Trained To Kill: The Dog Trainer, The Heiress, And The Bodyguard | Full Episodes + Full Podcast | Forensic Files

[Music] I love the Pacific Northwest. This is a beautiful place. At the same time, that
beautiful landscape is what's holding a secret from us. My brother's here somewhere
and I don't know where. the anguish of not having a body to bury and it just it haunts me
[Music] and the stick up and down as my friend tries to bite him. Mark was known as the dog whisperer of
Anacortis and the dog trainer to the stars down. Thank you, E. Thank you, E. My uncle could speak dog. His clients
included CEOs, rock stars, professional athletes, anybody that it was anybody. It is hard to imagine that big of a
force of life gone. I arrived at work as usual that morning. Things were just not right.
My name is Amber Baker and I worked for Mark Stove for close to 5 years. There was a heaviness in the air that
morning [Music] and the dogs were uncontrollable and would not stop barking. [Music]
I walked up the driveway and saw blood. I called Mark for about 20 minutes straight in the morning. I called him
all afternoon. We realized that none of us had heard from him and we realized that something was terribly wrong.
I was very concerned that Mark was missing. Mark Stove was married to Linda Updike.
She was tall, slender, beautiful. My brother adored Linda Updike. Linda Epipike comes from a very wealthy
family. I learned that they gone through a nasty divorce. This is war. This is goddamn war. You
put my life up. I ended up becoming stalked by him. But I can curse you, too. And I know how
to do it. He broke into my house into my bedroom with a gun. It was horrifying. Linda loves playing the victim. She
loves the trauma. I wanted him to just go on with his life and leave me alone. Miss Abdike decided that she needed a
bodyguard. I made a beautiful person by the name of Michael Oaks. Their business relationship evolved into
a romantic relationship. This case had elements of the classic love triangle. This is something that none of us would
have ever ever imagined could have ever happened. I think Linda Dikeke knows more than
what she's telling. If I could ask Linda Obdike one question, it would be where's
Mark Sto's body? I've had no involvement in this. There is nothing there. [Music]
[Applause] [Music] Mark Stove was known as the dog whisperer of the Pacific Northwest.
A man who could tangle with the most ferocious canine. [Music] That's it. And bring it to its knees.
He was almost more dog than he was human. I would see him get down on all fours and look at the dogs right in
their eyes. And he just had this amazing connection. Andrea Fernulovich was his client and
friend. We all run across those people that are extraordinary and Mark certainly was extraordinary.
He just had this way to be able to walk in the room and just grab the attention from everybody
right here. Sit down. An outdoorsman and avid hunter. He was also a history buff and gun collector
with more than 30 firearms, says his sister Vicky Simmons. Highly intelligent, well read,
excellent cook. He could be difficult. Hey, keep down. He could be pointed in his comments.
A hard edge, Vicki says, that came from a tough upbringing. It wasn't a normal childhood. Survival
was a pretty big item on our list. Their father died when Mark was just 18 months old. Then a sister died
and my mother just had a very hard time and an even harder time reigning in her rebellious son.
He was on a bad path. He got kicked out of high school for smoking dope. I think
he was stumbling in the dark for a number of those years. And then a German Shepherd named Gunter
came into his life. Mark and that dog bonded that very day. It gave meaning to his life, gave
purpose to his life. That dog saved him. Mark trained that puppy to become a search and rescue dog. He had found his
calling. A calling that eventually led him to the woman of his dreams, Linda Updike.
I was looking to do some training with my dog and went through the phone book and found him in the phone book.
The daughter of multi-millionaire Wally Updike, once co-owner of Chateau San Michelle Winery and the K2 Ski
Corporation, Linda was Mark Stover's type. Tall, beautiful, and rich. At first, the feeling was not mutual.
I felt he was very arrogant, actually rubbed me the wrong way initially. But yet, he seemed also to know a fair
amount about dogs. So, I thought, let's try this out. In Linda Updike, Mark Stove had met his match. This one-time
junior Olympic equestrian could shoot and fly cast as well as he. The high school dropout who came from nothing and
the elegant beauty born of privilege fell in love. He was incredibly bright, eccentric, um,
charismatic in many ways, uh, very witty. Three months into their relationship, they opened a dog training business on a
private island owned by Linda's parents, Kick It Island. So, it was kind of almost a health spa
for the dogs there, and we'd take them down to the beach and swim them. People really did enjoy uh bringing the animals
there, and it did grow rapidly with that. By 2002, Stover and Updike had grown into a million dollar a year enterprise.
And after 11 years together, Linda and Mark finally decided to get married. Welcome to the Upike family.
Father, Wall-E toasted his new son-in-law. But Linda's mother, Nancy Corbin, wasn't celebrating the moment.
Mark is not a choice I would have made for for Linda. From the beginning, Mark showed an arrogance where he wanted to
isolate Linda. uh all bad signs didn't listen and should have. Linda says the dark corners of Mark
Stove's personality began to emerge more frequently. The last few years of being in
relationship with him was incredibly difficult. The more the business uh began making money, the more obsessed he
became with the money. I would buy maybe a $5 item at the grocery store and he would be in a rage about it.
Like what? like buying what things? For example, an avocado. Uh, that was too much money.
Excuse me. You guys have a million-dollar business. He's upset that you bought an avocado.
Yes. I recognized Mark was really somebody different than what I had um thought he was. He was in rages and t
had tantrums all the time, every day. And it was very very difficult to live with.
I saw him becoming more aggressive with people. Uh, for example, on the property,
he threatened us with a handgun. Danny Jensen was clamming on Kickot Island when he came face to face with an
angry stover brandishing a gun. He told us that this was his land. We were not allowed to dig clams there and
that uh he would hurt us. Do you believe that Mark Stove would have been capable could have been
capable of using that gun? Oh, definitely. Similar incidents followed and it was
taking a toll on their marriage. I told him that I was ashamed by the behavior. This is not how my family does
things and this is my family's property and I would like him to approach people of respect.
In 2005, after 14 years together, three years of marriage, Linda Updike had had enough.
We tried doing some counseling. I decided I could not be in the marriage with Mark anymore because it just
continued. The abuse escalated and I really literally felt like I was dying. She told Mark she was leaving him.
He went just sheer white. His eyes went just crazy. He clenched his hands and fists and he was just in a shaking rage.
He says, "You've got war. I'm not going to grant this to you. You've got a big fight on your hands." Neither one of
them had any idea just how big a fight it would be. When Linda Updike asked Mark Stove for a
divorce, she moved clear across the Cascade Mountains to Winthre, Washington, hoping to start over.
I just wanted to go on with my life, and I wanted Mark to go on with his life. Linda even let Stove stay on her
family's land, Kick Island. and take control of their million-doll dog training business.
I received no buyout for the business. Why were you doing that? Why were you giving up so much to this guy?
I wanted my life. I wanted to get away safely. I wanted him to leave me alone. Did it buy peace for you?
No, it didn't. In fact, it got worse. Much worse. This is war. This is goddamn war. You've
worked my life enough. Linda says he tracked her every move. He was driving all over the state to try
to find me. I probably had 50 to 100 calls on any given day. He told me that he would hunt
me down and he was going to ruin my life. He pursued her relentlessly, says Linda,
traveling 150 miles through the wilderness until he found her mountain hideway. All of a sudden, I look up on the hill
and I see Mark Stove hunkered down with a hunting rifle pointed right at me through the window, looking through his
scope. And you thought at that moment you might get shot? Absolutely. And now Linda says he was armed. He was
dangerous and inside her house. I was in bed about 9:00 at night and he walks in and he's got a gun in his hand.
He put the gun right next to my head on the pillow and he got down on his knees and he was pleading with me to not leave
him or the marriage. Do you believe Mark Stove was capable of killing you? Absolutely I do. He was very capable of
killing me. Terrified, Linda finally called the local sheriff, Frank Rogers. What did she fear could happen?
She didn't know what he could do. That maybe he would harm her? That maybe he would try to kill her?
When you hear these stories that your brother was kneeling with a gun in his hand?
Do you believe that's true? I think that some of this stuff could be true, might be true, but it was hard for
my brother to lose someone he loved. That was difficult for him and he would take a while to find his bearings and
move on. But Linda says her home security cameras show Stover was not moving on. That's
him, she says, lurking outside her home at 2:30 a.m. Every single moment you're wondering
when you walk out the door, is he going to be there? Is he going to come in through the front
door? Would he break in through my bedroom window? And I never know when he was going to show up.
This idea that Linda was um fearful of her life and scared and didn't want to go outside and all this because of my
brother. I don't believe a word of it. Seems like the truth is it's just the opposite.
In fact, Vicki believes Linda was baiting her brother. She had an affair with the best man at their wedding, John
Bonika. If she wanted to hurt him 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. Linda admits to having the affair after
they split, but says Mark stooped to a new low, spying on them in their bedroom.
I'd get a call from him telling me in detail what had occurred between John and myself that evening.
And was it accurate? Yes, it was accurate. It was horrifying. After 2 years of terror, two years of
angry legal battles, Mark Stove finally agreed to grant Linda Updike a divorce. What's your goddamn divorce?
But he still wouldn't let go. I better not ever find out in your wedding pictures.
He began oddly fixating on their wedding photos, demanding Linda give them back.
She said she didn't have them. You know, I'm the guy that can hold a crutch until I am dead.
He's basically laid the groundwork that he's going to harm her. And you know what? I can greet him, too,
and I know how to do it. These are strong threats to me. Deputies wanted to arrest Stove for
stalking, but didn't have enough evidence. Linda took matters into her own hands. She started self-defense
training with Chief Deputy Dave Rodriguez. I was proud that she as a victim was taking steps to not just be
cowering in her bedroom with the shades drawn. Linda took shooting lessons and filled
her house with guns. I had a gun bedside. I the security company put a magnet right on the
cabinet here and they installed it behind the tapestry here. So there was a gun hooked onto that.
Yes. And then I had one that I carried on my person. Linda had amassed a small arsenal, more
than 20 firearms, and promised herself she would never again be a helpless victim.
Were you ready to shoot Mark Stove if you had to in this house? Yes. No matter how much I would not have
wanted to do that, I was prepared that if it were he or me, it was not going to be me.
[Music] Did you think you were going to end up dead? Yes, I really did. With a stockpile of weapons inside her
home, always within arms reach, Linda waited for what she thought would be a final fatal showdown with her
ex-husband, Mark Stove. [Music] You're constantly living with a fear of when is he going to get you? And you
never know when it's going to happen or what will set him off. I won't fall apart.
He left this voicemail on his 56th birthday. My last birthday. What does that tell you?
That's a man that's ready to check out. and take somebody with him. Despite their worry, deputies still
didn't have the evidence they needed to arrest Stover for stalking. Then they caught a break.
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.
Linda's neighbor, Ruthie Hegister. 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."
Ruthie knew his name was not John. It was Mark Stove. She immediately called Linda. Linda called the sheriff's
office. Our deputy saw the the vehicle that was described, pulled him over. was Mark Stove did have
the trash and he arrested him. Finally, the Okonogan Sheriff's Department had the evidence to charge
Mark Stove with stalking, but instead of going to jail, he got a slap on the hand and it was
very disheartening to me. Stove agreed to a plea deal and was placed on a year's probation. He was
also ordered to surrender all of his firearms. From that moment on, Julia believes her
uncle never threatened Linda again. When Linda Optic took my uncle's guns away, that was it for him. She knew how
much he loved to hunt. That made him completely done with her. Julia believes it was Linda who couldn't
let go. It was like she was trying to to pull him in, push his buttons, and perpetuate the drama. Now, is that Kick
It Island? That is island. Julia and her mother Vicki have never met Linda Updike, but they believe they
know her. I don't think she is what she appears. I think she is smart. I think she's
extremely manipulative. I think that she is vindictive. Vindictive enough, they say, to have the
affair with Stover's best man. I mean, how cruel is that? And tough enough to take care of
herself. Linda Opike is no shrinking violet. She was armed to the teeth. She had many
weapons. She knew how to use them all. Do you think there was paranoia in that house?
Absolutely. You show me anybody's house that's got assault rifles and I'll show you somebody who's paranoid. getting all
those firearms. Was that wise or was that paranoia? Oh, I think it was very wise. 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 kill. And I knew this was somebody that could take my life. It was
a real threat. There were no more reported stalking incidents after his arrest. But Linda
still feared for her life and continued seeking ways to protect herself. A search that led her to a weapons
expert named Michael Oaks. I'm a writer and inventor. I've uh written several patents in my name and then I've had
over 200 articles published. Over 50% of my articles have been for gun rellated magazines.
He also specializes in hand-to-hand combat. You've been described as Linda Updike's
bodyguard, right? Is that accurate? I really don't think I don't believe it's accurate. Let's put it that way.
She 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
situation and made some suggestions on that front and that was the extent of what I would consider my professional
interaction with her. But their personal relationship began to flourish. Gradually, long talks about
books over coffee turned into love poems over wine. My world before me is perfect. There's
nowhere else I want to be except laying underneath the stars, hand in hand, you and me.
She's um almost six feet tall and I'm 5'6. She's never had children. I have four children. So, it was an unlikely
romance. Did you fall in love with her? I I I did. [Music] Michael is somebody that honestly I have
been waiting for my whole life. I went through all of this hell in my previous relationship and I felt like I
had done everything right, learned what I wanted in a relationship with a person
and here he was. Oaks became a single father when his first wife left him with their four
kids. Amanda is his oldest daughter. He's definitely a super mom, stay-at-home dad. I feel truly thankful
to have him in my life. He is sincere. He's genuine. He's caring. He's loving. He's also more complicated than he
appears, says his second wife, Jennifer Thompson. They lived as a blended family, her two boys, his four kids,
before divorcing in 2008. Mike Los had a dual personality. Um, by day he was a family guy and in his head
he had this whole other reality, this action hero persona. Michael saw himself as a protector of his children, of his
family, and of all the people who couldn't defend themselves in the world. In Linda Updike, he found his perfect
match, says Julia. Linda Octahike and Michael Oaks are a disastrous combination of neediness.
