Dead woman feared for her safety, family says

Carol King, the western Newfoundland woman who was found dead in rural Saskatchewan, was worried about her personal safety in the days leading up to her disappearance friends and family members say.

King, 40, was reported missing in early August. Her body was discovered Saturday on a rural property near Herschel, Sask., about 150 kilometres southwest of Saskatoon.

King moved to Herschel about three years ago but remained in constant contact with her family in Newfoundland.

Her mother, Yvonne King, told CBC News that her daughter had shared with her concerns about some unusual nighttime activity around her home in the days prior to her disappearance.

On one night, Yvonne King said her daughter believed two mysterious men were prowling around her property. The same thing happened on the night before King disappeared.

She told her mother she did not know who they were.

"There was a man, the shape of a man bent down by the trees," Yvonne King told CBC News. "And she chased him with her flashlight and said, 'Get off my property.'"

Went to report to police

Kingsaid her daughter decided to report what happened to police.

She said she spoke to her daughter on Aug. 6 and was told she had an appointment to meet police later that day.

However, she never made it to the appointment.

"I said, 'Carol you can't take care of yourself if someone grabs you'," her mother said of a warning she gave her daughter. "I said, 'There's crazy people out there sometimes.' And I was right."

Weeks before her disappearance, Carol King was telling friends she was worried about the behaviour of a former boyfriend, David Caissie.

The friend said King believed Caissie was spying on her although he has not been linked to the mystery men who King spoke about to her mother.

"She was always hiding out from him," the friend, who did not want her name reported due to concerns about her own safety, told CBC News. "She had said that he would come around her home late at night. And she always heard rustling around outside and whatnot. He only lived one property over."

On the social networking site Facebook, one of King's sisters has posted written comments, purportedly from Carol King, that were made about a week prior to her disappearance.

The comments express frustration about how police in Saskatchewan had handled an earlier complaint King had made about the behaviour of Caissie.

According to the sister, King wrote: "Holy crap, if he ever decided he wanted to hurt me, I'd be dead before the cops responded."

CBC News is not aware of any evidence that Caissie had threatened King.

According to her friend, King had contactedpolice more than once.

"I know she had called the police on numerous occasions and I don' t know if they thought that she just wasn't mentally sound or what, but they never ever took her seriously," the friend said. "Now it's too late."

Caissie not a suspect, police say

Police have questionedCaissie and saidhe is not a suspect in her death.

Caissie was sentenced to five years in prisonfor a violent sexual assault that took place in 1998. He forced a woman into her truck at knifepoint, drove to a rural location and sexually assaulted her on the hood of the vehicle.

CBC News asked Caissie about the conviction and he responded by saying, "What's that got to do with anything?"

Caissie also said he did not harm King and was working in Alberta at the time of her disappearance, adding that two co-workers can confirm that.