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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 mi north of Seattle. He had built a successful business
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working with the dogs of the rich and famous and had earned the nickname the dog whisperer of the Pacific Northwest.
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[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 with him and he's in the
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driveway. The car is in the driveway parked up by the house. I'm thinking, "Wow, that's weird cuz he really he's
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probably going to be, you know, a little antsy because he would have rather been
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gone by now." Mark had a reputation as a bit of a pitbull, intimidating and impatient. I
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saw who I thought was Mark going into the house, coming out of the house, putting
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stuff in the back of the hatch. What made you think it was Mark? Because it was his hat and his jacket. He opened
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the the door to the car, looked at the front windshield, grabbed something off the front, and then just tore like
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literally tore down the driveway. Then Stephanie went up to the house to the bathroom. As she walked up the
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driveway, she saw tire marks from the car and some spots of blood on the gravel.
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Stephanie assumed that the blood belonged to Ding, Mark's guard dog. Ding recently had surgery. I explained it
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away that Ding must have ripped her stitches out out here. The blood wasn't the only sign
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something was wrong. I could smell the bleach before I even opened the door. Stephanie stepped inside. She noticed a
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bedroom door that was usually never shut was closed. And as she went into the house, Stephanie saw three big spots on
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the floor. Did they have a color? It was blood. It was red. Dark. Dark red. Stephanie was worried. She kept calling
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Mark, but he never answered. Stephanie hoped the blood was from Ding's surgical wounds. She was doing
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her best to avoid imagining the worst. But the next morning when she came back to work, she was startled to see Ding
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sitting by the back door. She was on all fours and she was growling. Something had happened to her. Maybe she had had a
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stroke. It was obvious one eye was in a horrible mess. We couldn't find Mark. We
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were I was calling him. I left a message. Mark, we're really concerned. Where are you? You know, why is Ding
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here? An unsettling feeling hit Stephanie. I can only describe it as evil. Something horrible, something terrible.
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I knew something bad had taken place. Stephanie called 911. Mark's new girlfriend had also called
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the police after not hearing from him. Soon after, sheriff's deputies arrived on scene.
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Investigators believed the bleach, the blood, and Mark's vanishing act all added up to one inescapable conclusion.
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It was a cold-blooded 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 mysteries
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as this case with Marx. They soon discovered a story tangled in obsession. We don't have the truth yet.
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We have some of the truth, but we don't have all of it. But who was the hunter and who was the hunted?
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I'm Peter Vans from 48 hours. This is Trained to Kill the Dog Trainer, the Aerys, and the Bodyguard.
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Episode 1, 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 from Anacortis,
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Washington. It's gone now, but one of my great greatates even had a small apple orchard on Orcus Island.
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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 dungeonessous 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
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no pedigree or fabulous pedigree. It didn't matter to him. He saw value in all of them and potential in all of
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them. Mark offered private training lessons. He could teach basic obedience, but his wealthiest clients wanted him to
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train their pets to become 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 a the barrage. A handler releases the dog. The dog
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sprints and bites hard enough to lock onto Mark's leg, which is covered in padding, and a tug of war ensues between
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the growling dog and Mark. Mark commands the dog to stand down. Right away, the dog lays on the ground
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looking straight ahead and awaits the next command. Good boy. I just thought he was so incredibly
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interesting. His niece Julia, Victoria's daughter, said Mark sometimes expressed his love
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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 Dogac, like a Cadillac. And I swear half the textile of the
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carpeting in that car was just dog hair that had woven itself into it. She said it smelled horrible. But one day they
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went for a drive and instead of taking the Porsche or the BMW, he takes me in the dog alone.
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And he said he didn't want his neighbors to know how rich he was. But Mark didn't
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start out rich at all. In fact, just the opposite. And his upbringing was far from easy.
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We went through, our family went through a series of losses early in our childhood. Just seemed to be one after
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another. This is Victoria again, Mark's sister. They grew up in the Seattle area
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in the 1950s and 1960s. [Music] My father died when um I was 6 months old and Mark was 18 months old. Then um
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shortly after that uh a half brother was killed in a car wreck that was caused by
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my other half brother which was sad. And then um mother remarried and shortly after she remarried um my sister died of
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pneumonia. She was nine. Their mother's second marriage also then fell apart. And so she remarried again
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and um he was an alcoholic. Life at home was tough. Mark struggled in school. According to Victoria, the family didn't
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know how to help him. He got kicked out of high school for smoking dope. Um I think he was 16. Um yeah, he was on a
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bad path. And then their mother's third husband died of cancer. We were broke. Um, our family was broke
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and there was a funeral and at the wake and family friends brought a German Shepherd puppy for a gift at a wake,
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which is such an odd choice. The German Shepherd puppy was named Gunter. While maybe odd, the gift would be a godsend.
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I've never been able to talk to them and ask them what prompted them to do such an odd thing. But Mark and that dog
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bonded 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 Canine Unit. They trained him and taught him how to train Gunter and um he loved
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it. 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 change. It's
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people that are hard to change. See, I can't put a choke chain around them. [Music]
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Mark started training dogs in the 1970s and by the 1980s was a wellestablished K-9 guru. Mark never married during that
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time. Then in the early 90s when Mark was nearing 40, a wealthy potential client called. I was looking to do some
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training with my dog and found him in the phone book. Linda Updike was the daughter of Wall-E Updike, one of the
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wealthiest businessmen in the state of Washington. I remember speaking with him on the
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phone and uh very I felt he was very arrogant. Actually, rubbed me the wrong way initially. Name dropped a lot of
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people and had uh quite a bit of an attitude, but yet he seemed also to know a fair amount about dogs. So, I thought,
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let's try this out. Mark and Linda met regularly to train her dog. A bond was starting to form. I saw he definitely
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did have a connection with dogs and I felt that he would be able to help us. Mark definitely had a way with dogs and
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at times he could be charismatic with people. He was very bright and witty and charming. After 8 or 9 months, their
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relationship evolved. And even though Linda was 12 years younger than Mark, his sister says Linda
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was his type. She was tall, slender, beautiful. He seemed to like the girls from these wealthy families, which I um
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always was wondered about. Just just right down his alley. For one of their first dates, Mark asked her to go
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fishing. So, I drove over and met him and did a day of fishing and um that began when we
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we started dating shortly thereafter. So, what was the attraction? You know, he was incredibly bright, eccentric, had
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u a lot of similar interests in that I did. Linda grew up camping, fishing, and hunting. They connected over a love for
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nature and the open air. What started purely as business turned personal and they set out to build a relationship and
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a successful company at the same time. They were coming together despite being from two different worlds. While Mark's
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family had struggled, Linda Updike was the daughter of a millionaire. I grew up with my family doing a lot of
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camping on Whidby Island. We have a small beach cabin up there. And I grew up saltwater fishing, salmon fishing. I
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was born in California and then moved when I was very young to Bellev, Washington. Uh went to junior high and
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high school there. Uh was very involved in horseback riding and competed um doing Grand Prix jumping and that was
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really my passion and where I spent my time in my youth. How good were you at this horse jumping? Well, it probably
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depends on who you'd ask. And tell me also about your father. He's a a famous man in the state of Washington, very
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successful man in the state of Washington. Yes. He um started with u came from very
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middle class background and went to University of Washington and then really became involved in a lot of different
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businesses. One of them being Chateau San Michelle um developing that and um that's a very famous winery in
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Washington sold all over the world. Yes, it is. I'm very proud of his accomplishments that way. He was also
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involved in um K2 Ski Company and Jansport sporting goods and um different businesses throughout his career.
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Linda is her parents only daughter. a very good friend of mine at an adult age. Yes, we're motheraughter, but we're
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very good friends. That's Nancy Corbin, Linda's mother. She admits that she wasn't entirely thrilled when Mark and
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Linda started dating. Mark is not a choice I would have made for for Linda. From the beginning, Mark
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showed an arrogance had a where he wanted to isolate Linda. uh all bad signs and so it was it was
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noticed by me right away. Nancy let her daughter make her own choices and was even supportive when
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Mark and Linda decided to go into business together. Linda said she'd been interested in opening a dog boarding
00:18:01
business. In 1992, Linda and Mark opened Island Dog Adventures. Linda ran the boarding part of the company and Mark
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handled the dog training. You essentially were the CEO, right? Yes. Uh it was all of my what we developed there
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was my business idea, my 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. Kick 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 booming.
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Over time, Island Dog Adventures turned into a milliondoll operation. Linda said that despite their success,
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Mark started to become obsessed 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 small
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wedding at the Four Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas. She was 38. He was 50. This is a
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picture from the wedding in Las Vegas. And um this is Linda Opdike. This is her mother, Nancy Corbin. Victoria, Mark's
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sister, showed me photos from the wedding. At this picture, he thinks he's at the beginning of a very happy
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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.
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But Mark seemed different to Linda after the wedding. Things were fine for about uh 4 months
00:22:20
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
00:22:46
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
00:23:04
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
00:23:54
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
00:24:15
alone. But she said Mark followed. He told me that he was listening to phone conversations and that he had been in my
00:24:26
house and read my diaries and just it was it was horrifying. It was chilling to me. Every single moment
00:24:36
you're wondering when you walk out the door, is he going to be there? I know how he operated and his stalking
00:24:43
abilities and hunting abilities. The fallout from their collapsed marriage started a nasty back and forth that
00:24:51
would culminate in that bloody scene at Mark's house. This is war. This is goddamn war. He worked my life enough. I
00:25:01
really did feel that my life was in danger. Coming up on Trained to Kill, the dog
00:25:08
trainer, the ays, and the bodyguard. I remember at that time thinking this can't be real because
00:25:17
no woman alone could go through this amount of harassment. My first thought was oh a body. I have a safe room in
00:25:25
there. I have a plan A, a plan B, a plan C. I think Mark had a very real fear of what Linda was capable of doing to
00:25:35
him. He told me that he was capable of killing without remorse. This is not a case of self-defense.
00:25:41
This is a case of coldblooded murder from 48 hours. This is trained to kill the dog trainer, the aerys, and the
00:25:59
bodyguard. The following episode contains references to harassment, intimidation,
00:26:09
and stalking. Listen with care. I left uh actually was a birthday gift to myself on in September 2005.
00:26:21
That gift to herself for her 41st birthday was something Linda Updike had long desired, a separation from her
00:26:30
husband, Mark Stove. I moved out of the main house of my family's property up to a small guest
00:26:37
house on the property. But while Linda put some space between herself and Mark, she didn't leave Kick Island, home to
00:26:45
their profitable dog training business, Island Dog Adventures. I stayed there for a number of months to
00:26:53
see if Mark would finally understand the seriousness that I really would be leaving if we could not build a
00:27:01
relationship and he would seek help. At that point, they had been together for 14 years, the last three as a married
00:27:10
couple. After nearly 7 months, Linda finally decided she was ready. I drove down from the house that I was staying
00:27:20
at down to the main house and I told him that I wanted a divorce and he right there and then I could tell he just
00:27:30
snapped. He went just sheer white. His eyes went just crazy. He clenched his hands and fists and he was just in a
00:27:40
shaking rage with me. Startled, Linda said she stayed as calm as she could and tried to lower the temperature by
00:27:49
offering to talk, but could tell she needed to leave. She got into her Suburban and drove back to the guest
00:27:58
house. I knew I just had a short period of time to grab a bag and leave. As she gathered her things, Linda could see
00:28:06
Mark heading in her direction. And he comes out of the car and he's, you know, shaking his fists. He says, "You've got
00:28:14
war. I'm not going to grant this to you. You've got a big fight on your hands." [Music]
00:28:23
In April 2006, Linda said she fled Kickot Island, a property her family owned. She was now on the run.
00:28:36
Well, instantly at that point when I left, he was calling me constantly. I It was obsessive phone calls on my cell
00:28:44
phone um trying to reach me. He would call, you know, 40, 50 times that evening. She kept her whereabouts a
00:28:53
secret. I left the area and was just traveling around with my dog in a suitcase and hotels just trying to move
00:29:01
through the state. He'd leave messages on my cell phone that he was driving all over the state to try to find me.
00:29:08
This is war. This is goddamn war. You're wrecking my You've worked my life enough.
00:29:14
[Music] Linda spent the summer and fall of 2006 in Sisters, Oregon. That December, she
00:29:27
relocated to the western themed town of Winthre, Washington. The downtown included an antique boardwalk and
00:29:36
oldtime saloons. Linda got a house outside of town. She put more than 250 miles of winding roads
00:29:46
and a mountain range between her and Mark. I left the whole west side of of the state. She tried everything to avoid
00:29:57
leaving a trail. I immediately stopped my credit card accounts. I was worried that he would follow me there. I got a
00:30:05
mailing address in Belleview. I tried to close contact with anything where I could be tracked.
00:30:13
But Mark, an avid hunter, still managed to track Linda down. On October 16th, 2007, at about 7 a.m.,
00:30:26
Linda said she was getting ready to start her day. I just stepped out of my shower right here and I heard my dog
00:30:35
Soju in the backyard barking incredibly loud, very defensive like I've never heard her bark before. Linda scan the
00:30:43
hillside overlooking her house. And I see Mark Stover hunkered down with a hunting rifle pointed right at me
00:30:52
through the window looking through his spotting scope. According to Linda, the man she left was crouched down like a
00:31:00
lion, preparing to pounce on his prey. I really did feel that my life was in danger.
