Put Up or Shut Up

I'm certainly the nine.

In the wee hours of October 28th, 2009, Michael Oaks was seen on Linda Updike's surveillance

footage, getting in his SUV and leaving.

“Why were you going to Stover's house at 2.30 in the morning?”

I was driving there to be there at a pre-range time, a time, set and demanded by Mark Stover himself. And would he say the purpose of this visit was going to be? It was, put up, we're shut up time. I was supposed to have obtained the wedding pictures that up till then I could not find,

and I was supposed to deliver them to him or else in the else as well. And my children were frequently mentioned as the else.

So I sent my children to stay with my parents in case it didn't go well.

As Michael told it, Mark instructed him to park about a quarter mile away from his house at the same church where they had met four days before. When she's just saying, "No, I'm not going to park there. I'm going to drive up to your home. This really sounds bizarre."

But it certainly did sound bizarre, and I certainly was frightened, but we're back to that same situation. Either it's everything, or it's nothing.

“And if it's nothing, it means that I have to scoop up my children and honestly, flee to a”

foreign country, or something, because there just was no safety inside any area that Mark Stover could find us. Michael said he did as he was told, walk to Mark's, and was greeted at the front door by Mark, along with his specially trained attack dog ding. From there, Michael described Mark leading him through the living room, down the hallway,

and oddly into the bathroom. That's where he claimed Mark confronted him.

Once again, with his never-ending obsession with those wedding photos, and I went to his

house and told him that I couldn't get the pictures that I'd gone through her safe, and they weren't in her safe, and they weren't in her house, and I presumed that she had destroyed them.

“And what Mark Stover said to that, "He didn't say much."”

Instead, Michael claimed Mark suddenly turned around and walked away. He was so agitated or erratic that he broke off in mid-conversation. Michael said, "When Mark returned, he raised a gun he was holding in his left hand." The long of the short of it was moments later, I was shot in the chest. But Michael had prepared for this moment, as a self-described security expert, Michael said

he was wearing a bulletproof vest that allowed him to safely take the hit to the chest. He said he then quickly lunged at Mark, grabbed the gun, and returned fire. He started again fight, and I won. But the fight wasn't completely over. His Michael exited the house, he said Mark's dog ding attacked.

The dog came at me, and I had shoot the dog, and I stopped shooting him, as soon as his stop trying to bite me. So, what are you telling me? You shot Mark Stover in self-defense? Absolutely.

But detectives on the case soon came to a very different conclusion about what happened that morning. This is not a case of self-defense. This is a case of cold blooded murder. I'm Peter Vanscent.

From 48 hours, this is trained to kill the dog trainer, the eras, and the bodyguard. Episode 5, "Put up or shut up." I want the truth for Michael Oaks as to what really occurred on that day, October 28, 2009. This is Detective Dan Lou Verra, with the sketch at County Sheriff's Office. Now retired, Lou Verra said he spent nearly 2,500 hours investigating Mark Stover's killing.

We were a small department, and we only have five detectives. The Verra thought major parts of Michael's story simply weren't true.

Michael Oaks claims he met with Mark Stover at the Northgate shopping mall in Seattle. Do you believe that meeting occurred? No. Not all.

“He claims he met with Mark Stover at a church parking lot in Anacordus.”

Do you believe that happened? No. Not all.

Mark Stover comes out of a Costco in Kenowic, Washington, and basically has a threatening

conversation. Do you believe that happened? No. Do you think this is all made up? I do.

I first met Detective Lou Verra at Mark's house back in 2010. He was a sharp detective who was meticulous and tried not to leave any stone unturned. And we're almost a year to the day when this murder occurred. It was dusk as we started the interview. Soon it would be dark, just as it was when Michael said he arrived that morning.

Lou Verra brought a big flashlight to show us the crime scene. Michael Oaks says he walked right up the front way steps here.

First we went through what Michael Oaks said happened.

He knocks on the door, Mark Stover answers the door, Mark lets him in. Lou Verra and I went inside. Mark's place was like a high end cabin with dark wood floors and exposed oak beams. He said Michael claimed that Mark brought him into that bathroom and then left before coming back with a gun.

