Negasi Zuberi and the cell in the garage
The door was hung so it could only be opened from outside. The woman inside beat on it until it gave, took his gun from his car and ran.
- When
- May and July 2023
- Where
- Seattle, Washington, and Klamath Falls, Oregon
- Status
- Convicted
Content note kidnapping, sexual assault mentioned without detail, captivity. No graphic images.
In brief
On July 15, 2023, Negasi Zuberi posed as an undercover police officer in Seattle, handcuffed a woman, put her in leg irons and drove her about 450 miles to his rented home in Klamath Falls, Oregon, sexually assaulting her on the way. He locked her in a cell he had built from cinder blocks in his garage, with a metal door installed in reverse. When he left, she banged on the door until it broke open, took a handgun from his car and flagged down a passing driver. He was arrested the next day in Reno, Nevada. Investigators linked him to an earlier kidnapping in Klamath Falls and found handwritten notes that officials said pointed to plans for more attacks. A federal jury convicted him in October 2024, and he was sentenced to life in prison in January 2025.
Turning pointSix weeks before the Seattle kidnapping, another woman Zuberi kidnapped had noticed something in his garage: a stack of cinder blocks.
- Convicted
- Negasi Zuberi, 31 at sentencing, of Klamath Falls, Oregon
- Survivors
- Two women, neither publicly named
- The cell
- Cinder blocks and a metal door installed in reverse, built inside his garage
- Arrest
- July 16, 2023, in a Walmart parking lot in Reno, Nevada, after a standoff
- Verdict
- Guilty on all charges, October 18, 2024, after an 11-day federal trial
- Sentence
- Life in federal prison, January 17, 2025
Timeline
May 6, 2023
Zuberi kidnaps and sexually assaults a woman he met at a bar in Klamath Falls. While he holds her, she sees stacked cinder blocks in his garage.
July 15, 2023
In Seattle, Zuberi approaches a woman along Aurora Avenue, then tells her he is an undercover officer and that she is under arrest. He points a Taser at her, puts her in handcuffs and leg irons and forces her into the back seat of his car.
July 15, 2023
He drives her about 450 miles to Klamath Falls, stopping to sexually assault her. At his house he moves her into a cell he built in the garage from cinder blocks, with a metal door installed in reverse so it cannot be opened from inside, and leaves.
Within a day
She bangs on the door until it breaks open, takes a handgun from his car in the garage, climbs a fence and flags down a passing motorist, who calls 911. Klamath Falls police get a search warrant and find the cell.
July 16, 2023
Tracked by his phone, Zuberi is found in a Walmart parking lot in Reno, Nevada. After a standoff, he surrenders.
August 2, 2023
A federal grand jury in Medford indicts him. The FBI asks the public for help finding more victims, saying he has lived in at least 10 states and has been linked to violent sexual assaults in at least four.
February 15, 2024
A superseding indictment adds a second kidnapping charge, for the May abduction, and firearms and ammunition charges.
October 18, 2024
After an 11-day trial in which he does not testify, a federal jury finds him guilty of all charges.
January 17, 2025
Representing himself, Zuberi calls the women "false victims." U.S. District Judge Michael McShane calls him a predator incapable of feeling remorse and sentences him to life in prison.
The full story
What happened
On July 15, 2023, Negasi Zuberi drove from his home in Klamath Falls, Oregon, to Seattle. There he approached a woman, then told her he was an undercover police officer and that she was under arrest. He pointed a Taser at her, locked her in handcuffs and leg irons and put her in the back seat of his car.
He drove her about 450 miles south, stopping along the way to sexually assault her. At the house he rented in Klamath Falls, he took her into the garage and put her inside a room he had built there out of cinder blocks. The metal door had been installed in reverse, so it could not be opened from the inside. He told her he had to go do paperwork, and he left.
The escape
She slept for a little while. When she woke up, she understood that she would probably die if she stayed. She started hitting the door. Police said she punched the security screen until the welds broke, pulled the metal down and squeezed through the gap. His car was in the garage, and his handgun was in it. She took the gun, got over a wooden fence and waved down a passing driver, who called 911.
Klamath Falls police got a search warrant and found the cell, and her purse, in the garage. Zuberi was already gone. Detectives tracked his phone to Reno, Nevada, where Reno police and the Nevada State Patrol found him in a Walmart parking lot on July 16. After a standoff, he surrendered.
What else they found
Federal agents learned that six weeks earlier, on May 6, Zuberi had kidnapped and sexually assaulted another woman, whom he met at a bar in Klamath Falls. While he held her, she had seen stacked cinder blocks in his garage. Prosecutors said those were the blocks he later used to build the cell.
In the house, investigators found handwritten notes. One page, headed “Operation Take Over,” advised choosing women without many people in their lives, because “you don’t want any type of investigation.” Another read “Dig a hole straight down 100ft.” Prosecutors said he had a list of names labeled targets, had been watching women’s cars, and had written about building an underground prison for women on a property in Bonanza, Oregon.
The FBI said he had lived in at least 10 states since 2016, used several names, and had been linked to violent sexual assaults in at least four states. It asked other victims to come forward.
The trial and sentence
A federal grand jury indicted Zuberi in August 2023, and a second kidnapping charge was added in February 2024. After an 11-day trial in Medford, a jury found him guilty of all charges on October 18, 2024.
