Deana Patnode: The 1982 Disappearance, a DNA Identification and an Unsolved Minnesota Homicide

INVER GROVE HEIGHTS, MN — Deana Marie Patnode disappeared after leaving a South St. Paul bar on October 26, 1982. Nearly seven years later, mushroom hunters found her skeletal remains near Highway 61 south of Kellogg in Wabasha County. Another two decades passed before a former neighbor’s recognition of a facial reconstruction helped investigators identify her through DNA.

Forty-four years after she disappeared, the identification has answered where Deana’s remains were found, but not who killed her. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension continues to list her death as an unsolved homicide. BCA case notice

Photo: An undated photograph of Deana Patnode. Courtesy of the Wabasha County Sheriff’s Office, via The Deck.

Deana’s life before she disappeared

Deana was born in St. Paul on October 2, 1959, to Clyde and Velma Patnode. The youngest of four children, she attended Inver Grove Elementary and Simley High School in Inver Grove Heights. Her family’s obituary remembers her affection for her nieces and nephews and her love of animals, motorcycles, summer weather and friends.

Her birth date places her 23rd birthday just weeks before her disappearance. The family obituary also explicitly gives her age as 23. The BCA’s current case sheet lists 22; that discrepancy remains in the public record. This article uses 23 based on the documented birth date and family notice. Warner Funeral Home obituary

The last reported sighting

The last publicly documented location where Deana was seen alive was the Buckboard Saloon, also referred to in records as the Buck Board bar, on Concord Boulevard in South St. Paul.

The BCA says she left with a friend on October 26, 1982. A March 16, 2009 identification announcement, preserved by the Doe Network, uses the same description. Later interviews reported by The Deck describe an unidentified man leaving with her. Those accounts do not publicly establish that person’s identity, a vehicle or a destination. BCA announcement preserved by the Doe Network | The Deck case reporting

The distinction matters to the timeline: investigators have a last-known location, but the public record does not establish exactly what happened after she left the bar.

Remains found in Wabasha County

On May 20, 1989, mushroom hunters discovered skeletal remains near Highway 61 south of Kellogg. Authorities initially knew the woman as the Wabasha County Jane Doe.

Crime Stoppers of Minnesota describes the recovery location as the highway median south of Kellogg. Its case notice says the woman had been deceased for at least a year before discovery. That finding did not determine the precise date of death. Crime Stoppers case notice

The Deck’s investigative reporting describes clothing recovered with the remains, including an off-white button-collar sweater and striped knee-high socks. It also describes skull trauma, a fracture to the upper right arm and a hip injury. The timing of all injuries was not established in that reporting. These details come from the podcast’s account of the investigation; this article did not independently obtain an autopsy report.

The BCA identifies the death as a homicide. The reviewed public sources do not establish a specific fatal injury or the location where Deana was killed.

A playing card helped restore her identity

According to The Deck’s investigative reporting, Detective Jim Warren revisited the unidentified-remains investigation in 2006. Deana’s reconstruction later appeared as the Four of Diamonds in Minnesota’s cold-case playing-card initiative.

In 2008, a former neighbor saw the reconstruction and contacted authorities because it resembled Deana. Investigators located a relative and obtained a family DNA comparison. The BCA laboratory confirmed that the unidentified remains were hers, and the identification was announced in March 2009.

Minnesota’s cold-case decks were designed to bring unresolved cases to people who might recognize a face or possess information. The BCA says the cards cover unsolved homicides, missing people and unidentified remains and have been distributed to correctional facilities and other locations. BCA cold-case playing cards

For Deana’s family, the identification also made burial possible. Her obituary records plans to lay her to rest at Riverside Cemetery in Spencer, Iowa, on April 29, 2009, followed by a memorial gathering in June. The April 2009 date displayed in the obituary’s heading is a software-related placeholder, which the funeral home explains in the notice; it is not the date she disappeared.

The reported Donald Blom lead

The Deck reported that investigators received information around 2009 that Donald Blom had lived in Deana’s neighborhood when she disappeared. Blom was serving a life sentence for the separate 1999 kidnapping and murder of Katie Poirier.

According to the podcast’s account, an earlier attempt to contact Blom by letter received no response. Warren later revisited the information and planned an in-person interview after learning Blom was back in a Minnesota prison. The Deck says Warren discussed those plans on January 3, 2023. Blom died on January 10, before the planned interview could occur. The Deck episode and source material | Associated Press report on Blom’s death

That remains a reported investigative lead. No publicly disclosed confession, forensic match or charge reviewed for this article establishes Blom’s involvement in Deana’s death. His conviction in another murder does not resolve this case.

What remains unanswered

Investigators still need to establish who was with Deana after she left the Buckboard, how she reached Wabasha County and who caused her death. The South St. Paul last sighting and the discovery near Kellogg identify two places in the case; they do not establish a confirmed travel route or the location of a fatal assault.

The public sources reviewed do not disclose a complete evidence inventory, the results of any recent testing or a charging decision against a person responsible for Deana’s death. The BCA continues to seek information about the case.

How to provide information

Anyone with information about Deana Patnode, the night of October 26, 1982, or the discovery of her remains can contact the Minnesota BCA Tip Line at 1-877-996-6222 or the Wabasha County Sheriff’s Office at 651-565-3361. Crime Stoppers of Minnesota also lists its anonymous tip line, 800-222-8477.

Case status and public sources reviewed October 27, 2026. Principal sources: the BCA case notice and cold-case database; the March 2009 BCA announcement preserved by the Doe Network; Warner Funeral Home’s family obituary; The Deck’s case reporting and sheriff’s-office photographs; and Crime Stoppers of Minnesota.