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Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Morland. And I'm Garrett Morland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. Just a quick plug.
quick plug before we get into everything we did want to remind everyone that we have bonus episodes on our patreon every single month we have spooky stories regular bonus episodes q and a's all that kind of fun stuff so you can find that at patreon.com slash murder with my husband all right gary what's your 10 seconds so actually everybody well not everybody but a lot of people have been asking me about um
The vanity. Remember the vanity that I was supposed to build you? I don't know what episode that was, but I did notice that everyone was like, did he ever build you your vanity? Yeah, on YouTube, Instagram, everything. Everyone's been asking me about that. So I thought we mentioned this the other day, but I can't remember. Didn't we mention it somewhere? Maybe it was on like a Patreon episode. Anyways, I built Peyton a vanity.
It might not have been with my bare hands. It might have been some instructions and from Ikea, but I did build Peyton in vanity. Yeah, he did. It wasn't like he crafted it in the garage using his new tools, but... But it's pretty amazing. Yeah.
So yes, I do have a vanity. Also, I don't know. It's kind of random, but I mean, no, I guess if you're listening on podcast, you can't see it. But on YouTube, you can. I had this necklace and like our first like 30 episodes, maybe. Yeah. And then I lost it.
for like 50 episodes. Anyways, I just found it the other day. Tell them where you found it. Oh, it was in my snow jacket. So that's why I found it. Because I lost it last winter. That's funny. Anyways, it just says, I can't remember if I mentioned it. It's just the date we got married. Yeah. That's my 10 seconds. We've kind of just been hanging out with family. Christmas was good. Christmas was good. Hope everyone else had a good holiday. But yeah, we've just been hanging out with family. So nothing too crazy. We love you all. Yeah.
Awesome. Okay. So our case sources for this week are thepublishedpen.com, findagrave.com, a forensic files episode, minnesota.publicradio.org, wikipedia, krocnews.com, and that's it.
Okay, so our case this week begins in Moose Lake, Minnesota. And did you know that Minnesota is known as the land of lakes? Did not know that. I didn't know that either, but it's literally on their license plates. Okay. And it's because they have over 10,000 lakes. Holy crap. That is a lot of water. That's...
But we are specifically this week in our case in the small town of Moose Lake. And the year is actually 1999. 19-year-old Katie Poirier was raised in Moose Lake and had actually just graduated high school in 1998. So this was it. She was at the time in her life where she could chase her dreams, become whatever she wanted to be. And for Katie, that was either a police officer or a game warden.
She had a love for animals that was heightened through her own two dogs that she loved very much. And Katie also loved her family and sports, but was ready for this next big step in her life. I mean, I think we all were there after graduating high school. So she decided to head off to a nearby community college and begin studying criminal justice, which I'm sure as most of you listening are, that's a big step.
That is so cool. Like I look up to people who study law and everything we talk about on this podcast. What a dream. We have a lot of people who write in and say, you know, that they're studying that. And I just think it's so cool. I think that's like something I would definitely love to do one day. So Katie is doing just that. She begins her studies. And while conquering that, she also becomes engaged to her boyfriend, Mark.
So Katie really was graduating into adulthood fast and ended up getting a job at the local Conoco convenience store to make ends meet. As we all know, being an adult is expensive. So Pam Poirier, Katie's mother, was worried about her baby girl growing up so fast, taking the world on so suddenly.
was working at a gas station safe. I mean, Katie spent night shifts working alone, but Katie wasn't worried. She assured her mother, Pam, that she was safe. It was just a job and to trust in the good of people. On May 26th, which is actually Garrett's birthday, but this May 26th in 1999, Garrett was turning five at the same time that the local police in Moose Lake received a 911 call around midnight.
It was a customer at the Conoco. He was in the store. All of the lights were on and everything looked okay, but there was no employee anywhere. The customer didn't think it was safe that the cash register was sitting there without anyone around. So he decided... And the store was open? Yes. Like he didn't accidentally walk in? No. Okay. No, the store is open. Lights are on. Like...
