Owatonna offender receives 30 years in sex offense, murder plot case

(ABC 6 News) – An Owatonna sex offender was sentenced to 30 years in prison, as well as 15 years’ probation for producing child pornography, then threatening to murder the same minor.

Michael Lee Kurkowski pleaded guilty to threatening interstate communication and a count of producing child pornography in federal court Feb. 26, 2024.

He was sentenced Oct. 2.

According to court documents, Kurkowski had attempted to travel to Pennsylvania, where his former child sex abuse victim lived, with 16 heavy flex cuffs, a taser, knife, rubber gloves, handcuffs, and electrical tape.

“Kurkowski’s phone contained Google search terms including ‘man kills family of 5,’ ‘countries that don’t extradite to us,’ ‘how to subdue a person,’ ‘best knives used to kill,’ and the penalties for murder in Pennsylvania,” according to a federal court press release.

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UPDATE: Michael Lee Kurkowski, 28, pleaded guilty to producing sexually explicit images of a minor and sending graphic murder threats against his former child sex abuse victim, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Kurkowski first underwent investigation in March 2021 after allegedly exchanging sexually explicit images of a minor in Pennsylvania.

Further investigations by Pennsylvania law enforcement revealed Kurkowski knowingly possessed several explicit images and videos of a minor. Kurkowski admitted to traveling to Pennsylvania to continue a “relationship” with a minor, despite the minor attempting to end communications with Kurkowski.

Investigations continued into Feb. 2022, when Owatonna Police Department learned Kurkowski intended to take a bus to Harrisburg, Penn., near the location of his former victim.

FBI investigators located Kurkowski in Toldeo, Ohio, where he was apprehended. Law enforcement found he had a bag containing a items including 16 heavy flex cuffs, electrical tape, a taser, a large knife, rubber gloves, and hooded facemasks.

(ABC 6 News) – A federal criminal complaint has been filed against an Owatonna sex offender for sending graphic threats detailing a murder plot against his former child sexual abuse victim, announced Acting United States Attorney Charles J. Kovats.

According to court documents, in March 2021, the Upper Allen Township Police Department in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, began investigating Michael Lee Kurkowski, 26, regarding the communication and exchange of sexually explicit images of a minor. The investigation revealed that Kurkowski possessed sexually explicit images and videos of a minor and was aware that his victim was, at the time, a minor under the age of 18. Kurkowski also admitted to traveling to Pennsylvania to locate the minor and to try to continue a “relationship” after the minor attempted to end the online communications with Kurkowski. On April 14, 2021, Kurkowski was charged in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, of multiple felonies related to the sexual exploitation of the minor and was sentenced to 142 days in prison followed by probation. Kurkowski’s probation conditions included, among other things, the requirement to register as a sex offender, refraining from behavior which may present a danger to others, and not possessing weapons.

According to court documents, in December 2021, law enforcement began investigating Kurkowski’s online communications and sexual exploitation of a minor in East Peoria, Illinois. In January 2022, investigators with the East Peoria Police Department (EPPD) reviewed several messages from Kurkowski to the minor describing in graphic detail a plan to travel to Pennsylvania where Kurkowski would murder the parents of his former victim, rape his sister, and then kill her in front of his former victim. EPPD also notified the Cedar Falls Police Department after the investigation revealed that Kurkowski was also engaging in the sexual exploitation of a second minor in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

According to court documents, on February 4, 2022, investigators with the Owatonna Police Department learned that Kurkowski had purchased a Greyhound bus ticket and was currently en route to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the general location of Kurkowski’s former victim and his family.

FBI investigators developed information on Kurkowski’s whereabouts and were able to track him to a bus stop in Toledo, Ohio, where authorities took Kurkowski into custody.

According to court documents, when he was arrested, Kurkowski had with him a bag containing among other things 16 heavy flex cuffs, electrical tape, a taser, a large knife, rubber gloves, and hooded facemasks.

Kurkowski has been charged by complaint in the District of Minnesota with one count of threatening interstate communication.

Kurkowski made his initial appearance yesterday before Magistrate Judge Darrell A. Clay in the Northern District of Ohio, who ordered that Kurkowski be detained temporarily and removed to Minnesota, where he will make his initial appearance and have a detention and preliminary hearing at a later date.

This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI, the Owatonna Police Department, the Upper Allen Township (Pennsylvania) Police Department, the East Peoria (Illinois) Police Department, and the Cedar Falls (Iowa) Police Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura M. Provinzino is prosecuting the case.