Michael Oaks seems to need to be this vigilante and he found his damsel in distress.
They just seem to have been in this fantasy world of non-existent enemy. But this enemy was very real, says Oaks.
The Mark Stove, you got to know. Was he a frightening man? Very intimidating. Very much so.
Threatening. Constantly with me. And Michael says Stover set his sights on a new set of victims.
You were convinced that Mark Stove was a clear and present danger to your family.
That is true. And did you act on that? I acted on it, but not in the way that you or others may believe.
[Music] [Music] In the summer of 2009, Mark Stove's friends say he finally put the anger and
hurt of his divorce from Linda Updike behind him. He was starting all over and um building on so much more solid
ground. Stove relocated his business from Kick It Island to his new home in Anacortis.
He even met a woman he wanted to marry, Teresa Vokes Michael. And was he a happy man?
He was like a kid, you know. He was he just he was joking with me all the time and he was always fun. He was very
happy. and not at all like the monster described by Linda Updike, says private investigator Lee Haron.
Mark Stove was a wonderful guy, beloved by his clients, by his friends, by his family.
Clearly, he also had his enemies. Mark Stove, the stalker, was about to become Mark Stove, the stalked.
Dispatch, 911. What's your emergency? It began with an anonymous phone call to the Scadget County Sheriff's Department
on August 3rd, 2009. Can I help you? Yes. There's a crime that's going to take place in the morning.
It's a drug deal, the caller says, and he names the man who will be transporting the drugs.
His last name is Stove. Okay. And is somebody there with you or why are you whispering?
Very dangerous. He actually carries a gun. I wish you guys would do something before it kills somebody.
Mark Stove was pulled over the following day. Police found a small metallic box on the
undercarriage of Mark's vehicle which contained a couple of marijuana cigarettes and some very lowgrade
cocaine. Stove was not arrested pending further investigation, but he was so alarmed he
hired Haron to get to the bottom of it. It was such a deliberate act. It said, "We're setting you up. We want
you to go to jail." All he kept saying is, "Who would want to destroy me? Who would want me out of the picture? Who
would want to destroy me like this?" And I didn't say anything. and he says, "You know who I'm talking about."
He told me that he suspected that Linda Updike and or her father were out to get
him. He told me that he would not be surprised if they wanted to have him killed.
Investigators never found any evidence that either Linda or her father Wall-E were involved in the drug plant or that
they plotted his murder. But Stove continued relaying his fears about his ex-wife. He was very fearful. He told
me, he said, "She will not rest until I'm dead." Mark Stove saw his own death. Without his guns, Stove had one last
line of defense. His attack dog, Ding. Ding was utterly devoted to Mark. Ding would have done anything that she could
possibly do to protect her master. Ding would be put to the test on a Wednesday morning before dawn, October
28th, 2009. Amber was the first employee at work that morning. And the dogs were uncontrollable and
would not stop barking. She walked up to the house. On my way up the hill, um, I noticed some blood in
the driveway and my thought was, "Oh my gosh, what did that dog kill now?" She then went to the back door.
The door was locked, which it was never locked because he had Dingo and she was a protection dog. Um,
I I turned the handle, but I didn't want to knock. Amber then made a decision that may have
saved her life. She left. You realize today that the suspect was very likely in the
house at that time and you understand that if if you had gone in, what could have happened to you?
I want to believe that Mark protected me that day and I know in my heart that he
did. Another employee, Stephanie Poor, arrived shortly after Amber left. She noticed that Mark's white station
wagon was backed up to the door. I saw who I thought was Mark going into the house and coming out of the house,
putting stuff in the back of the hatch. So, he got in his car and he just screamed down the road. didn't hardly
stop at all at the street and then just took off. Minutes later, Stephanie went up to the
house to use the bathroom. And so I opened the door and it was just like a blast of bleach.
She looked down and saw three splotches of blood. There was a sense in the house that was
very uncomfortable. Made me very uncomfortable. I can only describe it as evil. And
I wanted out of there as quick as I could. And all day I had tried Mark on a cell phone
and it was so unsettling that he had not called me back. The next day, still no Mark Stove. No
return calls. I think we were all trying not to think the worst. Then as Stephanie is walking up the
driveway, I looked up and there was Ding sitting at the back door. She was on all fours
and she was growling. They got Ding to the vet. The news was both shocking and foroding. Ding had
taken three bullets in the head. I think putting that many bullets into a dog and still not killing it, I think
that really says that she tried her hardest to save him. Ding's wounds, the bleach, the blood in
the house, it all added up to one inescapable conclusion. Murder. It was horrible.
Like I cried for three days straight. Um, I just felt sad. Mark Stover's premonition of his own
death had come true. But who had hunted him down and why? I think that there's certainly spite,
hatred, greed. The the usual suspects are behind this murder. And I just don't know how the
story works yet. But Vicki and Julia think they know how the story begins. It is my opinion that Linda Objike
played a part in what happened to my uncle. [Music] [Music] There's only two places on the lake that
he could have dumped a body. Convinced Mark Stove had been murdered. He's up for speed just a touch.
Police search remote mountain lakes and lower a mini sub to scour the sea floor,
but nothing is found. I have complete certainty that everywhere we looked, he's not there.
Union 36 Cascade. Detective Dan Loa of the Scadget County Sheriff's Department searches Stover's
house for clues. I believe that Mark Stover fell somewhere right in this area here.
The blood on the walls, the blood on the carpet, it told a story of what took place.
Traces of a murder, but no trace of Mark. 24 hours earlier. Scadget 911. What's your emergency?
Tammy Gilden and her mom report a trespassing. I need a sheriff to come out here to
Summit Park. Two vehicles, including Mark Stover's missing white station wagon are
illegally parked. Tammy sees a man moving a large object wrapped in plastic from the wagon into a
black SUV. My first thought was, "Oh, a body. I've got a license plate for one of
them." And what's the license plate number? 09. Minutes later, the black SUV with that
license plate is spotted and pulled over for trespassing. Ask him for his driver's license,
registration, and proof of insurance. The driver hands over his license. It's Michael Oaks.
Linda Updike's live-in boyfriend and protector. It was raining. He had sunglasses on,
which is unusual. He was extremely nervous. The deputy notices that bundle in the
back, but has no reason to check it. He gives Oaks a warning and sends him on his way.
Oaks then takes a strange detour. He visits his ex-wife, Jennifer Thompson. He looked very disheveled and frumpy.
He's usually very meticulous and neat and tidy. What does he say to you? I said, "Are you okay?" And he said,
"No, I think I'm in trouble." Oaks then drops a bombshell. Michael told me that if law enforcement
had seen what was in his car, he'd go away for life. What were you feeling at that point?
I don't I didn't know how serious to take it. I was concerned for him because he was so upset. Oaks then said he had
to leave. He kissed him on the cheek and that haunts me cuz he had a body in that car.
Oaks drives into the night 160 mi across the mountains back to Linda's house. He
arrives just after 11:30. That plastic bundle is gone and Linda is waiting for him.
Did you tell her what had happened? Oh, no, not at all. I think my exact words were, "I'm having the worst day of
my life." Linda says she didn't know anything was wrong until she received this chilling
email from a former employee of Stover's the next day. Mark is missing, blood and house. Dingo
almost dead. When I found out Mark was missing, my first thought was, "Was he coming over to my place uh to kill me?"
Soon, there was a knock at her door. She seemed a little surprised that we were there.
Chief Deputy Dave Rodriguez and Sergeant Jean Davis were investigating the disappearance of Mark Stove and told
Linda they were there to talk to Oaks. She uh kept on asking me, "I don't know what's going on here. What's going on
here? I I'm so confused. They say, "This isn't just a social call this time. We want to talk to you,
Michael." Rodriguez asks Oaks if he'd been in Anacortis. He said, "Yes, I was over there, but I
was over visiting my ex-wife." Then he started to get pretty agitated and he's looking around and he goes, "I got to
find my medication." Oaks heads to his SUV. I see Oaks open the back hatch, reach
inside and take out a plastic bag. He throws it over an embankment. Davis recovers the bag. Inside is this 22
caliber pistol. Right then, Michael Oaks is arrested on suspicion of the murder of Mark Stove. I thought this had to
have been just a misunderstanding or a mistake and that this would be cleared up uh very shortly.
But Detective Lou was sure he had his killer. Did you set out on the morning of October 28th, 2009
to murder Mark Stove? I most certainly did not. Michael would not want to kill anybody.
That is contrary to everything about Michael. But the investigation was just beginning. Detective Loua wondered if
there was a conspiracy, whether Mark Stover's killing was a murder for hire. Did you want to talk to Linda Updike?
Oh, most definitely. Did she agree to speak with you? No, she did not. Why not? That was our question. Why not?
Investigators were now turning their attention to the ays from one of the most powerful families in the state of
Washington. I've had no involvement in this. There is nothing there. [Music] My dad is a loyal father. He is not a
murderer. Michael Oaks told me that he was in the small percentage of people who could
kill without remorse. I was driving there to be there at a pre-arranged time, a time demanded by Mark Stove
himself. This case is not a matter of self-defense. I lived in constant fear. It's a case of cold bloodooded murder.
He started leaving a handgun in my room. That's how I was trained. Michael Oaks came to my uncle's house that morning to
assassinate him. Michael Oaks is not a murderer. Are you lying to us? I understand. The jury has reached a
verdict. The conclusion of the dog trainer, the ays, and the bodyguard when 48 hours
continues. Heat. Heat. [Music] Imagine [Music] every day living in my home and wondering whether Mark Stove was going
to show up or not. Never knowing if he did show up, would he kill me? I am Linda Opdike and I was
married to Mark Stove. When I first met Mark, he was witty, very bright, charismatic.
Mark was known as the dog trainer to the stars. My uncle was such an incredible person.
Sit down. Mark had a public persona training dogs. My personal experience with Mark Stover
has been very different. This is wrong. This is goddamn war. You've worked my life enough.
He became very aggressive. He was incredibly unstable and finally I had to leave.
It was a nasty divorce. Things got ugly. He broke into my bedroom with a gun. Linda Updike met a man named Michael
Oaks. The Michael's role became more of a protection person for Linda. their business relationship evolved into a
romantic relationship. After a few years of difficult times, I finally ran into somebody that was very,
very special to me. I kind of felt it was God's gift for being able to get through the other.
I absolutely do not believe that Linda Abdike was in love with Michael Oaks. I think that he was just the perfect guy
to do her dirty work. Michael Oaks left Winthre, Washington around 2:30 in the morning headed to
Mark Stover's house. I was driving there to be there at a pre-arranged time, a time demanded by Mark Stove himself.
This is a case of coldblooded murder. My name is Dan Leber and I'm the lead detective in the Mark Stove murder.
I believe Michael Oaks was hired to kill my uncle. I'm not a hitman. I'm a single father of
four. My dad is nothing like what they're portraying. He is not a murderer. It is my opinion that Linda Objik played
a part in what happened to my uncle. I've had no involvement in this. There is nothing there.
[Music] [Music] I loved this area. I loved everything about it. But it's different.
It's now the murder scene. It has been more than a year since Vicky Simmons brother, celebrity dog trainer
Mark Stove, disappeared from his home in Anacortis, Washington. Police scoured the surrounding
waterways. Mark Stover could be anywhere. He could be in a shallow grave. He could be in
several pieces. We still don't know. In the months before he died, Mark Stove feared someone was out to kill him.
Terrified, he hired private investigator Lee Haron. He thought he was being followed and
that he was concerned for his own life. It's almost as if he had a premonition that he was going to die.
And he told Lee Heron he thought he knew who wanted him dead. His ex-wife, Linda
Updike. I think Mark had a very real fear of what Linda was capable of doing to him.
This mystery had all the makings of a Hollywood movie. Linda Updike, the daughter of multi-millionaire Wally
Updike, drawn into the sensational murder investigation of her ex-husband. Her boyfriend, Michael Oaks, charged
with the crime. Michael would never murder anybody. And those who accuse him of doing just that,
they don't know him and they don't know the whole story. No one believes in Michael Oaks more
than his four children. Amanda is his oldest daughter. We are 100% sure he is not a murderer.
After getting a divorce from his first wife, Oaks took full custody of his four kids, daughter April. He'll sacrifice
everything, his time, his money, and everything, just so we're happy and we have a good life.
The son of a Boeing supervisor, Michael grew up overseas. Smaller than most kids his age, he
quickly learned how to stand up for himself, says his mom, Corey. He's a little warrior, but it's a gentle
warrior. That little warrior grew up to become a self-taught security specialist. skilled
in firearms and I ended up training with SWAT teams and so on and it's uh what we call force
on force training. Michael's expertise in security eventually led him to Linda who told him
her ex-husband Mark Stove was stalking her. Now I'm the guy that can hold a crutch
until I am dead. Michael did an initial assessment for me and looked at the situation, my records
and files and saw what I was dealing with. She confided in him. The threats and he told me that he would ruin my
life. The menacing phone calls. But I can curse you, too. And I know how to do it.
The fear. It was horrifying. Linda had turned her home into an armed fortress with more than 20 firearms and
a video security system. I remember thinking, "This can't be real." Because no woman alone could go through this
amount of harassment. Despite getting a protection order against Stover, the fear lingered and
Michael Oaks was there to protect her. They grew closer and fell in love. 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 romance novels or movies.
Michael and his children moved into Linda's home in Winthre. It all seemed perfect. Mark, as far as I knew, was
leaving me alone and he was going on his way and I was going on mine. What she didn't know, says Michael Oaks,
is that Mark Stove had set his sights on a new target. Mark Stove sought me out and told me
that I would do what he wanted. From that point for almost 6 months, I lived in constant fear. Oak says his first
terrifying encounter was in a Costco parking lot when Mark Stove appeared out of nowhere.
