Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - 28-year-old mom of one body found dismembered in car trunk. Did freaky neighbor stalk and kill?

Episode Date: November 20, 2019

The body of a 28-year-old mother is found in two suitcases in the trunk of a BMW. Ultimately a neighbor is arrested. Suspect Jeremiah Johnston kills and dismembers beautiful aspiring model Sara Zghoul. He then uses her cellphone and poses as her to throw police off, according to authorities.Joining Nancy Grace today to discuss the case: Judge Ashley Willcott- Judge, Trial Attorney, Anchor at Court TV James Shelnutt - 27-years Atlanta Metro-area Major Case Detective, Retired Swat Officer Dr. Tim Gallagher- Medical Examiner for State of Florida Dr. Lyz DeBoer- Licensed Psychologist, NY and PA, Corrections Psychology Intervention & Founder of Visionistas By Design Dave Mack- CrimeOnline Investigative Reporter  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Decapitated remains of a young mom stuffed in suitcases. It sounds like a horrible movie or or some thriller or a work of fiction. But in fact, it is a horror story dreamed up in the mind of a killer. What happened to 28-year-old Sarah Zagul? Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. crime stories with nancy grace well horrible and shocking but with crap that's going on everywhere it seems like it's just not too surprising mike mchugh was at home in aloha last night when deputies converged on his neighborhood cops say they got a tip about a murder leading them to Southwest Sorolla and Hargis Street. That's where they found this BMW

and a woman's body in the trunk. The victim is 28-year-old Sarah Zagul from Aloha. Neighbors can hardly believe it. Because you're always seeing this kind of thing happening elsewhere. You wonder if anything like this is ever going to affect your life. And then something like this happens and you start wondering even more, you know. Sarah Zagul's Facebook page says she was a model, actress, and she went to PSU. Now neighbors want to know how and why her life ended here. Our friends at KPTV Fox 12, that was Jamie Wilson. What happened to a gorgeous 28-year-old girl, Sarah Zagul? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Decapitated remains of a young mom stuffed in suitcases.

It's almost too much to take in. As a matter of fact, it sounds like a horrible movie or some thriller or a work of fiction. But in fact, it is a horror story dreamed up in the mind of a killer. Again, I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. With me, an all-star panel, trial lawyer and judge Ashley Wilcott, Anchor Court TV at ashleywilcott.com, James Shelnut, Metro Major Case SWAT officer, now lawyer, the medical examiner for the state of Florida, Dr. Tim Gallagher, Dr. Liz DeVore, psychologist in New York, Pennsylvania, founder of Visionistas by Design, and at drlizlyz.com. But right now to Jennifer Dowling with KOIN6 in Portland. You know, Jennifer, when I think of Portland, Oregon. I think of wild, untamed beauty, a place to go and get away

from the rat race. But instead, we discover a young mom, decapitated, number one, stuffed in suitcases. What can you tell me? How did the whole thing start? Let's start at the beginning, Jennifer. Well, we in the news media first learned about it when the car was found. So she was found in a black BMW in a community called Aloha. And it's a beautiful community. It's about 30 minutes outside of downtown. And a very quiet community, nice homes, nice families, tight-knit families that have lived there for quite some time, children that have grown there, gone to school together.

And this car was found on one of the side streets with a body inside. So when we responded, all we knew was that there was a body found in the trunk of a black BMW. And it was pretty shocking to be in that nice neighborhood. It is pretty idyllic. And that things like that just don't happen there. You know what, you're right about that. And I want to comment on that. You know, when we hear about crime, and let's just say a drug infested area, or a high crime area, or let's just say in the Sonola area of Mexico, we think, well, you know what, that's to be expected. That doesn't make it any less important. But I think it shocks the senses

to James Shelnut, Metro Major Case SWAT officer, now lawyer, because people don't expect for a decapitated mom's body to be found in a BMW parked down the street from the nice houses where there's no crime. That shocks everyone's senses. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is just something that you would never expect. I mean, people expect to come home and live in a nice neighborhood, enjoy the afternoon. And when this happens, it really startles people. It gets people locking their doors and really just creates a sense of panic in the entire neighborhood. You know what? You're right. And to you, Ashley Wilcott, judge and trial lawyer, you know, Ashley, I remember the Atlanta community was shocked when outside of a very ritzy country

club, they had been having a big society wedding in there and reception. A guy goes out to catch an Uber and somebody comes up and robs him and one of the swankiest names in town. And he says, well, wait, let me just have my driver's license and starts to approach the robber and the robber guns him down. He was a brand new dad and left behind an infant girl just about a week or so old. The mom had stayed behind with the baby and not come to the wedding. And it shocked everybody. How could this happen? I'll tell you how it happens. The same way it happens in housing projects and in high crime areas and in drug-infested areas.

