A prosecutor on Monday said a man accused of stabbing to death his workplace crush in June was “stalking” his victim in the days leading up to her brutal killing.
Kenneth C. Saal, a burly 30-year-old from Lindenwold, is charged with killing his 26-year-old co-worker, Carolyn Byington, at her Plainsboro apartment on June 10. The two worked together at a marketing firm in Princeton. Saal is facing life in prison if convicted of murder and weapons charges.
At a pre-indictment conference in Superior Court in Middlesex County, Assistant Prosecutor Tzvi Dolinger said detectives recently obtained Google location records that show Saal was at Byington’s Hunters Glen Drive apartment complex in the days leading up to her death.
Dolinger also said that detectives took a statement from one of Byington’s neighbors that identified Saal as being in the complex, specifically near the communal laundry room, weeks before the killing.
This “establishes what, at this point, seems to be a stalking of the victim,” Dolinger said.
The investigation, Dolinger said, is “playing catch up” after detectives received DNA evidence on Aug. 19 — two months after police discovered Byington in her apartment with multiple stab wounds — that pointed towards Saal as the accused killer.
courtesy image
Carolyn Byington’s 2010-2011 Ridge High School Yearbook photo.
Saal’s attorney, Michael Roberts, maintains his client’s innocence but declined to comment on the stalking allegation after the hearing.
Dolinger said at a previous court hearing that Saal, a married father of a young child, had an infatuation with Byington.
On the day of Byington’s death, Saal took an extended lunch break during the same time Byington took her break, according to a police report.
In an interview with detectives, Saal said he had only seen Byington in passing on the day of her death. He claimed he was at a small park alone on Canal Pointe Boulevard in Princeton making repairs to his vehicle on the afternoon Byington was killed.
Police say they have police dashboard video that shows a vehicle matching Saal’s in Plainsboro shortly after 2 p.m. on the day Byington was found dead. The newly obtained Google location data also shows Saal in the apartment complex on that day, Dolinger said. Dolinger previously presented cell phone tower data that showed Saal’s phone pinging in Plainsboro near the area of Byington’s residence around the time of the killing.
A supervisor told police she received a text from Saal that said he was going to be late returning from lunch because his car was at the mechanic’s shop, the police report said. His supervisor told police she later learned that was a lie. The report said “numerous” co-workers have provided statements to police that they observed cuts on Saal’s knuckles and hands in the days after Byington’s death.
Co-workers also told police that Saal’s demeanor changed following that day — and that he asked a colleague if he could be arrested “based on circumstantial evidence alone,” the report noted.
One of Byington’s neighbors told NJ Advance Media he would see her come home for lunch almost daily. Another neighbor said on the day of the killing, she heard screaming and “a lot of sounds up there, which was unusual.”
“We thought it could be anything,” said the neighbor, who did not want to be identified.
At Monday’s court hearing, Dolinger said the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office has offered a plea deal that would have Saal admit to one count of murder in exchange for 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole.
Roberts, Saal’s attorney, hasn’t accepted the offer, and the case will go before a grand jury if there’s no resolution before that.
Saal is scheduled to return to court on Oct. 24.
Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com’s newsletters.
Alex Napoliello may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
