Jeremiah Ward Johnston

Updated 3:27 p.m. Tuesday



The suspect in the grisly death of an Aloha woman whose dismembered body was found in the trunk of a car is a convicted felon recently released from prison and on probation for another in a long string of drug charges, according to law enforcement sources and court records.

Jeremiah "Jeremy" Johnston, 35, was taken into custody Thursday night only hours after authorities found the body of 28-year-old Sara Zhgoul stuffed into two suitcases in a black BMW. The car was parked near the home of the suspect's mother, where he'd been living at the time, court records show.

As police closed in on him, Johnston tried to slash his throat and wrists, law enforcement sources said. He remained hospitalized Monday afternoon and had not been booked.

Authorities have not publicly identified the suspect. Deputy Jeff Talbot, a Washington County Sheriff's Office spokesman, said his name will be officially released once he is booked into jail, which could take days. He wouldn't release the man's condition or say where he was.

The relationship between Johnston and Zhgoul wasn't immediately known. But public records show the houses belonging to their families are a half-mile from each other in Aloha.

Court records show Johnston has multiple drug convictions in the Portland area dating to 2014.

Johnston was sentenced in July 2015 in Washington County Circuit Court to 23 months in prison for delivery of cocaine, felon in possession of a firearm and possession of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine, according to court records.

He was arrested in August for cocaine possession in Multnomah County and at the time reported to court staff that he had been released from prison three months earlier and was living with his mother at a home in the 8000 block of Southwest 166th Place in Aloha.

He pleaded guilty in September to the cocaine charge and was sentenced to a year and a half of probation and allowed to enter a treatment program, court records show.

Johnston reported to jail staff that he had been diagnosed with anxiety and depression and had been taking antidepressant medication.

Last week, the Washington County Sheriff's Office received word of a possible homicide Thursday evening near Southwest Sarala Street and Hargis Road in Aloha -- two blocks from Johnston's mother's home.

According to sources, authorities learned of a possible suspect and tracked him down to a ravine near Southwest Murray Boulevard and Southwest Teal Boulevard. That's when Johnston tried unsuccessfully to kill himself, the sources said.

Forensic investigators spent Saturday at the home of Johnston's mother, according to public records.

The family said Tuesday that Zghoul was not married or in school. Information in Jordanian news reports Monday was incorrect.

One report said she had graduated from the University of Portland, and a Facebook page for Zghoul says she studied pharmacology at Portland State University. School officials said there are no records of Zghoul attending either school.

Friends and acquaintances remembered Zghoul as a selfless young woman who made an impression on nearly everyone who met her. One of Zghoul's Facebook pages says she worked as an actress, model and voice-over artist.

One post on Instagram from fall 2016 suggested she was making strides in her life. She said she was grateful she wasn't homeless, hospitalized or in jail.

"'I don't know how my story will end but nowhere in the text will it read 'I gave up,'" she wrote. "'Life gets better if you want it to. And I love mine.'"

Staff writers Everton Bailey, Jr., Noelle Crombie and Anna Marum contributed to this report.