A 51-year-old South Dakota man whose life sentence for a brutal 1993 killing was commuted by then-Gov. Kristi Noem now faces six federal counts in connection with the death of his 14-year-old niece, charges that allege he distributed the cocaine that killed her and transported her across state lines for criminal sexual activity.
Mark Milk was charged Thursday by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Iowa. The victim, McKenna Wendel, was last seen alive in Sioux Falls around 1:30 a.m. on March 14. Her body was found five days later along a creek in a rural area near Brookings, South Dakota, roughly an hour north of the city where she lived with her grandparents.
A second man, 38-year-old Jon Rogness, himself a convicted killer released on parole in 2024, faces two counts as an accessory after the fact and for tampering with a witness, victim, or informant. Both men's charges were announced at a news conference roughly three months after McKenna vanished.
Federal charging documents lay out six counts against Milk: possession with intent to distribute and distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death; a second distribution count; transportation of a minor across state lines with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity; two counts of conspiracy to conceal objects to impair their availability for an official proceeding; and one count of concealing objects with the same intent.
The documents state that McKenna's death "resulted from the use of the controlled substance (Milk) possessed with intent to distribute and distributed." U.S. Attorney Leif Olson declined to reveal the official cause of death at the news conference, saying autopsy results would come out at trial.
FBI Omaha Field Office representative Gene Kowel told reporters:
"This is a horrific case. There are no cases that we investigate that are more heart-wrenching than the death of a child."
Kowel added that his team is working with Operation Not Forgotten, a program that prioritizes cases involving violence against Indigenous women and children. Sioux Falls Lt. Terrance Matia said in March that someone "transported her in a vehicle" to the site where her body was recovered and that two people led authorities to the location.
Milk's criminal history is not a footnote. In 1993, at age 19, he stabbed and killed 19-year-old Shawn Peneaux during a bar fight in downtown Winner, South Dakota. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received a life sentence.
South Dakota Supreme Court records paint a grim picture of what happened that night. The trial court called the case "one of the most vicious, brutal homicides it had ever seen." The court ruled that photographic evidence "clearly" indicated "Milk went well beyond merely defending himself." He kicked the victim "until his head was soft," stabbed him in the chest and face, and cut off his right ear.
Milk claimed self-defense. The court disagreed. He spent nearly two decades behind bars before seeking a commutation.
In 2022, Milk appeared before the South Dakota Board of Pardons and Paroles. He told the board he had used work release paychecks from Metal Craft Industries to open a bank account for his nieces' and nephews' college educations. He spoke warmly of his family.
"I love my time with them. We tend to think we let our families down. It's nice to make them proud."
The board was swayed by his work ethic and gave a positive recommendation. In 2023, Noem commuted his life sentence. The clemency question has drawn fresh scrutiny in light of the charges against Milk. AP News reported that South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley noted it is "fairly often that you see law enforcement oppose commutations", a comment that implied opposition to Noem's decision existed within the system.
Noem, who later served as Secretary of Homeland Security, has faced a string of controversies since leaving the governor's mansion. She was recently accused of squatting at a Coast Guard residence weeks after leaving DHS. Her clemency record now faces a different kind of reckoning.
Jon Rogness brings his own violent history to this case. In 2007, at age 19, Rogness was charged with first-degree manslaughter for helping his friend Brandon Brody shoot and kill Brandon's father, Brian Brody Sr. The two then burned the body and disposed of it in a nearby state park.
Rogness pleaded guilty but mentally ill to the manslaughter charge. He was released in 2024 and was on parole at the time of McKenna's death. He now faces one count of being an accessory after the fact and one count of tampering with a witness, victim, or informant.
Two convicted killers. Both back on the streets. Both now charged in the death of a 14-year-old girl. The pattern raises hard questions about how South Dakota's criminal justice system evaluates risk when it grants second chances.
McKenna Wendel lived in Sioux Falls. She was reported missing on March 15, the day after she was last seen. Police said at the time that she had last been with a family member but declined to say who.
Four days later, her body was found near Brookings. Authorities said McKenna and others may have traveled to Iowa, Minnesota, and multiple locations in South Dakota after her disappearance. The full details of those movements remain unclear. Olson declined to elaborate at the news conference.
McKenna's mother, Marisa Wendel, told the Argus Leader that she was "grateful and appreciative of all the department's work and care in this unreal ordeal." She added simply: "The Wendels are broken."
Milk was arrested on charges of drunk driving and eluding police shortly after McKenna went missing but before her body was found. Whether those charges are directly connected to her death has not been clarified.
Sioux Falls Police Chief Thum addressed the three-month gap between McKenna's death and the filing of federal charges. He urged the public to trust the process:
"In my career, this case will be one I remember the most because it captured the collective force of law enforcement to move forward and pursue this case."
He added: "There has to be a measure of trust and understanding that we're working on this to the best of our ability."
The Milk case is not an isolated example of clemency decisions producing grim results. A Michigan drug dealer freed under Biden's clemency push recently landed new federal cocaine charges of his own. And the broader debate over executive mercy continues in Washington, where the White House has weighed hundreds of pardons, drawing caution from some allies who want the brakes pumped.
Clemency exists for a reason. Some people do change. Parole boards and governors face genuinely difficult calls. But the system owes the public an honest accounting when those calls go wrong, especially when the person granted mercy was convicted of one of the most savage killings a trial court had ever seen.
Milk's attorney, John O'Malley, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Milk's initial court date has not yet been announced. Noem has not commented publicly on the charges.
Several open questions remain. What was the official cause of McKenna's death? Who were the two people who led police to her body? How did Milk and Rogness know each other? What was the full timeline of McKenna's movements after she vanished? And why were the commutation documents reportedly sealed even from the state's attorney general?
Noem has faced scrutiny on multiple fronts since leaving public office, including an incident in which a Chilean illegal immigrant stole her Gucci handbag during a fraud spree. But the questions surrounding the Milk commutation are of a different magnitude entirely. A 14-year-old girl is dead. The man charged with contributing to her death is the same man a governor decided deserved a second chance.
Second chances are a fine principle, right up until you have to explain one to a broken family.
