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.
and i truly love mark as a parent and a friend and a family member. keith morrison: sometimes the clues in a mystery such as this can be very personal. more about relationships than fingerprints or dna, as detective luvera knew full well. and in the days after mark stover s disappearance, the detective repeatedly encountered a disturbing story. these former lovers were afraid of each other. what happened to that marriage? the one on the heavenly island. in fact, there was a record the detective discovered. and it was more hell than heaven. well, mark had issues with linda and linda had issues with mark. keith morrison: to put it mildly. here s the story mark s fiance, teresa, told the detective. the story she said mark told her. that linda seemed to be doing her level best to destroy mark s dog training business. she had been calling key clients
she stood down in the field, mark s station wagon was backed up to the carport area of his house. i was kind of surprised that it was parked where it was parked, because it was never parked there. it s really hard to get it into that position to begin with. keith morrison: anyway, why hadn t he left for seattle? it was then she noticed, must be mark up at the house. someone who had mark s hat on, which i thought was mark, was bringing something big into the back of the car. keith morrison: big, big, big? it looked like to me. so i was thinking he was carrying ding and putting her in the back of the car. keith morrison: ding, who remember was recovering from surgery. and then he went to get into his car. he was wearing mark s hat, mark s coat. and closed the car door and then proceeded to like scream down the driveway, which 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.
back from linda, just one of many transcripts of these calls the attorney read from. send those dang pictures of the wedding. i know you re into the wedding. you don t give a damn about me. i don t want anything showing that we were married or anything else. keith morrison: the defense told the jury that linda s attorney told mark to stop contacting her directly, only go through his office. but of course, he keeps contacting her and contacting her and contacting her, because mark stover is dogged in the pursuit of his prey. keith morrison: prey? an interesting word, very deliberately picked by the defense, because now they would argue that michiel oakes also became prey for mark stover, would claim that a terrified oakes believed something unspeakable would happen if he didn t try to appease linda s ex. i mean, the fact of the matter is, you talk about domestic violence terrorist,