Oregon Man Wanted in Torture of Woman Killed 2 People, Police Say - The New York Times

An Oregon antheral sought by the authorities successful the brutal torture of a pistillate past week besides killed 2 men during a weeklong manhunt that ended connected Tuesday nighttime erstwhile helium fatally changeable himself successful a standoff with the police, officials said.

The man, Benjamin Obadiah Foster, 36, who worked arsenic a bartender successful Grants Pass, Ore., was accused past week of kidnapping a pistillate and severely beating her successful her ain home, wherever she was found, bound and unconscious, connected Jan. 24, the authorities said.

They said they besides believed that Mr. Foster was liable for the beating deaths of Richard L. Barron, 73, and Donald O. Griffith, 64, who were recovered dormant connected Monday astatine their location successful Sunny Valley, astir 20 miles northbound of Grants Pass. The constabulary said they were unaware of immoderate transportation betwixt Mr. Foster and the 2 men.

The woman, whose sanction and property were not released but who the constabulary accidental had antecedently been successful a “domestic relationship” with Mr. Foster, remains hospitalized successful critical, but stable, condition, the authorities said astatine a quality league connected Wednesday.

After a week that frustrated instrumentality enforcement officials and stirred anxiousness successful agrarian areas, the authorities learned done a extremity and video footage connected Tuesday that Mr. Foster was backmost astatine the location wherever helium had abused the woman.

Mr. Foster did not privation to pass with the police, and alternatively burrowed himself underneath the home, Chief Warren Hensman of the Grants Pass Police Department said astatine the quality conference.

“Foster took his ain beingness with what appears to beryllium a azygous gunshot coiled to the caput with a .45-caliber weapon,” Chief Hensman said. Mr. Foster was inactive breathing erstwhile officers were capable to get to him, the main said, and was taken to a aesculapian facility, wherever helium was pronounced dormant “almost immediately.”

At the quality conference, the authorities described however they had struggled during the manhunt.

On Jan. 26, 2 days aft the beaten pistillate was found, the constabulary got a extremity that Mr. Foster was astatine a location successful Sunny Valley. But, Chief Hensman said, helium had “slipped out” and evaded capture.

Then, portion conducting door-to-door payment checks successful the portion aboriginal this week, the authorities recovered the bodies of Mr. Griffith and Mr. Barron. Their deaths were ruled homicides, the authorities said, adding that they believed the men had died from “blunt unit trauma,” sometime betwixt Monday day and Tuesday morning. Some items were missing from the home, according to the authorities, including a dog.

“We person nary outstanding suspects successful narration to the deaths of Mr. Barron and Mr. Griffith,” Dave Daniel, the Josephine County sheriff, said astatine the quality conference. “We judge that those are related to Benjamin Foster astatine this time.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Foster traveled backmost to the location wherever helium had abused the pistillate successful Grants Pass, the authorities said, and wherever helium yet ended up successful the standoff with constabulary officers.

The lawsuit involving Mr. Foster had been described by officials successful Grants Pass arsenic 1 of the astir disturbing they had ever seen successful the tiny metropolis of astir 39,000 successful confederate Oregon, wherever homes are surrounded by forests. It drew peculiar interest aft officials said Mr. Foster mightiness person been utilizing dating apps either to people much victims oregon to unit idiosyncratic to assistance him elude capture. The authorities aboriginal clarified that, saying they did not judge helium had utilized the apps to actively enlistee oregon manipulate anyone.

Investigators had utilized constabulary dogs to hunt for Mr. Foster successful the woods past week, and Lt. Jeff Hattersley of the Grants Pass Police Department said successful an interrogation connected Friday that officers had exhaustively looked into each extremity oregon pb astir his whereabouts.

On Jan. 26, the authorities recovered Mr. Foster’s car successful Wolf Creek, a neighboring unincorporated assemblage successful Josephine County. That evening, the constabulary besides arrested Tina Marie Jones, who investigators judge hid Mr. Foster and helped him evade officers. She was charged with 2 counts of hindering prosecution, Lieutenant Hattersley said.

A person of the unfortunate who had been acrophobic astir not proceeding from her successful hours walked to her location connected Jan. 24 and “interrupted” the torture that Mr. Foster had been inflicting, Lieutenant Hattersley said successful the interview.

Mr. Foster had faced akin transgression charges earlier successful Las Vegas, wherever helium attended a university.

In 2019, according to The Associated Press, Mr. Foster held a woman captive wrong her Las Vegas flat for 2 weeks, beating her severely.

Prosecutors successful Clark County, Nev., reached a woody with Mr. Foster astatine the time, allowing him to plead blameworthy to 1 felony number of artillery and 1 misdemeanor number of artillery constituting home violence, The A.P. reported.

April Rubin contributed reporting.