Kelly Van Engelenhoven

Case details

Kelly Van Engelenhoven was arrested for the murder of Ann Kathryn “Katie” Clarey.

Ann Kathryn “Katie” Clarey was 11 years old when she was kidnapped, raped and murdered while doing her paper route in central Sioux Falls on May 9, 1991.

Kelly Van Engelenhoven was then a 28-year-old man with a history of exposing himself. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison in 1991, where he still resides.

Background

Two South Dakotans, Mike Clarey and Lori Nooney, recalled their own struggles connected to the death penalty.

Mike Clarey recalled the daughter he lost to another murderer’s hand and his family’s decision to spare the man’s life.

Lori Nooney described an inner conflict as she held a role on a jury that convicted a killer and dealt with the death penalty.

Other details

Mike Clarey said: “A day doesn’t go by that I don’t think about what happened,” from Bridgewater, where his family moved three years ago after a stint in Nebraska.

Whenever the death penalty comes up, Mike Clarey said it is linked: “Whenever the death penalty comes up, of course, it’s linked.”

Mike Clarey said: “Unfortunately in this country it’s become politicized,” he said. “It’s more for revenge than for justice, and that’s where the problem comes in.”

Mike Clarey planned to spend the day working as normal, finding time for prayer and reflecting on a society that he said cheapens the value of life.

Mike Clarey said: “The people I come in contact with, if we have an opportunity for discussion, I will express my views,” he said. “That is all I can do.”

Lori Nooney described her experience as a member of the Yankton County jury that convicted Donald Moeller of raping and killing 9-year-old Becky O’Connell of Sioux Falls. Nooney said it was the first death sentence handed down in South Dakota since the reinstatement of capital punishment.

Lori Nooney said the verdict was overturned and that Moeller was retried, reconvicted and again sentenced to death. She described the vote as a “life-altering decision,” saying: “I went on to the jury thinking I was more opposed than I was for it,” she said from Yankton, where she works as a paralegal. “Up until five minutes before we went out there I still didn’t know if I was doing the right thing.”

Lori Nooney said she believes Moeller should die for his crime. She said: “She wishes it would happen quicker and she resents a system that put her in that position to begin with.”

Lori Nooney said judges, not juries, should decide sentencing, and she said she tried to avoid news in recent days but admitted being drawn to Tuesday’s coverage in a sort of morbid preparation for Donald Moeller’s execution, if that day ever comes.

Lori Nooney said: “It’s hard,” she said. “I don’t know that if I do live to see the day he is executed that I will have any relief. “I don’t know.”