BEAVERTON, Ore. (KOIN) — It was late on Thursday night, probably sometime after 11 p.m., the Larsen family says, when they heard the screams.
Yells of “Help me. Help me,” kept coming from outside their Beaverton apartment. The family went outside and looked into the dark ravine, searching for the source of the sound.
“We couldn’t see him,” Michael Larsen said, “but we could hear him.”
Then, they saw a silhouette. Michael said the person wouldn’t answers questions or provide his name. Screams, asking for help, continued.
“Something just wasn’t right,” he said. “Yeah, it was very odd.”
Michael’s wife wanted to go down into the ravine, but he wouldn’t let her. They went inside and called 9-1-1. In minutes, officers were there, swarming the ravine.
It turns out the silhouette was a man suspected of killing Sara Zghoul, who was found in the trunk of a car on Thursday not far from her home in Aloha. She was 28 and the mother of a young son.
“It‘s tragic for her family and everybody involved, her loved ones,” Larsen said, “It’s really sad.”
To watch the video below, click the still image
Deputies said the man, who hasn’t been identified, was suffering from a self-inflicted wound.
On Sunday, deputies investigated the same ravine where the Larsen’s had heard the screams.
“A lot of people came down and they were just combing the area,” he said. “They were in a long line, and they were just looking for anything they could find.”
Looking back, Larsen said the man sounded like he had given up, adding to the strangeness of the situation. He didn’t realize at the time that he was talking to a suspected killer.
“I was shocked,” Michael said. “I read the news the next morning and yes, they were related, he was a suspect.”