320. The Masked Killer - The Murder of Kenneth Fandrich

We got set up, I think, in less than a day.

“With very little effort, we could just focus on the supply chain to the product development.”

Shopify gives us the ability to customize without the complexity. We can change something without introducing fragility or having to pay a developer. We're thirsty total and we leveled up our business with Shopify. Start your free trial at Shopify.com/ayou. Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast, this is Merda with my husband.

I'm Peyton Moreland. I'm Garrett Moreland. He's the husband. Happy Monday. Welcome back.

Glad to be here. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. Thank you for supporting us. Thank you for your five star review.

Thank you for being great, honestly. Yeah, I have a couple things. I want to go over. No announcements. Right?

Any announcements? No. If you're watching on Netflix, I apologize for my appearance. I just woke up. I just woke up.

It looks great. No, Peyton looks great. I just woke up. You look great, Ben. You do.

Thank you. Go ahead. What do you got to say?

“If you guys want to hear some good rants, keep listening.”

If you don't, and you're like, Garrett's really annoying. I hate the husband, blah, blah, blah, blah. Then you can fast forward a few minutes. Okay. If you haven't fast forwarded, what?

I'm pretty sure it's like our last couple of episodes. You've been in your working uniform. I'm sure I have. Look at the flower on his pants from bagels. I've been working from 4 a.m.

The like 6 p.m. every single day. My head's going to explode, but I'm here. Okay. Go ahead. I love to.

Oh, what? No, you don't. Um, okay. I have a couple of rants. Couple of hot takes.

Couple of rants. So if you're ready for this, let's get into it. Number one. I'm going to preface this with. I am from the west coast.

I grew up on the west coast. Okay. Number one. The west coast is very soft compared to the east coast. Hmm.

I think that like southern hospitality. We kind of have it. But it's just like. We are like, and I'm just going to the only reason I say this is because

if you're sick of the bagels shop, just give me a second.

I want up. There's other stuff I'm going to talk about. But we get some customers that get. I guess. Okay, like we're bagels shop.

We're. We're trying to get people in and out fast. We're trying to make good bagels. Um, we're trying to obviously not to be mean to people. But we're just like, hey, we can get fewer order.

Awesome. Thank you so much. We'll carry name in a second. Right? I don't know how many people have ever been to the east coast and gotten bagels.

And like New York, Boston, just anywhere. I'll just say New York. Because I feel like that's a good starting point. You know, you go in a bagel shop. What do you want?

By like, it's very boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

And you're waiting a second, depending on what bagel shop it is.

I've been to a lot of bagel shops in New York. Anyways, all I'm saying is that the west coast is a little soft. And that's okay. But it seems like we all use weed because I'm included. Expect a lot more hospitality and have a lot more entitlement when it comes to

walking into establishments, which is totally fine. That's okay. But people in the east coast are just like giving my food. Done. Mm-hmm.

You know what I'm saying? You're saying it's totally fine.

“And I think it's okay to like want to chat and stuff.”

I think that wanting to be talkative and and, you know, have that hospitality is fine. I think what's not fine is not having an understanding that like. The food industry is hard. Is it already? Jane, it's it's I didn't know until I started working into it.

Okay, so I'm sure I'm at fault for this. It is the craziest industry. See, I worked at a movie theater growing up when I was young. Nice. And.

That was, yeah. Beautiful. No, I just feel like it sucks to get yelled at. Yeah. It sucks to get yelled at one like you're just trying to do your job.

We're just trying our best. And we had a hundred and like thirty customers in 50 minutes today. And it was insane. That's like a customer every thirty seconds that we're trying to get bagels to. And it was just crazy.

And I'm sure there's probably a couple people maybe that. But like we were being rude. I don't know. I'm sorry. We're just trying to hardest.

We're trying to make good bagels. We're trying to get people their food fast. They're not waiting.

Waiting sometimes ten minutes for your bagels, which we try not to.

Obviously, but sometimes we run out. We bake them fresh.

“I think people just get offended and they're like bad customers.”

I'm innocent. You know what? I don't have to tell you. Sorry. I do think it's just the speed at which you guys try to move people in and out.

But that's my thing. I'm like, well, when. Align is wrapped around. Yeah, it was like 80 people. And it's wrapped around the corner.

We're just trying to move. Got a movement. And now you don't want to wait in line for 50 minutes. Yeah. So anyway, it's been crazy.

Thank you for supporting. If you've come. It's good problem. Also, I'm sorry to those. Someone tried to take a picture with me the other day.

And I was in the ovens because it was just absolutely crazy. And I think the end that I'm leaving. And I'm sorry. Come back. I'll take a picture.

Today was just the craziest. It's been since we opened. I'm rambling. I'm exhausted. But thank you for coming.

Thank you for supporting. And we're going to keep making bagels. And we hope it's a great experience for everyone who comes. Um, because obviously that's the goal. It's wanted.

We wanted to be good experience. You want you to get great bagels. We wanted to be fun in there. It's not fun in there. It's probably because there's so many people right now.

But I mean, I've worked two Saturdays. And I've had a ball. It is fun. It just gets insane. I get to.

It is like very fast moving. It's very fast moving. It can get loud in there. But if you're okay, just kind of relax and just enjoy the vibe. Enjoying the vibe.

