Beaverton, Ore. – A suspect in the death of a woman whose dismembered body was found inside a vehicle west of Portland was arrested after screaming for help, reports CBS affiliate KOIN.
The Oregonian reports the Beaverton man is in custody after Washington County authorities found the woman’s body decapitated and dismembered inside two suitcases in the trunk of a BMW Thursday. The victim has been identified as 28-year-old Sara Zghoul of Aloha.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office says the vehicle was parked on a residential street in Aloha, and detectives found it Thursday after receiving information about a possible homicide.
Beaverton police arrested the suspect late Thursday. KOIN spoke with a witness, Michael Larsen, who said he and his family were at home Thursday night when they heard someone yelling “Help me” from a ravine behind their apartment complex at around 11:30.
They went outside and the screams continued. “We couldn’t see him, but we could hear him,” Larsen told the station.
Michael Larsen said the person wouldn’t provide answers to questions or his name. He and his wife went back inside and called 911, after which police responded.
“Something just wasn’t right,” Larsen said. “Yeah, it was very odd.”
Deputies said the man, who hasn’t been identified, was suffering from a self-inflicted wound. He was taken to the hospital and is in police custody, reports KOIN.
Larsen said investigators returned the following day, combing the area around the ravine. A nearby home was also a focus of the investigation, KOIN reports.
Larsen said he was shocked to learn the man was the suspect in the death of Zghoul, an apiring actress and model and the mother of a young son.
“You never would expect that to happen to someone that you know,” Zghoul’s childhood friend Gregory McKelvey told KOIN. “She was a very funny person, everybody knew her and her whole family.”
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