Mark Stover comes around the corner where I'm standing right there. We're standing right there right now. He says Mark Stover came around the corner, fired one shot, boom. Right into Michael Oaks's bliss. It's then Michael said he grabbed the gun from Mark's left hand and fired back at

point blank range, killing him. The whole thing doesn't make sense. After he told me Michael's version, Lou Verra then broke down for me why the evidence doesn't match Michael's story.

First, he said investigators discovered that on October 28th, 2009,

Michael didn't drive directly to Ana Cortis from Linda's house. Lou Verra said Michael drove west for nearly three hours before he made a pit stop. We have him on surveillance tape at a local Walmart store here in Melbourne and approximately five thirty in the morning, but he'd buy Michael Oaks bought anchor line, anchor weights, he bought camel pants, camel sweatshirt, and a backpack.

“Camouflage, Camouflages, kind of an odd eclectic bunch of stuff, isn't it?”

Yes. Lou Verra believed Michael bought those items not to have a talk with Mark Stover but to hide evidence of a murder. I believe that he bought those items to dispose of Mark's body. Interestingly, Lou Verra said Michael also purchased a pair of soccer shin guards.

The reason that he bought those is that he knew Mark Stover had his dog ding and that ding was trained as a protection dog. Lou Verra said after his Walmart shopping, Michael headed to Ana Cortis. Michael Oaks car arrives in the area of Mark Stover's house. Sometime between six thirty and seven a.m. in the morning, it would still be dark.

Lou Verra then demonstrated for us what he thought actually happened at Mark's house that morning. I think he came up the right hand side of his driveway right here. I can see the tree lines, fence lines, he could have easy concealment.

“Stark out, I think, as he's in the area of the kennels right here,”

the dogs are barking. They sent someone or something on the property. Mark was probably alerted to the dogs barking at the kennel since something was wrong. Lou Verra thought a worried mark then let ding out of the house to confront whoever or whatever was out there in the darkness.

And I think the dog was shot right away. Ding starts to yell. Mark hears ding yelping. Mark comes out probably on the cardboard door porch there or maybe on the driveway.

It's during that encounter that Lou Verra believes Michael Oaks first shot Mark stole her.

Spent shell casings were found outside.

“I believe Mark stole her was probably shot just right in this area where we're standing right here.”

It's the first time I think he was shot several times. And the first time he was shot he probably started to retreat back to his residence. Lou Verra believed Mark only made it as far as the hallway just inside the door leading from the cardboard and Michael likely fired again and finished Mark off with one final shot.

There was blood splatters on the wall here on the wall here.

When you come into Mark's house through the cardboard door immediately on your right is that bathroom. This is where in Michael's dramatic telling he said Mark shot him in the chest a bullet stopped by a bullet professed.

“Michael said he wrestled the gun away from Mark and shot him dead but Lou Verra is skeptical.”

It's too unbelievable that he could get shot in the vest. Lunge at Stover, grab his hand, twist it and shoot Stover and take him down. He's going to back up or he's going to grab his chest as a normal reaction of somebody being shot. But he doesn't even say that. He says he immediately goes into a defensive mode and grabs Mark Stover's hand and gun, twists, shoots, fires, Mark Stover falls.

Lou Verra believed Michael cleaned up the bloody scene at Mark's house with bleach and put on Mark's trademark hat just in case anyone saw him leave in Mark's station wagon. Investigators suspected that driver scenes speeding down the driveway was Michael with Mark's body in the back and that Michael then moved Mark's body from the station wagon to his SUV later. Lou Verra said Michael's plan worked, fooling employee Stephanie Poor.

I saw who I thought was Mark going into the house, coming out of the house, putting stuff in the back of the hatch. What made you think it was Mark? Because it was his hat and his jacket

“and why wouldn't I think it was Mark. Michael would continue to cover his tracks but how long”

would he be able to evade authorities?

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After Michael left Mark's house at around 10 that morning, he was seen stopping at a store where for some reason he bought a pair of bolt cutters. And then a couple of hours later, just before noon, that's when Tammy Gilden made that call to report a trespasser. It's not a emergency, but I need a sheriff to come out here to some of the park range. She told me it seemed like the man was moving what looked like a body. That was huge. They had no idea

what was going on. They just happened to see two vehicles parked behind the range. Then, at around 1230, we now know that Michael was pulled over in Anacordus, Washington by that sketch at County Sheriff's deputy, knowing what we know today. What was in Oaks vehicle when he was pulled over? Mark's store's body. He was in the back. Yes. Louvera said from there, Michael left Anacordus to go meet with his ex-wife, Jennifer Thompson.