He said that he knew who I was and he knew that I was in a relationship with Linda and he said there was something of
his that she wouldn't give back and that I was going to get it for him. As bizarre as it sounds, Oak says Stover
demanded Linda's wedding photos, and if he didn't get them, Oaks's children would pay the price.
He went on to describe what my daughters were wearing that morning. And what did you realize at that moment?
He had had been following us whole time. And he said, "You're going to get this this these wedding pictures back and
then they would be okay." And I was very much afraid. so afraid he trained his children how to defend themselves.
He started placing a firearm in my room and he told me if I thought I heard an intruder, I was to take the handgun and
fire at them. Oak says Stover's obsession with those wedding photos went on and on. He
demanded secret meetings, including two at this church in Anacortis. Did Michael
tell you that Mark Stove approached him and told him information about the kids and demanded wedding photos?
No. Why wouldn't he share this vitally important information with you? My guess in knowing Michael is he really
did not want to stress me out more. He was a deeply disturbed individual. He was a very disturbed person.
Then Oak says Stover demanded that he come to his home in Anacortis. Oak says he had no choice. He had to go.
I was under tremendous pressure to do exactly what he wanted, exactly how he wanted it or suffer the
consequences. [Music] [Music] October 28th, 2009, 2:30 a.m. Michael Oaks is captured on
Linda Updike security cameras leaving her home. His destination, Mark Stover's house.
It was put up or shut up time. Stover was obsessed with those wedding photos, Oak says.
I was supposed to deliver them to him or else. And the else is what? My children were frequently mentioned as
the else. Oaks didn't have the photos, but he went anyway, thinking he could reason with
Stover. just in case he went prepared for the worst. I was always armed in every meeting with
Mark. I had worn my Kevlar vest to every one of those because he was getting progressively
less patient with me. Oak says he parked his car down the road and walked to Stover's house.
Once inside, Michael says Stover left him alone. Moments later, he returned with a gun.
He caught me totally by surprise and shot me in the vest. And in the struggle, he was not wearing kevlar and
he was shot. What gun was Mark Stove killed with? His own gun. So, what are you telling me? You shot
Mark Stove in self-defense? Absolutely. Next thing he knew, says Oaks, he was outside and staring into the ferocious
face of Stover's guard dog, Ding. The dog came at me. I had to shoot the dog. Soon after, employee Stephanie Poor
arrives for work. She sees a man at the top of the driveway. I saw who I thought was Mark going into
the house, coming out of the house, putting stuff in the back of the hatch. What made you think it was Mark?
Because it was his hat and his jacket. And why wouldn't I think it was Mark? Having put on Stover's trademark hat and
coat, Oaks loads the dead body into the back of Stover's station wagon and tears
off. It was the worst moment of my life. I wanted him to be alive still. I would never harm anybody for any
reason except to defend my family myself. Lead detective Dan Loua isn't buying it.
Do you believe that Mark Stove threatened Michael Oak's children? No, not at all.
You don't think it happened? I don't think it happened. In fact, Lou Vera doesn't believe any of
Oaks's story. I believe Michael Oaks went to Mark Stover's house that day with a mission,
and that mission was to kill him. After fleeing, Oaks drives Stove's station wagon to this parking lot. A
woman calls police. There two vehicles facing back to back. Looks like somebody's transferring something back
and forth. Was it the body? If it was self-defense, asked Loua, why did Oaks move it? Why
didn't he call police? And why did he drive to meet Jennifer Thompson, his second wife, who he divorced in 2009,
just hours after the shooting, and tell her this disturbing story. The tension was so thick. The unspoken was so loud.
He's just noticeably agitated and not okay. They went for a walk down by the water's
edge. I said, "Are you okay?" And he said, "No, I think I'm in trouble." Michael told me that u if the police saw
what was in the back of his car, he'd go to prison for life. Jennifer says Michael then implied that
whatever he'd done, he'd been hired to do it. Michael told me that it was a job gone
bad. Now, Jennifer believes he was talking about a murder for hire. I believe Michael Oaks is the hitman. He
took on a job to go take someone out. Jennifer believes that Michael had long been a killer in waiting based on his
unusual philosophy. He felt that there were evil, bad people who needed to be removed, taken away,
taken out. Not everyone was capable of taking those people out. He prided himself on being one of them.
Your ex-wife claims that you described what had happened earlier in the day as a job gone bad. A job implies you were
hired by someone. Yeah. Well, I think she has an interesting approach creatively
speaking. I believe my exact words were, "I had a meeting. Something went dreadfully wrong and I
will be blamed for it." He got that right. Oaks was arrested and charged with the murder of Mark
Stove. But investigators weren't so sure he acted alone. Did you want to talk to Linda Updike?
Oh, most definitely. Did she agree to speak with you? No, she did not. Linda briefly spoke to police the night
Oaks was arrested the next day on her attorney's advice. She refused to answer any more questions.
Michael was freed on bail, but the lovers were forbidden by court order to see each other or communicate.
I think Linda Oakdike knows more than what she's telling. Like, how did Michael Oaks know to put
on Mark Stover's trademark hat and coat the morning of the murder? Lyndon knew his favorite hat. She could
have described it to Oaks. Investigators believe that you must have given Michael details of Mark Stover's
life, what hat he wore during the day, what car he drove. That's simply not true.
The implication was that Michael was hired by someone to go over and kill Mark Stove. Was it you?
No, absolutely not. But Stover's niece, Julia Simmons, believes Oaks was played by a master
manipulator. I'm sure Linda just had him so wrapped around her little finger, she
could have gotten him to do anything. [Music] Can I help you? I need to uh report something. Police
believe this peculiar call from an unidentified man in August of 2009 was the first strike in an organized
campaign to destroy Mark Stove. I have seen a gentleman questioning drugs. And do you know the name?
I know a name. His last name is Stove. S O E R. The police found a small metallic
box on the undercarriage of Mark's vehicle which contained a couple of marijuana cigarettes and some very
lowgrade cocaine. Stove wasn't arrested, but feeling he'd been set up, he asked his private
investigator, Lee Haron, to get to the bottom of it. Mark had been in fear of his life for
some time. Why are you whispering? Uh, yeah, it was something that's very delicate. When Jennifer Thompson heard
the tape, she instantly recognized the distinctive voice. It was her ex-husband, Michael Oaks.
I'm trying to make completely anonymous. When I heard it, I thought it was very disturbing because it was
the moment I realized that whatever he had done, it was premeditated. I believe that Michael Oaks planted the
drugs with or without the help of other people. And while Linda Updike has never
been implicated, Heron thinks she's the only possible link between Michael and Mark Stove. Since Heron believes the two
men never met. In the 2 and 1/2 months that I worked for Mark, he never mentioned the name
Michael Oaks. He never gave any indication that he knew who Linda's boyfriend was.
Did you plant drugs on his car? No. No, I did not. Remember that drug call was made at a time when Oaks insisted he
was being harassed by Stover. So who was really stalking who? Stover's fiance, Terresa Vokes Michael.
It was after the the drug planting that he he thought that his his life was in danger.
Stove may have had a reason to be afraid. Authorities believe Oaks traveled to Anacortis just 4 days before
the murder. This home security video taken at Linda Updike's that same day shows Oaks loading up what appears to be
two rifle cases. He says he told Linda he was going on a hunting trip. They shared a long goodbye.
The long passionate embrace that was captured on Linda's surveillance cameras indicates that Michael Oaks thought of
himself as a prince who was out to slay the dragon, his perceived dragon for the
damsel in distress. and his perceived dragon was Mark Stove. They're comparing it to a wife saying
goodbye to a soldier as they're about to go off to war. Well, um, and maybe they haven't
experienced true love and Michael and I really love each other and it was always
long goodbyes for us. They're very difficult. We do not like to be apart. Is it possible that this love
drove him in order to protect you and to protect his children to plot and kill Mark Stove?
No. Michael would never initiate a plot or a plan or aggressive act towards another person. It's just not who he is.
But on the day Stove died, authorities believe Michael made a three-hour drive from Linda's house over the Cascade
Mountains to a Walmart near Stover's home. He's caught on surveillance cameras shortly after 5 in the morning.
See him walking across the parking lot, grabs a shopping cart, and he's on his way.
What does Oaks buy at Walmart? He buys a backpack, some weights, some anchor line. Buy some
camo gear, camo pants, camo shirt. You did purchase weights at 5:20 in the morning.
Yes. You purchased anchor rope. Rope. Yes. Camouflage suit. Mhm. Yes. Now, does that sound like
someone who's buying supplies for a meeting or someone who is buying supplies to go kill someone?
A meeting with Mark Stove, where you're carrying guns and you're wearing body armor, is
not exactly a meeting at Starbucks. Famed defense attorney John Henry Brown, who once represented notorious serial
killer Ted Bundy, says there's no connection between Oaks's Walmart shopping spree and murder.
Michael did not go to that meeting thinking everything was going to go smoothly. Michael was prepared to defend
himself that day. That doesn't mean he went there with premeditation. Oaks says this bullet hole in his Kevlar
vest proves Stover shot him. But prosecutor Rich Hyrick believes Oaks shot his own vest.
It appeared to have gone in very close to exactly straight, exactly in the middle of the bulletproof vest. What it
suggested to us is that it was done either before or after as somewhat of an alibi.
Investigator Dan Loua took us back to Stover's house at the exact time he believes Oaks attacked. I believe March
Stove let the dog out probably through this carport door. Ding comes outside in this driveway area where I believe
Michael Oaks uh shot Ding several times. Mark comes out the door to see what's going on with Ding. I believe Mark's
door got shot right where we're standing and quickly retreated back to the house.
Loua believes Oaks finished him off in the hallway because of the blood on the walls.
If this is a case of selfdefense, as you say, why didn't you call police immediately and report this?
With my knowledge of law enforcement, nothing added up with Mark Stove. I don't know if it's because he was so
tight with the local law enforcement. I don't know what it was. I'd already that from that first meeting with him
did not feel like calling the police would do anything but kill my kids. Police believe he didn't report it
because he had committed murder. Oaks admits to putting Stover's lifeless body in the back of his SUV, but he's never
revealed to investigators where he got rid of it. What did you do with Mark Stover's body?
I think that probably the nitty-g gritties on that are going to have to wait to court.
But you have a story to tell that you want the world to hear. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think 12
reasonable people are going to see a a reasonable man taking care of his his kids first. And on that basis, I will be
exonerated. Don't come. Come here. Come here. Come here. No. Come. Come here. Right here.
Sit down. Nearly one year to the day Mark Stove was gunned down at his house, Michael Oaks goes on trial.
Be sated for his murder. Number one, Mark is dead. Number two, that the defendant killed him.
Prosecutor Rosemary Kahakula begins the case by connecting the dots between Oaks
and Stover's ex-wife, Linda Updike. Ms. Opdike was armed to the teeth. Mr. Oaks became her bodyguard.
A bodyguard, prosecutors say, who became an assassin, shooting an unarmed Mark Stove in his home.
Mark's house was searched after his disappearance. There were no guns found in his house. He didn't have any.
They meticulously present a mountain of evidence against Oaks, beginning with two women who saw him moving what may
have been Mark Stove's body. And he had a big huge wad of plastic, a big roll of plastic.
The jurors see that damning Walmart video and learn about shell casings recovered from outside Stover's home
that match Oaks's 22 caliber pistol. You may call your ex witness. Then Jennifer Thompson, who asked her face
not be shown in court, tells the story that links her ex-husband directly to Stover's killing and suggests it may
have been a murder for hire. He said he was doing a job and something went wrong.
If the jury believes your testimony, he's likely to go to prison for decades. It just was a matter of right and wrong.
And I can feel bad and I can cry over it. But he killed someone. How do you not go forward with that?
But the defense had a strategy to turn the tables on the prosecution, saying the real victim in this case is Michael
Oaks. Mark Stove made it perfectly clear that if Michael didn't do what he wanted him
to do, Michael's children would be dead. Michael has never pointed a firearm at any other human being in the course of
his entire life until the morning of October 28th, 2009. And then he did it only in self-defense.
With his freedom hanging in the balance, okay, Mr. Oaks, come on up. Michael Oaks
must now convince 12 jurors that Stober's threat was real. And he said that I was going to do what
he wanted. And he began to describe [Music] he he began to describe what my daughters were wearing.
You mean to school? Yeah. that morning, that day. Oaks then puts on that Kevlar vest he
wore at Stover's house and demonstrates how he acted in self-defense after Stover shot him.
What do you do? I don't think we were expecting that. That was amazingly fast. this joke.
Is that the way you did that? That's how I was trained. He even had an explanation for that
shopping trip to Walmart. Oak says the supplies, the rope, the weights, the camouflage would only be used if Stove
sent out his attack dog. Oaks's plan was to flee to this nearby water tower. My hope was to attach a
weight to the D-ring and use it to basically access the ladder on the water tower
and quickly tie those weights to the end of the rope, throw the rope up onto the
ladder to pull himself up. This is like a James Bond movie gone wrong. [Music] Oaks then reveals the secret so many
people have longed to hear. where he put Mark Stove's body. There's a kind of a dilapidated
looking dock thing. The dock is just a mile from Stover's home. And I got my car as close to that as
possible and muscled him out and and uh dropped him in the water. But Oaks has a problem. Authorities
searched that very spot just days after Stover disappeared, never finding a body.
I know Michael Oaks doesn't want us to find the body because it's going to tell us that Mark was probably shot in the
back of the head or in the side of the head. It's going to tell us stories that Michael Oaks does not want us to know.
Are you lying to us? It's it's a natural question and it's a a question that I respect from from
anybody. I am telling the truth. Are we ready? Oaks's defense team is now ready to call
a dramatic witness, a former employee who will crush investigators claims that Stover was unarmed.
