Kootenai County Sheriff’s Deputy Miranda Thomas won’t ever omit coming head to head with a distraught Dan Howard, a former state trooper, at his house in Northern Idaho on a chilly wintry weather’s morning in February 2021.
Deputy Miranda Thomas: He would scream and yell, however there have been no tears in his eyes. At any level he would, um, act like he used to be gagging … However not anything would ever in reality occur.
Thomas used to be probably the most first responders to Dan Howard’s house, a spot he shared with Kendy, his spouse of 26 years.
Kootenai County District Courtroom 
DEPUTY (bodycam): Dan, I do know that is arduous however, when — when is the remaining time that you simply noticed your spouse alive?
DAN HOWARD (bodycam): (crying, unintelligible)
DEPUTY THOMAS (bodycam): Dan, do you need scientific to take a look at you in any respect?
DAN HOWARD (bodycam): No.
DEPUTY THOMAS (bodycam): OK.
Dan Howard advised police he found out his spouse within the tub. He mentioned she had shot herself within the head. Kendy’s personal pistol used to be on the backside of the bathtub in murky water.
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Detective Jerry Northrup arrived earlier than middle of the night.
Peter Van Sant: Had been you dispatched … to a imaginable suicide?
Det. Jerry Northrup: Sure sir. … It used to be known as a suicide.
EVIDENCE NOT ADDING UP FOR INVESTIGATORS
Northrup in an instant started examining what used to be earlier than him.
Det. Jerry Northrup: For a lady to shoot herself within the bath, nude, is bizarre. It does not imply it cannot occur It simply signifies that it is bizarre.
Northrup, against the law scene knowledgeable, says one thing used to be lacking from this loss of life scene — particularly bearing in mind Kendy had suffered a head wound.
Det. Jerry Northrup: There can be much more blood that used to be produced. And I simply did not see that on her face, on her frame or within the bath.
Thomas additionally noticed some curious issues.
Deputy Miranda Thomas: I went into the home and located a packed duffle bag. … Used to be any person making plans on leaving the home?
Within the laundry room, the dryer used to be working. It used to be filled with blank tub towels and mats.
Deputy Miranda Thomas: Having a … dryer working in the dark, very strange, as a result of I do not do laundry in the dark. Certain, it is advisable however …
And in spite of the surprise of discovering his spouse useless, Dan Howard seemed to have lately showered, modified his garments, and implemented contemporary deodorant.
Deputy Miranda Thomas: You’ll be able to inform that he is were given deodorant strains on his T-shirt.
Peter Van Sant: Did one thing appear un-suicide-like to you?
Det. Jerry Northrup: Definitely. … There used to be no, different indicators of like a suicide notice.
It is steadily usual process to test other folks at a capturing scene for GSR, gunshot residue. And as a former state trooper, Dan Howard would know that. But Northrup says Dan used to be uneasy about being examined.
Det. Jerry Northrup: Mr. Howard caught his arms into his coat wallet, after which he started twisting them backward and forward, backward and forward many times, till we advised him to forestall and take away his arms.
Peter Van Sant: Backward and forward as though he is seeking to wipe one thing off?
Det. Jerry Northrup: Sure. That used to be the influence that we have been getting …
Peter Van Sant: What used to be the end result?
Det. Jerry Northrup: It used to be adverse.
Peter Van Sant: It used to be adverse.
Despite the fact that detectives have been suspicious of all the ones little items of proof that did not appear so as to add up, they might no longer rule out the likelihood that Kendy Howard may have taken her personal lifestyles.
Kendy’s surprising passing shocked those that liked her.
Michelle Lampert: She liked lifestyles … I’ve by no means had such a lot amusing with any person … no care on this planet.
Michelle Lampert used to be one in all Kendy’s highest pals.
Michelle Lampert: She at all times laughed. … my favourite is spin elegance … after which to the brewery … not anything like spin elegance and brewery, however she felt like that used to be OK.
Brooke Wilkins: She used to be a perfect mother.
Brooke Wilkins is Kendy’s daughter from an previous dating.
Peter Van Sant: Inform me about your mother. She simply turns out in point of fact particular.
Brooke Wilkins: She used to be. She had a large character. … She used to be glad to speak to any person and make a chum and comic story round.
Kendy used to be a small the town woman from northern Idaho — sporty and outdoorsy, says her brother Brian Wilkins.
