On this day, July 29, in 1994, 7-year-old Megan Kanka was raped and murdered by her neighbor in Hamilton Township, N.J. The murder led to Megan’s Law, requiring convicted sex offenders to notify police when they move into a neighborhood.
Jesse Timmendequas, already convicted of two rapes of young girls, had recently moved in with two other convicted sex offenders across the street from the Kanka house.
Timmendequas lured Megan into his house by offering to show her a puppy. After raping and strangling her, he put Megan’s body in a chest and dumped her in a park. He confessed to police the next day.
Her family maintained that had they known about Timmendequas’ past, they would have kept Megan away from him.
In 1994, New Jersey passed the first “Megan’s Law.” Federal legislation followed in 1995. Timmendequas’ death sentence was commuted to life after New Jersey abolished the death penalty.
— Scott McCabe