00:31:09
That incident would be one of many in which Linda said her life was threatened. I'm Peter Vans from 48 hours. This is
00:31:20
Train to Kill the Dog Trainer, the Aerys, and the Bodyguard. Episode two, The Hunter.
00:31:33
[Music] I walked away from almost literally everything except for my own investments
00:31:41
that I had before I met him. In the spring of 2006, Linda Updike was perfectly fine leaving everything behind
00:31:50
if that meant getting away from her husband, Mark Stove. We spoke about this in 2010. How much money was the business
00:32:00
making? How successful was it? It became very successful. At the time I left in uh September 2005, it was just under a
00:32:11
million dollars a year that it was making. That's extraordinary. It really is. Linda said she took none of that
00:32:18
money with her when she left. Well, I put in over $100,000 as startup capital into the business. I can't recall what
00:32:27
the divorce settlement was, but it was not much over $100,000. I did not get any retirement benefits
00:32:34
out of it. I got no proceeds from the business. But she said Mark still wanted more. She said his rage and incessant
00:32:43
calls pushed her to give him what he wanted. According to Linda, Mark demanded she return one of her dogs to
00:32:52
the island. He told me that he would track me down uh to no end until he could have the dog back.
00:33:00
So, I um I thought that if I um gave the gave the dog back that he would leave me
00:33:08
alone. But Linda said that wasn't enough either. Karen Lungren worked at a salon
00:33:14
near Linda's house in Winthre. She told me about a frightening moment when Mark dramatically entered the salon. Linda
00:33:23
Opdike was here and I was sitting here. What were you doing? I was doing a European facial on her and of course
00:33:33
she's lying down like this and Mark or excuse me, Mr. Stove came in and moved the screen
00:33:43
and walked right in and just and stood here. Barges right in just stood right here. She sat Linda up. She said, "What
00:33:53
are you doing here?" And he said, "Well, I saw your vehicle, so I thought I'd just stop stop in and see you." And just
00:34:01
saw your vehicle. He lives more than 150 miles away from here. Right. Right. Karen was sure Mark hadn't just stumbled
00:34:13
upon Linda's car. He'd somehow crossed a mountain range and tracked her down. The two spoke and Karen said Mark left
00:34:23
after a few minutes. But Linda said Mark's stalking behavior didn't stop at the beauty salon. He came
00:34:32
into my bedroom somehow gotten into my house. Came into my bedroom. Linda said he had an uncanny ability to get inside
00:34:43
her home. I was in bed about 9:00 at night and he walks in and he's got a gun in his hand. He told me he had just
00:34:53
driven 18 hours straight from Montana. Then he gets on his knees bedside, puts the gun right on my pillow, right next
00:35:00
to my head, and then starts sobbing and is very emotional about not wanting to let the divorce go.
00:35:09
She tried to stay calm and sat with him until he decided to leave. Linda said instead of calling the
00:35:21
police, she tried to handle those kinds of unwanted visits herself. You're just dealing with what you see at the time
00:35:31
and trying not to escalate his behavior and get him upset off the chart to hurt me. Another big reason why I did not
00:35:41
make a report initially on a number of things is I knew he would deny being here, but she didn't think her tactics
00:35:50
were working. She found herself feeling increasingly paranoid. So you'd hear any noise and you're
00:35:58
wondering is it Mark? The phone would ring. You're wondering is it Mark? Yes. You wondered anytime you went
00:36:06
outside with Mark there. Then you're pulling the blinds. You're living behind closed blinds all the time. Um and
00:36:12
you're trying to just move on with your life and it's it's very very difficult. It's it was
00:36:18
very difficult. On November 2nd, 2007, Linda couldn't hide her fear anymore. She called 911
00:36:29
after Mark came to her house and chased her in his Chevy Suburban as she tried to drive away. And he came driving
00:36:38
flying down my driveway and down the road uh following me at a rapid speed into Winthrop. Linda said the police
00:36:46
contacted Mark but didn't make an arrest. How was Mark, after all these incidents,
00:36:53
still walking free? Soon after, Mark discovered something about Linda that truly pushed him over the edge. It
00:37:03
involved Mark's friend and hunting partner. It had been more than 2 years since Linda's decision to leave Mark. Linda
00:37:20
told me that Mark had forced her down a terrifying path, dodging and hiding from
00:37:27
his harassment. But there was someone in his corner who didn't believe Linda's accusations.
00:37:35
Someone who's known Mark longer than Linda. His sister Victoria Simmons. My brother adored Linda Updike.
00:37:46
Just loved her. It was hard for my brother to lose someone he loved. That that was difficult for him. Um and he
00:37:53
would take a while to find his bearings and move on. She said that Mark was devastated by the separation. He was
00:38:02
blindsided. He he thought he told me he thought everything was fine. Victoria doesn't believe her brother was as much
00:38:11
of a danger as Linda Updike claimed. He was terribly hurt. It was not only was it a surprise, but the circumstances
00:38:20
surrounding it were so painful. Double betrayal. Mark discovered that Linda once got some drinks and went to
00:38:31
the house of John Bonika, Mark's best man, at their wedding. It shook his foundation.
00:38:39
He was just so angry that two really valuable relationships in his life were destroyed in one fell swoop. If she
00:38:49
wanted to hurt him um and really knock his feet out from under him, having an affair with John Bonika would be about
00:38:56
the worst thing she could choose to do. Here's Linda again. John Bena is a person that uh has known Mark for many
00:39:08
years and I met him um shortly after meeting Mark probably in 1992 and he was a friend to both of us. Once John
00:39:16
learned of Mark's antics and behavior to towards me, he uh seized him having friendship with Mark. You developed a
00:39:26
relationship with John Bonica. Is that right? Yes. A romantic relationship. Uh very briefly, we had a an intimate
00:39:34
occurrence. Linda said she got a call from Mark the day after she and John were together. He
00:39:41
told her that he knew what they'd done. described in detail of what had occurred
00:39:49
between John and myself that evening. Um, and was it accurate? Yes, it was accurate. It was horrifying. So, do you
00:39:59
believe that a that someone was at John Bonika's house watching you be intimate with John? Yes, I do. And after uh
00:40:10
hearing that from Mark, I actually drove down with a friend down there to see if
00:40:15
I could find any signs of Mark being there. And I went down there and saw tire tracks where the Suburban was
00:40:22
parked. I saw footprints of his uh LLBAM boots. They have a very distinct tread.
00:40:29
I could see them along the fence line and up to the house. And John told me that he saw the same thing and received
00:40:36
phone calls from Mark saying that he was in his house as well at other times. She
00:40:43
said that John was horrified and fearful of Mark. He wrote me a letter saying that he needed to seize any friendship
00:40:52
or relationship with me due for the safety of him, his children. and he advised me to do the same thing to take
00:41:02
all precautions that I could for my safety and well-being as he was. When Mark found out about John, he was
00:41:15
so angry that Linda decided to go stay with her father in Hawaii until things cooled down. She returned several weeks
00:41:24
later in January 2008 when Mark finally signed the divorce papers. Linda still didn't think having the divorce
00:41:34
finalized would make Mark stop. So, she reached out to the local sheriff's office to let them know she was worried.
00:41:44
My initial advice to her is immediately get a protection order. Here's then Chief Deputy Dave Rodriguez with the
00:41:53
Okonogan County Sheriff's Office. He told Linda that if she got a protective order, law enforcement could act more
00:42:01
decisively. To where if you do make even these loose kind of threats, we can do something about it. But without a
00:42:08
protection order, it's harder. Did Linda seek it out? She didn't. She didn't. She
00:42:13
did not. Why not? I have no idea. Linda said she was now relying on the advice of security experts she hired.
00:42:25
They felt this particular type of personality that getting a domestic violence protection order and contacting
00:42:32
the police could possibly escalate the situation. Some of the sheriff department staff still tried to help
00:42:39
Linda even though she wouldn't file for a protective order. After hours, once they got off the
00:42:46
clock, they agreed to help Linda. Here's Sergeant Jean Davis. We felt, at least I
00:42:52
felt the threat was severe enough that we did every option we could to help her out by training a protection dog,
00:42:59
similar to a police dog, but it's more designed if somebody came to her house and tried to harm her, um, her her dog
00:43:06
would protect her. What kind of dog did she have? Um, she had a uh a young female German Shepherd. And those are
00:43:13
good guard dogs, right? Very good dog. I have one myself. Linda specifically wanted a dog that hadn't been trained by
00:43:21
Mark and had no connection to him. Remember, she only met Mark because she needed him to train one of her dogs for
00:43:30
protection. And now she was training a dog against that same man. But Linda concluded that wasn't enough. She wanted
00:43:40
even more security. [Music] I installed cameras onto my house. I added to the security system. Linda got
00:43:56
into a routine of checking her cameras every day and reviewing footage. Her instincts proved to be right.
00:44:06
While the divorce had been finalized, Linda said it seemed nothing would stop Mark from harassing her. Linda said one
00:44:14
of her cameras spotted a ghostly black and white image of Mark in the middle of the night. It was very creepy, very
00:44:23
eerie, very scary knowing he was here and then seeing his body language and he went underneath the house and all of a
00:44:32
sudden you can tell he had recognized that there was cameras here and then he's seen 2 minutes later walking away
00:44:40
with the shirt pulled over his head and sneaking off the property. We reviewed the footage and you can see
00:44:48
a man crossing Linda's lawn, pulling up a shirt to cover his face. She said Mark
00:44:54
started calling her, demanding she give back their wedding photos. Here's a voicemail of Mark threatening
00:45:02
Linda. Better not ever [Music] wedding pictures. You know, I'm the kind of crutch.
00:45:10
It's a little hard to hear, but Mark is saying, "I swear to God if I ever find out that you're in possession of those
00:45:17
wedding pictures, you know I'm a guy who can hold a grudge." [Music] At one point, Linda was convinced that
00:45:29
Mark tapped her phones and was listening to her calls. I knew for a fact that he was on my
00:45:37
phones because I was talking to my stepmother and she was telling me about um how the Montana police were utilizing
00:45:46
tasers and she was asking me if I knew anything about tasers for one of my self-defense tools. And Mark called and
00:45:54
left a message and said, "You girls sitting around talking about tasering me and shooting me." and he says, "I would
00:46:00
have let you shoot me at one point in time, but now I'm going to survive this just to ruin your life." Fearing that
00:46:06
Mark's campaign of harassment was now escalating toward violence, Linda started brainstorming, both battle and
00:46:15
escape plans. Getting all those firearms, was that wise or was that paranoia? I think it was very wise. I'm dealing with
00:46:25
somebody that was incredibly skilled with firearms. He was somebody that would go on hunting trips and he would
00:46:31
stay on his hunting trips until he acquired his hunt, his kill. And I knew this was somebody that could take my
00:46:39
life. It was a real threat. To her, Mark had proven he was willing to cross any boundary she set. Linda
00:46:48
decided to turn her house into a fortress. I have a safe room in there. I have a
00:47:00
plan A, a plan B, a plan C. If he comes in this door, if he comes into my bedroom, if he breaks in downstairs. She
00:47:07
gave me a tour of her hidden arsenal. This one was put in the living room entryway area. Um, obviously I'm very
00:47:16
vulnerable in this area. We walked from room to room as she pointed out the spots where she was hiding her guns.
00:47:25
There's this magnet right here. Yes. So, there was a gun hooked onto that. Yes. She had one in her office, one next to
00:47:33
her bed, and one in the hallway, another behind a wall hanging. It seemed she was
00:47:40
never more than 6 ft away from a fire alarm. The security company installed a magnet for me to have bedside. As she
00:47:49
guided me through her security system, I couldn't help but think how this reminded me of something out of a James
00:47:57
Bond movie. I had never seen so many guns in a home in my life. I knew exactly where there were. So, in a time
00:48:05
of stress that I could count on them being there. It wasn't like, "Wow, where is my firearm? Do I have it on me to
00:48:11
defend myself?" They were always consistently there. Linda felt certain that Mark would eventually try to hurt,
00:48:18
maybe even kill her. But until she had hard evidence, a witness, or filed for a protection order, sheriff's deputies
00:48:28
couldn't arrest him. Then on March 18th, 2008, at about 10:00 a.m., Linda's neighbor, Ruthie
00:48:38
Hegmeister, was on her way over to visit. We were going to do some cooking together and then take our dogs for a
00:48:45
walk. As I pull up here, I notice there's a white station wagon here and there's a gentleman over at Linda's
00:48:51
trash cans taking the trash out of the trash cans right across the street. Right across the street. Ruthie was
00:48:57
immediately suspicious and pulled her car right up to this man's white station wagon. I blocked this car. I did. I
00:49:06
blocked this car and I proceeded to get out of my car. I left my door open and I
00:49:12
asked the gentleman. I said, "Excuse me, who are you?" He says, "My name is John." I go, "Why are you taking my
00:49:17
friend's trash?" And he's like, "I have permission to take the trash." You have permission to take someone's trash. How
00:49:24
can you have permission to take someone's trash? You're not buying it? No, I'm not buying it at all. So, I
00:49:29
proceed to say, "Okay, well, we'll find out." I walk around my truck to the passenger door. My cell phone's on the
00:49:34
seat, pick up my cell phone, and I dial Linda's house. I'm like, "Linda, there's
00:49:39
a man down here." In the meantime, he's getting the trash, throwing it in his car, closing the door. I'm like,
00:49:44
"There's a man down here stealing your trash." And I said, "No." I couldn't believe. And she said, "Yes." She starts
00:49:50
describing who this person is and it's Mark. While Ruthie was on the phone, Mark got back in his car and drove off.
