2 Coworkers Left on Lunch Break. Only 1 Returned

Kenneth Saal charged in murder of Carolyn Byington in NJ
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 23, 2019 11:50 AM CDT
2 Coworkers Left on Lunch Break. Only 1 Returned
   (Getty/Prathaan)

A coworker of a New Jersey woman who went home for lunch and never returned is now charged in her murder. Kenneth C. Saal was arrested this week and charged in the June 10 death of Carolyn Byington, a project manager at Princeton's Engine marketing firm, reports the Bridgewater Courier News. After the 26-year-old failed to return from her Plainsboro apartment, co-workers asked police to check on her, and officers found her bludgeoned body with multiple stab wounds about 6pm, per the New York Post. Neighbors had reported hearing faint screams and what sounded like furniture being moved around the time of her death, which police said was "the same time period as Saal's lunch break."

An affidavit claims the accountant took a long lunch, saying he was having work done on his vehicle, though a supervisor "later learned that he was lying." Employees noticed cuts on Saal's hands, per the affidavit, which claims DNA under Byington's fingernails tied her coworker to the crime. There's also this key line: "Unprompted, Saal asked one coworker if he could [be] arrested based on circumstantial evidence alone." Sources previously told NJ.com that Byington was attacked by a killer lying in wait soon after entering her apartment, which she didn't usually visit for lunch. Saal's car was seen in Plainsboro on the day of the murder, though the 30-year-old married father couldn't explain his whereabouts in a June 19 police interview, the affidavit reads. (More New Jersey stories.)

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