She already told us how they met at a Starbucks went to the beach and how before long,

at about 4pm, returned the bolt cutters to that store, and drove back east over the cascade

mountains to Linda's house. Let's say rugged, two-lane highway that leads through very rural areas of Okanagan and Sketch County. Surveillance video showed Michael arriving at Linda's at about 1130 that night. He parked his SUV. I asked Michael about the evidence they found

“inside that vehicle. Mark's store's blood is in your vehicle. How did it get there?”

Well, it got there because because he was there. Michael then left again, where he went and what he did is unknown. He returned about 30 minutes later. It was the end of a very long day, a long day that police later learned may have been months in the making. This is the statement of Jennifer L. Thompson. The date is now 1030, 2009. The time is now 2,200 hours. Two days after Mark's disappearance, the Sketch County Sheriff's Investigators questioned

Michael's second wife, Jennifer Thompson. There was some noise in the background since they

“are recording at her home. This is Chief Will Rycard. I'm just going to ask you to go over some”

of the things that we had already talked about so that it's on the record. The first thing they wanted on the record was concerning a call Jennifer claimed Michael received back when they were still married. About May 2008, he told me that there was a potential job coming up that he was interested in taking a woman that was harassing her. If true, that woman could only have been Linda updike.

Jennifer said Michael then revealed details of a sinister plan. They would basically use Linda as

sort of bait to lure the expoes toward her. Once Mark Stover was fooled into threatening Linda,

“Jennifer claimed the plan was to violently end that threat. They would take him out.”

Okay, and by taking him out, you understood that to be, they would kill him. And you mentioned that that didn't really sit too well with you. The father knew that he was contemplating doing something like this. Yeah, we had, you know, mortgage, family house, kids, kind of thing. And as I said, this isn't good. It's a good thing for you to be doing. And we had a big fight about it, big argument. Jennifer claimed that it was after this bitter argument, their marriage

quickly fell apart. Eventually, I left the home and July of 2008 for separation. One month later, she said Michael told her that he wanted a divorce. In January of 2009, our divorce became final and we pretty much stopped contact. But then, in October of 2009, Jennifer reached out to Michael. She wanted to give him one last chance to reconcile. We still had this intensity together. And so, just the email

and are you sure? Are you sure? Perlinsed it to me. Jennifer said after a few emails between them, Michael wrote that he'd soon be on the west side of the mountains and suggested they meet. This was October 24th, which is the same day Michael said he met Mark Stover at that church in Anacordus. They just said he was here on a job. A sign job earns. I knew it that meant, but I didn't ask for specifics. Did you say that that job was going to be particularly dangerous,

certainty? When he was leaving here, he said he was going on and that there was risk involved, possible, injury to himself, that it was fairly dangerous. Michael told me that he showed up to that October 24th meeting without the wedding photos and that Mark demanded Michael return later in the week. The following day, Michael messaged Jennifer. He texted me and said I'm job failed. I'm okay.

Michael and Jennifer met again. The day that they met at that Starbucks,

“when Michael mentioned that he was afraid of getting arrested. He was really concerned about”

getting pulled over with the things in his vehicle. I wanted to get them home and get them sterilized and he said if anyone sees this now, I'm going in right away. By going in, meaning he would be arrested right away. He thought if somebody saw what was in his vehicle. But there was one final interaction with police that convinced Jennifer that Michael was the hunter in all of this.

Does that mean? Save! This is how it's done. Now it's done, it's done.

“For years, gone south has been a podcast about crime in the American South. But for our new season,”

we're widening the lands. Through deeply reported narrative-driven stories, we're digging into the myths, scandals, and power structures that still shape the South. In a lot of ways, the country itself. Follow and listen to gone south season 5. An Odyssey podcast. Available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows. A month after Jennifer was questioned that detectives came back to her house.

They wanted Jennifer to listen to a CD. She told me her reaction after hearing the anonymous tipster's voice telling the 911 operator about a drug deal involving Mark Stover.

My first thought was, um, what an idiot.

Jennifer instantly recognized the voice. I knew it was him. How do you know it's him? The married dude, I know how he talks. Michael's voice of his disguise, but it was his speech pattern, and it was him.