00:50:00
And Ruth is like, "Uh, no. This is, you know, something's really wrong with this." And we're like, "Well, so finally
00:50:05
somebody's seeing him. there's a witness to him being here. So, she calls 911 and
00:50:12
that was, you know, the he finally got pulled over for that. After more than 2 years of what Linda described as a
00:50:20
campaign of harassment and fear, the county finally had enough evidence to charge Mark with stalking and theft.
00:50:30
Mark entered what's called an Alford plea. That's when someone claims to be innocent but admits there's enough
00:50:38
evidence that a judge or jury will likely find them guilty. Mark was sentenced to 2 years probation and 12
00:50:47
months of anger management. The court also entered a protection order against him which meant Mark had
00:50:55
to turn over all of his weapons and never go near Linda ever again. Linda was not satisfied with the sentence. He
00:51:06
got a slap on the hand and it was very disheartening to me. Throughout 2008 and into 2009, Linda repeatedly called the
00:51:15
sheriff's office to report suspicious activity she thought could be Mark. But she was never able to link those
00:51:24
situations to him, but stayed vigilant about her security. And in the summer of 2008, Linda made a
00:51:35
decision that would forever change her life. She hired a former security consultant to do an assessment of her
00:51:43
house. I did an analysis of sort of her home security situation and what the steps she was taking. Looked into the
00:51:50
people that she was working with and made some suggestions on that front. His name was Michael Oaks. He was a gun and
00:52:00
safety enthusiast. Similar to her relationship with Mark, things started professionally, but soon
00:52:08
became something more. Did you fall in love with her? I I did. That same summer, Mark left Kick Island
00:52:19
for Anacortis, Washington, about 10 miles away. He bought several acres and a new house on Thompson Road where he
00:52:28
opened his new business. His sister Victoria said Mark even started dating someone new. Teresa Vox Michael. He was
00:52:39
amazing. He would drive down almost every weekend, take me to dinner. To those around him, Mark really seemed to
00:52:45
have moved on. He was joking with me all the time and he was always fun, you know, when we were on the phone and
00:52:52
yeah, he was very happy. Then in October 2009, Linda heard from one of Mark's employees
00:53:02
and she informed me via email late in the afternoon that Mark was missing. I was very concerned that he would be
00:53:13
coming over my way. But detectives had a different theory. They believed Mark was
00:53:20
dead. [Music] From 48 hours. This is Train to Kill. Trigger warning. The following episode
00:53:43
contains references to harassment, stalking, and physical violence. Listen with care.
00:53:51
[Music] Dispatch, can I help you? In August 2009, an anonymous man called the Scadget County Sheriff's Office 911
00:54:01
hotline. There's a crime that's going to take place in the morning. It involved a dangerous drug dealer.
00:54:10
There's going to be a a van transporting some drugs from uh the Incortis area to
00:54:17
I5 and then to Seattle. The dispatcher then asks the caller for the person's name. And do you know the names?
00:54:26
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,
00:54:36
Washington. Okay. And is somebody there with you or why are you whispering? Uh yeah, this is something that's very
00:54:44
delicate. I have I have to not be found out about this. He's very dangerous. Perpetually carries a gun. It's a little
00:54:52
tough to hear, but he's warning them that Mark carries a gun. He said, "This is very dangerous. I wish you guys would
00:55:01
do something before it kills somebody." He says, "I wish you guys would do something before he kills somebody." All
00:55:09
righty. Well, I've got the call in and we'll pass it along to the deputies for you. Thank you.
00:55:20
The following day, Mark Stove was pulled over by sheriff's deputies. He was asked
00:55:25
if they could search his car. He refused. This is Lee Harren. She's a private investigator Mark hired after the
00:55:34
incident. Lee said when Mark refused to cooperate, the officers wouldn't let him
00:55:39
leave. A search warrant was obtained. A canine was brought to the scene and there was a positive hit. The dog
00:55:46
detected some drugs. The police found a small metallic box on the undercarriage of Mark's vehicle which contained a
00:55:53
couple of marijuana cigarettes and some very lowgrade cocaine. Mark told the deputies the box had been
00:56:01
planted. They let him go, but from then on Mark watched his back. It was such a deliberate act.
00:56:10
It said, "We're setting you up. We want you to go to jail." I think Mark had a very real fear of what Linda was capable
00:56:20
of doing to him. I'm Peter Vans from 48 Hours. This is Train to Kill the Dog Trainer, the Aerys, and the Bodyguard.
00:56:32
Episode 3, Secret Meetings. [Music] At the time Mark Stove was pulled over by police, Linda Updike said she had
00:56:45
moved on from her ex-husband. I just wanted to go on with my life with Michael and I wanted Mark to go on with
00:56:52
his life. Michael was Michael Oaks, a security expert. We spoke back in 2010. I remember at that time thinking this
00:57:02
can't be real because no woman alone could go through this amount of harassment. Michael said they
00:57:10
met at a Starbucks and quickly connected over their love of books. By the fall of
00:57:16
2008, Michael said their business relationship turned romantic. I said to her, I think we have a connection that
00:57:24
that could go beyond friendship and is that something that you're open to? And I think she, as you may know, she's um
00:57:32
almost 6 feet tall and I'm 5 foot six. She's never had children. I have four children, so it was an unlikely romance,
00:57:41
but she said, "You know, I have gone through a lot of things in my life, and I'm open to considering that." Linda was
00:57:48
impressed by how dedicated Michael was to his family. After getting a divorce from his first wife, Michael took full
00:57:56
custody of their kids. He even treated the kids of his second wife as his own. Everything he did took into account of
00:58:05
his children. He worked at home so he could be there for them. He was a full-time single parent. He drove them
00:58:13
to school every morning. He made sure he had Friday night movies time with them or game evenings. The family was a
00:58:20
priority to him. Michael described himself as a self-taught security specialist skilled in firearms. I ended
00:58:29
up training with uh a lot of the alphabet soup of of government agencies and SWAT teams and so on. And it's uh
00:58:36
what we call force on force training. I owned a small company in in Seattle here
00:58:42
and uh I managed to get some training equipment and figure out how to use it. People have said that you are a gun
00:58:48
enthusiast. Is that true? Yes, I am a gun enthusiast. I've taught all my kids from the earliest age that they I felt
00:58:56
they were safe. gun safety. Uh, and I have shot competitively for some years. You've been described as Linda Updike's
00:59:05
bodyguard as well as boyfriend, right? Is that accurate? I don't believe it's accurate. Let's put it that way. She
00:59:12
never paid me to be a bodyguard. I did a little bit of research and I did an analysis of sort of her home security
00:59:21
situation and what the steps she was taking. looked into the people that she was working with and made some
00:59:29
uh suggestions on that front and that was the extent of what I would consider my professional interaction with her.
00:59:34
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.
00:59:40
It was a minimal amount of money. I don't even remember now what it was, but less than $1,000. So, I mean, it was
00:59:44
minimal. Michael said that by the spring of 2009, he and his kids started spending a lot
00:59:51
of time at Linda's house in Winthrop, which was more than 200 miles north from Michael's place in Kenowick, Washington.
01:00:01
It's a beautiful love. It's uh in my opinion, it's it's legendary. It's something that you read about in uh
01:00:09
romance novels or movies. Their relationship deepened. What seemed to make it even better was that Linda said
01:00:17
she hadn't heard from Mark since he had been arrested for stalking and theft. I was believing and hoping that that had
01:00:27
enough impact and he recognized that this behavior was unacceptable and that he would be moving on with his life. And
01:00:36
we went for many months where nothing happened. To her, the nightmare finally felt over. I really started feeling more
01:00:47
at peace in my life and more at ease and really felt that he was moving on and I
01:00:52
was able to move on into a new relationship with nothing from the past hampering that. But according to
01:01:00
Michael, the past roared back into the present when Mark Stove unexpectedly re-entered their lives.
01:01:10
Mark Stove sought me out one day out of the blue and told me that I would do what he
01:01:19
wanted. And from that point for almost 6 months, I lived in constant fear. Michael said that Mark hadn't stopped
01:01:30
stalking. He just found a new target. The Mark Stove you got to know. Was he a frightening man? very intimidating.
01:01:39
Very much so, threatening, constantly with me. Michael Oak said the first time he
01:01:52
encountered Mark Stove was a real shock. It was around Memorial Day 2009. Michael
01:02:00
and Linda had been in a romantic relationship for about 9 months. I think it was a it was a weekday morning. I had
01:02:08
just dropped my kids off at school. Michael said he then made a stop at Costco and went to the store. When I
01:02:15
came out, he was standing by my car and because I had done research for Linda Optic some months previously. I'd seen a
01:02:25
picture of him. I immediately recognized him. Mark Stove is standing next to your
01:02:30
car. next to my car in the park in Kenowick, Washington, which is on the other side of the mountains from from
01:02:36
where we are now. Yes. The drive from Mark's home in Anacortis to this Costco in Kenowick, Washington
01:02:44
would have taken about 5 hours. Yet there he was, according to Michael, menacingly standing by Michael's car.
01:02:53
He's very icy, actually. He he said that he had been listening to our calls and he knew all about me and he knew that I
01:03:00
was in a relationship with Linda. He said his wife. He didn't say his ex-wife. He said his wife. And he said
01:03:07
that there was something of his that she wouldn't give back and that I was going
01:03:12
to get it for him. Michael couldn't remember if he said anything to Mark or if he just gave him
01:03:20
a confused look as he waited to hear Mark's demand. He said that Miss Opike would not give back their uh wedding
01:03:29
photo albums. And he said I was going to get them back for him. And then he went on to uh
01:03:38
he went on to describe what my daughters were wearing that morning, what they'd worn to school. and there's no way he
01:03:45
could have seen. But what did you realize at that moment? He had had been following us whole time and uh
01:03:53
he said that uh he he told me all the details of what they're wearing, their backpack colors, everything.
01:04:02
Michael said that Mark told him to bring the wedding photos to the Northgate Mall
01:04:07
in Seattle on July 14th, 2009. He said he agreed. Why didn't you at that moment simply look him in the eye
01:04:17
and say, "Mark Stove or whoever you are, get away from me. I don't ever want to speak to
01:04:24
you again. If you get anywhere near my children, I'll call the police." I'm not a confrontational person at all. That's
01:04:32
not my mode. I felt very much offbalance in that meeting. And I think it's one of
01:04:38
those things where once I'm driving away thinking I should have said this or I should have done that. There was
01:04:43
something about him that was chilling to me and I felt I kept trying to talk myself out of it. He can't be real. It
01:04:52
can't be real. He has to be fooling. Michael said at first he was going to call the police, but then decided
01:05:01
against it, worried about getting Linda involved. Did Michael tell you that Mark Stove
01:05:08
approached him and demanded wedding photos? No. Why wouldn't he share this vitally important information with you?
01:05:17
My guess in knowing Michael is he really did not want to stress me out more. Michael said that when July 14th rolled
01:05:26
around, he went to meet Mark at the Nordstrom store at the Northgate Mall, just as he said Mark demanded.
01:05:35
Michael said that since he didn't tell Linda about this meeting, he arrived empty-handed. No wedding photos. Michael
01:05:43
said Mark got angry and scolded him. What was his obsession with these wedding photos?
01:05:50
Well, I I I'm not a psychologist. I'm not a psychiatrist. had enraged him. I believe in retrospect that she chose not
01:05:59
to continue the marriage with Mark Stove to continued to do what he wanted and yet she retained something that he felt
01:06:09
was part of him. A couple of weeks later, Michael suggested to Linda that they leave and
01:06:16
go on a trip out to Whitefish, Montana. That's where Linda's father, Wall-E Updike, had a house. We were going to
01:06:24
stay there and stayed at their vacation home. In route to White Fish, Michael remembered making a stop so Linda could
01:06:33
take her dog for some exercise and he could pick up some snacks. But Michael said when he got in line to check out,
01:06:41
he spotted a familiar face standing near the front door. And I I'm in line minding my own business and look across
01:06:49
the way and I see Mr. Stover standing by the entrance to the store staring at me.
01:06:54
And what was that moment like for you? Very similar to the first time that I saw him. It's just a shock of
01:06:59
recognition in a place you don't expect to see somebody. Michael, why didn't you just say to him,
01:07:07
"You get away from me. If you get anywhere near me and Linda again, I'm calling the cops."
01:07:13
There's at least two reasons. One of them is I do know enough about protection to know that there's no way
01:07:23
for me to I mean this is why the president has so many people that protects him from potential threats. One
01:07:30
man cannot protect three children 24/7. And for any time that I could enrage or outrage Stover, it was putting a gun to
01:07:40
the head of my children in my opinion. You felt if you confronted Mark Stove, you'd be putting yourself in more danger
01:07:47
instead of dealing with the threat that he posed to you? Absolutely. And I'm certainly not the first person to feel
01:07:52
that way. By now, Michael said Mark's uncanny ability to find him and Linda wherever
01:08:00
they went made him realize Mark posed a real danger to his family. Mark Stove was remarkably sophisticated in some
01:08:08
ways. He had managed to penetrate Linda's computer prior to meeting me. He managed to tap a phone. Uh, finding us
01:08:15
in Montana was impossible and I took tremendous steps not to be followed. And yet there he was. How did he find us?
