Newberg-Dundee police said Wednesday that Jennifer Huston died of suicide by asphyxiation after parking her SUV along a rural Sheridan logging road.

Police said detectives found a note inside her SUV, addressed to her family. Huston's body was found on Tuesday.

A news release Wednesday afternoon stated that "detectives and the medical examiner have concluded that Jennifer had been deceased fairly close to the time she was reported missing" on July 25.

Family members released a statement Wednesday afternoon. It begins:

"Our hearts ache today. We have lost our first born child. We have lost a wife and a mother.

We don't know what led Jennifer to this dark place and to this end and perhaps never will understand this.

More: Read the family's full note of sorrow and gratitude

Huston was wearing the same clothes as when she left her home early on the evening of July 24 to run errands. She withdrew less than $100 from a bank; stopped at Rite-Aid to buy Gatorade, trail mix and over-the-counter sleeping medication; and filled up her tank at a gas station in Newberg. Her cell phone had been turned off.

When Huston didn’t return, her husband, relatives and friends put out a public plea for help in finding the 37-year-old stay-at-home mom -- all the while shielding the couple's two boys, ages 2 and 6, from a search that drew national media attention.

At about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, a retiree patrolling his family's 40-acre, heavily wooded property found Huston's green Lexus SUV parked along a private, unpaved lane near Gopher Valley Road. He called police, who discovered her body about 40 yards away.

Toxicology results were not yet available.

Newberg-Dundee detectives and crime-scene technicians from the Oregon State Police found an empty box of sleeping medication, Huston's purse and her cell phone in her SUV. Computer-forensic detectives analyzed her cell phone. They found no indication of "nefarious" activities.

Her gas tank was full.

Since police announced Tuesday afternoon that Huston's body had been found, the Find Jennifer Huston Facebook page has drawn more than 2,000 comments of grief and sorrow.

Family members plan to hold a celebration-of-life gathering, and will post the date, time and location on the Facebook page.

Hillside Fellowship Church in Newberg will accept cards, contributions or flowers for the Huston family. Pastor Zach Elliott at zach@beinghillside.com has offered to help with the collection of those remembrances.

-- Aimee Green