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[Music] I remember being woken up early in the morning by a hellacious barking. It was
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2009, 3 days before Halloween, a time when the boundaries between the living and the dead become blurred.
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Stephanie Poor said the dogs next door were going crazy and they were upset and it was loud.
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What' you think to yourself when you were lying in bed listening to that? Um, something was going on over there
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and I wanted to get some more sleep and um, I was going to have words with Mark.
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Mark was Mark Stove, Stephanie's next door neighbor and her boss. Stephanie was a dog trainer at Mark's facility in
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Anacortis, Washington, an island community about 80 miles north of Seattle. He had built a successful
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business working with the dogs of the rich and famous and had earned the nickname the dog whisperer of the
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Pacific Northwest. [Music] That morning, Stephanie made her short commute to work. She assumed Mark had
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already left to meet a client in Seattle. And I'm on the phone leaving a message
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with him and he's in the driveway. The car is in the driveway parked up by the house. I'm thinking, "Wow, that's weird
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cuz he really he's probably going to be, you know, a little antsy because he would have rather been gone by now."
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Mark had a reputation as a bit of a pitbull, intimidating and impatient. I saw who I thought was Mark going into
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the house, coming out of the house, putting stuff in the back of the hatch. What made you think it was Mark? Because
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it was his hat and his jacket. He opened the the door to the car, looked at the front windshield, grabbed something off
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the front, and then just tore like literally tore down the driveway. Then Stephanie went up to the
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house to the bathroom. As she walked up the driveway, she saw tire marks from the car and some spots of blood on the
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gravel. Stephanie assumed that the blood belonged to Ding, Mark's guard dog. Ding
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recently had surgery. I explained it away that Ding must have ripped her stitches
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out out here. The blood wasn't the only sign something was wrong. I could smell the bleach before I even opened the
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door. Stephanie stepped inside. She noticed a bedroom door that was usually never shut
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was closed. And as she went into the house, Stephanie saw three big spots on the floor. Did they have a color? It was
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blood. It was red. Dark dark red. Stephanie was worried. She kept calling Mark, but he never answered.
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Stephanie hoped the blood was from Ding's surgical wounds. She was doing her best to avoid imagining the
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worst. But the next morning when she came back to work, she was startled to see Ding sitting by the back door. She
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was on all fours and she was growling. Something had happened to her. Maybe she had had a stroke. It was obvious one eye
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was in a horrible mess. We couldn't find Mark. We were I was calling him. I left
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a message. Mark, we're really concerned. Where are you? You know, why is Ding here? An unsettling feeling hit
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Stephanie. I can only describe it as evil. Something horrible, something terrible. I knew something bad had taken
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place. Stephanie called 911. Mark's new girlfriend had also called the police after not hearing from
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him. Soon after, sheriff's deputies arrived on scene. Investigators believed the
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bleach, the blood, and Mark's vanishing act all added up to one inescapable conclusion. It was a cold-blooded
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murder. But detectives had no idea they were about to step into a hall of mirrors
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where nothing was as it seemed. I've never seen in my career a case that has as many twists and turns and
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mysteries as this case with March Stover. They soon discovered a story tangled in obsession. We don't have the
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truth yet. We have some of the truth, but we don't have all of it. But who was the hunter and who was the
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hunted? I'm Peter Vans from 48 hours. This is Trained to Kill the Dog Trainer, the Aerys, and the
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Bodyguard. Episode one, Puppy Love. The coastline of Washington State, just north of Seattle, is one of the most
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beautiful places on Earth. Back in the 1800s, my ancestors were homesteaders on an island not far
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from Anacortis, Washington. It's gone now, but one of my great greatates even had a small apple orchard on Orcus
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Island. Anacortis is the gateway to the San Juan Islands where ferryboats depart to these
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wooded jewels. I go hiking, swimming, and fishing for dungeoness crabs and have always considered the small harbor
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towns here my gateway into tranquility and peace. That's why I was stunned when 48 hours
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first got word about this murder. And then I learned that at the center of it all was a celebrity dog trainer. Mark
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was known as the dog whisperer of Anacortis and the dog trainer to the stars. That's Victoria Simmons, Mark
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Stover's younger sister. She said some of Mark's clients included Eddie Veter from Pearl Jam, longtime Starbucks CEO
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Howard Schultz, and Seattle Mariner Ichiro Suzuki. I believe he came to love all dogs and no pedigree or fabulous
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pedigree. It didn't matter to him. He saw value in all of them and potential in all of them. Mark offered private
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training lessons. He could teach basic obedience, but his wealthiest clients wanted him to train their pets to become
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protection dogs. This is audio from a video of Mark training a dog. He's standing in what
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looks like a gravel driveway, wearing a dark raincoat and his trademark brown hat with a round brim.
