Man gets up to 27 years for 1984 killing of 14-year-old girl

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. – A Florida man has been sentenced to 13.5 to 27 years in the killing of a suburban Philadelphia teenager more than three decades ago.

Fifty-seven-year-old Geneva resident George Shaw convicted in July of third-degree murder and attempted indecent assault but acquitted of rape in a nonjury trial.

Bucks County authorities said Shaw drugged and suffocated 14-year-old Barbara Rowan in Bensalem in August 1984, then dumped her duct tape-bound body along a highway with the help of a friend.

Through his attorney, Shaw maintained his innocence, saying Rowan was killed by someone else. Defence attorney Louis Busico attacked the credibility of the testimony of a prosecution witness who pleaded guilty to hindering apprehension.

Under law in effect in 1984, the maximum term for third-degree murder was 10 to 20 years.