the woman at the center of it all, linda opdycke miss opdycke, raise your right hand. keith morrison: whose long silence was about to end. coming up, and end it would, with a bang, with stories of who she said was the real mark stover. and he had a pistol in his hand and laid it on the pillow next to my head. i see mark on a hillside behind my house. he s looking through the scope, pointing the rifle at me. keith morrison: when dateline continues.
he s following her. she s pleading with him to stop it and quit following her. keith morrison: that time, said the defense, linda called the cops. and he responded, according to her, by sending her a form canceling her health insurance, which was still in his name, controlling, threatening, suggested oakes lawyer. mark stover has scrawled across the front, next time do not call the cops on the guy that controls your health care. keith morrison: and then the defense attorney showed the jury this video from linda s surveillance cameras. in the middle of the night, here s a man the defense claimed is mark stover creeping around linda s house. corbin volluz: what you see is mark stover walking up the driveway and under her house, out of view of the camera. keith morrison: but that wasn t all. there was a series of odd and threatening voicemail messages, said the defense, many with a similar theme. mark seemed strangely obsessed with getting his wedding photos
big-time stuff, yeah. reporter: why? was an explanation provided for this? no. reporter: before police left linda opdycke s house here in winthrop, he arrested michiel oakes on suspicion of murder. and back in western washington, a local buzz began to grow. if michiel 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. michiel 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? it says a lot to me. reporter: as one person opens up, another goes suspiciously
michiel oakes: the lens i look at the world through is really that of a single dad. i am a nurturer. i m a father. i m a very peaceable person. 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
business. you know, divorce is never pleasant. reporter: right. but their s just became very visible and fighting involved the business and reporter: he is afraid of losing it? very much so. reporter: after the garbage incident, linda came up with a whole slew of accusations, that mark had been harassing her ever since she left him. a domestic violence protection order was issued against mark in april 2008. mark was later charged with criminal stalking. he swore up and down that many of the allegations were not true, but he was caught going through her garbage. 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?