Not being stressed. It's amazing. I promise I get to talk to people. I take pictures with people and it's still like moving pretty fast.

“I think it's just when people are in a hurry.”

Then that's when it can get frustrating. I get that too. I mean, there's validity to not wanting to wait 10 minutes for a bagel. But usually most people don't. Most people over like we try to go like two to four minutes back.

Well, it's also like, you know, there's other bagels shops that have frozen bagels. So they can pop them in the toaster real quick. I mean, don't do frozen bagels. Yeah. And so ours have to like boil and go on the oven.

Yeah. It's crazy. I mean, we also have got to a lot meet a lot of listeners coming into the bagel shop.

And it's always been just like an amazing fun experience.

So thank you to those who have come in and supported him that we've got to meet. It has been like unreal and always such a fun experience with you guys. She's right. Thank you for helping us. Thank you for watching and supporting another.

It's not really a hot take. I don't think. But another something else I want to say. I think Peter is the best food in the world. Yeah.

Like, I truly besides bagels. I truly think I could eat pizza every day for the rest of my life. I think it was born in the wrong state. It does sound like you were probably.

“I think I should have grown up in New York.”

All I love is pizza and bagels. And fast and just in and out. And fast moving craziness. Like, I, I thrive off of it. Yeah.

Anyways, if you are from New York or you live in New York, I think I was supposed to be born in New York. But I'm not. I was born in California. So opposite ends of there.

I think they messed up. I think they split flop that accident. You know, your family's very fast moving though. So it's not that shocking that you're similar. That's true.

I'm wired because I'm so tired. So let's get into this week's case. Our sources for this episode are cbsnews.com. Mir.co.uk, kptv.com, medium.com, organlive.com, sackb.com, coin.com, movie.com,

people.com, homensfuneral service.com, Washington County DA.org, and W week.com. We're all human. We all make mistakes from time to time.

Some of them might be bigger than others, but mistakes can also be character building. It's how we learn and grow, especially when we take ownership and accountability for those mistakes.

And we accept the challenge to do better, learn from it, just be better in the future. Can those mistakes still have a profound impact on us? And they keep us up at night. Sure.

But sometimes it's not even the mistake itself that haunts us. It's who we made those mistakes with. And today, I want you to meet 56-year-old, Kenneth Kenny, Fandrich. Well, we're going to call him Kenny.

Who, in 2023, so a little more recently, is living with his wife of 30 years, Tonya Fandrich, just outside of Portland, Oregon. Now, Kenny had spent a much of his life in Oregon.

He was born in 1967, and grew up in what was described as a loving household, with his parents and two brothers.

Now, everyone said that Kenny had an incredible sense of humor,

but also had this really kind and gentle nature about him. This is something that showed from a young age. He loved animals, but Kenny also had some skills and qualities

He had this unique desire for adventure. So after graduating from high school,

“Kenny moved to Alaska, where he got his diving certification”

and began working as an underwater welder. Oh, I've heard so much about underwater welders, and I'm sure you guys all have, too. It's like a popular--

It's pretty amazing, honestly.

He worked on commercial fishing boats, as an underwater welder. Which I do, again, think this does explain someone very well. It was an incredibly difficult job, not just because of the skills needed to do it, but Kenny was braving freezing cold temperatures

in those Alaskan waters to get the job done. But being outdoors was Kenny's calling. He loved anything that connected him more with nature, whether that was fishing, skiing, snowboarding, hunting, or even just sitting out by the fire on a cold night next to his pets.

“Which this is important to get to know Kenny, he fostered”

and adopted a lot of pets. He had six dogs at one point, but then life in Alaska brought Kenny another unexpected surprise. It was where a friend introduced him to Tonya, his eventual wife.

She worked at his local bank in Dutch Harbor.

For their first date, they met up in Tonya's hometown

for ice cream over 1,000 miles away in Anchorage, Alaska. Now, the two bonded over how much they loved animals and the great outdoors. And after that, the rest was history. Kenny and Tonya fell in love,

and they got married in 1993, and then three years later, in 1996, that was when the couple decided to pick up and move back to Kenny's home state of Oregon. Now, the plan was for Kenny to move home

and start a piping business with his father. So the couple bought a house along the Wilmmet River. This is about 12 miles south of Portland.

Now, they never had kids,

but out in the country, they were happy just raising their dogs to cats, a pair of goats, and even for a brief period of baby raccoon. Now, Tonya, she got a job working at a local veterinarian's office, and Kenny built his business,

and eventually joined the union as more and more work came in. And this is kind of how things carried on for the next 27 years for this couple. And by 2023, Kenny was working on a giant project for Intel, who was building a 2.5 million square foot campus

nearby in Hillsboro, Oregon. Now, Kenny was installing the piping that kept the heavy machinery cool. So it was a long contract that he had been committed to for some time. And by then, he'd built a solid reputation as being reliable and hard working.

Now, on the morning of January 27, 2023, Kenny took off her and the other day on the job, and he spent the day toyling away. And since it was a Friday, he was probably looking forward to the weekend if you days of rest back home with his wife and their animals.

