The Bundle in the Back | Trained to Kill | Forensic Files

Gadget 911. What's your emergency? Uh, it's not an emergency, but um I need a sheriff to come out here to Summit Park
Graange. This is Tammy Gilden in Anacortis, Washington. She called 911 sometime before 11:50, the morning of October
28th, 2009, when she and her mother noticed a man trespassing behind the Grange Hall. It's an event facility
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
up and pulled in front. Tammy noticed that the guy was at the back of the property where no one should be parked.
There two vehicles are facing back to back. One of those two vehicles was a white station wagon. The other was a
black SUV. They were transferring something back and forth or living back and forth or something. What Tammy saw
was both odd and disturbing. Whatever the object being transferred was, Tammy remembered it was large and covered in
plastic. My first thought was, "Oh, a body." I thought, "Oh, you know, you're reading a murder mystery. You know,
silly girl. You know, that's not a body." As they sat in their car at the front of the property, Tammy and her mom
waited for a deputy to arrive. Tammy said the stranger got into the black SUV, leaving 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 to leave. He drove right up
next to their car before stepping on the gas and speeding away. We were scrambling to find pen and paper
and write the license plate number down. Tammy called the sheriff again. Dispatch, can I help you? Yeah. Hi. Um,
I called about meeting the sheriff at They gave the dispatcher the license plate number and a description of the
trespasser's car. It's a black SUV. Which direction did it leave? He turned on Stevenson. He turned uh west on
Stevenson. He was driving toward downtown Anacortis. Minutes later, Scadget County Sheriff's
Deputy Rick Du Hay arrived and checked out the station wagon and then went looking for the black
SUV. It didn't take long. I noticed the license number matched the piece of paper that the reporting party had given
me. I turned around in the vehicle, made a traffic stop. The deputy went up to the car window. It was raining. He had
sunglasses on which is unusual. He was extremely nervous. Deputy Duh asked the man who was hiding his eyes for an ID.
He didn't listen to the question and then repeated my question to me. So, he wasn't tracking the conversation we were
having. The deputy explained that he pulled the driver over for trespassing. His story was he was headed to the
casino, which is down the road. During the conversation, the deputy noticed that the driver had some dog
hair on his clothing and he noticed a 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 morning that Mark Stover's employees reported seeing their boss tear out of
his driveway in his white Chevy station wagon. And this traffic stop was just a few hours
later. No one yet knew Mark was missing. 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 registered to
him. I pulled over Michael Oaks and the bundle of blankets in the back. Only 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 to Kill. The dog trainer, the ays, and
the bodyguard. Episode 4, the bundle in the back. After the sheriff's deputy let
Michael Oaks drive away with just a warning, Michael made a phone call, but not to his girlfriend, Linda Updike.
It was out of it was unexpected. It was out of the blue. It wasn't pre-coordinated.
It was to his ex-wife, Jennifer Thompson. She lived in Everett, Washington, about an hour south of
Anacortis. We spoke in 2010. And he said, "Hey, I am available this afternoon. I'm in your area. Are you
available?" I said, "Actually, yeah, I I am." And he said, "Well, do you want to
meet up?" I said, "Sure." Although they had been separated for about a year, Michael and Jennifer
started talking again. She had emailed him just a few weeks earlier. I had entered a relationship with someone and
it made me really reflect on my situation with Michael because 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 and said, "I've met
someone. I'm entering this relationship. Are you sure? Are you still sure?" Before she started
something new, Jennifer wanted to know if her marriage to Michael was really over. We had a pretty amazing
relationship. Yeah, it had a lot of brokenness in it, but I don't know. Are you absolutely
100%. Had he said, "Yep, I'm sure." I would have said, "Okay, carry on and moved
forward." But he didn't say that. And he wrote back, "No, I'm not." This is October 2009, right? When Linda Updike
and Michael Oaks have become a couple, and what we've been told is they're deeply in love. He's telling you
something else. He's telling you that in his mind it may not be over. Yeah. Your
relationship with him. And I actually he told me that he didn't love her. Um I I can't say what's true and what
isn't. I don't know. But what he told me was that it wasn't it wasn't like us. It
it was a convenience. They were partners. Like they each had things that the other needed.
