A man accused of torturing a woman he was holding captive in Oregon, and who was convicted in Nevada of holding another woman captive, is using dating apps to contact people who can help him evade police or find new victims. authorities said Friday.
Benjamin Obadiah Foster, 36, is wanted by police after a woman was found unconscious, bound and near death in Grants Pass, Oregon on Tuesday.
The woman was hospitalized in critical condition.
Photograph of Benjamin Obadiah Foster released by authorities in Grants Pass, Oregon, on January 24, 2023.AP
On Thursday night, Grants Pass police, sheriff's deputies, an Oregon State Police SWAT team and federal agents raided a property in the Wolf Creek community, about 20 miles north of Grants Pass, where they seized Foster's car and arrested a 68-year-old woman for disrupting police work.
Foster managed to escape
.
Officials did not provide further details, but the area, just off Interstate 5, is heavily forested and hilly.
Court documents show the arrested woman, Tina Marie Jones, followed Foster in a vehicle Thursday as he drove to a remote location in Wolf Creek.
Jones then took Foster to the property that was raided Thursday night and where he was hiding while police searched for him, according to Josephine County Circuit Court records.
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Grants Pass police said Foster "is using online dating apps to contact unsuspecting people to help him in his escape or who might be other potential victims."
Police are offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of Foster, who is charged with attempted murder, kidnapping and assault in the case of the Grants Pass woman.
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Grants Pass Police Chief Warren Hensman told The Associated Press that Foster's release is "extremely troubling" because it allowed him to go out and take advantage of other women instead of remaining behind bars for the crimes he committed in Nevada. .
In 2019, before moving to Oregon, Foster held his girlfriend at the time captive in his Las Vegas apartment for two weeks.
The man was charged with five felony counts, including assault and battery, and faced decades in prison upon conviction.
But in August 2021, Foster reached a plea agreement with Clark County prosecutors that allowed him to plead guilty to one felony assault and one misdemeanor assault constituting domestic violence.
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A judge sentenced him to spend up to two and a half years in a Nevada prison.
The 729 days he was in jail awaiting trial were included in his sentence, leaving Foster with less than 200 days to serve in state custody.
Foster's girlfriend suffered seven broken ribs, two black eyes and injuries from being bound at the wrists and ankles with rope and duct tape during her two-week captivity, according to a Las Vegas police report.
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The woman also told police that he forced her to drink bleach and suffocated her to the point of unconsciousness.
The victim managed to escape from her when Foster lost sight of her during an outing to a grocery store and a gas station.
"His intention was to kill her"
Court records show Foster was out of custody at the time with a suspended prison sentence for carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.
He was also awaiting trial in another 2018 case involving domestic violence.
But Foster's 2021 plea deal with prosecutors settled the domestic violence case, court records show.
Police in Grants Pass, a city of about 40,000 in southwestern Oregon, said Foster is believed to be armed and "extremely dangerous."
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"We are using all available technology to locate this man," said Hensman, the police chief.
In an interview with The New York Times, Lt. Jeff Hattersley said Foster "already knew the victim" before attacking her, but declined to elaborate because the investigation is ongoing.
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According to the officer, a friend of the victim was concerned because he had not heard from the woman after several hours, so he walked to her house and "interrupted" the abuse of Foster, who fled in his car and then "escaped into the desert" on foot.
The lieutenant said that if it weren't for the friend who came to the house, "I think we would have a completely different investigation" into a possible murder.
"It is clear that his intention was to kill her," Hattersley said.
With information from
The Associated Press
,
The New York Times
, and the
New York Post