Sit down. Stay. Her name is Megan Mataya. She will testify that Stover invited her on a
hunting trip just two months before his death and asked her to carry his gun. It
was my understanding he was going to go get a gun out of his safe from wherever he was storing that.
Megan is also the only other person who can back up Oaks's claim that Stover was
indeed stalking him. Mark told Megan Mataya that he saw Linda and Michael in the Costco in Kenowick.
The same Costco where Michael Oaks says Stover first confronted him. He said, "You're the guy that's my wife."
But in a decision that cripples the defense, the judge rules there is no way to verify that Megan's story is true and
she is not allowed to testify. The Costco episode that is hearsay. Michael Oaks's life now depends on
someone who had remained in the shadows, refusing to speak to investigators, his
lover, Linda Updike. She is now willing to come forward to save his future. Hearing what happened to Michael, and
that he ended up being a victim of stalking, it was really important for me to stand up and talk about that.
You may call your next witness. Miss Updike, if you'd raise your right hand. Linda begins by telling the jurors just
how dangerous Mark Stober could be. I woke up with Mark in my bedroom and he had a pistol in his hand and laid it on
the pillow next to my head. With Linda captive on the stand, the prosecutor zeros in, raising the
possibility that Linda was somehow involved in Stover's murder. Isn't it true that if this is a case of
self-defense, it gets you off the hook, too? What do you mean by that? If a jury were to find that this was
self-defense, you wouldn't have any more liability either, would you? I have no liability in this case.
[Music] In fact, prosecutors have never charged Linda Updike with any crime. Was Linda Updike involved in the death
in any way in the death of Mark Stove? Not at all. Did Andrew crochet that? Yes, he did. This was about my children
and me and Mark's over. He started a gunfight and I won. But will he win this final
battle? The jury will now decide. [Music] With the jury deliberating his fate, Michael Oaks and his family come
together and wait. I just cannot believe that God put him in my life and we have the possibility
of him not being in my life. As the agonizing wait drags on, one, two, three days, Mark Stover's sister
Vicki worries the jury is deadlocked and prepares herself for the possibility of
an aqu quiddle. Being a woman of faith, I know that everything done in secret will
eventually be shouted from the housetops. The truth will come out eventually. Inside the courthouse, the jurors comb
through the mountain of evidence. It was absolutely overwhelming. I've made a timeline based on the
evidence, assembling a 20ft timeline, and elaborate fact sheets to help them find the truth.
We had only his words, the fact that there's no body, some things related to the bullets that injured Dingo. He took
extensive preparations. I just kept thinking, if it was really self-defense, why didn't he call the police?
After four long days of examining the evidence, the jurors voted for the first time. It was unanimous.
I understand the jury has reached a verdict. Stover's family and the investigators
gather on one side of the courtroom, the Oaks clan on the other. We the jury find the defendant Michael
Glenn Oaks guilty of premeditated murder as charged. Number one, tragedy and relief.
I'm just so happy that we were able to get justice for my uncle. It's been a long road, but we're really happy. But
at this time, I'll revoke the bail and remand Mr. Oaks into custody. Michael Oaks gives his children one last
hug goodbye and is led away. [Music] expectations that this would work out and um it was like beyond shock to hear
that guilty verdict. Juror Tom Jenkins, what would you tell Michael Oak's children?
That I truly wanted to believe his story. Um I did everything I could to try to believe his story, but there just there
wasn't enough facts. [Music] Five weeks after the verdict, Michael Oaks heads back to court for sentencing.
He was an extremely intelligent, witty man with a phenomenal gift. Where he must listen to Mark Stover's
anguished loved ones describe their grief. Until the day I die, I will always wonder what happened that morning. Why
was he murdered? Where is my brother? Michael Oaks's mom, Corey, begs Judge Mike Rickert for mercy.
She starts out calmly. He's got a gentle heart and builds to a fervid pitch. I get to see it. I can hear what he said
when the gun went off. He sat there beside him. He sat there beside him and didn't know what to do.
A desperate mother pleading for her son's life. So I I tr I trust that you will be merciful.
Well, after listening carefully, the judge addresses Michael Oaks. I almost have more questions now than I
had when we picked the jury. He goes on to say, "It's a simple story, one that has played out through the
ages. How does the knight win the hand of the princess? He goes out and he slays the
dragon that's chasing the princess. As for Michael's claim of self-defense, I believe that the calculating a
manipulative plan was something that I hadn't seen to that degree in a long, long time.
I don't know where Mr. Stober is, but I pretty sure I know where he isn't, and that's off the dock at the end of the
Swinimus channel. And I also felt that the cruelty to not disclose where the body was, that struck a chord in me.
I would sentence you to 320 months in the Department of Corrections. Michael Oaks gets the maximum sentence,
26 years behind bars, no chance of parole. [Music] Oaks's children have lost the father
they love. Little Andrew lives with his grandparents. Amanda and April with Linda Updike.
There are a lot of ruined lives in this. It's tragic for every single person involved in this.
Linda, never charged, continues to adamantly deny any knowledge or involvement. She and the children still
believe Michael acted in self-defense. We're sick and together and no matter what, we're fighting tooth and nail. Um
because when one of us is under fire, we all are. We know his innocence and we're not
going to take no for an answer in this. Vicki and Julia Simmons believe Michael Oaks is just one part of the story and
the final chapter is yet to be written. My job is to follow this story to the end. I will always be looking for who
did this, who was in the conspiracy, why it was done. That's my job. We just still don't know so much. We're
just going to have to hope that Michael Oaks realizes that he was not being the hero. We need the
truth. We need the body. I need to find him. And I just can't let that go. [Music]
[Music] I remember being woken up early in the morning by a hellacious barking. It was
2009, 3 days before Halloween, a time when the boundaries between the living and the dead become blurred.
Stephanie Poor said the dogs next door were going crazy and they were upset and it was loud.
What' you think to yourself when you were lying in bed listening to that? Um, something was going on over there
and I wanted to get some more sleep and um, I was going to have words with Mark.
Mark was Mark Stove, Stephanie's next door neighbor and her boss. Stephanie was a dog trainer at Mark's facility in
Anacortis, Washington, an island community about 80 miles north of Seattle. He had built a successful
business working with the dogs of the rich and famous and had earned the nickname the dog whisperer of the
Pacific Northwest. That morning, Stephanie made her short commute to work. She assumed Mark had
already left to meet a client in Seattle. And I'm on the phone leaving a message
with him and he's in the driveway. The car is in the driveway parked up by the house. I'm thinking, "Wow, that's weird
because he really he's probably going to be, you know, a little antsy because he
would have rather been gone by now." Mark had a reputation as a bit of a pitbull, intimidating, and impatient.
I saw who I thought was Mark going into the house, coming out of the house, putting
stuff in the back of the hatch. What made you think it was Mark? because it was his hat and his jacket. He opened
the the door to the car, looked at the front windshield, grabbed something off the front, and then just tore like
literally tore down the driveway. Then Stephanie went up to the house to the bathroom. As she walked up the
driveway, she saw tire marks from the car and some spots of blood on the gravel.
Stephanie assumed that the blood belonged to Ding, Mark's guard dog. Ding recently had surgery.
I explained it away that Ding must have ripped her stitches out out here. The blood wasn't the only sign something
was wrong. I could smell the bleach before I even opened the door. Stephanie stepped inside. She noticed a
bedroom door that was usually never shut was closed. And as she went into the house, Stephanie saw three big spots on
the floor. Did they have a color? It was blood. It was red. Dark. Dark red. Stephanie was worried. She kept calling
Mark, but he never answered. Stephanie hoped the blood was from Ding's surgical wounds. She was doing
her best to avoid imagining the worst. But the next morning when she came back to work, she was startled to see Ding
sitting by the back door. She was on all fours and she was growling. Something had happened to her.
Maybe she had had a stroke. It was obvious one eye was in a horrible mess. We couldn't find Mark. We were I was
calling him. I left a message. Mark, we're really concerned. Where are you? You know, why is Ding here?
An unsettling feeling hit Stephanie. I can only describe it as evil. Something horrible, something terrible.
I knew something bad had taken place. Stephanie called 911. Mark's new girlfriend had also called
the police after not hearing from him. Soon after, sheriff's deputies arrived on scene.
Investigators believed the bleach, the blood, and Mark's vanishing act all added up to one inescapable conclusion.
It was a cold-blooded murder. But detectives had no idea they were about to step into a hall of mirrors
where nothing was as it seemed. I've never seen in my career a case that has as many twists and turns and mysteries
as this case with Marx. They soon discovered a story tangled in obsession. We don't have the truth yet. We have
some of the truth, but we don't have all of it. But who was the hunter and who was the
hunted? I'm Peter Vans from 48 hours. This is Trained to Kill the Dog Trainer, the
Aerys, and the Bodyguard. Episode 1, Puppy Love. The coastline of Washington State, just
north of Seattle, is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Back in the 1800s, my ancestors were homesteaders on
an island not far from Anacortis, Washington. It's gone now, but one of my great greatates even had a small apple
orchard on Orcus Island. Anacortis is the gateway to the San Juan Islands where ferryboats depart to these
wooded jewels. I go hiking, swimming, and fishing for dungeonous crabs and have always considered the small harbor
towns here my gateway into tranquility and peace. That's why I was stunned when 48 hours
first got word about this murder. And then I learned that at the center of it all was a celebrity dog trainer.
Mark was known as the dog whisperer of Anacortis and the dog trainer to the stars.
That's Victoria Simmons, Mark Stover's younger sister. She said some of Mark's clients included Eddie Veter from Pearl
Jam, longtime Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and Seattle Mariner Ichiro Suzuki. I believe he came to love all dogs and
no pedigree or fabulous pedigree. It didn't matter to him. He saw value in all of them and potential in all of
them. Mark offered private training lessons. He could teach basic obedience, but his
wealthiest clients wanted him to train their pets to become protection dogs. This is audio from a video of Mark
training a dog. He's standing in what looks like a gravel driveway, wearing a dark raincoat and his trademark brown
hat with a round brim. Show me the motion again with the stick. Well, this is the barrage that I do.
A handler releases the dog. The dog sprints and bites hard enough to lock onto Mark's leg, which is covered in
padding, and a tugofwar ensues between the growling dog and Mark. So damn far down.
Mark commands the dog to stand down. Right away, the dog lays on the ground looking straight ahead and awaits the
next command. Out. I just thought he was so incredibly interesting. His niece Julia, Victoria's daughter,
said Mark sometimes expressed his love for dogs in eccentric ways. You know, he has this beautiful Porsche 911 and a BMW
and then he has this car called the dog alac Cadillac. And I swear half the textile of the
carpeting in that car was just dog hair that had woven itself into it. She said it smelled horrible. But one
day they went for a drive and instead of taking the Porsche or the BMW, he takes me and the dog alone.
And he said he didn't want his neighbors to know how rich he was. But Mark didn't start out rich at all.
In fact, just the opposite. And his upbringing was far from easy. We went through, our family went through
a series of losses early in our childhood. Just seemed to be one after another. This is Victoria again, Mark's
sister. They grew up in the Seattle area in the 1950s and 1960s. [Music] My father died when um I was 6 months
old and Mark was 18 months old. Then um shortly after that uh a half brother was
killed in a car wreck that was caused by my other half brother which was sad. And
then um mother remarried and shortly after she remarried um my sister died of pneumonia. She was nine.
Their mother's second marriage also then fell apart. And so she remarried again and um he was an alcoholic. Life at home
was tough. Mark struggled in school. According to Victoria, the family didn't 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 bad path. And then their mother's third husband died of cancer.
We were broke. Um, our family was broke and there was a funeral and at the wake and family friends brought a German
Shepherd puppy for a gift at a wake, which is such an odd choice. The German Shepherd puppy was named
Gunter. While maybe odd, the gift would be a godsend. I've never been able to talk to them and ask them what prompted
them to do such a odd thing. But Mark and that dog bonded that very day. Mark got in touch with the family's old
vet. He encouraged Mark to join the Washington State Search and Rescue Canine Unit.
They trained him and taught him how to train Gunter and um he loved 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 life, gave purpose to his life. That dog saved him.
Mark eventually started to train dogs in private sessions where he'd go to people's homes. In a news article from
1981, Mark is described as a disciple of the famous behavioral psychologist BF Skinner.
Skinner studied how rewards and punishment can condition behavior in humans. Mark applied that to dogs by
training them with punishment and reward. He's told me that he was the first person to ever apply human psychology to
dogs and and to understanding the pack and how the pack works. Was your brother an innovator in in the
dog world? I believe it was. As for cats, Mark was once quoted saying that he didn't like cats because he
wants something he can control. He added, "Dogs are easy to change. It's people that are hard to change. See, I
can't put a choke chain around them. [Music] Mark started training dogs in the 1970s
and by the 1980s was a wellestablished K-9 guru. Mark never married during that time. Then in the early 90s when Mark
was nearing 40, a wealthy potential client called I was looking to do some training with
my dog and found him in the phone book. Linda Updike was the daughter of Wally Updike, one of the wealthiest
businessmen in the state of Washington. I remember speaking with him on the phone and uh very I felt he was very
arrogant. actually rubbed me the wrong way initially. Name dropped a lot of 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,
let's try this out. Mark and Linda met regularly to train her dog. A bond was starting to form.
I saw he definitely 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 at times he could be charismatic with people.
He was very bright and witty and charming. After 8 or 9 months, their relationship
evolved. And even though Linda was 12 years younger than Mark, his sister says Linda
was his type. She was tall, slender, beautiful. He seemed to like the girls from these wealthy families, which I um
always was wondered about just just right down his alley. For one of their first dates, Mark asked
her to go fishing. So, I drove over and met him and did a day of fishing. And um that began when
we we started dating shortly thereafter. So what was the attraction? You know, he was incredibly bright,
eccentric, had u a lot of similar interests in that I did. Linda grew up camping, fishing, and
hunting. They connected over a love for nature and the open air. What started purely as business turned personal and
they set out to build a relationship and a successful company at the same time. They were coming together despite being
from two different worlds. While Mark's family had struggled, Linda Updike was the daughter of a millionaire.
