1 00:00:00,448 --> 00:00:03,448 [MUSIC PLAYING] 2 00:00:20,620 --> 00:00:22,586 I was in my car. 3 00:00:22,689 --> 00:00:25,172 It was pretty late in the night. 4 00:00:25,275 --> 00:00:28,034 There was a male over the phone screaming at 911. 5 00:00:28,137 --> 00:00:30,896 My wife she shot herself. 6 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:32,655 [CRYING] 7 00:00:32,758 --> 00:00:36,344 Right when I pulled into the driveway, the front door opens. 8 00:00:36,448 --> 00:00:36,862 Over here. 9 00:00:36,965 --> 00:00:37,724 Come on. 10 00:00:37,827 --> 00:00:39,137 And a man walks out of the house-- 11 00:00:39,241 --> 00:00:41,206 [MUSIC PLAYING] 12 00:00:41,310 --> 00:00:43,965 [CRYING] 13 00:00:44,068 --> 00:00:48,448 --screaming, crying, yelling. 14 00:00:48,551 --> 00:00:50,206 Oh my god. 15 00:00:50,310 --> 00:00:52,344 Just overall, kind of freaking out. 16 00:00:52,448 --> 00:00:53,551 It was a gunshot. 17 00:00:53,655 --> 00:00:54,862 I was downstairs. 18 00:00:54,965 --> 00:00:57,000 TV Going, 19 00:00:57,103 --> 00:00:58,103 OK, well, where is she at? 20 00:00:58,206 --> 00:00:59,379 Upstairs in the bathroom. 21 00:00:59,482 --> 00:01:02,862 [MUSIC PLAYING] 22 00:01:10,689 --> 00:01:19,275 They found Kendy upstairs in a bathroom 23 00:01:19,379 --> 00:01:21,103 with the tub full of water. 24 00:01:21,206 --> 00:01:22,413 Sir, what's your first name? 25 00:01:22,517 --> 00:01:22,965 Dan. 26 00:01:23,068 --> 00:01:23,448 Dan? 27 00:01:23,551 --> 00:01:26,551 [MUSIC PLAYING] 28 00:01:31,310 --> 00:01:34,068 Kendy was just so funny and nice. 29 00:01:34,172 --> 00:01:38,517 We just clicked and never stopped clicking. 30 00:01:38,620 --> 00:01:41,275 Dan and Kendy were great neighbors. 31 00:01:41,378 --> 00:01:44,827 We all became friends, being neighbors, small town. 32 00:01:44,931 --> 00:01:49,723 Everybody barbecues and hanging out together. 33 00:01:49,827 --> 00:01:56,758 She wanted to just love life, and she loved life. 34 00:01:56,862 --> 00:01:59,723 She's in the bathtub. 35 00:01:59,827 --> 00:02:02,206 And she was in that tub of water with a gunshot 36 00:02:02,310 --> 00:02:03,379 wound to her head. 37 00:02:03,482 --> 00:02:05,137 And the gun was still in the water of the bathtub. 38 00:02:05,241 --> 00:02:08,517 [MUSIC PLAYING] 39 00:02:09,033 --> 00:02:11,413 Did something strike you about that scene? 40 00:02:11,517 --> 00:02:13,931 Certainly, we have broken glass here. 41 00:02:14,034 --> 00:02:15,931 We have some of her clothing on the opposite side 42 00:02:16,034 --> 00:02:17,551 of the bed thrown on the floor. 43 00:02:17,655 --> 00:02:19,517 We have wet towels behind the door. 44 00:02:19,620 --> 00:02:23,206 Are you asking yourself that means what? 45 00:02:23,310 --> 00:02:28,344 From the beginnings, it looks odd. 46 00:02:28,448 --> 00:02:33,310 Dan Howard worked as a Idaho State Police trooper. 47 00:02:33,413 --> 00:02:37,310 Dan knows things that most normal people, ordinary people 48 00:02:37,413 --> 00:02:38,551 don't know. 49 00:02:38,655 --> 00:02:40,172 Things like what? 50 00:02:40,275 --> 00:02:43,172 Things like killing someone and staging 51 00:02:43,275 --> 00:02:46,724 it to look like a suicide. 52 00:02:46,827 --> 00:02:49,793 Dan thought he was smarter than everybody else, smart enough 53 00:02:49,896 --> 00:02:51,724 to trick everybody. 54 00:02:51,827 --> 00:02:54,034 And in the end, that's what he did. 55 00:02:57,172 --> 00:03:00,827 I don't know what I'm supposed to do. 56 00:03:00,931 --> 00:03:04,793 I'm so lost and confused because Dan's not arrested. 57 00:03:07,586 --> 00:03:12,275 I really did think that he would get away with it. 58 00:03:12,379 --> 00:03:15,827 [MUSIC PLAYING] 59 00:03:53,965 --> 00:03:57,241 [SIRENS BLARING] 60 00:04:00,103 --> 00:04:01,344 What's going on? 61 00:04:01,448 --> 00:04:02,724 Sir, they have to do their job. 62 00:04:02,827 --> 00:04:03,896 This is their scene now. 63 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:07,241 [MUSIC PLAYING] 64 00:04:09,172 --> 00:04:12,310 Send in medical. 65 00:04:12,413 --> 00:04:15,206 Kootenai County Sheriff's deputy Miranda Thomas 66 00:04:15,310 --> 00:04:19,379 will never forget coming face to face with a distraught Dan 67 00:04:19,481 --> 00:04:23,896 Howard, a former state trooper, at his home in northern Idaho 68 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:27,689 on a cold winter's morning in February 2021. 69 00:04:27,793 --> 00:04:31,000 [CRYING] 70 00:04:33,793 --> 00:04:34,551 No. 71 00:04:34,655 --> 00:04:36,000 [BLEEP] damn it. 72 00:04:36,103 --> 00:04:37,379 Oh my god. 73 00:04:37,482 --> 00:04:41,206 He would scream and yell, but there were no tears in his eyes 74 00:04:41,310 --> 00:04:41,896 at any point. 75 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:44,241 [CRYING] 76 00:04:44,344 --> 00:04:47,241 He would act like he was gagging, 77 00:04:47,344 --> 00:04:49,206 but nothing would ever actually happen. 78 00:04:51,965 --> 00:04:54,551 Deputy Thomas was one of the first responders 79 00:04:54,655 --> 00:04:58,965 to Dan's home, a place he shared with his wife of 26 years, 80 00:04:59,068 --> 00:05:00,724 Kendy. 81 00:05:00,827 --> 00:05:03,344 [SOBBING] 82 00:05:03,448 --> 00:05:04,586 No, please. 83 00:05:04,689 --> 00:05:07,655 Dan, I know this is hard, but when is the last time 84 00:05:07,758 --> 00:05:09,275 that you saw your wife alive? 85 00:05:09,379 --> 00:05:11,310 [SOBBING] 86 00:05:11,413 --> 00:05:13,241 Dan, do you want medical to look at you at all? 87 00:05:13,344 --> 00:05:13,862 No. 88 00:05:13,965 --> 00:05:14,862 OK. 89 00:05:14,965 --> 00:05:17,862 Dan Howard told police he discovered his wife 90 00:05:17,965 --> 00:05:19,241 in the bathtub. 91 00:05:19,344 --> 00:05:23,000 He said she had shot herself in the head. 92 00:05:23,103 --> 00:05:25,758 Kendy's own pistol was at the bottom 93 00:05:25,862 --> 00:05:27,827 of the tub in murky water. 94 00:05:31,827 --> 00:05:32,482 Secure the scene. 95 00:05:32,586 --> 00:05:33,379 Don't touch anything. 96 00:05:33,482 --> 00:05:34,586 OK. 97 00:05:34,689 --> 00:05:37,620 Kootenai County Sheriff's Detective Jerry Northrop 98 00:05:37,724 --> 00:05:39,275 arrived before midnight. 99 00:05:42,586 --> 00:05:45,310 Were you dispatched to a possible suicide? 100 00:05:45,413 --> 00:05:46,137 Yes, sir. 101 00:05:46,241 --> 00:05:50,241 It was identified as a suicide. 102 00:05:50,344 --> 00:05:54,689 Northrop immediately began analyzing what was before him. 103 00:05:54,793 --> 00:05:59,034 For a woman to shoot herself in the tub nude is unusual. 104 00:05:59,137 --> 00:06:00,448 It doesn't mean it can't happen. 105 00:06:00,551 --> 00:06:02,206 It just means that it's unusual. 106 00:06:02,310 --> 00:06:04,862 Northrop, a crime scene expert, says 107 00:06:04,965 --> 00:06:07,379 something was missing from this death scene, 108 00:06:07,482 --> 00:06:11,379 especially considering Kendy had suffered a head wound. 109 00:06:11,482 --> 00:06:13,724 There would be a lot more blood that was produced, 110 00:06:13,827 --> 00:06:16,310 and I just didn't see that on her face, on her body, 111 00:06:16,413 --> 00:06:17,517 or in the tub. 112 00:06:17,620 --> 00:06:21,517 Deputy Thomas also saw some curious things. 113 00:06:21,620 --> 00:06:25,482 I went into the house and found a packed duffel bag. 114 00:06:25,586 --> 00:06:29,689 Was someone planning on leaving the house? 