Former UFC fighter Suman Mokhtarian was gunned down in a “brazen” shooting while on an early evening walk in Sydney, police said, months after surviving an attempt on his life.
The 33-year-old was shot dead in a “targeted” attack in Riverstone, a suburb in Sydney’s northwest, on Wednesday evening, New South Wales Police said. He was treated by paramedics, but died at the scene, police said.
A short time after the shooting two cars were found on fire in different locations, a hallmark of recent organized crime hits that have rattled the city. Fire and rescue crews extinguished the blaze, police said.
“It’s very brazen and it’s a shame that this is happening in our community,” NSW Police superintendent Jason Joyce said.
“You’d want to think that in a residential area that people could wander the streets at that time of (early) night and be safe, but we do believe it’s a targeted attack,” he said.
Footage obtained by the national broadcaster ABC shows the moments after a gunman opened fire at Mokhtarian. Several shots could be heard as a small child was seen standing in a driveway yards from where Mokhtarian was killed, the ABC reported.
Local media reported that Mokhtarian had survived an attempt on his life last February, when a gunman fired on him outside a gym in Sydney’s west.
Suman Mokhtarian of Australia poses on the scale during the UFC fight night weigh-in at Sajik Arena on December 20, 2019 in Busan, South Korea.
Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
He fought twice in the UFC, in 2018 and 2019, losing both times, before moving into coaching, according to ESPN.
He helped develop some of Australia’s top mixed martial arts prospects, the website said.
A local who only identified himself by his first name, Ben, said he was walking with his wife when he heard a gunshot.
“It was around then when we heard a bang as well and a lot of smoke went up in the air… that would have been the car,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald.
“There was a large commotion, a lot of people were just shocked because they’ve never witnessed anything like this.”
“The shooting happened with children literally riding bikes around the park.”
Neighbor Natalie, who also did not provide her last name, said she was out the front of her home with her children when the incident took place.
“I called the police straight away,” she told the national broadcaster ABC.
Natalie said she ran over to see if Mokhtarian was alive, but “he clearly wasn’t”.
“I could immediately tell he wasn’t alive, otherwise I would’ve tried to help him,” she said.
The killing came a day after police foiled a “kill team” bearing firearms, balaclavas, body-worn cameras and jerrycans on the way to a daycare center.
Police are investigating if the two incidents are linked.
A 1996 massacre in the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur, where a lone gunman killed 35 people, prompted the government to drastically tighten gun laws and made it much more difficult for Australians to acquire firearms.
A man charged last month in the 1973 slaying of a woman in Connecticut died while serving time for kidnapping and sexual assault in another cold case.
George Legere, 77, was found unresponsive in his cell Friday night at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield. He was pronounced dead early Saturday at a local hospital, the Department of Correction said Tuesday.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said the cause of death is “pending further study.”
Legere, who had a lengthy criminal history, was arrested Sept. 24 while serving a 25-year sentence in another cold case for kidnapping and sexual assault. Police charged him with murder after he confessed to fatally stabbing 21-year-old Janet Couture in her East Hartford apartment while trying to steal money for drugs, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
Police said she was home alone when Legere climbed through a window and attacked her.
Janet Couture
East Hartford Police Department
“I went into the apartment looking for money and unfortunately the person woke up and recognized me and that left me no choice to do what I did,” Legere said, according to police. “I ended up stabbing her.”
Investigators said Legere’s confession followed information from another inmate, who told police Legere admitted killing Couture and had written and signed a confession in July, instructing the inmate not to release it until after his death.
Legere’s arrest also help East Hartford police connect him to additional cases dating back to the 1960s that shared similarities to Couture’s murder, police said.
“Bringing closure to victims’ families is a top priority for our team of detectives,” East Hartford Police Chief Mack S. Hawkins said in a statement. “We are committed to pursuing justice in every case, no matter how much time has passed. For the Couture family, this is especially significant, and we hope it brings them some measure of peace.”
The Connecticut Department of Correction and the Connecticut State Police are investigating Legere’s death.
CONCORD, N.H. — Two men have been charged with murder in connection with the fatal stabbing of a man in Derry in May.
New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella, New Hampshire State Police Col. Mark Hall and Derry Police Chief George Feole announced the arrests of Jeffrey Li, 18, and Marco Junior Marquez Vera, 20, on Monday.
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Melbourne, Australia — Australian prosecutors on Monday filed an appeal seeking a longer guaranteed prison term for Erin Patterson, who was sentenced to life for poisoning four of her estranged husband’s relatives with death cap mushrooms but will be eligible for parole after 33 years.
Victoria state’s Office of Public Prosecutions said in a statement that it had filed the appeal to the Victorian Court of Appeal, claiming the sentence handed to Patterson a month ago was “manifestly inadequate.”
Patterson was sentenced to life in prison in September by the Victorian Supreme Court for the murder of three people and the attempted murder a fourth, all of whom were lunch guests at her home in 2023.
Patterson fed them beef Wellington pastry dishes laced with toxic mushrooms. Her motive remains a mystery.
Convicted murderer Erin Patterson (L) leaves the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, Sept. 8, 2025.
WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty
Prosecutors argued last month that she should never be eligible for parole. Her lawyers had asked for Patterson to serve 30 years before she could be considered for early release.
Justice Christopher Beale set a non-parole period of 33 years, meaning she could potentially be set free in 2056 at the age of 82.
“Your victims were all your relatives by marriage. More than that, they had all been good to you and your children over many years, as you acknowledged in your testimony,” Beale said when he delivered the original sentence. “Not only did you cut short three lives and cause lasting damage to Ian Wilkinson’s health, thereby devastating extended Patterson and Wilkinson families, you inflicted untold suffering on your own children, whom you robbed of their beloved grandparents.”
It was never disputed that Patterson served the mushrooms or that the pastries killed her guests. The jury was required to decide whether she knew the lunch contained death caps, and if she intended for them to die.
Patterson’s lawyer Richard Edney told Beale last week that she would lodge an appeal against her jury convictions within a month.
Three Court of Appeal judges will hear both appeals on a date that is yet to be set.
Patterson was convicted in July of murdering Don and Gail Patterson, the parents of her husband Simon Patterson. She also murdered Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, and attempted to murder Ian Wilkinson, who spent weeks in a hospital, the court ruled.
Simon Patterson was also invited to the lunch but declined.
