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Trigger warning. The following episode contains references to harassment, stalking, and physical violence. Listen
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with care. [Music] Dispatch, can I help you? In August 2009, an anonymous man called the
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Scadget County Sheriff's Office 911 hotline. There's a crime that's going to take place in the morning.
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It involved a dangerous drug dealer. There's going to be a a van transporting some drugs from uh the Anacortis area to
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I5 and then to Seattle. The dispatcher then asked the caller for the person's name. And do you know the name?
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The last name is Stove. S O E R. Stove as in Mark Stove. the dog trainer to the stars who had moved to Anacortis,
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Washington. Okay. And is somebody there with you or why are you whispering? Uh yeah, this is something that's very
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delicate. I have I have to not be found out about this. He's very dangerous. Perpetually carries a gun. It's a little
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tough to hear, but he's warning them that Mark carries a gun. He said this is very dangerous. I wish you guys would do
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something before it kills somebody. He says, I wish you guys would do something before he kills somebody. All
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righty. Well, I've got the call in and we'll pass it along to the deputies for you. Thank you.
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The following day, Mark Stove was pulled over by sheriff's deputies. He was asked
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if they could search his car. He refused. This is Lee Herren. She's a private investigator Mark hired after the
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incident. Lee said when Mark refused to cooperate, the officers wouldn't let him
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leave. A search warrant was obtained. A canine was brought to the scene and there was a positive hit. The dog
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detected some drugs. The police found a small metallic box on the undercarriage of Mark's vehicle which contained a
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couple of marijuana cigarettes and some very lowgrade cocaine. Mark told the deputies the box had been
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planted. They let him go, but from then on, Mark watched his back. It was such a
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deliberate act. It said, "We're setting you up. We want you to go to jail." I think Mark
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had a very real fear of what Linda was capable of doing to him. I'm Peter Vans from 48 Hours. This is Train to Kill.
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The dog trainer, the ays, and the bodyguard. Episode 3, Secret Meetings. [Music]
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At the time Mark Stove was pulled over by police, Linda Updike said she had moved on from her ex-husband. I just
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wanted to go on with my life with Michael and I wanted Mark to go on with his life. Michael was Michael Oaks, a
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security expert. We spoke back in 2010. I remember at that time thinking this can't be real
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because no woman alone could go through this amount of harassment. Michael said they met at a Starbucks and quickly
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connected over their love of books. By the fall of 2008, Michael said their business relationship turned romantic. I
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said to her, I think we have a connection that that could go beyond friendship and is that something that
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you're open to? And I think she, as you may know, she's um almost 6 feet tall and I'm 5' 6. She's never had children.
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I have four children, so it was an unlikely romance, but she said, "You know, I have gone through a lot of
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things in my life, and I'm open to considering that." Linda was impressed by how dedicated Michael was to his
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family. After getting a divorce from his first wife, Michael took full custody of
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their kids. He even treated the kids of his second wife as his own. Everything he did took into account of his
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children. He worked at home so he could be there for them. He was a full-time single parent. He drove them to school
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every morning. He made sure he had Friday night movies time with them or game evenings. The family was a priority
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to him. Michael described himself as a self-taught security specialist skilled in firearms. I ended up training with uh
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a lot of the alphabet soup of of government agencies and SWAT teams and so on. And it's uh what we call force on
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force training. I owned a small company in in Seattle here and uh I managed to get some training equipment and figure
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out how to use it. People have said that you are a gun enthusiast. Is that true?
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Yes, I am a gun enthusiast. I've taught all my kids from the earliest age that they I felt they were safe. Gun safety.
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Uh, and I have shot competitively for some years. You've been described as Linda Updike's bodyguard as well as
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boyfriend, right? Is that accurate? I don't believe it's accurate. Let's put it that way. She never paid me to be a
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bodyguard. I did a little bit of research and I did an analysis of sort of her home security situation and what
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the steps she was taking. looked into the people that she was working with and made some
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uh suggestions on that front and that was the extent of what I would consider my professional interaction with her.
