00:00:01
♪♪ ♪♪ [ Siren wails ] -So, Lieutenant Lin, tell me about, you know,
getting the call that night.
00:00:22
And what did you get exactly,
as far as the call? -The caller's
information stated
00:00:27
that this would be
the parking garage where his the victim's
phone was located. ♪♪
00:00:42
-So, this is
the parking garage right here? -This is the parking garage
to my left, yes.
00:00:47
-And what level was
the car parked, then? -The car was parked
on the second level.
00:00:53
-So, like, right about there.
-Yeah, it's right... You can kind of see it right
behind these traffic lights,
00:00:58
essentially. So, when I entered the garage,
I saw a black Honda Civic. I saw a body, a person
sitting in the driver's seat.
00:01:13
At first, I thought
it was this person taking a nap, but because the position
of their head,
00:01:19
I could see there's
some discoloration around the neck area. So I decided to knock
on the window.
00:01:24
There was no response, so I
radioed he was likely deceased. This is one of the Intel campus
we have in the city.
00:01:32
This is one of their
several parking garages. They have surveillance cameras
throughout the garage.
00:01:40
I took a closer look, and that's when I realized
they were painted over. -Like, dripping paint still?
Like it had dripped.
00:01:50
-It looked like
it was spray paint. We locked down the garage, and
I request detective response.
00:01:58
[ Siren wails ] -He had been identified
as Kenneth Fandrich, and he was a contractor
at Intel.
00:02:06
-Doing Union pipe fitting. -He looked like he
had passed peacefully. His hands were placed
in his lap.
00:02:11
We thought
that that was strange. -But are you operating
as if this is a homicide,
00:02:16
possibly murder already? -We always do, yeah.
-Oh, yeah. -That night,
we actually had a patrol officer
00:02:24
in the Intel Command Center, where they have
all their hundreds of cameras. They kept texting me
little clips.
00:02:31
All of a sudden,
we have some random person -- we have no idea who it is --
that's going around
00:02:36
spray-painting about
half-a-dozen-or-so cameras in this parking garage. -Look at him just coming
around the corner like that.
00:02:43
-He's obviously in disguise. He's wearing a black mask
covering most of his face,
00:02:49
the safety glasses,
and then the hard hat. So, obviously, he's trying
to conceal his identity.
00:02:56
-He does a pretty good job
of spray-painting, really kind of obscuring
enough of the camera.
00:03:02
You see a lot of movement
happening all of a sudden. -Then you see a lot of lights.
-A lot of lights flashing.
00:03:06
-What is going on
in there during that, when you see
those lights flashing? -That's when
the person is murdering Kenneth.
00:03:18
So, it was really, initially,
like, this big whodunit for us, a big mystery. -I mean, had you
ever seen anything like that?
00:03:25
-Not in real life, no. -This was straight out
of the movies. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪
00:04:17
♪♪ -How would you two characterize
this case when you first got it? What did you think?
00:04:30
-You know, I just thought
that it's a wild case. -Detectives Stephanie Winter
and Devin Rigo of the
00:04:35
Hillsboro, Oregon,
police department had never encountered a crime scene like the one they
encountered in January 2023.
00:04:47
-It was in the evening,
after 9:00. -So, we all got a page
on our department cellphones
00:04:52
saying that there was
a death at Intel. -Intel,
the giant tech company known for its innovative
computer chips,
00:04:59
had several large production
facilities in Hillsboro, Oregon, outside Portland. -It didn't make sense.
00:05:07
He looked like
he had passed peacefully. There was minimal blood
within the car.
00:05:13
-The deceased was
Kenneth "Kenny" Fandrich, age 56, a contract pipe fitter
at the plant.
00:05:21
His wife, Tanya,
had reported him missing when he was late getting home. Like many couples, they share
their locations on their phones.
00:05:30
Tanya tracked him
to the Intel parking lot. She was already there
at the garage when police arrived
with body cameras rolling.