I grew up with my family doing a lot of camping on Whidby Island. We have a small beach cabin up there and I grew up
saltwater fishing, salmon fishing. I was born in California and then moved when I
was very young to Bellev, Washington, went to junior high and high school there. Uh was very involved in horseback
riding and competed um doing Grand Prix jumping and that was really my passion and where I spent my time in my youth.
How good were you at this horse jumping? Well, it probably 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 successful man in the state of Washington.
Yes. He um started with u came from very middle class background and went to University of Washington and then really
became involved in a lot of different businesses. One of them being Chateau Sanm Michelle um developing that and um
that's a very famous winery in Washington sold all over the world. Yes, it is. I'm very proud of his
accomplishments that way. He was also involved in um K2 ski company and Jansport sporting goods and um different
businesses throughout his career. Linda is her parents only daughter. A very good friend of mine at an adult
age. Yes, we're mother daughter, but we're very good friends. That's Nancy Corbin, Linda's mother. She
admits that she wasn't entirely thrilled when Mark and Linda started dating. Mark is not a choice I would have made
for for Linda from the beginning. Mark showed an arrogance had a where he wanted to isolate Linda. Uh all bad
signs. And so it was it was noticed by me right away. Nancy let her daughter make her own
choices and was even supportive when Mark and Linda decided to go into business together. Linda said she'd been
interested in opening a dog boarding business in 1992. Linda and Mark opened Island Dog Adventures. Linda ran the
boarding part of the company and Mark handled the dog training. You essentially were the CEO, right?
Yes. Uh, it was all of my what we developed there was my business idea, my development, my money. I did capitalize
it to go in. Linda thought Mark's reputation in the industry helped and her parents leased
Linda the perfect place to set up shop. Beautiful piece of property that my family has owned, no longer owns, uh,
but did purchase in the 80s. Kikit Island and the surrounding area once belonged to the Swenomish tribe.
Besides a clearing for some buildings, the island is a thick forest with tall Douglas furs and western red cedars.
I don't think there's probably many places like that, whether dogs live on there or people live on there. It was
just a a terrific place. Their house was at the end of a long, narrow driveway that felt like you were
almost entering Jurassic Park. The sprawling property filled with wild flowers, hills, and beaches made it seem
otherworldly. Business started booming. Over time, Island Dog Adventures turned into a milliondoll operation. Linda said
that despite their success, Mark started to become obsessed with money, tightly controlling her spending.
For example, an avocado. Uh, that was too much money. It really upset him. I remember another time I was
Excuse me. You guys have a million-doll business. He's upset that you bought an avocado.
Yes. Yes. There. And you're serious. I'm absolutely serious. Yes. He would be in a rage that I spent too much money
and it was an inappropriate expenditure on things. Most of their attention was going to the
business and not each other. And we were working, you know, 7 days a week, 15-hour days, and there was really
not any time for personal relationships. Despite her concerns, Linda was committed to making things work. I just
kept thinking that if I could reduce our workload, if we could make some changes
and try to get more personal time that the relationship could be salvageable and and work. Um, so we went through
some counseling and at that point in time Mark did want to get married and I again because of the commitment said
okay. [Music] On May 17th, 2002, Mark and Linda were married in a small wedding at the Four
Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas. She was 38. He was 50. This is a picture from the wedding in
Las Vegas. And um this is Linda Opike. This is her mother, Nancy Corbin. Victoria, Mark's sister, showed me
photos from the wedding. At this picture, he thinks he's at the beginning of a very happy
phase in his life, and he's the beginning of a nightmare, but he doesn't know that yet.
[Music] Mark has on a dark suit and Linda is wearing a black dress holding a white
bouquet of flowers. They look like a happy couple here. They do. They do. And your brother thought this is the one
after all those years he married her and that this was going to be his partner for life.
He adored this woman. But Mark seemed different to Linda after the wedding. Things were fine for about uh 4 months
after the marriage and then it really started going south. What happened? What went wrong?
I think my desires for a personal truly a personal loving marriage and relationship was something that he did
not want to provide and could not provide. Linda wanted to move off the island, but she said Mark dug in his
heels. He wanted to stay. Kickot Island meant a lot to Mark because it had quite a prestige to it.
Linda said she watched Mark's whole demeanor intensify. I saw him becoming more aggressive with
people uh for example on the property uh that were trespassing, pulling guns on people and threatening them. uh being
verbally aggressive and very threatening. According to Linda, Mark developed a reputation for threatening locals. He
would even use his dogs to intimidate people. My experience with him was he was very
unstable. And with that and his agitated state and uh he had real highs and lows
and rages that he dealt with, it was very um concerning to me and what his reaction would be to something how that
would affect my safety. After nearly 14 years together, including 3 years of marriage, Linda
decided that she couldn't do this anymore. I recognized that I was so unhappy and I I knew that I needed to
leave the marriage and I got a separation. 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 alone. But she said Mark followed. He
told me that he was listening to phone conversations and that he had been in my house and read my diaries and just it
was it was horrifying. It was chilling to me. Every single moment you're wondering when you walk out the door, is
he going to be there? I know how he operated and his stalking abilities and hunting abilities. The fallout from
their collapsed marriage started a nasty back and forth that would culminate in that bloody scene at Mark's house.
This is war. This is goddamn war. He put my life up. I really did feel that my life was in
danger. Coming up on Trained to Kill, the dog trainer, the ays, and the bodyguard. I
remember at that time thinking this can't be real because no woman alone could go through this
amount of harassment. My first thought was oh a body. I have a safe room in 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 him.
He told me that he was capable of killing without remorse. This is not a case of self-defense.
This is a case of coldblooded murder from 48 hours. This is trained to kill the dog trainer, the ays, and the
bodyguard. 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 Updike 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. [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
that 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 Benika 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 Okonogan 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 uh 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. Better not
wedding pictures. You know, I'm the guy that get all the 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 grudge." [Music] 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 girls sitting around talking about tasering me and shooting 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. 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's 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 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, "Well, 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 dead.
[Music] From 48 hours. This is Train to Kill. Trigger warning. The following episode
contains references to harassment, stalking, and physical violence. Listen with care.
[Music] Can I help you? In August 2009, an anonymous man called the Scadget County Sheriff's Office 911
hotline. There's a crime that's going to take place in the morning. It involved a dangerous drug dealer.
There's going to be a a van transporting some drugs from uh in the Cortis area to
I5 and then to Seattle. The dispatcher then asks the caller for the person's name.
And do you know the names? The last name is Stove. S O E R. Stover as in Mark Stover, the dog trainer to
the stars who had moved to Anacortis, Washington. Okay. And is somebody there with you or
why are you whispering? Uh yeah, this is something that's very delicate. I have I have to not be found
out about this. He's very dangerous. Perpetually carries a gun. It's a little tough to hear, but he's
warning them that Mark carries a gun. He said, "This is very dangerous. I wish you guys would do something
before it kills somebody." He says, "I wish you guys would do something before he kills somebody."
All righty. Well, I've got the call in and we'll pass it along to the deputies for you.
Thank you. The following day, Mark Stove was pulled over by sheriff's deputies. He was asked
if they could search his car. He refused. This is Lee Haron. She's a private investigator Mark hired after the
incident. Lee said when Mark refused to cooperate, the officers wouldn't let him
leave. A search warrant was obtained. A canine was brought to the scene and there was a
positive hit. The dog detected some drugs. The police found a small metallic box on the
undercarriage of Mark's vehicle which contained a couple of marijuana cigarettes and some very lowgrade
cocaine. Mark told the deputies the box had been planted. They let him go, but from then
on Mark watched his back. It was such a deliberate act. 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 of doing to him.
I'm Peter Vans from 48 Hours. This is Train to Kill. The dog trainer, the ays, and the bodyguard.
Episode 3, Secret Meetings. [Music] At the time Mark Stove was pulled over by police, Linda Updike said she had
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
his life. Michael was Michael Oaks, a security expert. We spoke back in 2010. I remember at that time thinking this
can't be real because no woman alone could go through this amount of harassment. Michael said they
met at a Starbucks and quickly connected over their love of books. By the fall of
2008, Michael said their business relationship turned romantic. I said to her, I think we have a
connection that 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 almost 6 feet tall and I'm 5' 6. She's never had children. I have four children, so it was an
unlikely romance, 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 impressed by how dedicated Michael was to his family. After getting
a divorce from his first wife, Michael took full custody of their kids. He even treated the kids of his second wife as
his own. Everything he did took into account of his children. He worked at home so he
could be there for them. He was a full-time single parent. He drove them to school every morning. He made sure he
had Friday night movies time with them or game evenings. The family was a priority to him.
Michael described himself as a self-taught security specialist skilled in firearms. I ended up training with uh
a lot of the alphabet soup of of government agencies and SWAT teams and so on. And it's uh what we call forceon
force training. I owned a small company in in Seattle here and uh I managed to get some training equipment and figure
out how to use it. People have said that you are a gun enthusiast. Is that true?
Yes, I am a gun enthusiast. I've taught all my kids from the earliest age that they I felt they were safe. gun safety.
Uh, and I have shot competitively for some years. You've been described as Linda Updike's
bodyguard as well as boyfriend, right? Is that accurate? I don't believe it's accurate. Let's put
it that way. She never paid me to be a bodyguard. I did a little bit of research and 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 uh suggestions on that front and that was the extent of what I would consider
my professional interaction with her. 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 and 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 minimal. Michael said that by the spring of 2009,
he and his kids started spending a lot of time at Linda's house in Winthre, which was more than 200 miles north from
Michael's place in Kenowick, Washington. 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 romance novels or movies. Their relationship deepened. What seemed
to make it even better was that Linda said she hadn't heard from Mark since he had been arrested for stalking and
theft. I was believing and hoping that that had enough impact and he recognized that
this behavior was unacceptable and that he would be moving on with his life. And
we went for many months where nothing happened. To her, the nightmare finally felt over.
I really started feeling more at peace in my life and more at ease and really felt that he was moving on and I was
able to move on into a new relationship with nothing from the past hampering that.
But according to Michael, the past roared back into the present when Mark Stove unexpectedly
re-entered their lives. Mark Stove sought me out one day out of the blue and told me that I would do what he
wanted. And from that point for almost 6 months, I lived in constant fear. Michael said that Mark hadn't stopped
stalking. He just found a new target. The Mark Stove you got to know. Was he a frightening man? very
intimidating very much so threatening constantly with me. Michael Oak said the first time he
encountered Mark Stove was a real shock. It was around Memorial Day 2009. Michael
and Linda had been in a romantic relationship for about 9 months. I think it was a it was a weekday morning. I had
just dropped my kids off at school. Michael said he then made a stop at Costco and went in the store. When I came out,
he was standing by my car and because I had done research for Linda Optic some months previously. I'd seen a picture of
him. I immediately recognized him. Mark Stove is standing next to your car. next to my car in the park
in Kenowick, Washington, which is on the other side of the mountains from from where we are now.
Yes. The drive from Mark's home in Anacortis to this Costco in Kenowick, Washington
would have taken about 5 hours. Yet there he was, according to Michael, menacingly standing by Michael's car.
He's very icy, actually. He said that he had been listening to our calls and and
he knew all about me and he knew that I was in a relationship with Linda. He said his wife. He didn't say his
ex-wife. He said his wife. And he said that there was something of his that she wouldn't give back and that I was going
to get it for him. Michael couldn't remember if he said anything to Mark or if he just gave him
a confused look as he waited to hear Mark's demand. He said that Miss Updike would not give back their uh wedding
photo albums. And he said I was going to get them back for him. And then he went on to uh
he went on to describe what my daughters were wearing that morning, what they'd worn to school. and there's
no way he could have seen. But what did you realize at that moment? He had had been following us whole time
and uh he said that uh he he told me all the details of what they're wearing, their
backpack colors, everything. Michael said that Mark told him to bring the wedding photos to the Northgate Mall
in Seattle on July 14th, 2009. He said he agreed. Why didn't you at that moment simply look him in the eye
and say, "Mark Stove or whoever you are, get away from me. I don't ever want to speak to
you again. If you get anywhere near my children, I'll call the police." I'm not a confrontational person at all.
That's not my mode. I felt very much offbalance in that meeting. And I think it's one of those things where once I'm
driving away thinking I should have said this or I should have done that. There was 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 can't be real. He has to be
fooling. Michael said at first he was going to call the police, but then decided against it, worried about
getting Linda involved. Did Michael tell you that Mark Stove approached him and demanded wedding
photos? No. Why wouldn't he share this vitally important information with you? My guess in knowing Michael is he really
did not want to stress me out more. Michael said that when July 14th rolled around, he went to meet Mark at the
Nordstrom store at the Northgate Mall, just as he said Mark demanded. Michael said that since he didn't tell
Linda about this meeting, he arrived empty-handed. No wedding photos. Michael said Mark got angry and scolded him.
What was his obsession with these wedding photos? Well, I I I'm not a psychologist. I'm
not a psychiatrist. It enraged him. I believe in retrospect that she chose not to continue the marriage with Mark Stove
to continued to do what he wanted and yet she retained something that he felt was part of him.
A couple of weeks later, Michael suggested to Linda that they leave and go on a trip out to Whitefish, Montana.
That's where Linda's father, Wally Updike, had a house. We were going to stay there and stayed
at their vacation home. In route to White Fish, Michael remembered making a stop so Linda could
take her dog for some exercise and he could pick up some snacks. But Michael said when he got in line to check out,
he spotted a familiar face standing near the front door. And I I'm in line minding my own business and look across
the way and I see Mr. Stover standing by the entrance to the store staring at me.
