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The following episode contains references to harassment, intimidation, and stalking. Listen with care.
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I left uh actually was a birthday gift to myself on in September 2005. That gift to herself for her 41st
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birthday was something Linda Updikeke had long desired. A separation from her husband, Mark Stove. I moved out of the
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main house of my family's property up to a small guest house on the property. But
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while Linda put some space between herself and Mark, she didn't leave Kick Island, home to their profitable dog
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training business, Island Dog Adventures. I stayed there for a number of months to
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see if Mark would finally understand the seriousness that I really would be leaving if we could not build a
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relationship and he would seek help. At that point, they'd been together for 14 years, the last three as a married
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couple. After nearly 7 months, Linda finally decided she was ready. I drove down from the house that I was staying
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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
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snapped. He went just sheer white. His eyes went just crazy. He clenched his hands and fists and he was just in a
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shaking rage with me. Startled, Linda said she stayed as calm as she could and tried to lower the temperature by
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offering to talk, but could tell she needed to leave. She got into her Suburban and drove back to the guest
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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
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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
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war. I'm not going to grant this to you. You've got a big fight on your hands." [Music]
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In April 2006, Linda said she fled Kickot Island, a property her family owned. She was now on the run.
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Well, instantly at that point when I left, he was calling me constantly. I It was obsessive phone calls on my cell
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phone um trying to reach me. He would call, you know, 40, 50 times that evening. She kept her whereabouts a
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secret. I left the area and was just traveling around with my dog in a suitcase and hotels just trying to move
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through the state. He'd leave messages on my cell phone that he was driving all over the state to try to find me.
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This is war. This is goddamn war. You're wrecking my You enough. [Music] Linda spent the summer and fall of 2006
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in Sisters, Oregon. That December, she relocated to the western themed town of Winthre, Washington. The downtown
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included an antique boardwalk and oldtime saloons. Linda got a house outside of town. She put more than 250 miles of
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winding roads and a mountain range between her and Mark. I left the whole west side of of the state. She tried
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everything to avoid leaving a trail. I immediately stopped my credit card accounts. I was worried that he would
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follow me there. I got a mailing address in Belleview. I tried to close contact with anything where I could be tracked.
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But Mark, an avid hunter, still managed to track Linda down. On October 16th, 2007, at about 7
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a.m., Linda said she was getting ready to start her day. I just stepped out of my shower right here and I heard my dog
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Sojo in the backyard barking incredibly loud, very defensive like I've never heard her bark before. Linda scan the
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hillside overlooking her house. And I see Mark Stover hunkered down with a hunting rifle pointed right at me
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through the window looking through his spotting scope. According to Linda, the man she left was crouched down like a
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lion, preparing to pounce on his prey. I really did feel that my life was in danger.
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That incident would be one of many in which Linda said her life was threatened. I'm Peter Vans from 48
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hours. This is Train to Kill the Dog Trainer, the Aerys, and the Bodyguard. Episode two, The Hunter.
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[Music] I walked away from almost literally everything except for my own investments
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I had before I met him. In the spring of 2006, Linda Updike was perfectly fine leaving everything behind if that meant
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getting away from her husband, Mark Stove. We spoke about this in 2010. How much money was the business making? How
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successful was it? It became very successful. At the time I left in uh September 2005, it was just under a
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million dollars a year that it was making. That's extraordinary. It really is. Linda said she took none of that
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money with her when she left. Well, I put in over $100,000 as startup capital into the
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business. I can't recall what the divorce settlement was, but it was not much over $100,000. I did not get any
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retirement benefits out of it. I got no proceeds from the business. But she said
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Mark still wanted more. She said his rage and incessant calls pushed her to give him what he wanted. According to
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Linda, Mark demanded she return one of her dogs to the island. He told me that he would track me down uh to no end
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until he could have the dog back. So, I um I thought that if I um gave the gave the dog back that he would leave me
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alone. But Linda said that wasn't enough either. Karen Lungren worked at a salon
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near Linda's house in Winthre. She told me about a frightening moment when Mark dramatically entered the salon. Linda
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Opdike was here and I was sitting here. What were you doing? was doing a European facial on her and of course
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she's lying down like this and Mark or excuse me Mr. Stove came in and moved the
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screen and walked right in and just and stood here barges right in just stood right here. She sat Linda up. She said,
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"What 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
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just saw your vehicle. He lives more than 150 miles away from here. Right. Right.
