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Complete written investigation summary
On July 15th, 2023, a woman escaped from a five-ton concrete cell by punching through a metal door until her hands were bloody. Her captor had spent months planning. She had only her fists and her will to survive.
The call came in just before noon. Melissa Geary was driving through a quiet Klamath Falls neighborhood, dressed as Rosie the Riveter for a comic book convention. Red bandana, denim shirt, the flexed arm pose. “We Can Do It.”
She saw a woman running toward her RAV4 along North Eldorado Avenue. The woman was hysterical. Bloodied. In shock. She had a gun.
“There’s a woman—she just flagged down my car—she’s bleeding, she’s hysterical. She says she was locked in a cell. She says she just escaped.”
That decision—to stop, to get involved, to not drive away—wasn’t automatic. Most people don’t stop. They call 911 from a distance. Melissa Geary stopped.
The woman who flagged down Geary’s vehicle had been kidnapped approximately 450 miles north, in Seattle, Washington. According to the FBI affidavit, it was around midnight on July 14th when Negasi Zuberi approached her along Aurora Avenue—an area known for sex work. He claimed to be an undercover police officer and showed what appeared to be a badge.
Then he pointed a yellow and black taser at her.
Within moments, Adult Victim 1 was restrained—handcuffed at her wrists, leg irons around her ankles. Zuberi placed her in the backseat of his Honda Pilot and began driving south through the night.
The criminal complaint details what happened during that seven-hour journey. According to prosecutors, Zuberi made several stops along the route. At each stop, he sexually assaulted her. He had wrapped her phone in aluminum foil—a Faraday cage to block all signals. He also had two commercial-grade cell phone jammers, purchased months earlier.
Four hundred fifty miles is deliberate. That’s geographic displacement: longer before anyone realizes someone is missing, victims disoriented and unsure of location, and crossed jurisdictional lines that complicate investigations.
At approximately 7:00 a.m. on July 15th, Zuberi stopped at a truck stop north of Klamath Falls. He placed a hooded sweatshirt on the victim—backwards, covering her face. Then he drove to 1336 North Eldorado Avenue.
In the garage stood the structure he had spent months building.
According to trial exhibits, the cell measured 101 inches long, 78 inches wide, and 84.5 inches tall on the interior. It was constructed from approximately 286 concrete blocks, each weighing 30 to 35 pounds. Over 10,000 pounds total. Five tons.
Trial photographs show it was framed with 2×4 studs, insulated with Thermafiber fire and sound guard insulation, and drywalled on the interior. The ceiling was engineered wood. The cell was soundproofed.
The door system was particularly deliberate: a black metal security door installed in reverse—hinges on the outside, impossible to open from within. Behind that was a white wooden door with a deadbolt. Neither door had an interior handle. Both required keys from both sides.
Zuberi locked her inside and told her he had to leave to do paperwork. Then he left.
The victim briefly slept. When she awoke, she came to a terrible realization: she would likely die if she did not attempt to escape.
She had no tools. No phone. Only her hands and her will to survive.
So she began to punch.
Try something: Make a fist. Punch the wall next to you once. Feel that? Now imagine doing that, full force, hundreds of times. Imagine your knuckles splitting. Imagine continuing anyway. Imagine doing it for hours in the dark, not knowing if it’s even working.
That’s not desperation. That’s calculation. That’s someone who decided: I will destroy my hands if that’s what it takes.
Court documents detail what happened. She punched the metal door repeatedly. She pulled at it with her legs. The Styrofoam insulation on the exterior took the brunt initially, but she kept going. She punched until the welds on the metal screen began to break. Blood from her hands stained the door and walls. She created an opening and ripped the mesh off the upper portion of the security door.
Then she faced the second door—the white wooden door, also deadbolted from the outside. So she kicked and smashed at the door jamb. The wooden frame splintered and broke. Forensic analysis determined that the door wouldn’t have broken this way if it hadn’t been deadbolted—it would have simply swung open. But because it was locked from the outside, she had to destroy the frame itself.
Finally, she was through.
In the garage, she saw Zuberi’s Honda Pilot. She grabbed the handgun inside. She fled through the side door, climbed the six-foot fence, and ran down North Eldorado Avenue until she saw a RAV4 driven by a woman dressed as Rosie the Riveter.
When police arrived, they found blood on the wooden fence. They found the concrete cell. They found documents titled “Operation Take Over” with instructions: “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.”
A blue journal contained a “Targets list”—names of women in their twenties. Next to the names were work schedule screenshots. Two women on that list were still alive when discovered, still unaware they’d been targeted.