Brian Wilkins: She … rode her horse so much, had sheep for 4H and … and, neatly, she had a goat, too, on the identical time.
Brian Wilkins 
Kendy used to be simply 22 when she married former Marine-turned-Idaho state trooper Dan Howard. He used to be six years older.
Peter Van Sant: Did she communicate concerning the enchantment?
Brooke Wilkins: She did suppose he used to be very good-looking. And I feel the sense of safety is a subject that used to be introduced up reasonably slightly.
The couple settled on 10 acres within the the town of Athol, only a speck at the map, situated 21 miles north of Coeur D’Alene. That they had a son in combination, Wyatt. Like his dad, Wyatt changed into a Marine. A neighbor, Cari Maitland, says Dan and Kendy’s marriage gave the impression sturdy.
Cari Maitland: They have been affectionate against every different and … they have been most often respectful to one another.
Kendy labored at a neighborhood scientific middle. All over 26 years of marriage, they made just right cash in actual property on this fast-growing state. By the point of Kendy’s loss of life, the couple had greater than $2 million in property. And but, cash created friction between them.
Michelle Lampert: Her cash used to be his cash and his cash used to be his cash. … He by no means sought after to spend cash.
And there used to be extra friction within the marriage, consistent with pals, after Dan Howard — operating as a trooper for the Idaho State Police — shot and killed a lady all the way through a site visitors prevent. Dan used to be cleared of all wrongdoing, however the incident took its toll on Kendy.
Cari Maitland: I do imagine … she did grow to be depressed.
Years later, Dan Howard would go away the Idaho State Police.
Cari Maitland: And issues roughly modified between them.
Kendy’s brother Brian Wilkins helped Dan in finding paintings at the North Slope — the oil fields of Alaska. He’d paintings 3 weeks instantly after which come house for 3 weeks.
Michelle Lampert: She used to be loose for 3 weeks is when she in point of fact made up our minds to enjoy lifestyles.
Brian Wilkins says the couple grew aside.
Brian Wilkins: There used to be arguing, bickering just about the entire time I would be up there round him. However I did not suppose it used to be the rest.
However Brooke Wilkins says it used to be the start of the tip in their dating. Kendy used to be pissed off and lonely.
Brooke Wilkins: She’s very vocal that she does no longer love him; that there is not any love on this marriage.
Lampert says Kendy had an affair, or even deliberate cosmetic surgery.
Michelle Lampert: She used to be simply tremendous excited.
And that is the reason when Kendy advised Dan she used to be shifting out and sought after a divorce. And he or she had began the method of shopping for a brand new space.
Michelle Lampert: And I feel she in point of fact felt that it might be OK.
Via the tip of January 2021, simply days earlier than her loss of life, Kendy met with a divorce legal professional. When Dan got here house from paintings —
Michelle Lampert: She simply advised him … I imply, she simply advised him the whole thing. And I feel [at] that time I did get scared. … She mentioned he used to be tremendous. He wasn’t tremendous.
QUESTIONING DAN HOWARD’S VERSION OF THE EVENTS
Michelle Lampert: It by no means made sense to me. It by no means made sense.
When first responders tested Kendy Howard’s frame in her tub, she had a gunshot wound to the again of her mouth and her pistol used to be within the water. Dan Howard advised everybody that Kendy had taken her personal lifestyles.
Peter Van Sant: Had been you purchasing that?
Brian Wilkins: No. … I could not see her leaving her children and granddaughter.
When he discovered his sister used to be useless, Brian Wilkins rushed over to her space. He walked proper as much as Dan Howard.
Brian Wilkins: There used to be no emotion. He wasn’t crying. … I requested him if he’d ever harm my sister. … he would not have a look at me within the eye and he mentioned, “no.”
Kendy’s pal, Michelle Lampert, used to be additionally positive Kendy had no longer taken her personal lifestyles.
Michelle Lampert: Kendy used to be no longer depressed. … You do not take into consideration doing cosmetic surgery. You do not move figure out. You do not move to spin elegance.
However Cari Maitland, Kendy’s neighbor, says Kendy had been deeply unsatisfied. Months previous she says Kendy advised her about issues in her marriage.
Cari Maitland: She’s simply crying and crying and crying. … And — and he or she’s like, “I do not even need to be right here.”
Maitland does not suppose there is any thriller about what came about in that loo.
