Before he fatally shot himself during a standoff with police, an Oregon man accused of torturing and attempting to kill a woman is believed to have killed two people, according to investigators.
A woman was discovered bound and severely beaten on January 24 in Grants Pass, Oregon, prompting a massive manhunt for Benjamin Foster, 36.
The woman, who authorities claimed had previously been involved in a domestic partnership with Foster, was still in critical condition on Wednesday, according to Grants Pass Police Chief Warren Hensman.
According to police, Foster killed two other individuals before taking his own life on Tuesday.
In Wolf Creek, a village about 20 miles north of Grants Pass, officials knocked on doors to check on locals when they learned that Richard Lee Barron Jr. and Donald Owen Griffith were dead.
Capt. Kyle Kennedy of the Oregon State Police stated at a news conference that “we believe blunt force trauma was the means used in this.” It is a violent scene.
Foster, Griffith, and Barron have no known connections, according to Kennedy.
Foster evaded police on Thursday after they had surrounded a house in Wolf Creek, according to Hensman.
Kennedy stated that when Barron and Griffith were found, they had most likely been killed between 3:30 p.m. on Monday and 7:10 a.m. on Tuesday. Authorities had been checking on nearby homeowners when they made the discovery.
According to authorities, Foster traveled to Grants Pass on Tuesday morning in a taxi.
Video near Grants Pass showed a person who seemed to be Foster walking an animal resembling the dog that had been removed from the Wolf Creek residence where the two men were discovered dead, according to Hensman.
Police officials cordoned off a home and advised everybody within a half-mile to take cover, according to Hensman.
Foster “burrowed deep underneath the home” and appears to have shot himself once in the head with a.45-caliber weapon during a protracted confrontation, according to Hensman.
Hensman alleged that in order to remove him, police had to break through floorboards. He was alive when authorities discovered Foster, but he was later declared dead, according to Hensman.
The location of the standoff was the neighborhood where the woman had been discovered a few days previously. According to the district attorney’s accusation in a criminal document, Foster attempted to kill her “while purposefully torturing” her.
According to Hensman, a friend went to check on the woman and found that she had been chained and beaten. He said that the victim had endured “a protracted period of time” of beatings and torture.
He stated that she “has a long way to fight herself toward recovery.”
Grants Pass police said Foster was using dating apps and warned he would try to entice unwitting people to help him as officials in Oregon and elsewhere searched for Foster. Hensman claimed on Wednesday that the warning was only preventative.
Foster was found guilty in Nevada two years ago for holding his then-girlfriend hostage in her Las Vegas residence for a period of two weeks.
He entered into a plea agreement with the prosecution and admitted to both felony and misdemeanor battery. He was given a one to two-and-a-half-year term but was only detained for 729 days while he awaited trial before being freed, according to The Associated Press.