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Karen was sure Mark hadn't just stumbled upon Linda's car. He'd somehow crossed a
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mountain range and tracked her down. The two spoke and Karen said Mark left after a few
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minutes. But Linda said Mark's stalking behavior didn't stop at the beauty salon. He came into my bedroom somehow
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gotten into my house. Came into my bedroom. Linda said he had an uncanny ability to get inside her home. I was in
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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 driven 18 hours straight
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from Montana. Then he gets on his knees bedside, puts a gun right on my pillow, right next to my head, and then starts
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sobbing and is very emotional about not wanting to let the divorce go. She tried to stay calm and sat with him
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until he decided to leave. Linda said instead of calling the police, she tried to handle those kinds
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of unwanted visits herself. You're just dealing with what you see at the time and trying not to escalate his behavior
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and get him upset off the chart to hurt me. Another big reason why I did not make a report initially on a number of
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things is I knew he would deny being here, but she didn't think her tactics were working. She found herself feeling
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increasingly paranoid. So you'd hear any noise and you're wondering is it Mark? The phone would
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ring. You're wondering is it Mark? Yes. You wondered anytime you went outside with Mark there. Then you're
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pulling the blinds. You're living behind closed blinds all the time. Um and you're trying
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to just move on with your life and it's it's very very difficult. It's it was very difficult.
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On November 2nd, 2007, Linda couldn't hide her fear anymore. She called 911 after Mark came to her house and chased
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her in his Chevy Suburban as she tried to drive away. And he came driving, flying down my driveway and down the
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road, uh, following me at a rapid speed into Winthrop. Linda said the police contacted Mark but didn't make an
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arrest. How was Mark, after all these incidents, still walking free? Soon after, Mark discovered something about
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Linda that truly pushed him over the edge. It involved Mark's friend and hunting partner.
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It had been more than 2 years since Linda's decision to leave Mark. Linda told me that Mark had forced her down a
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terrifying path, dodging and hiding from his harassment. But there was someone in
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his corner who didn't believe Linda's accusations. Someone who's known Mark longer than
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Linda, his sister, Victoria Simmons. My brother adored Linda Updike. Just loved her. It was hard for
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my brother to lose someone he loved. That that was difficult for him. Um and he would take a while to find his
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bearings and move on. She said that Mark was devastated by the separation. He was
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blindsided. He he thought he told me he thought everything was fine. Victoria doesn't believe her brother was as much
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of a danger as Linda Updike claimed. He was terribly hurt. It was not only was it a surprise, but the circumstances
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surrounding it were so painful, double betrayal. Mark discovered that Linda once got some
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drinks and went to the house of John Bonika, Mark's best man, at their wedding. It shook his
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foundation. He was just so angry that two really valuable relationships in his life were destroyed in one fell swoop.
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If she wanted to hurt him um and really knock his feet out from under him, having an affair with John Bonika would
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be about the worst thing she could choose to do. Here's Linda again. John Bonika is a
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person that uh has known Mark for many years and I met him um shortly after meeting Mark probably in 1992 and he was
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a friend to both of us. Once John learned of Mark's antics and behavior to towards me, he uh seized him having
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friendship with Mark. You developed a relationship with John Bonika. Is that right? Yes. A romantic relationship. Uh
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very briefly, we had a an intimate occurrence. Linda said she got a call from Mark the
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day after she and John were together. He told her that he knew what they'd done.
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described in detail of what had occurred between John and myself that evening. Um, and was it accurate? Yes, it was
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accurate. It was horrifying. So, do you believe that a that someone was at John Bonika's house watching you be intimate
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with John? Yes, I do. And after uh hearing that from Mark, I actually drove down with a friend down there to see if
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I could find any signs of Mark being there. And I went down there and saw tire tracks where the Suburban was
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parked. I saw footprints of his uh LLBAM boots. They have a very distinct tread.
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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
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phone calls from Mark saying that he was in his house as well at other times. She
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said that John was horrified and fearful of Mark. He wrote me a letter saying that he needed to seize any friendship
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or relationship with me due for the safety of him, his children. and he advised me to do the same thing, to take
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all precautions that I could for my safety and well-being as he was. When Mark found out about John, he was
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so angry that Linda decided to go stay with her father in Hawaii until things cooled down. She returned several weeks
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later in January 2008 when Mark finally signed the divorce papers. Linda still didn't think having the divorce
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finalized would make Mark stop. So, she reached out to the local sheriff's office to let them know she was worried.
