“This will stay stained in my memory for many years to come,” Grants Pass Police Chief Warren Hensman told CNN.
An Oregon man who was accused of kidnapping and torturing a woman before killing himself is now also a double-homicide suspect, police say.
Benjamin Obadiah Foster, 36, died in a Oregon hospital Tuesday after a self-inflicted gunshot wound following an hourslong standoff earlier in the day with law enforcement in Grants Pass, according to authorities.
Law enforcement officers spoke at a news conference Wednesday and said they believe he was also behind the killings of two people after authorities found bodies of the two men in a rural area north of Grants Pass.
Richard Lee Barron Jr., and Donald Owen Griffith were killed sometime between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, Oregon State Police Capt. Kyle Kennedy said.
The victims lived together and apparently did not know Foster, who police said left a gruesome scene and stole some of the victims’ belongings, including their dog, according to the Associated Press.
Authorities also revealed details on the intensive manhunt for Foster, after a woman was found unconscious, bound and near death in a house in Grants Pass on Jan. 24, according to the Associated Press.
Authorities say Foster tortured the woman, who remained hospitalized in critical condition Wednesday.
Foster knew woman before the attack, Grants Pass Police Chief Warren Hensman told CNN Monday, saying the two had a “prior relationship.”
Hensman also added to CNN that, “This was not a random attack.”
At Wednesday’s press conference Hensman said that Foster and the female had a “former domestic relationship.”
The female victim initially was found by a friend who called 911 and identified Foster as a suspect, police said.
Officers were confronted with “an absolutely disgusting scene,” Hensman told CNN Monday.
“This will stay stained in my memory for many years to come,” Hensman told CNN, describing images of the scene as “horrific.”
The victim had been suffering the alleged abuses for a “protracted amount of time” before being found, Hensman said.
Foster was seen walking a dog Tuesday in Grants Pass, which allowed them to pinpoint his location, according to police.
Police had Foster pinned down Tuesday night underneath the home where the woman was found, according to CBS News.
Police were firing bullets and tear gas into the house and asking him to come out using a bullhorn, CBS News reported.
During the tense standoff, Foster used a .45 caliber pistol and shot himself, according to CNN. He later succumbed to his injuries in a nearby hospital.
“We are confident the community is safe,” Hensman told reporters at a news conference Wednesday.
Foster had a criminal past, especially when it came to women.
Police said Foster was "actively using online dating applications to contact unsuspecting individuals who may be lured into assisting with the suspect's escape or potentially as additional victims."
In 2019, before moving to Oregon, Foster held his then-girlfriend captive inside her Las Vegas apartment for two weeks, CBS News reported.
Foster was initially charged with five felonies, including assault and battery, and faced decades in prison upon conviction but in August 2021, he 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, according to court documents obtained by the Associated Press.
Foster's then-girlfriend 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 Las Vegas police report, obtained by CBS News.
The woman also told police she was forced to eat lye and was choked to the point of unconsciousness, CBS News reported.
She managed to escape during a trip with Foster to a grocery store and a gas station when he let her out of his sight, CBS News reported.
A judge sentenced Foster for that crime up to two-and-a-half years in a Nevada prison, but after the 729 days he had spent in jail awaiting trial were factored into his punishment, Foster was left to serve fewer than 200 additional days in state custody, according to CBS News.
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