Prosecutors try to show Blom acted suspiciously after abduction

VIRGINIA, Minn. (AP) -- Prosecutors introduced evidence Tuesday suggesting that Donald Blom may have been preparing to hide in the woods after the May 26, 1999, abduction of Katie Poirier.

Aitkin County deputy John Drahota testified that on June 4, 1999, he found a cache of camping equipment, canned food, men's clothing, tools, paperback novels, mosquito repellent and gallon jugs of water stashed in the woods off a dead-end road.

Then, in an unexpected testimony, a Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension laboratory administrator said that after Blom's arrest, forensic scientists matched one of his fingerprints to a print lifted from a pack of Newport cigarettes found with the survival cache.

The cache was found on state land that abuts property owned by Curtis Pince, Drahota testified. Court records identify Pince as Donald Blom's cousin. Blom, born Donald Pince, hunted deer in that area as a young man, family members have said.

Prosecutors allege that Blom changed his appearance and vehicles, abruptly quit his job and acted suspiciously in the days after Poirier's abduction.

In other testimony Tuesday, a barber testified that he gave Donald Blom a haircut after Poirier's abduction, as prosecutors tried to show that Blom changed his appearance and acted suspiciously in the days after the crime.

Bloomington barber Joseph Rivera testified that Blom got a haircut three days after Poirier's abduction but paid with a check dated three days before the abduction.

Poirier was forced from a Moose Lake convenience store on May 26, 1999.

Rivera also testified that Blom normally asked that his hair be cut to the middle of the ear. When he came in following Poirier's abduction, he asked that it be cut over the ears.

Other witnesses have testified that Blom's hair was cut shorter and neater than normal after the abduction.