It's open hours. It's not like the store should be closed. That is freaky. But there's no employees. So he calls the police. He's like, the cash register is just sitting here. Like, it just feels weird. So police make their way out to the gas station to check it out. And once there, they look around and discover that the money in the cash register and the safe was untouched. But there was, in fact, no employee there.
There were actually sticky notes on the counter with money under them from other customers who had come and purchased things like without the employee there. So there's some good people in Moose Lake because they didn't just like come in and go, oh, there's no employee. I'm going to take this stuff. They like left the money on the counter and said, hey, took like a Reese's candy bar. There was no employee here. So here's the money for it. Is it a small town?
So it's not a city. No, it's not a small town. But where this gas station is located is kind of right by the highway. So it's not like this is like in the middle of the city, like a ton of locals coming here. This is more just like an in and out.
gas station. So police are there, they're looking through everything and they notice that there's a set of car keys and glasses near the register. So police called around to figure out who was supposed to be working that night. Like where's the employee? Who is it even supposed to be? What's going on? And as we all know, it was a 19 year old Katie Poirier that had the night shift that day. It was her keys and sunglasses by the register, but she was missing.
Police checked the parking lot and noticed that Katie's car was still parked there at the gas station. Where was she? Had someone come and pick her up leaving? Like, did she leave on her own accord? Had friends come and got her as a prank or had something more sinister happened to Katie Poirier?
As police discovered that Katie was not in fact home after calling her family and friends or that she wasn't with her fiance, they do the only thing they can do. They pull a Garrett and they ask for the security camera footage from the gas station. No way. So there is security camera footage. Yes. So the gas station is...
It's 1999, but it actually had four security cameras throughout the store. And surprisingly, the footage even back then isn't awful. It's not great. It's grainy. But at least you can make out what's happening, which is more than I can say for other security footage we've seen. Like, hey, at least they have cameras and they're working, right? Finally, a place has security cameras. In the 90s, too. I mean, that surprises me. And that are working because half the time it's like, oh.
Oh, they're down. They happen to not be working this day. Yeah. So when police finally download the footage and look at it, everyone's fears come true. You can clearly see in the video a Caucasian man walks into the gas station around 1135 p.m. Oh, my gosh. And he grabs Katie around the throat. He then forces her out of the front door, his hands still clearly around her neck.
The last you see of them, he's taking her into the parking lot where sadly there are no more security cameras to see what vehicle he put her in or what happened after that. Holy crap. So he literally just took her out of the store and kidnapped her. Yeah. Like she's working a shift. It's 1130 at night. It's dark outside. She's the only one in the store. A guy walks in.
grabs her around her neck and walks her out of the store. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And although the footage is clear, it's still not clear enough to really tell any details about the man other than the skin tone and what he was wearing. And it's only, I don't mean like details. I mean, you can tell he's wearing a short sleeve and pants, but you can see how scared Katie was.
The defensive position her arms were in as he walked her out of the store with his hands around her neck. Her body language is unsure and worried. I mean, he's walking her like forward, so he has his hands around her neck from behind her. And her arms are like up kind of like in a don't hurt me. I don't have anything position the whole time he's walking around. So you can tell this is not like she doesn't like this is not...
of her free will. This is definitely against her will. And you can tell that just by looking at her body language on the video footage. When police show Pam Poirier, Katie's mom, the footage, she couldn't believe it. She says that these things happen on TV and far away, but never here, never in real life. And I do want to say here that when I've talked to people who aren't like interested in true crime, other people like Garrett's,
they always question why I would need to know this stuff. Like, why am I listening to this stuff?
And oftentimes I've said because it helps me as a woman feel somewhat prepared, take precautions that I shouldn't have to, but that I do to help me be smart in situations that we as women and men, minorities or victims shouldn't have to, but we do because that's the world we live in. And sometimes they say to me, why do you need to even be prepared though? That stuff will never happen to you. It doesn't happen in real life.
