[MUSIC PLAYING]
I was in my car.
It was pretty late in the night.
There was a male over the phone screaming at 911.
My wife she shot herself.
[CRYING]
Right when I pulled into the driveway, the front door opens.
Over here.
Come on.
And a man walks out of the house--
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[CRYING]
--screaming, crying, yelling.
Oh my god.
Just overall, kind of freaking out.
It was a gunshot.
I was downstairs.
TV Going,
OK, well, where is she at?
Upstairs in the bathroom.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
They found Kendy upstairs in a bathroom
with the tub full of water.
Sir, what's your first name?
Dan.
Dan?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Kendy was just so funny and nice.
We just clicked and never stopped clicking.
Dan and Kendy were great neighbors.
We all became friends, being neighbors, small town.
Everybody barbecues and hanging out together.
She wanted to just love life, and she loved life.
She's in the bathtub.
And she was in that tub of water with a gunshot
wound to her head.
And the gun was still in the water of the bathtub.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Did something strike you about that scene?
Certainly, we have broken glass here.
We have some of her clothing on the opposite side
of the bed thrown on the floor.
We have wet towels behind the door.
Are you asking yourself that means what?
From the beginnings, it looks odd.
Dan Howard worked as a Idaho State Police trooper.
Dan knows things that most normal people, ordinary people
don't know.
Things like what?
Things like killing someone and staging
it to look like a suicide.
Dan thought he was smarter than everybody else, smart enough
to trick everybody.
And in the end, that's what he did.
I don't know what I'm supposed to do.
I'm so lost and confused because Dan's not arrested.
I really did think that he would get away with it.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[SIRENS BLARING]
What's going on?
Sir, they have to do their job.
This is their scene now.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Send in medical.
Kootenai County Sheriff's deputy Miranda Thomas
will never forget coming face to face with a distraught Dan
Howard, a former state trooper, at his home in northern Idaho
on a cold winter's morning in February 2021.
[CRYING]
No.
[BLEEP] damn it.
Oh my god.
He would scream and yell, but there were no tears in his eyes
at any point.
[CRYING]
He would act like he was gagging,
but nothing would ever actually happen.
Deputy Thomas was one of the first responders
to Dan's home, a place he shared with his wife of 26 years,
Kendy.
[SOBBING]
No, please.
Dan, I know this is hard, but when is the last time
that you saw your wife alive?
[SOBBING]
Dan, do you want medical to look at you at all?
No.
OK.
Dan Howard told police he discovered his wife
in the bathtub.
He said she had shot herself in the head.
Kendy's own pistol was at the bottom
of the tub in murky water.
Secure the scene.
Don't touch anything.
OK.
Kootenai County Sheriff's Detective Jerry Northrop
arrived before midnight.
Were you dispatched to a possible suicide?
Yes, sir.
It was identified as a suicide.
Northrop immediately began analyzing what was before him.
For a woman to shoot herself in the tub nude is unusual.
It doesn't mean it can't happen.
It just means that it's unusual.
Northrop, a crime scene expert, says
something was missing from this death scene,
especially considering Kendy had suffered a head wound.
There would be a lot more blood that was produced,
and I just didn't see that on her face, on her body,
or in the tub.
Deputy Thomas also saw some curious things.
I went into the house and found a packed duffel bag.
Was someone planning on leaving the house?
In the laundry room, the dryer was running,
full of clean bath towels and mats.
Having a dryer running at midnight, very odd
because I don't do laundry at midnight.
Sure, you could, but--
And despite the shock of finding his wife dead,
Dan Howard appeared to have recently showered,
changed his clothes, and applied fresh deodorant.
And you can tell that he's got deodorant lines on his T-shirt.
Did something seem unsuicide like to you?
Certainly, there was no other signs of a suicide note.
It's often standard procedure to check people
at a shooting scene for GSR, Gunshot Residue.
And as a former state trooper, Dan Howard would know that.
Yet detective Northrop says Howard
was uneasy about being tested.
