SIOUX FALLS S.D. (KELO) — The latest and perhaps final chapter in the story of a man convicted of two 1972 South Dakota murders has come to light.
The South Dakota Department of Corrections announced Tuesday that inmate Steven Satter died Monday at the Jameson Annex near the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls. He was 77 years old. Satter fatally shot Kent Engle and Jerry Bowling in August 1972 in Codington County and then put their bodies in his trunk and dumped them in a rock pile near Kranzburg, S.D. He received two concurrent life sentences.
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But on July 17, 1977, Satter escaped along with two other inmates from prison. Satter was the last of three escapees to be taken back into custody; a service station attendant recognized him and notified authorities. The Lake County sheriff found him, describing Satter as “tired and hungry.” Satter had been on the lam for a week.
“We had a lot of people in this state that were afraid, and anytime a convicted killer’s out running around the streets loose, you bet I’m afraid,” then-Attorney General Bill Janklow, who would go on to twice serve as the state’s governor, said in 1977. “And I’m happy when it’s over.”
For his part, Satter showed appreciation for how it all played out in the end; KELOLAND’s Nancy Sutton reported that after he was back in custody, Satter turned to the law officers who drove him to Sioux Falls and said, ‘Thanks for the ride.’
