Owatonna Man Admits to Charges Connected to Chilling Murder Plot

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Minneapolis, MN (KROC-AM News) - On the first day of his trial in federal court, an Owatonna sex offender entered a guilty plea to charges stemming from a child pornography investigation.

According to court documents 28-year-old Michael Lee Kurkowski admitted to one count of threatening interstate communication and one count of production of child pornography. His sentencing hearing has yet to be scheduled.

The US Attorney for Minnesota the charges stem from an investigation launched by authorities in Pennsylvania in March 2021 concerning the exchange of sexually explicit images of a minor. Investigators learned Kurkowski had traveled to Pennsylvania in an effort to find the child after the victim attempted to break off online communications with him.

According to Pennsylvania court records, he was charged with multiple felony offenses involving the sexual exploitation of a minor and was sentenced to 142 days in prison.

Later that year, court documents indicate authorities began investigating Kurkowski's online communications with another minor. As part of the investigation, authorities reviewed several messages from Kurkowski to the victim that included graphic descriptions of a plan to visit Pennsylvania to murder the parents and sister of his former victim after first raping the sister in front of him.

The charges state that the Owatonna man was intercepted and arrested by the FBI in Toledo Ohio in February 2022 after investigators found out that he had purchased a Greyhound bus ticket to Harrisburg Pennsylvania. The FBI reported that Kurkowski was in the possession of a bag that contained 16 heavy flex cuffs, electrical tape, a Taser, a knife, rubber gloves, handcuffs, and hooded facemasks.

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