An Oregon man accused of torturing women before killing himself is now a double homicide suspect, police say.

CNN
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Investigators believe a man was accused of kidnapping and torturing a woman in Oregon and later died of a self-inflicted gunshot after confronting law enforcement who also killed two men while he was on the run, authorities said Wednesday.

According to authorities, 36-year-old Benjamin Obadiah Foster died in hospital Tuesday following an hour-long confrontation that day with law enforcement in Grants Pass, Oregon.

Foster is the subject of a manhunt that began January 24 after police found a female Grants Pass resident tied and brutally beaten. On Tuesday, the sheriff was doing a welfare check at a home in a community about 15 miles north of town when he discovered two men had been killed.

Late Tuesday, police learned that Foster had returned to the Grants Pass home where the January 24 torture took place. After an impasse there, Foster shot himself with a .45-caliber gun and died that night in the hospital, Grants Pass Police Chief Warren Hensman said at a news conference Wednesday. It took time to free Foster, he said, because the suspect was deep under the house and needed to cut the floorboards to reach him.

The sheriff said Foster was still breathing after being taken out, but died an hour or two after being taken to the hospital. Authorities added that Foster was the sole suspect in the killings of these men.

“We believe this community is safe,” Hensman told reporters.

Hensman said the woman who was tortured last week remains in a critical but stable condition.

The double homicide discovered Tuesday in Sunny Valley leaves behind a “brutal scene,” and two men were victims of blunt force trauma, Oregon State Police Captain Kyle Kennedy said. While investigators think Foster killed the men, their work is not over, he said.

Kennedy said investigators believe Foster was picked up from the area in a taxi Tuesday morning and driven to Grants Pass near the original crime scene. According to Kennedy, surveillance video in Grants Pass captured Foster with property related to the murder.

On Tuesday, before the strike was announced, Grant Pass police posted a photo on their Facebook page of the suspect walking a small dog. Hensman on Wednesday confirmed the dog had been taken from the property of the slain victims.

Details of what led to the two Sunny Valley murders were not immediately available.

IIn the January 24 case, prosecutors accused Foster of torturing the woman with the intent to kill her, according to the charging documents. Foster was wanted on suspicion of attempted murder, kidnapping and assault.

Foster knew the victim before the attack, Hensman told CNN on Monday, saying the two had a “pre-existing relationship.” He did not elaborate but said, “This is not a random attack.” At Wednesday’s press conference, he called it “the former domestic relationship.”

The victim was initially found by a friend who called 911 and identified Foster as a suspect, police said. Hensman previously told CNN that officers were faced with “an absolutely disgusting sight.” He said the victim had endured abuse allegations for a “long period of time” before she was discovered.

“This will stay in my memory for years to come,” the sheriff said, describing the images of the scene as “terrible.”

Police say the suspect was on the run by the time officers arrived where she was found, prompting a multi-day search for Foster that drew a lot of advice from the public and including the authorities. federal, state and local.

As they searched for Foster, police warning he is “extremely dangerous” and likely armed. Hensman said he was “certainly a threat to others”, especially those who might try to befriend him.

Investigators said Foster may have received help to flee from law enforcement.

Police speak They searched for him on January 26 at a mansion in Wolf Creek – about 20 miles north of Grants Pass – but he “evaded capture and likely received assistance in running flee the area.” A 68-year-old Wolf Creek woman was arrested on suspicion of obstructing prosecution, police speak.

At least two women who were once in a relationship with Foster have accused him of assaulting and abusing them, according to Clark County court records from the Las Vegas cases.

In the first case, his ex-girlfriend testified that in 2017, Foster went on a rampage and strangled her after seeing another man texting her. Records show Foster was charged with a felony constituting domestic violence.

While the case was still pending, he was charged with felony assault, assault and kidnapping after his then-girlfriend told police he had strangled her several times and tied her up. her for nearly two weeks, according to the documents.

The Las Vegas police report said the woman was eventually able to escape by convincing Foster that they needed to go grocery shopping and fleeing through a store. When she arrived at the hospital, she had seven broken ribs, two black eyes and scratches on her wrists and ankles from being tied up, the report said.

Foster accepted plea agreements in both cases. In the first case, he was sentenced to a maximum of 30 months in prison but got credit for 729 days of serving his sentence.