115 00:06:29,793 --> 00:06:32,862 In the laundry room, the dryer was running, 116 00:06:32,965 --> 00:06:36,103 full of clean bath towels and mats. 117 00:06:36,206 --> 00:06:38,758 Having a dryer running at midnight, very odd 118 00:06:38,862 --> 00:06:41,172 because I don't do laundry at midnight. 119 00:06:41,275 --> 00:06:44,103 Sure, you could, but-- 120 00:06:44,206 --> 00:06:47,206 And despite the shock of finding his wife dead, 121 00:06:47,310 --> 00:06:50,275 Dan Howard appeared to have recently showered, 122 00:06:50,379 --> 00:06:54,137 changed his clothes, and applied fresh deodorant. 123 00:06:54,241 --> 00:06:58,793 And you can tell that he's got deodorant lines on his T-shirt. 124 00:06:58,896 --> 00:07:03,413 Did something seem unsuicide like to you? 125 00:07:03,517 --> 00:07:09,000 Certainly, there was no other signs of a suicide note. 126 00:07:09,103 --> 00:07:11,931 It's often standard procedure to check people 127 00:07:12,034 --> 00:07:16,000 at a shooting scene for GSR, Gunshot Residue. 128 00:07:16,103 --> 00:07:19,896 And as a former state trooper, Dan Howard would know that. 129 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:21,965 Yet detective Northrop says Howard 130 00:07:22,068 --> 00:07:25,310 was uneasy about being tested. 131 00:07:25,413 --> 00:07:28,655 Mr. Howard stuck his hands into his coat pockets. 132 00:07:28,758 --> 00:07:32,310 And then he began twisting him to and fro, back and forth 133 00:07:32,413 --> 00:07:35,931 repeatedly until we told him to stop and remove his hands. 134 00:07:36,034 --> 00:07:38,689 Back and forth as if he's trying to wipe something off? 135 00:07:38,793 --> 00:07:40,758 Yes, that was the impression that we were getting. 136 00:07:40,862 --> 00:07:41,724 What was the result? 137 00:07:41,827 --> 00:07:43,068 It was negative. 138 00:07:43,172 --> 00:07:44,655 It was negative. 139 00:07:44,758 --> 00:07:47,241 Even though detectives were suspicious of all 140 00:07:47,344 --> 00:07:50,931 those little pieces of evidence that didn't seem to add up, 141 00:07:51,034 --> 00:07:53,310 they could not rule out the possibility 142 00:07:53,413 --> 00:07:57,241 that Kendy could have taken her own life. 143 00:07:57,344 --> 00:08:02,137 Kendy's sudden passing stunned those who loved her. 144 00:08:02,241 --> 00:08:03,000 She loved life. 145 00:08:05,689 --> 00:08:07,827 I have never had so much fun with somebody. 146 00:08:07,931 --> 00:08:09,689 No care in the world. 147 00:08:09,793 --> 00:08:13,310 Michelle Lampert was one of Kendy's best friends. 148 00:08:13,413 --> 00:08:17,275 That's Kendy kneeboarding with Michelle in northern Idaho. 149 00:08:21,448 --> 00:08:22,862 She always laughed. 150 00:08:22,965 --> 00:08:25,724 My favorite is spin class and then to the brewery. 151 00:08:25,827 --> 00:08:27,275 Nothing like spin class and brewery, 152 00:08:27,379 --> 00:08:29,275 but she felt like that was OK. 153 00:08:29,379 --> 00:08:31,000 She was a great mom. 154 00:08:31,103 --> 00:08:32,861 Brooke Wilkins is Kendy's daughter 155 00:08:32,965 --> 00:08:34,965 from an earlier relationship. 156 00:08:35,068 --> 00:08:36,275 Tell me about your mom. 157 00:08:36,379 --> 00:08:38,344 She just seems really special. 158 00:08:38,448 --> 00:08:39,000 She was. 159 00:08:39,102 --> 00:08:42,000 She had a big personality. 160 00:08:42,102 --> 00:08:46,241 She was happy to talk to anyone and make a friend and joke 161 00:08:46,344 --> 00:08:47,551 around. 162 00:08:47,655 --> 00:08:51,344 Kendy was a small town girl from northern Idaho. 163 00:08:51,448 --> 00:08:55,206 Sporty and outdoorsy, says her brother Brian. 164 00:08:55,310 --> 00:08:58,724 She rode her horse a lot, had sheep for 4H. 165 00:08:58,827 --> 00:09:01,482 And well, she had a goat, too, at the same time. 166 00:09:01,586 --> 00:09:03,896 Kendy was just 22 when she married 167 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:08,482 the former Marine turned Idaho state trooper, Dan Howard. 168 00:09:08,586 --> 00:09:11,172 He was six years older. 169 00:09:11,275 --> 00:09:13,103 Did she talk about the attraction? 170 00:09:13,206 --> 00:09:14,931 She did think he was very handsome. 171 00:09:15,034 --> 00:09:17,413 And I think the sense of security 172 00:09:17,517 --> 00:09:21,793 is a topic that was brought up quite a bit. 173 00:09:21,896 --> 00:09:25,724 Dan and Kendy settled on 10 acres in the town of Athol, 174 00:09:25,827 --> 00:09:29,931 just a speck on the map, 21 miles North of Coeur d'Alene. 175 00:09:30,034 --> 00:09:32,379 They had a son together, Wyatt. 176 00:09:32,482 --> 00:09:36,586 Like his dad, he became a Marine. 177 00:09:36,689 --> 00:09:40,413 A neighbor, Cari Maitland, says Dan and Kendy's marriage 178 00:09:40,517 --> 00:09:42,000 seemed strong. 179 00:09:42,103 --> 00:09:43,793 They were affectionate towards each other. 180 00:09:43,896 --> 00:09:47,206 And they were generally respectful to each other. 181 00:09:47,310 --> 00:09:49,620 Kendy worked at a local medical center. 182 00:09:49,724 --> 00:09:52,103 During 26 years of marriage, they 183 00:09:52,206 --> 00:09:56,241 made good money in real estate in this fast growing state. 184 00:09:56,344 --> 00:09:58,724 By the time of Kendy's death, the couple 185 00:09:58,827 --> 00:10:02,034 had more than $2 million in assets. 186 00:10:02,137 --> 00:10:05,896 And yet money created friction between them. 187 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:07,275 Her money was his money. 188 00:10:07,379 --> 00:10:08,931 And his money was his money. 189 00:10:09,034 --> 00:10:12,310 He never wanted to spend money. 190 00:10:12,413 --> 00:10:14,517 And there was more friction in the marriage, 191 00:10:14,620 --> 00:10:17,517 according to friends after Dan, working 192 00:10:17,620 --> 00:10:20,068 as a trooper for the Idaho State Police, 193 00:10:20,172 --> 00:10:23,551 shot and killed a woman during a traffic stop. 194 00:10:23,655 --> 00:10:26,172 Dan was cleared of all wrongdoing, 195 00:10:26,275 --> 00:10:29,758 but the incident took its toll on Kendy. 196 00:10:29,862 --> 00:10:32,655 I do believe she did become depressed. 197 00:10:32,758 --> 00:10:36,413 Years later, Dan would leave the state police. 198 00:10:36,517 --> 00:10:40,448 And things kind of changed between them. 199 00:10:40,551 --> 00:10:43,448 Kendy's brother Brian helped Dan find work 200 00:10:43,551 --> 00:10:46,896 on the North Slope, the oil fields of Alaska. 201 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:49,413 He'd worked three weeks straight and then 202 00:10:49,517 --> 00:10:52,000 come home for three weeks. 203 00:10:52,103 --> 00:10:55,172 And she was free for three weeks is when she really 204 00:10:55,275 --> 00:10:59,172 decided to experience life. 205 00:10:59,275 --> 00:11:02,793 Brian says the couple grew apart. 206 00:11:02,896 --> 00:11:05,241 There was arguing, bickering pretty much 207 00:11:05,344 --> 00:11:07,034 the whole time I'd be up there around them, 208 00:11:07,137 --> 00:11:09,758 but I didn't think it was anything. 209 00:11:09,862 --> 00:11:12,758 But Brooke says it was the beginning of the end 210 00:11:12,862 --> 00:11:14,241 of their relationship. 211 00:11:14,344 --> 00:11:17,000 Kendy was frustrated and lonely. 212 00:11:17,103 --> 00:11:20,068 She's very vocal that she does not love him, 213 00:11:20,172 --> 00:11:22,517 that there's no love in this marriage. 214 00:11:22,620 --> 00:11:26,310 Michelle says Kendy had an affair and even planned 215 00:11:26,413 --> 00:11:27,965 plastic surgery. 216 00:11:28,068 --> 00:11:30,068 She was just super excited. 