Detectives Stephanie Winter and Devin Rigo of the Hillsboro, Oregon, Police Department had never encountered a crime scene like the one they encountered in January 2023.
Natalie Morales: How would you two characterize this case when you first got it? What did you think?
Det. Stephanie Winter: You know, I just thought that it’s a wild case.
Det. Stephanie Winter: It was in the evening … after nine.
Det. Devin Rigo: So we all got a page on our department cell phones saying that there was … death at Intel.
Intel, the giant tech company known for its innovative computer chips, had several large production facilities in Hillsboro, outside of Portland.
Det. Stephanie Winter: It didn’t make sense. … He looked like he had passed peacefully. … there was minimal blood within the car.
POLICE FIND A DEAD BODY INSIDE AN OREGON PARKING GARAGE
The deceased was Kenneth “Kenny” Fandrich, age 56, a contract pipe fitter at the plant. His wife, Tanya, had reported him missing when he was late getting home. Like many couples, they shared their locations on their phones. Tanya tracked him to the Intel parking lot.
She was already there at the garage when police arrived with body cameras rolling.
OFFICER (police bodycam video): So, we’re going to have the fire — we’re gonna have the medics —
TANYA FANDRICH: Where is he? …
OFFICER: He’s here in the garage somewhere …
A short time later, she learned that her husband was dead.
The Hillsboro Police Mobile Command Center was stationed at the scene, and that was where detectives first talked to Tanya.
Natalie Morales (Inside the Mobile Command Center): That night, you — you brought Tanya Fandrich, right in here … What did she seem like to you?
Det. Dayanna Mesch: She was very monotone … in the way she was speaking.
Detective Dayanna Mesch was first to interview Tanya Fandrich.
Det. Dayana Mesh: She seemed very out of her body. Like she didn’t react as —
Natalie Morales: Mm-hmm.
Det. Dayanna Mesch: — as much as you would think somebody would … but I had to kind of pull a lot of the answers out of her.
Mesch learned more about why Tanya had been at the scene.
Det. Dayanna Mesch: She told me that they had some issues in the past with their marriage … now … they would check in on each other more often. …
Natalie Morales: Do alarm bells sort of go off here?
Det. Dayanna Mesch: Yeah. There was some suspicion … we always look at the people closest to the deceased.
But Mesch knew better than to draw conclusions right away.
Det. Dayanna Mesch: Everybody grieves differently … it just was different than other victims I’ve seen …
There was a lot to process for Tanya and investigators. The scene did not appear violent.
Det. Stephanie Winter: His lunch bag … his lunch, his keys, his phone, all set neatly next to him in the passenger seat.
Det. Stephanie Winter: My first thought was, how are we going to figure this out?
Their first clues would come from those surveillance cameras.
Security cameras capture a masked man wearing glasses and a hard hat spraying security cameras with blue paint inside a Hillsboro, Oregon, Intel parking garage.
Washington County District Attorney’s Office
Det. Devin Rigo (watching security video): So he will pop up right here, uh, next to that column that we’re seeing right here in the — in the corner. Just kinda waits for a camera and then just pops up.
The detectives discovered a man wearing a hard hat and red-mirror tinted glasses had actually spray painted those cameras around 7 a.m. earlier that same day — his movements undetected by Intel security.
Det. Devin Rigo: I wanna say about six or seven cameras.
But there were also cameras that had not been sprayed. And investigators locked in on images of a vehicle they believed belonged to the suspect.
Det. Devin Rigo: We’re looking at early afternoon now, and then we see this maroon van come in the parking garage. And no front plate on the car.
It was an older, maroon-colored Dodge van. They tracked the van’s movement’s camera by camera before it disappeared. Under a layer of blue spray paint, moments later they could just make out the van pulling into a parking spot.
Det. Devin Rigo (watching security video): So right here, you can see that the van is this shadow right in here.
Natalie Morales: OK, right.
Det. Devin Rigo: And then, this vehicle right here is actually Kenneth Fandrich’s black Honda Civic.
Kenny Fandrich seen in the parking garage at 3:21 p.m. on Jan. 27, 2023.
Washington County District Attorney’s Office
It was 3:21 p.m., just after Kenny had finished his shift.
He is seen on video walking back through the garage. And then… very hard to see… behind the blue spray paint.
Det. Devin Rigo (watching surveillance video): You can see a little bit of movement right here —
Natalie Morales: Mm-hmm.
Det. Devin Rigo: — in the — in the thing. And that is Kenneth walking back to his car.
Det. Devin Rigo: You just kind of have to watch the — kind of shadows essentially what’s going on —
Natalie Morales: Mm-hmm.
Det. Devin Rigo: — between the two vehicles.
Det. Devin Rigo: — you start seeing the headlights flash a couple times like, you know … somebody be unlocking their car.
Detectives say the headlights on Kenny’s Honda flashed as he unlocked his car with his key fob. That’s when they believe the masked man grabbed Fandrich, still holding onto his keys.
Det. Devin Rigo (watching security video): You see a lot of movement happening all of a sudden.
Natalie Morales: Then you see a lot of lights.
Det. Devin Rigo: A lot of lights.
Detectives say that’s Kenny desperately pushing his key fob as the masked man dragged him into that maroon van.
Natalie Morales: What do you think that’s what’s going on in there during that when you see those lights flashing?
Det. Devin Rigo: We think … that’s when the person in the van is murdering Kenneth.
Detectives say Kenny was killed inside that maroon Dodge van before the killer staged Kenny’s body in his black Honda.
That meant the van itself would be a critical piece of evidence – the actual murder scene.
Det. Devin Rigo: There could have been … clothing … and who knows … what … else in that minivan.
But finding the van would be a challenge. They couldn’t see the license plates or the driver.
The results of the autopsy would reveal – Kenny Fandrich had died from “blunt and compressive trauma of the neck.”
His neck had been broken. But who would want to kill Kenny Fandrich?
Det. Devin Rigo: It was really … initially like this big whodunit for us, a big mystery.
A mystery they hoped might be solved when Intel security staff told investigators about another incident — additional video images from the garage recorded a month earlier.
Det. Devin Rigo: … we learned that, hey, FYI, we — about a month prior, we reported our cameras being spray painted as well.
That incident was investigated — a criminal mischief call — but they never figured out who it was.