00:05:48
A short time later, she learned
that her husband was dead. The Hillsboro Police
Mobile Command Post
00:05:59
was stationed at the scene, and that was where detectives
first talked to Tanya.
00:06:04
That night, you brought
Tanya Fandrich right in here. What does she seem like to you?
00:06:10
-She was very monotone
in the way she was speaking. -Detective Dayanna Mesch
was first to interview Tanya.
00:06:16
-She seemed very
out of her body. Like, she didn't react as much as you would think
somebody would.
00:06:27
But I had to kind of pull
a lot of the answers out of her. -Detective Mesch
learned more about
00:06:35
why Tanya had been at the scene. -She told me that
they had some issues in the past
00:06:40
with their marriage. Now they would check in
on each other more often. -Do alarm bells
sort of go off here?
00:06:47
-Yeah,
there was some suspicion. We always look at the people
closest to the deceased.
00:06:52
-But Mesch knew better than
to draw conclusions right away. -Everybody grieves
differently.
00:06:57
It just was different
than other victims I've seen. -There was a lot to process
for Tanya and investigators.
00:07:09
The scene
did not appear violent. -His lunch bag, his lunch, his keys, his phone
all set neatly next to him
00:07:17
in the passenger seat. My first thought was, "How
are we gonna figure this out?"
00:07:21
-Their first clues would come
from those surveillance cameras. -So, he will pop up
right here next to that column
00:07:32
that we're seeing right here
in the corner. He kind of waits for a camera
and then just pops up.
00:07:41
-The detectives discovered
a man wearing a hard hat and red mirror tinted glasses
00:07:47
had actually spray-painted
those cameras around 7:00 a.m. earlier that same day.
00:07:53
His movements undetected
by Intel security. -I want to say about
six or seven cameras.
00:08:00
-But there were also cameras
that had not been sprayed, and investigators locked in
on images of a vehicle
00:08:07
they believed
belonged to the suspect. -Looking at early afternoon now, and then we see this maroon
van come in the parking garage.
00:08:18
And no front plate on the car. -It was an older
maroon-colored Dodge van. They tracked the van's
movements, camera by camera,
00:08:31
before it disappeared under
a layer of blue spray paint. Moments later,
they could just make out
00:08:38
the van pulling into
a parking spot. -So, right here, you can see that the van is
this shadow right in here.
00:08:47
-Okay. Right. -And then this vehicle
right here is actually Kenneth Fandrich's
black Honda Civic.
00:08:53
-It was 3:21 p.m... just after Kenny had
finished his shift. Here he is on video,
walking back through the garage.
00:09:04
and then very hard to see
behind the blue spray paint. -You can see a little bit
of movement
00:09:12
right here in the thing, and that is Kenneth
walking back to his car. You just kind of have to watch
the kind of shadows,
00:09:20
essentially, what's going on
between the two vehicles. You start seeing the
headlights flash a couple times,
00:09:27
like, you know, somebody
would be unlocking their car. -Detectives say
the headlights on Kenny's Honda
00:09:32
flashed as he unlocked
his car with his key fob. That's when they believe
the masked man grabbed Fandrich,
00:09:40
still holding on to his keys. -You see a lot of movement
happening all of a sudden.
00:09:45
-Then you see a lot of lights.
-A lot of lights. -Detectives say that's Kenny
desperately pushing his key fob
00:09:51
as a masked man dragged him
into that maroon van. What do you think that's -- what's going on
in there during that,
00:09:57
when you see
those lights flashing? -We think that's
when the person in the van is murdering Kenneth.
00:10:06
-Detectives say Kenny
was killed inside that maroon Dodge van before
the killer staged Kenny's body
00:10:14
in his black Honda. That meant the van itself would
be a critical piece of evidence,
00:10:20
the actual murder scene. -There could have been
clothing and who knows what else
in that minivan.