217 00:11:30,172 --> 00:11:33,931 And that's when Kendy told Dan she was moving out 218 00:11:34,034 --> 00:11:35,896 and wanted a divorce. 219 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:42,172 And she had started the process of buying a new house. 220 00:11:42,275 --> 00:11:46,758 And I think she really felt that it would be OK. 221 00:11:46,862 --> 00:11:52,172 By the end of January 2021, just days before her death, 222 00:11:52,275 --> 00:11:54,551 Kendy met with a divorce lawyer. 223 00:11:54,655 --> 00:11:57,758 When Dan came home from work-- 224 00:11:57,862 --> 00:11:59,172 She just told him. 225 00:11:59,275 --> 00:12:01,551 I mean, she just told him everything. 226 00:12:01,655 --> 00:12:05,965 And I think that point, I did get scared. 227 00:12:06,068 --> 00:12:08,758 She said he was fine. 228 00:12:08,862 --> 00:12:10,206 He wasn't fine. 229 00:12:10,310 --> 00:12:10,965 No. 230 00:12:11,068 --> 00:12:12,482 [BLEEP] damn it. 231 00:12:12,586 --> 00:12:16,034 [SOBBING] 232 00:12:31,275 --> 00:12:33,827 It never made sense to me. 233 00:12:33,931 --> 00:12:35,172 It never made sense. 234 00:12:35,275 --> 00:12:38,689 When first responders examined Kendy Howard's body, 235 00:12:38,793 --> 00:12:41,413 in her bathtub, she had a gunshot wound 236 00:12:41,517 --> 00:12:45,448 to the back of her mouth and her pistol was in the water. 237 00:12:45,551 --> 00:12:50,034 Dan Howard told everyone that Kendy had taken her own life. 238 00:12:50,137 --> 00:12:51,034 Were you buying that? 239 00:12:51,551 --> 00:12:55,551 No, I couldn't see her leaving her kids and granddaughter. 240 00:12:58,344 --> 00:13:00,655 When he learned his sister was dead, 241 00:13:00,758 --> 00:13:02,862 Brian rushed over to her house. 242 00:13:02,965 --> 00:13:05,344 He walked right up to Dan. 243 00:13:05,448 --> 00:13:06,206 There was no emotion. 244 00:13:06,310 --> 00:13:07,172 He wasn't crying. 245 00:13:07,275 --> 00:13:09,206 I asked him if he'd ever hurt my sister, 246 00:13:09,310 --> 00:13:10,896 and he wouldn't look me in the eye. 247 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:12,137 And he said no. 248 00:13:12,241 --> 00:13:14,965 Kendy's friend, Michelle, was also 249 00:13:15,068 --> 00:13:18,310 certain Kendy had not taken her own life. 250 00:13:18,413 --> 00:13:20,137 Kendy was not depressed. 251 00:13:20,241 --> 00:13:23,724 You don't think about doing plastic surgery. 252 00:13:23,827 --> 00:13:26,827 You don't go work out. 253 00:13:26,931 --> 00:13:29,931 You don't go to spin class. 254 00:13:30,034 --> 00:13:32,275 But Kerry Maitland, Kendy's neighbor, 255 00:13:32,379 --> 00:13:36,827 says Kendy had been deeply unhappy. 256 00:13:36,931 --> 00:13:40,793 Months earlier, she says Kendy told her about problems 257 00:13:40,896 --> 00:13:41,931 in her marriage. 258 00:13:42,034 --> 00:13:44,551 She's just crying and crying and crying. 259 00:13:44,655 --> 00:13:49,517 And she's like, I don't even deserve to be here. 260 00:13:49,620 --> 00:13:52,517 Kerry doesn't think there's any mystery about what 261 00:13:52,620 --> 00:13:54,620 happened in that bathroom. 262 00:13:54,724 --> 00:13:57,172 I do believe that Kendy committed suicide. 263 00:14:00,689 --> 00:14:03,206 In the hours following Kendy's death, 264 00:14:03,310 --> 00:14:07,655 Detective Jerry Northrup said he had questions about Dan Howard's 265 00:14:07,758 --> 00:14:09,448 version of events. 266 00:14:09,551 --> 00:14:14,000 There's an order to things and a logical order. 267 00:14:14,103 --> 00:14:16,620 It did not make sense. 268 00:14:16,724 --> 00:14:19,206 One thing that didn't make sense that night 269 00:14:19,310 --> 00:14:21,137 was the clothes dryer running when 270 00:14:21,241 --> 00:14:23,620 responders entered the house. 271 00:14:23,724 --> 00:14:27,068 There were still 6 minutes showing on the display, 272 00:14:27,172 --> 00:14:29,620 so Northrup did some digging. 273 00:14:29,724 --> 00:14:32,034 I went to the manufacturer's site, 274 00:14:32,137 --> 00:14:35,206 pulled up the specifics about the times for cycles, 275 00:14:35,310 --> 00:14:38,000 and then took that information and compared that 276 00:14:38,103 --> 00:14:41,379 against the time at which the 911 call was placed. 277 00:14:41,482 --> 00:14:42,137 Dan-- 278 00:14:42,241 --> 00:14:44,965 I'm sorry. 279 00:14:45,068 --> 00:14:46,827 I need you to take a deep breath for me so we 280 00:14:46,931 --> 00:14:49,827 can get people headed to you. 281 00:14:49,931 --> 00:14:51,482 And what do you learn? 282 00:14:51,586 --> 00:14:54,896 That it was started within a minute of the 911 call. 283 00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:57,965 You said your son shot himself? 284 00:14:58,068 --> 00:15:00,896 No, my wife. 285 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:06,172 It's suggested that he was doing actions like starting laundry, 286 00:15:06,275 --> 00:15:10,965 rather than his claim that he was checking on Kendy Howard 287 00:15:11,068 --> 00:15:14,655 and that he was inconsolable and upset. 288 00:15:14,758 --> 00:15:17,206 It just didn't add up. 289 00:15:17,310 --> 00:15:21,034 And there were other red flags for Detective Northrup. 290 00:15:21,137 --> 00:15:23,000 Did you find any signs of a struggle, 291 00:15:23,103 --> 00:15:26,137 that there had been some sort of a physical confrontation 292 00:15:26,241 --> 00:15:27,275 between these two? 293 00:15:27,379 --> 00:15:29,551 Yes, we did. 294 00:15:29,655 --> 00:15:32,689 Up in the master bedroom, we noted on the floor 295 00:15:32,793 --> 00:15:34,931 that there were pieces of broken glass. 296 00:15:35,034 --> 00:15:37,137 And there was that question of the amount 297 00:15:37,241 --> 00:15:38,758 of blood in the bathtub. 298 00:15:38,862 --> 00:15:41,862 With a wound to the head, that water 299 00:15:41,965 --> 00:15:45,068 would be much darker, red colored, right? 300 00:15:45,172 --> 00:15:45,862 From the blood. 301 00:15:45,965 --> 00:15:47,034 Yes, sir. 302 00:15:47,137 --> 00:15:48,551 Based on my experience, that would be consistent. 303 00:15:48,655 --> 00:15:51,586 The fact that there wasn't was inconsistent. 304 00:15:51,689 --> 00:15:55,344 Inconsistent suggesting it might not be a suicide? 305 00:15:55,448 --> 00:15:56,379 Correct. 306 00:15:56,482 --> 00:15:59,551 Everything started directing us to the path 307 00:15:59,655 --> 00:16:04,000 that this was a staged crime scene. 308 00:16:04,103 --> 00:16:07,827 Nothing about this case felt right from the beginning. 309 00:16:07,931 --> 00:16:10,896 Detective Sergeant Ken Lallatin, now retired, 310 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:13,310 was the lead investigator. 311 00:16:13,413 --> 00:16:16,241 So what happened tonight? 312 00:16:16,344 --> 00:16:17,448 Marital problems. 313 00:16:17,551 --> 00:16:20,172 She wants a divorce one day, she doesn't the next. 314 00:16:20,275 --> 00:16:25,689 So she brought home divorce papers, just preliminary ones. 315 00:16:25,793 --> 00:16:29,172 We just grew apart, I guess. 316 00:16:29,275 --> 00:16:34,103 Lallatin says he quickly became convinced Dan was playing them. 317 00:16:34,206 --> 00:16:40,241 I had the sense that Dan had a story that he had planned 318 00:16:40,344 --> 00:16:41,862 to share with us that evening. 319 00:16:41,965 --> 00:16:43,689 It felt very contrived. 320 00:16:43,793 --> 00:16:46,482 Almost scripted, in a way? 321 00:16:46,586 --> 00:16:47,965 Yeah, definitely scripted. 