Bio

Donald Eugene Moeller was born on August 5, 1952. He was an American man from South Dakota who later became known for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of nine-year-old Rebecca “Becky” O’Connell in 1990. Before that crime, Moeller already had a long history of violent and sexually motivated behavior.

Records from the case show that Moeller had committed earlier attacks involving knives. In January 1973, he forced his way into a woman’s car in Sioux Falls and threatened her with a knife while trying to make her remove her clothes. The woman refused and survived the attack. In 1979, while living in Wyoming, Moeller attempted to sexually assault a 13-year-old boy and cut the boy with a knife when he escaped.

Moeller was married twice, but both marriages ended. He had one daughter from his first marriage, though he had little involvement in her life. By adulthood, he had become repeatedly involved with the criminal justice system.

In January 1990, only a few months before Becky O’Connell was murdered, Moeller attacked another woman in Sioux Falls. He entered her home, threatened her with a knife, and attempted to force her to expose herself. The woman escaped and reported the attack. On May 8, 1990, the same day Becky was murdered, Moeller was reportedly told that prosecutors wanted him sentenced as a habitual offender in connection with that earlier assault case.

Before Becky’s murder, Moeller was already facing serious legal consequences. His background showed a pattern of knife-related sexual violence and attacks against vulnerable victims. These earlier incidents later became part of the legal history of the murder case, although his first conviction was overturned because the South Dakota Supreme Court ruled that some prior-offense evidence should not have been used at trial.

Murder Story

On May 8, 1990, nine-year-old Rebecca “Becky” O’Connell left her home in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to go to a nearby store. Some reports say she went to buy sugar to make lemonade, while others say she went to buy candy. What is clear is that she was alone on a short errand near her home when she disappeared.

Moeller kidnapped Becky near the store area and drove her to a secluded location near the Big Sioux River and Lake Alvin in Lincoln County, South Dakota. There, he raped and stabbed her to death. Her body was found the next day, May 9, 1990, in a wooded area. Investigators determined that she had been sexually assaulted and stabbed multiple times, and her throat had been cut.

The crime shocked South Dakota because of Becky’s young age and the violent nature of the attack. Police began a major investigation. Moeller later fled South Dakota and was found in Tacoma, Washington. He was arrested on March 6, 1991.

DNA evidence became central to the case. Semen recovered from Becky’s body was matched to a DNA sample from Moeller. This evidence strongly connected him to the crime and became a major part of the prosecution’s case.

Moeller was convicted of rape and murder in 1992 and sentenced to death. However, his first conviction was later overturned by the South Dakota Supreme Court because improper evidence about earlier attempted sexual assaults had been introduced during the trial. He was tried again in 1997, convicted again, and sentenced to death for a second time. The South Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the 1997 conviction and death sentence in 2000.

For many years, Moeller denied responsibility for Becky’s murder. He continued to appeal his conviction and death sentence through state and federal courts. His appeals were eventually rejected. In 2012, shortly before his execution, Moeller stopped fighting the process and admitted guilt. During a court hearing, he said, “If the rape and murder of Rebecca O’Connell does not deserve the death penalty, then I guess nothing does.” Reuters reported that he had denied guilt for more than two decades before admitting in October 2012 that he raped and fatally stabbed Becky after abducting her from a Sioux Falls convenience store.

Donald Eugene Moeller was executed by lethal injection at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls on October 30, 2012. He was pronounced dead at 10:24 p.m. His final meal was scrambled eggs, sausage links, tater tots, and coffee. When asked whether he had any final words, he replied, “No, sir,” and then asked, “They’re my fan club?” in apparent reference to sounds from other inmates.

Becky’s mother, Tina Curl, and stepfather, Dave Curl, traveled from New York to South Dakota to witness the execution. Afterward, they said Moeller’s death did not bring full closure, but it ended more than 20 years of legal proceedings. The case remains one of South Dakota’s most widely known child murder cases because of Becky’s age, the brutality of the crime, the DNA evidence, the overturned first conviction, the retrial, and Moeller’s eventual execution.