Trial exhibits included a drawing of an underground cell. Messages from Zuberi’s iCloud showed he’d asked a friend: “What material used for prison/jail floor?” Another message asked specifically: “If hands could destroy it.”
He’d been researching whether hands could break through prison materials. On July 15th, Adult Victim 1 proved they could.
Negasi Zuberi was 29 years old. He had two young sons. Four years earlier, he had appeared on the television show Judge Judy, wearing a suit and tie, winning his case against his ex-partner. To anyone watching that episode, he seemed completely normal.
But investigators would discover he had a history of escalating sexual violence. In 2017, he was convicted of sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl. In 2021, he was convicted in California of assault for soliciting sex from another 16-year-old girl and beating her in a remote area.
At that California sentencing, the judge told Zuberi: “I hope we don’t have to wait until something really, really bad happens.”
Less than two years later, he was building a concrete prison cell in Oregon.
On October 18, 2024, a federal jury found Negasi Zuberi guilty on all seven counts: two counts of kidnapping, transportation for criminal sexual activity, and four counts of felon in possession of firearms and ammunition.
On January 17, 2025, United States District Judge Michael J. McShane sentenced Negasi Zuberi to life in federal prison.
U.S. Attorney Natalie Wight stated: “There is no place in civil society for this type of terrifying violence.”
All details sourced from court documents, trial exhibits, and law enforcement reports. For educational context, this episode features Dr. Patricia Wells, our series criminologist—a fictional character whose insights are based on established research.
Verifiable case records used in this investigation
Verdict - United States v. Negasi Ishaiah Zuberi - Jury found defendant guilty on all seven counts including two kidnappings, transportation for criminal sexual activity, and four counts of felon in possession of firearms and ammunition
Affidavit of FBI Special Agent Travis R. Gluesenkamp in Support of Criminal Complaint and Arrest Warrant detailing kidnapping of victim from Seattle to Klamath Falls and construction of cinder block cell in garage
Indictment charging Negasi Zuberi with Kidnapping under 18 U.S.C. Section 1201(a)(1) and Transportation with Intent to Engage in Sexual Activity under 18 U.S.C. Section 2421 with Criminal Forfeiture Allegation
[0:01] Klamath County 9-1-1, what's your emergency? There's a woman. She just flagged down my car. She's bleeding. She's hysterical. Okay, ma'am, what's your location? North El Dorado Avenue in Klamath Falls. She says... she says she was locked in a cell. She says she just escaped. You said a cell? That's what she's saying. She's got blood all over her hands. She's terrified. She grabbed a gun from somewhere. She has a gun. Ma'am, I'm disappointed. Dispatching officers now. Can you see where she came from? Which house? She's pointing. She ran from a house back there. Please hurry. All units. 1336 North El Dorado Avenue. Possible assault. Victim on scene. Armed. [0:52] That 911 call came in just before noon on July 15th, 2023. I'm Steve Rode, and I spent a couple years as a police dispatcher taking emergency calls. I also worked surveillance photography with local law enforcement, and later in my career, I was the chief pilot for public safety operations, flying missions for police, fire, and state departments. I've heard panic on 911 calls before. I've heard real fear. And when I listened to Melissa Gary's call, the full recording runs about six minutes I heard both What she described on that call would trigger one of the largest federal investigations in Oregon's recent history It would reveal a predator who had spent months planning, purchasing equipment, and constructing infrastructure And it would expose system failures that allowed him to escalate from assault to kidnapping to building a concrete prison cell in a residential neighborhood. [2:04] This is a three-part series about what happened in that cell, how it was built, and what the investigation revealed. It's also about two women who survived, a witness dressed as Rosie the Riveter who stopped to help a stranger, and the evidence that ultimately sent a predator to prison for life. Before we begin, I need to give you the standard disclaimer. The content you are about to hear contains descriptions of kidnapping, sexual assault, and violence. While I don't include graphic details, some listeners may find this material disturbing. All case facts come from court documents and official records. For educational context, I feature Dr. Patricia Wells, a fictional criminologist whose insights are based on established research and expert consultation. [3:10] Feel free to download the case files at truecrimeunheard.com, This episode, Episode 1, The Escape. [3:26] Melissa Geary wasn't supposed to be a hero that day. No, she was supposed to be at a comic book convention. She was dressed as Rosie the Riveter, the World War II icon of strength and determination. Red bandana, denim shirt, and that flexed arm pose. We can do it! She was driving through a quiet Klamath Falls neighborhood heading to the convention. When she saw a woman running toward her RAV4, along North El Dorado Avenue. [4:01] The woman was hysterical, bloodied, and in shock. Geary stopped her car. As a former dispatcher, I can tell you, that decision to stop, to get involved, to not drive away, that's not automatic. Most people don't stop. They call 911 from a distance. They worry about their own safety. They assume