A woman who escaped a cinderblock cell in a man’s garage in Klamath Falls, Oregon, was abducted hundreds of miles away last month in Seattle, and now authorities are looking for more potential victims across multiple states.
The man, 29-year-old Negasi Zuberi of Klamath Falls, posed as an undercover police officer and kidnapped the woman in the early morning hours July 15, then sexually assaulted her and locked her up, according to court records. He was arrested and charged with interstate kidnapping.
The victim, who wasn’t identified, “briefly slept and awoke to the realization that she would likely die if she did not attempt to escape,” according to a criminal complaint. The “makeshift” cell was made of cinderblocks and a door with metal bars that had been installed backwards so it couldn’t be opened from the inside, the complaint said.
She banged against the door, bloodying and bruising her hands, until she managed to open it, the FBI in Portland said Wednesday. She retrieved a gun that belonged to Zuberi and escaped. She climbing over a fence and flagged down a driver who called 911.
“This woman was kidnapped, chained, sexually assaulted, and locked in a cinderblock cell,” Stephanie Shark, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Portland field office, said in a news release. “Her quick thinking and will to survive may have saved other women from a similar nightmare.”
Authorities said Zuberi has been linked to sexual assaults in at least four more states, and they are searching for more potential victims. He’s lived in multiple states since 2016, possibly including California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Alabama, and Nevada, the FBI said. He had solicited the victim to engage in prostitution before telling her he was an undercover officer, the criminal complaint said.
He was arrested in Reno, Nevada, in a Walmart parking lot where he was with his wife and one of his children.
An attorney listed as representing Zuberi in court records didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from USA TODAY on Wednesday. Zuberi is also known by the names Justin Joshua Hyche, Sakima Zuberi, and Justin Kouassi, court records show.
Contributing: The Associated Press