322 00:16:50,517 --> 00:16:54,241 One example, Lallatin says, was Dan Howard telling him 323 00:16:54,344 --> 00:16:57,586 that Kendy had once put a gun to her head. 324 00:16:57,689 --> 00:16:59,068 She put it up to her head. 325 00:16:59,172 --> 00:17:01,206 She freaked me the fuck out. 326 00:17:01,310 --> 00:17:05,964 And I thought for sure, here we go. 327 00:17:06,068 --> 00:17:08,862 And dropped the gun and fucking shot through the floor. 328 00:17:08,964 --> 00:17:09,792 Same gun? 329 00:17:09,896 --> 00:17:12,310 Same gun. 330 00:17:12,413 --> 00:17:16,103 Lallatin says Howard told him that after a heated argument 331 00:17:16,205 --> 00:17:18,619 that night over splitting their finances, 332 00:17:18,723 --> 00:17:21,758 Kendy went upstairs to take a bath. 333 00:17:21,862 --> 00:17:26,310 A short time later, Howard heard what he described as a thud. 334 00:17:26,413 --> 00:17:28,655 It sounded like something hit the floor or something. 335 00:17:28,758 --> 00:17:29,827 I don't know. 336 00:17:29,931 --> 00:17:32,586 But he didn't investigate for more than an hour. 337 00:17:32,689 --> 00:17:36,862 That's when Howard says he found her dead in the tub. 338 00:17:36,965 --> 00:17:40,068 How many times have you ever described a gunshot as a thud? 339 00:17:40,172 --> 00:17:43,827 I don't think I've ever described a gunshot as a thud. 340 00:17:43,931 --> 00:17:46,379 I certainly would not expect someone 341 00:17:46,482 --> 00:17:50,517 who served in the Marine Corps, served approximately 20 years 342 00:17:50,620 --> 00:17:53,793 in law enforcement, someone who was 343 00:17:53,896 --> 00:17:56,344 a firearms instructor, someone who 344 00:17:56,448 --> 00:17:58,896 had been on their SWAT team-- 345 00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:02,896 I think if anybody's going to know what the sound of a gunshot 346 00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:06,448 is from inside a residence, it's going to be Dan Howard. 347 00:18:06,551 --> 00:18:09,896 As the morning came, Dan called his stepdaughter, Brooke, 348 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:11,724 and told her the news. 349 00:18:14,310 --> 00:18:14,827 No. 350 00:18:14,931 --> 00:18:16,241 It didn't go well. 351 00:18:16,344 --> 00:18:18,896 Even though you can't hear her, Lallatin 352 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:22,517 says he could hear Brooke shouting at Dan. 353 00:18:22,620 --> 00:18:23,206 What? 354 00:18:23,310 --> 00:18:25,551 What are you talking about? 355 00:18:25,655 --> 00:18:27,000 Who was that, Dan? 356 00:18:27,103 --> 00:18:29,103 It was my daughter, Brooke. 357 00:18:29,206 --> 00:18:31,482 Did she just accused you of this? 358 00:18:31,586 --> 00:18:32,172 No. 359 00:18:32,275 --> 00:18:34,689 That's what it sounded like. 360 00:18:34,793 --> 00:18:36,275 Why would she do that, Dan? 361 00:18:36,379 --> 00:18:39,862 Why would she think you did this? 362 00:18:39,965 --> 00:18:42,310 I haven't heard somebody that angry in a long time. 363 00:18:42,413 --> 00:18:43,689 I'll be honest with you, I was not 364 00:18:43,793 --> 00:18:45,275 expecting anything like that. 365 00:18:45,379 --> 00:18:49,310 I was across the room, and I could hear her. 366 00:18:49,413 --> 00:18:50,517 She's angry. 367 00:18:50,620 --> 00:18:53,724 Kids don't want to believe their moms would do that. 368 00:18:56,448 --> 00:18:58,931 Not one time have I ever been to a suicide 369 00:18:59,034 --> 00:19:02,793 or even heard of one where one of the family members 370 00:19:02,896 --> 00:19:07,793 call and accuse her stepdad of murdering her mom. 371 00:19:07,896 --> 00:19:11,241 It was a very powerful moment. 372 00:19:11,344 --> 00:19:16,172 And I literally was able to see Dan Howard almost physically 373 00:19:16,275 --> 00:19:17,758 shrink down. 374 00:19:17,862 --> 00:19:20,034 Like the walls are closing in. 375 00:19:20,137 --> 00:19:22,137 Oh, 100%. 376 00:19:22,241 --> 00:19:24,620 Dan, why does your daughter think you killed your wife? 377 00:19:27,310 --> 00:19:30,620 What evidence sticks out to you from the scene of Kendy Howard's 378 00:19:30,724 --> 00:19:31,724 death? 379 00:19:31,827 --> 00:19:34,379 See more evidence from the case at 48hours.com. 380 00:19:42,482 --> 00:19:46,137 In the early morning of February 3rd, 2021, 381 00:19:46,241 --> 00:19:50,206 Dan Howard's behavior continued raising the suspicions 382 00:19:50,310 --> 00:19:52,620 of Kootenai County detectives. 383 00:19:52,724 --> 00:19:53,344 What? 384 00:19:53,448 --> 00:19:55,103 What are you talking about? 385 00:19:55,206 --> 00:19:57,344 They had just overheard that phone 386 00:19:57,448 --> 00:20:01,275 call from his stepdaughter, Brooke, accusing him 387 00:20:01,379 --> 00:20:03,517 of killing her mother. 388 00:20:03,620 --> 00:20:04,551 I'm hysterical. 389 00:20:04,655 --> 00:20:05,758 I'm crying pretty hard. 390 00:20:05,862 --> 00:20:08,482 And you're believing that no way she shot herself. 391 00:20:08,586 --> 00:20:09,551 Right. 392 00:20:09,655 --> 00:20:12,551 I tell him that I don't know what happened, 393 00:20:12,655 --> 00:20:15,310 but I know you did this. 394 00:20:15,413 --> 00:20:17,034 Because I got to tell you, that phone call 395 00:20:17,137 --> 00:20:19,793 puts chills down my spine. 396 00:20:19,896 --> 00:20:22,689 Detective Sergeant Ken Lallatin confronted 397 00:20:22,793 --> 00:20:25,344 Dan about Brooke's accusation. 398 00:20:25,448 --> 00:20:26,620 You did it, didn't you, Dan? 399 00:20:26,724 --> 00:20:27,517 No, I didn't. 400 00:20:31,137 --> 00:20:33,896 I didn't think so, but now, after listening to that, 401 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:35,068 I think you did, didn't you? 402 00:20:35,172 --> 00:20:37,103 How the hell-- how the hell-- 403 00:20:37,206 --> 00:20:38,517 she doesn't know. 404 00:20:38,620 --> 00:20:40,793 She wasn't here. 405 00:20:40,896 --> 00:20:45,517 Within minutes, Dan Howard stopped responding to questions. 406 00:20:45,620 --> 00:20:48,137 Detectives were now very suspicious, 407 00:20:48,241 --> 00:20:52,724 because as an ex-cop, Howard had special skills. 408 00:20:52,827 --> 00:20:55,896 Dan knows things that most normal people, 409 00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:56,965 ordinary people don't. 410 00:20:57,068 --> 00:20:58,413 Things like what? 411 00:20:58,517 --> 00:21:00,896 Things like killing someone and staging 412 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:02,551 it to look like a suicide. 413 00:21:02,655 --> 00:21:05,000 But there wasn't enough physical evidence 414 00:21:05,103 --> 00:21:07,379 at the scene to arrest him. 415 00:21:07,482 --> 00:21:11,206 What's more, later that day, an autopsy was done, 416 00:21:11,310 --> 00:21:13,896 and the medical examiner concluded Kendy 417 00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:17,241 had died from that gunshot. 418 00:21:17,344 --> 00:21:19,931 Kendy's daughter, Brooke, was perplexed. 419 00:21:20,034 --> 00:21:24,034 She says her mother never took her gun out of the safe. 420 00:21:24,137 --> 00:21:25,241 Mom never touched a gun. 421 00:21:25,344 --> 00:21:26,931 She wouldn't have used a gun. 422 00:21:27,034 --> 00:21:30,931 There's something not making sense here. 423 00:21:31,034 --> 00:21:35,931 And I'm so lost and confused because Dan's not arrested. 424 00:21:36,034 --> 00:21:38,551 What Brooke didn't know was that the investigation 425 00:21:38,655 --> 00:21:40,827 was zeroing in on Dan Howard. 