What happened to Worst Ex Ever’s Justine Siemens?

Justine Siemens’ harrowing encounter with Benjamin Foster is the focus of Netflix’s Worst Ex Ever Episode 1, ‘Dating the Devil’.

A spinoff of the true crime hit Worst Roommate Ever, the new documentary series looks at the dark side of love, asking the question: how well do you really know your partner?

Much like the flagship show, Worst Ex Ever Season 1 delves into four cases involving betrayal, deceit, and violence, starting with the sinister crimes of Ben Foster. 

With the series streaming now, read on to find out what happened to Justine Siemens during the ordeal, one that resulted in a fatal manhunt. Warning: some may find this content distressing. 

Justine Siemens’ traumatic ordeal

In January 2023, Siemens was held captive by Foster at her home, where he tortured and beat her over a period of three days. Recalling the traumatic incident in Worst Ex Ever, she says, “Torture is an understatement for what I went through.”

Eventually, Siemens was able to get through to her best friend, Angie Milner, who called 911 while racing over to the house herself. 

When Milner was able to get into the home, Foster fled the scene, having left Siemens with a noose around her neck, bruises all over her body, and her teeth knocked out.

She had been beaten so badly that, after being rushed to hospital, she was in a coma in critical condition. Milner says she was left fearing her friend would either die or be in a vegetative state. 

Siemens had first met Foster in late 2022 while working at an Oregon bar together, embarking on what she describes as a casual relationship for around two months. 

On the surface, he seemed like a regular guy, but her suspicions were raised one day when he asked for a clean urine sample. 

She started looking online, and that’s when she found out about his history in Las Vegas, where he had a history of abusing women and had been arrested for battery.

Siemens was shocked and decided to notify their boss. “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,” she says. “And he got fired, ultimately, because of it.”

She cut contact with Foster, but around a month later, she returned home from work to find he’d been hiding out in her garage all day. 

After launching his ruthless attack, Foster fled and left Siemens for dead. Amazingly, she woke up, although the road to recovery wasn’t straightforward. Not only did it leave her with traumatic brain damage, but she had to learn to walk again.

“It was a lot to deal with,” she says. “I’m very lucky to be here.”

A manhunt led to three deaths

After fleeing the scene, what followed was a manhunt as Grants Pass police tried to track Foster down. While on the run, he killed an elderly man and his carer, before turning the gun on himself. 

On January 24, 2023, detectives sent out a bulletin asking for information and telling the public not to approach Foster if they spotted him. 

Two days later, they received a tip that he was in nearby Sunny Valley, which Lt. Jeff Hattersley describes as a “rural area with a lot of farms and ranches.”

Detectives set up surveillance, discovering he was staying at the house of a woman named Tina Jones. It turns out Foster had countersurveillance, and after spotting the officers, he made a run for it. 

After taking Jones into custody on the belief that she took him in and helped tamper with evidence, they searched the home and found a number of Ben’s belongings, including a “kit to flee” – cash, his ID, and a number of devices, all wrapped in tin foil. 

On the phones, they found evidence Foster had been on dating apps, which Hattersley says he may have been using to get assistance in fleeing the state – or, perhaps, to find his next target. 

The news went out to the national media, but it wasn’t until January 31 that the detectives received a lead. This came from a taxi driver in the area who said he’d received a call requesting a ride. 

The caller identified themselves as Richard Baron, Jones’ neighbor. However, the driver knew Baron was an older man, and the caller sounded younger. So, he declined the job and rang the police.

When officers turned up to the property, they found Baron and his caretaker, Ronald Griffith, dead. “We suspect that Ben had broken in and held them hostage while he was there hiding,” adds Hattersley.

Detective Robert Shaw, who was also on the case, explains that the house had an “overpowering smell of gasoline,” leading them to believe Foster was set to burn the remains and the home. 

After another tipoff from a cab driver, they discovered Foster had been dropped off back at Grants Pass, not far from where the assault on Siemens had occurred. 