Now that afternoon, he clocked out a little after 3 p.m. he grabbed his things and headed back for his Honda Civic in the parking lot. A few security cameras actually catch glimpses of him leaving work and walking to his car around 321 p.m. But then, a few hours passed and Kenny still hadn't made it home from work.

And that was when Tanya began to worry. Now, Tanya had tried to call Kenny a few times that day with no answer. She was really starting to think something was wrong. Her first instinct was to track Kenny on her find my app. And as soon as she did, she saw Kenny was still at work.

“And remember, this is a very large site that he is working at.”

So, she notices his dog is particularly in the parking garage of this work site. And when she realized that his dog hadn't moved for quite a while, Tanya contacted the Hillsboro Police and asked him to do a welfare check. And at the same time, she began making the drive over to the Intel campus herself. Now, by the time police get there, it's about 9 p.m.

And when police arrived at the second level of the parking structure, just like Tanya had said, you know, "I'm tracking my husband. His dog hasn't moved. Can you please meet me there?" They found Kenny's black Honda Civic still parked in its parking spot.

Now, at first, detectives are like, oh, you know, her husband's probably just taking a nap.

Probably just passed out, forgot to call his wife. His lunch bag, his keys, his phone, are all sitting in the seat next to him, the passenger seat. But as police get closer and they knock on the window trying to wake him up, they realize there is some discoloration around his neck. And they think his head is sort of twisted at an angle

and his hands are kind of folded weirdly in his lap. And he's not waking up to them knocking on the window. So instead of opening the car door right then and there, they call for backup. And the backup arrived around the same time as Tanya did.

“And if you're like, why didn't she just drive over there herself?”

It might be because as it seems like she didn't even arrive until the backup arrived. So she was probably farther away from the campus than police were. Yeah. She was worried so she wanted them to get their foster. Now, once backup arrives, they examine the vehicle and they get the door open to examine her husband.

Oh, good. Haven't you seen that? Yeah, horrible. And they determined that Kenny was actually dead in his driver's seat. Now, of course, Tanya, his wife of over 30 years was absolutely devastated.

But the question now was, what had happened to him? There was no blood inside Kenny's car. And to be fair, he's a pretty big tough guy. He was like six feet tall, 195 pounds.

“So police are like, this solo man is leaving work and gets attacked and killed in his car.”

Which was why the police is first instinct was actually to see if he died of natural causes in the car.

Was this a hard attack? Another following day, detectives had the results of Kenny's autopsy. And the results were actually way more shocking. It appeared, Kenny was a victim of foul play after all. The corner wrote that he had died from quote, blunt compression trauma to his neck.

Want compression? Is that just strangulation? Yeah. But it's a little bit more extreme. His neck had been broken with so much force that he severed his spine. There was extreme pressure on his neck.

Which meant obviously this was not a natural death. The discoloration on the neck that they had originally seen was real. Kenny was attacked violently at his place of work. Investigators, they obviously began looking for clues around the crime scene.

One of the first things they do is examine that CCTV footage that I told you existed around the parking garage.

Now it turns out earlier that day at 7 a.m. something unusual was happening around the parking deck. A man with a hard hat, a mask, and these red tinted sunglasses was seen walking around spray painting the security cameras. He did this to about six to eight of the cameras to be exact.

“And the only thing that can really be made out about the person is that they're white.”

They are masculine presenting and they have a distinct grease or wrinkle in their forehead. Which is like, I mean, it's kind of me. I did a video of the day on Instagram. The whole time I was talking like this. I have, I think I have a distinct crease.

Anyways, I'm just like that's what they noticed. Get them all things. I don't know. It's got some forehead wrinkles. Yeah.

Now this person would move around the garage strategically. Hiding behind pillars, shielding their face before spray painting another camera. It's literally like. Oceans 11 up in here. Okay.

This this guy walking around. So to the detectives, it looks like this person was familiar with the parking deck and where all the cameras were located. But there's something else seen on the footage before Kenny was killed. Between some of the blue spray paint. The cameras show a maroon minivan parked right next to Kenny's car.

Of course it's some a maroon minivan. So they noticed this minivan parked next to his car right before Kenny was spotted entering the garage at 321 pm. Which might I say like whoever is spray painting these cameras isn't doing a very good job because we're still seeing through the spray paint and kind of getting a glimpse of what's happening.

And then a few minutes later, the lights on Kenny's car start flashing almost like he's hitting the fog.

Like the lock button maybe over and over again. And then shortly after this, the maroon van pulls out of the parking spot and leaves the parking garage. So we obviously don't see like what's happening. We just see the cars parked in the lights going off. So police wonder.

Did the person pull Kenny into the maroon car and attack him and then maybe put him back into his Honda Civic once he was dead. Did the attack happen in the Honda Civic, except there was no blood so they're like, I don't know who would even want to hurt Kenny. Well, it turns out. Tonya already knew the answer to that question. So as soon as like police are investigating this as foul play, she offers up something.

And she had given detectives her theory during an interview the night of Kenny's murder, like right after they found him.

“I think if I like got killed, would you even, would there be any thoughts on like who wanted to kill Garrett?”

Like there's no one that wants to kill me.

I could be wrong. Maybe the guy that I kicked out of the bagel shop today? I did I kicked him out of the bagel shop. Is this story for another time? I'm sorry.