Det. Devin Rigo: … it was a man dressed in a —
Det. Stephanie Winter: A construction —
Det. Devin Rigo: — construction helmet, black glasses, a mask. And we’re like, well, that’s a clue.
Security cameras in the parking garage captured a masked man spray-painting cameras in the same parking garage a month before Kenny Fendrich’s murder, left, and the day of, right.
Washington County District Attorney’s Office
Investigators were 100 percent certain it was the same person, wearing different glasses, and they say these new images revealed an unusual clue.
Det. Stephanie Winter: We had this — this distinctive forehead crease that we could see in this photo.
Natalie Morales: That little bit of forehead that you see.
Det. Stephanie Winter: Just the little bit of forehead. That’s — that’s what we got.
Natalie Morales: That’s a very odd clue right there
Det. Stephanie Winter: It is … But for us it was a big — a big deal.
And the detectives had one other “big deal” — something Tanya Fandrich told them the night her husband died.
OFFICER (police bodycam video) Has he — has he been having any issues lately?
TANYA FANDRICH: No, but he has a stalker.
A stalker — who had been harassing her husband. And she had proof: a video from their ownhome security camera.
Det. Devin Rigo: You actually see the person … kinda crawl and move around a bit underneath the — the trailer right there.
WHO WAS STALKING KENNY FANDRICH?
In the early hours of the investigation into the murder of Kenny Fandrich, his wife Tanya told detectives her husband had a stalker — seen on the couple’s home security cameras in the carport of their home in Oregon City, Oregon.
A person, pictured far right on the ground, is captured on home security video from the carport of the Fandrich home.
Washington County District Attorney’s Office
Devin Rigo: Here’s …some sort of like utility trailer right here. … And you’ll notice right under the trailer — you actually see the person … kinda crawl and move around a bit underneath … the trailer right there.
Tanya told detectives the stalker was her old boss, Dr. Steven Milner. Milner was a well-to-do veterinarian, worth millions. She had worked with him in his clinic as a vet tech.
Friends Cheryl Choquette and Darlyn Robinson were longtime clients of the vet.
Natalie Morales: What was he like —
Darlyn Robinson: He was —
Natalie Morales: — as a vet?
Darlyn Robinson: — he was wonderful. He was very compassionate, caring, kind.
Cheryl Choquette: He was a great vet.
Choquette even took part in a video Milner made for his clinic, which had aired on the local news.
Natalie Morales: The kind of vet that get — gets down at the level of the dog? Like on the floor with them?
Cheryl Choquette: Definitely on the floor.
And both Choquette and Robinson knew Tanya — at least by sight.
Darlyn Robinson: 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 and kind of do the intake on the animals.
Cheryl Choquette: Just a sweet, nice lady, very, you know, kind of quiet … but super friendly and very caring.
Dr. Steven Milner
The Wayback Machine
Detectives soon learned about a complicated relationship between Tanya and Milner. Tanya told investigators she and Milner had once had an affair — it began in early 2017. At the time, Milner was separated, and Tanya said her relationship with Kenny hit a rough patch.
Natalie Morales: Did you notice any interactions between her and Dr. Milner?
Cheryl Choquette: Just completely professional. … It was just, you know, he comes in, she goes out of the room.
Natalie Morales: He was the boss?
Cheryl Choquette: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
But Robinson thought she noticed something.
Darlyn Robinson: There came a point where my brain just kind of went, I wonder if there’s, you know, something going on, cause …. just looks they would give each other.
Milner and Tanya tried to keep their affair quiet, say investigators. Milner even gave her a secret name: Kiki.
Mahalee Streblow: One of the nicknames … was Kiki Essex.
Prosecutor Mahalee Streblow worked on the case.
Mahalee Streblow: 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.
But the couple’s affair was exposed after a few months in July 2017, when they attended a wedding together. Prosecutor John Gerhard.
John Gerhard: There were employees from the veterinary clinic that were there.
Mahalee Streblow: She was under the impression that Kenneth was out of town for work.
John Gerhard: Tanya indicated that they had both been drinking and that they were engaging in more physical intimacy in front of the employees during that wedding.
As the night ended, Tanya went home with Milner.
Mahalee Streblow: Lo and behold, Kenneth was not out of town for work.
When Tanya didn’t return home that night, Kenny went to Milner’s house.
Mahalee Streblow: And that’s how they got caught.
Det. Devin Rigo: Kenny didn’t confront or make a big scene at the house. He kind of left the house and then started calling, um … to try to figure out what’s going on.
According to Tanya, she ended the affair soon after they were caught.
Det. Devin Rigo: After that … the relationship with Tanya and Steve Milner kind of stopped —
And that’s when Kenny Fandrich said Dr. Milner started harassing him.
Michael Fuller: When Kenny came to me, he was terrified.
Michael Fuller was Kenny’s attorney.
Michael Fuller: This stalking issue had basically consumed his life.
Fuller says Milner started with harassing calls, then escalated from there.
Michael Fuller: Milner literally coming onto his property in the middle of the night … following him, to work, threatening him, those type of things.
Tanya eventually left Milner’s clinic. But Milner continued to track Kenny. Detectives found plenty of evidence of exactly how he did it.
Det. Devin Rigo (looking at evidence with Morales): Tanya actually provided this to us. … and this is one of the actual tracking devices that Steven Milner had placed on one of their vehicles.
Natalie Morales: — is this the device there?
Stephanie Winter: So this — so this is the device.
Natalie Morales: Uh-huh.
Stephanie Winter: We believe this to be the battery pack. And what they had done and put it in this case with the magnets –
Natalie Morales: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie Winter: — and then put it up underneath their vehicle.
In August 2019, roughly two years after Tanya said she ended the affair, Kenny applied for an order of protection against Milner. But detectives would learn the harassment continued – and the vet’s infatuation with Tanya deepened.
Stephanie Winter: He wanted Tanya, and he wasn’t going to stop.
THE VETERINARIAN’S OBSESSION
Within days of Kenny Fandrich’s death, investigators set their sights on a suspect: veterinarian Dr. Steven Milner. Detectives learned he was obsessed with Tanya.
There were love notes.
John Gerhard (reading letter aloud):One of them was: “the one absolute rock, solid truth is that I love you. I have never loved anyone that way. … I am consumed by your soul.”
He wrote letters like that for years even after Tanya had said the affair was over.
