Police race to save murder evidence from being turned into scrap metal

Detective Devin Rigo was racing against time to retrieve a murder weapon before it was transformed into scrap metal. The Hillsboro Police Department received a call about the discovery of a maroon minivan believed to contain crucial evidence connected to the murder of Kenny Fandrich, a 56-year-old contract pipe fitter. On January 27, 2023, Fandrich's body was found in a parking garage at the Intel campus in Hillsboro.

Surveillance footage revealed that the killer had dragged Fandrich into the minivan and killed him inside, before staging his body back in the driver's seat of his own vehicle. Investigators suspected that the killer had attempted to cover his tracks by spray-painting security cameras in the parking garage with blue paint. Intel security personnel had provided investigators with footage of the suspect, who was wearing a hard hat, tinted glasses, and a face mask, spray-painting the cameras.

However, the spray paint hadn't covered everything the cameras recorded, suggesting that important evidence might still be present in the minivan. Rigo and his partner, Detective Stephanie Winter, learned that the minivan had been flagged at a Home Depot parking lot and had been recorded leaving shortly before Fandrich's murder.

They alerted the Oregon Department of Transportation, and the minivan was later towed off the side of I-5 highway in North Portland. The tow company informed Rigo that the minivan had been sold to a scrap metal company, prompting Rigo to rush to the scrapyard to retrieve the vehicle and any potential evidence it may have held. Unfortunately, Rigo arrived too late to save the evidence, as the minivan had already been crushed at the scrapyard.