And to that I say, yes, it does. No one ever thinks it'll be them and then it is. And I feel for these victims and their families who this exact thing happened to. My heart hurts for them because this stuff is real and we can't just ignore it or not talk about it, but we can try our best to understand it and mourn the victims and remember their legacy so we as humankind can try to do and be better. Like let the good outweigh the bad in these situations.
So as police are now realizing that something sinister did in fact happen to Katie just hours earlier, they know that the clock is ticking. They need to move fast. We see this in multiple cases. Once you know it's a kidnapping, you have to move quick. But one obstacle they are facing is the fact that the Conoco Katie worked at sat alongside a major highway, like we said earlier. So whoever had taken her might have left the store fast and
and left the city even faster. Yeah. Which is not good for an investigation. Like, if they can just drive right out and hop on the highway and head to a brand new city or state, this is going to be 10 times harder to solve. Yeah, how are you supposed to find them at that point? Right. They have a major head start. Despite this thought, police immediately begin searching nearby neighborhoods and parks, but every search turns up empty-handed. I feel like it would be so hard to...
To be a detective, cop, whatever it is in this situation. Because trying to find someone missing when you don't have any, like, leads. You don't even know where to start. Where are you supposed to look? Right. Like, so they are like, okay, well, the last place she was seen was at the gas station. So they start searching the area around the gas station. But, I mean, let's be honest. Like, would that really be where she would end up? Man, that's horrible. I know. It's just horrible.
hard. You don't even know where to begin. And with police searching these areas, locals, like witnessing the frenzy, actually leave their homes in their pajamas and begin helping as well. Police interview houses nearby the gas station, and they discover that residents had actually noticed a black pickup truck kind of circling the neighborhood, circling the area the night before midnight. Now, it wasn't like
they saw this black pickup truck just like at the Conoco, but they were like, no, multiple people did say we did notice a black truck that was kind of just like hanging around the area last night.
And an employee at the Subway sandwich shop, which was next to the gas station, which was connected by an inside door, told police that they too noticed a black pickup truck in the parking lot about three hours before Katie was abducted. Okay. So it's like one of those gas stations where the subway is like, you could walk through the gas station and get to the subway, but they have two separate entrances just in case you're just going to the subway. But
But the parking lot of the gas station and the subway is the same parking lot. Like they share, you park in the gas station parking lot to go to subway. And now I actually have to give it up to this employee from subway. She's named Catherine Hanick because she is legit a true crimer. The black pickup truck,
like that she saw stood out to her that night because she was aware and she had been spooked by the driver who she noticed sitting and watching female customers for long periods of time what in the world so she was kind of looking out in the parking lot and she yeah like why are people why yes and she was like why is that guy just watching these girls walk in and out like that's what she was like on alert she's like this is weird did she get the license plate
So when Catherine closed the subway and left around 11.45 p.m.,
She noticed that the black truck was also just pulling out of the parking lot. She didn't know the black truck was still in the parking lot. It had moved. But when she pulled out, she was like, oh, that black truck is back. Like it's still here and I'm pulling out right behind it. And she was heading home towards downtown Moose Lake. And so was the truck apparently. So she watched as the driver of the truck in front of her swerved multiple times, was kind of driving recklessly. And she was like, oh, that's the driver.
So on edge and alert, but also questioning whether she was overreacting, probably like we all do. She decided to try and quickly memorize the license plate driving in front of her just in case. Like just in case something happened, I feel weird. I'm going to try. And I've done this like multiple times. I've done this. And,
And what would you know? Her instincts were right because now Katie is missing. So she got it down that it was a Minnesota license plate. That's how I knew it said the 10,000 lakes. Got it. And that the first numbers on the license plate were 557.
Okay. And the last letter was a Y. And the only reason she can't remember the in-between was because now it's been a long time since she's memorized this license plate. But I feel like that's enough, correct? Oh, this is huge. Like, I feel like that would be enough to be like, black pickup truck, 557, last letter Y. Yeah. Minnesota. Also, like...
Actually, for me now, I just snap a picture real quick because it's easier than remembering. If I'm feeling weird, I just... I'm not one to go through Peyton's phone. She just got thousands of pictures of license plates. Well, if I'm feeling weird, I'm on alert. I'm paying attention. I know most of the time it's probably nothing, but just in case, I'll just snap a quick picture. I'm going to find a picture of my license plate on her phone.