00:10:26
-But finding the van
would be a challenge. They couldn't see the license
plates or the driver.
00:10:35
The results of the autopsy
would reveal Kenny Fandrich had died from blunt and
compressive trauma of his neck.
00:10:44
His neck had been broken. But who would want to kill
Kenny Fandrich? -It was really, initially,
like, this big whodunit for us,
00:10:52
a big mystery. -A mystery
they hope might be solved when Intel security staff
told investigators
00:11:00
about another incident. Additional video images from the
garage recorded a month earlier.
00:11:07
-We learned that
"Hey, FYI, about a month prior,
we reported our cameras being spray-painted, as well."
00:11:14
-That incident was
investigated. -Criminal-mischief call.
-A criminal-mischief call.
00:11:19
-But they never figured
out who it was. -It was a man dressed
in a construction helmet,
00:11:26
black glasses, a mask. And we're like,
"Well, that's a clue." -Investigators were
100% certain it was
00:11:36
the same person wearing
different glasses. And they say these new
images revealed an unusual clue.
00:11:44
-We had this
distinctive forehead crease that we could see in this photo. -That little bit of forehead
that you see.
00:11:53
-Just the little bit
of forehead. That's what we got. -That's a very odd clue
right there.
00:11:59
-It is, but for us,
it was a big deal. -And the detectives had
one other big deal --
00:12:08
something Tanya Fandrich
had told them the night her husband died. A stalker who had
been harassing her husband.
00:12:22
And she had proof -- a video from their
own home security camera. -Actually see
the person kind of crawl
00:12:29
and move around a bit underneath
the trailer right there. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -So, this is the carport
at the Fandriches' House
00:13:04
out in Oregon City. -In the early hours
of the investigation into the murder
of Kenny Fandrich,
00:13:10
his wife, Tanya, told detectives
her husband had a stalker, seen here on the couple's
home security cameras
00:13:19
in their carport. -There's some sort of
utility trailer right here, and you'll notice,
right under the trailer,
00:13:26
you actually see
the person kind of crawl and move around a bit underneath
the trailer right there.
00:13:32
-Tanya told detectives
the stalker was her old boss, Steven Milner. Dr. Steven Milner was
a well-to-do
00:13:40
veterinarian worth millions. She had worked with him
in his clinic as a vet tech.
00:13:50
-Are you ready
for your close-up, doggies? Huh? Huh, Miley. You ready?
-Crazy dogs?
00:13:56
-So, Dr. Milner was
how you two met, right? -Yes.
-Yes. -Friends Cheryl Choquette and
Darlyn Robinson
00:14:03
were longtime clients
of the vet. What was he like as a vet?
-He was wonderful. He was very compassionate,
caring, kind.
00:14:13
-He was a great vet. -Cheryl even took part
in a video Dr. Milner made for his clinic,
00:14:19
which had aired
on the local news. -Hey, Cheryl.
-Hi, Dr. Milner. -Hey, Princess.
00:14:25
If I can do an alternative thing
that doesn't require medication, you know, drugs and chemicals,
that's really nice.
00:14:30
-She's a happy girl. -The kind of vet that gets down
at the level of the dog, like, on the floor with them?
00:14:36
-Definitely. On the floor. -And both Cheryl and Darlyn
knew Tanya, at least by sight.
00:14:43
-She was there for, I think, 19 years, and she was the one
who would come out and get us to take us back
to the room
00:14:51
and kind of do the intake
on the animals. -Just a sweet, nice lady. Very, you know, kind of quiet,
00:14:59
but super-friendly
and very caring. -Detectives soon learned
about a complicated relationship
00:15:06
between Tanya and Dr. Milner. Tanya told investigators
she and Dr. Milner had once had an affair.
00:15:14
It began in early 2017. At the time,
Milner was separated, and Tanya said her relationship
with Kenny hit a rough patch.
00:15:27
Did you notice any interactions
between her and Dr. Milner? -Just completely professional.
