PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — An Oregon City man was found murdered in an Intel parking garage last week and a Clackamas County man, who was the subject of a protective order the victim had, has been arrested, authorities said Wednesday.
Fifty-five-year-old Steven Milner was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the murder of 56-year-old Kenneth Fandrich, and the men had “a history of problematic interactions between the two,” Hillsboro Police Department said in a press release.
“I got referred to Kenneth Fandrich when he was having trouble with a stalker. A man named Steven Milner had gone onto his property and trespassed and put tracking devices on his vehicles,” said Fandrich’s attorney, Michael Fuller, a partner at Underdog Law Office.
HPD reported that its police officers responded to a call at the Intel parking garage near the Ronler Acres campus last Friday. Hillsboro police said that is where Fandrich, who was a contractor on the Intel campus, was found dead in his vehicle.
An autopsy shows that Fandrich “died from blunt compression trauma to his neck,” according to police.
Hillsboro police reported that on Tuesday, Jan. 31, their detectives contacted and arrested 55-year-old Steven Milner in connection to the murder.
In September 2022, court documents show Fandrich sued Milner for $245,000 in a harassment case filed with the Multnomah County Circuit Court. Court documents claimed Milner had been harassing Fandrich for years by placing a GPS device on his car, trespassing late at night and making death threats.
The documents also claimed Milner, a former animal surgeon, threatened to cut Fandrich’s body into pieces and followed him from his home to a gas station on or around March 1, 2022. The court then issued a stalking protective order against Milner. He is believed to have violated the protective order around April 30, 2022, to place the tracking device on Fandrich’s car, court documents claimed.
“Defendant intentionally engaged in a psychotic campaign intended to threaten, intimidate, frighten, and harass plaintiff, in substantial part because defendant had an affair with plaintiff’s wife when she was defendant’s employee,” the documents said.
Milner is now facing charges of second-degree murder and violating a stalking protection order. HPD asked anyone with additional information to contact them.
Fuller often works on cases like wrongful deaths and protective orders, along with other case types, but says this outcome is a first.
“I was shocked and mortified, but I wasn’t necessarily surprised,” said Fuller. “I’ve never seen anything like this where somebody had a microscope on them, both criminally and civilly, and chose to allegedly follow through on their death threats.”
The investigation is ongoing.