someone else will help. But Melissa Geary stopped. According to the FBI affidavit filed three days later, the woman who flagged down Geary's vehicle had just escaped from a concrete cell. For hours, she had repeatedly beaten a metal security door with her fists until they were bloody. She broke through welds. She destroyed a second deadbolted door by smashing the wooden frame. She scaled a six-foot fence. And before she fled, she grabbed a handgun from her captor's vehicle. [5:10] The woman's name would become known in court documents as Adult Victim 1 or AV1. Federal prosecutors would later describe her escape as extraordinary. Her survival would trigger an investigation spanning multiple states and reveal a predator who had been planning for months. When Klamath Falls Police responded to Geary's 911 call, they found blood on a wooden fence. They found a cell made of approximately 300 concrete blocks. They found a metal security door installed in reverse, so it could only be opened from the outside. And they found two deadbolted doors, neither with interior handles. And they found a written document titled Operation Takeover. [6:12] The man who built that cell was named Nagasi Zubiri. Court records show he was 23 years old in 2017. Six years later, that makes him 29 when he kidnapped AB1. He had two young sons, and four years earlier, he had actually appeared on the television show Judge Judy. He was wearing a suit and a tie and winning his case against his ex-partner. To anyone watching that episode, he seemed completely normal. The people are real. The cases are real. The rulings are final. This is Judge Judy. Something is simple to me. Evidently, it wasn't as simple to you. Did you notify the police? I'm not. I didn't want to put her in jail. You're going to jail, bro. You're going to jail. I'm calling 911 right now. This is the story of what happened between that Judge Judy appearance and the concrete cell. [7:18] It's the story of meticulous planning, escalating violence, and ultimately, one woman's refusal to die without a fight. [7:38] AV-1's ordeal began approximately 450 miles north of Klamath Falls in Seattle, Washington. As someone who's coordinated search and rescue operations, I can tell you, 450 miles is deliberate. That's not impulse. That's geographic displacement. It means longer before anyone realizes someone is missing. It means victims are disoriented, unsure of location. [8:10] And it crosses jurisdictional lines, which complicates investigations. I can tell you from personal experience, cross-department cooperation is messy and often disjointed. Suberi understood all of that. It was around midnight on July 14, 2023, along Aurora Avenue, an area known for sex work. According to the FBI affidavit, Zuberi solicited AV1's services and then claimed to be an undercover police officer. He showed her what appeared to be a badge. And then? Then he pointed a yellow and black taser at her. Within moments, the affidavit states, AV1 was restrained, handcuffed at her wrists, leg irons around her ankles. Zuberi placed her in the back seat of his Honda Pilot and began driving south through the night. [9:18] The criminal complaint details what happened during the seven-hour journey. According to prosecutors, Zuberi made several stops along the route. At each stop, he sexually assaulted her. The complaint states, Zubari pulled his vehicle over and forced AV1 to perform both oral and vaginal sex. Zubari attempted to have anal sex with AV1, but stopped after AV1 pleaded for him not to do it. [9:56] AV1 noticed something during the journey. Zaberi was doing something with aluminum foil. He told her it was a police trick. I was looking at the evidence inventory with Dr. Wells. When we got to the cell phone jammers, she stopped. Let's hear what she had to say. Two commercial-grade jammers, one with eight antennas, one with 16. He bought those on December 2022 for about $400 each, nearly $800 in jamming equipment, seven months before kidnapping AV1. And AV2 testified she saw him wrap her phone and the battery separately in aluminum foil. That's Faraday cage logic, block electromagnetic signals. But he also had nearly $800 worth of electronic jamming equipment. So the tinfoil was? Redundancy. Electronic jamming plus physical shielding. Multiple layers of counter-surveillance. That level of technical sophistication suggests he'd researched this extensively. He was planning for victims who might hide phones, or for weak jammer signals in rural areas. Both victims said their phones wouldn't work. Because he made sure of it. [11:11] This isn't someone who panicked and grabbed a victim. This is someone who spent months eliminating variables. [11:22] According to the FBI affidavit, there was a moment when AV-1 realized the truth. The complaint describes it. When AV-1 inquired why the trip was taking so long, Zuberi replied he was taking her to a substation. AV-1 observed the map application on Zuberi's cell phone, state that Zuberi was two hours and four minutes away from destination. AV1 knew at that point that Zuberi was not a police officer and that she was being kidnapped. At approximately 7 a.m. on July 15th, Zuberi stopped at a truck stop north of Klamath Falls. He placed a hooded sweatshirt on AV1, backwards, covering her face. Then he drove to 1336 North El Dorado Avenue. In the garage stood the structure he had spent months building. [12:33] According to trial exhibits, the structure was approximately 6 1⁄2 feet by 8 1⁄2 feet, roughly the size of a small bathroom. It was constructed from approximately 300 concrete blocks. Standard concrete blocks weigh 30 to 35 pounds each. So do the math. Over 10,000 