Modesto man in prison arrested in 24-year-old Placer County murder case
A man already in prison for kidnapping and raping a family member in Modesto was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of killing a Placer County couple at their home 24 years ago.
Joseph Victor Foster, 54, is suspected of shooting to death Jacqueline Barton, 33, and Hugh Cleveland Gresham, 37, on Jan. 7, 1991, at their Weimar home just northeast of Auburn, according to the Placer County Sheriff’s Department.
Dozens of people were questioned, but leads in the investigation eventually ran out and the case went cold. Recently, sheriff’s detectives and investigators from the Placer County District Attorney’s Office were working together on cold cases when they found forensic evidence that linked Foster to the crime, sheriff’s officials said.
The newly discovered evidence led to Foster’s arrest this week at Soledad State Prison, where he has been serving a 50-years-to-life sentence for kidnapping and raping the 26-year-old woman nine years ago in Modesto.
When the sexual assault occurred in August 2006, Foster was a registered sex offender in Stanislaus County and was on parole. Foster attacked the woman, who was a relative, inside his home in the 900 block of Burke Avenue, just east of Sunrise Avenue.
Modesto police said at the time that Foster told the woman he had a necklace for her and asked her to turn around, so he could put it on her. When the woman turned her back, Foster used a stun gun on the side of her neck to shock her, then choked her.
He dragged her into a bedroom, tied her arms and legs to the bed frame with shoestrings, took off her clothes and raped her as the woman pleaded for him to stop, police said.
After the rape, Foster forced the woman to drive him east on Highway 132, then ordered her to return to Modesto. He said he needed to go to an airport so he could leave the country.
The woman jumped from the car while it was moving near The Fruit Yard restaurant near Waterford. Foster drove off. The car was later found in Empire. Foster was captured a few days later in Modesto’s airport neighborhood. Authorities at the time believed Foster had been hiding along the Tuolumne River.
In Placer County, Foster was convicted of kidnapping, assault with intent to commit rape and false imprisonment that occurred in 1994, sheriff’s officials said. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison but was released in April 2005 after serving nearly 11 years.
Foster has been transferred from the prison to the Placer County Jail, where he was booked on two counts of murder. The defendant is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon in Auburn.
Placer County sheriff’s officials ask anyone with information on the 1991 killings to call Detective Bryan Mattison or Detective Chris Joyce at (530) 889-7889.
This story was originally published January 15, 2015 at 11:41 AM with the headline "Modesto man in prison arrested in 24-year-old Placer County murder case."