426 00:21:40,931 --> 00:21:44,000 Just hours after Kendy's death, Kootenai County 427 00:21:44,103 --> 00:21:46,758 prosecuting attorney, Stan Mortensen, 428 00:21:46,862 --> 00:21:49,827 was called in to consult with detectives. 429 00:21:49,931 --> 00:21:53,241 They pieced together a detailed timeline 430 00:21:53,344 --> 00:21:55,344 of the couple's relationship. 431 00:21:55,448 --> 00:21:57,241 What did you learn about Dan Howard? 432 00:21:57,344 --> 00:22:00,103 So we learned that Dan Howard was not the person 433 00:22:00,206 --> 00:22:01,448 that we thought he was. 434 00:22:01,551 --> 00:22:04,310 At home and behind closed doors, he was a different person. 435 00:22:04,413 --> 00:22:07,655 Investigators focused in on an alarming incident 436 00:22:07,758 --> 00:22:11,034 Dan was involved in from 2013, when 437 00:22:11,137 --> 00:22:13,103 he was still a state trooper. 438 00:22:13,206 --> 00:22:15,310 Dan had found out Kendy was having 439 00:22:15,413 --> 00:22:18,172 an affair with a neighbor who also happened 440 00:22:18,275 --> 00:22:20,137 to be Dan's good friend. 441 00:22:20,241 --> 00:22:24,620 Enraged, Dan confronted him at his office. 442 00:22:24,724 --> 00:22:26,344 He threatened to-- 443 00:22:26,448 --> 00:22:28,000 I believe his words were splatter 444 00:22:28,103 --> 00:22:29,965 his brains all over the walls. 445 00:22:30,068 --> 00:22:30,931 Threatened to kill him? 446 00:22:31,034 --> 00:22:31,931 Threatened to kill him. 447 00:22:32,034 --> 00:22:35,379 Dan Howard was accused of repeatedly harassing 448 00:22:35,482 --> 00:22:39,551 the neighbor, and eventually pleaded guilty to two felonies 449 00:22:39,655 --> 00:22:43,413 and served almost four months in jail in connection 450 00:22:43,517 --> 00:22:44,758 with that incident. 451 00:22:44,862 --> 00:22:48,758 He was allowed to resign from the Idaho State police. 452 00:22:48,862 --> 00:22:51,379 After that, Kendy's friend, Michelle, 453 00:22:51,482 --> 00:22:55,655 says the couple's relationship seemed to change. 454 00:22:55,758 --> 00:22:59,241 She was stuck to him like glue, just like glue, 455 00:22:59,344 --> 00:23:01,000 like hanging all over him. 456 00:23:01,103 --> 00:23:02,689 And she was never that way before. 457 00:23:02,793 --> 00:23:04,965 I think back going, was she scared? 458 00:23:05,068 --> 00:23:07,034 In the years that followed, Michelle 459 00:23:07,137 --> 00:23:11,586 says Dan was controlling and quick to anger, especially when 460 00:23:11,689 --> 00:23:14,172 it came to Kendy's spending. 461 00:23:14,275 --> 00:23:16,137 Dan never wanted to go do anything 462 00:23:16,241 --> 00:23:17,551 because that would spend money. 463 00:23:17,655 --> 00:23:20,103 I just don't think she was her full personality 464 00:23:20,206 --> 00:23:21,344 when he was around. 465 00:23:21,448 --> 00:23:25,172 But when Dan was about to head back to Alaska for work-- 466 00:23:25,275 --> 00:23:26,896 She was a totally different person. 467 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:29,379 I think she realized the more she was free, 468 00:23:29,482 --> 00:23:30,896 the more she loved life. 469 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:34,586 And she didn't have to be under his thumb. 470 00:23:34,689 --> 00:23:36,793 They continued to grow apart. 471 00:23:36,896 --> 00:23:41,517 Then Kendy told Michelle about an explosive argument 472 00:23:41,620 --> 00:23:44,448 just seven months before her death. 473 00:23:44,551 --> 00:23:47,551 She had hidden credit cards, and he found the bills. 474 00:23:47,655 --> 00:23:49,413 And that started that argument. 475 00:23:49,517 --> 00:23:51,517 He grabbed her and held her. 476 00:23:51,620 --> 00:23:55,103 And there was bruises on her neck and her-- 477 00:23:57,689 --> 00:23:59,586 she sent me pictures. 478 00:23:59,689 --> 00:24:02,965 You could see them clear as day in the pictures. 479 00:24:03,068 --> 00:24:05,827 She just told me not to tell anybody. 480 00:24:05,931 --> 00:24:10,551 Kendy never reported any kind of abuse from Dan to authorities. 481 00:24:10,655 --> 00:24:13,172 How long had this physical abuse been going on? 482 00:24:13,275 --> 00:24:14,034 Do you have a sense? 483 00:24:14,137 --> 00:24:15,379 We really don't know. 484 00:24:15,482 --> 00:24:18,931 It had been going on at least six months before she died. 485 00:24:19,034 --> 00:24:23,827 Then just four nights before Kendy Howard's death, 486 00:24:23,931 --> 00:24:26,827 deputies were called to the Howard home. 487 00:24:26,931 --> 00:24:29,517 Kendy's mother had asked for a welfare check 488 00:24:29,620 --> 00:24:33,758 after hearing a panicked Kendy on the phone. 489 00:24:33,862 --> 00:24:37,206 A visibly nervous Kendy answered the door. 490 00:24:37,310 --> 00:24:39,068 You mind if we talk to you guys really quick? 491 00:24:39,172 --> 00:24:40,000 Sounds fine to me. 492 00:24:40,103 --> 00:24:41,206 All right. 493 00:24:41,310 --> 00:24:44,310 Hours earlier, Kendy had picked Dan up at the airport, 494 00:24:44,413 --> 00:24:47,275 coming home from the oil fields of Alaska, 495 00:24:47,379 --> 00:24:51,896 and apparently upset him by saying she wanted a divorce. 496 00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:55,241 Kendy tells a deputy she needs to get something 497 00:24:55,344 --> 00:24:56,241 from the bedroom. 498 00:24:56,344 --> 00:24:57,551 And so I can go? 499 00:24:57,655 --> 00:24:59,896 Yeah, do you mind if I follow you? 500 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,931 That let the deputies speak with Kendy away from Dan. 501 00:25:06,310 --> 00:25:07,965 I asked for a divorce and he just got home. 502 00:25:08,068 --> 00:25:08,965 He's not taking it good. 503 00:25:09,068 --> 00:25:11,137 OK. 504 00:25:11,241 --> 00:25:13,551 I can't say what he was going to do. 505 00:25:13,655 --> 00:25:14,827 Did it ever become physical? 506 00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:20,206 I think I had woke up in time so it wouldn't. 507 00:25:20,310 --> 00:25:21,931 OK. 508 00:25:22,034 --> 00:25:23,862 When you woke up, where was he? 509 00:25:23,965 --> 00:25:25,310 Standing over me. 510 00:25:25,413 --> 00:25:26,000 Was he yelling? 511 00:25:26,103 --> 00:25:27,482 Was the argument like a-- 512 00:25:27,586 --> 00:25:31,172 OK, so he's always kind of just that calm? 513 00:25:31,275 --> 00:25:31,965 It was weird. 514 00:25:32,068 --> 00:25:32,517 OK. 515 00:25:32,620 --> 00:25:33,517 All right. 516 00:25:33,620 --> 00:25:34,344 I know what I seen. 517 00:25:34,448 --> 00:25:35,689 I know what he was going to do. 518 00:25:38,517 --> 00:25:39,931 Kendy, is this your bag as well? 519 00:25:40,034 --> 00:25:41,241 No, that's his. 520 00:25:41,344 --> 00:25:44,482 The deputy helped Kendy leave the house, 521 00:25:44,586 --> 00:25:48,137 but investigators would later say they couldn't arrest Dan 522 00:25:48,241 --> 00:25:52,586 because Kendy never told deputies Dan had physically 523 00:25:52,689 --> 00:25:54,000 harmed her. 524 00:25:54,103 --> 00:25:57,758 Deputy prosecuting attorney Julia Schoffstall 525 00:25:57,862 --> 00:26:02,068 later learned that Kendy had told friends what had happened. 