01:08:25
By late September of 2009, Michael said that Mark demanded that they set up another meeting after he and Linda were
01:08:34
back from Montana. He was getting progressively less patient with me. this time at a church in Anacortis. By now,
01:08:43
Michael decided to wear his Kevlar vest to the meetings. He said that he drove west across the state to the church
01:08:51
parking lot not far from Mark's house and waited. Still unable to find the wedding photos, Michael said he brought
01:09:00
two pictures of Linda with her horse so Mark would have something to look at. But Michael said he didn't show up and
01:09:10
Michael felt helpless. And the thought of just at any given one of these meetings that we had just telling him,
01:09:18
I'm done. Take a hike and don't come looking for me. You know, and every time the reality of knowing that there's no
01:09:27
way I can keep my kids, myself, and Miss Optike safe if he decides he's going to
01:09:34
go for it, pulled me back from that brink. But were all these stories Michael was
01:09:40
telling me true? Some people who knew Michael well said he had a darker side to his personality, a potentially
01:09:48
violent side. During the course of our marriage, he told me that he was capable of killing without remorse.
01:09:57
[Music] Michael looks had a dual personality. He was a family man by day and tried to
01:10:10
live up this action hero persona in the background. That's Jennifer Thompson. She knows Michael Oaks as well as
01:10:18
anyone. Jennifer was his second wife. I talked to her in 2010. You know, we eloped.
01:10:26
It wasn't a wedding. She said they were married when Michael first met Linda. Jennifer said that she loved him, but
01:10:34
that Michael had an insecure side. Is he a tough guy? Well, no. An action hero kind of guy? No. He
01:10:46
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.
01:10:56
According to Jennifer, Michael thought part of being tough meant being armed. Michael Oaks was very infatuated with
01:11:05
guns, weapons, and I think they made him feel powerful, strong, capable. There was one book Jennifer said Michael
01:11:14
referenced a lot. It's called Onkilling and it's a book about the psychology of killing.
01:11:22
The book examines how people learn to kill in war. Jennifer said that Michael zeroed in on a part that described how
01:11:32
one small sliver of the population could be vicious. Michael Oaks told me that he
01:11:38
was in the small percentage of people who could kill without remorse. She said that over time, Michael's
01:11:45
fascination with killing and his tough guy persona rotted out their marriage. Michael had a really strong sense of
01:11:54
righteousness and he believed that bad people should be taken out so that the good people can
01:12:03
not be harmed. Um, the problem is he decided who was bad and who wasn't. And he felt that he
01:12:10
had the right to just take a bad man out. And we would argue about that. We argued about that for years. Uh, right
01:12:18
and wrong. Can you kill? Can you not kill? And it was a it was a point of contention in our marriage. Jennifer
01:12:25
told me that the final straw came when verbal tensions between them turned physically abusive. I remember his hand
01:12:34
coming up and slapping me across the face. And I remember it very clearly. And I was expecting
01:12:41
after feeling it, I was expecting the, "Oh my god, I'm sorry. Oh my god." And he didn't. He said, "Get the out of my
01:12:47
house." And he chased me down the stairs. And I could feel his breath on my neck and his body behind me. It was
01:12:55
horrible. It was horrible because I trusted him. I trusted him. And he had never he had
01:13:02
been angry before. He had shown aggression before. Never at me. [Music] Michael told us no one should believe
01:13:13
Jennifer's allegations against him. In July of 2008, a year after they tied the knot, Jennifer left with her two
01:13:23
biological kids. and I went to my mom's and I spent two weeks just took my kids to Disneyland,
01:13:29
went to the beach, just got away from it and then decided that I needed to get an
01:13:35
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
01:13:44
you're coming back, we're done." And so he told me he wanted a divorce. Soon after, Michael Oaks and
01:13:52
Linda Updike set up their first in-person meeting. I think he's a very insecure man, and I think that he
01:14:00
musters up confidence really well. He's an excellent salesman. He's an excellent
01:14:05
presenter of images. As the fall of 2008 began, Jennifer faded from his life. As Michael, the
01:14:16
action hero wannabe, now had a new woman in his sights. And as Michael's relationship with Linda grew deeper, he
01:14:24
said Linda's ex-husband, Mark, became obsessed, constantly calling him on the phone, asking for meetings. By October
01:14:34
2009, it's become very very clear to me that in my mistaken belief that I could appease or satisfy
01:14:44
Mark Stove, I did become yet another person who was doing exactly what Mark Stover wanted. He had reached a fateful
01:14:54
breaking point. I kept thinking if I can just this is the one thing he wants that
01:15:00
Linda Opike won't give him. and if she just gives him what he wants, he'll leave us alone. Michael said the two men
01:15:08
finally agreed to meet again on October 24th, 2009 at that same church in Anacortis.
01:15:16
There is surveillance video from Linda's house showing Michael packing up his car
01:15:22
to head out that day. It appeared that he was taking off for a fairly serious journey. That's Lee Heron again, Mark's
01:15:28
former private investigator. She examined the video herself. He was loading a number of items into his car,
01:15:35
including a rifle bag. As Michael is packing, you can see Linda come out onto their deck. They touch
01:15:45
hands and then Linda wraps her arms around Michael. They share a long heartfelt embrace. The kind that
01:15:54
suggested to me that something important lay ahead. Something serious. Here's Lee again. The long passionate
01:16:04
embrace that was captured on Linda's surveillance cameras indicates that Michael Oaks thought of himself as a
01:16:10
prince who was out to slay the dragon, his perceived dragon for the damsel in distress. and his perceived dragon was
01:16:18
Mark Stove. Michael and Linda kissed and he drove away. Hours later, Michael claimed he came face to face with Mark
01:16:27
Stove in that church parking lot. He was extremely agitated, not cold and calculating, not controlled like that
01:16:35
first meeting. He was erratic. Michael said Stove once again demanded those wedding pictures.
01:16:45
So, did you give him those photo albums that he wanted? I never found them. Late
01:16:51
that night, Michael is seen returning to Linda's home. But is it possible this entire story was Ola Ruse for a failed
01:17:01
murder attempt? Because 4 days later, at 2:30 a.m. on October 28th, Michael is again seen on surveillance video driving
01:17:12
away from Linda's house. This time, Michael said the two men would meet in private at Mark Stover's house in
01:17:20
Anacortis. Michael claimed that Mark had told him this was his last chance to turn over
01:17:28
those damn wedding pictures. It was put up or shut up time. But what really happened when they met remains a
01:17:37
mystery. Only those who saw the bloody aftermath can express what they felt. I can only describe it as evil,
01:17:47
something horrible, something terrible [Music] from 48 hours. This is trained to kill
01:18:00
the dog trainer, the aerys, and the bodyguard. Gadget 911. What's your emergency? Uh,
01:18:12
it's not an emergency, but um I need a sheriff to come out here to Summit Park Graange.
01:18:20
This is Tammy Gilden in Anacortis, Washington. She called 911 sometime before 11:50, the morning of October
01:18:29
28th, 2009, when she and her mother noticed a man trespassing behind the Grange Hall. It's an event facility
01:18:39
about half a mile from Mark Stover's house. I just saw one guy. Okay. Did you say anything to him? Nope. I just backed
01:18:48
up and pulled in front. Tammy noticed that the guy was at the back of the property where no one should be parked.
01:18:56
There two vehicles are facing back to back. One of those two vehicles was a white station wagon. The other was a
01:19:05
black SUV. They were transferring something back and forth or living back and forth or something. What Tammy saw
01:19:11
was both odd and disturbing. Whatever the object being transferred was, Tammy remembered it was large and covered in
01:19:20
plastic. My first thought was, "Oh, a body." I thought, "Oh, you know, you're reading a murder mystery. You know,
01:19:28
silly girl. You know, that's not a body." As they sat in their car at the front of
01:19:32
the property, Tammy and her mom waited for a deputy to arrive. Tammy said the stranger got into the black SUV, leaving
01:19:41
the station wagon behind. I didn't see his face headon when we first pulled in. Uh, I saw him when he pulled next to us
01:19:50
to leave. He drove right up next to their car before stepping on the gas and speeding away.
01:20:00
We were scrambling to find pen and paper and write the license plate number down.
01:20:04
Tammy called the sheriff again. Dispatch, can I help you? Yeah. Hi. Um, I called about meeting the sheriff at
01:20:12
They gave the dispatcher the license plate number and a description of the trespasser's car. It's a black SUV.
01:20:20
Which direction did it leave? He turned on Stevenson. He turned uh west on Stevenson. He was driving toward
01:20:28
downtown Anacortis. Minutes later, Scadget County Sheriff's Deputy Rick Du arrived and checked out
01:20:41
the station wagon and then went looking for the black SUV. It didn't take long. I noticed the
01:20:49
license number matched the piece of paper that the reporting party had given me. I turned around in the vehicle, made
01:20:54
a traffic stop. The deputy went up to the car window. It was raining. He had sunglasses on, which is unusual. He was
01:21:03
extremely nervous. Deputy Dame asked the man who was hiding his eyes for an ID. He didn't listen to the question and
01:21:12
then repeated my question to me, so he wasn't tracking the conversation we were having. The deputy explained that he
01:21:19
pulled the driver over for trespassing. His story was he was headed to the casino which is down the road.
01:21:30
During the conversation, the deputy noticed that the driver had some dog hair on his clothing and he noticed a
01:21:37
big bundle of blankets in the back of the SUV. He didn't think much of it. This just so happened to be the same
01:21:47
morning that Mark Stover's employees reported seeing their boss tear out of his driveway in his white Chevy station
01:21:54
wagon. And this traffic stop was just a few hours later. No one yet knew Mark was missing.
01:22:04
The deputy took the driver's ID and went back to my patrol car, ran a driver's check on him, made sure that the car was
01:22:11
registered to him. I pulled over Michael Oaks and the bundle of blankets in the back. Only
01:22:18
later would he learn that was Mark's dead body. The whole case took off. I'm Peter Vans from 48 hours. This is Train
01:22:28
to Kill the Dog Trainer, the Aerys, and the Bodyguard. Episode 4, The Bundle in the Back.
01:22:40
After the sheriff's deputy let Michael Oaks drive away with just a warning, Michael made a phone call, but not to
01:22:48
his girlfriend, Linda Updike. [Music] It was out of it was unexpected. It was out of the blue. It wasn't
01:22:54
pre-coordinated. It was to his ex-wife, Jennifer Thompson. She lived in Everett,
01:23:01
Washington, about an hour south of Anacortis. We spoke in 2010. And he said, "Hey, I
01:23:08
am available this afternoon. I'm in your area. Are you available?" I said, "Actually, yeah, I I am." And he said,
01:23:16
"Well, do you want to meet up?" I said, "Sure." Although they had been separated
01:23:21
for about a year, Michael and Jennifer started talking again. She had emailed him just a few weeks earlier. I had
01:23:30
entered a relationship with someone and it made me really reflect on my situation with Michael because
01:23:37
I can't say I didn't love him anymore. I was healing and moving forward, but I it's not just done. And so I emailed him
01:23:46
at him and said, "I've met someone. I'm entering this relationship. Are you sure? Are you still sure?"
01:23:56
before she started something new. Jennifer wanted to know if her marriage to Michael was really over. We had a
01:24:03
pretty amazing relationship. Yeah, it had a lot of brokenness in it, but I don't know. Are you absolutely 100%.
01:24:13
Had he said, "Yep, I'm sure." I would have said, "Okay, carry on and move forward." But he didn't say that. And he
01:24:22
wrote back, "No, I'm not." This is October 2009, right? When Linda Updike and Michael Oaks have become a couple
01:24:30
and what we've been told is they're deeply in love, he's telling you something else. He's telling you that in
01:24:37
his mind it may not be over. Yeah. Your relationship with him. And actually, he told me that he didn't love her. Um I
01:24:46
I can't say what's true and what it isn't. I don't know. But what he told me was that it wasn't it wasn't like us. It
01:24:54
it was a convenience. They were partners. Like they each had things that the other needed.
01:25:03
[Music] So when Michael called her that October morning, Jennifer agreed to meet him at
01:25:11
a Starbucks. And he looked very disheveled and frumpy, like just kind of hair was poofy and clothes untucked,
01:25:19
which is different because he's usually very meticulous and neat, tidy, tucked in belt, you know, that kind of thing.
01:25:26
They sat together at a table in the corner of the coffee shop. We kind of have some general chitchat. And then he
01:25:34
says, "Hey, you know there's a beach around here?" And I said, "Well, it's Everett. It's a
01:25:41
port. It's not very pretty though. What are you looking for? She suggested a beach they could go to. Says, "Sure,
01:25:48
that sounds good." He says, "I have some time." He said, "But my car is really full. There's no room for you, so I'll
01:25:54
just follow you." That's fine. Jennifer noticed that Michael parked far away from her and that his vehicle was caked
01:26:02
in mud. Well, the way there was very strange because he was driving so carefully,
01:26:11
laying low, trying not to draw attention to himself. And this is a man that flips
01:26:15
a U-turn when it's convenient for him, even if it's illegal. She said when they arrived at the beach,
01:26:23
she watched him fumble with things in his car. Michael suggested the two of them go for a walk. Did he seem nervous?
01:26:32
No. At this time, he seemed very calm, but the tension was so thick. The unspoken
01:26:40
was so loud. And I felt I don't know. I It was really, really a strange cuz he and I have very easy breezy
01:26:47
conversations. So, it was very weird. It was very uncomfortable. Then, when they
01:26:52
finished their walk, she said they each decided to stop at the bathroom before they left. And so I went in, he went in,
01:27:00
and I came out. And he was still in there. He was in there for a long time, and I sat on a picnic bench and just
01:27:07
waited, waited, and he came out, and he was just distraught. Something happened while he
01:27:15
was in there. He came out and his entire demeanor completely changed. And so he he looks upset. He looks stressed out.
