Kidnapping suspect identified after woman jumps from car to escape

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — After refusing to identify himself to authorities for several days, the suspect in a kidnapping that recently occurred in Southwest Washington has been named.

In the wee hours of Saturday morning, a family in Camas woke up to a woman in distress who was yelling and trying to get inside their house.

“I thought he was going to kill me,” the woman reportedly said.

The residents of the home, Jamie Woods and his wife Caitlin Martin, were concerned and confused. They said the woman appeared to be intoxicated.

“She had told me that someone was trying to kill her and took her car so I said OK and I walked off into the street with her to see if I could see anything,” Woods said. “Right then and there the car that she explained to me had turned the corner.”

The man allegedly in that car was identified by the Clark County Sheriff’s Office as 31-year-old Jeremy Alexksa on Tuesday.

Deputies investigated and confirmed the woman was in her car early Saturday morning near Mill Plain and Grand Boulevard when Alexksa reportedly asked her for water. The Clark County Sheriff’s Office said the woman — who has not been publicly identified at this time — let him in her car.

Then Alexksa threatened her with a knife, officials said, and drove her car to Northeast 28th Street and 223rd Avenue.

That’s where she jumped out and got help from residents in the area, officials say.

Deputies spotted the suspect in her car and after a 10-minute car chase, Clark County deputies arrested him with the help of the Vancouver police. He was taken into custody near NE 2nd and 115th.

Though Alexksa was in custody since Saturday, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office said he was still refusing to identify himself as of Monday. Before being named on Tuesday, Alexksa was being held under a John Doe booking.

He has since been charged with first-degree kidnapping and first-degree robbery by the Vancouver Police Department, following the initial kidnapping, robbery, reckless driving and attempt to elude charges from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.