North Plainfield Man Charged With Murder

A 32-year-old North Plainfield man has been accused of killing a New York woman inside his Prospect Place apartment over the weekend, the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office said.

Felix Nehemias Graves Dardon, 32, has been charged with the murder of a 30-year-old Brooklyn woman, Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey D. Soriano, Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Chief of Detectives Stuart A. Buckman and North Plainfield Chief of Police William Parenti announced Tuesday.

According to the prosecutor, North Plainfield police responded to a 911 call Sunday at about 12:30 a.m., made after other tenants in the building where Darden rents a bedroom reported seeing Darden standing naked in the kitchen of an apartment, cleaning up blood on the floor.

Darden ran to the building's basement, where police found him wrapped in blood-soaked bedding, Soriano said.

Police found the body of the woman, whose name has not been released, in an alley on the east side of the building. The victim had suffered "severe and visible trauma to her body," Soriano said.

Detectives from the North Plainfield Police Department in conjunction with detectives from the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Squad and the Crime Scene Investigations and Forensics Units responded to conduct the investigation. The New Jersey Regional Medical Examiner’s Office also responded to the scene and subsequently removed the decedent from the scene.

Soriano said a post mortem examination was performed on Sunday, and the death was ruled a homicide by the Medical Examiner. 

Darden is currently being held in Somerset County Jail, pending a bail hearing, on a charge of first degree murder, Soriano said.

Soriano said the murder is still under investigation and anyone with information regarding the homicide should contact either the North Plainfield Police Department Detective Bureau at 908-769-2937, the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Squad at 908-231-7100, or the Somerset County Crime Stoppers’ Tip Line at 1-888-577-TIPS(8477) or online at www.888577tips.org or www.scpo.net and click on either “Crime Stoppers” or “TIPS HOTLINE”. All calls are confidential.