That's how it happens. There is a predator amongst us, and he lets loose. That's how it happens. I remember when that happened in Atlanta, Nancy, and the bottom line is this, it can happen to anyone, anywhere. Everyone can be a victim of crime regardless of where you live, of where you frequent. And part of the misnomer here is that so many people think, oh, it could never happen to me. Oh, it's safe because it looks safe. It feels safe. It's ritzy. The fact of the matter is it doesn't matter where it happens.

Every victim is just as valuable. Guys, with me, Jennifer Dowling, reporter, KOIN6, Portland, Oregon. And we are talking about a young mom, 28-year-old Sarah Zgul. And I'm stunned. As a crime victim of violent crime, when you lose someone you love, that's horrible enough. When you lose them unexpectedly, suddenly, that makes it worse. When you lose them to violent crime. When you lose someone you love, that's horrible enough. When you lose them unexpectedly, suddenly, that makes it worse. When you lose them to violent crime, it's a shock many people never recover from. Tell me again about the neighborhood, Jennifer, and I'm going to get down into the case in just a minute, but I want to understand where this happened. Yeah, Aloha is a very, as I mentioned, a very quiet and a nice community. This was a group, an area where people were really tight knit. In fact, I had talked to

some of the victims friends, and they said they had all grown up together as young kids, even if they didn't go to the same school or weren't the same age, they all knew each other. You know, they'd ride their bikes together. They'd come over to each other's houses and play games. And that included Sarah. And so they all knew one another. So it's a little bit outside of Portland, but it's one of those communities that is very quiet, mature trees. Like I said, nice homes. You can walk, you could ride your bike, you could run without probably any fear of anything happening to you, maybe even at night. So this was really shocking,

especially to her friends who knew her. And so she was really friendly and outgoing and grew up with her. It really hit them hard. Now, when I look at her and, and so she was really friendly and outgoing and grew up with her. It really, uh, hit them hard. You know, when I look at her photo, she's just, she's just beautiful. She looks a little bit to me like, um, Princess Meghan, a little bit to me, the long dark hair, um, the big, beautiful brown eyes, the gorgeous, but you know know, kind of a distant smile, but still smiling. Guys, of course, of course, the cops don't want to tell the world that this young mom has been dismembered. Take a listen to our friends at KATU2, reporter Bob High. This investigation

started yesterday. My deputies say they got a 911 call and found a woman's body in a car just a few blocks from here. This photo from the Washington County Sheriff's Office shows the car officers found with the body of 28-year-old Sarah Zgul of Aloha inside. Authorities wouldn't confirm reports that Zgul's body had been dismembered and put inside the car's trunk. Deputies came to the spot where the car was found on Thursday after a 911 caller contacted the Sheriff's Office worried that someone had been killed. The site where the car was found is just three blocks from the house searched by investigators all day

Friday. Those are my neighbors right next door. Really nice people. We see them every day. Maureen Triplett knows the couple that lives in the house and saw them with investigators outside the home Friday morning, but she hasn't seen their adult son since the investigation began. He lives there as far as I know. I think since last summer is kind of when I started seeing him. But yeah, other than that, don't really know much about him. What we know is that the body of this young mom, Sierra Zagul, 28 years old, absolutely stunning, was taken apart and placed into two separate suitcases. Police at the time not confirming who alerted them to the BMW parked in the neighborhood. Take a listen to what our medical examiner from the state of Florida has to say, Dr. Tim Gallagher.

