Cops Hunt Oregon Torture Suspect Once Jailed in Vegas Kidnap Case

RENO, Nev. (775 Times, NV Globe) – Police in southern Oregon were looking for a man suspected of torturing a woman he kept hostage, less than two years after he was convicted in Nevada of holding another woman kidnapped for weeks before the victim escaped.

Grants Pass Police Chief Warren Hensman stated over the phone that he finds it “extremely troubling” that the criminal is wanted in an attempted murder case rather than for the Nevada offenses.

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.”

Foster held his then-girlfriend imprisoned inside her Las Vegas apartment for two weeks in 2019, before traveling to Oregon. He was initially charged with five crimes, including assault and battery, and if convicted, he risked decades in jail. Foster, however, secured an agreement with Clark County prosecutors in August 2021 that permitted him to plead guilty to one felony count of battery and one misdemeanor count of battery involving domestic violence.

Foster was sentenced to up to 2 1/2 years in a Nevada prison by a court, but after factoring in the 729 days he had spent in jail awaiting trial, he was left with fewer than 200 days in state custody.

According to a Las Vegas police report acquired by The Associated Press, 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 victim also said she was forced to take lye and suffocated to unconsciousness.

She escaped after Foster had let the woman out of her sight during a trip to the grocery store and a petrol station. According to the police complaint, the lady fled to a nearby apartment building and was discovered by a resident, who transported her to the hospital. Later that day, SWAT officers apprehended Foster.

Foster was out on a suspended jail term for carrying a concealed firearm without a permit at the time, according to court documents.

He also was awaiting trial in another 2018 case involving domestic violence. But Foster’s plea deal with prosecutors in 2021 settled the domestic violence case, a copy of the agreement shows, and he was “sentenced to credit for time served.”

Police in Grants Pass, a town of some 40,000 in southwest Oregon, provided recent photos in a news release of Foster and the Nissan Sentra car he was driving. They said he is believed to be armed and is “considered extremely dangerous.”

“We are using every piece of technology available to locate this man,” said Hensman, the police chief. “And I’ll leave it at that.”

On Tuesday, police went to a residence in Grants Pass’s residential zone to investigate an assault, though Hensman would to say how the cops were notified.

When the cops arrived, they discovered a lady who had been chained and beaten senseless. According to authorities, she was rushed to a hospital in severe 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.”

Hensman said he doesn’t have time right now to investigate how Nevada officials handled Foster’s offenses.

“Whatever happened in the past,” he said, “we can talk about those situations later.”

Credits: KOLO TV