00:15:32
It was just, you know, he comes
in, she goes out of the room. -He was the boss in a way.
-Mm-hmm. Yeah.
00:15:39
-But Darlyn
thought she noticed something. -There came a point where
my brain just kind of went,
00:15:45
"I wonder if there's,
you know, something going on," because just looks
they would give each other.
00:15:51
-Milner and Tanya tried
to keep their affair quiet, say investigators. Milner even gave her
a secret name, "Kiki."
00:16:00
-One of the nicknames
was Kiki Essex. -Prosecutor Mahalee Streblow
worked on the case.
00:16:08
-It's one of those that's like, you know,
the name of your first pet and then the street
that you grew up on.
00:16:12
-But the couple's affair
was exposed after a few months in July 2017, when they
attended a wedding together.
00:16:22
Prosecutor John Gerhard. -There were employees from
the veterinary clinic that were there.
00:16:27
-She was under the impression
that Kenneth was out of town for work. -Tanya indicated that
they had both been drinking
00:16:36
and that they were engaging
in more physical intimacy in front of the employees
during that wedding.
00:16:44
-As the night ended,
Tanya went home with Dr. Milner. -Lo and behold, Kenneth was
not out of town for work.
00:16:51
-When Tanya didn't return
home that night, Kenny went to Milner's house. -And that's
how they got caught.
00:16:59
-Kenny didn't confront or
make a big scene at the house. He kind of left the house
00:17:05
and then started calling to try
to figure out what's going on. -According to Tanya,
00:17:10
she ended the affair soon
after they were caught. -After that, the relationship with Tanya and
Steven Milner kind of stopped.
00:17:18
-And that's when,
Kenny said, Dr. Milner started
harassing him. -When Kenny came to me,
he was terrified.
00:17:27
-Michael Fuller
was Kenny's attorney. -The stalking issue
had basically consumed his life.
00:17:32
-Fuller says Milner started
with harassing calls, then escalated from there. -Milner literally coming
onto his property
00:17:39
in the middle of the night, following him to work,
threatening him, those type of things.
00:17:43
-Tanya eventually left
Milner's clinic. But Milner continued
to track Kenny. Detectives found plenty
of evidence
00:17:53
of exactly how he did it. -Tanya actually
provided this to us, and this is one
of the actual tracking devices
00:18:01
that Steven Milner had placed
on one of their vehicles. -Is this the device there?
-So, this is the device.
00:18:08
We believe this to be
the battery pack. And what he had done and put it
in this case with the magnets
00:18:13
and then put it up
underneath their vehicle. -In August 2019, roughly two years after
Tanya said she ended the affair,
00:18:23
Kenny applied for an order
of protection against Milner. But detectives would learn
the harassment continued,
00:18:31
and the vet's infatuation
with Tanya deepened. -He wanted Tanya
and he wasn't going to stop.
00:18:38
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Within days of
Kenny Fandrich's death, investigators set their sights on a suspect --
veterinarian Dr. Steven Milner.
00:19:09
Detectives learned
he was obsessed with Tanya. There were love notes. -So, one of them was,
00:19:17
"The one absolute rock-solid
truth is that I love you. I have never loved anyone
that way.
00:19:23
I am consumed by your soul." -He wrote letters like that
for years, even after Tanya had said
the affair was over.
00:19:35
Detectives also learned more
about Tanya's relationship with her husband, Kenny.
00:19:41
-It was
a tumultuous relationship. Alcohol came into play
between them. They were often,
as you can say, hot and cold.
00:19:49
They argued a lot. -Kenny had been charged with
domestic violence years before, but the charges were not pursued
and the couple reconciled.
00:20:00
Then, in August 2021, years after Tanya says she
ended the affair with Milner, the couple had another fight.
00:20:08
This time,
she was arrested. The next day,
something surprising happened. -Somebody posted her bail.
She had $25,000 bail.