When we say body dismembered, you know, you think of what you see in movies and on TV. It's actually a very, very difficult task to dismember a body. Well, it certainly is, Nancy, and it's not something that we see very often. but, you know, we have to keep in mind that when we do see a dismembered body, we first have to make sure that it is just one body that is present in the dismemberment. Okay, now wait, Gallagher, thank you so much. I hadn't even thought of the, you know, the mixing and matching of multiple dismembered bodies. Now, that's something for me to think about tonight when I go to sleep. Thanks, Dr. Gallagher.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. the house. It's still surrounded by police tape, and it was the scene of a massive investigation earlier today. You never would expect that to happen to somebody that you know. Sarah Zagoul's friends say she was outgoing and friendly, always ready to brighten the room. She was very thoughtful,

very kind, very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind.

She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind.

She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind.

She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. She was very kind. THE FAMILY. THE FAMILY WAS EXCITED TO SEE HER FRIEND BEFORE SHE WAS ABLE TO REACH OUT TO HER FRIEND EARLIER TODAY. YOU NEVER WOULD EXPECT

THAT TO HAPPEN TO SOMEBODY THAT YOU KNOW. SARAH'S FRIENDS SAY SHE WAS OUTGOING AND FRIENDLY, ALWAYS READY TO BRIGHTEN THEIR ROOM. SHE WAS A VERY FUNNY PERSON.

EVERYBODY KNEW HER AND HER WHOLE FAMILY. GREGORY GREW UP 10 MINUTES FROM HER HOUSE. HE SAID THE TEENS IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD FORMED A TIGHT-NIT GROUP THROUGHOUT HIGH SCHOOL.

I JUST FEEL SO BAD FOR HER FAMILY. THE 28-YEAR-OLD WAS AN ASPIRING MODEL AND ACTRESS. HER FRIEND AND PHOTOGRAPHER LESTER SAI TOOK THESE PHOTOS OF HER. HE SAYS IT WAS SOMETHING SHE REALLY ENJOYED DOING. OTHERS TELL US SHE HAD A YOUNG SON THAT MEANT EVERYTHING TO HER. NOBODY KNOWS IF IT WAS LIKE A STRANGER, IF IT WAS LIKE

SOMEBODY CLOSE TO HER. IT'S LIKE SO, UM, YEAH, IT'S SCARY. DEPUTIES SAY THEY FOUND HER BODY IN THE BMW AFTER RECEIVING A TIP. THEY ID'D A SUSPECT AND EVENTUALLY PICKED HIM UP LAST NIGHT NEAR SOUTHWEST MURRAY BOULEVARD AND

TEAL. THE BODY OF A BEAUTIFUL GIRL WAS FOUND IN THE BOMB IN THE BOMB IN THE BOMB IN THE BOMB IN THE BOMB IN THE BOMB IN THE BOMB IN THE BOMB IN THE BOMB IN THE BOMB IN THE BOMB IN THE BOMB IN THE BOMB IN THE It's scary. Deputies say they found her body in the BMW after receiving a tip. They ID'd a suspect and eventually picked him up last night near Southwest Murray Boulevard in Teal. The body of a beautiful young mom, just 28 years old, Sarah Zagul, found in two separate suitcases. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.

Back to Dr. Tim Gallagher, medical examiner for the state of Florida. Dr. Gallagher, of course, you brought up the specter of could it be two bodies? I asked you about how difficult it is to actually dismember a body. Because we've all seen, let's just say, Dexter, for example, which actually helped me get through my pregnancy. Dexter in Mystery Woman. Anyway, Dexter, it was kind of a airbrushed, edited version of a serial killer that would often dismember bodies. And you would never really see blood. He would never have a difficult time of it. It's very hard to dismember a body. And the point of this is, Dr. Gallagher, what the killer went through.

Premeditatedly, intentionally dismembering a body. Describe the difficulty of that task, Dr. Gallagher. Well, it's certainly difficult for somebody who's not familiar with the anatomy of the human body, but to cut through the flesh and to cut through the bones, you need electrical equipment or a saw. I mean, if you use a hand saw, it could certainly take hours, hours and hours with planning, taking breaks, and just a lot of human strength involved. You know, to stop right there, you make it sound like it's a union job. You've got to take a break every couple of hours for a fifth date and go have a cig. No. Another thing when you're talking about dismembering a body are the tool markings left on bones, which will tell an experienced medical examiner or pathologist like Dr. Tim Gallagher exactly what happened. Explain what we mean by the words tool markings, Dr. Gallagher.

