Good news, this hunt is over. However, the resolution is far from ideal.
To arrest everyone in the case, a woman was found last Tuesday and tortured in a horrible way. Fortunately, he is still alive, but his injuries kept him in the hospital for several days. His friend recognized him by name Benjamin Obadiah Foster as a suspect, not only for torture but for attempted murder – that’s how bad the woman’s injuries are.
Thus began a frustrating search. The police believe that he just missed her at her home, and that he has helped her to avoid arrest – the 68-year-old woman has finally been charged. hinder prosecution. He said he helped Foster by switching cars with him at remote locations. Most troubling, police warned Foster “actively used online dating apps” to meet women while on the run, possibly to help him evade the police, “or potentially as an additional victim.” Scary stuff.
Police added a $2500 reward to the tip line, and apparently it worked. At Police Pass Grant broke the sequence of events during a press conference on Wednesday evening. On Tuesday morning, they received a tip that someone had seen the fugitive walking a small dog in the Grants Pass area, near the tied-up woman. A taxi driver is reported to have picked up and dropped dead people, along with puppies.
Because Foster was considered “extremely dangerous,” the Josephine County Sheriff conducted a welfare check in the area where he was taken. Unfortunately their worst fears were realized.
At the door stop, he found a house with two residents, which he called Richard Lee Baron, Jr. and Donald Owen Griffith, had died of blunt trauma to the head. The Sheriff explained:
“At this time, we believe Benjamin Foster is the suspect in the second homicide, as the MO is very similar.”
Multiple items have been taken from the home – including the small dog Foster has been seen with. It is not clear why he took the pet; maybe it’s a means to hide in plain sight, to be close to the original crime?
In any case, thanks to the taxi driver, the police have the location. Grants Pass PD warned residents to shelter in place on Tuesday night, and they raided the location. Foster was there this time – he tried to hide under the house, but the police found him using a drone, and stopped him. The person who leads Warren Hensman said:
“After a long communication and failure to communicate – he did not want to communicate with the police – we found him buried under the house.”
Eventually the police showed restraint – and Foster put an end to the matter.
“We knew he was armed and dangerous. We had to be very careful. In the end, in this whole process, Foster killed himself with a wound to his head.
Shockingly, Foster actually survived the self-inflicted gunshot for a short time, dying in hospital. It wasn’t the justice anyone wanted – but at least it was done. As Hensman added that his department is ultimately “confident the community is safe.”
See the full press conference for more (below):
[Image via Grants Pass Police Department.]