01:27:24
Like he's freaking out. He's just noticeably agitated. and not okay. What does he say to you? Well, I said, "Are
01:27:32
you okay?" And he said, "No, I think I'm in trouble." And I said, "Real trouble or like perceived trouble?" And he said,
01:27:41
"Like 10 to 15 years felony trouble." Knowing that Michael could be over the top, Jennifer didn't know whether to
01:27:49
take him seriously. I also know this man to be very melodramatic. So, I'm trying
01:27:57
to assess him. I'm reading him and looking at him and I'm saying I'm thinking in my head, is this real? Is
01:28:03
this not? At that point, he's sitting in my passenger seat and I was in the driver's
01:28:10
seat and he was very noticeably agitated, rubbing his temples and his hair, his fingers of his hair and um
01:28:17
really vigilant, watching around, real paranoid, freaking out, looking out the windows. Yeah. At one point a patrolman
01:28:24
had come by and he really really went crazy and he said, "I feel like they know like
01:28:30
they" and I said, "They don't know anything. You're just a guy sitting in a car in a parking lot." He says, "You're
01:28:35
right. It's just that guilty conscious thing." And did you not say right then? They know what? I No, I didn't. I
01:28:44
probably didn't want to know because if it was real, I didn't want to know. And if it was being dramatic, I didn't need
01:28:50
to know. Then Michael said something even more unsettling. He made reference to if he was to be pulled over, he was
01:28:57
just trying to get out of this area. And if he had been pulled over and law enforcement had seen what was inside his
01:29:03
car, he'd go away for life. After that disturbing comment, Michael got out of her car into his and drove away.
01:29:13
I think the part that disturbs me the most on my part of it is when we parted ways
01:29:20
that day, kissed him on the cheek and that haunts me cuz he had a body in that car.
01:29:32
Michael left Jennifer. He drove back up to Anacortis, then drove more than 250 miles, crossing the Cascade Mountain
01:29:40
Range for a second time in the same day. That night, he returned to Linda Updikeke's house. From Linda's home
01:29:49
surveillance camera, you can see Michael arrive just after 11:30 p.m. On a different camera, you can see Linda
01:29:57
in a bathrobe come out to welcome him home. their reunion would prove short. On the evening of October 29th, 2009,
01:30:16
the day after Mark Stove went missing, Sergeant Jean Davis with the Okonogan Sheriff's Office got a call. We talked
01:30:25
in 2010. I checked into service around 6:00 and received a call from Detective Meyers
01:30:32
with Scadget County um Sheriff's Department advising that um they're working on a missing person case. Mark
01:30:38
Stove. Sergeant Davis knew the name Mark Stove well. Months before he had suggested Linda Updike get a protective
01:30:46
order against Mark. He also had offered to help train her dog to attack. And I told Detective Myers, um, um, yeah, I
01:30:55
know Linda, known Linda very well, and I know Oaks very well. Detective Meyers then told Sergeant Davis that they had a
01:31:04
lead concerning Mark Stover's disappearance. The lead included a familiar name. Somehow Oaks, Michael Oaks, got involved
01:31:13
in this. So, I uh initially heard this information and I placed a call to uh Dave, Chief Rodriguez, to let him know
01:31:22
what was going on. He didn't answer. Simultaneously, Linda calls me and she's pretty
01:31:29
agitated, somewhat frantic, actually. This is Dave Rodriguez. Back in 2010, he was a chief deputy with the Okonogan
01:31:39
Sheriff's Office. She said um an employee of Stover had just called her and said that the police were there,
01:31:49
that Mark is missing, there's blood at the scene, and the dog's been shot. And she's very frantic
01:31:58
and she's saying, "We're not sure what's going on, and we've not ruled out the possibility that some type of violence
01:32:06
happened at his house by him. not onto him and he's now he's snapped and he's coming over here.
01:32:16
So, Linda is thinking she may be next. This is what she's conveying to me anyhow. And I said, "Uh, are you there
01:32:23
by yourself?" And she said, "No, that uh Oaks was there." And I said, "Well, you
01:32:29
should be fine, but if you don't, maybe you guys should uh leave the house and go stay with uh your mother or somewhere
01:32:37
else." So, if that's a good idea, um, that's what we're going to do. Sergeant Davis and Deputy Rodriguez
01:32:46
drove to Linda's place separately, unsure of what they were heading into. It was 7:00 at night and it was uh,
01:32:55
almost a typical fall, foggy, wintry, not wintry yet, but it was starting to mist.
01:33:03
Both investigators were familiar with Linda's house. So, we drove up to the house and normally when we were going
01:33:11
there to train with her dog, her camera system or possibly a sensor would say someone's coming up the driveway, she
01:33:19
would always be out on the outside on the deck or whatever. [Music] Instead of that usual warm welcome, the
01:33:30
front door stayed closed. This visit to Linda's would clearly be different. I used my spotlight, my high beams to, you
01:33:39
know, if they came out, they'd be blinded. I tried calling her on the phone and um no answer yet. Her car was
01:33:46
there. Oak's car was there. Lights were on. No answer. The deputies pulled in and parked. I'm like, we're going to
01:33:53
have to go. Maybe something has happened now. Maybe Sto did come to the house in
01:33:58
between the time that I talked to her. So, we need to go to the house. So, we go and knock on the door. Linda answered
01:34:06
the door and invited them inside. She seemed a little surprised that we were there because I didn't you know
01:34:14
last I talked to her I said I recommend you pack some bags and go stay with somebody else. So I don't I think she
01:34:22
found that uh a little surprising that we showed up. But I mean other than that nothing unusual. Invited us in.
01:34:29
Initially, we didn't see Michael Oaks, but as we walked in the living room, he was walking up the stairs from a lower
01:34:36
level. The deputies told Michael to sit on the couch. This was after they searched
01:34:43
between the cushions for any weapons. I I know Michael and and Linda were are into guns, and I asked if he was armed,
01:34:53
and he said he was, and I removed a a 9mm pistol from him. And at that point, um, we go into more
01:35:02
of the questioning. Was Linda armed as well? No, she was not. Linda was in a chair nearby. Even
01:35:10
though Michael wasn't under arrest, he was clearly a person of interest in this case, having been in Anacortis on the
01:35:18
day Mark Stove disappeared. Sergeant Davis said they read Michael his Miranda rights just in case he said
01:35:25
something that could be admissible in court. And we point out that we we're here on a task from Scadget County to
01:35:34
find out if you were here because your car was seen in the area of Stover's residence at this particular time. And I
01:35:44
as flat asked him, "What were you doing over there?" And that's when he said, "Oh, I was over there. I was visiting my
01:35:51
um ex-wife. Chief Deputy Rodriguez noticed how distraught Linda became when Michael said that he made the trip to
01:35:59
see his ex-wife Jennifer. So, actually in my mind is, "Oh, Oaks just got caught messing around with his ex-wife and now
01:36:08
current girlfriend just found out about it." He said Linda left the room crying.
01:36:14
Sergeant Davis went after her. She kept on asking me, "I don't know what's going
01:36:19
on here. what's going on here? You know, she asked Jean, "What's going on? I I'm
01:36:22
so confused. I don't know what's going on here." Numerous times to me. Back in the living room, Chief Deputy
01:36:31
Rodriguez continued to press Michael for an answer about why he went to visit his
01:36:37
ex-wife. Then he started to get pretty agitated and he's looking around and he goes,
01:36:44
"Can I get up to find my medication?" and we didn't have probable cause to have him under arrest. And um I said,
01:36:52
"Yeah, you're not under arrest. You can get up." So he's now looking around in the living room for his medication.
01:36:58
Kind of strange, isn't it? It is. And now Jean actually, Sergeant Davis then, I believe, got the call from Scadget
01:37:06
County, but in her house, like a lot of places up here, you don't get cell signal. He had to go out on the deck to
01:37:13
actually get cell signal. So, he's running around. I'm trying to keep an eye on him while he's looking for his
01:37:18
medication. And then Linda comes out of the back room and asks me something and which diverted my attention briefly.
01:37:27
And then when I looked back for Oaks, he had ran down went down the stairs that he had come up when we initially got
01:37:33
there. Where'd he go? He went downstairs. So I said, "Linda, he he's got to be at least he's under arrest,
01:37:40
but he has to be within my sight." Outside on the deck, Sergeant Davis was getting new information from Scadget
01:37:48
County. They advised that um they had a search warrant signed and for us to take
01:37:52
Oak's vehicle. When I was outside, I something caught my attention by Oaks's vehicle. Um I see Oaks open the back
01:38:00
hatch, reach inside and take out a plastic bag. Appears to be like a garbage bag. When Sergeant Davis saw
01:38:08
this happen, alarm bells started to go off in his mind. Why was Michael even outside? And what did he just remove
01:38:17
from his car? [Music] Michael Oaks had just taken something out of his car, but the darkness and
01:38:32
mist made it tough to see. Sergeant Jean Davis spotted Michael while outside talking on the phone. So I sneak down to
01:38:41
him. I light him up with my flashlight and right when I hit him with beam of my light, the plastic bag, he throws it
01:38:46
over an embankment and he starts going into the front of his car. I grab grab him, ask him what he's doing. You know,
01:38:54
he's really agitated, nervous at this point. I'm looking for medicine and then he goes right into it. He goes, "Why are
01:38:59
you giving me the third degree? Why are you treating me like a suspect?" I said,
01:39:03
"Well, you're acting suspicious." And at that point, I take control of Michael Oaks and escort him back into the house.
01:39:10
Chief Deputy Dave Rodriguez was inside with Linda when Sergeant Davis brought Michael back. So, he walks in with Oaks.
01:39:20
What do you say to the sergeant? Well, sergeant said to me what he just saw Oaks doing. And to me, that just threw
01:39:28
the switch. Since he knew them well, he felt that he needed to reinforce to Michael that he was no longer a friend.
01:39:38
You're now the suspect and I'm the deputy. Sit down on that couch. We got the second call from Scaji County that
01:39:45
says, "We have probable cause. Put him under arrest." Sergeant Davis put on the handcuffs and at that point he looked at
01:39:53
Linda again and said, "It's going to be okay, babe." Linda broke down. She was crying even more now. She was
01:40:02
basically hysterical at this point. Sobbing. Couldn't even make out the words that she was saying. Um, she was
01:40:08
completely emotional wreck at this time. After he put Michael in the back of his car,
01:40:15
Sergeant Davis walked out to grab whatever Michael had thrown down that embankment.
01:40:22
Once he's secured in the back of my car, I go and secure um the garbage. It's a basically it's a Walmart garbage sack,
01:40:28
white garbage sack tied up. I How far away from the car was it? Uh it was probably 20 ft down an embankment um
01:40:35
from the car and then I secure it and secured in in the floorboard of my front passenger of my vehicle. He didn't open
01:40:43
the bag. Sergeant Davis didn't want to risk spoiling the evidence, but he said that whatever was inside was heavy. And
01:40:53
after several minutes in my car, I started up smelling a bleach smell. A strong odor of bleach.
01:40:59
You smelled a strong order of bleach coming from what was ever inside that bag? Yes. Sca County deputies arrived
01:41:06
later that night to search Michael's SUV. And Sergeant Davis gave them that unopened garbage bag. They they checked
01:41:15
it after the warrant and discovered a firearm and um and what the rags and whatnot. What was in the bag? What kind
01:41:24
of gun? It was a 22 pistol. 22 caliber. Yes. But when they searched Michael's vehicle, there was no bundle of
01:41:32
blankets. Investigators kept searching for Mark Stover's body. Scadget County Sheriff's Office asked us to check any
01:41:41
probable locations where a body may be dumped in water. And as they gathered the evidence, Michael Oaks's story
01:41:49
seemed more and more unbelievable. So, what are you telling me? You shot Mark Stove in self-defense?
01:41:59
Absolutely. [Music] From 48 hours. This is Train to Kill. Did you set out on the morning of
01:42:22
October 28th, 2009 to murder Mark Stove? I most certainly did not. In the wee hours of October
01:42:31
28th, 2009, Michael Oaks was seen on Linda Updike's surveillance footage getting in his SUV and leaving.
01:42:41
Why were you going to Stover's house at 2:30 in the morning? I was driving there
01:42:46
to be there at a pre-arranged time, a time set and demanded by Mark Stove himself. And what did he say the purpose
01:42:55
of this visit was going to be? It was put up or shut up time. I was supposed to have obtained the wedding pictures
01:43:03
that up till then I could not find and I was supposed to deliver them to him or else.
01:43:10
And the else is what? My children were frequently mentioned as the else. So I sent my children to stay
01:43:17
with my my parents in case it didn't go well. As Michael told it, Mark instructed him to park about a/4 mile
01:43:26
away from his house at the same church where they had met 4 days before. Why didn't you just say, "No, I'm not going
01:43:34
to park there. I'm going to drive up to your home. This is this really sounds bizarre." It certainly did sound bizarre
01:43:40
and I certainly was frightened, but we're back to that same situation. Either it's everything or it's nothing.
