A woman who manage to punch her way out of a cinder block cell and escape her kidnapper at a home in southern Oregon likely helped other women avoid a similar fate, the FBI says.
Negasi Zuberi, 29, is now in federal custody for the kidnapping, and police say he’s a suspect in sexual assaults in at least four other states.
According to a statement from the FBI, Zuberi posed as an undercover police officer three weeks ago and kidnapped a woman in Seattle. He then drove hundreds of kilometres back to his home in Klamath Falls, Ore., sexually assaulting the woman along the way, before trapping her in a makeshift cell crafted out of cinder blocks in his garage.
“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. “Police say she beat the door with her hands until they were bloody in order to break free. Her quick thinking and will to survive may have saved other women from a similar nightmare.”
The woman was able to seek help from the driver of a passing car, who called 911. After her escape, Zuberi fled but was arrested the following day in Reno, Nev. He will be extradited to Oregon in the coming weeks.
At a press conference Wednesday, police said Zuberi has been charged with interstate kidnapping, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, and with transporting an individual across state lines with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, which is punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison.
Source : Global News