For what we were dating. I'm like, actually, I'm suspicious. No, but to think that she didn't have a picture, she didn't write it down, but she pulled this out of memory. Like she was like, okay, I don't really remember, but these are what I do remember. I think that's so cool. It's huge. Like this is amazing. She's amazing. Okay, you guys shifting my wardrobe from summer to fall can be a challenge, but I'm telling you right now.
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And police are impressed and they take this lead into their investigation. Now, I don't know exactly how much time had passed since the initial 911 call at this point, whether it's the next morning or the next day. But while searching for the black pickup truck, police are also conducting like official land searches. Like they're not just going to stop looking the surrounding area just because now they have this lead for the pickup truck.
So volunteers from the community have now also joined police, like it's a ton of people, to find Katie, like spending all hours searching. But those hours eventually turn into days as the foot searches continue and hope begins to fade when there's no sign of Katie. Katie's parents are desperately hanging on as the days begin to pass with nothing. I mean, imagine how they're feeling at this point. Police are searching records for possible trucks.
But the records actually were not digitized yet at this point. And so they are literally going through boxes of paperwork. No way. Yes. Like trying to find this black truck. So that's why it's taking so long. And as this is happening, investigators decide to also try something else. NASA at this point in time had spent years taking pictures in space and trying to improve them here on Earth.
So maybe, just maybe, they had the technology and ability to clear up the security footage and that would help Moose Lake find Katie. So they sent the footage to Dr. David Hathaway from NASA, who had created a process to help enhance a video image called VISAR. And Dr. Hathaway just kind of like bibbidi-bobbidi-booed a frozen still image of the kidnapper on the video footage. And what would you know?
People are amazing and so is technology. When he removed some of the grain, he discovered that the kidnapper had short blonde or gray hair and was 5'10 with an average build. He was also wearing a New York Yankees jersey with the number 23 on the back. So you couldn't see any of this before Dr. Hathaway cleared up the video footage. And he couldn't find a clear image of the kidnapper's face.
But the police sketch artist didn't care. He took what Dr. Hathaway had given them and created a possible sketch, which was then released to the public. Like they're doing all they can at this point. And as usual, the tips come pouring in and police sifted through them the best they could.
One of the tips actually led police to a man named Donald Dean Christensen, who seemed promising. He had a past conviction on a sexual offense charge and was free the night of Katie's abduction. Donald also looked like the man from the video, but so did a lot of people because it wasn't like that clear. But police decide to move forward on the hunch anyway.
They discovered that Donald had a large tattoo on his inner forearm that should be visible in the security camera footage. So they analyzed the video in search of any image of the kidnapper's arm, and when they find it, it's a letdown. The kidnapper in the video clearly did not have a tattoo on his forearm where Donald did. It wasn't him. This was not their guy.
Three weeks after Katie's abduction, police were no closer to finding her, and the odds did not look good. I mean, three weeks had passed. Three weeks. That is a long time. Yes. But this specific day, dispatch received a call from a citizen with a possible lead.
It was their 1960th tip. Holy crap. Imagine having to sift through that many tips to try to find, like, is this worth following? Do we look into all of them? Is this one seem a little bit more probable than the others? Like, that is so much work. But you have to have the public's help. But this one tip seemed different to dispatch.
Maybe it had a little bit more meat than the others. The caller worked at the Minnesota Veteran Home in Minneapolis and was calling about a janitor who also had worked there but had just quit.
His name was Donald Albin Blom. So this is another Donald, but this one's the janitor. It wasn't the original Donald who they cleared. The coworker who was calling said they were because not only did Donald match the sketch, but it was the Yankees jersey that he always wore that sealed the deal. Not to mention he had just changed his appearance after Katie had been kidnapped. Okay.
The caller said, you know, it might be nothing, but it might be like worth looking into because he always wears this jersey. He looks like the guy in the video and he's been like acting weird. He changed his appearance. That's crazy.