01:43:46
And if it's nothing, it means that I have to scoop up my children and honestly uh flee to a foreign country or
01:43:54
or something because they're just was no safety inside any area that Mark Stover
01:43:59
could find us. Michael said he did as he was told, walked to Marks and was greeted at the
01:44:08
front door by Mark along with his specially trained attack dog, Ding. From there, Michael described Mark
01:44:18
leading him through the living room, down the hallway, and oddly into the bathroom.
01:44:25
That's where he claimed Mark confronted him once again with his neverending obsession with those wedding photos. And
01:44:35
uh I went to his house and told him that I couldn't get the pictures, that I'd gone through her safe and they
01:44:43
weren't in her safe. and they weren't in her house and I presumed that she had destroyed them. And what did Mark Stove
01:44:49
say to that? He didn't say much. Instead, Michael claimed Mark suddenly turned around and walked away. He was so
01:44:59
agitated or erratic that he had he broke off in mid-con conversation. Michael said when Mark returned, he
01:45:09
raised a gun he was holding in his left hand. The long and the short of it was moments later I was shot in the chest.
01:45:18
[Music] But Michael had prepared for this moment. As a self-described security expert, Michael said he was wearing a
01:45:32
bulletproof vest that allowed him to safely take the hit to the chest. He said he then quickly lunged at Mark,
01:45:41
grabbed the gun, and returned fire. He started a gunfight and I won. But the fight wasn't completely over. As Michael
01:45:51
exited the house, he said Mark's dog, Ding, attacked. The dog came at me and uh I had to shoot the dog and I stopped
01:46:01
shooting as soon as it stopped trying to bite me. So, what are you telling me? You shot Mark Stove in self-defense?
01:46:10
Absolutely. But detectives on the case soon came to a very different conclusion about what
01:46:18
happened that morning. This is not a case of self-defense. This is a case of coldblooded murder.
01:46:27
I'm Peter Vans from 48 hours. This is Train to Kill the Dog Trainer, the Aerys, and the Bodyguard. Episode 5. Put
01:46:39
up or shut up. I want the truth for Michael Oaks as to what really occurred on that day,
01:46:54
October 28th, 2009. This is Detective Dan Louvera with the Scatch County Sheriff's Office. Now
01:47:03
retired, Louvera said he spent nearly 2,500 hours investigating Mark Stover's killing.
01:47:12
We were a small department and we only have five detectives. Loua thought major parts of Michael's
01:47:19
story simply weren't true. That included the meetings over the months that Michael described having with Mark
01:47:27
Stove. Michael Oaks claims he met with Mark Stove at the Northgate shopping mall in
01:47:35
Seattle. Do you believe that meeting occurred? No, not at all. He he claims he met with Mark Stove at a church
01:47:41
parking lot in Anacortis. Do you believe that happened? No, not at all. He claims
01:47:46
uh Mark Stove comes out of a Costco in Kenowick, Washington, and and basically has a threatening conversation. Do you
01:47:53
believe that happened? No. You think this is all made up? I do. [Music] I first met Detective Loua at Mark's
01:48:03
house back in 2010. He was a sharp detective who was meticulous and tried not to leave any stone unturned.
01:48:14
and we're almost a year to the day when this murder occurred. It was dusk as we started the interview. Soon it would be
01:48:23
dark, just as it was when Michael said he arrived that morning. [Applause] Loua brought a big flashlight to show us
01:48:36
the crime scene. Michael Oak says he walked right up the uh front way steps here. First, we went through what
01:48:44
Michael Oaks said happened. He knocks on the door. Mark Stove answers the door. Mark lets him in.
01:48:53
Lou Vera and I went inside. Mark's place was like a high-end cabin with dark wood
01:49:00
floors and exposed oak beams. He said Michael claimed that Mark brought him into that bathroom and then left before
01:49:09
coming back with a gun. Mark Stove comes around the corner where I'm standing right now. Where you're
01:49:16
standing right there, right now. He says Mark Stover came around the corner, fired one shot, boom, right into Michael
01:49:25
Oaks's ballistic vest. It's then, Michael said he grabbed the gun from Mark's left hand and fired back at point
01:49:33
blank range, killing him. The whole thing doesn't make sense. After he told me Michael's version, Lou Vera then
01:49:40
broke down for me why the evidence doesn't match Michael's story. First, he said investigators discovered that on
01:49:49
October 28th, 2009, Michael didn't drive directly to Anacortis from Linda's house. Louver
01:49:57
said Michael drove west for nearly 3 hours before he made a pit stop. We have him on surveillance tape at a
01:50:05
local Walmart store here in Mount Vernon at approximately 5:30 in the morning. What did he buy? Michael Oaks bought
01:50:13
anchor line, anchor weights. He bought camo pants, camo sweatshirt, and a backpack. Camouflage. Camouflage.
01:50:24
Kind of an odd eclectic bunch of stuff, isn't it? Yes. Louvera believed Michael bought those items not to have a talk
01:50:33
with Mark Stove, but to hide evidence of a murder. I believe that he bought those items to
01:50:45
uh dispose of Mark's body. Interestingly, Louvera said Michael also purchased a pair of soccer shin guards.
01:50:54
The reason that he bought those is that he knew Mark Stove had his dog, Ding, and that Ding was uh trained as a
01:51:00
protection dog. Louver said after his Walmart shopping, Michael headed to Anacortis. Michael Oak's car arrives in
01:51:09
the area of Mark Stover's house, uh sometime between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m. in the morning, it would still be dark.
01:51:18
Loua then demonstrated for us what he thought actually happened at Mark's house that morning.
01:51:27
I think he came up the right hand side of his driveway right here. You can see the tree lines, fence lines.
01:51:35
He could have easy concealment. It's dark out. I think as he's in the area of the kennels right here,
01:51:44
the dogs are barking. They sense someone or something on the property. Mark was uh probably alerted to the dogs
01:51:55
barking at the kennel. Sense something was wrong. Loua thought a worried Mark then led
01:52:00
Ding out of the house to confront whoever or whatever was out there in the darkness. And I think uh the the dog was
01:52:09
shot right away. Ding starts to yelp. Mark hears Ding yelping. Mark comes out probably on the carport
01:52:23
door porch there or maybe out in the driveway where Michael Oaks encounters Mark
01:52:30
Stove. It's during that encounter that Loua believes Michael Oaks first shot Mark Stove. Spent shell casings were
01:52:39
found outside. I believe Mark Stover was probably shot just right in this area where we're standing right here. It's
01:52:46
the first time I think he was shot several times. And the first time he was shot, he probably uh started to retreat
01:52:54
back to his residence. Loua believed Mark only made it as far as the hallway just inside the door leading from the
01:53:02
carport. And Michael likely fired again and finished Mark off with one final shot.
01:53:13
There was blood splatters on the wall here, on the wall here. When you come into Mark's house through the carport
01:53:20
door, immediately on your right is that bathroom. This is where, in Michael's dramatic telling, he said Mark shot him
01:53:30
in the chest. A bullet stopped by a bulletproof vest. Michael said he wrestled the gun away from Mark and shot
01:53:38
him dead, but Loua is skeptical. It's too unbelievable that he could get shot in the vest,
01:53:48
lunge at Stover, grab his hand, twist it, and shoot Stover and take him down. he's
01:53:58
gonna back up or he's going to grab his chest as a normal reaction of somebody being shot. But he doesn't say that. He
01:54:07
says he immediately goes into a defensive mode and grabs Mark Stove's hand and gun. Twists,
01:54:19
shoots, fires. Mark Stove falls. [Music] Loua believed Michael cleaned up the bloody scene at Mark's house with bleach
01:54:34
and put on Mark's trademark hat just in case anyone saw him leave in Mark's station wagon. Investigators suspected
01:54:44
the driver seen speeding down the driveway was Michael with Mark's body in the back and that Michael then moved
01:54:52
Mark's body from the station wagon to his SUV. Later, Loua said Michael's plan worked, fooling
01:55:02
employee Stephanie Poor. I saw who I thought was Mark going into the house and coming out of the house
01:55:12
putting stuff in the back of the hatch. Well, what made you think it was Mark? Because it was his hat and his jacket.
01:55:20
And why wouldn't I think it was Mark? Michael would continue to cover his tracks, but how long would he be able to
01:55:28
evade authorities? After Michael left Mark's house at around 10 that morning, he was seen
01:55:47
stopping at a store where, for some reason, he bought a pair of bolt cutters. And then a couple of hours
01:55:54
later, just before noon, that's when Tammy Gilden made that call to report a trespasser.
01:56:02
Scadget 911. What's your emergency? Uh, it's not an emergency, but um I need a sheriff to come out here to Summit Park
01:56:10
Green. She told me it seemed like the man was moving what looked like a body. That was huge. They had no idea what was
01:56:18
going on. They just happened to see two vehicles parked behind the Grange. Then at around 12:30, we now know that
01:56:26
Michael was pulled over in Anacortis, Washington by that Scadget County Sheriff's deputy.
01:56:33
Knowing what we know today, what was in Oak's vehicle when he was pulled over? Mark Sto's body,
01:56:42
it was in the back. Yes. Louvera said, "From there, Michael left Anacortis to go meet with his ex-wife,
01:56:55
Jennifer Thompson. She already told us how they met at a Starbucks, went to the beach, and how before long she realized
01:57:05
Michael had a body with him that day." Investigators said Michael left Jennifer at about 400 p.m. returned the bolt
01:57:14
cutters to that store and drove back east over the Cascade Mountains to Linda's house.
01:57:22
It's a rugged two-lane uh highway that leads through very rural areas of Okonogan and Scaja County.
01:57:34
Surveillance video showed Michael arriving at Linda's at about 11:30 that night. He parked his SUV.
01:57:43
I asked Michael about the evidence they found inside that vehicle. Mark Stover's blood is in your vehicle.
01:57:52
How did it get there? Well, it got there because because he was there. Michael then left again. Where he went
01:58:05
and what he did is unknown. He returned about 30 minutes later. It was the end of a very long day. A
01:58:16
long day that police later learned may have been months in the making. This is the statement of Jennifer L.
01:58:25
Thompson. The date is now 10:30, 2009. The time is now 2200 hours. 2 days after Mark's disappearance, the
01:58:39
Scatcha County Sheriff's investigators question Michael's second wife, Jennifer Thompson. There is some noise in the
01:58:47
background since they are recording at her home. This is Chief Will Reichart. I'm just going to ask you to go over
01:58:53
some of the things that we had already talked about so that it's on the it's on the record. The first thing they wanted
01:58:59
on the record was concerning a call Jennifer claimed Michael received back when they were still married. About May
01:59:08
2008, he told me that there was a potential job coming up that he was interested in taking um about a a woman
01:59:16
and an ex-spouse that was harassing her. If true, that woman could only have been
01:59:22
Linda Updike. Jennifer said Michael then revealed details of a sinister plan. They would basically use Linda as sort
01:59:34
of bait to lure the um expouse toward her. Once Mark Stove was fooled into threatening Linda, Jennifer claimed the
01:59:45
plan was to violently end that threat. They would take him out. Okay. And by taking him out, you understood that to
01:59:52
be they would they would kill him, right? And you mentioned that that didn't really sit too well with you.
01:59:59
Bothered you that he was contemplating doing something like this. Yeah. We had um you know, mortgage, family, house,
02:00:06
kids kind of thing. And I I said, "This isn't good. It's a good thing for you to
02:00:11
be doing." And we had a a big fight about it, big argument. Jennifer claimed that it was after this
02:00:19
bitter argument their marriage quickly fell apart. Eventually, I left the home in July of 2008 for separation. One
02:00:30
month later, she said Michael told her that he wanted a divorce. In January of 2009, our divorce became final and we
02:00:38
pretty much stopped contact. But then in October of 2009, Jennifer reached out to Michael. She
02:00:47
wanted to give him one last chance to reconcile. We still had this intensity together. And so it was just an email
02:00:55
of, "Are you sure? Are you sure? Her instead of me," Jennifer said after a few emails between them, Michael wrote
02:01:03
that he'd soon be on the west side of the mountains and suggested they meet. This was October 24th, which is the same
02:01:12
day Michael said he met Mark Stove at that church in Anacortis. He just said he was here on a job,
02:01:21
signed job, and I knew what that meant, but I didn't ask for specifics. Did he say that that job was going to be
02:01:29
particularly dangerous or did he He did when he was leaving here. He said he was
02:01:33
going on and um that there was risk involved, possible injury to himself. Um that it was fairly
02:01:43
dangerous. Michael told me that he showed up to that October 24th meeting without the
02:01:51
wedding photos and that Mark demanded Michael return later in the week. The following day, Michael messaged
02:01:59
Jennifer. He texted me and said, "Um, job failed. I'm okay. No pay though." 3 days after that October 25th message
02:02:12
on the same day Mark was killed, Michael and Jennifer met again, the day that they met at that Starbucks. When Michael
02:02:21
mentioned that he was afraid of getting arrested, he was really concerned about getting pulled over with the things in
02:02:28
his vehicle. Um, he wanted to get them home and get them sterilized. And he said, "If anyone sees this now, I'm
02:02:36
going in right away." Uh, by going in meaning he would be arrested right away. He felt if somebody saw what was in his
02:02:43
vehicle. Mhm. But there was one final interaction with police that convinced Jennifer that
02:02:52
Michael was the hunter in all of this. [Music] A month after Jennifer was questioned,
02:03:07
the detectives came back to her house. They wanted Jennifer to listen to a CD. She told me her reaction after hearing
02:03:16
the anonymous tipster's voice telling the 911 operator about a drug deal involving Mark Stove. There's going to
02:03:24
be a a van transporting some drugs from uh in the Cortis area. My first thought was, um, what an idiot. Jennifer
02:03:35
instantly recognized the voice. I knew it was him. How do you know it's him? I was married to him. I know how he talks.