526 00:26:02,172 --> 00:26:04,896 She wakes up in the early morning hours 527 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:09,655 to Dan standing over her wearing dark clothes, black latex 528 00:26:09,758 --> 00:26:11,482 gloves, a pillow in his hand. 529 00:26:11,586 --> 00:26:12,965 The look in his eyes-- 530 00:26:13,068 --> 00:26:15,379 it was a look that she had never seen before, 531 00:26:15,482 --> 00:26:18,206 and that she wholeheartedly believed in that moment 532 00:26:18,310 --> 00:26:20,827 that he was going to kill her. 533 00:26:20,931 --> 00:26:24,758 But later that day, Kendy returned home. 534 00:26:24,862 --> 00:26:28,137 She told friends and family that he wasn't stupid enough 535 00:26:28,241 --> 00:26:31,862 to try something again, that she felt like she 536 00:26:31,965 --> 00:26:33,862 had some level of safety. 537 00:26:33,965 --> 00:26:36,103 What's the tragedy in this case to you? 538 00:26:36,206 --> 00:26:37,931 The biggest tragedy of all. 539 00:26:38,034 --> 00:26:41,517 That she was so close to getting out 540 00:26:41,620 --> 00:26:44,241 In text messages to Kendy, Dan Howard 541 00:26:44,344 --> 00:26:46,827 said it was all a misunderstanding 542 00:26:46,931 --> 00:26:49,275 and he was willing to work things out, 543 00:26:49,379 --> 00:26:52,965 but there were other signs he wasn't OK. 544 00:26:53,068 --> 00:26:56,068 The day before Kendy's death, her brother, Brian, 545 00:26:56,172 --> 00:26:59,206 took a long road trip with Dan. 546 00:26:59,310 --> 00:27:03,000 He started asking me about who Kendy was having an affair with. 547 00:27:03,103 --> 00:27:06,482 Brian says Dan figured out Kendy was seeing the real estate 548 00:27:06,586 --> 00:27:09,689 agent who was helping her buy that new house 549 00:27:09,793 --> 00:27:12,827 near her hometown. 550 00:27:12,931 --> 00:27:15,344 You could tell he was mad. 551 00:27:15,448 --> 00:27:18,379 The next day, Kendy was dead. 552 00:27:18,482 --> 00:27:21,448 To prosecutors, the circumstantial evidence 553 00:27:21,551 --> 00:27:23,896 against Dan was adding up. 554 00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:27,344 After reviewing Kendy's autopsy and photos 555 00:27:27,448 --> 00:27:30,034 taken of Kendy's body, investigators 556 00:27:30,137 --> 00:27:34,448 discovered that, in fact, Kendy had multiple bruises 557 00:27:34,551 --> 00:27:36,689 all over her body. 558 00:27:36,793 --> 00:27:39,551 Her body was riddled from head to toe with bruises 559 00:27:39,655 --> 00:27:41,241 and some lacerations. 560 00:27:41,344 --> 00:27:44,068 And her jaw had been broken. 561 00:27:44,172 --> 00:27:47,482 I believe that Kendy was beat severely by Dan. 562 00:27:47,586 --> 00:27:50,172 So what really happened that night? 563 00:27:50,275 --> 00:27:53,551 The theory that Kendy's death scene could have been staged 564 00:27:53,655 --> 00:27:57,793 began to take on a new light. 565 00:27:57,896 --> 00:27:59,551 She's in the bathtub. 566 00:27:59,655 --> 00:28:01,689 Kendy did not die from a gunshot wound. 567 00:28:01,793 --> 00:28:02,413 Wait, wait, wait. 568 00:28:02,517 --> 00:28:03,620 Stop. 569 00:28:03,724 --> 00:28:06,862 She was shot, I understand, In the mouth. 570 00:28:06,965 --> 00:28:09,275 The bullet lodged in her vertebrae, 571 00:28:09,379 --> 00:28:10,931 and it didn't kill her? 572 00:28:11,034 --> 00:28:12,206 Exactly. 573 00:28:12,310 --> 00:28:15,655 We believe that Kendy was already dead when she was shot. 574 00:28:31,758 --> 00:28:35,448 I think Dan always had a level of control over Kendy, 575 00:28:35,551 --> 00:28:39,241 and I think by February 2nd, he had realized that that control 576 00:28:39,344 --> 00:28:40,206 was gone. 577 00:28:40,310 --> 00:28:42,620 Weeks into the investigation, prosecutors 578 00:28:42,724 --> 00:28:44,689 believed the circumstantial evidence 579 00:28:44,793 --> 00:28:48,655 showed Kendy died at the hands of Dan Howard. 580 00:28:48,758 --> 00:28:50,862 But with the medical examiner's ruling 581 00:28:50,965 --> 00:28:54,862 that Kendy had died from a gunshot wound and no DNA 582 00:28:54,965 --> 00:28:58,034 evidence linking Dan to Kendy's gun, 583 00:28:58,137 --> 00:29:02,965 prosecutors faced challenges, so they called in other experts 584 00:29:03,068 --> 00:29:06,931 to take a second look at the evidence, including 585 00:29:07,034 --> 00:29:10,551 forensic pathologist Dr. Jennifer Nara. 586 00:29:10,655 --> 00:29:13,620 I looked at the autopsy report. 587 00:29:13,724 --> 00:29:17,344 I reviewed all the photos, all the x-rays, the toxicology 588 00:29:17,448 --> 00:29:18,482 results. 589 00:29:18,586 --> 00:29:20,724 I did not agree with the original cause of death 590 00:29:20,827 --> 00:29:23,344 that she died from a gunshot wound to the head. 591 00:29:23,448 --> 00:29:26,896 Dr. Nara walked us through her analysis. 592 00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:30,137 I looked at what the trajectory was, the path the bullet took 593 00:29:30,241 --> 00:29:32,275 inside Kendy's mouth. 594 00:29:32,379 --> 00:29:33,862 I thought that was unusual because it 595 00:29:33,965 --> 00:29:36,206 was going in a slightly downward direction. 596 00:29:36,310 --> 00:29:38,413 Typically, gunshot wound suicides, 597 00:29:38,517 --> 00:29:42,034 they go either straight back to the mouth or go slightly upward. 598 00:29:42,137 --> 00:29:46,344 And can you demonstrate the path of this bullet? 599 00:29:46,448 --> 00:29:47,172 I sure can. 600 00:29:47,275 --> 00:29:48,620 So I've got a skull model here. 601 00:29:48,724 --> 00:29:50,310 And if you don't mind helping me out, 602 00:29:50,413 --> 00:29:52,413 I'm going to take this rod to show the direction 603 00:29:52,517 --> 00:29:55,448 that the bullet traveled through the mouth, through the tongue. 604 00:29:55,551 --> 00:29:57,758 And it tore through the tongue like a torpedo. 605 00:29:57,862 --> 00:30:00,034 It just went straight through the center of the tongue. 606 00:30:00,137 --> 00:30:02,517 Would there have been a lot of blood? 607 00:30:02,620 --> 00:30:03,413 Absolutely. 608 00:30:03,517 --> 00:30:04,827 It's going to bleed like crazy. 609 00:30:04,931 --> 00:30:07,241 Because the heart is beating at the time 610 00:30:07,344 --> 00:30:09,551 that the bullet went through that tongue. 611 00:30:09,655 --> 00:30:10,862 Exactly. 612 00:30:10,965 --> 00:30:14,172 But when Dr. Nara reviewed the photos of the crime scene, 613 00:30:14,275 --> 00:30:16,724 she says she didn't see the amount of blood 614 00:30:16,827 --> 00:30:18,827 she would have expected to. 615 00:30:18,931 --> 00:30:21,827 There was not enough blood. 616 00:30:21,931 --> 00:30:25,172 And there were those bruises on Kendy's body 617 00:30:25,275 --> 00:30:28,620 and her broken jaw, which Dr. Nara says 618 00:30:28,724 --> 00:30:32,172 were sustained before Kendy had died. 619 00:30:32,275 --> 00:30:35,965 Injuries that suggested a physical struggle of some sort. 620 00:30:36,068 --> 00:30:36,896 Correct. 621 00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:38,344 She's got bruises throughout her body. 622 00:30:38,448 --> 00:30:41,724 She's got bruising on both sides of her neck, which is consistent 623 00:30:41,827 --> 00:30:43,379 with her being possibly choked. 624 00:30:43,482 --> 00:30:45,758 What did you conclude? 625 00:30:45,862 --> 00:30:48,793 I believe that Kendy Howard was already dead when she 626 00:30:48,896 --> 00:30:50,206 sustained that gunshot wound. 627 00:30:52,758 --> 00:30:56,241 So she was already strangled or choked to death. 628 00:30:56,344 --> 00:30:59,000 And when she was placed in the bathtub, she was already dead. 629 00:30:59,103 --> 00:31:01,931 So then how did Kendy die? 630 00:31:02,034 --> 00:31:05,206 Prosecutors say Dan Howard used a restraining 631 00:31:05,310 --> 00:31:09,379 technique he learned back in his days as a state trooper. 