00:20:21
When she leaves the jail, Steven Milner is in the
parking lot waiting for her. -Tanya told investigators she
ended up staying with the doctor
00:20:29
for a couple of days
before returning to Kenny. She insisted
nothing romantic happened.
00:20:36
Milner was just helping her
out as a friend. -To this day,
none of us can figure out
00:20:41
how Steven Milner
actually found out she had been arrested that night. -That case was later dismissed,
and the couple reunited again.
00:20:49
But Milner's campaign
of harassment continued. What do you think
his end goal was?
00:20:56
What did he think he could do? End their marriage
and then end up happily ever after with Tanya?
00:21:02
-Exactly. Exactly.
-Yeah. -We think
that that's what his plan was. He wanted Kenneth
out of the picture
00:21:08
so he could be
that white knight to save Tanya. -In March of 2022,
just 10 months before
00:21:17
Kenny's murder, Milner followed
Kenny from Oregon City all the way to Hillsboro,
a 45-minute drive.
00:21:27
Kenny spotted him and called the police,
and Milner was pulled over, as body cameras captured
the interaction.
00:21:43
The responding officer
learned from dispatch that there was history
between the two men.
00:21:52
Milner told police
he believed Tanya was in danger because she had allegedly told
him Kenny was abusive.
00:22:20
-So, thank you. -After that traffic stop, Kenny filed for a new order
for protection.
00:22:26
The original one had
expired years earlier. -Kenny was absolutely
in fear of his life.
00:22:34
-And two weeks later, he was so stressed out, he told
police he crashed his car.
00:23:09
Kenny's attorney says
his client had every reason to be stressed out. -Kenny told me that Milner said,
"Hey, I'm a veterinarian.
00:23:17
I've done surgeries
and I have the tools to chop you up
into little pieces." -In August of 2022,
00:23:23
after Kenny found another
tracking device under his car, Milner was criminally charged
and was awaiting trial.
00:23:32
-It was pretty clear to me that Milner was not
in his right mind. -Just a month later,
Kenny filed a civil suit,
00:23:39
seeking
hundreds of thousands of dollars for invasion
of privacy and infliction of emotional distress,
allegedly brought on by Milner's
00:23:47
stalking, harassment,
and trespass. Five months later,
Kenny Fandrich was dead. Just days after the murder,
detectives were convinced
00:24:04
that Steven Milner
was that man behind the mask. But they needed more evidence. -We need to get eyes
on Steven Milner,
00:24:13
because we know there was some
sort of violent confrontation. We want to see
if he had any injuries.
00:24:19
-Not wanting to tip him off, investigators asked him
to come in for a check-in about the stalking case.
00:24:25
-We arranged a meeting
for Steven to come in to sign some paperwork. Detective Winter was
inside at a reception desk.
00:24:32
-And your goal sitting there
at the receptionist desk -- sort of as an undercover, right?
00:24:37
-Mm-hmm. Yeah, I wanted to see
if he had any injury to himself. He walks in.
He looks extremely nervous.
00:24:44
-Another person
in the office noticed something. -She says, "Hey,
he's got makeup on his face."
00:24:50
-Makeup, investigators say,
Milner used to cover up a scratch on his nose. Bingo. You're thinking,
"We got our guy"?
00:24:59
-Yep. At that point,
I thought, "This is him. This is our guy
that did this." -Moments later, after
Milner walked out the door...
00:25:18
On January 31, 2023, four days after
Kenny Fandrich was found dead, Steven Milner was taken
into custody...
00:25:30
and, within days,
charged with second-degree
murder and stalking. With Milner in custody,
detectives Rigo and Winter
00:25:42
were quickly able to connect
one important clue from those
surveillance-camera images --
00:25:47
that unusual crease
in the masked man's forehead. -There's that very prominent
forehead crease that
00:25:56
he couldn't hide if he tried. -There's no amount
of makeup hiding that crease. -No.