02:03:43
Michael's voice of his disguise, but it was his speech pattern and and it was it
02:03:47
was him. It was devastating for her. Everything she had suspected suddenly clicked because in that moment I knew it
02:03:56
was all premeditated. Jennifer thought back to that job Michael mentioned and remembered something else Michael told
02:04:03
her. Something he said on the day Mark Stove was shot. He said that the people that were helping him, and I had the
02:04:11
impression that there were two, but I don't know that that was stated. People that were helping him were no longer
02:04:17
helping him, and he was on his own. No one was going to help him. So, who could be helping Michael? Well,
02:04:28
when Jennifer was being questioned by detectives in those early days after the murder, she shared an intriguing detail.
02:04:37
The father of the woman was initiating the job. [Music] That would be multi-millionaire business
02:04:52
tycoon Wally Updike, Linda's father. Later, when I got to sit down with Jennifer, she explained this further.
02:05:01
Wally Optike wanted to hire a Michael Oaks to take out the ex-husband that was stalking his daughter, Linda.
02:05:09
Simple as that. Simple as that. Do you believe that Linda Updike is involved in this? That she either
02:05:17
paid or manipulated Michael to kill? I don't believe she manipulated because he's too smart for that. But I do
02:05:25
believe that they served each other's needs. meaning I think she's as guilty as he
02:05:34
is. Jennifer's testimony to police suggested that Mark's murder was a premeditated
02:05:44
hired hit. In our interviews, Linda and Michael both denied that her father had anything to do with Mark's death.
02:05:55
I believe that she knows more than what she's saying and what she's telling. Detective Dan Laa never called Linda
02:06:05
Updike a suspect, but he has always wondered if she was involved. How would Michael Oaks know that Mark
02:06:15
Stove always wore a hat and wore an overcoat driving a car? Through Linda. Linda was
02:06:24
was his basis of information. Linda had knowledge. She had direct knowledge. You
02:06:29
know, she was married to Mark. Um she she knew him best. When I spoke to Michael, he told me that
02:06:40
he just spontaneously put on the hat after he spotted it in Mark's car that morning.
02:06:46
There was a pair of glasses and a cap or a hat sitting on the seat. And when I sat down, I had to move the
02:06:56
hat. I put it on my head and thought, "This shall probably do for getting down the driveway."
02:07:02
And that's all there was to that. It didn't have anything to do with anybody but the moment.
02:07:10
You're telling me you just decided to put this hat on? You hadn't been told by Linda that that's a hat that Mark Stove
02:07:18
would wear? No, I've seen I'd seen two or three pictures of Mark Stove. Detective Laa told me that he wanted to
02:07:26
ask Linda about this and many other aspects of the case. Have you received cooperation from Linda Updike?
02:07:36
No. As is common in a case like this, Linda and her father, Wally Updike, hired lawyers after Michael was
02:07:44
arrested. She won't sit down and talk to you. She won't sit down and talk to us. She's
02:07:49
lawyered up. She's lawyered up. While Linda declined to take questions from Louvera, she was willing to answer mine.
02:07:58
Investigators believe that you must have given Michael details of Mark Stover's life
02:08:08
that would aid him in attacking Mark Stove, knowing when he got up, what hat he wore during the day, what car he
02:08:15
drove with the dogs. What do you say to that? That's simply not true. I had no interaction or contact with Mark for
02:08:25
since the protection order was issued. It's not something I wanted to have any involvement with Mark. Uh there again, I
02:08:34
I wanted no harm or anything to happen to Mark. I just wanted to go on with my life with Michael and I wanted Mark to
02:08:41
go on with his life. In other words, did you brief Michael Oaks on the intricacies of Mark Stove's life? right
02:08:50
down to the hat that he liked to wear during the day to aid him in an assassination. Of course not. The
02:08:59
suggestion is out there. Did your father have anything to do with the killing of Mark Stove? Absolutely
02:09:09
not. Both Linda and Michael refused to answer most of the authorities questions until
02:09:16
they took the stand at trial. There was, of course, one big question Michael still had not answered. What did
02:09:26
you do with Mark Stove's body? I think that probably the nitty-g gritties on that. I really
02:09:34
want to tell you about it. We're going to have to wait to court. [Music] from 48 hours. This is trained to kill
02:09:49
the dog trainer, the aerys, and the bodyguard. This is Perigan Lake. Just over these
02:10:03
trees over here is where the updike residence is. [Music] In June 2010, Chief Deputy Dave
02:10:11
Rodriguez took me out on patrol in an Okonogan County Sheriff's Fastboat on a lake just a few miles from Linda
02:10:20
Updikeke's home outside Winthrop, Washington. Rodriguez had helped Linda Updike train
02:10:27
a new attack dog and later was one of the deputies who arrested Michael Oaks. Months had passed since Mark Stove was
02:10:37
murdered and still his body had not been found. Scadget County Sheriff's Office asked us to check any probable locations
02:10:45
where body may be dumped in water since we're so close to her home. Um, this was
02:10:52
on the list to check. Michael Oaks had spent time near these waters and Rodriguez wanted to check if
02:11:00
he might have sunk Mark's body here. So, how does this work? Well, I don't know if you can see, but the lake is too big
02:11:08
for two or three or four or even six divers to adequate adequately search. That's why they turn to sonar to scour
02:11:17
the lake bed. And we grid search across the lake and then when we find something
02:11:22
of interest on the sonar screen, then we put divers down on it. And that diver will be you. Yes, today is me.
02:11:32
Then Deputy Rodriguez slowed the boat down toward a spot where he had detected some kind of an image. He put on the
02:11:41
divers suit. Are you ready? Ready. And jumped into the water. He swam below the boat, but no luck.
02:12:00
It's been quite a while since um Mr. Stover's been missing, so it makes it more difficult. Decomposition. Correct.
02:12:09
The search for Mark Stove had stretched across the state of Washington. The one person who could end that search decided
02:12:18
to be Koi. Are you willing to tell authorities where you placed Mark Stover's body?
02:12:26
Certainly, all that I know about the whereabouts of Mark Stove, I will be more than happy to share with
02:12:34
authorities in the course of our trial. This is going to be a dramatic week. It has been a dramatic year. I'm Peter
02:12:43
Vans. From 48 hours, it's trained to kill the dog trainer, the ays, and the bodyguard.
02:12:53
Episode 6. Time will tell. [Music] Michael Oaks has been accused of a murder of Mark Stove. What do you say?
02:13:09
Prove it. That's John Henry Brown. He was Michael Oak's lead defense attorney. We spoke in
02:13:17
2010. So my defense is prove it. First, they have to prove there's a murder, right? Brown is a brilliant showman
02:13:26
known for making arguments in court that could fit into the final scene of a prime time legal drama. We've got blood,
02:13:34
right? We've got shell casings, correct? Got a dog that was shot. Correct. But we
02:13:39
don't have a body, correct? And what does that add up to for you? Uh, a case of circumstantial evidence. When it
02:13:48
comes to representing accused killers, Brown has been around the block. He titled his memoir The Devil's Defender
02:13:56
to highlight a career spent arguing on behalf of defendants he considered evil. His client list included one of the most
02:14:05
notorious serial killers in American history, Ted Bundy, who said he had murdered 30 people. Bundy once told me
02:14:14
that he knew he was evil. Now, most sociopaths don't say that. Now, I don't see any of that in Michael at all. Brown
02:14:23
argued instead that Mark Stove represented the evil in this case, not his client.
02:14:30
I think somebody asked Michael recently whether he thought Michael thought uh Mark Stover was evil and Michael said no
02:14:38
not not all parts of him which I thought was a very gracious thing for Michael to
02:14:43
say under the circumstances but I think there were parts of Mark Stove that were
02:14:47
very evil. you know, when you start people treating people as objects and when which is what Stover did and
02:14:54
particularly with Linda, um then I think that crosses over. In court, they plan to make the case that Michael shot Mark
02:15:03
in self-defense. The trial started in September 2010, less than a year after Mark Stove was
02:15:11
killed. It did have an interesting cast of characters. Um, everybody appeared at
02:15:18
first blush to be very, very good citizens. That's Judge Mike Rickert. The case became very
02:15:27
sensationalized, uh, much to my chagrin. Um, that makes things more difficult for
02:15:33
us as we're trying to ensure that both sides get a fair shake and that justice is actually done. Judge Rickard said
02:15:40
this turned out to be one of the stranger cases he had presided over. The trial actually lasted four weeks. The
02:15:47
investigation lasted for the year prior to that. And the twists and the turns in
02:15:52
the plot and the details of this case um just kept changing. Witnesses included detectives. Some of Mark's former
02:16:01
employees and Michael's second wife, Jennifer Thompson, who told jurors that Michael said, "If police saw what was in
02:16:09
the back of my car, I'd go to prison for life. But it was Michael himself who played
02:16:17
the leading role in this trial when he took the stand. Mr. Brown, you got a new witness for us? Yes, Mr. Oaks. Mr. Oaks,
02:16:26
come on up. His defense attorney, John Henry Brown, wanted Michael to explain why he had to
02:16:35
defend himself. He came around the corner with a gun in one hand and he pointed the gun at me and the
02:16:46
look on his face, he didn't say anything. Okay. How close is to you? I'm inside the washroom. He's right at
02:16:58
the doorway and he's just inside the hallway. 3 ft maybe. Okay. What happens then?
02:17:08
I can't remember if he I lunged and he shot. We tangled and I got shot. Remember,
02:17:22
Detective Dan Louver said it was highly improbable that Michael could shoot Mark
02:17:27
in self-defense immediately after being shot himself, even if he was wearing a bulletproof vest. So, Brown asked
02:17:36
Michael to reenact the shooting to show that it was possible. [Music] Would you mind taking off your coat?
02:17:48
I'm not sure how it works. So, why don't you put this on the way you had it on, right? Brown asked Michael to put on a
02:17:55
Kevlar vest like the one he wore on October 28th, 2009. Brown's co-consel, Corbin Valz, stood in
02:18:06
as Mark Stove. Mr. Valdis is larger than Mr. Stover, as far as you know. He's taller.
02:18:12
Volz held up his left hand and stuck out his pointer finger to act like he was aiming a gun at Michael. So, Mr. Vz is
02:18:21
holding the gun out. He's fired at you. Mhm. What do you do? Michael lunged at Valz, grabbed his left arm, and tackled
02:18:29
him to the ground. I don't think we were expecting that. The aggressive move startled the
02:18:43
courtroom into a big laugh. Are you all right? I'm fine. My finger wasn't loaded. Michael took
02:18:53
off the vest and then walked back to the witness stand. Can I take this off? That was amazingly
02:19:00
fast. Mr. Oak, is that the way you did that? That's how it was trained. Can I take this off? Yes, please take that
02:19:06
off. I asked prosecutor Rich Hyrick why a bullet hole in Michael Oaks's vest wasn't convincing to authorities.
02:19:17
He explained the location of the bullet was suspicious. It appeared to have gone in very close
02:19:25
to exactly straight, exactly in the middle uh of the bulletproof vest. And uh which suggests what to you? Well,
02:19:35
what it suggested to us is that it was uh it was done either before or after uh the event
02:19:42
uh as somewhat of an alibi. Back on the stand, Michael eventually came to the dramatic moment everyone was waiting
02:19:51
for. He was finally going to disclose where he put Mark's body. [Music] you somehow get Mr. Stover's um body
02:20:07
into the station wagon. That's what I did. Then I picked him up, which was very difficult, and carried him out to
02:20:15
the back of the station wagon, and laid him there, and I had that kitchen towel that I had
02:20:26
grabbed, and I threw that in with him. Oh, before I when I picked him up and the gun fell
02:20:31
down on the floor, I just put it in his vest pocket. Michael then testified he later drove to that Graange Hall parking
02:20:38
lot nearby where he struggled to transfer Mark's body. I tried to move him to my car, but it was too heavy.
02:20:49
And so I used the plastic that was in the back of the rig and his rig. Yes. in the back of the station wagon and slid
02:20:57
it underneath of him and was able to then slide him across to my car. After meeting with his ex-wife, Jennifer
02:21:04
Thompson in Everett, Washington, he drove back to Anacortis to move Mark's now empty station wagon and it was still
02:21:12
just sitting there and I was blown away. I thought for sure it would have been like some big crime scene investigation.
02:21:21
Michael said he then drove the station wagon about 2 miles to the nearby Swenomish Casino parking lot. Michael
02:21:29
then walked back to his own car where Mark's body was covered up in the back. You leave it there. Yep. Michael told
02:21:37
the courtroom he then decided to dispose of the body because he didn't think investigators would believe his story.