I don't, I wouldn't think like a listener or like someone from the bagel shop. I would try to think of someone like more connected to you, but I don't think anyone has a reason to kill you. That I'm saying. I don't think it's a good thing. I think it's a good thing.

Yeah.

I don't think I know anyone that wants to kill you.

But I could be like he has a couple of girlfriends who blocked me for no reason.

“Okay, but like there's a warrant, a kill babe.”

It isn't worth someone killing you. I know immediately throw them under the bus. From like 16 years ago, that's crazy. I'd be like the elementary school girlfriend. Yeah, her name.

Like I really, I don't know, I don't think I know anyone that would want to kill you too. Oh, kill me. Yeah, I don't know anyone. That's a good thing. I don't wanna make a list for you.

Okay. So she reveals something pretty huge to the Hillsboro police. She says, hey, Kenny actually had a stalker. A very dangerous one that had been following him for years.

“And this person had been harassing and threatening Kenny.”

He had even placed a tracker on Kenny's car. He had snuck around their property under the cover of night. And on you told police, this stalker is all because of her. Oh, okay, no, keep going. So she's like, this person isn't stalking Kenny because of him.

It's, it's my fault. So let me rewind the clock a bit back to the year 2000. This is 23 years earlier. This is about four years after Kenny and Tanya moved to Oregon. That was when Tanya accepted a new job working at the Miller veterinary hospital in Oregon City.

Now, at this time, this clinic was brand new. So there was a lot of room to grow. And the opportunity was perfect for Tanya who like Kenny was a huge animal lover. And it's main veterinary and the owner of the company Stephen Miller quickly became this celebrated person in the community once he opened this place.

His animal hospital was seen as one of the best in the area. And Stephen's bedside manner was unmatched. Not only would he sit with and console those who had lost or were losing a pet. He would send them thoughtful handwritten notes after the fact. One woman said that on the fourth of July,

she ran into Stephen who offered to run to his office to get a sedative for her dog who was freaked out by the fireworks. Another client said Stephen made a donation in her late pet's name to Oregon State University. It was just these little details that really made the locals fall in love with Stephen. Even his receptionist said he was the best boss she ever had. He was professional, he was kind and generous.

And for the next two decades, he continued to run one of the best animal hospitals in town with Tanya by his side. So technically, if you knew Stephen, you definitely knew Tanya. But in 2017, things got a little more complicated between the two of them. Because after all these years of working together, Tanya and Stephen go from co-workers to something more romantic. That year, Tanya and Kenny were apparently going through some difficult times.

Tanya said Kenny was often a way at job sites for days or weeks at a time. And when they were together, they were drinking a lot. She said Kenny had struggled with infidelity through their relationship a few times too.

So earlier that year, Tanya and Stephen started sneaking around together.

“Stephen even had a nickname for Tanya. One of those, your dogs first name and then your street name, which for her equal to Kiki Essex, which is who started like he starts referring to Tanya as Kiki is girlfriend Kiki to keep things under the radar.”

Well, a few people at the office obviously start catching on. They're like sensing that something is going on between the two of them. But that got confirmed when many of them attended a wedding together that summer. Tanya went alone that night. She told people Kenny's out of town again. And after a few drinks and a couple of slow dances, Stephen and Tanya in public are getting a little too cozy.

Now before the night was over, it was clear to everyone that they were definitely hooking up. Apparently, it was even clear to Kenny, who wasn't even at the wedding this night.

Now I don't know who tipped him off or if he just had a hunch, but is the hours ticked by and Tanya didn't come home from the wedding.

“Kenny suspected that she was at Stevens. So he drove over there and basically caught them mid of fair. Also, this is crazy. So you're telling me that he then goes and kills Kenny?”

No, I'm just telling you how he got stuck. I know, but I'm just jumping ahead because I sue me kills Kenny and that's nuts. Yeah. So Kenny catches them. Okay, but rather than make it this huge deal. He kind of leaves like he leaves it pretty calm. He doesn't say much. And then afterwards, as he's talking to Tanya, and they're talking about their relationship, what they want to do moving forward, Tanya says she realized that she had made a huge mistake. She ended this five month wing. She and Kenny tried hard to work through this. They didn't want to lose each other, but little did she know this was the beginning of something much much worse.

So in late 2017, after calling it quits was Steven, the couple received a strange letter. It read quote, I should do everyone a favor and go back to drinking myself into my own demise. Much like, why? Okay, Shakespeare. Uh-huh. Like that's just a little dramatic. Now while the letter was anonymous, Tanya was pretty certain that Steven was behind it. Now at this point, Tanya talks to Kenny about quitting. She's like, this just seems weird. I'm going to leave. But after putting in nearly two decades at this job, she just didn't want to walk away so easily, but unfortunately, things only escalated from there. She was hoping that they could both just like call it quits continue back at work.

But over the next year, so more threatening letters came and then those turned into mysteriously weird phone calls. And one day, Tanya even got a call from Steven's sister. She said she was concerned about the domestic violence. Tanya was experiencing in her marriage to Kenny and Steven's sister is like, Steven told me everything. I not only was Tanya completely confused about this because there was no domestic violence. It also is starting to really freak her out that he just can't leave her alone. Steven was making up lies about her and getting other people, even his own family involved.

