i just happen to be a single dad who s kind of in a very unfortunate limelight right now. keith morrison: well, yes, charged with first-degree murder. so how did he get to this place? the story began, he said, when someone asked him to contact a frightened woman he did not know. that s how he made that first call to linda opdycke. and she said, i m dealing with a really frightening stalking situation. keith morrison: michiel, remember, was a security expert. he d trained swat teams in close quarters combat. he offered to help. she put in my hands this very thick file, including video recordings, audio recordings, police reports, page after page, threatening voicemails. keith morrison: linda told him she d been stalked for years by her ex-husband. michiel oakes: you get out of the shower and there he is, standing in the bathroom with a gun in his hand. and you thought your house was locked. how many of those occasions does it take before you go, any room i m in,
find out who this michiel oakes guy was that was seen behind the grange by the two witnesses. reporter: once police had michiel oakes i.d., they discovered he was spending time with linda opdycke, mark s ex-wife. so now two officers from the okanagan county sheriff s department paid a visit at linda s house, here in winthrop, washington. and sure enough, there was michiel oakes suv in her driveway. once in the house, the officers asked to speak to oakes. he agreed. but then he said he needed to find his pills. he became agitated or frustrated. kept on asking for his medication. and the chief, not knowing if michiel was having is some sort of medical issue, allowed him to look around for his medication. reporter: and while supposedly hunting for pills michiel then secretly snuck out to the basement area of the house and went to his vehicle. it just so happened that the sergeant was standing on the
and we didn t have any evidence to support that linda or wally we didn t have any evidence to support that linda or wally were directly involved other than what jennifer thompson had told us. reporter: why not just call them in and ask them? they wouldn t talk to us. we got a letter and a phone call from wally s attorney immediately after michiel oakes arrest, stating that wally opdycke would not talk to us. reporter: well, had you asked him by then? no, we have not even requested to interview wally. we hadn t even called him. reporter: what did you think? well, i thought, wow, huge red flags. i thought, wow, this guy, we haven t even asked to talk to him and he already has an attorney. and the attorney is already contacting us telling us not to contact wally opdycke? it was crazy. same with linda. she hired an attorney right away. reporter: linda invoked her fifth amendment right to remain silent. a judge ultimately ordered her to sit for a deposition. still didn t s
named john. he told me that there was a potential job coming up that he was interested in taking. about a woman and an ex-spouse that was harassing her. the father of the woman was initiating the job. reporter: a father with a daughter named linda, and it seems there was a plan in store for linda s ex-husband. that they would basically use linda as sort of bait to lure the, um, ex-spouse toward her, and then they would they were to show signs of hurting her, killing her, then they would take him out. okay. and by taking him out, you meant or you understood that to be they would kill him? reporter: linda and her father? could that be wally and linda opdycke, the police wondered? mark stover s ex-father-in-law and ex-wife plotting to kill
someone michiel oakes would have feared. and here, the real work of the defense began. they focused to a large degree on stover s behavior with his ex-wife. linda opdycke, said browne, was stalked and harassed for years after leaving stover. it wasn t just the incident in which her ex-husband was caught rummaging through her garbage. he made a habit of showing up at her house uninvited, said browne, exposing himself, appearing in her bathroom as she got out of the shower, pointing a rifle at her through a window, leaving handwritten notes, threatening voicemails. the fact that he goes into linda s house with a .45 and puts it on a pillow and threatens to kill himself or her, the fact that he breaks into her house, the fact that he steals her journal, the fact that he steals her garbage, the fact you know, all those things are facts. keith morrison: and so when it came time for the defense to finally make its case, browne s co-counsel corbin volluz did his best to drive the allegations