02:21:46
And walking away from Mr. over his car. I see some kind of a boat in the water just near there. Michael said he then
02:21:56
drove down to a dock at the far end of that casino's vast parking lot. And I got my car as close to that as possible
02:22:06
and muscled him out and dropped him in the water. According to Michael, he then dropped
02:22:16
Mark's body into the Swanomish Channel, which flows into the Padilla Bay near Anacortis. Was the gun with him? His
02:22:26
gun? His gun? His gun was in his pocket still of his vest. After you did that, what did you do? Um,
02:22:33
I threw some other stuff like the plastic in the water. Um, and I smelled blood. I'm pretty sensitive to the smell
02:22:42
of blood. and I smelled blood and I couldn't see. It was dark and so I started throwing things out of the car
02:22:48
into the water um that were in the back. I had some stuff of the plastic and a piece of
02:22:54
carpet from his car and then uh some other items that were you know were there. He then headed to Linda's home in
02:23:02
Winthrop. I arrived there. I don't remember now. It was dark. Um, I'd had to stop to throw up a couple
02:23:13
times. I don't know. I'm not sure. Okay. Um, we see your tape of when you get to
02:23:19
Linda's. So, that'd be accurate, right? Yes. When you got to Linda, did you tell
02:23:23
her anything about what had happened? I just said I had a really bad day. What time was that? It was late. It was
02:23:31
late. I think I don't remember now. I was exhausted. But when the prosecution cross-examined Michael, they zeroed in
02:23:39
on some inconsistencies in his story. Here's Scadget County Prosecutor Rich Hyrick. You indicated that you
02:23:49
when you were at the Summit Park range body was too heavy to move from car to car, so you had to slide it. Is that
02:23:57
right? Yeah. Okay. On two other occasions, you were able to just pick the body up and walk it down,
02:24:04
go out, and I think you described a dilapidated dock and toss it in the water. Yes. And on another occasion, you
02:24:09
were able to just pick it up and toss it into the back of Mr. uh Stover's car. Uh
02:24:15
pick up and toss, I think, would be your words, but yes, I was able to pick him up. Why was it too heavy at the Summit
02:24:21
Park range? Because it's a station wagon. I couldn't stand up. You have to lean over to lift something, and I can't
02:24:27
do that. Detectives searched the waters behind the casino with a submersible camera and
02:24:35
found nothing. While court was in recess, I asked Michael if he was telling the truth. Police have searched
02:24:43
that area. They have not found a gun. They have found no skele no skeletal remains.
02:24:50
Is that really where you dropped the body? Absolutely. Yes. No matter where he may have disposed the
02:24:57
body, I pressed him more. What do you say to those who suspect that you disposed of the body because you wanted
02:25:03
to dispose of the evidence? That if people could see Mark Stove's body, maybe there's a bullet hole in the back
02:25:09
of the head. Maybe they would have seen that he was shot in the back, not in the
02:25:13
front. Maybe you were trying to cover up a murder. Well, I understand that feeling.
02:25:18
I I really do. And I wish I hope that the body is recovered uh because it will exactly corroborate my story 100%.
02:25:29
After he was cross-examined, Michael watched the woman he loved, the ays, the person at the center of Mark Stove's
02:25:38
rage, Linda Updike, raise her hand. [Music] Please state your name for the record
02:25:49
and spell your last name. Linda Opdike spelled O P D and David Y C K E. Did you choose to violate your attorney's advice
02:26:01
and speak to the prosecutor and testify in this trial? Yes, I did. Why did you change your mind?
02:26:07
because I felt this was an important part of the story that I could tell um about a dangerous stalking situation and
02:26:15
if there's any information that I could offer up, I wanted to do so. But Linda wasn't there just to defend Michael. She
02:26:23
told me she also wanted to defend herself and her father. It's heart-wrenching enough to be
02:26:31
dealing with what us as a family are dealing with with Michael, let alone seeing my family attacked. Um, is just
02:26:40
another level of I feel victimization and randomly going after anybody with no reason for anything. And to do a smear
02:26:49
campaign, here's Scadget County Prosecutor Rosemary Cahol questioning Linda. You
02:26:58
continue to have romantic feelings, intimate feelings toward Mr. Oaks and vice versa. Yes. And in fact, I think
02:27:05
that you said that in our interview last week is that you loved him. Correct. I don't know recall if I said that or not,
02:27:12
but I do. Yes. When Mr. Oaks was arrested, you did what you could to find him a lawyer. Correct.
02:27:21
Yes. She asked about what help Linda provided Michael after his arrest. And you made some phone calls, took some
02:27:30
notes, tried to figure out who the best lawyer for him would be. Correct. Yes. In addition to that, you figured out um
02:27:36
if what his bail amount was. No, I had nothing to do with that. Michael somehow managed to pay $250,000
02:27:45
for him to get out on bail. Linda insisted she didn't cover that cost. Michael's defense attorney, John Henry
02:27:54
Brown, told me the Updikees weren't paying his fee either. Is Linda Updike paying for Michael Oak's
02:28:02
defense? No. God, I wish she was. Boy, I really wish she was. No, there's no money going through a third party to
02:28:11
Oak's family and back to you guys. No, I'm going to lose my shirt on this case, actually, just like many of my other
02:28:16
cases. Back at trial, the prosecution showed no sympathy in its cross-examination of Linda.
02:28:26
Now, it's correct, isn't it, that throughout the investigation of this case, you've been concerned about your
02:28:33
own potential legal liability in this case? Yes. The prosecutor even suggested Linda's
02:28:42
support for Michael may have been an attempt to protect herself. You don't have to worry about Mr. Stober now, do
02:28:49
you? It appears to be that case. And in that sense, the defendant helped you out.
02:28:56
Correct. No. Isn't it true that if this is a case of self-defense, it gets you off the hook,
02:29:08
too? What do you mean by that? You indicated you were concerned about your own potential liability in this case. If a
02:29:17
jury were to find that this was self-defense, you wouldn't have any more liability either, would you? I have no
02:29:23
liability in this case. The prosecution also argued that Linda had no evidence Mark continued to stalk
02:29:33
her after his arrest. You made a report on December 5th, 2008. Do you recall that?
02:29:40
Yes. And you indicated that time that you believed that you saw Mr. Stover's vehicle in the area. Do you recall that?
02:29:47
Yes, I do. Cahol pointed out that Linda was never able to identify Mark in this incident or several others she reported
02:29:57
in 2008 and 2009. Nobody was able to respond in time. So the answer would be no. That is
02:30:08
correct. Prosecutors also called Mark Stover's fiance, Terresa Vox Michael, to testify.
02:30:18
Their engagement was used as evidence Mark was moving on. I talked to Teresa in 2010. In the weeks before he died,
02:30:27
was he a happy man? Oh, he was. He was like a kid. He was joking with me all the time and he was
02:30:34
always fun, you know, when we were on the phone. But Teresa claimed there was still a
02:30:41
dark presence in his life, his ex-wife, Linda. She said that Mark described Linda as a vengeful ex who wouldn't
02:30:49
leave him alone and often took him to court. He was he just was very troubled about the way things had gone. And in
02:30:57
what did he believe the endgame was with her? I don't know that he thought there
02:31:02
was a goal. He just couldn't believe that things wouldn't stop. The legal battles, the accusations,
02:31:10
he knew his life was in danger. But Michael's attorneys alleged just the opposite. They argued Mark threatened
02:31:20
and stalked Michael and that he only killed Mark to defend himself and his family. They insisted Mark and Michael
02:31:29
met multiple times. The defense even claimed to have a witness who said Mark mentioned seeing Michael and Linda at a
02:31:38
Costco months before the shooting, but the judge ruled there was no way to verify the witness's story.
02:31:47
Soon, Michael would learn his fate. [Music] After more than 50 witnesses and more
02:32:03
than 700 exhibits, the jury began to deliberate. They took 4 days before they reached a verdict. I'll rise, please.
02:32:15
Linda sat next to Michael's mom and tried to comfort Michael's daughters as they all waited.
02:32:22
Mark Stove's niece, Julia Simmons, was there to represent his family. Who did this jury believe? We, the jury,
02:32:31
find the defendant, Michael Glenn Oaks, guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree, premeditated murder as
02:32:38
charged. [Music] Michael was found guilty of firstdegree murder. He turned and hugged his
02:32:51
daughters. At his sentencing, his mother, Corey Oaks, pleaded with the judge to have mercy, that her son never
02:33:00
wanted to hurt Mark. He wanted to reason with him. I believe that with all my heart, and I think it's
02:33:09
grieving him. I know it is. He would never want to take a life. He is not a murderer. And none of us would want that
02:33:16
for Mark. Mark's family felt differently. His sister, Victoria Simmons, asked the
02:33:23
judge to give Michael the maximum sentence. Why was he murdered? Where is my brother? When will I be able to lay
02:33:32
him to rest in a dignified manner? Years from now, Michael Oaks will be released.
02:33:38
He will have paid his debt to society. I will still be serving the life sentence
02:33:42
that Michael Oaks gave me. Judge Mike Rickert sentenced Michael to the maximum amount of time in prison, 26
02:33:51
and a half years. The absurdity of the actions that you took on that day are beyond belief. And I've got to tell you,
02:33:58
there's large parts of your story I just flat do not believe and never will. There was finally an ending to this
02:34:07
emotional saga gone horribly wrong. But there will always be lingering questions
02:34:13
about what really happened on October 28th, 2009. But the pieces don't fit very well in this case after 4 weeks.
02:34:22
And to a certain degree, I almost have more questions now than I had when we picked the jury.
02:34:32
This case of Mark Stove has been defined by an infinite loop of suspicion between
02:34:38
three people. Linda said she feared Mark. Mark said he feared Linda. And Michael said he too eventually feared
02:34:48
Mark. Each person claimed the other was threatening their life until that morning in October proved that one of
02:34:56
them was right. With no more new information surrounding the crime, law enforcement closed the
02:35:05
case in 2012. Linda's father, Wally Updike, died in 2018 at age 81 at his home in Whitefish,
02:35:15
Montana. The Chateau San Michelle Winery, the largest in Washington, remains open
02:35:24
today and thriving. The Updike sold kick island, too. It's now a park that belongs to the Swenomish
02:35:33
tribe. It's open to the public for hiking, but there are no dogs allowed. After Michael went to prison, his
02:35:43
daughter, April Oak, said each of her siblings went to stay at a different home. April lived with Linda until she
02:35:52
was 17 and said Linda has remained a big part of the family's lives. Linda last sat for an interview in 2011.
02:36:03
It's incomprehensible to me that that's a verdict that would have come back. Michael's first instinct was to turn to
02:36:10
all of you. Yes. And to hold his family. [Music] Yes. Um he uh definitely loves his children and
02:36:22
loves me and I know that's his biggest concern is for all of us and our biggest concern is him. So, we're all um
02:36:31
supporting each other and just sticking by one another. Michael appealed his case to no avail.
02:36:40
He is incarcerated at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walaw Wala. In a call from prison in April 2025,
02:36:50
Michael said he expects to get out in 2035 when he is 67 years old. He blamed one
02:36:58
of his appellet attorneys failing to file an appeal on time for his inability to keep challenging his sentence in
02:37:06
court. Today, there is a website free oaks.com that advocates for Michael's freedom.
02:37:15
His family sent us documents from Michael's appeal. In 2017, the Oaks family hired an oceanographer to study
02:37:24
where Mark's body may have ended up in the water and believed that the police missed a spot where the current could
02:37:33
have moved Mark. Detective Dan Louvera said the police searched the channel multiple times and even used underwater
02:37:42
cameras. We asked Michael about his current relationship with Linda Updike. He said
02:37:49
he wanted to respect her privacy. After Mark's death, Teresa, the woman who had hoped to marry Mark, took his
02:37:57
dog, Ding, into her home. Ding had miraculously survived being shot. And when she came to be with me, she
02:38:09
slept on my bed. She went to work with me. She was with I took her everywhere with me. And in petting her, I found a a
02:38:16
tumor about this big. Well, it grew and grew and she was in tremendous pain. Um, so I
02:38:25
had to have her put down. And was that was that tough cuz Ding was a a link to Mark. Oh, she was my my last
02:38:33
link to him. Teresa told me that Ding was buried with a custom headstone. She hopes a day will come when they can give
02:38:42
Mark the proper burial he deserves. I would love to see him buried with a ring on his finger.
02:38:49
Mark's sister, Victoria Simmons, said she will never rest until her brother's remains are found.
02:38:59
I need to find him, and I just can't let that go. Being a woman of faith, I know
02:39:04
that everything done in secret will eventually be shouted from the housetops. You cannot plead the fifth in
02:39:10
heaven and the truth will come out eventually. A celebrity dog trainer, an ays and her
02:39:18
bodyguard. Three lives ruined by a triangle of jealousy, fear, and rage. [Music]
02:39:35
[Music] from 48 hours. This is Train to Kill the Dog Trainer, the Aerys, and the
02:39:43
Bodyguard, produced by Sony Music Entertainment. I'm your host, Peter Vans. Judy Tiger is the executive producer of
02:39:54
48 Hours. Original reporting by 48 Hours producers Ryan Smith and Liza Finley. Jamie Benson is the senior producer for
02:40:05
Paramount Audio and Mora Waltz is the senior story editor. Recording assistance from Alan Pang and
02:40:13
Reginald Bazil. Special thanks to Paramont podcast vice president Megan Marcus. It is written and produced by Alex
02:40:24
Schuman. Stephanie Serrano is our editor. Our executive producer is Sher Morris. Our associate producer is Zoe
02:40:34
Kulkin. Theme and original music composed by Hansdale Shei. Cedric Wilson is our sound designer and
02:40:44
mixed the episodes. We also use music from APM and Epidemic Sounds. Fendle Fulton is our fact checker. Our
02:40:56
production manager is Tamika Balance Kolassni. I'm Peter Vans. If you're enjoying the
02:41:04
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02:41:11
Follow and listen to Train to Kill and other 48 hours podcasts on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your
02:41:20
podcasts. Thanks for listening. [Music]