keith morrison: and another time, she said, when she looked out her bathroom window i see mark on a hillside behind my house. he s looking through the scope, pointing the rifle at me. keith morrison: and once, said linda, long after she left him, after mark agreed to plead guilty to the stalking charge, she visited their abandoned paradise, kiket island, to retrieve some personal things. and she said she found in a cubbyhole in the master bedroom a wedding candle that she d thrown away during the divorce. i found the wedding candle in there with a .22 bullet casing and a picture of me along with that in the cubbyhole. keith morrison: was it a message, a threat? in her cross-examination, it was pretty clear that prosecutor rosemary kaholokula was deeply skeptical about linda s fears and allegations. no proof at all from michiel s claims. and linda hadn t seen or heard a word
the person who s dead here is mark stover. yeah. he s the one against whom the violence was committed. here s something that we ve learned in this country, haven t we, you don t negotiate with terrorists. michiel didn t know that. or michiel felt he could negotiate with terrorists. linda felt she could negotiate with terrorists. the reality is you can t negotiate with a terrorist. and mark stover was a domestic violence terrorist. keith morrison: mark s friends and clients had by now gathered around the courthouse here in mount vernon determined to tell the world, anybody who would listen, that those claims were both unfair and untrue. most of all these reports that we hear are filed by her alone and by her eyewitness alone and absolutely no one else s. so you ve got to weigh that in at some point too, that it doesn t have that much meat to it. woman: i just knew that wasn t true about him. there was there was nothing in him that was malicious or vindictive.
he eventually took what s known as an alford plea, which means he agreed to plead guilty, conceding a judge or jury would probably convict him, even though he claimed he didn t do it, much of it anyway. but here was the deal, and this was important. as part of that arrangement, mark was ordered to give up his guns. for most people, that might be easy. but for mark, he had dozens of guns. he loved his guns. it was a passion for him. he loved his hunting. keith morrison: no, guns no contact with linda. and mark agreed. here s what teresa says mark told her. this will make it all stop. keith morrison: in other words, he was telling you, i m going to let her win. he said that was important. that she needed to win. keith morrison: was he afraid of her? oh, yes. keith morrison: still, after that, things seemed to settle down. mark s business thrived in his new location here in anacortes.
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, was mark, as clients could clearly tell.
testified the vehicle spent about 16 minutes back there by the casino, out of range of the camera, on a road that leads to this channel, open water, and this dilapidated dock. later, detectives and divers searched but didn t find a darn thing. didn t find a darned thing. then, of course, there was one other key witness for the prosecution, jennifer thompson, michiel oakes ex-wife. remember, she d claimed that michiel oakes told her he had been offered a job to take out an ex-husband, that he had been asked by a father of someone named linda, and that jennifer was convinced that meant this was a killing for hire. but because that alleged conversation took place when jennifer and michiel oakes were married, that made it privileged. couldn t be used in court. the prosecution would have to make do with just part of jennifer s story. the judge would not allow her face to be filmed in court as she told the jury about her visit