Michael Oakes
Appearances
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
The Bundle in the Back
I've always been told I'm a really good listener, right? And I maximized that while I was lying.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
The Bundle in the Back
I've always been told I'm a really good listener, right? And I maximized that while I was lying.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
The Bundle in the Back
I've always been told I'm a really good listener, right? And I maximized that while I was lying.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
In my mistaken belief that I could appease or satisfy Mark Stover, I did become yet another person who was doing exactly what Mark Stover wanted.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
I kept thinking, if I can just, this is the one thing he wants that Linda Opdyke won't give him, and if she just gives him what he wants, he'll leave us alone.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
He was extremely agitated, not cold and calculating, not controlled like that first meeting. He was erratic.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
It was put up or shut up time.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
I remember at that time thinking, this can't be real, because no woman alone could go through this amount of harassment.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
I said to her, I think we have a connection that could go beyond friendship, and is that something that you're open to? And I think she, as you may know, she's almost six feet tall, and I'm five foot six. She's never had children. I have four children. So it was an unlikely romance. But she said, you know, I have gone through a lot of things in my life, and I'm open to considering that.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
I ended up training with a lot of the alphabet soup of government agencies and SWAT teams and so on, and it's what we call force-on-force training. I owned a small company in Seattle here, and I managed to get some training equipment and figure out how to use it.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
Yes, I am a gun enthusiast. I've taught all my kids from the earliest age that I felt they were safe, gun safety, and I have shot competitively for some years.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
Right. Is that accurate? I don't believe it's accurate. Let's put it that way. She never paid me to be a bodyguard. I did a little bit of research, and I did an analysis of sort of her home security situation and the steps she was taking, looked into the people that she was working with, and made some suggestions on that front.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
And that was the extent of what I would consider my professional interaction with her.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
You know, she paid me, she wrote me a check, but it was just for my expenses. And it was a minimal amount of money. I don't even remember now what it was, but less than $1,000. So, I mean, it was minimal.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
Mark Stover sought me out one day out of the blue and told me that I would do what he wanted. And from that point for almost six months, I lived in constant fear.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
Very much so. Threatening? Constantly with me.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
I think it was a weekday morning. I had just dropped my kids off at school.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
And went to the store. When I came out, he was standing by my car. And because I had done research for Linda Optics some months previously... I'd seen a picture of him. I immediately recognized him.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
He's very icy, actually. He said that he had been listening to our calls and he knew all about me. And he knew that I was in a relationship with Linda. He said his wife. He didn't say his ex-wife. He said his wife. And he said that there was something of his that she wouldn't give back and that I was going to get it for him.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
He said that Miss Opdyke would not give back their wedding photo albums. And he said I was going to get them back for him. And then he went on to... He went on to describe what my daughters were wearing that morning. What they'd worn to school. And there's no way he could have seen. What did you realize at that moment? He had been following us a whole time.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
And he said that he told me the details of what they were wearing, their backpack colors, everything.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
I'm not a confrontational person at all. That's not my mode. I felt very much off balance in that meeting. And I think it's one of those things where once I'm driving away thinking I should have said this or I should have done that, there was something about him that was chilling to me. And I felt, I kept trying to talk myself out of it. It can't be real. It can't be real. He has to be fooling.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
Well, I'm not a psychologist. I'm not a psychiatrist. It enraged him, I believe, in retrospect, that she chose not to continue the marriage with Mark Stover, to continue to do what he wanted, and yet she retained something that he felt was part of him.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
We were going to stay there and stayed at their vacation home.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
And I'm in line minding my own business and look across the way and I see Mr. Stover standing by the entrance to the store staring at me.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
Very similar to the first time that I saw him. It's just a shock of recognition in a place you don't expect to see somebody.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
There's at least two reasons. One of them is I do know enough about protection to know that there's no way for me to... I mean, this is why the president has so many people that protects him from potential threats. One man cannot protect three children 24-7. And for any time that I could enrage or outrage Stover, it was putting a gun to the head of my children, in my opinion.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
Absolutely. And I'm certainly not the first person to feel that way.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
Mark Stover was remarkably sophisticated in some ways. He had managed to penetrate Linda's computer prior to meeting me. He managed to tap a phone. Finding us in Montana was impossible, and I took tremendous steps not to be followed, and yet there he was. How did he find us?
