Woman is accused of helping Oregon kidnapping suspect Benjamin Foster
KTVL, GRANTS PASS POLICE DEPARTMENT, JEN MORSE-YOST, CNN
By Hannah Sarisohn and Andi Babineau, CNN
An Oregon woman faces charges after allegedly helping a kidnapping suspect destroy and hide evidence last week while he was evading police, according to an affidavit obtained by CNN.
Benjamin Foster, 36, was accused of kidnapping and torturing a woman in Oregon January 24. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot earlier this week after a standoff with law enforcement while on the run, authorities said Wednesday.
Tina Marie Jones, 69, was charged with hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence on January 26, according to the affidavit.
It’s unclear whether Jones has an attorney.
“Jones followed Foster via vehicle to a remote location in Wolf Creek, Oregon, where Foster intentionally drove his vehicle off of an embankment. Jones then immediately provided Foster with a ride via vehicle back” to an address where she “had allowed Foster to stay while he was actively evading arrest,” the affidavit said.
She “took substantial steps to aid Foster with evading Law Enforcement apprehension and took substantial steps to suppress or destroy physical evidence that would have aided Law Enforcement in the apprehension of Foster,” according to the affidavit.
The manhunt for Foster began January 24 after police found a Grants Pass, Oregon, woman bound and severely beaten. Prosecutors accused Foster of torturing the woman with the intention of killing her, according to charging documents, and was wanted on suspicion of attempted murder, kidnapping and assault.
Officials this week alleged Foster also killed two men while he was on the run. The two men’s bodies, which were found by sheriff’s deputies doing a welfare check Tuesday, were victims of blunt force trauma, Oregon State Police Capt. Kyle Kenney said. It’s not clear what led to those killings.
Later on Tuesday, police learned Foster had returned to the same Grants Pass home where the January 24 torture of the woman had occurred. After a standoff, Foster shot himself and died that night in a hospital, according to police.
The woman who had been tortured was in critical condition Wednesday. She knew Foster before the attack and had been suffering the alleged abuses for a “protracted amount of time” before she was discovered, Grants Pass Police Chief Warren Hensman said.
Foster had been accused of attacking and abusing at least two other women who had relationships with him, according to Clark County, Nevada, court records from cases in Las Vegas.
It’s not clear what, if any, relationship Jones had with Foster.
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