Well, if you do use an instrument such as a knife or a saw blade, the bone will have a pattern on it from the saw blade. So you can look at the pattern on the bone, which we would call the tool mark or the mark left by the tool used to cut the bone. And we could identify what that tool is, whether it's a saw, whether it's a blade, whether it's any other kind of an instrument, and then take that piece of evidence and trace it back to the tool that was used to dismember the body. Guys, this young mom, I'm curious about her background. Jennifer Dowling, KOIN6, Portland, Oregon. What do we know about Sarah Zagul? Because very often, the killer, you know what, let me just throw this out to Dr. Liz DeBoer, psychologist in Pennsylvania and New York. Very often, well, always, police start the investigation by those closest to the victim.

That's where you start the search for a killer, correct? And why? Yeah, so as you can hear, the people that were interviewed explained that this is a tight-knit community. There's friends and associates that she's had since high school. And so to get the most accurate information of where she would be, what relationship she may have, you're going to interview the people who are closest with her to start that investigation and really try to get as much, gather as much information and clues to lead you to answering and solving this horrific mystery. James Sheldon, a lawyer, former SWAT and major case.

James, the reality is you and I have been on the streets for years and years and years. You start with the husband, the boyfriend, the ex. Why? It's simple. Statistics, math. Explain. Oh, yeah. I think if you look at the statistics, the vast majority of homicides are committed by people who are close, whether it's a spouse, whether it's an immediate family member or someone that they're in an intimate relationship with. That is a majority of the homicides. A very small portion of homicides occur between strangers. And

that is the logical place. And, you know, as was stated earlier, you start with the inner circle closest to the victim and then work your way out. I mean, it's harsh, but true. Those closest to you are typically when there are homicides, those closest to you are the first suspects, the first persons of interest. Why? Because it's emotional to those people, emotional relationships, and they know them. And it's those emotions that often drive murderers to murder because they're angry, they're passionate, all of these things that misguide them, mislead them into committing these horrible crimes. The other thing, Nancy, I have to add when I have a second, listening to the description of what it takes to decapitate someone,

all I can say is this, premeditated. It's got to be. It takes hours and hours and hours. And remember, when a jury is deliberating, should this person be apprehended and tried, a jury under the law can take into consideration any and all activities before, during, and after the incident, including dismembering the body, so as to determine premeditation at the time of the

killing itself. It will be a difficult task to top it all off, to not only put the body back together again, typically that's what medical examiners do, Gallagher, correct me if I'm wrong, they lay out the body in its original shape. For instance, let's just use the case of Kelly Anthony, the two-year-old daughter of top mom Casey Anthony. They looked on their hands and knees for hours and hours into the night with spotlights trying to find all over 200 bones. Then they painstakingly put them together on, for instance, the doctor's examining table and try to re-establish the body. And that is what they will do with Sarah Zagul's body.

The difficult task is to determine what was the mode of death, the cause of death, when you're dealing with a dismembered body. It's very, very difficult to do. Why is that, Dr. Gallagher? It's very difficult to do to find the mode of death because a lot of the time the evidence that you need on the body, the contusions, the incisions, even some of the bullet tracks will be lost due to decomposition. So we have to use other methods by which we can identify what the cause of death is, if possible at all. Well, what you say, the evidence is lost due to decomp, but what about

the tearing the body apart, hacksawing, jigsawing it apart? I would think that you would lose evidence of a bullet entry or exit or a stabbing or asphyxiation, particularly if she was decapitated at the neck. There may be no evidence of asphyxiation, particularly if she was decapitated at the neck, there may be no evidence of asphyxiation or strangulation. I would think that it would be more a problem with dismembering a body as opposed to decomposition and determining the cause of death, Dr. Gallagher. Well, when you deconstruct a body or you dismember a body, the injuries to the torso, that part of the body is never dissected. That part of the body is very rarely, except in the case of the black dahlia, of course, that was in Hollywood,

the torso is very rarely dissected. So the major organs, the heart, the lungs, can be checked for injury to see what the cause of death is, whether that be a stabbing or whether that be a shooting. But for strangulation, if the head is decapitated and the neck is damaged from the instrument, from the saw, from the knife, that's going to be a little bit more difficult to identify a strangulation. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. mother to a young boy. A friend of nearly 10 years told me through Facebook she's an absolutely wonderful woman as well as a great mother. I'm absolutely disgusted with the fact that someone could do this to such an amazing woman and mother. That's KATU2 reporter Keaton Thomas talking about Sarah Zagul, actress, model, mother. Jennifer Dowling with me, reporter KOIN6 Portland, Oregon. Jennifer, what else can you tell me about Sarah? Well, she really loved her young son and he is so cute. If you look on her Instagram