They finally found Foster, hiding out underneath Siemens’ home. Teams had the house surrounded but he refused to come out, so they administered chemical agents and a police robot. 

After realizing he was cornered, Foster killed himself with a fatal gunshot wound. 

Ben Foster had a history of abusing women

As said, this wasn’t the first time he had revealed his true colors. Two of his ex-partners, Amber and Jaimee, appear in Worst Ex Ever to share the experiences they had with Foster.

Amber started dating Foster in June 2012, initially believing he could have been “the one.” However, after moving in, his behavior started to shift. 

He began showing signs of jealousy and control, escalating when he hit her during an argument. Amber broke things off and notified the police, who ordered for him to attend domestic violence counseling. 

Unbeknownst to Amber, however, he continued to stalk her, eventually breaking into her home. He attacked her with a knife, nearly slicing one of her fingers off.

She managed to break free and tell the authorities but, shockingly, when they spoke with Foster, he spun the story and accused Amber of being the perpetrator. 

“The officers did not look up Ben’s record,” she explains, and they put her in a cell for 18 hours before finding out the truth. When she got out, she came home to find Foster had stolen all of her belongings. 

In a separate incident in December 2017, Foster attacked Amber and strangled her until she was unconscious. When she came to, she ran and got help from a passing driver. 

Foster was arrested again, with the state pressing charges for Amber. But proceedings took a long time and it left Amber in a state of fear for months, worrying that he’d return to “finish whatever he was trying to do.”

Less than a year later, Foster moved in with girlfriend Jaimee, who explains that their relationship was casual but he needed a place to stay.

However, when he refused to get his life together, Jaimee tried to get him back on his feet. One day, while “trying to reason with him,” he pushed her to the ground. 

His paranoia continued to escalate, leaving Jaimee in fear. By September 2019, he had attacked her a number of times, and she didn’t know how to get him out of her home. 

Jaimee met with the Las Vegas police department and was able to get a restraining order – but they refused to remove Foster from her home, nor did they agree to escort her into the home to collect some belongings. 

Eventually, she decided she was too exhausted and so went into her house to sleep. When she woke up, Foster had her restrained. 

He proceeded to shave Jaimee’s head and strip her naked, holding her hostage in her own home for weeks, beating her repeatedly, and threatening to kill her. 

Eventually, she managed to break free and a person nearby took her to the hospital, where she was found to have seven broken ribs, two black eyes, bruises and lacerations all over her body, and cauliflower ears.

Police, meanwhile, arrested Foster and the news hit the media, at which point Amber learned what had happened. 

“That he was able to do this to someone else was just mind-boggling,” she says, although there was a semblance of relief that it might finally mean he’d go to prison. 

At this stage, Foster was facing a list of serious charges, including assault with the use of a deadly weapon and kidnapping in the first degree resulting in substantial bodily harm. 

However, Jaimee couldn’t face going through the court system, knowing that she’d have to relive the ordeal and sit in the same room with Foster while doing so. 

Despite the substantial evidence, since Jaimee didn’t want to testify in court, Foster was able to land a plea deal, admitting to felony and misdemeanor battery. 

He was sentenced to a maximum of 30 months and, due to time served, he was out of prison by October 2021. 

After what happened to Siemens, Amber says, “In my opinion, I think the justice system here did a great disservice to Justine. Ben was obviously getting increasingly more abusive and increasingly more dangerous. 

“If they would’ve taken my story and Jaimee’s story more seriously, they could’ve prevented this from happening to her and they could’ve saved two lives.”

Now, she’s able to move on and be happy with her life. “I’m even happier that I don’t have to look over my shoulder anymore.”

Worst Ex Ever is streaming on Netflix now. For more true crime, read more about the Laci Peterson case, what you need to know about the Menendez brothers ahead of Monster Season 2, and whether Scott Peterson will get a retrial.