Yea bumping him off that way was one of the first things I tried to no avail, though I forgot to mention it. One interesting thing I've noticed is that although I have aura of command at level 3, I can get more than 3 followers. I think I can get 6 total (not including the glitched stalker).
I was wondering about using the hex editor... maybe I'll give it a try.
Here's a Box Sync link to the zipped save folder:
https://app.box.com/s/jx08twvoe82vel314u1wplszz8vuqjag
