Police: Foster responsible for double murder

Foster, the 36-year-old Wolf Creek man who led authorities on a weeklong manhunt after attacking a woman he had been in a relationship with, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound Tuesday night. He was transported to a Grants Pass hospital, following an hours-long stand-off with police.

Grants Pass Police Department officials were joined by Josephine County Sheriff Dave Daniel and Oregon State Police Captain Kyle Kennedy to announce the Sunny Valley murders and provide more information about the standoff at a Grants Pass home.

When Foster was on the run, law enforcement officials were conducting welfare patrols in the Sunny Valley area, northwest of Grants Pass.

On Tuesday, they stopped at a rural home and found that the two men who lived there were dead. The victims, identified as Richard Lee Barron Jr. and Donald Owen Griffith, were killed due to blunt force trauma. Authorities said multiple items in the home were missing, including a dog.

Authorities looked for Foster around-the-clock since the Jan. 24 assault. At the press conference, Grants Pass Police Chief Warren Hensman said the victim is still hospitalized in critical condition, with serious injuries.

Hensman said Foster left the Wolf Creek area on Jan. 26, as police were trying to locate him. 

On Tuesday, a cab company said a man had called for a ride from the Sunny Valley area back to the neighborhood near the final manhunt location in Grants Pass. This was at the same home where the attack on the woman had taken place a week earlier.

Hensman said a SWAT Team was immediately deployed and a search warrant was obtained.

After searching the home and finding no one inside, a law enforcement robot was used to help determine Foster burrowed beneath the home. Grants Pass police officials said Foster refused to communicate during the standoff.

Hensman said Foster shot himself in the head several hours into the standoff with a .45 caliber gun. Initially thought to be dead, it was determined he was still breathing —with the weapon in his hand— authorities cut floorboards in the home and retrieved him. He died about an hour after arriving at the hospital.

Lieutenant Jeff Hattersley told News Radio 93-9 FM and 1240 KQEN that a complete timeline of events will be released in the next couple of days.