Cari Maitland: I do imagine that Kendy dedicated suicide.
Within the hours following Kendy’s loss of life, Northrup mentioned he had questions on Dan Howard’s model of occasions.
Det. Jerry Northrup: There is a — an order to objects and a logical order … it didn’t make sense.
Kootenai County District Courtroom 
Something that did not make sense that evening used to be the clothes dryer running when first responders entered the home. There have been nonetheless six mins appearing at the show. So Northrup did some digging.
Det. Jerry Northrup: I went to the producer’s website online, pulled up the specifics concerning the occasions for cycles … After which took that knowledge and in comparison that towards the time at which the 911 name used to be positioned.
Peter Van Sant: And what do you be told?
Det. Jerry Northrup: That it used to be began inside a minute of the 911 name.
Det. Jerry Northrup: It recommended that he used to be doing movements like beginning laundry … moderately than his declare that he used to be checking on Kendy Howard and — and that he used to be inconsolable and disillusioned … it simply — it did not upload up.
And there have been different pink flags for Northrup.
Peter Van Sant: Did you in finding any indicators of a combat, that there’d been some type of a bodily war of words between those two?
Det. Jerry Northrup: Sure, we did. Up in the master suite, we famous at the ground that there have been items of damaged glass.
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Place of business 
And there used to be that query of the quantity of blood within the tub.
Peter Van Sant: With a wound to the top, that water will probably be a lot darker red-colored, proper? From the blood?
Det. Jerry Northrup: Sure, sir. According to my enjoy, that may be constant. That the — the truth that there wasn’t — used to be inconsistent.
Peter Van Sant: Inconsistent, suggesting it will not be a suicide?
Det. Jerry Northrup: Proper. … The whole lot began directing us to the trail that this used to be a staged crime scene.
Detective Sergeant Ken Lallatin, now retired, used to be the lead investigator.
Det. Sgt. Ken Lallatin: Not anything about this situation felt proper from the start.
DET. SGT. KEN LALLATIN (bodycam): Hello Dan … So what came about this night?
DAN HOWARD (bodycam): Marital issues … she needs a divorce sooner or later … she does not the following … So she introduced house divorce papers, simply initial ones.
DAN HOWARD (bodycam): We simply grew aside, I assume.
Lallatin says he briefly changed into satisfied Dan Howard used to be taking part in them.
Det. Sgt. Ken Lallatin: I had the sense that Dan had a tale that he had deliberate to percentage with us that night time … it felt very contrived.
Peter Van Sant: Virtually scripted in some way?
Det. Sgt. Ken Lallatin: Completely. Yeah, without a doubt scripted.
One instance, Lallatin says, used to be Dan Howard telling him that Kendy had as soon as put a gun to her head.
DAN HOWARD (bodycam): She put the gun to her f****** head … it freaked me the f*** out… and um I assumed evidently… ‘right here we move’ and he or she dropped the gun and f****** shot during the ground.
DETECTIVE (bodycam): Similar gun?
DAN HOWARD (bodycam): Similar gun.
Lallatin says Dan Howard advised him, that once a heated argument that evening over splitting their funds, Kendy went upstairs to take a tub. A little while later Dan heard what he described as a “thud.”
DAN HOWARD (bodycam): It appeared like one thing hit the ground or one thing. I do not know.
However he did not examine for greater than an hour. That is when Dan Howard says he discovered her: useless within the bath.
Peter Van Sant: How again and again have you ever ever described a gunshot as a thud?
Det. Sgt. Ken Lallatin: I don’t believe I have ever described a gunshot as a thud. … I undoubtedly would no longer be expecting any person who served within the Marine Corps, served … roughly two decades in legislation enforcement, any person who used to be a firearms trainer, any person who were on their SWAT staff. I feel if any one’s going to understand what the sound of a gunshot is from within a place of dwelling, it is going to be Dan Howard.
Because the morning got here, Dan Howard referred to as his stepdaughter Brooke Wilkins, and advised her the inside track … it did not move neatly. Lallatin says he may listen Brooke shouting at Dan during the telephone.
DAN HOWARD (bodycam, shouting again at his telephone): What? What are you speaking about? …
DET. SGT. KEN LALLATIN (bodycam): Who used to be that Dan? …
DAN HOWARD (bodycam): It used to be my daughter, Brooke …
DET. SGT. KEN LALLATIN (bodycam): Did she simply accuse you of this?