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And did she pay you for that consulting? You know, she paid me. She wrote me a check, but it was just for my expenses
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and it was a minimal amount of money. I don't even remember now what it was, but
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less than $1,000. So, I mean, it was minimal. Michael said that by the spring of 2009,
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he and his kids started spending a lot of time at Linda's house in Winthrop, which was more than 200 miles north from
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Michael's place in Kenowick, Washington. It's a beautiful love. It's uh in my opinion, it's it's legendary. It's
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something that you read about in uh romance novels or movies. Their relationship deepened. What seemed to
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make it even better was that Linda said she hadn't heard from Mark since he had been arrested for stalking and theft. I
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was believing and hoping that that had enough impact and he recognized that this behavior was unacceptable and that
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he would be moving on with his life. And we went for many months where nothing happened. To her, the nightmare finally
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felt over. I really started feeling more at peace in my life and more at ease and
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really felt that he was moving on and I was able to move on into a new relationship with nothing from the past
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hampering that. But according to Michael, the past roared back into the present when Mark Stove unexpectedly
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re-entered their lives. Mark Stove sought me out one day out of the blue and told me that I would do what he
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wanted. And from that point for almost 6 months, I lived in constant fear. Michael said that Mark hadn't stopped
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stalking. He just found a new target. The Mark Stove you got to know. Was he a frightening man? Very intimidating. very
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much so threatening constantly with [Music] me. Michael Oak said the first time he
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encountered Mark Stove was a real shock. It was around Memorial Day 2009. Michael
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and Linda had been in a romantic relationship for about 9 months. I think it was a it was a weekday morning. I had
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just dropped my kids off at school. Michael said he then made a stop at Costco and went in the store. When I
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came out, he was standing by my car and because I had done research for Linda Optic some months previously, I had seen
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a picture of him. I immediately recognized him. Mark Stove is standing next to your car. Next to my car in the
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park, Washington, which is on the other side of the mountains from from where we
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are now. Yes. The drive from Mark's home in Anacortis to this Costco in Kenowick, Washington
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would have taken about 5 hours. Yet there he was, according to Michael, menacingly standing by Michael's car.
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He's very icy, actually. He said that he had been listening to our calls and he knew all about me. And he knew that I
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was in a relationship with Linda. He said his wife. He didn't say his ex-wife, he said his wife. and he said
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that there was something of his that she wouldn't give back and that I was going
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to get it for him. Michael couldn't remember if he said anything to Mark or if he just gave
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him a confused look as he waited to hear Mark's demand. He said that Miss Odike would not give back their uh wedding
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photo albums and he said I was going to get them back for him. And then he went on to
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uh he went on to describe what my daughters were wearing that morning, what they'd worn to school. And there's
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no way he could have seen. But what did you realize at that moment? He had had been following us whole time. And
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uh he said that uh he he told me the details what they're wearing, their backpack colors, everything.
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Michael said that Mark told him to bring the wedding photos to the Northgate Mall
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in Seattle on July 14th, 2009. He said he agreed. Why didn't you at that moment simply look him in the
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eye and say, "Mark Stove or whoever you are, get away from me. I don't ever want to speak
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to you again. If you get anywhere near my children, I'll call the police." I'm not a confrontational person at all.
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That's not my mode. I felt very much offbalance in that meeting. And I think it's one of those things where once I'm
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driving away thinking I should have said this or I should have done that. There was something about him that was
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chilling to me and I felt I kept trying to talk myself out of it. He can't be real. It can't be real. He has to be
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fooling. Michael said at first he was going to call the police, but then decided against it, worried about
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getting Linda involved. Did Michael tell you that Mark Stove approached him and demanded wedding
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photos? No. Why wouldn't he share this vitally important information with you? My guess in knowing Michael is he really
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did not want to stress me out more. Michael said that when July 14th rolled around, he went to meet Mark at the
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Nordstrom store at the Northgate Mall, just as he said Mark demanded. Michael said that since he
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didn't tell Linda about this meeting, he arrived empty-handed. No wedding photos.
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Michael said Mark got angry and scolded him. What was his obsession with these wedding photos?
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Well, I I'm not a psychologist. I'm not a psychiatrist. It enraged him. I believe in retrospect that she chose not
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to continue the marriage with Mark Stove to continue to do what he wanted and yet
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she retained something that he felt was part of him. A couple of weeks later, Michael
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suggested to Linda that they leave and go on a trip out to Whitefish, Montana. That's where Linda's father, Wall-E
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Updike, had a house. We were going to stay there and stayed at their vacation home.
