She's waited 22 years for her daughter's killer to be brought to justice, now Tina Curl is trying to raise enough money to come back to South Dakota to watch Donald Moeller die.
Moeller is scheduled to be executed at the end of October for the 1990 rape and murder of nine-year-old Becky O'Connell in rural Lincoln County.
Curl has her daughter's name tattooed on her arm, and her New York-state home is adorned with memorabilia and pictures remembering O'Connell.
"What he put my daughter through, the pain, the torture, I think he should go the same way," Curl said in an interview at her New York home.
After 22 years, Moeller has exhausted nearly all of his appeals. The only one still pending is in federal court and earlier this month, Moeller's attorney sent the judge a letter asking that 'nothing be done to delay his execution.'
Now Curl is trying to figure out how to pay for the road trip to South Dakota. She's on disability and her husband is unemployed.
"I'll sell everything, but I will be there. I don't own a lot; my husband is willing to sell his truck because we're taking mine anyway, but one way or another we'll get there," Curl said.
The Curls tried to hold a fundraiser at a bar in New York this past weekend, but it was poorly attended because of the polarizing views on the death penalty.
The state of South Dakota has a Victims' Compensation Program, but it was set up by the state legislature in 1991 and will only make payments to victims of crimes that happened after July 1, 1992. O'Connell was killed nearly two years before that.
But no matter how she gets the gas money to drive to South Dakota in October, Curl says she's not going to miss the execution of her daughter's killer.
"He watched my daughter die. I want to watch him die. He watched her take her last breath. I want to see him take his last," Curl said.
Because she wants to be there when justice is finally handed down for the little girl who can only be remembered through the pictures.
A 'Justice for Becky' account has been set up at the Hudson River Community Credit Union in Corinth, New York, for any donations.
Justice for Becky
Hudson River Community Credit Union
312 Palmer Avenue
Corinth, NY 12822
1-800-824-0700
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