Forensic Files - Season 7, Episode 30 - Tooth or Consequences - Full Episode | Forensic Files

a security camera captured images of a 19 year old girl as she was abducted from a convenience store
forensic scientists needed to find some way to improve the images for possible leads
and the scanning electron microscope eventually identified the trail of the missing girl
[Music] moose lake minnesota one of the many reasons why the state is known as the land of ten thousand lakes
[Music] this small town outside of duluth was home to 19 year old katie poyer [Music]
interest included her family several sports and her pet dogs [Music] after graduating from high school in
1998 katie studied criminal justice at a nearby community college and also became
engaged to her boyfriend mark katie worked as a clerk at this moose lake convenience store
a job her mother didn't want her to take deviance that would come in there and she'd just say oh mom you know don't
worry and you know that's how she was very trusting trusting person one night around midnight when katie was working
the night shift alone a customer called police to say that the store was open but there were no employees around
are you talking about the conoco station police went to investigate there were no signs of violence and no
money was missing from the cash register or the safe and katie's car keys were still there
on the counter were notes with money from customers who had purchased items sometime after katie left the store
police wondered whether katie might have left the store with a friend was there anybody close to her in her
family that may have come and taken her either as a prank or um for some other purpose i never
thought that she left on her own and she would have never done the store had four security cameras
focused on various areas at 11 38 pm the security cameras revealed a caucasian man forcing katie out of the
front door into the parking lot the pictures were grainy and showed few details of the abductor
there were no security cameras outside the store to photograph the getaway vehicle
the store was located near a major highway which meant the kidnapper could have left the area at high speed
a search of nearby streets and parks in moose lake was fruitless neighbors near the store told police
they saw a black pickup truck circling the area before katie's abduction and an employee at the sandwich shop
next to the convenience store told police she had seen the same black pickup truck in the parking lot about
three hours before katie vanished she said the driver was glaring inappropriately as female customers left
the store on a hunch the employee wrote down what she could remember of the license plate
she said it was a minnesota license plate and that the first three digits were five five seven
she also recalled that the last letter on the plate was a y police hoped that if they found this
black pickup truck they would also find katie poyer [Music] minnesota national guard helicopters
searched the area for 19 year old katie poyer on the ground dozens of community volunteers joined
police in the search but with each passing day and no word from the kidnapper hope
started to fade that katie would be found alive [Music] police searched their database for black
pickup trucks registered in the state of minnesota with a license plate beginning
with five five seven and ending with the letter y surprisingly there were hundreds of
vehicles matching that description [Music] surveillance video captured images of
the man who abducted katie from the convenience store the quality of the pictures was poor and
the images too distorted to clearly identify the kidnapper to improve the pictures police sent the
tapes to nasa which has many years of experience trying to improve pictures sent from space
solar physicist dr david hathaway created a process to enhance video images called this our
dr hathaway says a video picture is really two different fields that create one picture
these two fields change so rapidly the human eye can't discern it dr hathaway combined the even and odd
frames so that both could be viewed at the same time creating twice the number of lines of
resolution [Music] in one of those freeze frame images dr hathaway was able to isolate the
kidnapper when he removed some of the grain in the picture he could see that the man had
short blonde or gray hair was approximately five feet ten inches tall with an average build and he wore a dark
new york yankees baseball jersey with the number 23 on the back unfortunately even this new technique
could not produce a clear image of the kidnapper's face but using what they had a police sketch
artist released a rough drawing along with a physical description including his clothing to the media
hundreds of tips poured into police one of those tips led to donald dean christensen who had a past conviction on
a sex offense christensen had been free at the time of katie's abduction donald dean christensen had several
tattoos including a large one on his left forearm but the security camera video revealed
the kidnapper had no tattoo on his forearm christensen was cleared [Music] three weeks after katie's abduction
dispatcher paula francisco answered a telephone call from a citizen who had a tip
it was lead number 1960 the caller worked at the minnesota veterans home in minneapolis and was
suspicious of a janitor there who had just quit his name was donald albin blonde
the caller was suspicious because blom changed his appearance around the time katy poyer disappeared
[Music] married and the father of four children a background check showed that blom had
prior convictions for assault rape and kidnapping dating back to the 1970s his last conviction was in 1983
when blam had forced two young women into the woods at knife point and tied them to a tree
fortunately the girls escaped before they were assaulted but a check of motor vehicles revealed
blom did not own a black pickup truck as witnesses described [Music] police hoped a search of blom's home
would be far more revealing [Music] when police descended upon the home of donald blom
they found no trace of katy poyer [Music] blom said he was innocent and that he had an alibi for the night of katie's
disappearance when investigators learned blom owned vacation property near moose lake
