Police: Man wanted in Oregon torture case hiding under house
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Law enforcement officers surrounded an Oregon home Tuesday where a woman was tortured, after receiving a tip that the suspect had gone inside.
Grants Pass Police Lt. Jeff Hattersley told KTVL-TV Tuesday evening that Benjamin Obadiah Foster, 36, was underneath the house in Grants Pass and that police were trying to get him to surrender.
Hattersley said on Tuesday afternoon that authorities received “credible information” that Foster had entered the home where the woman was found unconscious, bound and near death on Jan. 24, The Daily Courier reported. She was hospitalized in critical condition.
Officers from four agencies concentrated in the area, set up a command post and assembled a SWAT team, according to the newspaper.
Some area residents received a notification to shelter in place.
Foster was spotted Tuesday morning walking a dog in the Grants Pass area, according to a Grants Pass Police Department Facebook post.
Last Thursday, law enforcement raided a property in the unincorporated community of Wolf Creek, but Foster, who had been staying on family property there, slipped away. Forested mountains surround the community, but investigators believe that instead of disappearing solo into the wilderness, Foster had help getting out of the area.
Grants Pass is a town of some 40,000 in southwest Oregon next to Interstate 5.
In 2019, before moving to Oregon, Foster held his then-girlfriend captive inside her Las Vegas apartment for two weeks. He initially was charged with five felonies, including assault and battery, and faced decades in prison upon conviction. But in August 2021, Foster 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.
A judge sentenced him to up to 2 1/2 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 less than 200 additional days in state custody.