profile, she has a lot of pictures of him on there and she just wrote really beautiful love notes to her child basically that said things like, what an amazing boy, God bless me with, I love you to the moon and back, an infinite number of times. It looks like she posted that about six months before her death there in Aloha. She also wrote about him, my little Kaepernick and I lounging, and she had pictures of him and her, you know, watching TV together. She was very inspirational to her friends as well. They also told us that she was just a bright light in their life. And she posted a lot of inspirational things on there as well, just for everyone to see. She did a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. that said, darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that. She had that posted,

a MLK Jr. quote on her page. She also had a lot of modeling photos posted. She did a lot of what looked like local gigs around town, some runway shows, maybe some Instagram influencing. Looks like she did a bridal shoot with some bridal gowns as part of her modeling, aspiring modeling career. She really enjoyed doing that. That's what her photographer and friend Lester Tsai told me. She just was really beautiful and she was great in front of the camera, but she was also very, you know, lively and effervescent in real life too. She just had a real energy about her that was very positive and made people smile. And friends told us that they

really hope that she's remembered that way. Now according to some reports she had been married and that she was a graduate of University of Portland. I'm looking at her now and she looks like a runway model. Who could have done this. That Thursday night around 11 p.m., police receive a 911 call from a resident, Michael Larson, who reports hearing a man screaming in a ravine, calling for help. Listen. They say that he was in a wooded green space right behind some apartments here in Beaverton, and the only reason that they knew he was actually here was that they heard him calling for help. Right there where my finger is, that's where he was leaning up against and there's a little creek right down in there. It was pitch black at about 11 o'clock Thursday night when Nancy Larson's 13-year-old daughter first heard it.

There was a man out here screaming for help. They later learned he was taken into custody in connection with the death of 28-year-old Sarah Zagul of Aloha. Her body was found earlier that day inside this black BMW about three miles away at Southwest Sarala Street and Hargis Road. Unfathomable to think that something like that would happen in our community. Behind her apartment. I was talking to him and just trying to keep him calm while my husband was on the phone with 911. Larson recalled the brief conversation she had with the man. Asked if he needed medical assistance, if he was bleeding, and I just kept hearing I need help. So I let him know that help was on the way and he said thank you. Washington County Sheriff's deputies are not releasing the man's name until they book him into jail. They also wouldn't confirm his condition when Beaverton police

found him Thursday night. Meanwhile, the forensics team was back inside this Aloha home Saturday. They say it's associated with the suspect, but they aren't releasing any new information at this time. You're hearing our friend KATU2 reporter Keaton Thomas. What do we learn? That night, Thursday night, after the young mom's body is found dismembered and stuffed into two suitcases in a black BMW there in a tree-lined neighborhood, around 11 p.m., a little girl hears a man calling for help, sends her mom out to investigate, and she sees and hears 36-year-old Jeremiah Johnson down a ravine, worried about who else himself. To Jennifer Dowling, KOIN6, Portland, Oregon, why was he down a ravine? And is it true he lived in the neighborhood with his mother?

Yes, Nancy, he lived close by with his mom. We believe this ravine was about under three miles from his mom's house. Nobody really knows why he chose that ravine because that hasn't been revealed yet. But I did speak with Michael Larson about that personally, and he described it as being very odd and something wasn't quite right when he heard the man, which turned out to be Jeremiah Johnston, calling for help. They didn't know it at the time that this was the man that would eventually be involved in this case of a body in a car. And that completely shocked the Larson family. Michael told me that he was yelling, help me from the ravine.

It was dark, of course, at around 11 o'clock. And he and his wife called 911. Of course, he was on the phone with 911. And he just said it was so surprising the man wouldn't answer questions, tell him his name, tell him why he was down there. But he did describe police officers or detective deputies descending on the ravine, maybe about an hour later after all this started and yelling, he's here, he's here. And he could see, you know, from their flashlight that this man was leaning up against a tree. And again, it turned out to be Jeremiah Johnston, but we haven't been told yet.

