DATING THE DEVIL
I had to learn to walk again after Worst Ex Ever fiend tortured me for days & smashed teeth…his vile past was shocking
Benjamin Foster abused multiple women before he was finally stopped
THE woman sounds frantic as she tells the emergency services operator that her friend has just called to say she needs to go to the hospital - before the line suddenly went dead.
Angie Milner stays on the call as she rushes over to the home of Justine Siemens in Grants Pass, Oregon, her panic rising as her door is locked and she hears her friend of 10 years screaming inside.
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Suddenly, the garage doors open and Justine’s ex Benjamin Foster comes out. He can be heard on the 911 call telling Angie she had suffered a “heart attack” before fleeing the scene.
Inside, Angie was horrified to find Justine bound, severely beaten, with a noose around her neck and close to death.
The shocking discovery led to a large-scale police manhunt for Foster, 36, who spent a week on the run before shooting himself dead following a dramatic police stand-off last February.
Police also believe he was responsible for the murders of two men in the neighbouring town of Sunny Valley, about 20 miles from the original crime scene, as he tried to evade capture.
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Now, the terrifying case features in the first episode of a new Netflix true crime documentary series, Worst Ex Ever, which delves into the real-life stories of toxic and violent relationships.
Speaking in the first episode, entitled Dating The Devil, Justine, 39, says: “I would not be alive today if it was not for Angie and her mom.”
And she says of her ordeal: “Torture is an understatement of what I went through.
“I would never have guessed this would happen to me. Never in a million years. You don’t wake up thinking, ‘Oh, someone’s going to try and kill me today.’”
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Angie adds: “I do believe Ben Foster is evil.”
The documentary, which uses a combination of compelling testimonials, bodycam footage, and animated reenactments, also reveals how Foster tried to access dating apps to attack and lure more women.
My Ex husband murdered our children
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It also tells how he abused multiple other women he had been in relationships with, leaving them with life-changing injuries.
Foster had been in a relationship with Justine after he moved to Oregon in 2021. They are believed to have worked in the same bar.
Justine recalls in the film: “Ben and I had probably been hanging out for about two months.
“It was a very casual relationship. I never saw any red flags because he was nothing but nice to me but one day, Ben came over to Angie’s house and he was asking for clean urine because he had to pass a urine analysis test.
“I got very curious because normally when you’re required to take a urine analysis test it’s because you’re in trouble for something with the law so I started going on the internet and that’s when I found out about his history in Las Vegas.
“I was very shocked. I felt I needed to tell my boss because at the end of the day, you don’t want somebody working for you in the bar industry giving people alcohol that has a history of abusing women.
“And he got fired ultimately because of it. Ben knew I was the reason he got fired so I got to the point where I stopped hanging out with him.”
'Critical condition'
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About a month after he was sacked, Justine says she got home to find him hiding in the property.
She says: “I just remember sitting on my couch and him coming in out of my garage and him starting beating me. He said I got him fired.
“Ben held me captive. It was almost three days and he just beat me and beat me and beat me.
“He beat me so bad that I have traumatic brain damage.”
She continues: “I remember hearing some knocking outside. When Angie found me, I thought finally I’m saved because otherwise I don’t think I would have made it.”
Justine was rushed to hospital, where she lay in a coma in a critical condition.
Her voice cracking with emotion, Angie recalls: “I was terrified Justine was going to be a vegetable and I thought it was because I hadn’t found that rope soon enough.
“I could not believe she finally woke up.”
I would never have guessed this would happen to me. Never in a million years. You don’t wake up thinking, ‘Oh, someone’s going to try and kill me today.’
Justine Siemens
In 2019, before moving to Oregon, Foster held his then-girlfriend captive inside her Las Vegas apartment for two weeks.
The woman, called Jaimee, recalls in the documentary that the pair met at a Krav Maga martial arts class in 2017 before moving in with her.
She says Foster later started attacking her and that she even started staying in hotels during the week because she was so scared of him
Jaimee says tearfully: “But I couldn't afford the weekends because they were so expensive.”
She says that after she decided to file a restraining order against him, he held her captive for 16 days.
Jaimee says: “He shaved my head bald. He said no man will ever look at you and think you're pretty.”
After running out of food, she begged him to let them go to the supermarket. Jaimee jumped out of the car and ran away before someone helped her and took her to the hospital, where she was treated for her injuries.
'Unconcious'
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The film also hears from another of Foster’s ex girlfriends, Amber, who says she met Foster in the summer of 2012 while working at a day club at a hotel in Las Vegas.
They dated for a year before moving in together. She says he wasn’t “very comfortable around people.”
Amber explains. "I think Ben might have had a little bit of a jealousy streak."
She also adds: “He'd pretend to slit my throat in a playful manner. At the time it didn't seem alarming but now it seems odd.”
