The Hunter | Trained to Kill | Forensic Files

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

Linda Opdycke fled her family’s property and lived on the run, determined to separate from her husband Mark Stover. In her efforts to defend herself against what she called his relentless stalking and harassment, Linda met a former security expert who thought he could help her deal with her ex.

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Brief Summary

Linda Updike recounts her terrifying experience with stalking and harassment from her ex-husband Mark Stove after seeking a divorce.

Key points

Linda's Escape Begins. Linda Updike leaves her husband Mark Stove, seeking separation and safety.
Mark's Threatening Rage. Mark reacts violently to Linda's divorce announcement, escalating the tension.
The Stalking Escalates. Linda goes on the run as Mark's obsessive behavior intensifies.
Mark's Alford Plea. Mark pleads guilty to stalking and theft but claims innocence, receiving probation.
Mark's New Life. After leaving Kick Island, Mark starts anew in Washington, seemingly happy and dating.
The Shocking News. Linda learns from Mark's employee that he is missing, raising alarm.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

You've got a big fight on your hands.

Mark's reaction to Linda's divorce announcement.

2:16WatchMay 23, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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