632 00:31:09,482 --> 00:31:12,965 We believe that he utilized a technique known 633 00:31:13,068 --> 00:31:14,724 as a carotid restraint. 634 00:31:14,827 --> 00:31:16,103 Show me how it works. 635 00:31:16,206 --> 00:31:18,758 So what you would do is you'd place your arm around somebody's 636 00:31:18,862 --> 00:31:21,275 neck and head, and their chin is going 637 00:31:21,379 --> 00:31:23,482 to be in the crook of your elbow. 638 00:31:23,586 --> 00:31:27,172 Prior to becoming an attorney, prosecutor Stan Mortensen 639 00:31:27,275 --> 00:31:30,655 had been a Sheriff's deputy, and like Dan Howard, 640 00:31:30,758 --> 00:31:32,827 had been trained in administering 641 00:31:32,931 --> 00:31:36,482 the carotid restraint hold, rarely used 642 00:31:36,586 --> 00:31:39,206 as it cuts off blood flow to the brain. 643 00:31:39,310 --> 00:31:41,586 If it's applied too long, it can cause death. 644 00:31:41,689 --> 00:31:46,827 And that right there was our theory on how Dan killed Kendy. 645 00:31:46,931 --> 00:31:50,241 It's an interesting theory, but you do concede it is a theory, 646 00:31:50,344 --> 00:31:51,620 right? 647 00:31:51,724 --> 00:31:54,931 No witness came forward to say that Dan told me he did this. 648 00:31:55,034 --> 00:31:56,379 There's no physical evidence that 649 00:31:56,482 --> 00:31:57,862 proves that he did this, right? 650 00:31:57,965 --> 00:32:00,172 Not the carotid restraint technique, correct. 651 00:32:00,275 --> 00:32:02,827 But Dan knew how to use this technique 652 00:32:02,931 --> 00:32:05,275 and taught other people how to use it. 653 00:32:05,379 --> 00:32:07,793 So we weren't just grabbing this theory out of thin air. 654 00:32:07,896 --> 00:32:12,034 This was something that Dan actually knew. 655 00:32:12,137 --> 00:32:16,034 It took two years for the prosecutors to build their case. 656 00:32:16,137 --> 00:32:21,862 Finally, in April, 2023, Dan Howard was charged with murder. 657 00:32:21,965 --> 00:32:24,827 He was also charged with domestic battery 658 00:32:24,931 --> 00:32:28,689 from that incident seven months before Kennedy's death, 659 00:32:28,793 --> 00:32:31,206 when she took those photos of her bruises 660 00:32:31,310 --> 00:32:34,379 and sent them to her friend, Michelle. 661 00:32:34,482 --> 00:32:38,068 He pleaded not guilty and posted bail. 662 00:32:38,172 --> 00:32:41,172 Howard was ordered to wear an ankle monitor 663 00:32:41,275 --> 00:32:44,862 while he awaited trial. 664 00:32:44,965 --> 00:32:47,655 All rise. 665 00:32:47,758 --> 00:32:53,034 In March 2024, a clean shaven Dan Howard went on trial. 666 00:32:53,137 --> 00:32:55,620 The judge ruled that any mention of Dan's 667 00:32:55,724 --> 00:32:59,068 previous criminal history or his 2011 668 00:32:59,172 --> 00:33:03,620 killing of a woman during a traffic stop was forbidden. 669 00:33:03,724 --> 00:33:05,689 We'll turn now to opening statements. 670 00:33:05,793 --> 00:33:08,137 The State can go first. 671 00:33:08,241 --> 00:33:12,034 In his opening statement, prosecutor Stan Mortensen 672 00:33:12,137 --> 00:33:16,758 said Dan and Kendy Howard had fought over finances that night 673 00:33:16,862 --> 00:33:21,620 and it turned physical, with Dan bruising Kendy, 674 00:33:21,724 --> 00:33:25,689 breaking her jaw, then killing her with the carotid restraint 675 00:33:25,793 --> 00:33:26,758 hold. 676 00:33:26,862 --> 00:33:30,482 Then, he said, Dan Howard staged the scene 677 00:33:30,586 --> 00:33:35,551 by placing Kendy's body in the bathtub and shooting her. 678 00:33:35,655 --> 00:33:38,413 Ladies and gentlemen, the evidence will come in 679 00:33:38,517 --> 00:33:41,551 and will demonstrate that this was not a suicide. 680 00:33:41,655 --> 00:33:45,620 Evidence will show that Kendy died of asphyxiation. 681 00:33:45,724 --> 00:33:48,551 Evidence will show that Dan Howard is guilty of murder. 682 00:33:48,655 --> 00:33:50,551 Mr. Johnson, your opening. 683 00:33:50,655 --> 00:33:54,689 Dan's lawyer, Jason Johnson, countered the state's claims 684 00:33:54,793 --> 00:33:57,827 by asserting that an emotionally troubled Kendy 685 00:33:57,931 --> 00:34:00,413 Howard had shot herself. 686 00:34:00,517 --> 00:34:04,758 She is struggling with whether she wants to leave Dan. 687 00:34:04,862 --> 00:34:09,241 He pointed out that Dan's DNA was not even on Kendy's gun. 688 00:34:09,344 --> 00:34:14,241 The gun had Kendy's blood on it, but Dan is excluded. 689 00:34:14,344 --> 00:34:17,516 And he dismissed the State's assertion there was 690 00:34:17,620 --> 00:34:19,413 a physical fight that night. 691 00:34:19,516 --> 00:34:22,655 Kendy did not have any DNA under her fingernails. 692 00:34:22,757 --> 00:34:26,551 There were no defensive marks on Dan. 693 00:34:26,655 --> 00:34:29,413 Johnson also said the investigators were all 694 00:34:29,516 --> 00:34:32,793 wrong about the lack of blood at the scene, 695 00:34:32,896 --> 00:34:35,551 pointing out that several hours had passed 696 00:34:35,655 --> 00:34:38,931 before some of the crime scene photographs of the bathtub 697 00:34:39,034 --> 00:34:43,344 had been taken, and some of the water could have drained. 698 00:34:43,447 --> 00:34:46,724 How much blood went down that drain? 699 00:34:46,827 --> 00:34:49,413 Johnson attacked the prosecution's claim 700 00:34:49,516 --> 00:34:52,447 that Kennedy was dead from asphyxiation 701 00:34:52,551 --> 00:34:56,965 before she was shot by calling that medical examiner who 702 00:34:57,068 --> 00:35:00,103 performed Kendy's original autopsy. 703 00:35:00,206 --> 00:35:02,758 Your cause of death was gunshot wound? 704 00:35:02,862 --> 00:35:05,517 That's my opinion. 705 00:35:05,620 --> 00:35:07,965 More than a week into the proceedings, 706 00:35:08,068 --> 00:35:11,172 the trial recessed for a long weekend break. 707 00:35:11,275 --> 00:35:16,034 That night, prosecutors learned of a new dramatic development 708 00:35:16,137 --> 00:35:20,344 that seemed to be right out of a television crime show. 709 00:35:20,448 --> 00:35:24,172 It seemed Dan Howard was making a run for it. 710 00:35:27,172 --> 00:35:29,551 What do you think of the prosecution's theory 711 00:35:29,655 --> 00:35:31,206 of how Kendy Howard died? 712 00:35:31,310 --> 00:35:39,379 Chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and X. 713 00:35:39,482 --> 00:35:44,000 With his trial winding down, Dan Howard, who was out on bail 714 00:35:44,103 --> 00:35:48,862 with an ankle monitor, suddenly took off. 715 00:35:48,965 --> 00:35:50,103 This was the great escape. 716 00:35:50,206 --> 00:35:51,172 He was hoping to get away. 717 00:35:51,275 --> 00:35:52,689 And he did it right after we finished 718 00:35:52,793 --> 00:35:54,379 with all of our evidence. 719 00:35:54,482 --> 00:35:58,068 A deputy was tracking Howard that night. 720 00:35:58,172 --> 00:36:01,000 This is I-90 going 70 miles an hour. 721 00:36:01,103 --> 00:36:04,137 He abruptly took an exit, and then got back 722 00:36:04,241 --> 00:36:07,034 on the highway looking in his rearview mirror. 723 00:36:07,137 --> 00:36:09,137 Is somebody following me? 724 00:36:09,241 --> 00:36:13,379 About an hour later, Howard made it to the Spokane International 725 00:36:13,482 --> 00:36:14,482 Airport. 726 00:36:14,586 --> 00:36:16,172 He's right there at the airport terminal. 727 00:36:16,275 --> 00:36:17,655 Right there at the airport terminal. 