The Bundle in the Back

the soulflashback is just about to start and then it's starting.

“No, it's not like this story, it's my safe space.”

Do you mean everything? Yes, exactly. This story is like the story of the story that I just understand. The story about the job or about it. It's like the story of the story.

It's like the story of the story. With this story. It's not an emergency, but I need a sheriff to come out here to sum up part-grain. This is Tammy Gilden, an anacordous Washington.

She called 911 some time before 1150, the morning of October 28th, 2009, when she and her mother noticed a man trespassing behind the

Grinch Hall. It's an event facility about half a mile

from Mark Stover's house. I just saw one guy, okay. Did you say anything to him? Nope, I just backed off the old friend.

“Tammy noticed that the guy was at the back of the property,”

where no one should be parked. There's two vehicles or safety back to back. One of those two vehicles was a white station wagon. The other was a black SUV. They were transferring some back to forest

or living back for something. What Tammy saw was both odd and disturbing. Whatever the object being transferred was, Tammy remembered it was large and covered in plastic.

My first thought was, oh, a body.

I thought, oh, you know, you're reading a murder mystery. You know, silly girl, you know, that's not a body. As they sat in their car at the front of the property, Tammy and her mom waited for a deputy to arrive. Tammy said the stranger got into the black SUV,

leaving the station wagon behind. I didn't see his face head on when we first pulled in. I saw him when he pulled next to us to leave. He drove right up next to their car

“before stepping on the gas and speeding away.”

We were scrambling to find pin and paper and write the license plate number down. Tammy called the sheriff again. Just ask, can I help you? Yeah, fine. I called about meeting the sheriff.

They gave the dispatcher the license plate number and a description of the trespassers car. It's the black SUV, which direction do it with? He turns on. He turns on.

He turns on. He was driving toward downtown Ana Cortes. [music playing] [music playing] [music playing]

[music playing] minutes later, [music playing] [music playing] [music playing]

[music playing] [music playing] I noticed the license number matched the piece of paper that the reporting party had given me. I turned around on the vehicle, made a traffic stop. The deputy went up to the car window.

It was raining. He had sunglasses on, which is unusual. He was extremely nervous. Deputy DuHame asked the man who was hiding his eyes for an ID. He didn't listen to the question and then repeated my question to me.

So he wasn't tracking the conversation we were having. The deputy explained that he pulled the driver over for trespassing. His story was headed to the casino, which is down the road. [music playing] During the conversation, the deputy noticed that the driver had some dog hair on his clothing.

And he noticed a big bundle of blankets in the back of the SUV. He didn't think much of it. [music playing] This just so happened to be the same morning that Mark Stover's employees reported seeing their boss tear out of his driveway in his white Chevy station wagon. And this traffic stop was just a few hours later.

No one yet knew Mark was missing. The deputy took the driver's ID. And went back to my patrol car, ran a driver's check on him, made sure that the car is registered to him. I pulled over Michael Oaks.

And the bundle of blankets in the back, only later what he learned, that was Mark's dead body. The whole case took off. I'm Peter Vansant. From 48 hours, this is trained to kill.

The dog trainer, the eras, and the bodyguard. Episode four, the bundle in the back. After the sheriff's deputy, let Michael Oaks drive away.

but not to his girlfriend Linda Updike.

“It was unexpected, and the blue wasn't pretty coordinated.”

It was to his ex-wife Jennifer Thompson. She lived in Everett, Washington, about an hour south of Anacordus. We spoke in 2010. And he said, "Hey, I am available this afternoon. I'm in your area, are you available?"

He said, "Actually, yeah, I am." And he said, "Well, do you want to meet up?" It's a joke. Although they had been separated for about a year, Michael and Jennifer started talking again.

She had emailed him just a few weeks earlier. I had entered a relationship with someone, and it made me really reflect on my situation with Michael, because I can't say I didn't love him anymore. I was healing and moving forward, but it's not just a dawn.

And so I emailed him and said, "I've met someone and turned this relationship. Are you sure?" He still is sure.

“Before she started something new, Jennifer wanted to know”

if her marriage to Michael was really over.

We had a pretty amazing relationship.

Yeah, it had a lot of broken, isn't it? But I don't know, or you absolutely 100%. Had he said, "Yeah, I'm sure." I would have said, "Okay, Gary on and moved forward." But he didn't say that.