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
He was getting progressively less patient with me.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Secret Meetings
And the thought of just at any given one of these meetings that we had, just telling him, I'm done. Take a hike and don't come looking for me. And every time, the reality of knowing that there's no way I can keep my kids, myself, and Ms. Opdyke safe if he decides he's going to go for it pulled me back from that brink.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
The Hunter
I did an analysis of sort of her home security situation and the steps she was taking. I looked into the people that she was working with and made some suggestions on that front.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
Oh, he was. He was like a kid. He was joking with me all the time, and he was always fun, you know, when we were on the phone.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
He just was very troubled about the way things had gone.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
I don't know that he thought there was a goal. He just couldn't believe that things wouldn't stop. The legal battles, the accusations. He knew his life was in danger.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
Certainly, all that I know about the whereabouts of Mark Stover, I will be more than happy to share with authorities in the course of our trial.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
And when she came to be with me, she slept on my bed. She went to work with me. I took her everywhere with me. And in petting her, I found a tumor about this big. Well, it grew and grew, and she was in tremendous pain. So I had to have her put down.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
Oh, she was my last link to him.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
I would love to see him buried with a ring on his finger.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
It has been a dramatic year.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
He came around the corner with a gun in one hand, and he pointed the gun at me, and the look on his face, he didn't say anything.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
I'm inside the washroom, he's right at the doorway and he's just inside the hallway, three feet maybe.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
I can't remember if I lunged and he shot. We tangled and I got shot.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
That's how it was trained. Can I take this off?
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
That's what I did then. I picked him up, which was very difficult, and carried him out to the back of the station wagon and laid him there. And I had that kitchen towel that I had grabbed, and I threw that in with him. Oh, before, when I picked him up and the gun fell down on the floor, I just put it in his vest pocket.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
I tried to move him to my car, but it was too heavy. And so I used the plastic that was in the back of the rig. His rig? Yes, in the back of the station wagon and slid underneath of him and was able to then slide him across to my car.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
And it was still just sitting there, and I was blown away. I thought for sure it would have been like some big crime scene investigation.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
I'm walking away from Mr. Stover's car. I see some kind of a boat in the water. just near there.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
And I got my car as close to that as possible and muscled him out and dropped him in the water.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
His gun was in his pocket still of his vest.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
I threw some other stuff like the plastic in the water. And I smelled blood. I'm pretty sensitive to the smell of blood. I smelled blood. And I couldn't see. It was dark. And so I started throwing things out of the car into the water. that were in the back. I had some stuff, the plastic and a piece of carpet from his car, and then some other items that were, you know, were there.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
I arrived there. I don't remember now. It was dark. I had to stop to throw up a couple times. I don't know. I'm not sure. Okay.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
I just said I had a really bad day.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
It was late. It was late. I think, I don't remember now.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
Pick up and toss, I think would be your words, but yes, I was able to pick him up.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
Because it's a station wagon, I couldn't stand up. You have to lean over to lift something, and I can't do that.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Time Will Tell
Well, I understand that feeling. I really do. And I wish, I hope that the body is recovered because it will exactly corroborate my story 100%.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Put Up or Shut Up
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.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Put Up or Shut Up
There's going to be a van transporting some drugs from the Anacortes area.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Put Up or Shut Up
There was a pair of glasses and 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 she'll 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.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Put Up or Shut Up
No. I'd seen two or three pictures of Mark Stover.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Put Up or Shut Up
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.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Put Up or Shut Up
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.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Put Up or Shut Up
He was so agitated or erratic that he broke off in mid-conversation.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Put Up or Shut Up
The dog came at me, and I had to shoot the dog. And I stopped shooting as soon as it stopped trying to bite me.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Put Up or Shut Up
I was driving there to be there at a prearranged time, a time. set and demanded by Mark Stover himself. And what did he say the purpose of this visit was going to be? It was put up or 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. And the else is what?
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Put Up or Shut Up
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.
Trained to Kill: The Dog Trainer, the Heiress and the Bodyguard
Put Up or Shut Up
Well, it got there because he was there.