Neighbor speaks out about torture, rape suspect

Yreka, Calif. — Neighbors of a Yreka man suspected of kidnapping, torturing, and raping a woman are speaking out, saying they never had a good feeling about him.

“I mean, that could of happened to me, he was right next door and someone I talked to on a daily basis,” Sara Hoyt said.

Yreka Police stated that the victim showed up at a local hospital late Tuesday night, and said she had been held captive. The next morning, Hoyt and her boyfriend observed their neighbor Shane Ashby struggling with his garage door.

“That morning, my boyfriend saw Shane trying to break into his own garage, hitting the door lock on the garage,” Hoyt said. “Later when the police were there, there was no doorknob on the garage, and we felt that was really strange.”

Police executed a search warrant at the house on the 900 block of Miner street later on Wednesday, and arrested Ashby afterward.

“You don’t really know who’s living next to you… you don’t, and it’s a scary world,” Hoyt said.

Ashby is behind bars in the Siskiyou County Jail. He is facing numerous charges, to include torture, kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, forcible acts of sexual penetration, and false imprisonment.

If you have any information in this case, you are asked to call police.

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