00:26:04
-Do you feel, at this point,
you've got, like, a pretty solid case? -We had a lot
of circumstantial pieces,
00:26:09
like, putting the puzzle
together, but we are just
at the tip of the iceberg of what we still
need to find out.
00:26:16
-More puzzle pieces would
be found in Milner's house. ♪♪ ♪♪ -It was shocking
that somebody this successful,
00:26:41
a doctor,
now suspect in a murder. -With Dr. Steven Milner
now in police custody,
00:26:50
Hillsboro detectives
Stephanie Winter and Devin Rigo set out to find evidence that could prove Milner
was at the scene
00:27:00
when Kenny Fandrich
was murdered. -As soon as he's arrested, we're getting search warrants
for his DNA to be taken.
00:27:07
-Hands behind your back, please. -We're getting search warrants
for his house, as well.
00:27:12
-And detectives weren't
quite prepared for what they found at his home. -We found a cardboard cutout
behind a mirror
00:27:21
of Steven Milner's face,
placed on a very oiled, masculine man with
a dog-paw tattoo over his heart.
00:27:32
-Very odd memorabilia
to have in your bedroom. -Yes.
-I would say so. -And there was more.
00:27:39
-In the nightstand
in Steven's master bedroom is a bunch of items
that we kind of refer to
00:27:46
as a shrine to Tanya. There was a framed picture
of Tanya. There were love notes.
There were women's underwear.
00:27:57
Just, like, very, like,
personal keepsakes from their relationship
together. -That's more
than just collecting
00:28:04
a few love notes and cards. -Especially from someone who hadn't been
in a relationship with you
00:28:09
for several years
at this time period. -To build their case, investigators needed
to connect the
00:28:16
maroon-colored minivan seen
in the Intel parking garage parked next to Kenny's car
to Milner.
00:28:23
But as far as
investigators could determine... -Right now,
you're being detained.
00:28:28
-...Milner usually drove
the white Toyota S.U.V. he'd been in
when he was arrested.
00:28:35
-Initially, we didn't know
what evidence this car could provide us. -So they ordered
an FBI forensic analysis
00:28:43
of the S.U.V.'s computer, hoping it might provide some
clues about Milner's movements
00:28:49
before and after Kenny's murder. -Essentially, the computer
that's in the car retains a lot of information,
00:28:59
and, luckily, one of those
things is, like, GPS data points. -Where was that
bit of information?
00:29:06
Is that a computer
that's pulled out on top there? -Yeah. So, that's part
of the front dash,
00:29:10
and then it was just
a little motherboard-type thing that had a chip in it. -Within weeks, they got a call
from their digital expert.
00:29:18
-She said, "You guys
need to look at the Home Depot in Oregon City. He's there a lot
the day of the murder."
00:29:23
-Home Depot,
just 15 minutes down the road from Milner's house. How central did
this place become
00:29:30
towards the piecing together
the evidence that you had? -Like, this was essentially,
like, center stage
00:29:35
of the investigation. -The detectives asked
Home Depot security personnel if there had been suspicious
activity in the lot recently.
00:29:45
Amazingly, they said yes. Two cars -- a maroon minivan
and a blue sedan -- had been flagged for parking
there for long periods of time,
00:29:57
with only temporary
paper license plates. -And we learned
that there had been a lot
00:30:03
of calls created
in the past couple months with a suspicious blue car
and a maroon minivan.
00:30:11
-For the second time
in a matter of weeks, parking-lot security cameras
and the images
00:30:16
they recorded would provide
investigators with key clues. In this clip from
January 27, 2023,
00:30:26
the day of Kennedy's murder, detectives say you
can see Milner's white S.U.V. pull up and park.
00:30:34
Within minutes, the driver,
believed to be Steven Milner, gets into the maroon minivan.
00:30:40
Another camera then captured the
minivan exiting the parking lot. What was he doing with the cars?