So that is when she was like enough is enough. Tanya left the animal hospital realizing that might be the only solution to get Steven to leave her and Kenny alone. But that wasn't the case. The letters, the threats, they kept coming and in September of 2018 things got even spook here.

“I think we talk about this a lot. Do you really never just know somebody?”

No. Like, do you just truly never know who someone actually is? Yeah. Like, the fact that she can be sleeping with him and then all of a sudden he just is being this weird.

Is this being this insane? Because I'm sure if you were to ask her, she'd be like, I had no idea. Like, he was well, and not saying she had been working with him for years. I'm saying, do you just never truly know somebody? No. Yes, not. I was going back to love makes people do weirdo things sometimes. So at this point, it has been over a year since she had ended their affair. But one evening, when Tanya and Kenny got back to their house, they pulled into the driveway to see Steven Milner there. His been over a year since she ended things. She is quit her job.

And when they pulled in, they could see he was attaching a small black box to the bottom of Kenny's truck.

Now, the second Steven saw them pull up. He runs away. Obviously, the couple is terrified. They call the local bomb squad.

“They're like, did this guy just put a bomb underneath my husband's truck?”

Insane. But it wasn't a bomb. It was a GPS tracking device, which is still creepy.

Now, after that, Steven was called in to speak with the police. Because when Tanya and Kenny explain the situation, they're like, no, it's been a year.

We want absolutely nothing to do with him. So the police call him and they're like, hey, you've got to leave this couple alone.

“And he's like, no, no, no, she's still, she's lying. We're still having an affair.”

And I'm just trying to keep tabs on Kenny so we don't get caught. Okay. Now, Tanya's like, no, it's a lie. Like, that's not true. But the problem was everyone who knew Steven, which this is so ironic, since you just said this, how hard time believing that he would be this crazy. Speaking of this, yeah, nah, story for another time, another story for another time. But again, the amount of people that pretend to be nice and innocent and sweet out there when they're really not, there's a lot. Like in secret or a lot of people who are secretly not good people.

Yeah, crazy. But do make an effort, whether that's manipulation or coping mechanisms or personality disorders to come off a certain or on the outside, they make themselves seem like these saints.

“I've seen it firsthand multiple times. Happened me recently. I mean, here's the thing, like I can name someone from growing up who I'm like that person around town would've been known as like a really good person.”

But like it was all a facade. Like when you truly get to know them, you start to see the masks lip a little bit. And I feel like maybe everyone kind of has that have seen that in someone. Now, this is what's happening with Steven. As I mentioned, Steven had an incredible reputation in the area. Everyone who knew him loved him, whether they sent their pets to him or not, because not only was he a vet, he was a dad to two kids from his first marriage. He was an active member of the community. He sponsored fundraisers, charity runs. He even once set up a hygiene station for the unhoused.

But the truth was, Steven was really good at masking his dark side. Turns out he actually did have a history. He had been investigated back in 1996 by the Oregon veterinary medical examining board for, quote, unprofessional or dishonorable conduct. Why? Well, he had put down two dogs without their owners consent. So he just decided the dogs were too sick and did it without talking to the owners. Now, there was another incident in 2019 where Steven also showed his true colors. He was collecting bottles and cans through his clinic plan to use those proceeds from the bottle drop to donate to charity.

But when he showed up at the drop spot, they told him he had exceeded the allowed size for a bottle deposit. He not only lost his temper, he ended up shoving one of their employees, and then went on local television to rant about it. He also doxed one of the employees by posting her information online and encouraging everyone he knew to harass and threaten her. So again, he's coming off as a nice person, but even in the times of going to a charity, his real true colors do show. Like, it's very obvious this charity is just for looks if this is how you're acting when you're going there.

Now that same year, 2019, again, this stalking and stuff has been going on for over a year now. Steven sold his hospital to a national chain and finally retired.

Bro, go get a life, man. I know, it's been years.

“He sold the hospital, he's retired, like, go, go play golf, go do something.”

Like, has he never been broken up with?

I don't know. I don't understand how this happens to so many people. Like, it sucks. I know that probably sucked, but, like, some people have. Crazy. It's also embarrassing, but it's crazy. Yeah.

Like, dude, go do something, man. I don't know. There's a podcast right now about Clay in the Bachelor who was accused of he went through a paternity case. This woman was like, oh, I'm pregnant with his twins. She was never actually pregnant, but took it so far. And there's a podcast on it right now.

It's insane. Like, some people are nuts. And it's like not just nuts in, like, private, but nuts like in public. Like, I don't, I don't get it. Like, truly can't comprehend this and genuinely delusionally believing it.

I truly can't comprehend it. It, anyway. Also, it's like, do all of us have that potential? No.

Or is that just like a weird thing?

I think it's a weird thing. I hope so.

“No, this girl's done it to, like, five other guys.”

So it's just a hobby for her. Yeah. Now, he's in love with Tony still. He's obsessed with her, and he's decided to make her husband, Kenny's life, a living hell.

He absolutely hates this guy. Now, while Tonya was receiving endless love letters from Steven, Kenny was getting scarier threat. So at the same time, he's, like, writing Tonya being like, I love you.