Wait a minute. He's leaning up against a tree as in standing. So there was nothing wrong with him. I think he was sitting, he was like sitting on the ground in the ravine and leaning up against the tree and like yelling for help. I don't, the family lived in an upper level apartment. It was really high above this ravine, so they couldn't see very well. But, you know, they told me they didn't want to go down there in the dark to assist someone that they didn't know what was happening with that person. Of course, that'd be really scary, especially if you have a teenager in the house. You're not going to go down there and risk your life because you don't know who it is. Oh, no, would you never leave a little girl in the house and you go down a dark ravine.

Right. Okay, right there, James Shelnut, 27 years, Metro Major Case SWAT officer and now lawyer. You know when somebody won't tell you their name, they want you to help them, but they won't give you any identification or tell you even their name. That's a problem. Yeah, that's a problem. And I will tell you, Nancy, and I think you might agree with this. Very rarely do people who really want to commit suicide slash their own throat. That's not common. I don't know that I ever saw that one time when I was in full-time law enforcement. To Judge Ashley Wilcott, trial lawyer,

anchor at Court TV. Ashley, refusing to identify yourself, that's never good. That's always the first red flag because there's something nefarious afoot if you're not even willing to give your name unless you've sustained some type of injury where you don't know your name. But I would expect that's not the case here. And I just have to say one more thing. Crime of passion. Crimes of passion.

That's what happens. And you start looking at when you have someone who first spread flag, don't want to give you my name. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. 35-year-old Jeremiah Johnston is being held in the Washington County Jail without bail tonight. This follows nearly a week in the hospital before he was booked. Johnston is accused of killing 28-year-old Sarah Zagul.

He's charged with her murder and abuse of a corpse. Our main priority is making sure we do a really thorough investigation, that we honor her legacy and bring closure and justice for the family. Her body was found inside a car last Thursday, less than a half mile from her house on 171st place. Johnston has been in and out of jail since 2011 and most recently last September. Investigators have not released details about Johnston's charges nor how he got those marks on his neck. Our friend Steve Dunn at KATU2. So the 36-year-old neighbor who lives alone with his mother, Jeremiah Johnson, again, age 36,

how many times do you think he watched this young mom, a doting mother, 28 years old, a model, an aspiring actress, go in and out of her home with her little boy? Jennifer Dowling, KOINO-I-N-6, Portland, Oregon. Tell me about where they lived in that neighborhood. Would he have seen her? Yeah, it's quite possible. Her family home was less than a half a mile from his mother's home. So it's very possible that the two could have seen each other just in passing. They actually had mutual acquaintances. We still don't know if they did or what the relationship was, if they did know each other. But the acquaintance said, boy, I didn't even know that they were friends or knew each other,

meaning that he thought they had no relationship. But they did live very close to each other, and it was a close-knit neighborhood. It's possible. We'll have to wait for more details to come out during the court process. Well, I mean, he had to have seen her in order to kill her. Question, whose BMW was it, Jennifer? Well, there was a report from an acquaintance that it was his BMW, but that has not been confirmed by police. The acquaintance and the guy who said he was a friend of Jeremiah Johnson said that the B&W looked like Johnson's black B&W. But again, no confirmation yet from police.

We're still waiting to learn more in-depth details about that. And Jennifer, is it true he lived at home with his mother? Yeah, that is true. He was released from prison about three months prior to this. I had looked through some court documents and then he was living with his mom at that time. Again, not very far from where her family home was. And why was he in jail, Jennifer? There was a number of charges, many drug related. Ashley Wilcott, can you imagine how many times he watched her in that neighborhood going in and out of the home with her little boy until he finally murdered her?