728 00:36:17,758 --> 00:36:19,448 Dan was taken out of the car. 729 00:36:19,551 --> 00:36:21,310 He was put into handcuffs. 730 00:36:21,413 --> 00:36:23,689 Howard claimed he had gone there to help 731 00:36:23,793 --> 00:36:28,448 a friend return a rental car, not to make a run for it. 732 00:36:28,551 --> 00:36:29,965 And I think it's possible that he 733 00:36:30,068 --> 00:36:32,793 was going to cut the ankle monitor off, leave it 734 00:36:32,896 --> 00:36:36,413 in his car, and then drive away in another rental car. 735 00:36:36,517 --> 00:36:41,448 Instead, Howard's drive was a short one back to a jail cell 736 00:36:41,551 --> 00:36:43,034 in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. 737 00:36:43,137 --> 00:36:45,344 His bail was revoked. 738 00:36:45,448 --> 00:36:50,517 Days later, the prosecution made closing arguments. 739 00:36:50,620 --> 00:36:53,379 Ladies and gentlemen, the state has shown you this was not 740 00:36:53,482 --> 00:36:56,689 suicide because a dead person cannot shoot themselves 741 00:36:56,793 --> 00:36:58,482 in the mouth. 742 00:36:58,586 --> 00:37:03,172 The jury was not told about Howard's escape attempt. 743 00:37:03,275 --> 00:37:06,206 Dan Howard's defense attorney insisted 744 00:37:06,310 --> 00:37:10,344 that Kendy took her own life. 745 00:37:10,448 --> 00:37:13,931 The scene is consistent with suicide. 746 00:37:14,034 --> 00:37:18,724 And that Howard did not have the skills to stage a murder scene. 747 00:37:18,827 --> 00:37:20,862 There's no evidence that he worked as a detective. 748 00:37:20,965 --> 00:37:23,068 There's no evidence that he had any sort 749 00:37:23,172 --> 00:37:27,551 of homicidal training, no evidence of the knowledge 750 00:37:27,655 --> 00:37:28,793 of staging a scene. 751 00:37:32,241 --> 00:37:34,137 Have you, in fact, reached a verdict? 752 00:37:34,241 --> 00:37:38,344 After 10 days of trial, 62 witnesses, 753 00:37:38,448 --> 00:37:41,379 and just over eight hours of deliberations, 754 00:37:41,482 --> 00:37:44,413 the jury reached a verdict. 755 00:37:44,517 --> 00:37:49,103 Is the defendant, Daniel Howard, guilty or not guilty 756 00:37:49,206 --> 00:37:50,448 of second degree murder? 757 00:37:50,551 --> 00:37:51,896 Guilty. 758 00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:52,827 I cried. 759 00:37:52,931 --> 00:37:54,344 There was-- I think I gasped. 760 00:37:54,448 --> 00:37:55,310 There was crying. 761 00:37:55,413 --> 00:37:58,137 And did you look at Dan? 762 00:37:58,241 --> 00:37:59,310 I'm looking at him. 763 00:37:59,413 --> 00:38:03,068 And as he turns, there's just there's no expression. 764 00:38:03,172 --> 00:38:06,862 There's no look of remorse. 765 00:38:06,965 --> 00:38:11,482 Dan had shown no emotion. 766 00:38:11,586 --> 00:38:14,310 But two months later, at his sentencing, 767 00:38:14,413 --> 00:38:18,103 he begged the judge for leniency. 768 00:38:18,206 --> 00:38:21,551 I love my wife. 769 00:38:21,655 --> 00:38:24,620 And I miss her. 770 00:38:24,724 --> 00:38:29,896 And I'm not that monster, I assure you, 771 00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:37,172 that people have portrayed me to be. 772 00:38:37,275 --> 00:38:45,551 Kendy and I had 28 years together and raised a family. 773 00:38:45,655 --> 00:38:52,275 We had mostly a good marriage and a good life. 774 00:38:52,379 --> 00:38:55,068 I'm not that animal that they portray me to be. 775 00:38:55,172 --> 00:38:57,896 It's not my intention to anger the court 776 00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:03,827 or disrespect the process that I used to believe in. 777 00:39:03,931 --> 00:39:08,413 But your Honor is about a sentence and innocent man 778 00:39:08,517 --> 00:39:09,310 to prison. 779 00:39:12,275 --> 00:39:15,172 But the judge wasn't moved. 780 00:39:15,275 --> 00:39:17,965 What we know, beyond a reasonable doubt, 781 00:39:18,068 --> 00:39:19,448 is that you strangled your wife. 782 00:39:19,551 --> 00:39:21,068 You murdered her. 783 00:39:21,172 --> 00:39:25,551 And then you staged her naked body in the bathtub, 784 00:39:25,655 --> 00:39:28,000 shot her through the mouth, and tried 785 00:39:28,103 --> 00:39:29,827 to pass this off as a suicide. 786 00:39:29,931 --> 00:39:33,068 You killed a mother. 787 00:39:33,172 --> 00:39:34,965 You killed a grandmother. 788 00:39:35,068 --> 00:39:36,896 You killed a sister. 789 00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:42,448 You snuffed that out because of your own pride, greed, 790 00:39:42,551 --> 00:39:44,068 and anger. 791 00:39:44,172 --> 00:39:47,310 Pride, greed, and anger, said the judge. 792 00:39:47,413 --> 00:39:51,517 But others kept coming back to the word control. 793 00:39:51,620 --> 00:39:55,655 To me, this case was about a man who thought 794 00:39:55,758 --> 00:39:57,482 that he could control a woman. 795 00:39:57,586 --> 00:40:01,793 And if he couldn't get his way, he was going to force it. 796 00:40:01,896 --> 00:40:03,241 All rise. 797 00:40:03,344 --> 00:40:05,724 I cried. 798 00:40:05,827 --> 00:40:09,241 It's such a relief that people got 799 00:40:09,344 --> 00:40:10,620 to hear what actually happened. 800 00:40:15,793 --> 00:40:20,137 I'm Kenley Wilkins and Kendy's granddaughter. 801 00:40:20,241 --> 00:40:22,275 And what do you have in front of you here? 802 00:40:22,379 --> 00:40:23,758 Chickens. 803 00:40:23,862 --> 00:40:26,034 Brooke's daughter, Kenley, was just eight 804 00:40:26,137 --> 00:40:29,103 when her beloved grandmother was murdered. 805 00:40:29,206 --> 00:40:33,034 Now 12, she treasures these glass chickens 806 00:40:33,137 --> 00:40:35,000 that her grandma collected. 807 00:40:35,103 --> 00:40:38,413 Do you feel a connection to your grandmother when you see these? 808 00:40:38,517 --> 00:40:39,896 Yeah. 809 00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:41,137 She had a china hutch. 810 00:40:41,241 --> 00:40:42,413 Yeah, a china hutch. 811 00:40:42,517 --> 00:40:43,724 It was just full of chicken. 812 00:40:43,827 --> 00:40:46,275 So I always just looked at how many different colors 813 00:40:46,379 --> 00:40:46,793 there were. 814 00:40:46,896 --> 00:40:48,379 Pretty cool Grandma. 815 00:40:48,482 --> 00:40:50,482 You loved her, didn't you? 816 00:40:50,586 --> 00:40:52,310 What's the hardest thing for you? 817 00:40:52,413 --> 00:40:54,655 Probably her smile. 818 00:40:54,758 --> 00:40:56,000 It's tough, isn't it. 819 00:40:59,689 --> 00:41:01,965 I want justice for Kendy. 820 00:41:02,068 --> 00:41:03,793 What I hope they get from this story-- 821 00:41:03,896 --> 00:41:06,000 that you don't have to live like this. 822 00:41:06,103 --> 00:41:08,724 I wish I could have stopped it. 823 00:41:08,827 --> 00:41:11,896 I'm still shocked that we're still 824 00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:18,241 talking about domestic violence and that sometimes you 825 00:41:18,344 --> 00:41:19,034 can't do anything. 826 00:41:42,206 --> 00:41:43,517 CBS next Saturday. 827 00:41:43,620 --> 00:41:44,517 She's not breathing. 828 00:41:44,620 --> 00:41:46,482 A surgeon's girlfriend found dead. 829 00:41:46,586 --> 00:41:48,344 He provided those drugs. 830 00:41:48,448 --> 00:41:51,379 Was this a case of a controlling doctor's depravity? 831 00:41:51,482 --> 00:41:53,862 This is not just some simple accident. 832 00:41:53,965 --> 00:41:55,413 This was much more. 833 00:41:55,517 --> 00:41:59,344 A new 48 Hours next Saturday at 10:00/9:00 Central on CBS 834 00:41:59,448 --> 00:42:02,103 and streaming on Paramount Plus.