic, since wood and paper alone would have had difficulty reaching a sufficiently high temperature to reduce a human body to ash.
He admitted, when prodded, that the whole thing made little sense to him. He did not know why he had done it. He confirmed with "I guess so," that the remains in the fire pit were those of Katie Poirer, the girl he abducted. When pressed to say why he only "guessed so," he said he didn't know the answer to this question. He was then asked, "Then whose remains are they?" He replied, "Well, I was asking that myself, man."
When the interview was concluded, Blom called two local television stations to report what he had done and request that reporters now leave his family in peace. The deal also gave seized property back to Amy Blom, including the Moose Lake acreage, the home in Richfield, and the family vehicle. Authorities did not yet say whether Blom was a suspect in other kidnappings or murders, and the plea deal did not include any further statements from Blom on this matter.
For the Poirier family, the confession was devastating, because they had held out hope that Katie was still alive. Blom had now averred that she had been murdered and cremated, for no reason other than his late-night impulse. The maroon and gold ribbons, once given to searchers as inspiration, were now handed out in memorial for kidnap victims like Katie. But the family's sense of closure, such as it was, was to be short-lived.