Police: Oregon torture suspect using dating apps to get assistance
SALEM, ORE. >> A man accused of torturing a woman he held captive in Oregon, and who was convicted in Nevada of keeping another woman in captivity, is using dating apps to find people who can help him avoid the police or to find new victims, authorities said Friday.
Benjamin Obadiah Foster, 36, is the subject of an intensive, round-theclock search by police after a woman was found unconscious, bound and near death in Grants Pass, Oregon, on Tuesday. She was hospitalized in critical condition.
On Thursday night, Grants Pass police, sheriff's deputies, an Oregon State Police SWAT team and federal agents raided a property in the unincorporated community of Wolf Creek, some 20 miles north of Grants Pass, where they seized Foster's car and arrested a 68-year-old woman for hindering prosecution.
Foster managed to escape. Authorities provided no other details, but the area, right off Interstate 5, is thickly forested and mountainous.
The arrested woman, Tina Marie Jones, had followed Foster in a vehicle earlier Thursday as he drove to a remote location in Wolf Creek then intentionally drove his 2008 Nissan Sentra over an embankment, according to court documents.
Jones then gave Foster a ride to the property that was raided Thursday night and where Foster had been hiding while police searched for him, according to Josephine County Circuit Court records.
Grants Pass police said Foster “is actively using online dating applications to contact unsuspecting individuals who may be lured into assisting with the suspect's escape or potentially as additional victims.”
Police offered a $2,500 reward on Friday for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of Foster, who is charged with attempted murder, kidnapping and assault in the attack on the Grants Pass woman.