pounds, five tons. Trial photographs show it was framed with 2x4 studs, insulated with fire and sound guard insulation, and drywalled on the interior. The seams were sealed with spackle, and the ceiling was engineered wood. The door system was particularly deliberate The black metal security door had been installed in reverse With the hinges on the outside Impossible to open from within Behind that was a white wooden door Also with a deadbolt Neither door had an interior handle Both required keys from both sides The cell was soundproof. [13:47] According to the FBI affidavit, when Zubiri locked AB1 inside that morning, he left the residence. The affidavit doesn't specify what excuse he gave her. Maybe paperwork, maybe an errand, whatever. It doesn't matter. She was left alone. AB1 briefly slept. When she awoke, she came to the terrible realization. She would likely die if she did not attempt to escape. She had no tools, no phone, only her hands and her will to survive. So she began to punch. [14:37] We'll be right back. [14:46] I mean, try something for me. Make a fist. Punch the wall next to you once. You feel that? Now imagine doing that full force hundreds of times. Imagine your knuckles splitting. Imagine continuing anyway. Imagine doing it for hours in the dark, not knowing if it's even working. That's not desperation. That's calculation. That's someone who decided I will destroy my hands if that's what it takes to get out of here. [15:22] Court documents detail what happened. AV1 punched through the metal door repeatedly. She pulled at it with her legs, but it was deadbolted from the outside. The styrofoam insulation in the door took the brunt initially, but she kept going. She punched until the welds on the metal screen began to break. Blood from her hands stained the door and walls. She created an opening and ripped the mesh off the upper portion of the security door. Then she faced the second door. The white wooden door also deadbolted from the outside. So she kicked and smashed at the door jamb. The wooden frame splintered and broke. Forensic analysis would later determine that the door wouldn't have broken this way if it hadn't been deadbolted it would have simply swung open but because it was locked from the outside she had to destroy the frame itself finally she was through in the garage av1 saw zubari's honda pilot She reached in and grabbed a handgun from inside. The same firearm he made sure she knew he possessed. [16:51] And then she fled through the side door. She climbed the six-foot fence, leaving blood on the wood. And she ran down North El Dorado Avenue until she saw a RAV4, driven by a woman dressed as Rosie the Riveter. Melissa Gary stopped and called 911. What police discovered in the hours following AV1's escape would prove this wasn't random violence. [17:21] No, this was planned. It was methodical. And most disturbing? Ongoing. Police! Search warrant! In the bedroom at 1336 North Eldorado Avenue, investigators found a black notepad. Inside was a handwritten document titled Operation Takeover. The instructions were simple, but chilling. Leave phone at home Make sure they don't have a bunch of people in their life You don't want any type of investigation, That reminds me of the logic Used by serial kidnapper Gary Ridgway And what he taught us From the episode Overlooked in Plain Sight You might want to go back and listen to that one It's worth a listen if you want to know why this strategy works. [18:19] A blue journal contained what prosecutors would later call a target list. Names of women in their 20s. Next to the names were work schedule screenshots. Two women on that list, identified by first names, Quinn and June, were still alive when discovered, still completely unaware they had been targeted. [18:46] Trial exhibits included a drawing of an underground cell. Messages from Zuberi's iCloud showed he'd sent GPS coordinates to a friend, identifying a location at his Bonanza, Oregon rental property, where he wanted to build an underground structure. One message asked, Hey, what material used for prison or jail floors? Another asked specifically, if hands could destroy it. He'd been researching whether hands could break through prison materials. AV1 had just proven they could. But when investigators reviewed Zuberi's blink home security camera footage from May, they saw something that changed everything. Six weeks earlier, on May 6, 2023, Zuberi had kidnapped and sexually assaulted another 21-year-old woman in Klamath Falls. Court documents identify her as Adult Victim 2 or AV2. And when AV2 was in Zuberi's garage that night in May, she saw something stacked against the wall. Concrete cinder blocks. You see, the cell wasn't finished yet. [20:11] But it would be. In the next episode, we'll go back to May 5th, 2023. Cinco de Mayo. An Irish pub in downtown Klamath Falls. A 21-year-old woman celebrating with friends. And the predator, who'd been planning for months, finally made his first move. [20:35] I'll also reveal what happened when AV2 tried to report what happened to her. Why local police were reluctant to investigate and how that two-month delay gave Zubiri exactly the time he needed to perfect his plan. This is True Crime Cases You Haven't Heard. I'm Steve Rode. Episode 2, The Blueprint, drops next week. So make sure you're subscribed to show notifications. If you want to download the source documents from this case, or get notified when new episodes drop, visit truecrimeunheard.com and sign up for the free email list. You can also use the comment form there to send feedback or questions. I read every one, and might feature yours in a future episode. See you for now. You.