Detectives also learned more about Tanya’s relationship with her husband Kenny.
Det. Stephanie Winter: It was a tumultuous relationship. … Alcohol came into play between them. … they were often, you know, as you can say, hot and cold … They argued a lot.
Kenny had been charged with domestic violence years before but the charges were not pursued, and the couple reconciled. Then, in August 2021 — years after Tanya says she ended the affair with Milner — the couple had another fight; this time she was arrested.
The next day, something surprising happened.
Det. Devin Rigo: Somebody posted her bail. She had $25,000 bail … 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 for a couple of days before returning to Kenny. She insisted nothing romantic happened. Milner was just helping her out as a friend.
Det. Devin Rigo: To this day … none of us can figure out how Steven Milner actually found out she had been arrested that night.
That case was later dismissed and the couple reunited again. But Milner’s campaign of harassment continued.
Natalie Morales: What do you think his end goal was … what did he think he could do — end their marriage and then end up happily ever after —
Det. Stephanie Winter: Exactly.
Natalie Morales: — with Tanya?
Det. Devin Rigo: Yeah.
Det. Stephanie Winter: Exactly. … He wanted Kenneth out of the picture. So, he could be that white knight to save Tanya.
In March 2022, just ten months before Kenny’s murder, Milner followed Kenny from Oregon City all the way to Hillsboro — a 45-minute drive.
Kenny spotted him and called police. Milner was pulled over as body cameras captured the interaction.
OFFICER EDWARDS (police bodycam video): Hi, Officer Edwards, Hillsboro police. … Do you know why we’re stopping you today?
DR. STEVE MILNER: Yeah. I’m trying to get a hold of this guy that — I’m following him.
Dr. Steven Milner seen on police bodycam video after Kenny Fandrich called police to report he was being followed by Milner.
Washington County District Attorney’s Office
The responding officer learned from dispatch that there was history between the two men.
OFFICER (police bodycam video): What’s your role in the whole thing?
DR. STEVE MILNER: Uh, she has been a friend of mine for 20 years.
Milner told police he believed Tanya was in danger because she had allegedly told him Kenny was abusive.
DR. STEVE MILNER (police bodycam video): I’m the only person who gives a sh** and I’m not allowed to give a sh** …
OFFICER: So here’s my advice to you, OK? And this is very, very strong advice. Leave them alone. He wants nothing to do with you. She wants nothing to do with you. … If you show up at their house, if you contact them, anything like that, you’re gonna go to jail.
After that traffic stop, Kenny filed for a new order for protection. The original one had expired years earlier.
Michael Fuller: Kenny was absolutely in — in fear of his life.
And two weeks later, he was so stressed out, he told police he crashed his car.
Kenny Fandrich, seen on police bodycam video from March 28, 2022, talks with an officer after crashing his car.
Washington County District Attorney’s Office
KENNETH FANDRICH (police bodycam video): … my wife and I have been fighting today —
OFFICER: Sorry.
KENNETH FANDRICH: — and um, I thought she was at her boss’s house, where I’ve caught her cheating on me.
OFFICE: I’m sorry.
KENNETH FANDRICH: And I was driving over there, and he’s just like right down at road and, I lost control on my car. I just –
Kenny’s attorney says his client had every reason to be stressed out.
Michael Fuller: Kenny told me that Milner … said, “Hey, I’m a veterinarian. I’ve done surgeries and I have the tools to chop you up into little pieces.”
In August 2022, after Kenny found another tracking device under his car, Milner was criminally charged and was awaiting trial.
Michael Fuller: It was pretty clear to me that Milner was not in his right mind.
Just a month later, Kenny filed a civil suit seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars for invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional distress — allegedly brought on by Milner’s stalking, harassment, and trespass.
Five months later Kenny Fandrich was dead.
Just days after the murder, detectives were convinced that Steven Milner was that man behind the mask, but they needed more evidence.
Det. Devin Rigo: We need to get eyes on Steven Milner because we know there was some sort of violent confrontation. We want to see if he had any injuries.
Not wanting to tip him off – investigators asked him to come in for a check in about the stalking case.
Det. Devin Rigo: So, we arranged a meeting for Steven to come in to sign some paperwork. … Detective Winter was inside at a reception desk.
Natalie Morales: And your goal sitting there at the receptionist desk — sort of as an undercover, right?
Det. Stephanie Winter: I wanted to see if he had any injury to himself. … He walks in. He looks extremely nervous.
Another person in the office noticed something.
Det. Stephanie Winter: She says, “Hey, he has got makeup on his face.”
Makeup, investigators say, Milner used to cover up a scratch on his nose.
Natalie Morales: Bingo. You’re thinking we got our guy?
Det. Stephanie Winter: I — I — yep. At that point, I thought, this is him. This is our guy that — that did this.
Moments later, after Milner walked out the door —
DEPUTY DAVIS (police bodycam video): Hi sir, I’m Deputy Davis, the Sheriff’s Office. We’re being recorded by my camera. So, everything is going to be audio and visually recorded. … Do you understand that?
DR. STEVE MILNER: Yes.
DEPUTY DAVIS: OK, sounds good. … Right now, you’re being detained.
Police noticed that the masked man and Steven Milner shared the same facial feature – a deep vertical forehead crease. Were they the same person?
Washington County District Attorney’s Office
On Jan. 31, 2023, four days after Kenny Fandrich was found dead, Steven Milner was taken into custody. Within days, Milner was charged with second-degree murder and stalking.
With Milner in custody, Rigo and Winter were quickly able to connect one important clue from those surveillance camera images: that unusual crease in the masked man’s forehead.
Det. Stephanie Winter: There’s that very prominent forehead crease that I don’t — he couldn’t hide if he tried.
Natalie Morales: There is no amount of makeup hiding that crease.
Det. Stephanie Winter: No.
Natalie Morales: Do you feel at this point like you’ve got like a pretty solid case?
Det. Devin Rigo: We had a lot of circumstantial pieces, like putting the puzzle together, but we are just at the tip of the iceberg of what we still need to find out.
More puzzle pieces would be found in Milner’s house.
CONNECTING THE PUZZLE PIECES
Det. Stephanie Winter: It was shocking that somebody this successful … a doctor … now suspect in a murder.