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In route to White Fish, Michael remembered making a stop so Linda could take her dog for some exercise and he
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could pick up some snacks. But Michael said when he got in line to check out, he spotted a familiar face standing near
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the front door. And I I'm in line minding my own business and look across the way and I see Mr. Stover standing by
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the entrance to the store staring at me. And what was that moment like for you? Very similar to the first time that I
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saw him. It's just a shock of recognition in a place you don't expect to see somebody.
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Michael, why didn't you just say to him, "You get away from me. If you get anywhere near me and Linda again, I'm
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calling the cops." There's at least two reasons. One of them is I do know enough
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about protection to know that there's no way for me to I mean this is why the president has so many people that
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protects him from potential threats. One man cannot protect three children 24/7. And for any time that I could
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enrage or outrage Stover, it was putting a gun to the head of my children in my opinion. You felt if you confronted Mark
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Stove, you'd be putting yourself in more danger instead of dealing with the threat that he posed to you. Absolutely.
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And I'm certainly not the first person to feel that way. By now, Michael said Mark's uncanny ability to find him and
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Linda wherever they went made him realize Mark posed a real danger to his family. Mark Stove was remarkably
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sophisticated in some ways. He had managed to penetrate Linda's computer prior to meeting me. He managed to tap a
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phone. Uh follow finding us in Montana was impossible and I took tremendous steps not to be followed and yet there
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he was. How did he find us? By late September of 2009, Michael said that Mark demanded that they set up
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another meeting after he and Linda were back from Montana. He was getting progressively less patient with me. this
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time at a church in Anacortis. By now, Michael decided to wear his Kevlar vest to the meetings. He said that he drove
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west across the state to the church parking lot not far from Mark's house and waited. Still unable to find the
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wedding photos, Michael said he brought two pictures of Linda with her horse so Mark would have something to look at.
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But Michael said he didn't show up and Michael felt helpless. And the thought of just at any given one of these
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meetings that we had just telling him, I'm done. Take a hike and don't come looking for me. You know, and every time
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the reality of knowing that there's no way I can keep my kids, myself, and Miss Optike safe if he decides he's going to
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go for it, pulled me back from that brink. But were all these stories Michael was
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telling me true? Some people who knew Michael well said he had a darker side to his personality, a potentially
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violent side. During the course of our marriage, he told me that he was capable of killing without
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[Music] remorse. Michael looks had a dual personality. He was a family man by day
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and tried to live up his action hero persona in the background. That's Jennifer Thompson. She knows Michael
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Oaks as well as anyone. Jennifer was his second wife. I talked to her in 2010. You know, we
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eloped. It wasn't a wedding. She said they were married when Michael first met Linda. Jennifer said that she loved him,
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but that Michael had an insecure side. Is he a tough guy? Well, no. An action hero kind of guy? No. He
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thinks he is. He he wanted to be he wanted to be he idealized that he he read about it. He aspired to be that.
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According to Jennifer, Michael thought part of being tough meant being armed. Michael Oaks was very infatuated with
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guns, weapons, and I think they made him feel powerful, strong, capable. There was one book Jennifer said Michael
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referenced a lot. It's called Onkilling and it's a book about the psychology of killing.