It was devastating for her. Everything she had suspected suddenly clicked. Because as in that moment, I knew it was all premeditated. Jennifer thought back to that job Michael mentioned, and remembered something else, Michael told her. Something he said on the day Mark Stover was shot. He said that the people that were helping him, and I had the impression that there were two,

but I don't know that that was stated. People that were helping him, we're no longer helping him, and he was on his own. No one was going to help him. So, who could be helping Michael? Well, when Jennifer was being questioned by detectives in those early days after the murder, she shared an intriguing detail. The father of the woman was initiating the job.

That would be multi-millionaire business tycoon Wally Updike, Linda's father. Later, when I got to sit down with Jennifer, she explained this further. Wally Updike wanted to hire a Michael Oaks to take out the ex-husband that was stalking his daughter, Linda. Simple as that. Simple as that. Do you believe that Linda Updike

“is involved in this that she either paid or manipulated Michael to kill?”

I don't believe she manipulated because he's too smart for that, but I do believe that they serve each other's needs. Meaning? I think she's as guilty as he is. Jennifer's testimony to police suggested that Mark's murder was a pre-meditated, hired hit. In our interviews, Linda and Michael both denied that her father had anything to do

with Mark's death. I believe that she knows more than what she's saying and what she's telling.

Detective Dan Lavera never called Linda Updike a suspect, but he has always wondered if she was

driving a car? Through Linda, Linda was his base of information.

“Linda had knowledge, she had direct knowledge. She was married to Mark. She knew him best.”

When I spoke to Michael, he told me that he just spontaneously put on the hat after he spotted it in Mark's car that morning. There was a pair of glasses in a cap or a hat sitting on the seat and when I sat down, I had to move the hat. I put it on my head and thought this will probably do for getting down the driveway and that's all there was to that. It didn't have anything to do with

anybody but the moment. You told me you just decided to put this hat on. You hadn't been told

by Linda that that's a hat that Mark's stover would wear? No, I've seen I'd seen two or three pictures of Mark's stover. Detective Lavera told me that he wanted to ask Linda about this and many other aspects of the case. Have you received cooperation from Linda Updike? No. As his common in a case like this, Linda and her father Wally Updike hired lawyers after Michael was arrested. She won't sit down and talk to us. She won't sit down and

talk to us. She's lawyer it up. She's lawyer it up. While Linda declined to take questions from Lavera,

“she was willing to answer mine. Investigators believe that you must have given”

Michael details of Mark's stover's life that would aid him in attacking Mark's stover knowing when he got up, what hack he wore during the day, what car he drove with the dogs. What do you say to them? That's simply not true. I had no interaction or contact with Mark for since the protection order was issued. It's not something I wanted to have any involvement with Mark. There again, I wanted no harm or anything to happen to Mark. I just wanted to go on with my life

with Michael and I wanted Mark to go on with his life. In other words, did you breathe Michael Oaks on the intricacies of Mark's stover's life right down to the hat that he liked to wear during the day to aid him in an assassination? Of course not. The suggestion is out there. Did your father have anything to do with the killing of Mark stover? Absolutely not. Both Linda and Michael refused to answer most of the authorities' questions until they took the

stand at trial. There was of course one big question Michael still had not answered.

“What did you do with Mark stover's body? I think that probably the nitty gritties on that.”

I really want to tell you about it. We're going to have to wait to court. From 48 hours, this is trained to kill the dog trainer, the eras, and the bodyguard, produced by Sony Music Entertainment. I'm your host, Peter van Satt. Judy Tigard is the executive producer of 48 hours. Original reporting by 48 hours producers Ryan Smith and Liza Finley. Jamie Benson is the senior producer for Paramount Audio

and Morrow Waltz is the senior story editor. Recording assistance from Alan Pang and Reginald Bazil. Special thanks to Paramount Podcast Vice President Megan Marcus. It is written and produced by Alex Schum. Stephanie Sorano is our editor. Our executive producer is Shira Morris. Our associate producer is Zoe Kolken. theme and original music composed by Hans Dale Shee. Cedric Wilson is our sound designer

and mixed the episodes. We also use music from APM and Epidemic Sounds. Fendell Fulton is our fact checker. Our production manager is Tamika Balens Kolesni. I'm Peter van Satt. If you're enjoying the show be sure to rate and review. It helps more

podcasts on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening.

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