Come back to me. He's also threatening her husband. In June of 2019, Kenny found Steven outside his house again. This time, screaming and saying he was going to destroy his work tools. Now, by August, Kenny was applying for an order of protection against Steven.

Kenny told the police that Steven was getting more aggressive,

terrifying each day showing up to his house. And this time, the police take it a little more seriously. A sheriff's deputy personally served Steven with the restraining order. But two months later, Kenny doesn't try to renew the order. You actually, like, have to go in and actively do this.

And he doesn't.

“And it's not because the threats had stopped.”

It's because they had actually gotten worse. And so he was like, "Hey, maybe if I drop it, it'll get better." Steven actually told the couple if they didn't drop the restraining order. He would bankrupt them with legal fees. And Tonya discouraged Kenny from going to the police again,

because she was terrified that Steven's threats weren't idle. She was scared of him. And meanwhile, Tonya got a job at another animal hospital, but then Steven started showing up there too. He would leave her notes on her car.

He would hang around in the parking lot waiting for her to get off her shift and leave. And at one point, he even showed up with a dog. To the animal clinic, and it's like, "Ah, Tonya needs to treat this dog." Now, cut to December 2020. It has been three years since Tonya called off their six-month link.

And Steven is still at the restaurant. He is still obsessing over her. Oh, my God. By this point, Kenny and Tonya had set up security cameras outside their home. That month, one of them caught Steven Army crawling around in their yard.

Oh, Lord. Gosh, dude. Tonya called 911. What the actual Steve left? But this time, the deputies don't even take a report because he's gone.

Which, like, okay, I'm sorry. Yeah, it's almost a comical. It's not because we know where this story is going. Like the fact that someone's Army crawling around. At this point, I would kill it.

I'm not going to say anything. I would do bad. No. I would literally be like, "This guy is so unwell." I'd be in jail.

Like, this is so far beyond, like-- I'm pretty sure if I caught someone Army crawling in my yard. This is the-- This is the session. This is stalking.

They'd be buried currently in one of the holes in our side yard. We have these huge eight-foot holes right now because we're planning some trees. I actually went out there the other day and I was like-- Is there a body in here? No, you could put a body in there.

You didn't have no idea. I know I just brought up holes in the movie, but I went out there the other day and thought about it again. I was like, "Those poor boys had to dig holes like this." Don't come on me crawling in my yard.

You will end up in one of those. Dude, Army crawling through someone's yard. What are those things called those suits, Gill? Gating? No.

Oh. Gilly, suits? Yes, I don't know why he's-- Imagine if he had a gilly suit on. That wouldn't have been even worse.

You, teen. Oh my gosh. The gating's the thing they cut off.

I need to go to sleep. Okay.

“So, Stevens, Army crawling through the yard.”

Tony's calling 911. Police are not--

I mean, it's just not good.

Again, we've talked about it before. Stocking is one of the most dangerous things because there's not much police to do. Now, of course, all of this is definitely starting to take a toll on Kenny and Tony's marriage.

I mean, things weren't even perfect to begin with, considering the infidelity and then add on like they're trying to heal from this and trying to stay together and move on. But then he's just constantly still around.

That makes it really, really hard to heal and put things in the past, from the past, in the past. So, for Kenny, the stress of all of this lead to drinking the fights between Kenny and Tony get a little more intense.

And in August of 2021, it led to one really out of control event between the couple. That month, during a fight, Tonya slashed Kenny's ear

and Kenny called the police. Tonya was arrested for assault. She spent the night in jail.

But the next day, she learned

someone had paid her bail. $25,000 bail, by the way. By who? Not Kenny. Not her husband.

Steven Milmer had learned about her arrest and bailed her out. And he was waiting for her outside in the parking lot once she was released.

Now, this is surprising to Tonya because she's like, how did he even know? How did he even know I got arrested? Well, this led them to believe that Steven had definitely installed trail cameras

around their property the same time. It doesn't stop. It gets worse and worse.

“That's how he learned she'd been arrested”

and Steven had been watching everything going on around their home. And what's even more disturbing is Tonya actually ends up

staying with Steven for a couple of days

after she was released. Now, I know this is like everyone's screaming right now. Everyone's throwing their hands up and you're valid. You're valid, okay?

Outside looking in, this is crazy. Inside looking in, this is crazy. I'm assuming that Tonya and Kenny's marriage was in a really rough spot right now. Her ex, a fair partner, bails her out.

Becomes her night in shining armor, rescuing her out of jail. Tonya has just spent the night in jail. And her brain twisted brain in the absolute nuance of this complicated situation

is like, yeah, I'll just stay with him for a couple days. I wonder. And I know that sounds crazy. I just think it's, it's probably not as crazy when you're the one living it, but it's still crazy.

It's pretty not. It's not going to lie. It's pretty crazy. Not the judge. No, I do think it's, it's judge one.

Like, I think it's judge worthy, but I also think the human psyche, especially when you're dealing with something as complicated as an affair, doesn't make much sense.

“Like, I think people do very odd things.”

Okay. In that name, I'm not justifying it. I'm just saying that I can see, the I can see a world where she stayed with him for a couple days.