At his sentencing on January 17, 2025, Zuberi represented himself. He called the women false victims, said he was a political prisoner, and then cried when he talked about his sons. Judge Michael McShane called him a predator incapable of feeling remorse and sentenced him to life in prison. The judge also praised the stranger who stopped for a woman running from a garage in Klamath Falls without hesitating.
What the video couldn't include
Operation Take Over
In the house, investigators found handwritten notes under the heading "Operation Take Over." One read: "Leave phone at home. Make sure they don't have a bunch of ppl in their life. You don't want any type of investigation." Another page read "Dig a hole straight down 100ft." Prosecutors said he kept a list of names labeled "targets," monitored women's vehicles, and planned an underground prison for women on a property in Bonanza, Oregon.
How she got out
According to the federal complaint, he told her he had to go "do paperwork" and left. She slept briefly and woke up knowing she would likely die if she did not try to escape. Klamath Falls police said she punched the security screen of the door until the welds broke, pulled the metal screen down and climbed through a small opening. Officers later found her blood on the wooden fence she climbed.
Until her hands were bloody
"She beat the door with her hands until they were bloody in order to break free," the FBI's Stephanie Shark said. "Her quick thinking and will to survive may have saved other women from a similar nightmare."
The first woman spoke in court
The woman he kidnapped in May called him merciless. She said she cut off her hair, which he had used to drag her, because it no longer felt like hers, and that she stopped wearing makeup and nice clothes so she would not draw attention.
The standoff
Prosecutors at sentencing referred to arrest footage that they said showed Zuberi using one of his children as a human shield during the standoff in Reno.
A record before Klamath Falls
Prosecutors laid out a history of assault and sexual abuse convictions, beginning with a conviction for having sex with a 16-year-old when he was 23. He had used the names Sakima, Justin Hyche and Justin Kouassi.
A stranger who stopped
At sentencing, the judge said the only reason for hope in the case was the passerby in Klamath Falls who helped the escaped woman without hesitation.
The video and the record
The episode tells this case in about 3 minutes with illustrated recreations. Here is how its key moments line up with what is documented.
The door had been installed in reverse so it could only be opened from outside
Documented
From the FBI's description of the cell.
He pointed a taser at her, forced her into handcuffs and leg irons
Documented
From the FBI and court records.
She struck it again and again, even as her hands became bloody, until the door and its frame finally started to give
Compressed
The FBI says she beat the door until her hands were bloody. Police say what gave way was the welded security screen, which she pulled down before climbing through a small opening.
She retrieved a handgun from Zuberi's vehicle and flagged down a passing motorist
Documented
From the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Police found him the next day in a Walmart parking lot in Reno
Documented
Located by Reno police and Nevada State Patrol on July 16, 2023.
Handwritten pages titled "Operation Take Over," a list of "targets," a hole straight down one hundred feet
Documented
From the federal complaint and prosecutors' statements.
Plans for an underground prison for women, specifying waterproof concrete and foam insulation
Compressed
Prosecutors described plans for an underground prison for women in Bonanza, Oregon. The specific materials are not named in the sources cited here.
The materials were already there, waiting to become the cell
Documented
The first victim saw stacked cinder blocks that prosecutors say he later used to build the cell.
Sentenced to two consecutive life sentences
Documented
Reported by OPB. The U.S. Attorney's release says life in federal prison.
The garage, the cell, the woman at the door
Reconstruction
AI-generated illustrations. Neither woman's likeness is shown, and no real photographs are used.
What the four marks mean
- Documented
- Shown as it is recorded in court filings, police statements, or consistent reporting.
- Reconstruction
- A reasonable visual recreation of a documented event. The event happened; the image is illustrative.
- Compressed
- Real events shortened, merged, or reordered to fit the runtime.
- Dramatized
- A storytelling choice (framing, wording, emphasis) that the record does not establish.
Sources
- [1]U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Oregon“Klamath Falls Man Sentenced to Life in Federal Prison for Kidnapping and Sexually Assaulting Two Women and Holding One in a Cell”
- [2]FBI Portland Field Office“FBI Portland Seeking Additional Victims after Woman Escaped Makeshift Cell in Klamath Falls, Oregon”
- [3]CNN“Negasi Zuberi is indicted on kidnapping charge after woman escaped from a makeshift 'dungeon' made of cinder blocks, authorities say”Quotes the Klamath Falls Police Department release and the probable cause affidavit.
- [4]Law & Crime“'Dig a hole straight down 100 ft': Disturbing plans outlined in notebook found at home of serial rapist arrested after woman escapes from makeshift cell in his garage, FBI says”Quotes the federal criminal complaint.
- [5]NBC News“Man found guilty of kidnapping after woman escaped from cinder block cell in Oregon”
- [6]OPB / Northwest News Network“Klamath Falls kidnapper, Negasi Zuberi, sentenced to life in prison”
- [7]KTVZ / KGW“Klamath Falls man who held kidnapped woman in cinder block cell sentenced to life in prison”
- [8]CNN / Associated Press“Oregon man who kidnapped a Seattle woman and kept her in a makeshift cell gets life sentence”
VerifiedKey facts in this file were checked against multiple consistent reports and first-person or official accounts. Last reviewed September 12, 2026. How we check cases