She says he attacked her in 2014 and almost sliced “my pinkie all the way off” before taking her into the garage and pinning her down.
Amber, who managed to escape and get help, says: “I thought it was going to be the day that I die.”
After she reported him to the police, Foster was ordered to attend domestic violence counselling and to perform community service.
In 2017, he got back in touch with Amber, claiming that he wanted to make amends. She says: “He seemed genuine and was trying to make a change. I almost wanted to be there for him as a friend.”
She compares it to Stockholm Syndrome, explaining “because you end up feeling bad for them.”
The pair began hanging out before Amber says he attacked on Christmas Eve.
She says: “He strangled me until I was unconscious.”
Amber says she jumped off her first floor balcony to escape and get help.
Foster was initially charged with five felonies, including assault and battery, and faced decades in prison upon conviction.
But in 2021, the Clark County District Attorney combined the cases of Amber from 2017 and Jaimee from 2019, with Foster agreeing to plead guilty to lesser domestic violence charges to both.
He was sentenced to 30 months in jail but the 729 days he had already spent in jail awaiting trial were factored into his punishment, with Foster being left to serve less than 200 additional days in state custody.
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Jaimee says she heard about last year’s manhunt after Foster’s brother contacted her.
She says: “One day I got a phone call out of the blue from Ben's brother and I hadn't spoken to him in over a year.
“And he told me that Ben was on the run. He was crying and he said, ‘I'm sorry that I never believed anything you said. ‘“
Jaimee begins to cry as she says: “And he said, ‘I didn't want to believe any of it was true, but I know that you weren't lying now because he just did it to somebody else. He's on the run and I just wanted you to know to be careful. He might come down there, you know.’”
HOW YOU CAN GET HELP:
Women's Aid has this advice for victims and their families:
- Always keep your phone nearby.
- Get in touch with charities for help, including the Women’s Aid live chat helpline and services such as SupportLine.
- If you are in danger, call 999.
- Familiarise yourself with the Silent Solution, reporting abuse without speaking down the phone, instead dialing “55”.
- Always keep some money on you, including change for a pay phone or bus fare.
- If you suspect your partner is about to attack you, try to go to a lower-risk area of the house – for example, where there is a way out and access to a telephone.
- Avoid the kitchen and garage, where there are likely to be knives or other weapons. Avoid rooms where you might become trapped, such as the bathroom, or where you might be shut into a cupboard or other small space.
If you are a victim of domestic abuse, SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity’s email support service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – [email protected].
Women’s Aid provides a - available weekdays from 8am-6pm and weekends 10am-6pm.
You can also call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
During the manhunt, police found Foster’s “go-bag” containing large amounts of cash and mobile phones in Sunny Valley.
The bodies of Richard Lee Baron Jr and Donald Owen Griffith, who lived near where he was hiding out, were later found. Both died from blunt force trauma.
Police then received a tip Foster had returned to Grants Pass. He eventually returned to the scene of the crime. Officers and a SWAT team surrounded the house, using a robot to get into a crawl space, where they found him hiding under floorboards.
Police negotiated with Foster for hours before he shot himself in the head, with him dying a few hours later in hospital.
Angie says: “I have a lot of people say to me, ‘Oh he took the easy way out and he killed himself’ and I’m like, ‘he’s right where he belongs.’
“He’s burning in hell.”
And reflecting on her recovery, Justine says: “It’s been a very long road. I had to re-learn how to walk because of Muscle atrophy. I was so skinny.
“I’ve just had my teeth done, thank goodness, because he punched out all my teeth.”
She wipes away a tear, as she says: “So it was just a lot to deal with.
“I’m very lucky to be here.”
Amber also talks about her frustration that police failed to take her or Jaimee seriously following Foster’s earlier attacks on them.
She says: “In my opinion, I think that the justice system here did a great disservice to Justine.
“Ben was obviously getting increasingly more abusive and increasingly more dangerous. If they would have taken my story and Jaimee’s story more seriously they could have prevented this from happening to her - and they could have saved two lives.”
Netflix say both the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the Clark County District Attorney declined to be interviewed about Benjamin Foster.
Amber says: “I have never spoken to Jaimee or Justine but unfortunately we share this bond with each other that only we three can really understand.
Ben was obviously getting increasingly more abusive and increasingly more dangerous. If they would have taken my story and Jaimee’s story more seriously they could have prevented this from happening to her
Amber
“I look back on this time in my life spent with Ben and instead of looking at it as a blemish I look at it as a learning experience.
“I could move myself past them and not get myself into the same kind of relationship. Now, in my life, I’m happy.
“I’m happy and even happier now I don’t have to look over my shoulder anymore.”
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Jaimee adds: “I think Ben was really sick. He was not well at all. I don’t think everyone is like that but I do know that they’re out there. So I do pay closer attention to those things.”
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The first episode of Worst Ex Ever streams on Netflix from August 28
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