keith morrison: up to the jury then. and as the hours became a day and then two and then three, it seemed perhaps they were having trouble making up their minds. mark stover s loyal friends and clients kept vigil, hoping for conviction, eager to tell whoever would listen that mark was never the abusive villain the defense contended. that michiel oakes, his children, and extended family, were joined by linda opdycke. they waited in a rented waterfront house. and of course, neither they nor anyone knew what drama was coming with the reading of the verdict. judge: i understand the jury has reached a verdict. woman: yes, we have, your honor. keith morrison: coming up, emotions boil over. when dateline continues.
and she was obviously hurt. she was growling. and so i started talking to her nicely, thinking oh my god, what is she doing here and what s gone on? and i backed down the driveway. keith morrison: at about the same time, the phone rang in the kennel. it was mark s fiance, teresa. when they told me ding was out, there was blood, ding is never out, ever. she s either in the house or she s with mark. she s not just out barking at people. keith morrison: no mark, injured dog. teresa frantic now, called the skagit county sheriff s department. all of those circumstances were very suspicious. keith morrison: this is detective dan luvera. oh, i immediately thought foul play. this is huge. there s more to the story, and there definitely was. keith morrison: coming up, more to the story? yes, there apparently was, starting with a secret history.
oh, it s beautiful, it s a wonderful place. keith morrison: kiket island is what it s called. an 84-acre teardrop of primeval forest and meadows and beaches plunked a few feet offshore, a 90 minute commute north of seattle. the dogs could go swimming in the water there. there s plenty of trail walks and it s just really, really outdoorsy and beautiful. keith morrison: outdoorsy and beautiful are words which also happen to describe the human love of mark s life, linda opdycke, the willowy blonde daughter of wally opdycke, the wealthy investor who d once helped found chateau saint michele winery. linda s seemed a perfect match for mark, according to the clients and friends who knew him best. she was mark two. you know, i mean they were peas in a pod. they had similar hobbies, hunt and fish, you know, go camp somewhere, you know, that kind of stuff. he just thought she was the most wonderful thing since sliced bread basically. keith morrison: very protective of his linda,
and show the jury what he claimed happened next, courtroom show and tell. he s mr. stover. we holding the gun up. he s fired at you. what do you do? that was amazingly fast, mr. oakes. is that the way you did that? that s how i was trained. corbin volluz: mr. stover was shot with his own gun. yes, he was. keith morrison: so now mark stover was dead in the hallway of his home. and soon after, said oakes, he went outside and was confronted by mark s dog, ding. i shot a couple of times until it stopped coming at me. keith morrison: why didn t he call the police? he had said he owned the cops and it seemed like there was some evidence that that might be true. i just didn t think they would believe me at all. keith morrison: then, michiel said, he wanted to see his kids before, as he said he assumed,
keith morrison: then, not long after, stephanie arrived and noticed perhaps 100 yards from where she stood down in the field, mark s station wagon was backed up to the carport area of his house. i was kind of surprised that it was parked where it was parked, because it was never parked there. it s really hard to get it into that position to begin with. keith morrison: anyway, why hadn t he left for seattle? it was then she noticed, must be mark up at the house. someone who had mark s hat on, which i thought was mark, was bringing something big into the back of the car. keith morrison: big, big, big? it looked like to me. so i was thinking he was carrying ding and putting her in the back of the car. keith morrison: ding, who remember was recovering from surgery. and then he went to get into his car. he was wearing mark s hat, mark s coat. and closed the car door and then proceeded to like scream down the driveway, which