Donald Moeller

Active: 1990–1990
Region: Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA
States: SD, WA
Kind: Single
Status: Executed
Victims: 1

On May 8, 1990, nine-year-old Becky O'Connell walked to a convenience store in her Sioux Falls, South Dakota, neighborhood to buy sugar and candy and did not come home. Her body was found the next day in woods along the Big Sioux River near Lake Alvin, south of the city. Donald Moeller, a local man with a history of attempted sexual assaults, fled the state and was arrested in Tacoma, Washington, nine months later. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1992; after that verdict was overturned, a second jury sentenced him to death again in 1997. He admitted the killing in 2012 and was executed that October.

Ask the Atlas about this case →

Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

Rebecca "Becky" O'Connell, 9 · May 8, 1990
A Sioux Falls girl born in Glens Falls, New York; her mother said, "She didn't deserve what happened to her."

Timeline of locations

May 8, 1990
Convenience store, Sioux Falls (Abduction, approximate area)
Becky disappeared after walking to a neighborhood convenience store to buy candy and sugar.
May 9, 1990
Woods near Lake Alvin, Lincoln County (Recovery site, approximate area)
Her body was found the next morning in a wooded area along the Big Sioux River near Lake Alvin.
February 1991
Arrest in Tacoma, Washington (Arrest, approximate area)
Moeller, held in Tacoma under an alias, was identified when an FBI fingerprint check turned up the South Dakota warrant.
May 1997
Pennington County Courthouse, Rapid City (Court / trial)
After the 1992 verdict was overturned, a Pennington County jury again sentenced Moeller to death in May 1997; the sentence was formally imposed on June 4, 1997.
October 30, 2012
South Dakota State Penitentiary (Prison)
Moeller was executed by lethal injection here on October 30, 2012, after about 20 years on death row.

Sources

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.