Mr. Howard stuck his hands into his coat pockets.
And then he began twisting him to and fro, back and forth
repeatedly until we told him to stop and remove his hands.
Back and forth as if he's trying to wipe something off?
Yes, that was the impression that we were getting.
What was the result?
It was negative.
Even though detectives were suspicious of all
those little pieces of evidence that didn't seem to add up,
they could not rule out the possibility
that Kendy could have taken her own life.
Kendy's sudden passing stunned those who loved her.
She loved life.
I have never had so much fun with somebody.
No care in the world.
Michelle Lampert was one of Kendy's best friends.
That's Kendy kneeboarding with Michelle in northern Idaho.
She always laughed.
My favorite is spin class and then to the brewery.
Nothing like spin class and brewery,
but she felt like that was OK.
She was a great mom.
Brooke Wilkins is Kendy's daughter
from an earlier relationship.
Tell me about your mom.
She just seems really special.
She was.
She had a big personality.
She was happy to talk to anyone and make a friend and joke
around.
Kendy was a small town girl from northern Idaho.
Sporty and outdoorsy, says her brother Brian.
She rode her horse a lot, had sheep for 4H.
And well, she had a goat, too, at the same time.
Kendy was just 22 when she married
the former Marine turned Idaho state trooper, Dan Howard.
He was six years older.
Did she talk about the attraction?
She did think he was very handsome.
And I think the sense of security
is a topic that was brought up quite a bit.
Dan and Kendy settled on 10 acres in the town of Athol,
just a speck on the map, 21 miles North of Coeur d'Alene.
They had a son together, Wyatt.
Like his dad, he became a Marine.
A neighbor, Cari Maitland, says Dan and Kendy's marriage
seemed strong.
They were affectionate towards each other.
And they were generally respectful to each other.
Kendy worked at a local medical center.
During 26 years of marriage, they
made good money in real estate in this fast growing state.
By the time of Kendy's death, the couple
had more than $2 million in assets.
And yet money created friction between them.
Her money was his money.
And his money was his money.
He never wanted to spend money.
And there was more friction in the marriage,
according to friends after Dan, working
as a trooper for the Idaho State Police,
shot and killed a woman during a traffic stop.
Dan was cleared of all wrongdoing,
but the incident took its toll on Kendy.
I do believe she did become depressed.
Years later, Dan would leave the state police.
And things kind of changed between them.
Kendy's brother Brian helped Dan find work
on the North Slope, the oil fields of Alaska.
He'd worked three weeks straight and then
come home for three weeks.
And she was free for three weeks is when she really
decided to experience life.
Brian says the couple grew apart.
There was arguing, bickering pretty much
the whole time I'd be up there around them,
but I didn't think it was anything.
But Brooke says it was the beginning of the end
of their relationship.
Kendy was frustrated and lonely.
She's very vocal that she does not love him,
that there's no love in this marriage.
Michelle says Kendy had an affair and even planned
plastic surgery.
She was just super excited.
And that's when Kendy told Dan she was moving out
and wanted a divorce.
And she had started the process of buying a new house.
And I think she really felt that it would be OK.
By the end of January 2021, just days before her death,
Kendy met with a divorce lawyer.
When Dan came home from work--
She just told him.
I mean, she just told him everything.
And I think that point, I did get scared.
She said he was fine.
He wasn't fine.
No.
[BLEEP] damn it.
[SOBBING]
It never made sense to me.
It never made sense.
When first responders examined Kendy Howard's body,
in her bathtub, she had a gunshot wound
to the back of her mouth and her pistol was in the water.
Dan Howard told everyone that Kendy had taken her own life.
Were you buying that?
No, I couldn't see her leaving her kids and granddaughter.
When he learned his sister was dead,
Brian rushed over to her house.
He walked right up to Dan.
There was no emotion.
He wasn't crying.
I asked him if he'd ever hurt my sister,
and he wouldn't look me in the eye.
And he said no.
