keith morrison: so instead, he said, he ditched mark s car at that casino, looked around for a place to dump his body. michiel oakes: there s kind of a dilapidated-looking dock thing. and i got my car as close to that as possible and muscled him out and dropped him in the water. keith morrison: an area investigators had searched but never found anything. then, he said, he drove across the state not to his kids, but to linda s house, though he insisted he did not tell her any of what just happened, didn t tell her what he d done. i just said i had a really bad day. and when the police showed up the next night, he admitted, he did try to throw out some evidence. what was your intent? i needed i needed one more day. i didn t i was trying not to get arrested just yet. keith morrison: but of course, he was arrested and charged. and now, it was prosecutor rich weyrich s turn to challenge his story about, for example,
that morning at mark stover s house. did you hear the gun go off? you know, i don t recall anything really. who pulled the trigger? i believe i did. rich weyrich: ok. was his finger still on the trigger? you know, i do not know. where were you when you pulled the trigger? i don t know. where was the bullet hole? i don t know. you weren t curious enough to look? i was very disturbed. keith morrison: and despite all those people who testified they were knocked back by the overwhelming smell of bleach i don t recall smelling any bleach. did you use any bleach? i did not. did you attempt to clean up anything? no. keith morrison: didn t try to erase evidence, he claimed. and as for those odd supplies he bought at the wal-mart so why did you need camouflage? if i was going to make my escape through the woods to to the water tower, camouflage is quite useful for that. rich weyrich: you would have the camouflage in your backpack
and accessoriesphones for your mobile phone. like this device to increase volume on your cell phone. - ( phone ringing ) - get details on this state program visit right now or call during business hours. [train whistle] keith morrison: jennifer thompson just told police a story that, if she was telling the truth, would seem to implicate her ex-husband in the murder of mark stover. detective dan luvera thought her story sounded believable, but in his line of work, that s rarely enough. assumptions are not the same thing as evidence. and
made its case that michiel oakes was a first-degree murderer. here s how their story began, with this video, a security camera about 5:30 am, the mount vernon wal-mart. there s michiel oakes. it s the morning mark stover disappeared. receipts found in oakes car showed he d purchased ankle weights, anchor line, shin guards, camouflage clothes. also found in his car, that bullet-proof vest. prosecutors argued oakes arrived at stover s house a little later that morning. mark s employees were called to testify about what they saw and heard. i was woken by the dogs in the barn next door. keith morrison: they saw the spots of blood, smelled the bleach, saw mark s car racing down the driveway. both back ends were open to each other. keith morrison: and then the trespassing incident at the grange hall near mark stover s house, as called in by those two concerned women, now witnesses. there was a guy standing between the
yes. keith morrison: big time stuff. big time stuff, yeah. keith morrison: why did, was it, was an explanation provided for this? no. keith morrison: before police left linda opdycke s house here in winthrop, they arrested michael oakes on suspicion of murder. and back in western washington, a local buzz began to grow. if michael oakes did kill mark stover, was someone else involved somehow? buzz is discouraged, however, in police work, in favor of actual evidence, which in this case, arrived in a phone call to police from her. michael oakes, it turned out, had an ex-wife who volunteered a remarkable story about disturbing visits and puzzling messages from mr. oakes. what did that say to you? well, it says a lot to me. keith morrison: coming up. jennifer thompson: yeah, cause he just was sitting there, in a frenzy, just, just stressed out.