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My initial advice to her is immediately get a protection order. Here's then Chief Deputy Dave Rodriguez
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with the Okonagan County Sheriff's Office. He told Linda that if she got a protective order, law enforcement could
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act more decisively to where if you do make even these loose kind of threats, we can do something about it. But
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without a protection order, it's harder. Did Linda seek it out? She didn't. She didn't. She did not. Why not? I have no
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idea. Linda said she was now relying on the advice of security experts she hired.
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They felt this particular type of personality that getting a domestic violence protection order and contacting
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the police could possibly escalate the situation. Some of the sheriff department staff still tried to help
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Linda even though she wouldn't file for a protective order. After hours, once they got off
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the clock, they agreed to help Linda. Here's Sergeant Jean Davis. We felt, at least I felt the threat was severe
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enough that we did every option we could to help her out by train a protection dog, similar to a police dog, but it's
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more designed if somebody came to her house and tried to harm her, um, her her dog would protect her. What kind of dog
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did she have? Um, she had a a young female German Shepherd. And those are good guard dogs, right? A very good dog.
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I have one myself. Linda specifically wanted a dog that hadn't been trained by Mark and had no connection to him.
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Remember, she only met Mark because she needed him to train one of her dogs for protection. And now she was training a
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dog against that same man. But Linda concluded that wasn't enough. She wanted even more security.
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[Music] I installed cameras onto my house. I added to the security system. Linda got
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into a routine of checking her cameras every day and reviewing footage. Her instincts proved to be
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right. While the divorce had been finalized, Linda said it seemed nothing would stop Mark from harassing her.
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Linda said one of her cameras spotted a ghostly black and white image of Mark in
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the middle of the night. It was very creepy, very eerie, very scary knowing he was here and then seeing his body
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language and he went underneath the house and all a sudden you can tell he had recognized that there was cameras
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here and then he's seen 2 minutes later walking away with the shirt pulled over his head and sneaking off the property.
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We reviewed the footage and you can see a man crossing Linda's lawn, pulling up a shirt to cover his face. She said Mark
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started calling her, demanding she give back their wedding photos. Here's a voicemail of Mark
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threatening Linda. [Music] Wedding pictures, you know, I'm a guy that can hold a crutch.
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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
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wedding pictures, you know I'm a guy who can hold a [Music] grudge." At one point, Linda was
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convinced that Mark tapped her phones and was listening to her calls. I knew for a fact that he was on my
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phones because I was talking to my stepmother and she was telling me about um how the Montana police were utilizing
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tasers and she was asking me if I knew anything about tasers for one of my self-defense tools. And Mark called and
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left a message and said, "You gals sitting around talking about tasering me and shooting me." me and he says, "I
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would have let you shoot me at one point in time, but now I'm going to survive this just to ruin your life." Fearing
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that Mark's campaign of harassment was now escalating toward violence, Linda started brainstorming, both battle and
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escape plans. Getting all those firearms. Was that wise or was that paranoia? I think it was very wise. So,
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I'm dealing with somebody that was incredibly skilled with firearms. He was somebody that would go on hunting trips
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and he would stay on his hunting trips until he acquired his hunt, his kill. And I knew this was somebody that could
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take my life. It was a real threat. To her, Mark had proven he was willing to cross any boundary she set. Linda
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decided to turn her house into a fortress. I have a safe room in there. I have a
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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
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gave me a tour of her hidden arsenal. This one was put in the living room entryway area. Um, obviously I'm very
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vulnerable in this area. We walked from room to room as she pointed out the spots where she was hiding her guns.
