Deborah Bloomquist: a preserved DNA trail (1991)

A name attached to the evidence

Deborah Ann Bloomquist, 30, was found in woods in Barnegat on October 26, 1991. Investigators learned that she had last been seen at an Asbury Park tavern two days earlier and had no known Barnegat connections. The medical examiner classified her death as homicide.

Biological evidence survived the original investigation. More than a decade later, testing produced a male DNA profile. After the case was reopened through the state Cold Case Task Force in January 2022, further analysis identified that profile as John Pelletier’s, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.

An investigative conclusion without a trial

On September 7, 2022, prosecutors publicly identified Pelletier as responsible for Bloomquist’s murder. He had died in North Dakota in 2015. That is the agency’s stated conclusion; there was no resulting criminal trial or conviction. The release does not reconstruct how Bloomquist reached Barnegat.