00:30:49
-So essentially, this was,
like, his staging location. So he would drive
his personal car here
00:30:53
and then either pick up the
blue sedan or the maroon minivan and then drive that
out to Hillsboro.
00:30:59
-What do you call them? -Burner cars.
-Burner cars. -Yeah. Everybody kind of
is more familiar with,
00:31:05
like, a burner phone,
where you have a phone that's not traced to you,
but, you know,
00:31:09
you can use it for what you
need, get rid of it. Essentially, he did
the same thing, but with a car.
00:31:13
-Investigators believed
Milner may have been using those burner cars to
secretly follow Kenny to work,
00:31:21
even after law enforcement
had told him to stop. They also learned Home Depot
security cameras had images
00:31:33
of the driver of
those cars shopping in the store about a month
before Kenny was murdered.
00:31:42
-He parked right
in front of Home Depot. -He went in, and then we saw him come
to the self-checkout area
00:31:46
and he had bought a pair
of, like, safety glasses. -Was his face visible
in that surveillance?
00:31:55
-It was, yeah.
-Oh, yeah, yeah. -There was no doubt
it was Steven Milner. And those glasses he bought --
00:32:02
detectives say you
can see them in his right hand as he exited the store. The receipt said they had
a red mirror tint.
00:32:10
Detective Winter had an idea. -We just happened to be
sitting near one of the aisles,
00:32:16
and I was like, "I'm going to go see where
they sell the glasses." And then a couple boxes down
was a yellow hard hat
00:32:23
that looked very similar
to the one that he was wearing in all of
the Intel garage surveillance.
00:32:31
-The detectives
were convinced this was where Milner had gotten
his disguise to kill Kenny.
00:32:39
You have all of this, but you were missing
one big piece of evidence. What was it?
00:32:44
-We were, at this point, still
missing the maroon minivan. -Why is the minivan
so important?
00:32:50
-Because it's the minivan that we believe was
really our main crime scene. We thought there was going to be
00:32:58
forensic evidence
in that minivan, so we really wanted to get
that minivan to help
00:33:03
really put the icing
on this case. -Detective Rigo
was laser-focused on tracking down
that maroon minivan,
00:33:12
and he got an
incredibly lucky break. When those suspicious
burner cars had been flagged,
00:33:19
The VIN number was
also recorded. Rigo searched it and found out
that van had been found
00:33:26
abandoned just a few days
after the murder. -The highway people
had towed it off the side
00:33:34
of the I-5 in North Portland. -It had been dumped.
-It had been dumped there. So I called the tow company.
"Hey, do you have this car?"
00:33:42
"No, sorry. We sold it to a
scrap-metal company." -Detective Rigo
knew the clock was ticking
00:33:49
to retrieve what
he believed was the crime scene and all of the key evidence
it held.
00:33:56
-So me and another detective
drive as quick as we can to North Portland. -But they were too late.
00:34:03
When he asked about the minivan, the scrapyard showed Rigo
this video. This is that maroon minivan.
00:34:11
police believe Milner drove to
the Intel garage to kill Kenny, just moments before it
was pulverized by the metal jaws
00:34:21
of the scrapyard claw. -I was able to watch one
of my key pieces of evidence be crushed and taken away.
00:34:31
-Before your very eyes.
-Before my very eyes. -Oh, my gosh.
-Exactly a week too late.
00:34:35
♪♪ -On January 13, 2025,
Steven Milner went on trial, charged with stalking
and murdering Kenny Fandrich.
00:35:02
Washington County prosecutors John Gerhard and
Mahalee Streblow knew they faced a challenge
without that maroon minivan,
00:35:11
where they believe
Steven Milner murdered Kenny. -All the evidence that was
inside the van was lost with it.
00:35:24
The biggest disappointment
for us is there was likely a lot
of forensic evidence.