Now, obviously, she insists a few days later when she goes home to Kenny. Keep in mind, Kenny called the cops on her and got her arrested.

Okay. Valid, Valid. Now, when she goes home a few days later, she's like, I've been at Stevens. Nothing romantic happened.

He just paid my bill. Got me out of jail. And I'm sure Kenny's like Steven, the one in the gilly suit, are we crawling around our home,

not a gilly suit, but are we crawling around our home? She had to explain that, but when she goes home to Kenny, like a few days after getting out of jail,

Steven has just paid $25,000 to bail her out of jail. Oh, no. And then she's like-- Every realized there was only like 10%.

So it was like $1,500. Maybe. But it was a $25,000 bill. You can pay $25. I mean, you can pay the $25.

Yeah, I mean, I guess maybe he did. Yeah. He probably did. This is an act of dating his girl pack. Get up.

You very well could have-- Um, now, when Steven's like, what? You're going back to Kenny. Like, you've been with me for a couple days.

I've fought in his mind. So hard for this. And you're going to go back to Kenny. This makes him even more enraged. Like, you've just taken a crazy person

and lit a fire under them. Now, in March of 2022, he takes things to a whole new level. Month before Steven had snuck around and installed another GPS tracker on Kenny's car,

this time without getting caught. And then on March 1, Steven began following Kenny closely behind on a 45 minute drive from Oregon City

And this was after Steven had recently threatened

“to quote, "chop Kenny into a million pieces”

and make sure it takes place to do it." Okay. So when Kenny realized Steven was following him to work, he pulled over and called the police. Shockingly this time, Steven didn't flee.

He was approached by an officer who caught their interaction and bought a camp footage. And in it, Steven tells the officer, "He's just worried and following Kenny because he's been abusive towards Tonya.

He's doing all of this for her safety." The police don't buy it. They're like, "Listen, this guy's taken a restraining order around you before Tonya herself has told us she wants nothing to do with you."

They tell Steven, "Stay the heck out of this couple's business, but they don't arrest him." They give him a warning. My gosh, they should have cut his feet off or something. Kenny knows this is not enough.

So immediately after that incident, Kenny goes back to the police. And he's like, "That's it. I'm filing another protection."

“I'm filing another order of protection again, Steven.”

By that point, Kenny was so afraid for his life. He could, like, it was less about the drama of all this. He was struggling on a day-to-day basis to the point where he even got into a car accident about two weeks after filing that order.

And he tells people he's just distracted. Like, he's genuinely worried for his life. Honestly, it's so sad, it's horrible. None of this stops Steven Milner. In August of 2022, he puts another tracker on Kenny's car.

I don't understand. Like, we talk about it so much and it's so hard. Stocking is so hard with the justice system. Like, proving it. And it's just, it's a difficult one.

Do you just throw them in jail forever? Like, yeah. Like, do you throw them in jail? I don't know. Probably, I've heard so many crazy stocking stories

that I'm like, like, if you're stocking someone. It's so scary. Like, they need to send them all to an island or something. Like, you just, you can't live in society being that nuts. It's like a, like, a hide and seek island.

They just stalk each other. Yeah, they can just stalk each other or something. So this time, he actually is caught. And he's criminally charged for violating the protective order. A month later, Kenny also files a civil suit

against Stephen for invasion of privacy and emotional distress. Really, though, he just pokes the bear. Because in October of 2022, Stephen's plotting his most nefarious plan yet. He buys a new car on Craigslist under a fake name. He uses it to continue stalking Kenny.

And on December 13th, he goes to Kenny's place of work and he spray paints about a dozen or so cameras in the parking garage.

And then, in January of 2023, Stephen buys a second car using a false identity.

One of them happens to be a maroon minivan. And by January 27th, Kenny is found dead in his car. That was sad. So, I mean, open and shot at this point. Let's go back to the night of the murder now.

Tony is like, I know who did it. I know who did this. It's my fault. Like, obviously, Stephen Milner is screaming guilty. Now, it's just a matter of gathering more than circumstantial evidence.

Confirming he's the man behind the mask on the surveillance footage.

“What do you think he was going to get back with her after killing him?”

Also, like buying a car with a fake name is so easy to trace. A maroon minivan, you couldn't have caught something a little less. But I said, I said, of course, it's a maroon minivan. So, just a few days after the murder on January 31st, police call Stephen in. They're like, hey, we need to sign some paperwork.

They place the detective at the front desk. The real goal is to see whether or not he has any injuries on his body.

Now, one of the first things she sees is not only is Stephen extremely nervous.

When signing this paperwork, he shows up to the police station to the front desk wearing makeup. And he didn't do a very good job because they can see a huge scratch on his nose and a pretty gnarly black eye underneath that makeup. So, just as he's about to walk out the front door of the station after thinking he was just signing paperwork, deputies stop him and they arrest him. And something else, they notice about Stephen.

He needs Botox. No, but he has the same exact forehead crease as the masked man in that footage. Now, a few days later, Stephen is formally charged with second degree murder and stalking. Second degree, because in the state of Oregon, first degree only applies to crimes committed against someone under 14. A police officer or another protected role.

Is that currently true? Yeah. Or if it's committed to cover up another crime. So, in Oregon, you can only get first degree murder if the crime is committed. What?

