‘Dig a hole straight down 100ft:’ Serial rapist guilty of kidnapping woman, driving her 450 miles to his home where he held her captive in makeshift cell as part of ‘Operation Take Over’

Negasi Zuberi appears inset against two images of a makeshift cell allegedly used to confine kidnapped women in Oregon.

Inset: Negasi Zuberi. Background: Two images of a makeshift cell allegedly used to confine kidnapped women in Oregon (FBI).

A federal jury in Oregon convicted a man for kidnapping and raping two women, including one whom he held in a makeshift cell in his garage — all while his wife and child were in the home.

Negasi Zuberi, 30, was found guilty of kidnapping, transporting a victim for criminal sexual activity and illegally possessing a firearm and ammunition as a convicted felon, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon said Friday.

Authorities say the defendant has gone by several different aliases –including: “Sakima,” “Justin Hyche,” and “Justin Kouassi” – and he has lived in at least 10 states over the last 10 years.

More from Law&Crime: 3 men sexually assaulted woman at gunpoint, forced boyfriend to ‘watch the attack’

A Washington State woman led investigators to her former cell – at a house in Klamath Falls, near the Oregon-California border, resulting in the defendant’s eventual arrest. But while she may be the last alleged victim, authorities don’t believe she’s the first by any stretch.

“While she may have helped protect future victims, sadly we have now linked Zuberi to additional violent sexual assaults in at least four states and there could be more,” said Stephanie Shark, assistant special agent in charge at the FBI Portland Field Office said in a press release.

On July 15, 2023, Zuberi solicited the woman in question under the guise of purchasing sex in Seattle, the victim told law enforcement. After getting her alone, however, the woman’s soon-to-be captor posed as an undercover police officer and pretended to arrest her by pointing a Taser-like device at her and placing her in handcuffs and leg irons. Then, the woman said, Zuberi put her in the back of his car and took her some 450 miles back to the cell constructed in the garage in Klamath Falls – sexually assaulting her throughout the trip.

The woman would go on to describe the makeshift cell as having a metal door that was only able to be opened from the outside, according to a federal criminal complaint filed in the case and obtained by Law&Crime. At one point, Zuberi left, telling the woman he needed to go “do paperwork,” the document says.

“[The woman] briefly slept and awoke to the realization that she would likely die if she did not attempt to escape,” the complaint says. “[She] repeatedly banged on the door and was able to break the door open and escape the room. Once outside of the cell, she observed the Zuberi’s vehicle parked in the garage, opened the vehicle door, observed the handgun, retrieved it, and fled. [She] sought assistance from a passing motorist who called 911.”

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