Kendy's friend, Michelle, was also
certain Kendy had not taken her own life.
Kendy was not depressed.
You don't think about doing plastic surgery.
You don't go work out.
You don't go to spin class.
But Kerry Maitland, Kendy's neighbor,
says Kendy had been deeply unhappy.
Months earlier, she says Kendy told her about problems
in her marriage.
She's just crying and crying and crying.
And she's like, I don't even deserve to be here.
Kerry doesn't think there's any mystery about what
happened in that bathroom.
I do believe that Kendy committed suicide.
In the hours following Kendy's death,
Detective Jerry Northrup said he had questions about Dan Howard's
version of events.
There's an order to things and a logical order.
It did not make sense.
One thing that didn't make sense that night
was the clothes dryer running when
responders entered the house.
There were still 6 minutes showing on the display,
so Northrup did some digging.
I went to the manufacturer's site,
pulled up the specifics about the times for cycles,
and then took that information and compared that
against the time at which the 911 call was placed.
Dan--
I'm sorry.
I need you to take a deep breath for me so we
can get people headed to you.
And what do you learn?
That it was started within a minute of the 911 call.
You said your son shot himself?
No, my wife.
It's suggested that he was doing actions like starting laundry,
rather than his claim that he was checking on Kendy Howard
and that he was inconsolable and upset.
It just didn't add up.
And there were other red flags for Detective Northrup.
Did you find any signs of a struggle,
that there had been some sort of a physical confrontation
between these two?
Yes, we did.
Up in the master bedroom, we noted on the floor
that there were pieces of broken glass.
And there was that question of the amount
of blood in the bathtub.
With a wound to the head, that water
would be much darker, red colored, right?
From the blood.
Yes, sir.
Based on my experience, that would be consistent.
The fact that there wasn't was inconsistent.
Inconsistent suggesting it might not be a suicide?
Correct.
Everything started directing us to the path
that this was a staged crime scene.
Nothing about this case felt right from the beginning.
Detective Sergeant Ken Lallatin, now retired,
was the lead investigator.
So what happened tonight?
Marital problems.
She wants a divorce one day, she doesn't the next.
So she brought home divorce papers, just preliminary ones.
We just grew apart, I guess.
Lallatin says he quickly became convinced Dan was playing them.
I had the sense that Dan had a story that he had planned
to share with us that evening.
It felt very contrived.
Almost scripted, in a way?
Yeah, definitely scripted.
One example, Lallatin says, was Dan Howard telling him
that Kendy had once put a gun to her head.
She put it up to her head.
She freaked me the fuck out.
And I thought for sure, here we go.
And dropped the gun and fucking shot through the floor.
Same gun?
Same gun.
Lallatin says Howard told him that after a heated argument
that night over splitting their finances,
Kendy went upstairs to take a bath.
A short time later, Howard heard what he described as a thud.
It sounded like something hit the floor or something.
I don't know.
But he didn't investigate for more than an hour.
That's when Howard says he found her dead in the tub.
How many times have you ever described a gunshot as a thud?
I don't think I've ever described a gunshot as a thud.
I certainly would not expect someone
who served in the Marine Corps, served approximately 20 years
in law enforcement, someone who was
a firearms instructor, someone who
had been on their SWAT team--
I think if anybody's going to know what the sound of a gunshot
is from inside a residence, it's going to be Dan Howard.
As the morning came, Dan called his stepdaughter, Brooke,
and told her the news.
No.
It didn't go well.
Even though you can't hear her, Lallatin
says he could hear Brooke shouting at Dan.
What?
What are you talking about?
Who was that, Dan?
It was my daughter, Brooke.
Did she just accused you of this?
No.
That's what it sounded like.
Why would she do that, Dan?
Why would she think you did this?
I haven't heard somebody that angry in a long time.
I'll be honest with you, I was not
expecting anything like that.
I was across the room, and I could hear her.
She's angry.
Kids don't want to believe their moms would do that.
Not one time have I ever been to a suicide
or even heard of one where one of the family members
call and accuse her stepdad of murdering her mom.