With Dr. Steven Milner now in police custody, Hillsboro Detectives Stephanie Winter and Devin Rigo set out to find evidencethat couldprove Milner was at the scene when Kenny Fandrich was murdered.
Det. Devin Rigo: So, as soon as he is arrested … We’re getting search warrants for his DNA to be taken … we’re getting search warrants for his house as well.
And detectives weren’t quite prepared for what they found at his home.
Det. Stephanie Winter: We found a cardboard cutout behind a mirror of Steven Milner’s face placed on a very oiled, masculine man with a dog paw tattoo over his heart.
Natalie Morales: Very odd memorabilia — to have in your bedroom.
Det. Devin Rigo: Yes.
Det. Stephanie Winter: I would say so.
And there was more.
Det. Devin Rigo: In the nightstand, in Steven’s master bedroom, is a bunch of items that we kind of refer to as a shrine to Tanya. There was a framed picture of Tanya. There were love notes … there were women’s underwear … just like very like personal keepsakes from, what — their relationship together.
Natalie Morales: That’s more than just collecting a few love notes and cards. …
Det. Devin Rigo: Especially from … someone who hadn’t been in a relationship with you for several years at this time period.
Police reviewed surveillance camera images and determined that Kenny Fandrich had been dragged into the maroon minivan, pictured, by a masked man. Police believed the masked man killed Fandrich inside the minivan, before staging his body in the driver’s seat of his own vehicle.
Washington County District Attorney’s Office
To build their case, investigators needed to connect the maroon-colored minivan — seen in the Intel parking garage parked next to Kenny’s car — to Milner. But as far as investigators could determine, Milner usually drove the white Toyota SUV he’d been in when he was arrested.
Det. Devin Rigo: initially, we didn’t know what evidence this car could provide us.
So, they ordered an FBI forensic analysis of the SUV’s computer, hoping it might provide some clues about Milner’s movements before and after Kenny’s murder.
Det. Devin Rigo (showing Milner’s SUV to Morales): So essentially … the computer that’s in the car retains a lot of information.
Natalie Morales: Mm-hmm.
Det. Devin Rigo: And luckily one of those things is like GPS data points …
Natalie Morales: Where was that bit of information? … is that a computer that’s pulled out on top there?
Det. Stephanie Winter: Yeah. So that’s part of the front dash … 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.
Det. Devin Rigo: She … said, you guys need to look at the Home Depot in Oregon City … He’s there a lot the day of the murder.
A Home Depot just 15 minutes down the road from Milner’s house.
Natalie Morales (in the Home Depot parking lot with detectives): How central did this place become towards a piecing together the evidence that you had?
Det. Devin Rigo: Like this was essentially like center stage of the investigation.
The detectives asked Home Depot security personnel if there had been suspicious activity in the lot recently. Amazingly, they said yes: two cars — a maroon minivan and a blue sedan — had been flagged for parking there for long periods of time with only temporary, paper license plates.
Det. Devin Rigo: And we learned that there had been a lot of calls created in the past couple months with a suspicious … blue car and … maroon minivan.
For the second time in a matter of weeks, parking lot security cameras and the images they recorded, would provide investigators with key clues. In a clip from Jan. 27, 2023 – the day of Kenny’s murder – detectives say you can see Milner’s white SUV pull up and park. Within minutes, the driver – believed to be Steven Milner – gets into the maroon minivan. Another camera then captured the minivan exiting the parking lot.
Natalie Morales: So, what was he doing with the cars?
Det. Devin Rigo: So essentially this was like his staging location. So, he would drive his personal car here and then either pick up the blue sedan or the maroon minivan and then drive that out to Hillsboro. …
Natalie Morales: What do you call them?
Det. Devin Rigo: Burner cars.
Natalie Morales: Burner cars.
Det. Devin Rigo: Yeah. … everybody kind of is more familiar with like a burner phone … where you have a phone that’s not … traced to you but, you know, you can use it for what you need, get rid of it. … Essentially, he did the same thing, but with a car.
Investigators believed Milner may have been using those burner cars to secretly follow Kenny to work — even after law enforcement had told him to stop.
They also learned Home Depot security cameras had images of the driver of those cars shopping in the store about a month before Kenny was murdered.
Det. Stephanie Winter: he parked right in front of Home Depot …
Det. Devin Rigo: He went in and … we saw him come to the self-checkout area … and he had bought a pair of like safety glasses. …
Natalie Morales: Was … his face visible in that surveillance?
Det. Stephanie Winter: It was.
Det. Devin Rigo: Oh yeah …
Dr. Steven Milner is seen on security video after buying a pair of safety glasses at a Home Depot on Dec. 13, 2022 – about a month before Kenny Fandrich’s murder.
Washington County District Attorney’s Office
There was no doubt — it was Steven Milner. And those glasses he bought? Detectives say you can see them in his right hand as he exited the store. The receipt said they had a “red mirror” tint. Winter had an idea.
Det. Stephanie Winter: We just happened to be sitting near one of the aisles 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 that looked very similar to the one … that he was wearing in all of the Intel garage surveillance.
The detectives were convinced this was where Milner had gotten his disguise to kill Kenny.
Natalie Morales: You have all of this, but you were missing one big piece of evidence. What was it?
Det. Devin Rigo: We were, at this point, still missing … the maroon minivan. …
Natalie Morales: Why is the minivan so important?
Det. Devin Rigo: Because it’s the minivan that we believe was really our main crime scene. … we thought there was going to be forensic evidence … in that minivan. So, we really wanted to get that minivan to help really put the icing on … this case.
Rigo was laser focused on tracking down that maroon minivan and he got an incredibly lucky break. When those suspicious burner cars had been flagged, the VIN number was also recorded. Rigo searched it and found out that van had been found abandoned just a few days after the murder.
Det. Devin Rigo: The highway people, had … towed it off the side of the I-5 in north Portland.
Natalie Morales: It had been dumped then.
Det. Devin Rigo: It had been dumped there. … So, I called the tow company, “Hey, do you have this car?” “No, sorry … We sold it to a scrap metal company.”
Rigo knew the clock was ticking to retrieve what he believed was the crime scene and all of the key evidence it held.
Det. Devin Rigo: So, me and another detective drive as quick as we can to north Portland.
The maroon minivan, pictured left, moments before it was crushed by the metal jaws of the scrapyard claw.