And he will pack no, I'm not. This is October 2009. When Linda Updike and Michael Oaks have become a couple, and what we've been told is they're deeply in love, he's telling you something else.

He's telling you that in his mind it may not be over. Yeah, and in his relationship with him. And actually, he told me that he didn't love her. I can't say what's true and what it isn't. I don't know.

But what he told me was that it wasn't like us.

It was it convenience they were partners. Like they each had things that the other needed. So when Michael called her that October morning, Jennifer agreed to meet him at a Starbucks. And he looked very disheveled and bumpy.

Like this kind of hair was poofy and closed on talk, which is different because he's usually very meticulous and neat, tidy, tucked in belt. You know, that kind of thing. They sat together at a table in the corner of the coffee shop.

Oh, I kind of have some general chit chat, and then he says, "Hey, you know there's a beach around here." And he said, "Well, have a look, it's a port. It's not very pretty though. What are you looking for?" She suggested a beach they could go to.

So she had some skates and I have some time. She said, "My car is really full. There's no room for you so I'll just follow you." What's fine? Jennifer noticed that Michael parked far away from her,

and that his vehicle was caked in mud. Well, in the way there was a very strange, because he was driving. So carefully, laying low, trying not to draw attention to himself, and this is a man that flips a U-turn when it's convenient for him, even if it's illegal.

She said when they arrived at the beach, she watched him fumble with things in his car. Michael suggested the two of them go for a walk. Did he seem nervous? No, but this time he seemed very calm,

but the tension was so thick, the unspoken was so loud, and I felt, I don't know, it was really, really a strange, because he and I have very easy, breezy conversations, so it was very weird, it was very uncomfortable. Then when they finished their walk,

she said they each decided to stop at the bathroom before they left. And so I went in, he went in, and I came out, and he was still in there, he was in there for a long time. And I sat on a picnic, meant to just wait and wait. And he came out, and he was just distraught.

Something happened while he was in there, he came out, and his entire demeanor completely changed. And so he looks upset. He looks stressed out, like it's freaking out. He's just noticeably agitated and not okay.

What does he said to you? I said, "Are you okay?"

“And he said, "No, I think I'm in trouble."”

And I said, "Real trouble," or, like, perceived a trouble. And he said, like, 10 to 15 years felony trouble.

Jennifer didn't know whether to take him seriously.

“I also know this man to be very melodramatic,”

so I'm trying to assess him. I'm reading him, I'm looking at him, and I'm saying, "I'm thinking to my head, this is real, this is not." At that point, he was sitting in my passenger seat, and I was in the driver seat.

He was there, I noticed the way agitated. Rubbin is pimples in this hair, and the fingers of his hair, and really vigilant. Watching around, repairing, and freaking out. Looking at the windows.

Yeah, at one point, a patrolman and come by, and he really, really went crazy. And he said, "I feel like they know." And they said, "They don't know anything." You're just like, "I sit in a car in a parking lot."

And he said, "You're right, it's just that guilty-conscious thing." And...

Did you not say right then?

They know what? I said, "No, I didn't." I probably didn't want to know. Because if it was real, I didn't want to know. And if it was being dramatic, I didn't need to know.

Then Michael said something even more unsettling. He made reference to if he was to be pulled over. He was just trying to get out of this area. And if he had been pulled over and law enforcement had seen what was in the sightest car,

he'd go away for life. After that disturbing comet, Michael got out of her car into his and drove away.

“I think the part that disturbs me the most.”

My part of it is when we parted ways that day, kissed him on the cheek. And that humps me. I see anybody in that car. Michael left Jennifer.

He drove back up to Anna Cortis, then drove more than 250 miles crossing the Cascade Mountain Range

for a second time in the same day.

That night, he returned to Linda Updike's house. From Linda's home surveillance camera, you can see Michael arrived just after 1130 p.m. On a different camera, you can see Linda in a bathroom

come out to welcome him home. Their reunion would prove short. The legendary check-out of Shopify is just the shop on their website. This is the social media,

and everything is over. That's the music for your ears. Videos on the rest of the vendors can be made up of a real help.

“Start your tests for one of your promotions.”

On the evening of October 29th, 2009, the day after Mark Stover went missing, Sergeant Jean Davis, with the Okanagan Sheriff's Office, got a call.