And it was because this was probably the most solid tip that police had received yet with the jersey being a part of it. So police start looking into Donald. They discover that he was a 50-year-old father of four kids and was married. He had prior convictions for assault, rape, and kidnapping dating all the way back to the 70s. And he has four kids? Yes.
Oh my gosh. So Donald was abused by his father growing up and exhibited heavy drinking and behavioral problems by 13 years old. In 1975, he kidnapped a 14-year-old girl whom he sexually assaulted and then locked in his car trunk. What?
What? We are going to learn that Donald really must not have been very good at tying knots because this young girl escaped and turned him in. He was tried and convicted and released within the same year. No way. Yes. So he went to jail for less than a year. Yes. After kidnapping, sexually assaulting, and locking her in the trunk. Oh my gosh. That is mind-blowing. In 1978, he committed aggravated assaults.
In 1983, he was arrested for criminal sexual assault. And that same year was his last known assault where he was convicted for forcing two young girls into the woods at knife point and tying them to a tree. Once again, he obviously wasn't an expert in knots because the girls escaped before he could do anything else, but he did something.
still like beat them choke them tie them to the tree so it wasn't like this was just like oh they got away lucky no they were still kidnapped they were still hurt he just couldn't sexually assault them before they escaped the girls ended up reporting him he went to trial was convicted and everything and how long did he go it didn't specify how long he went that time but it obviously wasn't very long because he's out now and has four kids and has four kids yeah
So when police discovered all of this after running the background check on Donald, they had chills like this had to be the guy. I mean, every puzzle piece was fitting. He had the Yankees jersey. It came from a tip of someone who said, I feel like it's him. And look at his past record. He had kidnapped and sexually assaulted multiple people. So they moved on to the next piece. And that was finding out if Donald drove or owned a black pickup truck.
They took to the paper records and they were discouraged. He didn't own a black truck. And how could this be? I mean, okay. Right. Okay. Because I mean, there's plenty of ways he could have never registered it. He could have stole it. It could have been a friend. I mean, there's so many. And I,
And I agree. And actually, so do police. So either way, they decide to search Donald's home. It seemed reasonable at this point. Even though they didn't have the black truck, they decided to move forward. They were like, this is our best lead. He obviously doesn't have a very great past. So we feel like we have enough to go forward. And when they searched his home, they found no sign of Katie, that Katie had ever been there, that Donald had anything to do with this.
And when they questioned Donald, he actually claimed that he was innocent and that he'd had an alibi for the night of her abduction. When they discovered that Donald actually owns vacation property near Moose Lake, so he owns another home, police search it on June 18th. But once again, they turn up empty handed. There's no sign of Katie.
how could this not be their guy how could they not have found katie there's no way i don't believe this there has to be something they agree with you anything that would prove them wrong they would prove that donald was not as innocent as he was claiming so police remembering that donald had a fire pit at the lake vacation property they decided to send technicians in to sift through the large fire pit for trace evidence this was their last shot
Maybe they had missed something. Maybe if they, you know, took a closer look at it, they would find something. I think at this point, police were tired and sad and they needed something to return back to Katie's parents with. Like, it had been months.
And although nothing in either of Donald's homes pointed to him having anything to do with Katie, they couldn't go back to her parents without anything. They had to use their resources on this fire pit in hopes of finding something. And it paid off.
Because although there was no other evidence in the house, the technicians discovered what they believed to be small fragments of bone in the fire pit. No way. Now, this doesn't officially mean human bone, but at least they had something to bring back to the lab and examine in this case.
Police asked a forensic anthropologist to examine the fragments, and not only did she conclude that some of the fragments were human, she also determined that the sex of the bone was female and that the age was between 17 and 24 years old. That is so crazy that that can be done. Right? I mean, each time you tell me a different case, different episode...
There's just so much technology around DNA and determining someone's sex. Like, it's just all so crazy. It's crazy that they can look at a tiny piece of bone that, like, the original searchers didn't even really notice. But the, like, experienced and professional technicians did. And say, oh, yeah, this is human bone, number one. And number two, it's a female. And number three, it's between the ages of 17 and 24 years old. That's so crazy. Yeah. Yeah.