It was a very powerful moment.
And I literally was able to see Dan Howard almost physically
shrink down.
Like the walls are closing in.
Oh, 100%.
Dan, why does your daughter think you killed your wife?
What evidence sticks out to you from the scene of Kendy Howard's
death?
See more evidence from the case at 48hours.com.
In the early morning of February 3rd, 2021,
Dan Howard's behavior continued raising the suspicions
of Kootenai County detectives.
What?
What are you talking about?
They had just overheard that phone
call from his stepdaughter, Brooke, accusing him
of killing her mother.
I'm hysterical.
I'm crying pretty hard.
And you're believing that no way she shot herself.
Right.
I tell him that I don't know what happened,
but I know you did this.
Because I got to tell you, that phone call
puts chills down my spine.
Detective Sergeant Ken Lallatin confronted
Dan about Brooke's accusation.
You did it, didn't you, Dan?
No, I didn't.
I didn't think so, but now, after listening to that,
I think you did, didn't you?
How the hell-- how the hell--
she doesn't know.
She wasn't here.
Within minutes, Dan Howard stopped responding to questions.
Detectives were now very suspicious,
because as an ex-cop, Howard had special skills.
Dan knows things that most normal people,
ordinary people don't.
Things like what?
Things like killing someone and staging
it to look like a suicide.
But there wasn't enough physical evidence
at the scene to arrest him.
What's more, later that day, an autopsy was done,
and the medical examiner concluded Kendy
had died from that gunshot.
Kendy's daughter, Brooke, was perplexed.
She says her mother never took her gun out of the safe.
Mom never touched a gun.
She wouldn't have used a gun.
There's something not making sense here.
And I'm so lost and confused because Dan's not arrested.
What Brooke didn't know was that the investigation
was zeroing in on Dan Howard.
Just hours after Kendy's death, Kootenai County
prosecuting attorney, Stan Mortensen,
was called in to consult with detectives.
They pieced together a detailed timeline
of the couple's relationship.
What did you learn about Dan Howard?
So we learned that Dan Howard was not the person
that we thought he was.
At home and behind closed doors, he was a different person.
Investigators focused in on an alarming incident
Dan was involved in from 2013, when
he was still a state trooper.
Dan had found out Kendy was having
an affair with a neighbor who also happened
to be Dan's good friend.
Enraged, Dan confronted him at his office.
He threatened to--
I believe his words were splatter
his brains all over the walls.
Threatened to kill him?
Threatened to kill him.
Dan Howard was accused of repeatedly harassing
the neighbor, and eventually pleaded guilty to two felonies
and served almost four months in jail in connection
with that incident.
He was allowed to resign from the Idaho State police.
After that, Kendy's friend, Michelle,
says the couple's relationship seemed to change.
She was stuck to him like glue, just like glue,
like hanging all over him.
And she was never that way before.
I think back going, was she scared?
In the years that followed, Michelle
says Dan was controlling and quick to anger, especially when
it came to Kendy's spending.
Dan never wanted to go do anything
because that would spend money.
I just don't think she was her full personality
when he was around.
But when Dan was about to head back to Alaska for work--
She was a totally different person.
I think she realized the more she was free,
the more she loved life.
And she didn't have to be under his thumb.
They continued to grow apart.
Then Kendy told Michelle about an explosive argument
just seven months before her death.
She had hidden credit cards, and he found the bills.
And that started that argument.
He grabbed her and held her.
And there was bruises on her neck and her--
she sent me pictures.
You could see them clear as day in the pictures.
She just told me not to tell anybody.
Kendy never reported any kind of abuse from Dan to authorities.
How long had this physical abuse been going on?
Do you have a sense?
We really don't know.
It had been going on at least six months before she died.
Then just four nights before Kendy Howard's death,
deputies were called to the Howard home.
Kendy's mother had asked for a welfare check
after hearing a panicked Kendy on the phone.
A visibly nervous Kendy answered the door.
