Neptune stalker is free after sentencing

Wayde M. Delhagen, 25, of Wayside Road in Neptune Township,  was sentenced on Monday to 364 days in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution and five years probation for one county of burglary and four counts of stalking, according to an announcement by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.

Dalhagen had been locked up in Freehold since his arrest last June. He was released this week on time served and good behavior credits, according to a family member of one of his victims.

During his plea hearing in January, Delhagen admitted to breaking into the home of two women, an 18-year-old girl and her mother, at 3 a.m. on June 15, 2019. Delhagen broke into the girl’s bedroom through a window, while mother and daughter were asleep in another part of the residence. During a search of the surrounding area, Neptune Township police officers located Delhagen in front of a nearby home. He was found in possession of a bathing suit top and a bra taken from a laundry basket located under the window of her bedroom and belonging to the 18-year-old victim.

Delhagen had previously come into contact with the 18-year-old victim several months earlier through social media. That contact morphed into harassment after the victim rejected Delhagen’s efforts to set up a meeting for the two, forcing the victim to cut off any communication between them. In May 2019, Delhagen contacted the victim using a different social media platform, stating that he was coming over to the victim’s house and inquiring if the victim’s mother was home. He then sent her a series of sexually-charged messages and disturbing images, including a screenshot of an online image of the victim’s residence, directly identifying her bedroom window.  After he was again rejected by the victim, Delhagen sent harassing messages to the girl’s mother.

Delhagen also sent a series of harassing messages via social media to a separate set of victims in Neptune City. In that case, Delhagen utilized social media accounts to repeatedly send threatening, sexually-charged messages and sexually-explicit materials over the course of several months to another young female victim and her mother. Delhagen had previously been convicted of harassing the same young woman in a similar manner in 2018.