[Music] So when Michael called her that October morning, Jennifer agreed to meet him at
a Starbucks. And he looked very disheveled and frumpy, like just kind of hair was poofy and clothes untucked,
which was different because he's usually very meticulous and neat, tidy, tucked in, belt, you know, that kind of thing.
They sat together at a table in the corner of the coffee shop. Oh, we kind of have some general chitchat. And then
he says, "Hey, you know there's a beach around here." And I said, "Well, it's Everett. It's a port. It's not very
pretty though. What are you looking for?" She suggested a beach they could go to. Said, "Sure, 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 just follow you."
It's fine. Jennifer noticed that Michael parked far away from her and that his vehicle was caked in mud. Well, the way
there was very strange because he was driving so carefully, laying low, trying not to draw attention
to himself. And this is a man that flips a U-turn when it's convenient for him, even if it's illegal.
She said when they arrived at the beach, she watched him fumble with things in his car. Michael suggested the two of
them go for a walk. Did he seem nervous? No. At this time, he seemed very calm, but the tension was so thick. The
unspoken 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
conversations. So, it was very weird. It was very uncomfortable. Then when they finished their walk, she said they each
decided to stop at the bathroom before they left. So, I went in, he went in, 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 waited,
waited, and he came out and he was just distraught. Something happened while he was in there. He came out and his entire
demeanor completely changed. And so he he looks upset. He looks stressed out like he's freaking out. He's just
noticeably agitated and not okay. What does he say to you? I said, "Are you okay?" And he said, "No, I think I'm in
trouble." And I said, "Real trouble or like perceived trouble?" And he said, "Like 10 to 15 years felony trouble."
Knowing that Michael could be over the top, Jennifer didn't know whether to take him seriously. I also know this man
to be very melodramatic. So, I'm trying 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 this not? At that point, he was sitting in my
passenger seat and I was in the driver's seat and he was very noticeably agitated, rubbing his temples and his
hair, his fingers through his hair and um really vigilant watching around paranoid, freaking out looking out the
windows. Yeah. At one point a patrolman had come by and he really really went crazy
and he said, "I feel like they know like 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 right. It's just that guilty conscious thing. And did you not say right then
they know what I No, I didn't. I 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 to know. Then Michael said something even more unsettling. He made reference
to if he was to be pulled over, he was just trying to get out of this area. And if he had been pulled over and law
enforcement had seen what was inside his car, he'd go away for life. After that disturbing comment, Michael
got out of her car into his and drove away. I think the part that disturbs me the
most on my part of it is when we parted ways that day, kissed him on the cheek. And that haunts me cuz he had a
body in that car. Michael left Jennifer. He drove back up to Anacortis, then drove more than 250
miles, crossing the Cascade Mountain Range for a second time in the same day. That night, he returned to Linda
Updikeke's house. From Linda's home surveillance camera, you can see Michael arrive just after 11:30
p.m. On a different camera, you can see Linda in a bathrobe come out to welcome him home. Their reunion would prove
[Music] short. On the evening of October 29th, 2009, the day after Mark Stove went
missing, Sergeant Jean Davis with the Okonagan Sheriff's Office got a call. We talked in 2010.
I checked into service around 6:00 and received a call from Detective Meyers with Scadget County um Sheriff's
Department advising that um they're working on a missing person case. Mark Stove. Sergeant Davis knew the name Mark
Stover. Well, months before, he had suggested Linda Updike get a protective order against Mark. He also had offered
to help train her dog to attack. And I told Detective Myers, um, yeah, I know Linda, known Linda very well, and I know
Oaks very well. Detective Meyers then told Sergeant Davis that they had a lead concerning Mark Stover's
disappearance. The lead included a familiar name. Somehow Oaks, Michael Oaks, got involved in this. So, I uh
initially heard this information and I placed a call to uh Dave, Chief Rodriguez, to let him know what was
going on. He didn't answer. Simultaneously, Linda calls me and she's pretty agitated, somewhat frantic,
actually. This is Dave Rodriguez. Back in 2010, he was a chief deputy with the Okonagan Sheriff's Office. She said um
