ALBANY, N.Y. - "It's not going to bother me to watch him die, at all," Tina Curl said about watching the man convicted of raping and murdering her 9-year-old daughter Becky O'Connell.
Curl has waited 22 years to see Donald Moeller, 60, be put to death. She spoke with NEWS10 over the phone from outside the State Penitentiary in South Dakota Tuesday night waiting to watch his execution by lethal injection.
"People ask if I am mentally unstable," Curl said. "No, just a grieving mother out to watch justice be served."
Curl currently lives in Lake Luzerne, NY, but back in 1990 she and her family lived in South Dakota. Her daughter Becky was last seen at a convenience store. Her body was later found in Lincoln County, SD, her throat slashed.
In 1992, Moeller was convicted of raping and killing the girl. Curl says it hurts her to imagine her daughter's final moments. "What she went through, how scared she must have been," Curl said.
Now, after 20 years on death row, Moeller was put to death by lethal injection inside the South Dakota State Penitentiary. Moeller was officially put to death Tuesday night at 11:24 p.m. eastern time, 10:24 p.m. central time.
After a fundraising effort to cover travel expenses, Curl and Becky's father made the 1,400-mile trip to watch Moeller's final moments, still believing his death is too kind after what he put her daughter through. "He made Becky suffer, he's not going to suffer," Curl said.
When asked what she would rather happen, Curl replied "Put into a room with me and a knife. I'm not nine. He earned this one."
Curls says that when Moeller was asked if he had any final words, he replied "No sir" then looked up at her and said "They're my fan club?"
NEWS10 asked Curl what life will be like going forward, after her main mission for so many years was to watch him die. She replied, "Bec can rest in peace now. But I can't, because I still know what he did to her. I'll get my relief what I die."
Becky would have been 32-years-old this year.
Tina Curl
Donald Moeller
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