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So these findings are obviously consistent with that of missing Katie Poirier. But the bones were too badly burned to be able to have them DNA tested. So they couldn't pull any DNA from the bones. Wait, I was going to say is I hope it's not her. Because the whole time you've been telling me this, I've been hoping that it's a survivor story. So police went back to Katie's parents with a maybe.
but not a for sure or even a most likely. And they didn't know which was more devastating her parents, like whether they should hope that this is her and that they found her or should they hope this isn't her. Like that's just such an awful place to be in.
But police weren't done with the findings just yet. This was just an update for her parents. They said, don't worry, we're going to keep testing. They had actually called in a forensic odontologist to examine some tooth fragments that were found in the pit as well.
All of the enamel on the tooth fragments was gone. But the doctor confirmed that it was a human tooth after discovering remnants of a filling in the tooth. Only humans go to the dentist and get their teeth filled. So they're like, this is most definitely a human tooth.
And according to the Forensic Files episodes on this case, the doctor also compared the tooth to Katie's dental records and found that the shape and size of the tooth, granted it's just like a fragment, but they can kind of like piece together, that this fragment was consistent with Katie's lower left second molar.
which would be known as her tooth number 18. And it was once she determined this that the forensic odontologist decided to send the remnants of the filling over to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension so they could conduct an analysis of the filling. Maybe they could somehow match it to Katie so that they could
like officially confirm that it was her tooth. And the amount of effort that goes into this is just crazy. I think it's so cool to think like that all of these scientists and all of these doctors are going in so hard to like figure out if this is Katie's tooth or not. The forensic scientists magnified the filling
and determined what the elemental composition of the filling was using an electron beam. Now, do I even understand what I just said? No, not really. But just know it's really science-y and it's really cool and it's going to determine whether this is Katie's tooth or not. So this X-ray result showed that the filling contained zirconium and silicone and that was very unusual in dental cement. So when they get, like when they figure out what this filling is made of, they're like...
This is not what dentists use to fill teeth. So it would be very rare for a dentist to use this, let alone multiple dentists in the area to be using this. So the scientists contact Katie's dentist to tell them their findings and see if she had used this like weird mix to fill Katie's tooth.
And Dr. Melanie Meyer told them that her records indicated that she had actually replaced the filling in Katie's tooth number 18 just two weeks before she was abducted from the gas station. And that she had used a brand new sample material that was not even on the market yet to fill her tooth. Wow. Okay. It was called Relics Arc.
And she had got it at a dental conference where the founders had been, you know, attempting to get people on board and whatnot. They're like, we have this new filling. Here's a sample. Try it. Test it out. And if you like it, you can come back and buy more from us. Police contacted the company who created the new filling, and they confirmed that they used the same two elements found in the tooth from the fire pit in their new material that wasn't even for sale yet that they had given out at that conference.
And science doesn't lie. And this wasn't a coincidence. The tooth filling had just confirmed that the young adult burned in Donald Blom's backyard was most likely Katie Poirier. Dang. A tooth. Well, I wouldn't say that's horrible. Right. I thought that, I don't know, I think I just thought there was a chance that she was alive. But also, were they able to confirm that
Like she was entirely burned in the fire? Right. So they only discovered, I think it was 25% of the body burned in there. So no, they have no idea if maybe the whole body had been burned in there and only 25% survived or if it had only been pieces of her body that had been burned in there and there was other pieces somewhere else. They have no idea. Okay.
So police executed a search warrant for Donald's credit card statements and discovered that he was near the gas station around 5 p.m. that day purchasing liquor at a liquor store nearby. They also extended their search warrant of Donald's properties, and they finally discovered a black pickup truck in one of his garages with the license plate number 557-HDY.
