NJ child rapist and killer, released 20 years early, back behind bars

TOMS RIVER — Less than a year after being released early from a 50-year prison term, convicted child-killer Shawn Milne is back in custody for Megan's Law violations, police said.

Milne, now 46, was released from South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton prison eight months ago. He was released 20 years early from a 50-year prison term for the Nov. 12, 1985 rape and murder of his 13-year-old neighbor, Barbara Renee Harrison. Milne was just 15 years old at the time of the crime, and tried as an adult.

Patrick Sheehan, a supervising assistant Ocean County prosecutor who tried the case in 1987, told the Asbury Park Press last year Milne had beat Harrison with a piece of lumber before he dragged her through woods and dumped her in the creek, where she drowned.

“I’m afraid something is going to happen to someone else,’’ the girl's mother, Marianne Harrison, told the Press at the time. “I don’t think he’s just going to sit back.’’

Upon his release, Milne moved to a home on Fischer Boulevard in Toms River, but never registered with local police as a sex offender, as required by Megan's Law, police said.

According to police, Milne was arrested on Wednesday at 8 p.m. at his Toms River residence after Detectives Jennifer Grob and Thomas Grosse signed criminal complaints after learning that he had failed to meet his registration obligation under Megan’s Law.

Registrants are required by state law to either register annually or every 90 days with the police department of the municipality in which they reside. Police say Milne failed to register in the specified time frame after he moved back to his family's home on Fischer Boulevard.

The house is located in the same neighborhood where the victim lived, and across the road from where Barbara Harrison's body was found floating in Goose Creek a few hours after her mother reported her missing, according to APP.com.

APP.com reported that NJ Corrections Department officials originally said that upon Milne's release in November, he planned to live with a brother in Garfield.

In addition to the violation for failing to register when he moved, Toms River police say Milne also did not meet the requirements for notification of his employment status, which is also a Megan's Law violation.

Milne is being held in Ocean County Jail on $25,000 bail. He is facing a third degree charge of failing to register under Megan's Law. Police said in a statement that normally,  the maximum potential punishment for this type of violation is five years in New Jersey State Prison with up to a $15,000 fine for each charge.

Toniann Antonelli is a social content producer for NJ 101.5. She can be reached at toniann.antonelli@townsquaremedia.com, or on Twitter @ToniRadio1015.

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