an employee of Stove had just called her and said that the police were there, that Mark is
missing, there's blood at the scene, and the dog's been shot. and she's very frantic 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 happened at his house by him,
not onto him and he's now he's snapped and he's coming over here. So Linda is thinking she may be next.
This is what she's conveying to me anyhow. And I said, "Uh, are you there by yourself?" and she said, "No, that uh
Oaks was there." And I said, "Well, you 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 else." She goes, "That's a good idea. Um
that's what we're going to do." Sergeant Davis and Deputy Rodriguez drove to Linda's place separately,
unsure of what they were heading into. It's 7:00 at night and it was uh almost a typical fall foggy wintry, not wintry
yet, but it was starting to mist dark night. Both investigators were familiar with Linda's house. So, we drove up to
the house and normally when we were going there to train with her dog, her camera system or possibly a sensor would
say someone's coming up the driveway. She would always be out on the outside on the deck or whatever.
[Music] Instead of that usual warm welcome, the front door stayed closed. This visit to
Linda's would clearly be different. I used my spotlight, my high beams to, you know, if they came out, they'd be
blinded. I tried calling her on the phone and um no answer yet. Her car was there. Oak's car was there. Lights were
on. No answer. The deputies pulled in and parked. I'm like, we're going to have to go. Maybe something has happened
now. Maybe Sto did come to the house in 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 the door and invited them inside. She seemed a little surprised that we
were there because I didn't, you know, 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 found that uh a little surprising that we showed up, but I mean, other
than that, nothing unusual. Invited us in. Initially, we didn't see Michael Oaks, but as we walked in the living
room, he was walking up the stairs from a lower level. The deputies told Michael to sit on the
couch. This was after they searched between the cushions for any weapons. I I know Michael and and Linda were are
into guns and I asked if he was armed and he said he was and I removed a a 9mm pistol from
him and at that point um we go into more of the questioning. Was Linda armed as well? No, she was
not. Linda was in a chair nearby. Even though Michael wasn't under arrest, he was
clearly a person of interest in this case, having been in Anacortis on the day Mark Stove
disappeared. Sergeant Davis said they read Michael his Miranda rights just in case he said something that could be
admissible in court. And we point out that we we're here on a task from Scadget County to find out if you were
here because your car was seen in the area of Stover's residence at this particular time. And I 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 um ex-wife."
Chief Deputy Rodriguez noticed how distraught Linda became when Michael said that he made the trip to see his
ex-wife Jennifer. So, actually in my mind is, oh, Oaks just got caught messing around with his ex-wife and now
current girlfriend just found out about it. He said Linda left the room crying. Sergeant Davis went after her. She kept
on asking me, I don't know what's going on here. What's going on here? You know,
she asked, "Jean, what's going on? I I'm so confused. I don't know what's going on here." Numerous times to me.
Back in the living room, Chief Deputy Rodriguez continued to press Michael for an answer about why he went to visit his
ex-wife. Then he started to get pretty agitated and he's looking around and he goes,
"Can I get up to find my medication?" and we didn't have probable cause to have him under arrest. And um I said,
"Yeah, you're not under arrest. You can get up." So he's now looking around in the living room for his medication.
That's strange. It is. And now Jean actually Sergeant Davis then I believe got the call from Scaji 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 actually get cell signal. So he's running around. I'm trying to keep an eye on him while he's
looking for his medication. And then Linda comes out of the back room and asks me
something and which diverted my attention briefly. 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 there. Where'd he
go? He went downstairs. So I said, "Linda, he he's got to be at least he's under arrest, but he has to be within my
sight." Outside on the deck, Sergeant Davis was getting new information from Scadget County. They advised that um
they had a search warrant signed and for us to take Oaks's vehicle. When I was outside, I something caught my attention
by Oaks's vehicle. Um I see Oaks open the back hatch, reach inside and take out a plastic bag. Appears to be like a
garbage bag. When Sergeant Davis saw this happen, alarm bells started to go off in his mind. Why was Michael even
outside? And what did he just remove from his car? Michael Oaks had just taken something out of his car, but the