The reason that police had not found this truck earlier was because the state records listed this truck as white instead of black. And they didn't have the license plate. So this case felt closed. I mean, the evidence is stacked. It seemed open and shut. Right. It seems open and shut. He has the jersey. He has the truck with the matching license plate of the girl who saw him driving out of the gas station at the same time that Katie was kidnapped. Right.
driving erratically, might I add. And then also her tooth was just found in his fire pit.
Wow. Wow.
But only two weeks after confessing, Donald Blom recanted his confession after getting a lawyer and claiming that his interrogation and confession was coerced. Now, this is funny to me because police didn't even really need a confession in this case with the amount of like physical and circumstantial evidence they had. Yeah.
But either way, Donald Blom was taken to trial where the jury was given all of the evidence that we just discussed. Not to mention Donald's previous charges and the record that he had. And somehow isn't in jail for life right now. Right. So on August 16th, 2000, he was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
But this verdict doesn't really do much for Katie's parents, Pam and Steven. It doesn't bring back their daughter because although justice might help a little, it doesn't take away the pain that they are feeling.
And Steve Poirier can't help but wonder why Donald was even out of prison in the first place. This is just one of the complicated and frustrating parts of the American justice system. How was this guy able to live freely and go on to commit murder after his past convictions? Weren't all of those signs pointing to the fact that he would eventually do this? It doesn't take an expert to see that. And so Donald, her father, is upset.
And after Katie was abducted and murdered, Minnesota lawmakers noted the mistake that they had made and passed Katie's law, which includes stricter penalties for convicted sex offenders and mandates better ways for police to track past offenders.
And the Conoco gas stations now require that at least two employees work each shift. So no one is ever alone in the middle of the night. But I do have to say that this isn't for all gas stations, only the Conoco. So there are still gas stations out there where anyone,
people are working alone in the middle of the night, which is kind of scary. That's true. I feel like we've gone into multiple gas stations on road trips. Where there's only one employee. One person there. Yeah, which is really scary. Katie Poirier was born February 28th, 1980. She has an older brother named Patrick who married the woman that helped him heal from the kidnapping and murder.
He told DL Online that he has four kids now, and each of them has their own trait of Katie that he gets to see every day, which helps him heal. Steve Poirier describes Katie as bubbly and bouncing around and lively. He remembers that she was very active in her life that included her family, sports, and her dogs.
Her memorial on Find a Grave says that although she was only given 19 years on this earth, Katie packed in more living and love in those 19 years than most people enjoy in much longer lifetimes. It goes on to say that Katie was an honor roll student, a band musician, and key club member at Barnum High School in Barnum Township, Minnesota.
In 1997, she was named first runner-up for the title of Miss Barnum. She went on to attend community college. She was the fiancé of Mark Johnson. Among her many interests were water skiing, fishing, the Green Bay Packers, Days of Our Lives, and her beloved dogs, Goldie and Riley. Katie had a mile-wide smile and simply loved life and everyone in it. She
She will forever be remembered, and she will always be a precious part of everyone who was fortunate enough to know her. Let's remember Katie today for who she was and is, and that was the story of Katie Poirier. Dang, I don't know. I thought for some reason there'd be like...
She's, I don't know. She survived. I thought there was some twist or something. I, dang it. The issue with these cases is that is there ever really a happy ending even if they survive? Right? Like we still hear some type of trauma or struggle that they have to deal with. That's horrible. Yeah.
Yeah, but I think what we can do is remember Katie for everything that her parents said about her. And also understand that changes have been implemented to try to prevent this from happening again, which is what we can do. That was a crazy case. I know. You just took her out of the gas station. Especially after doing this to multiple girls. That's insane to me. Like who? I'll never be able to comprehend that someone can just...
walk into a convenience store and just take someone. Like my mind, I'm sure most people can't comprehend it, but I really can't comprehend it. I just, I can't. And she was just 19, starting her life, trying to get into criminal justice. She had a fiancee.
Like, it's just heartbreaking. But that is the story of Katie Poirier. And that is our episode today. Okay, you guys. So next week, we will be back in our normal studio. Most likely, probably. Maybe. And if you're listening on podcast, then we just sound the same. And we love you guys. And we're happy to have you here. And we will see you guys next time with another episode. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.