And what was that moment like for you? Very similar to the first time that I saw him. It's just a shock of
recognition in a place you don't expect to see somebody. Michael, why didn't you just say to him,
"You get away from me. If you get anywhere near me and Linda again, I'm calling the cops."
There's at least two reasons. One of them is I do know enough about protection to know that there's no way
for me to I mean this is why the president has so many people that protects him from potential threats. One
man cannot protect three children 24/7. And for any time that I could enrage or outrage Stove, it was putting a gun to
the head of my children in my opinion. You felt if you confronted Mark Stove, you'd be putting yourself in more danger
instead of dealing with the threat that he posed to you? Absolutely. And I'm certainly not the
first person to feel that way. By now, Michael said Mark's uncanny ability to find him and Linda wherever
they went made him realize Mark posed a real danger to his family. Mark Stove was remarkably sophisticated
in some ways. He had managed to penetrate Linda's computer prior to meeting me. He managed to tap a phone.
Uh follow finding us in Montana was impossible and I took tremendous steps not to be followed. And yet there he
was. How did he find us? By late September of 2009, Michael said that Mark demanded that they set up
another meeting after he and Linda were back from Montana. He was getting progressively less
patient with me. this time at a church in Anacortis. By now, Michael decided to wear his Kevlar vest to the meetings. He
said that he drove west across the state to the church parking lot not far from Mark's house and waited. Still unable to
find the wedding photos, Michael said he brought two pictures of Linda with her horse so Mark would have something to
look at. But Michael said he didn't show up and Michael felt helpless. And the thought of just at any given one
of these meetings that we had just telling him, I'm done. Take a hike and don't come looking for me. You know, and
every time the reality of knowing that there's no way I can keep my kids, myself, and Miss Optike safe if he
decides he's going to go for it, pulled me back from that brink. But were all these stories Michael was
telling me true? Some people who knew Michael well said he had a darker side to his personality, a potentially
violent side. During the course of our marriage, he told me that he was capable of killing without remorse.
[Music] Michael looks had a dual personality. He was a family man by day and tried to
live up his action hero persona in the background. That's Jennifer Thompson. She knows
Michael Oaks as well as anyone. Jennifer was his second wife. I talked to her in
2010. You know, we eloped. It wasn't a wedding. She said they were married when Michael
first met Linda. Jennifer said that she loved him, but that Michael had an insecure side.
Is he a tough guy? Well, no. An action hero kind of guy? No. He 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. According to Jennifer, Michael thought
part of being tough meant being armed. Michael Oaks was very infatuated with guns, weapons, and I think they made him
feel powerful, strong, capable. There was one book Jennifer said Michael referenced a lot. It's called Onkilling
and it's a book about the psychology of killing. The book examines how people learn to
kill in war. Jennifer said that Michael zeroed in on a part that described how one small sliver of the population could
be vicious. Michael Oaks told me that he was in the small percentage of people who could
kill without remorse. She said that over time, Michael's fascination with killing and his tough
guy persona rotted out their marriage. Michael had a really strong sense of righteousness and he believed that bad
people should be taken out so that the good people can not be harmed. Um, the problem is he decided who was bad and
who wasn't. And he felt that he had the right to just take a bad man out. And we
would argue about that. We argued about that for years. Uh, right and wrong. Can
you kill? Can you not kill? And it was a it was a point of contention in our marriage.
Jennifer told me that the final straw came when verbal tensions between them turned physically abusive. I remember
his hand coming up and slapping me across the face and I remember it very clearly and I was expecting
after feeling it I was expecting the oh my god I'm sorry oh my god and he didn't
he said get the out of my house and he chased me down the stairs and I could feel his breath on my neck and his body
behind me. It was horrible. It was horrible because I trusted him. I trusted him and he had never he had
been angry before. He had shown aggression before, never at me. [Music] Michael told us no one should believe
Jennifer's allegations against him. In July of 2008, a year after they tied the knot, Jennifer left with her two
biological kids. and I went to my mom's and I spent two weeks just took my kids at Disneyland,
went to the beach, just got away from it and then decided that I needed to get an
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
you're coming back, we're done." And so he told me he wanted a divorce. Soon after, Michael Oaks and
Linda Updike set up their first in-person meeting. I think he's a very insecure man, and I
think that he musters up confidence really well. He's an excellent salesman. He's an excellent presenter of images.
As the fall of 2008 began, Jennifer faded from his life. As Michael, the action hero wannabe, now had a new woman
in his sights. And as Michael's relationship with Linda grew deeper, he said Linda's ex-husband Mark became
obsessed, constantly calling him on the phone, asking for meetings. By October 2009,
it's become very very clear to me that in my mistaken belief that I could appease or satisfy
Mark Stove, I did become yet another person who was doing exactly what Mark Stove wanted.
He had reached a fateful breaking point. I kept thinking if I can just This is the one thing he wants that Linda Opdike
won't give him. and if she just gives him what he wants, he'll leave us alone. Michael said the two men finally agreed
to meet again on October 24th, 2009 at that same church in Anacortis. There is surveillance video from Linda's
house showing Michael packing up his car to head out that day. It appeared that he was taking off for a
fairly serious journey. That's Lee Heron again, Mark's former private investigator. She examined the
video herself. He was loading a number of items into his car, including a rifle bag.
As Michael is packing, you can see Linda come out onto their deck. They touch hands and then Linda wraps her arms
around Michael. They share a long heartfelt embrace. The kind that suggested to me that something important
lay ahead. Something serious. Here's Lee again. The long passionate embrace that was
captured on Linda's surveillance cameras indicates that Michael Oaks thought of himself as the prince who was out to
slay the dragon, his perceived dragon for the damsel in distress. and his perceived dragon was Mark Stove.
Michael and Linda kissed and he drove away. Hours later, Michael claimed he came face to face with Mark Stove in
that church parking lot. He was extremely agitated, not cold and calculating, not controlled like that
first meeting. He was erratic. Michael said Stove once again demanded those wedding pictures.
So, did you give him those photo albums that he wanted? I never found them. Late that night, Michael is seen
returning to Linda's home. But is it possible this entire story was Ola Ruse for a failed murder attempt? Because 4
days later, at 2:30 a.m. on October 28th, Michael is again seen on surveillance video driving away from
Linda's house. This time, Michael said the two men would meet in private at Mark Stove's house in Anacortis.
Michael claimed that Mark had told him this was his last chance to turn over those damn wedding pictures.
It was put up or shut up time. But what really happened when they met remains a mystery. Only those who saw
the bloody aftermath can express what they felt. I can only describe it as evil,
something horrible, something terrible [Music] from 48 hours. This is trained to kill
the dog trainer, the aerys, and the bodyguard. 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's 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 Hame 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 Dame 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 Aerys, 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 move 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 is different because he's usually very meticulous and neat and tidy,
tucked in, belt, you know, that kind of thing. They sat together at a table in the
corner of the coffee shop. 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. Says, "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. And 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's 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, real paranoid, freaking out at
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
mi, crossing the Cascade Mountain Range for a second time in the same day. That night, he returned to Linda Updike'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 short.
On the evening of October 29th, 2009, the day after Mark Stove went missing, Sergeant Jean Davis with the Okonogan
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 Stove 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 Okonogan
Sheriff's Office. She said um an employee of Stover 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." So, if 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 winintry 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.
Kind of strange, isn't it? It is. Now, Jean actually, Sergeant Davis, then I believe got the call from
Scadget 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 not
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? [Music]
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 he 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 Scadget 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 is 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 odor of bleach coming from what was ever inside that
bag? Yes. Scadget 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 Stove'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. Did you set out on the morning of
October 28th, 2009 to murder Mark Stove? I most certainly did not. In the wee hours of October 28th, 2009,
Michael Oaks was seen on Linda Updike's surveillance footage getting in his SUV and leaving.
Why were you going to Stover's house at 2:30 in the morning? I was driving there to be there at a
pre-arranged time. a time set and demanded by Mark Stove himself. And what did he say the purpose of this
visit was going to be? It was put up or shut up time. I was supposed to have obtained the wedding
pictures that up till then I could not find and I was supposed to deliver them to him or else.
And the else is what? My children were frequently mentioned as the else. So, I sent my children to stay
with my my parents in case it didn't go well. As Michael told it, Mark instructed him
to park about a/4 mile away from his house at the same church where they had met 4 days before.
Why didn't Jesus say, "No, I'm not going to park there. I'm going to drive up to
your home. This is this really sounds bizarre." It certainly did sound bizarre, and I
certainly was frightened, but we're back to that same situation. either it's everything or it's nothing. And if it's
nothing, it means that I have to scoop up my children and honestly uh flee to a foreign country or or something because
they're just was no safety inside any area that Mark Stove could find us. Michael said he did as he was told,
walked to Mark's and was greeted at the front door by Mark along with his specially trained attack dog, Ding.
From there, Michael described Mark leading him through the living room, down the hallway, and oddly into the
bathroom. That's where he claimed Mark confronted him once again with his neverending
obsession with those wedding photos. And 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 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 say to that? He didn't say much. Instead, Michael
claimed Mark suddenly turned around and walked away. He was so agitated or erratic that he had he broke off in
mid-con conversation. Michael said when Mark returned, he 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. [Music]
But Michael had prepared for this moment. As a self-described security expert, Michael said he was wearing a
bulletproof vest that allowed him to safely take the hit to the chest. He said he then quickly lunged at Mark,
grabbed the gun, and returned fire. He started a gunfight and I won. But the fight wasn't completely over. As Michael
exited the house, he said Mark's dog, Ding, attacked. The dog came at me and um I had to shoot
the dog and I stopped shooting as soon as it stopped trying to bite me. So, what are you telling me? You shot
Mark Stove in self-defense? Absolutely. But detectives on the case soon came to a very different conclusion about what
happened that morning. This is not a case of self-defense. This is a case of coldblooded murder.
I'm Peter Vans from 48 hours. This is Train to Kill the Dog Trainer, the Aerys, and the Bodyguard. Episode 5. Put
up or shut up. I want the truth for Michael Oaks as to what really occurred on that day,
October 28th, 2009. This is Detective Dan Louvera with the Scatch County Sheriff's Office. Now
retired, Louvera said he spent nearly 2,500 hours investigating Mark Stover's killing.
We were a small department and we only have five detectives. Lou Vera thought major parts of
Michael's story simply weren't true. That included the meetings over the months that Michael described having
with Mark Stove. Michael Oaks claims he met with Mark Stove at the Northgate shopping mall in
Seattle. Do you believe that meeting occurred? No, not at all. He he claims he met with Mark Stove at a
church parking lot in Anacortis. Do you believe that happened? No, not at all. He claims uh Mark Stove comes out of a
Costco in Kenowick, Washington, and and basically has a threatening conversation. Do you believe that
happened? No. You think this is all made up? I do. [Music] I first met Detective Loua at Mark's
house back in 2010. He was a sharp detective who was meticulous and tried not to leave any stone unturned.
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 dark, just as it was when Michael said he arrived that morning.
[Applause] Lou Vera brought a big flashlight to show us the crime scene. Michael Oak
says he walked right up the uh front way steps here. First, we went through what Michael Oaks
said happened. He knocks on the door. Mark Stove answers the door. Mark lets him in.
Loua and I went inside. Mark's place was like a high-end cabin with dark wood floors and exposed oak beams. He said
Michael claimed that Mark brought him into that bathroom and then left before coming back with a gun.
Mark Stover comes around the corner where I'm standing right now. Where you're standing right there right
now. He says Mark Stoer came around the corner, fired one shot, boom, right into Michael Oaks's ballistic
vest. It's then, Michael said, he grabbed the gun from Mark's left hand and fired back at pointlank range,
killing him. The whole thing doesn't make sense. After he told me Michael's version, Loua
then broke down for me why the evidence doesn't match Michael's story. First, he
said investigators discovered that on October 28th, 2009, Michael didn't drive directly to
Anacortis from Linda's house. Louver said Michael drove west for nearly 3 hours before he made a pit stop. We have
him on surveillance tape at a local Walmart store here in Mount Vernon at approximately 5:30 in the morning.
What did he buy? Michael Oaks bought anchor line, anchor weights. He bought camo pants, camo sweatshirt,
and a backpack. Camouflage clothing. Camouflage. Kind of an odd eclectic bunch of stuff,
isn't it? Yes. Loua believed Michael bought those items not to have a talk with Mark Stove, but
to hide evidence of a murder. I believe that he bought those items to uh dispose of Mark's body.
Interestingly, Louvera said Michael also purchased a pair of soccer shin guards.
The reason he bought those is that he knew Mark Stove had his dog, Ding, and that Ding was uh trained as a protection
dog. Louvera said after his Walmart shopping, Michael headed to Anacortis. Michael
Oak's car arrives in 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. Loua then demonstrated for us what he thought actually happened at Mark's
house that morning. I think he came up the right hand side of his driveway right here.
You can see the tree lines, fence lines. He could have easy concealment. It's dark out. I think as he's in the
area of the kennels right here. The dogs are barking. They sense someone or something on the
property. Mark was uh probably alerted to the dogs barking at the kennel. Sense something
was wrong. Loua thought a worried Mark then led Ding out of the house to confront
whoever or whatever was out there in the darkness. And I think uh the the dog was
shot right away. Ding starts to yelp. Mark hears Ding yelping. Mark comes out probably on the carport
door porch there or maybe out in the driveway. where Michael Oaks encounters Mark
Stove. It's during that encounter that Lou Vera believes Michael Oaks first shot Mark
Stover. Spent shell casings were found outside. I believe Mark Stove was probably shot
just right in this area where we're standing right here. It's the first time I think he was shot several times. And
the first time he was shot, he probably uh started to retreat back to his residence. Loua believed Mark only made
it as far as the hallway just inside the door leading from the carport. And Michael likely fired again and finished
Mark off with one final shot. There was blood splatters on the wall here, on the wall here. When you come
into Mark's house through the carport door, immediately on your right is that bathroom. This is where in Michael's
dramatic telling, he said Mark shot him in the chest, a bullet stopped by a bulletproof vest. Michael said he
wrestled the gun away from Mark and shot him dead, but Lou Vera is skeptical. It's too unbelievable that he could get
shot in the vest, lunge at Stover, grab his hand, twist it, and shoot Stover and take him down. He's
going to 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 says he immediately goes into a defensive mode and grabs Mark Stove's hand and gun. Twists,
shoots, fires. Mark Stove falls. [Music] Loua believed Michael cleaned up the bloody scene at Mark's house with bleach
and put on Mark's trademark hat just in case anyone saw him leave in Mark's station wagon.