Washington County District Attorney’s Office
But they were too late. When he asked about the minivan, the scrapyard showed Rigo a video of the maroon minivan police believe Milner drove to the Intel garage to kill Kenny just moments before it was pulverized by the metal jaws of the scrapyard claw.
Det. Devin Rigo: I was able to watch one of my key pieces of evidence be crushed and taken away.
Natalie Morales: Before your very eyes.
Det. Devin Rigo: Before my very eyes —
Natalie Morales: Oh my gosh.
Det. Devin Rigo: — exactly a week too late.
DOCTOR MILNER ON TRIAL
On Jan. 13, 2025, Steven Milner went on trial — charged with stalking and murdering Kenny Fandrich. Washington County prosecutors John Gerhard and Mahalee Streblow knew they faced a challenge without that maroon minivan, where they believe Steven Milner murdered Kenny.
John Gerhard: All the evidence that was inside the van was lost with it. … the biggest disappointment for us is there was likely a lot of forensic evidence …
But prosecutors had some forensic evidence they say put Steven Milner at the scene: DNA from swabs taken of Kenny Fandrich’s hands.
Det. Devin Rigo: I remember getting an email of the results and immediately opening it and being like, “Oh my gosh, this is it.” … Steven Milner’s DNA was on Kenneth Fandrich’s hands. …
Natalie Morales: Now you really felt like you had your case made.
Det. Devin Rigo: Yes, because there is no way he could explain away why his DNA would’ve been on Kenneth’s body.
Steven Milner would have an explanation for that. To everyone’s surprise, Milner took the stand, admitting he did spray paint the cameras and was in the Intel garage waiting for Kenny. He presented what detectives believed was a far-fetched explanation: he was trying to save Tanya. There were no cameras in court, but there is audio of Milner telling Prosecutor John Gerhard why he was in the Intel lot that day.
STEVEN MILNER (in court): I was trying to get him arrested for driving while he was drunk, or driving without a license.
JOHN GERHARD: Why was it your responsibility to enforce Oregon traffic laws?
STEVEN MILNER: I was trying to keep Tanya from getting killed.
John Gerhard: He had this delusional belief that he needed to protect Tanya Fandrich.
Mahalee Streblow: The defense case, it seemed to be … to kind of get the jury to maybe feel sympathetic to Milner.
And Milner insisted it was Kenny who attacked him after Kenny spotted Milner inside the maroon minivan.
Det. Devin Rigo: Steven essentially said, well, I knew I was caught. So, I opened the door to kinda confront him. And then Kenneth attacked me.
STEVEN MILNER (in court): We basically fought for a little bit. … there was pushing and shoving … eventually I was able to kind of push him up against the car and — and then shove him into the car.
Gerhard challenged Milner’s self-defense story.
JOHN GERHARD (in court): Is that push that causes him to fall into his seat?
STEVEN MILNER: He hit up against the car and then kind of tripped at the same time. And I kept pushing.
Mahalee Streblow: His testimony … just didn’t line up with the physical evidence at the scene …
Det. Devin Rigo: To my knowledge — bumping your head on the car door is not going to break your neck.
After six hours of deliberations, the jury found Steven Milner guilty of murdering Kenny Fandrich, and multiple stalking charges.
Steven Milner at his sentencing on Feb. 18, 2025.
Washington County District Attorney’s Office
Cameras were allowed for Steven Milner’s sentencing hearing, which took place on Feb. 18, 2025. Tanya, who asked not to be shown on camera, gave a powerful statement directed at Steven Milner. Prosecutor Mahalee Streblow read us her words:
Mahalee Streblow (reading aloud): “All you had to do was stop … hear me clearly, when I say you are a vengeful, deceptive, manipulating, self-serving, aggressive, hateful, lying predator… and all you had to do was stop.”
Milner was sentenced to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 25 years. Milner did not respond to “48 Hours”‘ request for an interview.
Mahalee Streblow: This case highlights the very worst-case scenario … take stalking seriously.
Kenny’s attorney, Michael Fuller, says what happened highlights the limits of the system that is supposed to protect victims of stalking.
Michael Fuller: Kenny … called the police. When that didn’t work, he got a lawyer … Kenny did everything he could under the legal system, and it didn’t help him at all.
After Kenny’s death, Fuller filed a wrongful death suit on behalf of Kenny’s estate asking for damages of several million dollars. Fuller believes Milner made millions from real estate investments and the sale of his business.
Michael Fuller: In the wrongful death case, my goals are to extract as much money as we can out of Milner … If the estate recovered any money for Kenny, it would go to his wife.
For Milner’s former veterinary clients, it was hard to reconcile the doctor they knew, with a now-convicted murderer.
Cheryl Choquette: I could not believe that it was the same guy. …
Darlyn Robinson: I just believe that he ended up going through some type of psychosis … And I think that … at some point he snapped …
Det. Devin Rigo: I think it really gets down to, like, you never know what anybody is capable of. … you never know what monster might be inside …
Natalie Morales: Almost a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation?
Det. Devin Rigo: Yeah, absolutely.
Det. Stephanie Winter: Yeah.
Darlyn Robinson: He had everything to live for. You know, he … could do anything he wanted to do. … And this is where it ended up. … It’s real sad.
Produced by Chuck Stevenson and Lauren Clark. Greg Kaplan and Michael Baluzy are the editors. Lauren Turner Dunn is the associate producer. Cindy Cesare, Danielle Austen and Michelle Sigona are the development producers. Anthony Batson is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
Detective Devin Rigo knew the clock was ticking as he raced to a metal scrapyard just north of Portland, Oregon. Rigo, with the Hillsboro Police Department, had just learned about the discovery of a maroon minivan he believed contained evidence connected to the murder of 56-year-old Kenneth “Kenny” Fandrich, a contract pipe fitter.
On Jan. 27, 2023, Kenny Fandrich was discovered in a parking garage at the Intel campus in Hillsboro. Police reviewed surveillance camera images and determined that Fandrich had been dragged into the minivan by a masked man. Police believed the killer had broken Fandrich’s neck and killed him inside the minivan, before staging his body back in the driver’s seat of his own vehicle.
