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• Curl, who has battled alcoholism and suffered a heart attack and quadruple bypass in May 2003, is on disability. Her husband, Dave Curl, who is not Becky's father, has been out of work for about a year. He also is hoping to attend the execution.
• She said the $720 a month they bring in from disability payments doesn't leave enough to fund the 1,400-mile road trip to South Dakota.
• Authorities say that Moeller kidnapped the girl from a Sioux Falls convenience store, drove her to a secluded area near the Big Sioux River, then raped and killed her. Her naked body was found the next day. She had been stabbed and her throat was slashed.
• Moeller, 60, initially was convicted in 1992, but the state Supreme Court overturned it, ruling that improper evidence was used at trial. He was again convicted and sentenced to die in 1997.
• The state Supreme Court affirmed the sentence, and Moeller has lost appeals on both the state and federal levels. In July, a circuit court judge set the execution for between Oct. 28 and Nov. 3, with the exact date and time up to prison officials.
• Moeller said through his attorney at the July hearing that he accepts the execution as the consequences of his actions.
• Rhonda Springer, a neighbor and friend who has known Tina Curl since they were teenagers, organized a benefit at Glens Falls, N.Y., restaurant, but the event failed to raise enough money. So Springer set up an online PayPal account, opened a fund at Hudson River Community Credit Union and began publicizing it through a Facebook page so Curl can witness Becky's killer put to death.
• The fundraising has brought in nearly $900 of the needed $4,000.
• "I'm so glad to be helping," Springer said. "I've been waiting for this day, too."
(Continued on page 17)
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