00:35:31
-But prosecutors had
some forensic evidence they say put Steven Milner
at the scene --
00:35:38
DNA from swabs taken
of Kenny Fandrich's hands. -I remember getting
an e-mail of the results
00:35:46
and immediately opening it
and being like, "Oh, my gosh, this is it." Steven Milner's DNA was
on Kenneth Fandrich's hands.
00:35:55
-Now you really felt like
you had your case made. -Yes, because there's no way
he could explain away
00:36:01
why his DNA would have been
on Kenneth's body. -Steven Milner would have
an explanation for that.
00:36:08
To everyone's surprise, Milner took the stand, admitting he did spray-paint
the cameras
00:36:15
and was in the Intel garage
waiting for Kenny. He presented what
detectives believed was
00:36:22
a far-fetched explanation. He was trying to save Tanya. There were no cameras in court,
00:36:29
but there is audio of Milner
telling prosecutor John Gerhard why he was in
the Intel lot that day.
00:36:53
-He had this delusional belief that he needed to protect
Tanya Fandrich. -The defense case -- it seemed
to be to kind of get the jury
00:37:03
to maybe feel sympathetic
to Milner. -And Milner insisted
it was Kenny who attacked him after
Kenny spotted Steven Milner
00:37:12
inside the maroon minivan. -Steven essentially said,
"Well, I knew I was caught,
00:37:17
so I opened the door
to kind of confront him, and then Kenneth attacked me." -Prosecutor
John Gerhard challenged
00:37:40
Milner's self-defense story. -His testimony
just didn't line up with the physical evidence
at the scene.
00:37:59
-To my knowledge, bumping your head on a car door
is not going to break your neck.
00:38:06
-After six hours
of deliberations, the jury found
Steven Milner guilty of murdering Kenny Fandrich
and multiple stalking charges.
00:38:22
Cameras were allowed
for Steven Milner's sentencing hearing, which took
place on February 18, 2025.
00:38:30
-Sir, can you stand up? -Tanya, who asked
not to be shown on camera, gave a powerful statement
directed at Steven Milner.
00:38:42
Prosecutor Mahalee Streblow
read us her words. -"All you had to do was stop. Hear me clearly when I say
you are a vengeful, deceptive,
00:38:56
manipulating, self-serving,
aggressive, hateful, lying predator, and
all you had to do was stop."
00:39:06
-Steven Milner was sentenced
to life in prison with the possibility of parole
after 25 years.
00:39:15
Milner did not respond
to our request for an interview. -This case highlights
the very worst-case scenario.
00:39:25
Take stalking seriously. -Kenny's attorney,
Michael Fuller, says what happened highlights
the limits of the system
00:39:34
that is supposed
to protect victims of stalking. -Kenny called the police. When that didn't work,
he got a lawyer.
00:39:40
Kenny did everything
he could under the legal system, and it didn't help him at all.
00:39:46
-After Kenny's death,
Fuller filed a wrongful-death suit
on behalf of Kenny's estate,
00:39:52
asking for damages
of several million dollars. Fuller believes
Milner made millions
00:39:57
from real-estate investments
and the sale of his business. -In the wrongful-death case,
my goals are
00:40:03
to extract as much money
as we can out of Milner. If the estate recovered
any money for Kenny,
00:40:08
it would go to his wife. -For Milner's
former veterinary clients, Cheryl and Darlyn,
00:40:17
it was hard
to reconcile the doctor they knew with a
now-convicted murderer. -I could not believe
that it was the same guy.
00:40:27
-I just believe that he ended up going through
some type of psychosis, and I think that,
at some point, he snapped.
00:40:38
-I think it really
gets down to, like, you never know what
anybody is capable of.
00:40:44
You never know
what monster might be inside. -Almost a Dr. Jekyll-and-Mr. Hyde
situation?
00:40:52
-Absolutely.
-Yeah. -He had everything
to live for. You know, he could do anything
he wanted to do.
00:41:00
And this is where it ended up. It's real sad.