Willamette Week | By Aaron Mesh | November 23, 2025
Nearly a year after retired Oregon City veterinarian Steven Milner was convicted of second-degree murder for killing the husband of an assistant he became obsessed with, he has agreed to a $1.2 million settlement with his victim’s estate.
The settlement notice, filed Nov. 20 in Multnomah County Circuit Court, says Milner will pay the estate of Kenny Fandrich $700,000, and Farmer’s Insurance will contribute another $500,000. Fandrich’s estate had sought $10 million for his death.
The deal appears to be the last word in a baroque legal case that began in September 2022, when Fandrich filed a stalking complaint against Milner for conducting “a psychotic campaign intended to threaten, intimidate, frighten, and harass plaintiff, in substantial part because defendant had an affair with plaintiff’s wife when she was defendant’s employee.”
Four months after filing the legal complaint, Fandrich was found dead in a parking garage of the Intel campus in Hillsboro, where he worked as a pipefitter.
The case sent shock waves through Oregon City, where Milner had worked for decades as the gentle town veterinarian. What unspooled in court documents and in WW’s reporting was a different picture—of a spurned lover who reacted to the end of a workplace affair with a subordinate by planting a tracking device under her husband’s car and threatening to cut his body into pieces.
“This has been the most bizarre and tragic case of my career,” said Michael Fuller, the attorney representing Fandrich’s estate. “I’m glad it’s finally over. My prayers remain with Kenny’s loved ones.”
Milner’s attorney could not immediately be reached for comment. Nor could Tanya Fandrich, Fandrich’s widow. At the March hearing where Milner was sentenced to life in prison, she blamed sheriff’s deputies for ignoring her and Kenny’s pleas to take their claims of stalking seriously. “You played me for a fool,” she said to Milner in a 20-minute statement, “made me feel stupid and manipulated me. But now I see you for what you truly are: a monster. All you had to do was stop.”
The settlement will become final when approved by a probate court, which Fuller expects to happen in the coming months.
