“Worst Ex Ever”: Successful Netflix series deals with a terrible crime in Oregon and the gruesome stories of the survivors

The Netflix series “Worst Ex Ever” comes from the production company Blumhouse, which is responsible for several popular horror projects such as “The Purge,” “M3GAN,” “The Invisible Man,” and “Insidious: Chapter 3,” among other films and television shows.

After watching the first episode of Worst Ex Ever, titled “Dating the Devil,” it's easy to forget that it's a true crime series and instead view it as a fact-based horror story. Dating the Devil tells the story of women who were victims of accused torturer, kidnapper, and murderer Benjamin Obadiah Foster.

The chilling episode features interviews with two women who describe in horrifying detail their experiences with Foster when he lived in Las Vegas, Nevada. One woman describes the violence she says she suffered at the hands of Foster, and another woman recalls being held captive by Foster. She escaped and was taken to a hospital with broken ribs, black eyes, and other signs of physical abuse.

Even more horrific is the incident that begins and ends the episode. Although Foster was criminally charged for his actions in Las Vegas, he only spent a single day in jail for the crime, “because he was given credit for the 729 days he had already spent in custody,” The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.

Foster, who grew up in Oregon, moved to Grants Pass, near where his parents lived, in 2021. There he got a job as a bartender and, as the episode “Dating the Devil” tells it, Foster met and began dating a co-worker, Justine Siemens.

But Siemens herself became a victim, as her friend Angela Milner tells at the beginning of the episode. When Milner went to Siemens' house in January 2023 to check on her friend, she heard screams in the house, dialed 911, and when she tried to get into the house, she saw Foster, who told Milner that Siemens had suffered a heart attack.

Milner went inside when she saw Foster drive away. Milner then found Siemens, who, as The Oregonian/OregonLive reported, “lay facedown on the floor of her laundry room, bleeding profusely from head injuries, with a rope wrapped around her ankles and limbs. When Milner pushed aside her friend's hair, she found another rope wrapped tightly around the woman's neck.”

The police arrived and Siemens was taken to hospital. One of the police officers interviewed in “Worst Ex Ever” says that in all his years of service, he has seen few scenes as gruesome and horrific as this one.

The episode ends with the nationwide manhunt for Foster, who was wanted on charges including attempted murder, kidnapping and assault, and the revelation of what happened next.

In our story earlier this year, The Oregonian/OregonLive did not name the Grants Pass woman who was hospitalized, nor did she speak to The Oregonian/OregonLive. But in “Dating the Devil,” Siemens is identified and interviewed. “Torture is an understatement,” she says, considering what she endured.

Milner says the justice system has done Siemens a disservice. Had the situation of previous women victims been taken more seriously, Foster would not have been free to “abuse my friend like that” and would not have been suspected of killing two more people.

This echoes a statement from the Oregonian/OregonLive project “Ghosts of Highway 20” and the Investigation Discovery series “Lost Women of Highway 20” that it inspired. It also suggests that if authorities had given more weight to the account of a previous female victim, a suspected killer may not have been able to commit further crimes.

“Worst Ex Ever,” which follows Blumhouse Television's previous true-crime series “Worst Roommate Ever,” was the number one show on Netflix but is now number three. The most-watched Netflix series to date, “The Perfect Couple,” is about a murder, although it is fictional, and stars Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber as a wealthy couple hosting a wedding reception at their luxurious estate in Nantucket, Massachusetts.