You mind if we talk to you guys really quick?
Sounds fine to me.
All right.
Hours earlier, Kendy had picked Dan up at the airport,
coming home from the oil fields of Alaska,
and apparently upset him by saying she wanted a divorce.
Kendy tells a deputy she needs to get something
from the bedroom.
And so I can go?
Yeah, do you mind if I follow you?
That let the deputies speak with Kendy away from Dan.
I asked for a divorce and he just got home.
He's not taking it good.
OK.
I can't say what he was going to do.
Did it ever become physical?
I think I had woke up in time so it wouldn't.
OK.
When you woke up, where was he?
Standing over me.
Was he yelling?
Was the argument like a--
OK, so he's always kind of just that calm?
It was weird.
OK.
All right.
I know what I seen.
I know what he was going to do.
Kendy, is this your bag as well?
No, that's his.
The deputy helped Kendy leave the house,
but investigators would later say they couldn't arrest Dan
because Kendy never told deputies Dan had physically
harmed her.
Deputy prosecuting attorney Julia Schoffstall
later learned that Kendy had told friends what had happened.
She wakes up in the early morning hours
to Dan standing over her wearing dark clothes, black latex
gloves, a pillow in his hand.
The look in his eyes--
it was a look that she had never seen before,
and that she wholeheartedly believed in that moment
that he was going to kill her.
But later that day, Kendy returned home.
She told friends and family that he wasn't stupid enough
to try something again, that she felt like she
had some level of safety.
What's the tragedy in this case to you?
The biggest tragedy of all.
That she was so close to getting out
In text messages to Kendy, Dan Howard
said it was all a misunderstanding
and he was willing to work things out,
but there were other signs he wasn't OK.
The day before Kendy's death, her brother, Brian,
took a long road trip with Dan.
He started asking me about who Kendy was having an affair with.
Brian says Dan figured out Kendy was seeing the real estate
agent who was helping her buy that new house
near her hometown.
You could tell he was mad.
The next day, Kendy was dead.
To prosecutors, the circumstantial evidence
against Dan was adding up.
After reviewing Kendy's autopsy and photos
taken of Kendy's body, investigators
discovered that, in fact, Kendy had multiple bruises
all over her body.
Her body was riddled from head to toe with bruises
and some lacerations.
And her jaw had been broken.
I believe that Kendy was beat severely by Dan.
So what really happened that night?
The theory that Kendy's death scene could have been staged
began to take on a new light.
She's in the bathtub.
Kendy did not die from a gunshot wound.
Wait, wait, wait.
Stop.
She was shot, I understand, In the mouth.
The bullet lodged in her vertebrae,
and it didn't kill her?
Exactly.
We believe that Kendy was already dead when she was shot.
I think Dan always had a level of control over Kendy,
and I think by February 2nd, he had realized that that control
was gone.
Weeks into the investigation, prosecutors
believed the circumstantial evidence
showed Kendy died at the hands of Dan Howard.
But with the medical examiner's ruling
that Kendy had died from a gunshot wound and no DNA
evidence linking Dan to Kendy's gun,
prosecutors faced challenges, so they called in other experts
to take a second look at the evidence, including
forensic pathologist Dr. Jennifer Nara.
I looked at the autopsy report.
I reviewed all the photos, all the x-rays, the toxicology
results.
I did not agree with the original cause of death
that she died from a gunshot wound to the head.
Dr. Nara walked us through her analysis.
I looked at what the trajectory was, the path the bullet took
inside Kendy's mouth.
I thought that was unusual because it
was going in a slightly downward direction.
Typically, gunshot wound suicides,
they go either straight back to the mouth or go slightly upward.
And can you demonstrate the path of this bullet?
I sure can.
So I've got a skull model here.
And if you don't mind helping me out,
I'm going to take this rod to show the direction
that the bullet traveled through the mouth, through the tongue.
And it tore through the tongue like a torpedo.
It just went straight through the center of the tongue.
Would there have been a lot of blood?