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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
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her bed, and one in the hallway, another behind a wall hanging. It seemed she was
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never more than 6 ft away from a firearm. The security company installed a magnet for me to have bedside. As she
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guided me through her security system, I couldn't help but think how this reminded me of something out of a James
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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
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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
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defend myself?" They were always consistently there. Linda felt certain that Mark would eventually try to hurt,
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maybe even kill her, but until she had hard evidence, a witness, or filed for a protection order, sheriff's deputies
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couldn't arrest [Music] him. Then on March 18th, 2008, at about 10:00 a.m., Linda's neighbor, Ruthie
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Hegmeister, was on her way over to visit. We were going to do some cooking together and then take our dogs for a
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walk. As I pull up here, I notice there's a white station wagon here and there's a gentleman over at Linda's
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trash cans taking the trash out of the trash cans right across the street. Right across the street. Ruthie was
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immediately suspicious and pulled her car right up to this man's white station wagon. I blocked this car. I did. I
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blocked this car and I proceeded to get out of my car. I left my door open and I
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asked the gentleman. I said, "Excuse me, who are you?" He says, "My name is John." I go, "Why are you taking my
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friend's trash?" And he's like, "I have permission to take the trash." You have permission to take someone's trash. How
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can you have permission to take someone's trash? You're not buying it. No, I'm not buying it at all. So, I
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proceed to say, "Okay, well, we'll find out." I walk around my truck to the passenger door. My cell phone's on the
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seat, pick up my cell phone, and I dial Linda's house. I'm like, "Linda, there's
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a man down here." In the meantime, he's getting the trash, throwing it in his car, closing the door. I'm like,
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"There's a man down here stealing your trash." And I said, "No." I couldn't believe. And she said, "Yes." She starts
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describing who this person is and it's Mark. While Ruthie was on the phone, Mark got back in his car and drove off.
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And Ruth is like, "Ah, no. This is, you know, something's really wrong with this." And we're like, "So, finally,
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somebody's seeing him. there's a witness to him being here. So, she calls 911 and
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that was, you know, the he finally got pulled over for that. After more than 2 years of what Linda described as a
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campaign of harassment and fear, the county finally had enough evidence to charge Mark with stalking and
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theft. Mark entered what's called an Alford plea. That's when someone claims to be innocent but admits there's enough
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evidence that a judge or jury will likely find them guilty. Mark was sentenced to 2 years probation and 12
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months of anger management. The court also entered a protection order against him which meant
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Mark had to turn over all of his weapons and never go near Linda ever again. Linda was not satisfied with the
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sentence. He got a slap on the hand and it was very disheartening to me. Throughout 2008 and into 2009, Linda
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repeatedly called the sheriff's office to report suspicious activity she thought could be Mark. But she was never
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able to link those situations to him, but stayed vigilant about her security. And in the summer of 2008, Linda made a
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decision that would forever change her life. She hired a former security consultant to do an assessment of her
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house. I did an analysis of sort of her home security situation and what the steps she was taking. Looked into the
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people that she was working with and made some suggestions on that front. His name was Michael Oaks. He was a gun and
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safety enthusiast. Similar to her relationship with Mark, things started professionally, but soon became
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something more. Did you fall in love with her? I I I did. That same summer, Mark left Kick Island
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for Anacortis, Washington, about 10 miles away. He bought several acres and a new house on Thompson Road where he
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opened his new business. His sister Victoria said Mark even started dating someone new. Teresa Vox Michael. He was
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amazing. He would drive down almost every weekend, take me to dinner. To those around him, Mark really seemed to
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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
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yeah, he was very happy. Then in October 2009, Linda heard from one of Mark's employees
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and she informed me via email late in the afternoon that Mark was missing. I was very concerned that he would be
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coming over my way. But detectives had a different theory. They believed Mark was
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[Music] dead. From 48 hours. This is Train to Kill the Dog Trainer, the Aerys, and the
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Bodyguard, produced by Sony Music Entertainment. I'm your host, Peter Vans. Judy Tigard is the executive
00:27:48
producer of 48 Hours. Original reporting by 48 Hours producers Ryan Smith and Liza Finley.
00:27:57
Jamie Benson is the senior producer for Paramount Audio and Mora Waltz is the senior story
00:28:04
editor. Recording assistance from Alan Pang and Regginal Bazile. Special thanks to Paramont
00:28:12
Podcast Vice President Megan Marcus. It is written and produced by Alex Schuman. Stephanie Serrano is our
00:28:22
editor. Our executive producer is Sherah Morris. Our associate producer is Zoe Kulkin. Theme and original music
00:28:32
composed by Hansdale Shei. Cedric Wilson is our sound designer and mixed the episodes. We also use music from APM and
00:28:44
Epidemic Sounds. Fendle Fulton is our fact checker. Our production manager is Tamika Balance
00:28:54
Kolassni. I'm Peter Vans Sant. If you're enjoying the show, be sure to rate and review. It helps more people find it and
00:29:03
hear our reporting. You can listen to Train to Kill early and add free right now by subscribing to 48 hours plus on
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Apple Podcasts. Thanks for listening.