DAN HOWARD (bodycam): No.
DET. SGT. KEN LALLATIN (bodycam): That is what it appeared like. … Why would she do this Dan? Why would she suppose you probably did this? … I have not heard any person that indignant in a very long time … I’m going to be truthful with you. I used to be no longer anticipating the rest like that … I used to be around the room and I may listen her. She’s indignant …
DAN HOWARD (bodycam): Children do not need to imagine their mothers would do this.
Det. Sgt. Ken Lallatin: No longer one time have I ever been to a suicide and even heard of 1 the place probably the most members of the family … name and accuse her stepdad of murdering her mother. … it used to be the most important second. … and I actually used to be ready to peer Dan Howard nearly bodily shrink down.
Peter Van Sant: Just like the partitions are last in?
Det. Sgt. Ken Lallatin: Oh, 100%.
WAS THE DEATH SCENE STAGED?
Within the early morning of Feb. 3, 2021, Dan Howard’s conduct persevered elevating the suspicions of Kootenai County detectives. That they had simply overheard that telephone name from his stepdaughter, Brooke Wilkins, accusing him of killing her mom.
Brooke Wilkins: I am hysterical. I am crying beautiful arduous.
Peter Van Sant: And you are believing that no approach she shot herself.
Brooke Wilkins: Proper. … I inform him that … I do not know what came about, however … “I do know you probably did this.”
Detective Sgt. Ken Lallatin faced Dan about Brooke’s accusation:
DET. SGT. KEN LALLATIN (bodycam): I gotta let you know, that telephone name put chills down my backbone. …
DET. SGT. KEN LALLATIN (bodycam): You probably did it, did not you Dan?
DAN HOWARD (bodycam): No, I did not.
DET. SGT. KEN LALLATIN (bodycam): I did not suppose so, however now, after taking note of that, I feel you probably did, did not you?
DAN HOWARD (bodycam): How the hell, how the hell — she does not know. She wasn’t right here.
Brian Wilkins 
Inside mins, Dan Howard stopped responding to questions. Detectives have been now very suspicious, as a result of, as an ex-cop, he had particular talents.
Det. Sgt. Ken Lallatin: Dan is aware of issues that the majority commonplace other folks, unusual other folks do not know.
Peter Van Sant: Such things as what?
Det. Sgt. Ken Lallatin: Such things as killing any person and staging it to seem like a suicide.
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Place of business 
However there wasn’t sufficient bodily proof on the scene to arrest him. What is extra, later that day, an post-mortem used to be finished. The scientific examiner concluded Kendy died from that gunshot. Brooke Wilkins used to be confused. She says her mom by no means took her gun out of the protected.
Brooke Wilkins: Mother by no means touched a gun. She do not need used a gun. … there is something no longer making sense right here. And … I am so misplaced and perplexed as a result of … you understand, Dan’s no longer arrested.
What Brooke Wilkins did not know used to be that the investigation used to be zeroing in on Dan Howard. Simply hours after Kendy’s loss of life, Kootenai County Prosecuting Legal professional Stan Mortensen used to be referred to as in to discuss with detectives. They pieced in combination an in depth timeline of the couple’s dating.
Peter Van Sant: What did you find out about Dan Howard?
Stan Mortensen: So we discovered … that Dan Howard used to be no longer the individual that we idea he used to be … at house and in the back of and closed doorways, he used to be a unique individual.
Investigators centered in on an alarming incident Dan Howard used to be fascinated with from 2013, when he used to be nonetheless a state trooper. Dan had came upon Kendy used to be having an affair with a neighbor — who additionally came about to be Dan’s just right pal. Enraged, Dan faced him at his place of business.
Det. Jerry Northrup: He … threatened to — I imagine his phrases have been — splatter his brains all over the place the partitions.
Peter Van Sant: Threatened to kill him?
Det. Jerry Northrup: Threatened to kill him.
Dan Howard used to be accused of many times harassing the neighbor, and ultimately pleaded accountable to 2 felonies and served nearly 4 months in prison in reference to that incident. He used to be allowed to renounce from the Idaho State Police. After that, Kendy’s pal Michelle Lampert says the couple’s dating gave the impression to exchange.