Yeah, that's what's so horrible is, again, it goes to the premeditation. And these are, you said it earlier, Nancy, and it hits right on the spot in this case, predator. He was a predator. There are predators out there. The other thing I have to say is, you know, individuals like this man do not care whether there are children or not. They do not care if their victim is a mother. That is something that they don't give any thought to. You know, the other thing is he was down that ravine and had to go to the hospital because he tried to kill himself. He was very successful at murdering

Sarah, leaving her son without a mom, but oops, didn't work on the suicide attempt. I mean, we see that all the time. Is it true, Jennifer Dowling, K-O-I-N-6, that he had cuts on his hands as well? He had cuts on his neck and wrist. I did not hear that he had cuts on his hand. I mean, that's entirely possible. I just hadn't come across that information. But the sheriff's office did say that he did try to kill himself and those wounds were a result of that on his back and wrist. And he was also under what appeared to be a suicide watch for a time while he was making his first appearances. Take a listen to our friends at KATU2. It lasted a total of 40 seconds. Johnston entered a not guilty plea, but there may be a lot more to this case because the court has

also sealed records connected to Johnston's arrest that might detail what authorities believe happened in this case. Court documents also confirm for the very first time that authorities believe Johnston cut Sarah Zagul's body into pieces after allegedly killing her. We're on the record of the Jeremiah Ward Johnston matter. A long cut clearly visible on his neck, cuts that kept him in the hospital until he was booked into jail Wednesday night. Jeremiah Johnston didn't speak at all during his brief court appearance. The attorney entered a not guilty plea for Johnston to charges that he murdered 28-year-old actress and model Sarah Zagul of Aloha. Sheriff's investigators say they got a 911 call last Thursday

from someone worried that Zagul might be in danger. They found her dismembered body inside this BMW sedan. This map shows where Zagul and Johnston both lived, where the car was found near Johnston's home, and the site in Beaverton where Johnston was taken into custody the night authorities found Zagul and Johnston both lived, where the car was found near Johnston's home and the site in Beaverton where Johnston was taken into custody the night authorities found Zagul's remains. Okay, wait a minute. Jennifer Dowling, were there two 911 calls?

Because that said someone called because they were concerned about Sarah Zagul's safety. Then there was the 911 call when they heard Johnston down a ravine after his failed attempt at suicide. What can you tell me about two 911 calls? Well, it's interesting that a call came in indicating that Sarah could have been in the trunk of this car. And it's not, I'm not sure if the caller said, yes, Sarah's in that car, or if they just said a body's in that car. But it's interesting that that was the first call that tipped investigators off to her body and being able to locate her.

And then the second 911 call, of course, is equally as strange. That this Jeremiah Johnson was in a ravine with neck wounds and wrist wounds and calling for help, again, refusing to say his name. And that's police picked him up fairly quickly after that and took him to the hospital where he was treated. And then a few days later, he was organizing for the community to figure out exactly who might be responsible for this crime, who is going to be accused in this crime, because there was a lot of fear and concern about who might have done this. It was a few days before his name was released and the sheriff's office reported on who they were charging. And it was a little bit agonizing. I mean, everybody was concerned. I'm sure it was very agonizing with a little boy without his mother. We have learned that Sarah's body found inside Jeremiah Johnson's black BMW, according to Johnson's friend Chase Haverfield.

We also know that he's facing charges of murder and abuse of a corpse, which means, according to ABC 13 there locally, he is suspected of engaging in sex activity with the corpse or dismembering, mutilating, cutting, or striking the corpse. Now, we also know that that's not all. Take a listen to our friends at Fox 12. This is Breonna Kelly. Fox 12 has learned that a man accused of killing a woman in Aloha almost a year ago

is now accused of trying to hire a hitman from jail. Jeremiah Johnston pleaded not guilty last year to charges he was facing in connection to the death of 28-year-old Sarah Zagul. Fox 12's Brenna Kelly is live in studio to explain what else we've learned from this new indictment. Brenna? Well, Pete and Nora, Jeremiah Johnston was already facing charges of murder and abuse of corpse in connection to the death of Sarah Zagul. And now, according to a superseding indictment filed December 10th, prosecutors are accusing him of trying to hire someone from jail to kill a witness. This is months after he was charged with the 28-year-old woman's death.

Court papers show between May 28th and July 26th of last year, Johnston tried to solicit a man to murder a witness in criminal proceedings. Now, Johnston faces additional charges, including attempted aggravated murder, criminal conspiracy of a felony, and solicitation. The original charges stem from January of last year. Court documents accused Johnston of killing Zagul on January 20th. Deputies say they found her body in a car in Aloha five days later, and Johnston was arrested several hours after that. Records show her body was dismembered and Washington County deputies previously confirmed to us the two knew each other but have not revealed exactly how.

Friends of Zagul say she was an actress and model and a loving mother. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace Crime Story signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.