Child’s killer and rapist, released 20 years early, out on bail for new arrest

TOMS RIVER — Shawn Milne — convicted of the 1985 rape and murder of his 13-year-old neighbor and then back in police custody this week on a Megan's Law violation — has been let of out jail on bail, according to a report.

The Asbury Park Press reported Saturday Milne had met the required $25,000 bail and was released from custody. He'd been arrested Wednesday  after allegedly moving to Toms River without telling police, which he's required to do under Megan's Law.

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 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.

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

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