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Show me the motion again with the stick. Well, this is the the barrage I'm going
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to do. A handler releases the dog. The dog sprints and bites hard enough to lock onto Mark's leg, which is covered
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in padding, and a tug of war ensues between the growling dog and Mark. So damn far down.
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Mark commands the dog to stand down. Right away, the dog lays on the ground looking straight ahead and awaits the
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next command. Good boy. I just thought he was so incredibly interesting. His niece Julia, Victoria's daughter,
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said Mark sometimes expressed his love for dogs in eccentric ways. You know, he has this beautiful Porsche 911 and a BMW
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and then he has this car called the dog alac Cadillac. And I swear half the textile
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of the carpeting in that car was just dog hair that had woven itself into it. She said it smelled horrible. But one
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day they went for a drive and instead of taking the Porsche or the BMW, he takes me in the dog
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alone. And he said he didn't want his neighbors to know how rich he was. But Mark didn't start out rich at all. In
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fact, just the opposite. And his upbringing was far from easy. We went through, our family went through
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a series of losses early in our childhood. Just seemed to be one after another. This is Victoria again, Mark's
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sister. They grew up in the Seattle area in the 1950s and 1960s. My father died when um I was 6 months
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old and Mark was 18 months old. Then um shortly after that uh a half brother was
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killed in a car wreck that was caused by my other half brother which was sad. And
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then um mother remarried and shortly after she remarried um my sister died of pneumonia. She was nine.
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Their mother's second marriage also then fell apart. And so she remarried again and um he was an alcoholic. Life at home
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was tough. Mark struggled in school. According to Victoria, the family didn't know how to help him. He got kicked out
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of high school for smoking dope. Um I think he was 16. Um yeah, he was on a bad path. And then their mother's third
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husband died of cancer. We were broke. Um, our family was broke and there was a funeral and at the wake
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and family friends brought a German Shepherd puppy for a gift at a wake, which is such an odd choice. The German
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Shepherd puppy was named Gunter. While maybe odd, the gift would be a godsend. I've never been able to talk to them and
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ask them what prompted them to do such a odd thing. But Mark and that dog bonded
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that very day. Mark got in touch with the family's old vet. He encouraged Mark to join the
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Washington State Search and Rescue Can9 unit. They trained him and taught him how to train Gunter and um he loved it.
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He was flown all over the country to look for um lost people as far as the Everglades and it gave meaning to his
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life, gave purpose to his life. That dog saved him. Mark eventually started to train dogs in private sessions where
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he'd go to people's homes. In a news article from 1981, Mark is described as a disciple of the famous behavioral
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psychologist BF Skinner. Skinner studied how rewards and punishment can condition behavior in
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humans. Mark applied that to dogs by training them with punishment and reward. He's told me that he was the
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first person to ever apply human psychology to dogs and and to understanding the pack and how the pack
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works. Was your brother an innovator in in the dog world? I believe it was. As for cats, Mark was once quoted saying
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that he didn't like cats because he wants something he can control. He added, "Dogs are easy to
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change. It's people that are hard to change. See, I can't put a choke chain around them.
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[Music] Mark started training dogs in the 1970s and by the 1980s was a wellestablished
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canine guru. Mark never married during that time. Then in the early 90s when Mark was nearing 40, a wealthy potential
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client called I was looking to do some training with my dog and found him in the phone book. Linda Updike was the
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daughter of Wall-E Updike, one of the wealthiest businessmen in the state of Washington.
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I remember speaking with him on the phone and uh very I felt he was very arrogant. actually rubbed me the wrong
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way initially. Name dropped a lot of people and had uh quite a bit of an attitude, but yet he seemed also to know
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a fair amount about dogs. So, I thought, let's try this out. Mark and Linda met regularly to train her dog. A bond was
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starting to form. I saw he definitely did have a connection with dogs, and I felt that he would be able to help us.
