WEST WINDSOR — The Plainsboro woman injured during last week’s attempted murder-suicide at the MarketFair has been released from Capital Health System’s Helene Fuld campus in Trenton, following a weekend stay at the facility for treatment of wounds sustained during the assault.
Police say Heather Markel, 20, was stabbed multiple times in the head, ribs, and arms by her ex-boyfriend, Shane Kinney, 30, of Princeton at around 4:15 p.m. Thursday.
Mr. Kinney later slashed his own throat and collapsed in a parking spot near the mall following the attack on Ms. Markel, and was pronounced dead at the hospital in Trenton about an hour later, police said.
The attack began soon after the two Mercer County Community College nursing students returned from a day’s work at the Robert Wood Johnson hospital in Hamilton Township to a MarketFair parking lot where Ms. Markel’s car was parked.
Police said a number of knives were found in Mr. Kinney’s car, although investigators believe only one of the knives was used in Thursday’s attack.
Both occupants had exited the car during the attack, with Ms. Markel suffering additional knife wounds from Mr. Kinney outside in the parking lot after both left the Volvo, which ended up driving over a grassy island before halting in the middle of a nearby retention basin.
Currently, West Windsor police and other investigators are trying to determine a motive in the attack, according to Sgt. Brian Melnick, who said that Mr. Kinney had no real criminal history, and there were no records of the Princeton man having any previous violent episodes.
”There’s just not enough there that you could see this coming,” Sgt. Melnick said.
The two had a romantic history, although they had broken off the relationship months earlier and remained friends as they took nursing classes, police said.
The attack was unusual for West Windsor because it occurred in an active and very public area. Most of West Windsor’s assaults and homicides have occurred in offices or apartments when they do occur, police said.
Ms. Markel sought refuge in the nearby Barnes & Noble bookstore, where she received emergency medical treatment amid afternoon shoppers before being taken to Helene Fuld by ambulance.
”It was a pretty violent crime, and fortunately we don’t have a lot of that,” Sgt. Melnick said.
Police are still looking for people who witnessed the crime.
The West Windsor Police Department and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office are conducting the investigation. Witnesses are asked to contact Detective Sgt. Brian Melnick at 609-799-1222.