Absolutely.
It's going to bleed like crazy.
Because the heart is beating at the time
that the bullet went through that tongue.
Exactly.
But when Dr. Nara reviewed the photos of the crime scene,
she says she didn't see the amount of blood
she would have expected to.
There was not enough blood.
And there were those bruises on Kendy's body
and her broken jaw, which Dr. Nara says
were sustained before Kendy had died.
Injuries that suggested a physical struggle of some sort.
Correct.
She's got bruises throughout her body.
She's got bruising on both sides of her neck, which is consistent
with her being possibly choked.
What did you conclude?
I believe that Kendy Howard was already dead when she
sustained that gunshot wound.
So she was already strangled or choked to death.
And when she was placed in the bathtub, she was already dead.
So then how did Kendy die?
Prosecutors say Dan Howard used a restraining
technique he learned back in his days as a state trooper.
We believe that he utilized a technique known
as a carotid restraint.
Show me how it works.
So what you would do is you'd place your arm around somebody's
neck and head, and their chin is going
to be in the crook of your elbow.
Prior to becoming an attorney, prosecutor Stan Mortensen
had been a Sheriff's deputy, and like Dan Howard,
had been trained in administering
the carotid restraint hold, rarely used
as it cuts off blood flow to the brain.
If it's applied too long, it can cause death.
And that right there was our theory on how Dan killed Kendy.
It's an interesting theory, but you do concede it is a theory,
right?
No witness came forward to say that Dan told me he did this.
There's no physical evidence that
proves that he did this, right?
Not the carotid restraint technique, correct.
But Dan knew how to use this technique
and taught other people how to use it.
So we weren't just grabbing this theory out of thin air.
This was something that Dan actually knew.
It took two years for the prosecutors to build their case.
Finally, in April, 2023, Dan Howard was charged with murder.
He was also charged with domestic battery
from that incident seven months before Kennedy's death,
when she took those photos of her bruises
and sent them to her friend, Michelle.
He pleaded not guilty and posted bail.
Howard was ordered to wear an ankle monitor
while he awaited trial.
All rise.
In March 2024, a clean shaven Dan Howard went on trial.
The judge ruled that any mention of Dan's
previous criminal history or his 2011
killing of a woman during a traffic stop was forbidden.
We'll turn now to opening statements.
The State can go first.
In his opening statement, prosecutor Stan Mortensen
said Dan and Kendy Howard had fought over finances that night
and it turned physical, with Dan bruising Kendy,
breaking her jaw, then killing her with the carotid restraint
hold.
Then, he said, Dan Howard staged the scene
by placing Kendy's body in the bathtub and shooting her.
Ladies and gentlemen, the evidence will come in
and will demonstrate that this was not a suicide.
Evidence will show that Kendy died of asphyxiation.
Evidence will show that Dan Howard is guilty of murder.
Mr. Johnson, your opening.
Dan's lawyer, Jason Johnson, countered the state's claims
by asserting that an emotionally troubled Kendy
Howard had shot herself.
She is struggling with whether she wants to leave Dan.
He pointed out that Dan's DNA was not even on Kendy's gun.
The gun had Kendy's blood on it, but Dan is excluded.
And he dismissed the State's assertion there was
a physical fight that night.
Kendy did not have any DNA under her fingernails.
There were no defensive marks on Dan.
Johnson also said the investigators were all
wrong about the lack of blood at the scene,
pointing out that several hours had passed
before some of the crime scene photographs of the bathtub
had been taken, and some of the water could have drained.
How much blood went down that drain?
Johnson attacked the prosecution's claim
that Kennedy was dead from asphyxiation
before she was shot by calling that medical examiner who
performed Kendy's original autopsy.
Your cause of death was gunshot wound?
That's my opinion.
More than a week into the proceedings,
the trial recessed for a long weekend break.
That night, prosecutors learned of a new dramatic development
that seemed to be right out of a television crime show.
It seemed Dan Howard was making a run for it.