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Mark definitely had a way with dogs and at times he could be charismatic with people. He was very bright and witty and
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charming. After 8 or 9 months, their relationship evolved. And even though Linda was 12
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years younger than Mark, his sister says Linda was his type. She was tall, slender, beautiful. He seemed to like
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the girls from these wealthy families, which I um always was wondered about just just right down his alley. For one
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of their first dates, Mark asked her to go fishing. So, I drove over and met him and did a
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day of fishing. And um that began when we we started dating shortly thereafter. So what was the attraction? You know, he
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was incredibly bright, eccentric, had u a lot of similar interests in that I did. Linda grew up camping, fishing, and
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hunting. They connected over a love for nature and the open air. What started purely as business turned personal and
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they set out to build a relationship and a successful company at the same time. They were coming together despite being
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from two different worlds. While Mark's family had struggled, Linda Updike was the daughter of a millionaire.
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I grew up with my family doing a lot of camping on Woodby Island. We have a small beach cabin up there and I grew up
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saltwater fishing, salmon fishing. I was born in California and then moved when I
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was very young to Belby, Washington. Uh went to junior high and high school there. Uh was very involved in horseback
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riding and competed um doing Grand Prix jumping and that was really my passion and where I spent my time in my youth.
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How good were you at this horse jumping? Well, it probably depends on who you'd ask. And tell me also about your father.
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He's a a famous man in the state of Washington. Very successful man in the state of Washington. Yes. He um started
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with um came from very middle class background and went to University of Washington and then really became
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involved in a lot of different businesses. One of them being Chateau San Michelle um developing that and um
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that's a very famous winery in Washington sold all over the world. Yes, it is. I'm very proud of his
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accomplishments that way. He was also involved in um K2 ski company and Jansport sporting goods and um different
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businesses throughout his career. Linda is her parents only daughter. A very good friend of mine at an adult
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age. Yes, her mother daughter, but we're very good friends. That's Nancy Corbin,
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Linda's mother. She admits that she wasn't entirely thrilled when Mark and Linda started dating. Mark is not a
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choice I would have made for for Linda from the beginning. Mark showed an arrogance had a where he
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wanted to isolate Linda. Uh all bad signs. And so it was it was noticed by me right away.
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Nancy let her daughter make her own choices and was even supportive when Mark and Linda decided to go into
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business together. Linda said she'd been interested in opening a dog boarding business in 1992. Linda and Mark opened
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Island Dog Adventures. Linda ran the boarding part of the company and Mark handled the dog training. You
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essentially were the CEO, right? Yes. Uh, it was all of my what we developed there was my business idea, my
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development, my money. I did capitalize it to go in. Linda thought Mark's reputation in the
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industry helped and her parents leased Linda the perfect place to set up shop. Beautiful piece of property that my
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family has owned, no longer owns, uh, but did purchase in the 80s. Kikit Island and the surrounding area
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once belonged to the Swenomish tribe. Besides a clearing for some buildings, the island is a thick forest with tall
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Douglas furs and western red cedars. I don't think there's probably many places like that, whether dogs live on there or
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people live on there. It was just a a terrific place. Their house was at the end of a long,
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narrow driveway that felt like you were almost entering Jurassic Park. The sprawling property filled with wild
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flowers, hills, and beaches made it seem otherworldly. Business started [Music] booming. Over time, Island Dog
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Adventures turned into a milliondoll operation. Linda said that despite their success, Mark started to become obsessed
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with money, tightly controlling her spending. For example, an avocado uh that was too
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much money. It really upset him. I remember another time I was Excuse me. You guys have a million-doll business.
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He's upset that you bought an avocado. Yes. Yes. There. And you're serious? I'm absolutely serious. Yes. He would be in
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a rage that I spent too much money and it was an inappropriate expenditure on things.
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Most of their attention was going to the business and not each other. And we were working, you know, 7 days a
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week, 15-hour days, and there was really not any time for personal relationships.