And someone at 14 insane idiot made that law?

Attorney's a symbol because who made that who?

Avengers. Hello. Okay. Honestly. Who's whose idea was that?

If I get a DM from one of you guys and you try to justify it. Justify this, I'm going to be just absolutely distraught because there is no way. You can explain to me why they did that, but there is no way that you agree with that. There's no way. No, I mean, I can see where they were going with it.

Like, this is the worst of the worst. But I'm just in my mind, I'm like, you killed someone. Yeah. Granted, I get a murder. Correct. If it's premeditated, if you planned it, you killed someone. I'm not talking about manslaughter.

I'm not talking about other instances of passion. Like, premeditated murder, if you planned it. It's also like, came over.

“I probably should have looked this up, but like, low key.”

You're telling me if there was a mask killing in Oregon. And none of the victims were under the age of 14. They would just be able to protect your role. Oh, it's like a degree murder. Yeah, I need explanation. Someone explain.

Thank you. I'm sure that's happened. I'm sure there's an answer. I just didn't look it up. But one thing about true crime.

Like, one of the discoveries I've made while doing this podcast is that holy cow some states have some weird laws. Yeah. Like some specific states, you would think these laws are so outdated. They are.

And you're just like, why? So please, at this point, still build their case against him. Now, shortly after the charges are filed, police secure a search warrant for Steven's home. And when I tell you this search warrant,

okay, you're entering a stalker's home. They find some pretty weird things.

First of all, there is a framed picture of Tanya

next to Steven's bed.

“There were a few keepsakes from the short time.”

They were together. They find women's underwear. Love notes. He had written her. And even though their relationship had only lasted a few months, the letters made it seem like he and Tanya had been

in this romantic relationship for years, like love bombing. They also found a giant cardboard cutout of Steven himself. Well, actually it was a cutout of his face, pasted on to a very ripped and oiled male body with a dog paw tattoo over his heart.

Which like, but what police really needed, obviously, was access to the maroon band. While doing this, they order a forensic analysis on his SUV, like his other car. And it shows that he's made a lot of trips to Home Depot.

Of course. And those trips increased as it got closer to the time of Kenny's murder, including several trips on the day of the murder. So it's hectic to take a little trip over to the store. They asked about any unusual activity.

And shockingly, one of the security people was like, "Yeah, there were two cars in the lot that had been flagged after being left there for a while.

“One was a blue car in the other, a maroon minivan.”

So they checked the security footage and sure enough on the day of Kenny's murder, they see a white SUV identical to Steven's. Pull into the Home Depot parking lot. A guy gets out of the driver's seat

and into the maroon minivan and drives away. So this is where he was storing his getaway car. He bought a pair of safety glasses. That was the same pair seen like the red tint.

Yeah. He also found the hard hat. Here's a problem though. The cars like the blue car and the maroon car are no longer in the parking lot.

They discover they've been sent to a scrapyard. They head over and place helmets too late. Exactly one week ago, the car was smashed to pieces. Okay. As was their one hope of maybe finding a crime scene.

But the search for more evidence isn't a total wash turns out. Kenny's hands were covered in DNA from fighting back and all of the DNA on his hands belonged to Steven Miller.

So this is a pretty solid piece of evidence. So they go to trial. He pleads not guilty. He says he believed he was rescuing Tanya from an abusive marriage

and that he went there to confront Kenny and won he confronted him. Kenny attacked him and so he killed him in self defense. Okay.

I mean, despite the fact that they know for sure that he's spray painted the camera. Yeah. And got a fake car to go confront him. He also said he eventually broke his neck.

Steven Miller was found guilty of second-degree murder stalking and violating his protective order. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. So he did get possibility of parole.

A November of 2025,

Steven also agreed to a $1.2 million settlement

with Kenny's estate and while the harassment threats and intimidation might have stopped, so did the lifetime you once knew. I mean, this was her husband.

This is the only person who knew what she had been through.

“I mean, Tanya is paying for her mistakes”

at a very high price. Yeah. And despite the mistakes she made, no one deserves that.

We deserve a second chance

and opportunity to move on and grow. But sometimes it's not the mistake itself that sets us back. It's a person tied to that mistake that forces us to keep reliving it over

and over and over again,

“just ruining your life one day at a time.”

And that is the murder of Kenneth Vandrick.

I mean, that sucks. I mean, I know it sucks for her too, but I mean, Kenny got killed. Yeah. Once again,

it affects so many people and Steven's a freaking psycho. And I think the obvious way to go here is to feel a lot of anger and blame towards Tanya.

And this is the thing,

“while I understand where that is coming from again,”

like Eric just said, one person killed Kenny and that was Steven Milner. So let's hold him responsible. And acknowledge that everyone makes mistakes

and like I said, everyone deserves a second chance.

Stevenson, not, he's probably a loving person. He is a chance of prolong 25 years. 25 years? I mean, yeah, he'll be old. Yeah, he can't.

He can't come after me. I got it off. I can handle him. There's just an 89-year-old crawling in. Tony has come on.

Come get me. Anyways. All right, you guys. That was our episode for this week and we will see you next time with another one.

I love it. I hate it. Goodbye. [BLANK_AUDIO]