From evidence found at the scene, investigators believed the murder suspect tried to cover his crime by spray-painting multiple security cameras in the parking garage with blue spray paint. Correspondent Natalie Morales covers the investigation into Kenny Fandrich’s murder and the hunt for the killer in “Murder in the Parking Garage,” an all-new “48 Hours” airing Saturday, Oct. 4, at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
A suspect wearing a hard hat, tinted glasses and a face mask is captured spray-painting the security cameras around Kenny Fandrich’s car the morning of his murder to apparently conceal the crime
Washington County District Attorney’s Office
Soon after police arrived on the scene, Intel security personnel provided investigators with recordings from their hundreds of security cameras in the parking garage. Police soon had images of a suspect – wearing a hard hat, tinted glasses and a face mask – spray-painting the security cameras around Fandrich’s car early that morning, to apparently conceal the crime. At the time, the suspect had not been detected by Intel. But when police looked at the footage, they discovered that the spray paint didn’t cover everything the cameras recorded.
Police believed that whoever had killed Fandrich waited for him inside that minivan, then attacked Fandrich when he returned to his car after his shift. The killer left the garage in the maroon minivan soon after.
Kenny Fandrich, left, and Dr. Steven Milner.
Washington County District Attorney’s Office/The Wayback Machine
The night that Fandrich’s body was found, his wife, Tanya Fandrich, told investigators Kenny had a stalker: a well-off former veterinarian named Dr. Steven Milner. Tanya Fandrich had worked for Milner at his vet clinic for years, and they had an affair, which Tanya Fandrich said was long over. Police found that Kenny Fandrich had filed several orders for protection against Milner, and that Milner had been warned by Hillsboro police officers to stop following Kenny Fandrich. Just months before Kenny Fandrich’s murder, Milner had been caught placing a tracking device on one of the Fandrichs’ vehicles and was criminally charged. After several days of investigation, police arrested Milner and charged him with the murder of Kenny Fandrich.
Once in custody, police were able to connect the minivan, and another vehicle, to Milner, who had left them at a Home Depot parking lot for long periods of time.
To prove the case against Milner, investigators felt they had to find that minivan. “Because it’s the minivan that we believe was really our main crime scene …” said Rigo. “We thought there was going to be forensic evidence … in that minivan.”
Rigo and his partner, Detective Stephanie Winter, called the vehicles “burner cars.”
“Everybody kind of is more familiar with like a burner phone …” said Rigo, “where you have a phone that’s not … traced to you but, you know, you can use it for what you need, get rid of it … Essentially, he did the same thing, but with a car.”
The maroon minivan had been flagged at the Home Depot parking lot and the VIN number had been recorded. Security footage showed the van leaving the Home Depot parking lot shortly before Fandrich was murdered.
“We are sending flyers to every agency in the area,” said Rigo about the minivan’s VIN number.
The maroon minivan, pictured left, moments before it was crushed. Hillsboro, Oregon, police believed the vehicle contained evidence connected to the murder of 56-year-old Kenneth “Kenny” Fandrich.
Washington County District Attorney’s Office
The first alert they got was from the Oregon Department of Transportation. The minivan had been towed off the side of the busy I-5 highway in North Portland just days after Fandrich was murdered. Detectives believe it had been dumped there by Milner. Rigo called the tow company and found out the minivan had been sold to a scrap metal company. That’s when he started racing to the scrapyard to see if they could retrieve the minivan, and the key crime scene evidence it may have held. But he was too late. When Rigo arrived and asked about the minivan, he was shown a video of the crime scene being picked up and smashed to pieces. “I was able to watch one of my key pieces of evidence be crushed and taken away,” said Rigo, “before my very eyes … exactly a week too late.”
Discover how the investigation unfolded, and Milner’s defense at trial, on this week’s “48 Hours,” “Murder in the Parking Garage.”
Officers had earlier searched the home for Renia Lewis, 28, of Vallejo, who had been reported missing Sunday, but could not find her.
Getty Images
Officers searching a home for a missing woman for a second time found her body hidden inside a concealed attic, California police reported.
Officers had earlier searched the home for Renia Lewis, 28, of Vallejo, who had been reported missing Sunday, Sept. 28, but could not find her, Vallejo police said in a Tuesday, Sept. 30, news release.
After an investigation led them back to the home, officers returned with a search warrant and uncovered the hidden attic with her body inside, police said.
“What did she do to you for you to kill her, and then put her in a wall?” Teri Lewis, the woman’s mother, told KTVU. “And she’s been gone since Friday so we were out here looking for my daughter and she’s in the wall — dead.”
Investigators arrested Douglas Irwin Shaw, 41, of Vallejo, on a charge of murder, police said. Shaw told officers in a statement that he was responsible for the crime, police said.
“This was a heartbreaking, senseless act of violence that has no place in our community. I am proud of our officers and detectives for making an arrest and solving this case,” Police Chief Jason Ta said in the release.
“I just prayed, ‘God please don’t let it be her, please don’t let it be.’ And he didn’t answer my prayer,” Teri Lewis told KTVU.
Don Sweeney has been a newspaper reporter and editor in California for more than 25 years. He has been a real-time reporter based at The Sacramento Bee since 2016.
The bodies of Morena Verdi and Brenda del Castillo, cousins aged 20, and 15-year-old Lara Gutierrez were found buried Wednesday in the yard of a house in a southern suburb of Buenos Aires, five days after they went missing.
The crime, which investigators tied to drug gangs, was allegedly perpetrated live on Instagram and watched by 45 members of a private account, officials said.
Police announced Monday the arrest of a young woman following an interview she gave to a local television station.
The suspect was reportedly seen in a car belonging to her uncle, who was arrested Friday in Bolivia, near the Argentine border, on suspicion of providing logistical support for transporting the young victims.
On Wednesday, two men and two women were arrested, followed by a sixth suspect on Saturday.
According to authorities, the man suspected of ordering the massacre is a 20-year-old Peruvian drug trafficker nicknamed “Little J,” who was active an in impoverished southern suburb of Buenos Aires. An international arrest warrant has been issued for him. His alleged lieutenant, aged 23, is also being sought.
Antonio del Castillo, grandfather of the slain 20-year-old cousins, called the killers “bloodthirsty.”
Antonio del Castillo, grandfather of Brenda del Castillo and Morena Verdi, holds a shirt with their image demanding justice for their murder in La Tablada, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, on September 26, 2025.
LUIS ROBAYO/AFP via Getty Images
“You wouldn’t do what they did to them to an animal,” he said.