Investigators suspected the driver seen speeding down the driveway was Michael with Mark's body in the back and that
Michael then moved Mark's body from the station wagon to his SUV. Later, Loua said Michael's plan worked, fooling
employee Stephanie Poor. I saw who I thought was Mark going into the house and coming out of the house
putting stuff in the back of the hatch. What made you think it was Mark? Because it was his hat and his jacket.
And why wouldn't I think it was Mark? Michael would continue to cover his tracks. But how long would he be able to
evade authorities? After Michael left Mark's house at around 10 that morning, he was seen
stopping at a store where for some reason he bought a pair of bolt cutters. And then a couple of hours later, just
before noon, that's when Tammy Gilden made that call to report a trespasser. 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.
She told me it seemed like the man was moving what looked like a body. That was huge. They had no idea what was
going on. They just happened to see two vehicles parked behind the Grange. Then at around 12:30, we now know that
Michael was pulled over in Anacortis, Washington by that Scadget County Sheriff's Deputy.
Knowing what we know today, what was in Oak's vehicle when he was pulled over? Mark Stoer's body,
it was in the back. Yes. Louvera said, "From there, Michael left Anacortis to go meet with his ex-wife,
Jennifer Thompson. She already told us how they met at a Starbucks, went to the beach, and how before long she realized
Michael had a body with him that day." Investigators said Michael left Jennifer at about 400 p.m. returned the bolt
cutters to that store and drove back east over the Cascade Mountains to Linda's house.
It's a rugged two-lane uh highway that leads through very rural areas of Okonogan and Scaja County.
Surveillance video showed Michael arriving at Linda's at about 11:30 that night. He parked his SUV.
I asked Michael about the evidence they found inside that vehicle. Mark Stove's blood is in your vehicle.
How did it get there? Well, it got there because because he was there. Michael then left again. Where he went
and what he did is unknown. He returned about 30 minutes later. It was the end of a very long day. A
long day that police later learned may have been months in the making. This is the statement of Jennifer L.
Thompson. The date is now 10:30, 2009. The time is now 2200 hours. 2 days after Mark's disappearance, the
Scatcha County Sheriff's investigators question Michael's second wife, Jennifer Thompson. There is some noise in the
background since they are recording at her home. This is Chief Will Reichart. I'm just going to ask you to go over
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
on the record was concerning a call Jennifer claimed Michael received back when they were still married. About May
2008, he told me that there was a potential job coming up that he was interested in taking um about a a woman
and an ex-spouse that was harassing her. If true, that woman could only have been
Linda Updike. Jennifer said Michael then revealed details of a sinister plan. They would basically use Linda as sort
of bait to lure the um expouse toward her. Once Mark Stove was fooled into threatening Linda, Jennifer claimed the
plan was to violently end that threat. They would take him out. Okay. And by taking him out, you
understood that to be they would they would kill him, right? And you mentioned that that didn't
really sit too well with you. Bothered you that he was contemplating doing something like this.
Yeah, we had um you know, mortgage, family, house, kids kind of thing. And I I said, "This isn't good. It's a good
thing for you to be doing." And we had a a big fight about it, big argument. Jennifer claimed that it was after this
bitter argument their marriage quickly fell apart. Eventually, I left the home in July of
2008 for separation. One month later, she said Michael told her that he wanted a divorce. In
January of 2009, our divorce became final and we pretty much stopped contact. But then in October of 2009,
Jennifer reached out to Michael. She wanted to give him one last chance to reconcile.
We still had this intensity together. And so it was just an email of, "Are you sure? Are you sure? Her instead of me,"
Jennifer said after a few emails between them, Michael wrote that he'd soon be on
the west side of the mountains and suggested they meet. This was October 24th, which is the same day Michael said
he met Mark Stove at that church in Anacortis. They just said he was here on a job, a
sign job, and I knew what that meant, but I didn't ask for specifics. Did he say that that job was going to be
particularly dangerous or did he He did when he was leaving here. He said he was going on and um that there was
risk involved, possible injury to himself. Um that it was fairly dangerous. Michael told me that he showed up to
that October 24th meeting without the wedding photos and that Mark demanded Michael return later in the week. The
following day, Michael messaged Jennifer. He texted me and said, "Um, job failed.
I'm okay. No payill." 3 days after that October 25th message, on the same day Mark was killed, Michael
and Jennifer met again, the day that they met at that Starbucks. When Michael mentioned that he was afraid of getting
arrested, he was really concerned about getting pulled over with the things in his
vehicle. Um, he wanted to get them home and get them sterilized. And he said, "If anyone sees this now, I'm going in
right away." Uh, by going in meaning he would be arrested right away. He felt if somebody saw what
was in his vehicle. Mhm. But there was one final interaction with police that convinced Jennifer that
Michael was the hunter in all of this. [Music] A month after Jennifer was questioned,
the detectives came back to her house. They wanted Jennifer to listen to a CD. She told me her reaction after hearing
the anonymous tipster's voice telling the 911 operator about a drug deal involving Mark Stove.
There's going to be a a van transporting some drugs from uh in the Cortis area. My first thought was um what an idiot.
Jennifer 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. Michael's voice of his disguise, but it was his speech pattern and and it
was it was him. It was devastating for her. Everything she had suspected suddenly clicked
because in that moment I knew it was all premeditated. Jennifer thought back to that job
Michael mentioned and remembered something else Michael told her. Something he said on the day Mark Stove
was shot. He said that the people that were helping him, and I had the impression that there were two, but I
don't know that that was stated. People that were helping him were no longer helping him, and he was on his own. No
one was going to help him. So, who could be helping Michael? Well, when Jennifer was being questioned by
detectives in those early days after the murder, she shared an intriguing detail.
The father of the woman was initiating the job. [Music] That would be multi-millionaire business
tycoon Wally Updike, Linda's father. Later, when I got to sit down with Jennifer, she explained this further.
Wally Optike wanted to hire a Michael Oaks to take out the ex-husband that was stalking his daughter, Linda.
Simple as that. Simple as that. Do you believe that Linda Updike is involved in this? That she either
paid or manipulated Michael to kill? I don't believe she manipulated because he's too smart for that. But I do
believe that they served each other's needs. Meaning I think she's as guilty as he is.
Jennifer's testimony to police suggested that Mark's murder was a premeditated hired hit. In our interviews, Linda and
Michael both denied that her father had anything to do with Mark's death. I believe that
she knows more than what she's saying and what she's telling. Detective Dan Laa never called Linda
Updike a suspect, but he has always wondered if she was involved. How would Michael Oaks know that Mark
Stove always wore a hat and wore an overcoat driving a car? Through Linda. Linda was was his basis
of information. Linda had knowledge. She had direct knowledge. You know, she was
married to Mark. Um she she knew him best. When I spoke to Michael, he told me that
he just spontaneously put on the hat after he spotted it in Mark's car that morning.
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
hat. I put it on my head and thought, "This shall probably do for getting down the driveway."
And that's all there was to that. It didn't have anything to do with anybody but the moment.
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
would wear? No, I've seen I'd seen two or three pictures of Mark Stove. Detective Livera told me that he wanted
to ask Linda about this and many other aspects of the case. Have you received cooperation from Linda
Updike? No. As is common in a case like this, Linda and her father, Wally Updike,
hired lawyers after Michael was arrested. She won't sit down and talk to you. She won't sit down and talk to us.
She's lawyered up. She's lawyered up. While Linda declined to take questions from Louvera, she was willing to answer
mine. Investigators believe that you must have given Michael details of Mark Stover's
life that would aid him in attacking Mark Stove, knowing when he got up, what hat
he wore during the day, what car he drove with the dogs. What do you say to that?
That's simply not true. I had no interaction or contact with Mark for since the protection order was issued.
It's not something I wanted to have any involvement with Mark. Uh there again, I
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
go on with his life. In other words, did you brief Michael Oaks on the intricacies of Mark Stover's
life? right down to the hat that he liked to wear during the day to aid him in an assassination.
Of course not. The suggestion is out there. Did your father have anything to do with
the killing of Mark Stove? Absolutely not. Both Linda and Michael refused to answer
most of the authorities questions until they took the stand at trial. There was, of course, one big question
Michael still had not answered. What did you do with Mark Stove's body? I think that probably
the nitty-g gritties on that. I really want to tell you about it. We're going to have to wait to court.
[Music] from 48 hours. This is trained to kill the dog trainer, the aerys, and the
bodyguard. This is Perigan Lake. Just over these trees over here is where the updike
residence is. [Music] In June 2010, Chief Deputy Dave Rodriguez took me out on patrol in an
Okonagan County Sheriff's Fastboat on a lake just a few miles from Linda Updike's home outside Winthrop,
Washington. Rodriguez had helped Linda Updike train a new attack dog and later was one of
the deputies who arrested Michael Oaks. Months had passed since Mark Stove was murdered and still his body had not been
found. Scadget County Sheriff's Office asked us to check any probable locations where
the body may be dumped in water since we're so close to her home. Um, this was on the list to check.
Michael Oaks had spent time near these waters and Rodriguez wanted to check if 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 for two or three or
four or even six divers to adequate adequately search. That's why they turn to sonar to scour
the lake bed. And we grid search across the lake and then when we find something of interest
on the sonar screen, then we put divers down on it. And that diver will be you. Yes, today it's me.
Then Deputy Rodriguez slowed the boat down toward a spot where he had detected some kind of an image. He put on the
divers suit. Are you ready? Ready. And jumped into the water. He swam below the boat, but no luck.
It's been quite a while since um Mr. Stover's been missing. So that makes it more difficult.
Decomposition. Correct. The search for Mark Stove had stretched across the state of Washington. The one
person who could end that search decided to be Koi. Are you willing to tell authorities
where you placed Mark Stove's body? Certainly, all that I know about the whereabouts of Mark Stove, I will be
more than happy to share with authorities in the course of our trial. This is going to be a dramatic week.
It has been a dramatic year. I'm Peter Vans. From 48 hours, it's trained to kill, the dog trainer, the
ays, and the bodyguard. Episode 6. Time will tell. [Music] Michael Oaks has been accused of a
murder of Mark Stove. What do you say? Prove it. That's John Henry Brown. He was Michael
Oak's lead defense attorney. We spoke in 2010. So, my defense is prove it. First, they
have to prove there's a murder, right? Brown is a brilliant showman known for making arguments in court that could fit
into the final scene of a prime time legal drama. We've got blood, right? We've got shell casings,
correct? Got a dog that was shot. Correct. But we don't have a body. Correct. And what does that add up to for you?
Uh, a case of circumstantial evidence. When it comes to representing accused killers, Brown has been around the
block. He titled his memoir The Devil's Defender to highlight a career spent arguing on behalf of defendants he
considered evil. His client list included one of the most notorious serial killers in American history, Ted
Bundy, who said he had murdered 30 people. Bundy once told me 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 argued instead that Mark Stove represented the evil in this case, not his client.
I think somebody asked Michael recently whether he thought Michael thought uh Mark Stove was evil and Michael said no
not not all parts of him which I thought was a very gracious thing for Michael to
say under the circumstances but I think there were parts of Mark Stove that were
very evil. you know, when you start people treating people as objects and when which is what Stover did and
particularly with Linda, um then I think that crosses over. In court, they plan to make the case that Michael shot Mark
in self-defense. The trial started in September 2010, less than a year after Mark Stove was
killed. It did have an interesting cast of characters. Um, everybody appeared at
first blush to be very, very good citizens. That's Judge Mike Rickert. The case became very sensationalized,
uh, much to my chagrin. Um, that makes things more difficult for us as we're trying to ensure that both sides get a
fair shake and that justice is actually done. Judge Rickard said this turned out to be
one of the stranger cases he had presided over. The trial actually lasted four weeks and the investigation lasted
for the year prior to that. And the twists and the turns in the plot and the details of this case um just kept
changing. Witnesses included detectives. Some of Mark's former employees and Michael's
second wife, Jennifer Thompson, who told jurors that Michael said, "If police saw
what was in the back of my car, I'd go to prison for life. But it was Michael himself who played
the leading role in this trial when he took the stand. Mr. Brown, you got a new witness for us.
Mr. Oaks. Mr. Oaks, come on up. His defense attorney, John Henry Brown, wanted Michael to explain why he had to
defend himself. He came around the corner with a gun in one hand and he pointed the gun at me and the
look on his face, he didn't say anything. Okay. How close is to you? I'm inside the washroom. He's right at
the doorway and he's just inside the hallway. 3 ft maybe. Okay. What happens then?
I can't remember if he I lunged and he shot. We tangled and I got shot. Remember,
Detective Dan Louver said it was highly improbable that Michael could shoot Mark
in self-defense immediately after being shot himself, even if he was wearing a bulletproof vest. So, Brown asked
Michael to reenact the shooting to show that it was possible. [Music] Would you mind taking off your coat?
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 Kevlar vest like the one he wore on October 28th, 2009.
Brown's co-consel, Corbin Vz, stood in as Mark Stove. Mr. Valdis is larger than Mr. Stove, as
far as you know. He's taller. Volz held up his left hand and stuck out his pointer finger to act like he was
aiming a gun at Michael. So, Mr. Vles is holding the gun out. He's fired at you.