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The book examines how people learn to kill in war. Jennifer said that Michael zeroed in on a part that described how
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one small sliver of the population could be vicious. Michael Oaks told me that he
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was in the small percentage of people who could kill without remorse. She said that over time, Michael's
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fascination with killing and his tough guy persona rotted out their marriage. Michael had a really strong
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sense of righteousness and he believed that bad people should be taken out so that the good people can
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not be harmed. Um, the problem is he decided who was bad and who wasn't. And he felt that he
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had the right to just take a bad man out. And we would argue about that. We argued about that for years. Uh, right
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and wrong. Can you kill? Can you not kill? And it was a it was a point of contention in our marriage. Jennifer
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told me that the final straw came when verbal tensions between them turned physically abusive. I remember his hand
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coming up and slapping me across the face and I remember it very clearly and I was
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expecting after feeling it. I was expecting the oh my god I'm sorry. Oh my god. And he didn't. He said, "Get the
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out of my house." And he chased me down the stairs. And I could feel his breath on my neck and his body behind me. It
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was horrible. It was horrible because I trusted him. I trusted him. And he had never he
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had been angry before. He had shown aggression before. Never at me. Michael told us no one should
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believe Jennifer's allegations against him. In July of 2008, a year after they tied the knot, Jennifer left with her
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two biological kids. and I went to my mom's and I spent two weeks just took my kids at Disneyland,
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went to the beach, just got away from it and then decided that I needed to get an
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apartment somewhere cuz I couldn't go back to the house. On August 15th, he said, "If you can't give me a date that
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you're coming back, we're done." And so he told me he wanted a divorce. Soon after, Michael
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Oaks and Linda Updike set up their first in-person meeting. I think he's a very insecure man, and I think that he
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musters up confidence really well. He's an excellent salesman. He's an excellent
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presenter of images. As the fall of 2008 began, Jennifer faded from his life. As Michael, the
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action hero wannabe, now had a new woman in his sights. And as Michael's relationship with Linda grew deeper, he
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said Linda's ex-husband, Mark, became obsessed, constantly calling him on the phone, asking for meetings. By October
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2009, it's become very very clear to me that in my mistaken belief that I could appease or
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satisfy Mark Stove, I did become yet another person who was doing exactly what Mark Stover wanted. He had reached
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a fateful breaking point. I kept thinking if I can just this is the one thing he wants that Linda Opdike won't
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give him. and if she just gives him what he wants, he'll leave us alone. Michael
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said the two men finally agreed to meet again on October 24th, 2009 at that same
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church in Anacortis. There is surveillance video from Linda's house showing Michael
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packing up his car to head out that day. It appeared that he was taking off for a
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fairly serious journey. That's Lee Herren again, Mark's former private investigator. She examined the video
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herself. He was loading a number of items into his car, including a rifle bag. As Michael is packing, you can see Linda
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come out onto their deck. They touch hands and then Linda wraps her arms around Michael. They share a long
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heartfelt embrace, the kind that suggested to me that something important lay ahead, something
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serious. Here's Lee again. The long passionate embrace that was captured on Linda's surveillance cameras indicates
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that Michael Oaks thought of himself as a prince who was out to slay the dragon,
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his perceived dragon for the damsel in distress. and his perceived dragon was Mark Stove. Michael and Linda kissed and
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he drove away. Hours later, Michael claimed he came face to face with Mark Stove in that church parking lot. He was
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extremely agitated, not cold and calculating, not controlled like that first meeting. He
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was erratic. Michael said Stove once again demanded those wedding pictures. So, did you give him those photo albums
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that he wanted? I never found them. Late that night, Michael is seen returning to
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Linda's home. But is it possible this entire story was Ola Ruse for a failed murder attempt? Because 4 days later, at
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2:30 a.m. on October 28th, Michael is again seen on surveillance video driving away from Linda's house. This time,
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Michael said the two men would meet in private at Mark Stover's house in Anacortis. Michael claimed that Mark had
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told him this was his last chance to turn over those damn wedding pictures. It was put up or shut up time. But what
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really happened when they met remains a mystery. Only those who saw the bloody aftermath can express what they felt.
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I can only describe it as evil, something horrible, something terrible from 48 hours. This is Train to
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Kill the Dog Trainer, the Aerys, and the Bodyguard, produced by Sony Music Entertainment. I'm your host, Peter
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Vans. Judy Tiger is the executive producer of 48 Hours. Original reporting by 48 Hours
00:24:40
producers Ryan Smith and Liza Finley. Jamie Benson is the senior producer for Paramount Audio and Mora
00:24:49
Waltz is the senior story editor. Recording assistance from Alan Pang and Regginald
00:24:56
Bazil. Special thanks to Paramont podcast vice president Megan Marcus. It is written and produced by Alex
00:25:06
Schuman. Stephanie Serrano is our editor. Our executive producer is Sher Morris. Our associate producer is Zoe
00:25:16
Kulkin. Theme and original music composed by Hansdale Shei. Cedric Wilson is our sound
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designer and mixed the episodes. We also use music from APM and Epidemic Sounds. Fendle Fulton is our fact
00:25:36
checker. Our production manager is Tamika Balance Kolassni. I'm Peter Vans. If you're
00:25:44
enjoying the show, be sure to rate and review. It helps more people find it and hear our reporting. You can listen to
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Train to Kill early and adree right now by subscribing to 48 Hours Plus on Apple
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Podcasts. Thanks for listening.