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November 15, 2004
Convicted child molester a suspect in 1998 disappearance of 8-year-old
Frank Milligan is in prison for attacking a Dallas boy in 2000
StatesmanJournal.com -- Oregon
PORTLAND -- A man convicted of raping and slashing the throat of a 10-year-old Dallas boy in 2000 is the prime suspect in the dis-appearance of another boy nearly six years ago.
Investigators have linked Frank J. Milligan to the disappearance of 8-year-old Derrick Engebretson in 1998.
The Bonanza third-grader was searching for a Christmas tree with his father and grandfather when he wandered away in the snowy mountains near Klamath Falls.
His disappearance led to a massive search with dogs, snowmobiles and hundreds of volunteers.
Derrick never was found and was presumed to have frozen to death in a snowstorm. But law enforcement officials now say they think that Derrick found his way to the roadside, where he was picked up by Milligan.
"He is a suspect," said Oregon State Police Detective Ken Pecyna.
In July 2001, Milligan pleaded guilty to charges of attempted murder, kidnapping, sodomy and sexual abuse after he lured a 10-year-old boy into his car at a Dallas park in 2000 by offering the child $100 to mow his lawn.
Milligan raped and strangled the boy, slashed his throat and left him for dead. The child survived. At the time of the attack, Milligan was out on bail after being charged with the sexual assault of an 11-year-old boy in Seaside.
Milligan surfaced as a potential suspect in the Derrick Engebretson disappearance after a fellow inmate claimed that Milligan had bragged about abducting and killing the boy, sources close to the case told the news media.
Milligan was sentenced to 36 years in prison for the Dallas and Seaside crimes.
Milligan was a psychiatric aide in the children's ward of the Oregon State Hospital in Salem from 1994 to 1997.
Posted by Nealus at November 15, 2004 12:21 PM
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