Chronological sequence of key events
Negasi Zuberi kidnapped and sexually assaulted his first victim. While being held by Zuberi, this victim observed stacked cinder blocks in his garage that he would later use to construct the cell where he detained his second victim.
At approximately 12:01 a.m., Zuberi approached Rachel Fuller on Aurora Avenue in Seattle, Washington and solicited her for prostitution. After the encounter, he posed as an undercover police officer, showed a badge, pointed a taser at her, and placed her in handcuffs and leg irons in his vehicle.
Zuberi transported the victim approximately 450 miles south on Interstate 5 from Seattle, Washington to his residence in Klamath Falls, Oregon. During the trip he pulled over and sexually assaulted her, forcing her to perform oral and vaginal sex.
At approximately 7:00 a.m., Zuberi placed a backwards hooded sweatshirt over the victim's face and drove her to 1336 North El Dorado Avenue in Klamath Falls where he moved her into a makeshift cell constructed of cinder blocks with a metal door installed in reverse so it could not be opened from inside.
The victim repeatedly banged on the metal door until she broke it open and escaped. She retrieved a handgun from Zuberi's vehicle in the garage, fled over a wooden fence, and flagged down a passing motorist who called 911.
The victim was transported to Sky Lakes Medical Center for a Sexual Assault Nurse Examination. Later that day, she rode with law enforcement to identify the house where she was held captive at 1336 North El Dorado Avenue.
Klamath Falls Police Department officers located blood on the wooden fence the victim climbed over to escape. They interviewed neighbors and Zuberi's wife and searched law enforcement databases to identify the suspect.
Klamath Falls Police Department obtained and executed a search warrant for Zuberi's residence at 1336 North El Dorado Avenue. Inside the garage they observed the makeshift cinder block cell described by the victim.
Law enforcement recovered the victim's purse next to the cell, a firearm box matching the gun she escaped with, documents identifying Zuberi, and handwritten notes titled 'Operation Take Over' with instructions and diagrams for digging a 100-foot hole with cinder blocks.
Law enforcement obtained cell phone data for phones belonging to the victim and Zuberi. GPS location data showed both phones traveled from Seattle, Washington to Klamath Falls, Oregon on July 15, 2023.
Nevada State Patrol and Reno Police located Zuberi in a Walmart parking lot in Reno, Nevada. He was holding one of his children and refused to exit, cutting himself and attempting to destroy his phone before eventually surrendering to law enforcement.
FBI Special Agent Travis R. Gluesenkamp filed an affidavit in support of a criminal complaint and arrest warrant charging Zuberi with interstate kidnapping in violation of 18 U.S.C. Section 1201 in case 1:23-mj-00117-CL.
A federal grand jury in Medford returned an indictment charging Negasi Zuberi with kidnapping under 18 U.S.C. Section 1201(a)(1) and transportation with intent to engage in sexual activity under 18 U.S.C. Section 2421 in case 1:23-cr-00254-MC.
A superseding indictment was filed adding a second kidnapping charge for the May 6, 2023 victim and charges for illegally possessing firearms and ammunition, bringing the total to seven counts.
A federal jury found Negasi Ishaiah Zuberi guilty on all seven counts including two counts of kidnapping, transportation for criminal sexual activity, and four counts of felon in possession of firearms and ammunition.
United States District Judge sentenced Negasi Zuberi to life in federal prison. U.S. Attorney Natalie Wight stated there is no place in civil society for this type of terrifying violence and hoped the sentence would bring comfort to his victims.
All information verified against official court records and primary documentation
Every fact cited in this investigation is sourced from official court documents, FBI records, or verified news archives. No speculation or unverified claims.
For Researchers: All court documents available to email subscribers. Citations follow Bluebook legal citation format where applicable.