they searched there too [Music] once again there was no sign of katie but investigators noticed a large fire
pit next to a trailer on the property technicians sifted the fire pit for trace evidence and found several small
items that appeared to be boned their daughter police asked a forensic anthropologist
dr susan thurston meister to examine the fragments she says human bone differs from animal
bone the cross section of human bone has a circular pattern animal bone is linear
[Music] dr meister examined the human bone fragments to determine the age and sex
of the victim this part of the pelvis called the pubic symphysis was key the bone had an obtuse angle
greater than 90 degrees indicative of a female and the oval surface was heavily ridged
characteristic of a young adult skull fragments also helped determine the victim's age
the joints or sutures of the skull bones were open skull sutures typically close around age
35. dr meister concluded the remains were those of a young woman [Music] while the findings were consistent with
katy poyer it was far from a positive identification the bones were too badly damaged for dna
testing and collectively represented only 25 of a human skeleton at the time [Music]
but several tooth fragments also were recovered from bloms fire pit investigators called in forensic
odontologist dr ann norlander who specializes in making identification based on dental x-rays
this tooth was the largest and most intact of those recovered identified the tooth as human
when she compared to katie poyer's dental records she saw that the shape and size were consistent with katie's
lower left second molar known as tooth number 18 and she noticed something else what
looked to be remnants of a filling in the tooth dr norlander asked forensic scientists
at the minnesota bureau of criminal apprehension to conduct an analysis of the filling
forensic scientist mark nielsen used a scanning electron microscope to magnify the filling so that it was thousands of
times to larger determine what the elemental composition is of the particular substance that we have
within the sample chamber the microscope bombards an isolated section of the sample with an electron
beam and different elements will react to the beam differently [Music] so the type of x-ray will reveal the
elemental composition of the sample the result showed that the filling material in the tooth was highly unusual
it contained zirconium and silicon in concentrations that they had never seen before in dental cement
when scientists contacted katie poyer's dentist dr melanie meyer she told them something interesting
her records indicated she had replaced a filling in katie's tooth number 18 two weeks before the abduction
dr meyer said she used a brand new material not yet on the market to fill her tooth
the material was a sample called rely x arc which had been given to her at a dental
conference [Music] dr meyer told investigators that rely x was manufactured by the 3m company
headquartered in minnesota when contacted by police chemists at 3m said that rely x
contained concentrations of two elements zirconium and silicon the same materials
in the same concentrations that were found in the tooth in donald bloms fire pit
of katie [Music] in a garage on one of donald blom's properties was the black pickup truck
with the same license plate police were looking for state records listed blom's truck as
white a clerical error donald blom was arrested and charged with katie poyer's murder
[Music] when confronted with the scanning electron microscope findings blom confessed to katie's murder during
a taped conversation with special agent phil wagner [Music] admitted to kidnapping and killing katy
poyer [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] but two weeks later donald blom recanted claiming the
confession was coerced prosecutors know that blam was in the vicinity of the convenience store that
day because his credit card receipts show he purchased liquor nearby around 5 pm
the sandwich shop employee saw blom leering at customers in the parking lot around 8 p.m three hours before katie
was abducted blom may have seen katie then and returned at 11 30 entering the store when she was alone
prosecutors explained the scientific evidence to the jury especially their smoking gun
the dental filling material in the tooth identified as katie's a material which was so limited in
distribution it wasn't yet on the market the jury understood the scanning electron analysis
donald blonde was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole
the verdict is little solace for the players [Music] as a result of this case minnesota lawmakers passed katie's law
which includes stiffer penalties for convicted sex offenders and mandates better ways for police to track past
offenders and the conoco chain that employed katy poyer now requires that at least two workers
are on duty each shift [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]
[Music] you

A murder investigation is stymied by the lack of a body, but police find a few charred remains, including a tooth whose filling contains properties that help investigators identify the corpse.

Forensic Files is the longest-running true crime series in television history. Evidence and interviews with experts help solve real crimes, disease outbreaks and accidents around the world.

Brief Summary

Katie Poyer was abducted in Minnesota; Donald Blom was later arrested and convicted for her murder using forensic evidence.

Key points

The Abduction of Katie Poyer. 19-year-old Katie Poyer is abducted from a convenience store in Moose Lake, Minnesota.
The Search for Katie. Community volunteers and police search for Katie Poyer, but hope begins to fade.
Scientific Breakthrough. Forensic scientists enhance video images to identify Katie's kidnapper.
The Confession. Donald Blom confesses to the murder of Katie Poyer during an interrogation.
Katie's Law. Minnesota lawmakers pass Katie's Law for stricter penalties on sex offenders.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Hope started to fade that Katie would be found alive.

5:48WatchDec 10, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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