We talked in 2010. It checked into service around six o'clock and received a call from Detective Myers with Skagit County Sheriff's Department. Byzing that, they're working on a missing person case,

Mark Stover. Sergeant Davis knew the name Mark Stover will. Months before he had suggested Linda Updike get a protective order against Mark. He also had offered to help train her dog

to attack. And I told Detective Myers, "Yeah, I know Linda and Linda very well, and I know Oaks very well." Detective Myers then told Sergeant Davis

that they had a lead concerning Mark Stover's disappearance. The lead included a familiar name. Somehow Oaks, Michael Oaks got involved in this. So I initially heard this information and I placed a call to a Dave Chief of Regas

to let him know what was going on. He didn't answer. Simon Taneyously, Linda called me, and she's pretty agitated,

somewhat frantic actually. This is Dave Rodriguez. Back in 2010, he was a chief deputy with the Okanagan Sheriff's Office. She said, "An employee of Stover

that just called her and said that the police were there, that Mark is missing. There's blood at the scene and the dog's been shot.

And she's very frantic. She's saying, "We're not sure what's going on. And we've not ruled out the possibility that some type of violence happened at his house by him,

not onto him. And he's now, he's snapping, he's coming over here."

"She may be next."

“This is what she's conveying to me anyhow.”

And I said,

"Are you there by yourself?"

And she said, "No, that Oaks was there." And I said, "Well, you should be fine. But if you don't,

you should leave the house and go stay with your mother or somewhere else." So that's a good idea. That's what we're going to do. Sergeant Davis and Deputy Rodriguez

drove to Linda's place separately on shore of what they were heading into. The 7 o'clock at night and it was almost a typical foggy wintery.

I'm not wintery yet, but it was starting to miss Dark Knight. Both investigators were familiar with Linda's house. So we drove up to the house

and normally when we were going there to train with her dog, her camera system or possibly a sensor would say someone's coming up the driveway

to you would always be out on the outside

on the deck or whatever. Instead of that usual warm welcome, the front door stayed closed. This visit to Linda's would clearly be different.

I used my spotlight, my high beams, too. You know, if they came out, they'd be blinded. I tried calling her on the phone

and no answer. Yet her car was there. Oaks car was there. Lights were on. No answer.

The deputies pulled in and parked. All right, we're going to have to go maybe something has happened now. Maybe Stover did come to the house

“in between the time that I talked to her.”

So we need to go to the house so we go and knock on the door. Linda answered the door and invited them inside.

She seemed a little surprise

that we were there because I didn't, you know, the last I talked to her, I said, I recommend you pack some bags

and go stay with somebody else. So I think she found that little surprising that we showed up. But I mean, other than that,

nothing unusual, invited us in. Initially we didn't see Michael Oaks, but as we walk in the living room,

he was walking up the stairs from a lower level. The deputies told Michael to sit on the couch. This was after they searched

between the cushions for any weapons. I know Michael and Linda were in the guns. And I asked if he was armed,

and he said he was,

“and I removed a 9 millimeter pistol from him.”

And at that point, we go into more of the questioning. Was Linda armed as well? No, she was not. Linda was in a chair nearby.

Even though Michael wasn't under arrest, he was clearly a person of interest in this case, having been an anacordus on the day Mark Stover disappeared. Surgeon Davis said they read Michael

his Miranda rights. Just in case he said something that could be admissible in court. And we point out that we're here on a task from

schedule County to find out if you were here, because your car was seen in the area of Stover's residence at this particular time.

And I asked if I asked him, "What were you doing over there?" And that's when he said, "Oh, I was over there. I was visiting my ex-wife."

Chief Deputy Rodriguez noticed how distraught Linda became when Michael said that he made the trip to see his ex-wife Jennifer.

So actually in my mind is, oh, Oaks just got caught messing around with his ex-wife and now current girlfriend just found out about it. He said Linda left the room crying.

Sergeant Davis went after her. She kept on asking me, "I don't know what's going on here. What's going on here?" She asked, "Gen, what's going on?"

I'm so confused. I don't know what's going on here. Numerous times to me. Back in the living room, Chief Deputy Rodriguez

continued to press Michael for an answer about why he went to visit his ex-wife. Then he started getting pretty agitated

and he's looking around and he goes, "Can I get up to find my medication?" And we didn't have probably cause having him under arrest and I said, "Yeah, you're not under arrest.

