The search for Foster began Tuesday after police discovered a woman, whose name was not released, who was tied up and severely beaten at her home in what the police chief described as a “wicked act”. The woman is in critical condition in hospital, police said on Sunday.
Grants Pass Police and other state and federal law enforcement officials are using every tool available, including a tip line and a $2,500 reward, but there have been no credible sightings of Foster, Lt. Jeff Hattersley on Monday to the Washington Post.
About two years ago, Foster was released from prison in Nevada, where he had been charged with week-long incarceration of another woman and convicted on lesser charges, the Associated Press reported. Grants Pass Police Chief Warren Hensman told the AP it was “extremely disturbing” that Foster was not behind bars.
“We’re using every technology that law enforcement has at our disposal to help locate this man,” Hensman said during a Thursday news conference. “And I’ll leave it at that.”
Foster may be armed with a pistol, police say.
On Thursday, police issued a search warrant at a property in Wolf Creek, Oregon, where they believe Foster was hiding, about 18 miles from where police found the woman assaulted. Authorities discovered his 2008 Nissan Sentra and arrested 68-year-old Tina Marie Jones and charged her with obstructing law enforcement.
Police said they believe Jones initially followed Foster in another vehicle. After he drove his car over an embankment, she drove him to the property, Hattersley said. He said it was “unlikely” that Jones and Foster met through a dating app, adding that she lives near his family and likely has “associations within the community.”
According to court records, Foster faces multiple charges in the Oregon attack, including attempted murder, kidnapping and assault.
In Nevada, he had been charged with strangulation in 2019 with one count each of household battery; Domestic Violence Battery; coercion by threat or violence and kidnapping; and two assaults with a deadly weapon, the Las Vegas Sun reported at the time. Police said he tied up and beat his girlfriend for two weeks. At the same time, he faced separate charges of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit and a charge of domestic violence by strangulation in 2017.
After reaching a settlement with Clark County prosecutors in 2021, Foster pleaded guilty to one felony count of battery and one misdemeanor count of domestic violence, the AP reported. He was sentenced to 2 1/2 years but served less than 200 days after sentencing because of the time he was awaiting trial.
Hattersley said Grants Pass police were unaware of Foster’s criminal history or pleading.
“We really have no way of knowing how or why things were handled the way they were handled by the Nevada District Attorney,” Hattersley said. “We are not sure why or how it was so brief that he was imprisoned.”