Benjamin Obadiah Foster: Fugitive Oregon torture suspect was convicted of kidnapping woman in Vegas
SALEM, OREGON: Southern Oregon police are looking for a man as of Thursday, January 26, and who is accused of abusing a woman he kept hostage, less than two years after he was jailed in Nevada for holding another woman kidnapped for weeks. Benjamin Obadiah Foster, 36, has been accused of attempted murder, kidnapping, and assault.
Foster and the Nissan Sentra he was driving were featured in recent images released by police in Grants Pass, a town of 40,000 people in southwest Oregon. He is thought to be armed and was described as "extremely dangerous," as reported by WRIC. “We are using every piece of technology available to locate this man,” said Grants Pass Police Chief Warren Hensman. “And I’ll leave it at that," he added.
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Hensman stated over the phone that he considers it "extremely troubling" that the offender is wanted in an attempted murder case rather than still being in prison for the Nevada offenses. Hensman said at a news conference, “We are laser-focused on capturing this man and bringing him to justice." He added, “This is an all-hands-on-deck operation.”
Foster held his ex-girlfriend hostage in her Las Vegas residence for two weeks in 2019 before traveling to Oregon. He was initially accused of five felonies, including violence and assault, and a conviction could have resulted in decades behind bars. However, Foster and Clark County prosecutors came to an agreement in August 2021 that permitted Foster to enter a guilty plea to one felony count of battery and one misdemeanor count of battery involving domestic violence. According to a Las Vegas police report, Foster's girlfriend at the time had seven fractured ribs, two black eyes, and bruises from being shackled at the wrists and ankles with zip ties and duct tape during her two-week incarceration. The woman also claimed to have been choked until she was rendered unconscious and forced to consume lye.
Foster took her to a grocery shop and a petrol station, but after letting her out of his sight, she ran away. The woman reportedly went to a nearby apartment building where she was met by a tenant who hurried her to a hospital. Later that day, SWAT personnel picked up Foster. He was given a prison term of up to 2 and a half years in Nevada by a judge. Foster had to serve less than 200 more days in state custody after the 729 days he had already been in jail while awaiting trial were taken into account in his sentence.
Hensman declined to comment on how the officers were notified about the abuse, but on Tuesday, January January 24, police investigated an incident at a home in a Grants Pass neighborhood. When the police came, they discovered a woman who had been chained and severely beaten. According to authorities, she was sent to a hospital in critical condition. “This is a very serious event, a brutal assault of one of our residents that we take extremely seriously,” the police chief added. “And we will not rest until we capture this individual.”
Foster was out on a suspended jail sentence for carrying a concealed firearm without a permit at the time, according to court documents. He was also awaiting trial in another domestic violence case from 2018. Foster's plea agreement with prosecutors in 2021, however, ended the domestic violence case, according to a document of the agreement, and he was "sentenced to credit for time served."