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Despite her concerns, Linda was committed to making things work. I just kept thinking that if I could reduce our
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workload, if we could make some changes and try to get more personal time that the relationship could be salvageable
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and and work. Um, so we went through some counseling and at that point in time Mark did want to get married and I
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again because of the commitment said okay. [Music] On May 17th, 2002, Mark and Linda were married in a
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small wedding at the Four Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas. She was 38. He was 50. This is a picture from the wedding in
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Las Vegas. And um this is Linda Opdike. This is her mother, Nancy Corbin. Victoria, Mark's sister, showed me
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photos from the wedding. At this picture, he thinks he's at the beginning of a very
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happy phase in his life, and he's the beginning of a nightmare, but he doesn't know that yet.
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[Music] Mark has on a dark suit and Linda is wearing a black dress holding a white
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bouquet of flowers. They look like a happy couple here. They do. They do. And your brother thought this is the one
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after all those years he married her and that this was going to be his partner for life. He adored this woman. But Mark
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seemed different to Linda after the wedding. Things were fine for about uh 4 months
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after the marriage and then it really started going south. What happened? What went wrong?
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I think my desires for a personal truly a personal loving marriage and relationship was something that he did
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not want to provide and could not provide. Linda wanted to move off the island, but she said Mark dug in his
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heels. He wanted to stay. Pink Island meant a lot to Mark because it had quite a prestige to it. Linda said she watched
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Mark's whole demeanor intensify. I saw him becoming more aggressive with people uh for example on the property uh that
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were trespassing, pulling guns on people and threatening them. uh being verbally
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aggressive and very threatening. According to Linda, Mark developed a reputation for threatening locals. He
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would even use his dogs to intimidate people. My experience with him was he was very unstable. And with that and his
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agitated state and he had real highs and lows and rages that he dealt with, it was very um concerning to me and what
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his reaction would be to something, how that would affect my safety. After nearly 14 years together,
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including 3 years of marriage, Linda decided that she couldn't do this anymore. I recognized that I was so
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unhappy and I I knew that I needed to leave the marriage and I got a separation.
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She moved out of their home. Linda left the island that was owned by her family to start a new set off on a new path
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alone. But she said Mark followed. He told me that he was listening to phone conversations and that he had been in my
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house and read my diaries and just it was it was horrifying. It was chilling to me. Every single moment you're
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wondering when you walk out the door, is he going to be there? I know how he operated and his stalking abilities and
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hunting abilities. The fallout from their collapsed marriage started a nasty back and forth that would culminate in
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that bloody scene at Mark's house. This is war. This is goddamn war. You've worked my life enough. I really did feel
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that my life was in danger. Coming up on Trained to Kill, the dog trainer, the ays, and the bodyguard. I
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remember at that time thinking this can't be real because no woman alone could go through
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this amount of harassment. My first thought was oh a body. I have a safe room in there. I have a plan A, a plan
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B, a plan C. I think Mark had a very real fear of what Linda was capable of doing
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to him. He told me that he was capable of killing without remorse. This is not a case of self-defense.
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This is a case of coldblooded [Music] murder from 48 hours. This is Train to Kill the Dog Trainer, the Aerys, and the
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Bodyguard, produced by Sony Music Entertainment. I'm your host, Peter Vans. Judy Tigard is the executive producer of
00:26:09
48 Hours. Original reporting by 48 Hours producers Ryan Smith and Liza Finley. Jamie Benson is the senior
00:26:19
producer for Paramount Audio and Mora Waltz is the senior story editor. Recording assistance from Alan
00:26:27
Pang and Reginald Bazale. Special thanks to Paramont Podcast Vice President Megan Marcus.
00:26:36
It is written and produced by Alex Schuman. Stephanie Serrano is our editor. Our executive producer is Sher
00:26:46
Morris. Our associate producer is Zoe Kulkin. Theme and original music composed by Hansdale
00:26:55
Shei. Cedric Wilson is our sound designer and mixed the episodes. We also use music from APM and Epidemic
00:27:06
Sounds. Fendle Fulton is our fact checker. Our production manager is Tamika Balance
00:27:14
Kolassni. I'm Peter Vans Sant. If you're enjoying the show, be sure to rate and review. It helps more people find it and
00:27:23
hear our reporting. You can listen to Train to Kill early and adfree right now by subscribing to 48 Hours Plus on Apple
00:27:34
Podcasts. Thanks for listening.