“I have hope that the truth will be revealed,” he added during a protest in Buenos Aires. “I ask people to stand with us.”
Femicide in Argentina
The European Institute for Gender Equality says femicide “is broadly defined as the killing of a woman or girl because of her gender and can take different forms, such as the murder of women as a result of intimate partner violence; the torture and misogynist slaying of women; killing of women and girls in the name of ‘honor,’ etc.”
One woman is killed by a man every 36 hours in Argentina, according to a femicide monitoring group in the country, BBC News reported.
Femicide was added to Argentina’s penal code as an aggravating factor of homicides in 2012, and is punishable with life imprisonment, according to the Guardian.
However, earlier this year, Argentine President Javier Milei said he wanted to remove the concept of “femicide” from the country’s penal code, the Council on Foreign Relations reported. Milei had argued that femicide promotes the idea that “the life of a woman is worth more than that of a man.
Paula Fabero, Brenda del Castillo’s mother, reacts as relatives and friends of Brenda del Castillo, Morena Verdi and Lara Gutierrez march with abortion rights activists to mark the International Safe Abortion Day and call for justice after the three young women were tortured and murdered earlier this week in a suspected drug gang revenge attack, according to local media, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, September 27, 2025.
I’ve been pretty public about my admiration for crime analyst Jeff Asher and his Real-Time Crime Index, a tool that lets you take a deep dive into all kinds of crime data. So when Jeff wrote recently that the U.S. was on track for the lowest murder rate ever, I took notice.
I reached out to Jeff with a few questions about what he is seeing in the numbers.
Our exchange has been lightly edited for length.
What do we think we know about the national murder rate in 2025?
We know that murder is falling fast and that it’s almost certainly well below pre-COVID levels. That’s clear in the FBI data, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, Gun Violence Archive data, and in my project – the Real-Time Crime Index (RTCI).
The RTCI takes a sample of data from several hundred cities to evaluate national crime trends as they occur. According to the most recent RTCI sample of 562 agencies covering 116 million people, murder is down 20% through July this year compared to 2024. Doing back-of-the-napkin math of a 15-20% drop in 2025 on top of the FBI’s estimated murder rate for 2024 points to a strong likelihood of the lowest murder rate ever recorded this year (data back to 1960).
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Do we know why?
No! Criminologists also don’t “know” why crime fell so severely in the 1990s. It’s a major accomplishment that we can actually measure changing crime trends as they occur, but explaining them is a whole other challenge. Any explanation must account for at least five factors:
The declines are occurring nearly everywhere in the U.S.
The declines began in 2023 but have accelerated the last two years.
Most medium and large cities have fewer police officers today than they had in 2022.
We have not fixed the supposed root causes of crime such as poverty and lack of educational opportunities.
The nation is still awash in guns.
In my opinion, the main driver is that an enormous investment from the federal government in the years after the pandemic enabled a vast array of new efforts that have had an enormous effect. This includes a massive increase in local government hiring in the wake of the pandemic that allowed for government programming and services to be restored, huge increases in local/state government construction on streets and street lighting, neighborhood and social centers, and public safety infrastructure – all of which had direct and indirect impacts on crime. And there was a very big increase in Department of Justice spending from the Office of Justice Programs.
Is the overall crime rate tracking down?
All crime is falling. The FBI measures seven major categories of crime in 11 population groups ranging from rural counties to cities of 1 million or more, and crime was down in every category across every population group in 2024. Data from the RTCI for 2025 shows even larger decreases in both violent and property crime this year – greater than 10% in each category. Overall, the 2025 violent crime rate will likely be the lowest reported by the FBI since 1968, and the property crime rate will likely be the lowest ever reported by the FBI.
Could data revisions make it so this apparent improvement will prove to be an illusion?
Not every agency reports data to the FBI every year, so they have to estimate the usually small amount of missing data (typically about 5% of the country). In recent years, the revisions have gotten larger, and it’s not exactly clear why. Murder in 2023, for example, went from roughly down 11% to down roughly 9.5% when the numbers were revised in the 2024 data release. That can be frustrating for data nerds like me, but it doesn’t really impact the bottom line about crime in the United States.
One good workaround to this problem is to rely less on the FBI estimates and use other sources when thinking about U.S. crime trends. RTCI is a good independent source, there’s official CDC homicide data, and the Gun Violence Archive has reporting on shooting trends that people can rely on.
A photographer who was on “The Dating Game” became one of the nation’s deadliest serial killers — eight years after “48 Hours”‘ first report, new victims emerge. Correspondent Peter Van Sant investigates.
Did a father use his 6-year-old son as an alibi for murder? A son grapples with his parents’ troubled past. “48 Hours” contributor Vladimir Duthiers reports.
A woman is murdered in her home and the pivotal clue at the crime is a bloody footprint her killer left behind. “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty reports.
A teenager survives a vicious attack by an ex-boyfriend. Years later, she faces him in court after he murders a young mother. “48 Hours” correspondent Anne-Marie Green reports.
The bound bodies of four women are found along a desolate stretch of beach. Disturbing new details about the architect police say is a serial killer. “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty reports.
The cause of death of Travis Decker, the man accused of killing his three young daughters earlier this year in Washington state before disappearing and sparking a monthslong manhunt, “may never be known,” the local county coroner told CBS News on Friday.
Chelan County Coroner Wayne Harris told CBS News that Decker’s “cause and manner” of death, along with the time of death, couldn’t be determined.
Harris said the coroner’s office received only “minimal skeletal remains,” and with so much time having passed since the death, “there is nothing to autopsy.”
“The only examination done at this point was by a forensic anthropologist,” Harris said in an email Friday.
Local law enforcement confirmed Thursday that the human remains that were found in Washington state last week came back as a match for Decker after DNA testing.
The 32-year-old, a former Army soldier with extensive survival skills, was the suspect in the May killings of his three daughters, 9-year-old Paityn Decker, 8-year-old Evelyn Decker and 5-year-old Olivia Decker. DNA testing confirmed he was the only suspect in the murders, police have said.
The search for Decker began May 30, after the girls’ mother reported he failed to return them to her Wenatchee, Washington, home, about 100 miles east of Seattle, following a scheduled visit.
Three days later, authorities discovered the girls’ bodies down an embankment at a Cascade Mountains campsite, their wrists bound with zip ties. Autopsies revealed the girls had suffocated, authorities have said.