What do you think of the prosecution's theory
of how Kendy Howard died?
Chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and X.
With his trial winding down, Dan Howard, who was out on bail
with an ankle monitor, suddenly took off.
This was the great escape.
He was hoping to get away.
And he did it right after we finished
with all of our evidence.
A deputy was tracking Howard that night.
This is I-90 going 70 miles an hour.
He abruptly took an exit, and then got back
on the highway looking in his rearview mirror.
Is somebody following me?
About an hour later, Howard made it to the Spokane International
Airport.
He's right there at the airport terminal.
Right there at the airport terminal.
Dan was taken out of the car.
He was put into handcuffs.
Howard claimed he had gone there to help
a friend return a rental car, not to make a run for it.
And I think it's possible that he
was going to cut the ankle monitor off, leave it
in his car, and then drive away in another rental car.
Instead, Howard's drive was a short one back to a jail cell
in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
His bail was revoked.
Days later, the prosecution made closing arguments.
Ladies and gentlemen, the state has shown you this was not
suicide because a dead person cannot shoot themselves
in the mouth.
The jury was not told about Howard's escape attempt.
Dan Howard's defense attorney insisted
that Kendy took her own life.
The scene is consistent with suicide.
And that Howard did not have the skills to stage a murder scene.
There's no evidence that he worked as a detective.
There's no evidence that he had any sort
of homicidal training, no evidence of the knowledge
of staging a scene.
Have you, in fact, reached a verdict?
After 10 days of trial, 62 witnesses,
and just over eight hours of deliberations,
the jury reached a verdict.
Is the defendant, Daniel Howard, guilty or not guilty
of second degree murder?
Guilty.
I cried.
There was-- I think I gasped.
There was crying.
And did you look at Dan?
I'm looking at him.
And as he turns, there's just there's no expression.
There's no look of remorse.
Dan had shown no emotion.
But two months later, at his sentencing,
he begged the judge for leniency.
I love my wife.
And I miss her.
And I'm not that monster, I assure you,
that people have portrayed me to be.
Kendy and I had 28 years together and raised a family.
We had mostly a good marriage and a good life.
I'm not that animal that they portray me to be.
It's not my intention to anger the court
or disrespect the process that I used to believe in.
But your Honor is about a sentence and innocent man
to prison.
But the judge wasn't moved.
What we know, beyond a reasonable doubt,
is that you strangled your wife.
You murdered her.
And then you staged her naked body in the bathtub,
shot her through the mouth, and tried
to pass this off as a suicide.
You killed a mother.
You killed a grandmother.
You killed a sister.
You snuffed that out because of your own pride, greed,
and anger.
Pride, greed, and anger, said the judge.
But others kept coming back to the word control.
To me, this case was about a man who thought
that he could control a woman.
And if he couldn't get his way, he was going to force it.
All rise.
I cried.
It's such a relief that people got
to hear what actually happened.
I'm Kenley Wilkins and Kendy's granddaughter.
And what do you have in front of you here?
Chickens.
Brooke's daughter, Kenley, was just eight
when her beloved grandmother was murdered.
Now 12, she treasures these glass chickens
that her grandma collected.
Do you feel a connection to your grandmother when you see these?
Yeah.
She had a china hutch.
Yeah, a china hutch.
It was just full of chicken.
So I always just looked at how many different colors
there were.
Pretty cool Grandma.
You loved her, didn't you?
What's the hardest thing for you?
Probably her smile.
It's tough, isn't it.
I want justice for Kendy.
What I hope they get from this story--
that you don't have to live like this.
I wish I could have stopped it.
I'm still shocked that we're still
talking about domestic violence and that sometimes you
can't do anything.
CBS next Saturday.
She's not breathing.
A surgeon's girlfriend found dead.
He provided those drugs.
Was this a case of a controlling doctor's depravity?
This is not just some simple accident.
This was much more.
A new 48 Hours next Saturday at 10:00/9:00 Central on CBS
and streaming on Paramount Plus.