You can get up." So he's now looking around in the living room for his medication. That's strange. It is, and now,

Gene actually, Sergeant Davis, then, I believe, got the call from Scaggy County but in her house,

like a lot of places up here, you don't get cell signal. He had to go out on the deck to actually get cell signal. So he's running around,

I'm looking for his medication

“and then Linda comes out of the back room”

and asks me something. It was diverted my attention briefly and then when I looked back for Oaks, he had ran down, went down the stairs

that he had come up when initially got there. Where'd he go? He went downstairs. So I said, "Linda, he's got to be at least.

He's not in arrest, but he has to be within my sight." Outside on the deck, Sergeant Davis was getting new information from Scaggy County.

They advised that they had a search warrant sign and for us to take Oaks as vehicle. When I was outside, I something caught my attention by Oaks as vehicle. I see Oaks open the back hatch,

reach inside, and take out a plastic bag. Here's to be like a garbage bag. When Sergeant Davis saw this happen,

“a alarm bell started to go off in his mind.”

Why was Michael even outside? And what did he just remove from his car? For years, Gone South has been a podcast about crime in the American South.

But for our new season, we're widening the lens. Through deeply reported narrative-driven stories, we're digging into the myths, scandals, and power structures

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available now on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows. Michael Oaks had just taken something out of his car, but the darkness and mist made it tough to see. Sergeant Jean Davis spotted Michael

while outside talking on the phone. So I sneak down to him, I light him up with my flashlight.

“Right when I hit him with the beam of my light,”

the plastic bag, he throws it over an embankment, and he starts going into the front of his car. I grab him, ask him what he's doing. He's really agitated and nervous at this point. I'm looking for medicine,

and then it goes right into it.

He goes, "Why you give me the third degree?

Why you treat me like a suspect?" I said, "Well, you're acting suspicious." And at that point, I take control of Michael Oaks and ask what I'm back into the house. Chief Deputy Dave Rodriguez was inside with Linda

when Sergeant Davis brought Michael back. So he walks in with Oaks? What do you say to the Sergeant? What? Sergeant said to me, "What? He just saw Oaks doing."

And to me, that just threw this wedge. Since he knew them well, he felt that he needed to reinforce to Michael that he was no longer a friend. You're now the suspect,

and I'm the Deputy sit down at couch. We've got the second call from Skagit County that says, "We have problem cause. Put 'em under arrest." Sergeant Davis put on the handcuffs.

And at that point, he looked at Linda again and said, "It's going to be okay, babe." Linda broke down. She was crying even more now.

She was basically hysterical at this point.

Sobbing couldn't even make out the words that she was saying. She was completely emotional wreck at this time. After he put Michael in the back of his car, Sergeant Davis walked out to grab whatever Michael had thrown down that embankment.

Once he secured in the back of my car, I go on secure. The garbage. It's basically as a Walmart garbage sack. White garbage sack tied up.

I saw it away from the car. It was probably 20 feet down in embankment from the car. And then I secured it and secured it in the floor. Board of my front passenger, my vehicle. He didn't open the bag.

Sergeant Davis didn't want to risk spoiling the evidence. But he said that whatever was inside was heavy. And after several minutes of my car, I started smelling a bleach smell, a strong or a bleach. You smelled a strong or a bleach coming from whatever inside that bag.

Yes. Scheduled county deputies arrived later that night to search Michael's SUV. And Sergeant Davis gave them that unopened garbage bag. They checked it after the warrant and discovered a firearm. And what the rags and whatnot was in the bag.

What kind of gun? It was a 22 pistol. 22 caliber. Yes. But when they searched Michael's vehicle,

there was no bundle of blankets. Investigators kept searching for Mark Stover's body. Scheduled county sheriff saw this ask us to check any problem locations where the body may be dumped in water. And as they gathered the evidence,

So what are you telling me?

You shot Mark Stover in self defense? Absolutely. From 48 hours, this is trained to kill

“the dog trainer, the aeros, and the bodyguard”

produced by Sony Music Entertainment.

I'm your host, Peter Vansant.

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 moral waltz is the senior story editor.”

Recording assistance from Alan Pang and Reginald Basil.

Special thanks to Paramount Podcast Vice President Megan Marcus. It is written and produced by Alex Schumman. Stephanie Sorano is our editor. Our executive producer is Shera Morris.

Our associate producer is Zoe Culkin.

“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 Balance Colassney. I'm Peter Vansant.

If you're enjoying the show, be sure to rate and review. It helps more people find it and hear our reporting. You can listen to train to kill early and add free right now by subscribing to 48 hours plus on Apple Podcasts. Thanks for listening.

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