A minivan utilized in an Oregon homicide is discovered at a junkyard. Can police reserve it earlier than it turns into scrap metallic?

Detective Devin Rigo knew the clock was ticking as he raced to a metallic scrapyard simply north of Portland, Oregon. Rigo, with the Hillsboro Police Division, had simply discovered concerning the discovery of a maroon minivan he believed contained proof related to the homicide of 56-year-old Kenneth “Kenny” Fandrich, a contract pipe fitter.  

On Jan. 27, 2023, Kenny Fandrich was found in a parking storage on the Intel campus in Hillsboro. Police reviewed surveillance digital camera pictures and decided that Fandrich had been dragged into the minivan by a masked man. Police believed the killer had damaged Fandrich’s neck and killed him contained in the minivan, earlier than staging his physique again within the driver’s seat of his personal automobile.

From proof discovered on the scene, investigators believed the homicide suspect tried to cowl his crime by spray-painting a number of safety cameras within the parking storage with blue spray paint. Correspondent Natalie Morales covers the investigation into Kenny Fandrich’s homicide and the hunt for the killer in “Homicide within the Parking Storage,” now streaming on Paramount+.

Quickly after police arrived on the scene, Intel safety personnel supplied investigators with recordings from their lots of of safety cameras within the parking storage. Police quickly had pictures of a suspect – sporting a tough hat, tinted glasses and a face masks – spray-painting the safety cameras round Fandrich’s automotive early that morning, to apparently conceal the crime. On the time, the suspect had not been detected by Intel. However when police seemed on the footage, they found that the spray paint did not cowl all the pieces the cameras recorded.

Police believed that whoever had killed Fandrich waited for him inside that minivan, then attacked Fandrich when he returned to his automotive after his shift. The killer left the storage within the maroon minivan quickly after.

The night time that Fandrich’s physique was discovered, his spouse, Tanya Fandrich, instructed investigators Kenny had a stalker: a well-off former veterinarian named Dr. Steven Milner. Tanya Fandrich had labored for Milner at his vet clinic for years, they usually had an affair, which Tanya Fandrich stated was lengthy over. Police discovered that Kenny Fandrich had filed a number of orders for defense in opposition to Milner, and that Milner had been warned by Hillsboro law enforcement officials to cease following Kenny Fandrich. Simply months earlier than Kenny Fandrich’s homicide, Milner had been caught inserting a monitoring gadget on one of many Fandrichs’ automobiles and was criminally charged. After a number of days of investigation, police arrested Milner and charged him with the homicide of Kenny Fandrich.

As soon as in custody, police had been capable of join the minivan, and one other automobile, to Milner, who had left them at a Dwelling Depot car parking zone for lengthy durations of time.

To show the case in opposition to Milner, investigators felt they needed to discover that minivan. “As a result of it is the minivan that we imagine was actually our primary crime scene …” stated Rigo. “We thought there was going to be forensic proof … in that minivan.”

Rigo and his companion, Detective Stephanie Winter, referred to as the automobiles “burner vehicles.”

“Everyone type of is extra acquainted with like a burner telephone …” stated Rigo, “the place you’ve gotten a telephone that is not … traced to you however, you already know, you should use it for what you want, eliminate it … Basically, he did the identical factor, however with a automotive.”

The maroon minivan had been flagged on the Dwelling Depot car parking zone and the VIN quantity had been recorded. Safety footage confirmed the van leaving the Dwelling Depot car parking zone shortly earlier than Fandrich was murdered.

“We’re sending flyers to each company within the space,” stated Rigo concerning the minivan’s VIN quantity.

The primary alert they bought was from the Oregon Division of Transportation. The minivan had been towed off the facet of the busy I-5 freeway in North Portland simply days after Fandrich was murdered. Detectives imagine it had been dumped there by Milner. Rigo referred to as the tow firm and discovered the minivan had been bought to a scrap metallic firm. That is when he began racing to the scrapyard to see if they might retrieve the minivan, and the important thing crime scene proof it could have held. However he was too late. When Rigo arrived and requested concerning the minivan, he was proven a video of the crime scene being picked up and smashed to items. “I used to be capable of watch considered one of my key items of proof be crushed and brought away,” stated Rigo, “earlier than my very eyes … precisely every week too late.”

Uncover how the investigation unfolded, and Milner’s protection at trial, on this week’s “48 Hours,” “Homicide within the Parking Storage.”