Mhm. What do you do? Michael lunged at Valz, grabbed his left arm, and tackled him to the ground.
I don't think we were expecting that. The aggressive move startled the courtroom into a big laugh.
Are you all right? I'm fine. My finger wasn't loaded. Michael took off the vest and then
walked back to the witness stand. Can I take this off? That was amazingly fast. Mr. Oaks, is
that the way you did that? That's how it was trained. Can I take this off? Yes, please take that off.
I asked prosecutor Rich Hyurrick why a bullet hole in Michael Oaks's vest wasn't convincing to authorities.
He explained the location of the bullet was suspicious. It appeared to have gone in very close
to exactly straight, exactly in the middle uh of the bulletproof vest. And uh which suggests what to you? Well,
what it suggested to us is that it was uh it was done either before or after uh the event
u as somewhat of an alibi. Back on the stand, Michael eventually came to the dramatic moment everyone was waiting
for. He was finally going to disclose where he put Mark's body. [Music] you somehow get Mr. Stober's um body
into the station wagon. That's what I did then. I picked him up, which was very difficult, and carried
him out to the back of the station wagon, and laid him there, and I had that kitchen towel that I had
grabbed, and I threw that in with him. Oh, before I when I picked him up and the gun fell
down on the floor, I just put it in his vest pocket. Michael then testified he later drove to
that Graange Hall parking lot nearby where he struggled to transfer Mark's body.
I tried to move him to my car, but it was too heavy. 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 it underneath of him and was
able to then slide him across to my car. After meeting with his ex-wife, Jennifer
Thompson in Everett, Washington, he drove back to Anacortis to move Mark's now empty station wagon
and it was still just sitting there and I was blown away. I thought for sure it would have been like some big crime
scene investigation. Michael said he then drove the station wagon about 2 miles to the nearby
Swenomish Casino parking lot. Michael then walked back to his own car where Mark's body was covered up in the back.
You leave it there. Yep. Michael told the courtroom he then decided to dispose of the body because
he didn't think investigators would believe his story. And walking away from Mr. Stover's car.
I see some kind of a boat in the water just near there. Michael said he then 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 and muscled him out and dropped him in the water. According to Michael, he then dropped
Mark's body into the Swanomish Channel, which flows into the Padilla Bay near Anacortis.
Was the gun with him? His gun? His gun? His gun was in his pocket still of his vest.
After you did that, what did you do? Um, I threw some other stuff like the plastic in the water. Um, and I smelled
blood. I'm pretty sensitive to the smell of blood. I smelled blood and I couldn't
see. It was dark and so I started throwing things out of the car into the water um that were in the back. I had some
stuff of the plastic and a piece of carpet from his car and then uh some other items that were you know were
there. He then headed to Linda's home in Winthrop. I arrived there. I don't remember now. It was dark. Um,
I'd had to stop to throw up a couple times. I don't know. I'm not sure. Okay. Um, we see your tape of when you
get to Linda's. So, that' be accurate, right? Yes. When you got to Linda's, did you tell
her anything about what had happened? I just said I had a really bad day. What time was that?
It was late. It was late. I think it I don't remember now. I was exhausted. But when the prosecution cross-examined
Michael, they zeroed in on some inconsistencies in his story. Here's Scadget County Prosecutor Rich Hyurrick.
You indicated that you 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 right? Yeah. Okay. On two other occasions, you were able to
just pick the body up and walk it down. And I think you described a dilapidated dock and toss it in the water.
Yes. And on another occasion, you were able to just pick it up and toss it into the
back of Mr. uh Stover's car. Uh 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 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 do that. Detectives searched the waters behind
the casino with a submersible camera and found nothing. While court was in recess, I asked Michael if he was
telling the truth. Police have searched that area. They have not found a gun. They have found no skele no skeletal
remains. Is that really where you dropped the body? Absolutely. Yes. No matter where he may have disposed the
body, I pressed him more. What do you say to those who suspect that you disposed of the body because
you wanted to dispose of the evidence? That if people could see Mark Stove's body, maybe there's a bullet hole in the
back of the head. Maybe they would have seen that he was shot in the back, not in the front.
Maybe you were trying to cover up a murder. Well, I understand that feeling. I I
really do. And I wish I hope that the body is recovered uh because it will exactly corroborate my story 100%.
After he was cross-examined, Michael watched the woman he loved, the ays, the person at the center of Mark Stove's
rage, Linda Updike, raise her hand. [Music] Please state your name for the record
and spell your last name. Linda Opdike spelled OP D and David Y c K E. Did you choose to violate your
attorney's advice and speak to the prosecutor and testify in this trial? Yes, I did.
Why did you change your mind? because I felt this was an important part of the story that I could tell um about a
dangerous stalking situation and 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 told me she also wanted to defend herself and her father. It's
heart-wrenching enough to be dealing with what us as a family are dealing with with Michael, let alone seeing my
family attacked. Um, it's just another level of I feel victimization and randomly going after anybody with no
reason for anything. And to do a smear campaign, here's Scadget County Prosecutor
Rosemary Cahol questioning Linda. You continue to have romantic feelings, intimate feelings
toward Mr. Oaks and vice versa. Yes. And in fact, I think 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, but I do. Yes. When Mr. Oaks was arrested, you did what
you could to find him a lawyer. Correct. Yes. She asked about what help Linda provided
Michael after his arrest. And you made some phone calls, took some notes, tried to figure out who the best
lawyer for him would be. Correct. Yes. In addition to that, you figured out um if what his bail amount was.
No, I had nothing to do with that. Michael somehow managed to pay $250,000 for him to get out on bail. Linda
insisted she didn't cover that cost. Michael's defense attorney, John Henry Brown, told me the Updikes weren't
paying his fee either. Is Linda Updike paying for Michael Oak's defense? No. God, I wish she was.
Boy, I really wish she was. No, there's no money going through a third party to 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 cases. Back at trial, the prosecution showed no sympathy in its cross-examination of Linda.
Now, it's correct, isn't it, that throughout the investigation of this case, you've been concerned about your
own potential legal liability in this case? Yes. The prosecutor even suggested Linda's
support for Michael may have been an attempt to protect herself. You don't have to worry about Mr. Stover now, do
you? It appears to be that case. And in that sense, the defendant helped you out. Correct.
No. Isn't it true that if this is a case of self-defense, it gets you off the hook,
too? What do you mean by that? You indicated you were concerned about your own potential liability in this case. If a
jury were to find that this was self-defense, you wouldn't have any more liability either, would you?
I have no liability in this case. The prosecution also argued that Linda had no evidence Mark continued to stalk
her after his arrest. You made a report on December 5th, 2008. Do you recall that?
Yes. And you indicated that time that you believed that you saw Mr. Stover's vehicle in the area. Do you recall that?
Yes, I do. Cahol pointed out that Linda was never able to identify Mark in this incident
or several others she reported in 2008 and 2009. Nobody was able to respond in time.
So the answer would be no. That is correct. Prosecutors also called Mark Stover's
fiance, Terresa Vox Michael, to testify. Their engagement was used as evidence Mark was moving on. I talked to Teresa
in 2010. In the weeks before he died, was he a happy man? Oh, he was. He was like a kid. He was
joking with me all the time and he was always fun, you know, when we were on the phone.
But Teresa claimed there was still a dark presence in his life, his ex-wife, Linda. She said that Mark described
Linda as a vengeful ex who wouldn't leave him alone and often took him to court.
He was he just was very troubled about the way things had gone. And in what did he believe the endgame
was with her? I don't know that he thought there was a goal. He just couldn't believe that
things wouldn't stop. The legal battles, the accusations, he knew his life was in danger.
But Michael's attorneys alleged just the opposite. They argued Mark threatened and stalked Michael and that he only
killed Mark to defend himself and his family. They insisted Mark and Michael met multiple times. The defense even
claimed to have a witness who said Mark mentioned seeing Michael and Linda at a Costco months before the shooting, but
the judge ruled there was no way to verify the witness's story. Soon, Michael would learn his fate.
[Music] After more than 50 witnesses and more than 700 exhibits, the jury began to
deliberate. They took four days before they reached a verdict. I'll rise, please.
Linda sat next to Michael's mom and tried to comfort Michael's daughters as they all waited.
Mark Stove's niece, Julia Simmons, was there to represent his family. Who did this jury believe?
We, the jury, find the defendant, Michael Glenn Oaks, guilty of the crime of murder in the firstdegree
premeditated murder as charged. [Music] Michael was found guilty of firstdegree murder. He turned and hugged his
daughters. At his sentencing, his mother, Corey Oaks, pleaded with the judge to have mercy, that her son never
wanted to hurt Mark. He wanted to reason with him. I believe that with all my heart, and I think it's
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
for Mark. Mark's family felt differently. His sister, Victoria Simmons, asked the
judge to give Michael the maximum sentence. Why was he murdered? Where is my brother? When will I be able to lay him
to rest in a dignified manner? Years from now, Michael Oaks will be released. He will have paid his debt to society. I
will still be serving the life sentence that Michael Oaks gave me. Judge Mike Rickert sentenced Michael to
the maximum amount of time in prison, 26 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, there's large parts of your story I just flat do not
believe and never will. There was finally an ending to this emotional saga gone horribly wrong. But
there will always be lingering questions about what really happened on October 28th, 2009.
But the pieces don't fit very well in this case after 4 weeks. And to a certain degree, I almost have more
questions now than I had when we picked the jury. This case of Mark Stove has been defined
by an infinite loop of suspicion between three people. Linda said she feared Mark. Mark said he feared Linda. And
Michael said he too eventually feared Mark. Each person claimed the other was threatening their life until that
morning in October proved that one of them was right. With no more new information surrounding
the crime, law enforcement closed the case in 2012. Linda's father, Wally Updike, died in
2018 at age 81 at his home in Whitefish, Montana. The Chateau San Michelle Winery, the
largest in Washington, remains open today and thriving. The Updike sold kick island, too. It's
now a park that belongs to the Swenomish tribe. It's open to the public for hiking, but there are no dogs allowed.
After Michael went to prison, his daughter, April Oak, said each of her siblings went to stay at a different
home. April lived with Linda until she was 17 and said, "Linda has remained a big part of the family's lives."
Linda last sat for an interview in 2011. It's incomprehensible to me that that's
a verdict that would have come back. Michael's first instinct was to turn to all of you.
Yes. And to hold his family. [Music] Yes. Um he uh definitely loves his children and
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
supporting each other and just sticking by one another. Michael appealed his case to no avail.
He is incarcerated at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walaw Wala. In a call from prison in April 2025,
Michael said he expects to get out in 2035 when he is 67 years old. He blamed one of his appellet attorneys
failing to file an appeal on time for his inability to keep challenging his sentence in court. Today, there is a
website free oaks.com that advocates for Michael's freedom. His family sent us documents from
Michael's appeal. In 2017, the Oaks family hired an oceanographer to study where Mark's body may have ended up in
the water and believed that the police missed a spot where the current could have moved Mark. Detective Dan Loua said
the police searched the channel multiple times and even used underwater cameras.
We asked Michael about his current relationship with Linda Updike. He said he wanted to respect her privacy.
After Mark's death, Teresa, the woman who had hoped to marry Mark, took his dog Ding into her home. Ding had
miraculously survived being shot. And when she came to be with me, she 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 tumor about this big. Well, it grew and
grew and she was in tremendous pain. Um, so I 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 link to him. Teresa told me that Ding was buried with
a custom headstone. She hopes a day will come when they can give Mark the proper
burial. he deserves. I would love to see him buried with a ring on his finger. Mark's sister, Victoria Simmons, said
she will never rest until her brother's remains are found. I need to find him, and I just can't let
that go. Being a woman of faith, I know that everything done in secret will eventually be shouted from the
housetops. You cannot plead the fifth in heaven and the truth will come out eventually.
A celebrity dog trainer, an ays and her bodyguard. Three lives ruined by a triangle of jealousy, fear, and rage.
[Music] [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
Regginald Bazil. 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 Tama Balance
Kolassni. I'm Peter Vans. If you're enjoying the show, be sure to rate and review. It
helps more people find it and hear our reporting. Follow and listen to Train to Kill and
other 48 hours podcasts on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Thanks for listening. [Music]

Mark Stover was a talented dog trainer, better known as the dog whisperer of the Pacific Northwest. He was charismatic and attracted the attention of wealthy blonde heiress Linda Opdyke. They built a business together, along with a marriage. But Linda said Mark also had a dark side, and when she tried to leave the marriage, he obsessively followed. She sought the protection of a security expert, Michiel Oakes, who soon became the new love of her life -- her knight in shining armor. But when blood was found in Mark’s home and he was reported missing, detectives went looking for Michiel. In this dark love triangle, just who was the hunter and who was the hunted? Join "48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant for "Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress, and the Bodyguard," a gripping six-episode podcast that unravels this dark story.

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

Mark Stove's murder reveals a tangled web of obsession, violence, and betrayal involving his ex-wife Linda Updike and her boyfriend Michael Oaks.

Key points

The Stalking Begins. After their divorce, Mark begins to stalk Linda, leading her to fear for her life.
The Discovery of Murder. Ding, Mark's dog, was found wounded, leading to the conclusion of murder.
The Wedding Photos Obsession. Mark Stove's obsession with wedding photos led to escalating tensions with Michael Oaks.
The Verdict. The jury finds Michael Oaks guilty of premeditated murder, bringing closure to the case.
The Rise of a Dog Trainer. Mark Stover, known as the dog whisperer, rises to fame despite a troubled past.
Escalating Threats. Linda's fear grows as Mark's behavior becomes increasingly aggressive and threatening.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He got a slap on the hand and it was very disheartening to me.

Linda expresses her dissatisfaction with Mark's sentence.

18:56WatchJul 4, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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