and i truly love mark as a parent, and a friend. and a family member. sometimes the clues and the mystery such as this can be very personal. more about relationships than fingerprints and dna, as the detective knew full well. and in the days after mark s disappearance detective repeatedly encountered disturbing story. these former lovers were afraid of each other. what happened to that marriage? the one of the heavenly island? in fact, there was a record, detective discovered and it was more hell than heaven. mark had issues with linda. and then they had issues with mark. to put it mildly. here is the story mark fiancée teresa told the detectives. the story she said mark told her. linda seem to be doing her best to destroy mark s dog training business. she had been calling clients and saying really horrible
this time the defense would lie in wait while the prosecution 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 a.m., the mt. vernon walmart. 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 bulletproof 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 awoken by the dogs in the barn next door. 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. 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 vehicles, and he had a big huge wad
you know, divorce is never, never pleasant, but theirs just became very visible. and the fighting involved the business. keith morrison: he was afraid of losing it. very much so. keith morrison: 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.
denied ever being behind the grange. his word against the ladies, the deputy let him go. the deputy just gave him a warning. said don t go back there, go on your way. keith morrison: it was just a minor trespassing incident, after all. but now, a day later, it didn t seem so minor. time to find both cars. the dog trainer s car was no longer at the grange hall, but an alert detective noticed it here, in the parking lot of the northern lights casino, three miles from the place where the ladies had seen it. looked like blood on the back of a car. and when investigators ordered up the casino s surveillance video, they saw this. 6:21 pm, october 28th, perhaps seven hours after the ladies saw the car at the grange. here was someone driving mark s car onto the casino parking lot. whoever it was, abandoned it. and now dan luvera s investigation was moving very quickly.
mark would never have done. keith morrison: did you call out to him or wave? i waved and i went i hope that s mark. keith morrison: i hope that s mark? well, of course, it must have been, stephanie thought, rushing a bleeding ding to the vet. about 20 minutes later, stephanie walked up to the house to use the bathroom. this time the door was unlocked. but this was weird. before i even got to the door, there was this immense smell of bleach. keith morrison: bleach? yeah, like, it took my breath away. keith morrison: and inside the house. there was three wet, what looked like blood spots in the hallway, that had obviously been just cleaned and they were still drying. keith morrison: perhaps ding had bled on the carpet and mark had cleaned it up. but why would he take the time? he wouldn t stop and spend half an hour cleaning. his main thing would be getting ding to the vet, then getting to his appointments.