Cops 'Laser-Focused' in Felon Manhunt in New Torture Case

Oregon cops are searching for Benjamin Obadiah Foster, suspected of holding woman captive
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 27, 2023 1:47 PM CST
Felon Let Out After Assault Now Wanted in Torture Case
This undated photo shows Benjamin Obadiah Foster.   (Grants Pass Police Department via AP)

Police in southern Oregon were searching Thursday for a man accused of torturing a woman he held captive, less than two years after he was convicted in Nevada of keeping another woman in captivity for weeks before the victim managed to escape. Grants Pass Police Chief Warren Hensman said in a telephone interview with the AP that he finds it "extremely troubling” that the felon is wanted in an attempted murder instead of still being behind bars for the Nevada crimes. Benjamin Obadiah Foster, 36, is now charged in Oregon with attempted murder, kidnapping, and assault. Foster tried to kill the victim in Grants Pass while "intentionally torturing" her and secretly confining her "in a place where she was not likely to be found," Josephine County District Attorney Joshua Eastman wrote in a court document.

"We are laser-focused on capturing this man and bringing him to justice," Hensman said at a news conference Thursday. "This is an all-hands-on-deck operation." In 2019, before moving to Oregon, Foster held his then-girlfriend captive inside her Las Vegas apartment for two weeks. He initially was charged with five felonies, including assault and battery, and faced decades in prison upon conviction. But in August 2021, Foster reached a deal with Clark County prosecutors that allowed him to plead guilty to one felony count of battery and a misdemeanor count of battery constituting domestic violence. A judge sentenced him to up to 2 1/2 years in a Nevada prison. But after the 729 days he'd spent in jail awaiting trial were factored into his punishment, Foster was left to serve less than 200 additional days in state custody.

Foster's girlfriend at the time had suffered seven broken ribs, two black eyes, and injuries from being bound at the wrists and ankles with zip ties and duct tape during her two-week captivity, according to a police report. The woman also told police she was forced to eat lye and choked to the point of unconsciousness. She escaped during a trip with Foster to a grocery store and a gas station. On Tuesday, police went to a home in a residential neighborhood of Grants Pass to investigate an assault, although Hensman didn't want to discuss yet how the officers were alerted. When they arrived, the officers found a woman who'd been bound and beaten unconscious. She was taken to a hospital in critical condition, police said. "We will not rest until we capture this individual," the police chief added.

(More Oregon stories.)

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