darkness and mist made it tough to see. Sergeant Jean Davis spotted Michael while outside talking on the phone. So I
sneak down to 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 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, he's really agitated, nervous at this point. I'm looking for medicine and then goes right into it. He
goes, "Why are you giving me the third degree? Why are you treating me like a suspect?" I said, "Well, you're acting
suspicious." And at that point, I take control of Michael Oaks and escort him back into the house. Chief Deputy Dave
Rodriguez was inside with Linda when Sergeant Davis brought Michael back. So he walks in with Oaks. What do you say
to the sergeant? Sergeant said to me what he just saw Oaks doing. And to me that just threw the switch. Since he
knew them well, he felt that he needed to reinforce to Michael that he was no longer a friend. You're now the suspect
and I'm the deputy. Sit down on that couch. We got the second call from Scaji County that says, "We have probable
cause. Put him under arrest." Sergeant Davis put on the handcuffs. And at that point, he looked at Linda again and
said, "It's going to be okay, babe." Linda broke down. She was crying even more now. She was
basically hysterical at this point, sobbing. Couldn't even make out the words that she was saying. Um, she was
completely emotional wreck at this time. After he put Michael in the back of his
car, Sergeant Davis walked out to grab whatever Michael had thrown down that embankment.
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,
white garbage sack tied up. I How far away from the car was it? Uh it was probably 20 ft down an embankment um
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
the bag. Sergeant Davis didn't want to risk spoiling the evidence, but he said that whatever was inside was heavy. And
after several minutes in my car, I started up smelling a bleach smell. A strong odor of bleach.
You smelled a strong order of bleach coming from what was ever inside that bag? Yes. Sca County deputies arrived
later that night to search Michael's SUV. And Sergeant Davis gave them that unopened garbage bag. They they checked
it after the warrant and discovered a firearm and um and what the rags and whatnot. What was in the bag? What kind
of gun? It was a 22 pistol. 22 caliber. Yes. But when they searched Michael's vehicle, there was no bundle of
blankets. Investigators kept searching for Mark Stover's body. Scadget County Sheriff's Office asked us to check any
probable locations where a body may be dumped in water. And as they gathered the evidence, Michael Oaks's story
seemed more and more unbelievable. So, what are you telling me? You shot Mark Stove in
self-defense? Absolutely. [Music] from 48 hours. This is Train to Kill the Dog Trainer, the Aerys, and the
Bodyguard, produced by Sony Music Entertainment. I'm your host, Peter Vans. Judy Tigard is the executive producer of
48 Hours. Original reporting by 48 Hours producers Ryan Smith and Liza Finley. Jamie Benson is the senior
producer for Paramount Audio and Mora Waltz is the senior story editor. Recording assistance from Alan
Pang and Reginald Bazale. Special thanks to Paramont Podcast Vice President Megan Marcus.
It is written and produced by Alex Schuman. Stephanie Serrano is our editor. Our executive producer is Sher
Morris. Our associate producer is Zoe Kulkin. Theme and original music composed by Hansdale
Shei. Cedric Wilson is our sound designer and mixed the episodes. We also use music from APM and Epidemic
Sounds. Fendle Fulton is our fact checker. Our production manager is Tamika Balance
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
hear our reporting. You can listen to Train to Kill early and adfree right now by subscribing to 48 Hours Plus on Apple
Podcasts. Thanks for listening.

Michiel Oakes said he tried to negotiate with Mark Stover to end the vicious back and forth. But the way he told the story, everything went wrong during their final meeting, on October 28th, 2009. The day Mark disappeared and the day Michiel was pulled over by police.

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Brief Summary

Mark Stover goes missing; Michael Oaks becomes a suspect after suspicious behavior and evidence found.

Key points

Tammy's Disturbing Discovery. Tammy Gilden reports a suspicious man and a large object covered in plastic.
Michael's Troubling Admission. After meeting with his ex-wife, Michael reveals he's in serious trouble.
The Arrest. Michael Oaks is arrested after suspicious behavior and a search warrant is executed.
Train to Kill: The Dog Trainer. Exploring the shocking events surrounding a dog trainer's defense claim.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Oh, a body.

Tammy's initial thought upon seeing the large object covered in plastic.

1:13WatchJun 6, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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