Michelle Lampert: She used to be caught to him like glue, similar to glue, like putting all over the place him. And he or she used to be by no means that approach earlier than. .. I feel again, going, used to be she scared?
Within the years that adopted, Lampert says Dan used to be controlling and fast to anger — particularly when it got here to Kendy’s spending.
Michelle Lampert: Dan by no means sought after to move do the rest reason that may spend cash. … I simply do not suppose she used to be her complete character when he used to be round.
But if Dan used to be about to move again to Alaska for paintings —
Michelle Lampert: She used to be a wholly other individual … I feel she discovered the extra she used to be loose, the extra she liked lifestyles. And he or she did not should be underneath his thumb.
They persevered to develop aside. Then Kendy advised Lampert about an explosive argument, simply seven months earlier than her loss of life.
Michelle Lampert: She had hidden bank cards and he discovered the expenses and that began that argument … He … grabbed her and held her and there used to be bruises on her neck and her … She despatched me footage … It’s worthwhile to see ’em. Transparent as day within the footage. … She simply advised me to not inform any one.
Kendy by no means reported any roughly abuse from Dan Howard to government.
Peter Van Sant: How lengthy had this bodily abuse been happening? Do you’ve gotten a way?
Stan Mortensen: We — we in point of fact do not know. It were happening no less than … six months earlier than she died.
Then, simply 4 nights earlier than Kendy Howard’s loss of life, deputies have been referred to as to the Howard house. Kendy’s mom had requested for a welfare test, after listening to a panicked Kendy at the telephone. A visibly apprehensive Kendy replied the door.
DEPUTY (bodycam): You thoughts if we communicate to you guys in point of fact fast?
DAN HOWARD (bodycam, sitting on sofa): Sounds tremendous to me.
Hours previous, Kendy had picked Dan up on the airport, coming house from the oil fields of Alaska. And it sounds as if disillusioned him by means of announcing she sought after a divorce. Kendy tells a deputy she must get one thing from the bed room.
KENDY HOWARD (bodycam, stuttering): And — so, I will move?
DEPUTY (bodycam): Yeah, do you thoughts if I practice you?
That allow the deputy discuss with Kendy clear of Dan Howard.
Kootanai County District Courtroom 
KENDY HOWARD (bodycam) I requested for a divorce and he simply were given house. He isn’t taking it just right.
DEPUTY (bodycam): OK.
KENDY HOWARD (bodycam) I will’t say what he used to be going to do …
DEPUTY (bodycam): Did it ever grow to be bodily?
KENDY HOWARD: I feel I had awoke in time so it would not.
DEPUTY (bodycam): OK. Whilst you awoke, the place used to be he?
KENDY HOWARD (bodycam): Status over me …
DEPUTY (bodycam): Used to be he yelling? Used to be the argument like a —
KENDY HOWARD: No, that is the factor —
DEPUTY (bodycam): So he is at all times roughly simply that calm?
KENDY HOWARD (bodycam): (unintel) It is bizarre.
DEPUTY (bodycam): OK. Alright.
KENDY HOWARD (bodycam): I do know what I noticed. I do know what he used to be going to do …
The deputy helped Kendy depart the home. However investigators would later say they could not arrest Dan Howard as a result of Kendy by no means advised deputies Dan had bodily harmed her. Deputy Prosecuting Legal professional Julia Schoffstall later discovered that Kendy had advised pals what had came about.
Julia Schoffstall: She wakes up in early morning hours to Dan status over her … dressed in darkish garments … black latex gloves … a pillow in his hand … the glance in his eyes … it used to be a glance that she had by no means noticed earlier than and that she wholeheartedly believed in that second that he used to be going to kill her.
However later that day, Kendy, returned house.
Julia Schoffstall: She advised family and friends that … he wasn’t silly sufficient to take a look at one thing once more, that she felt like she had some stage of protection …
Peter Van Sant: What is the tragedy on this case to you? The largest tragedy of all?
Julia Schoffstall: That she used to be so with reference to getting out.
Within the textual content messages to Kendy, Dan Howard mentioned it used to be all a false impression and he used to be keen to paintings issues out. However there have been different indicators he wasn’t OK. The day earlier than Kendy’s loss of life, her brother Brian Wilkins took a protracted street travel with Dan.
Brian Wilkins: He began asking me about who Kendy used to be having an affair with.
Brian Wilkins says Dan Howard found out Kendy used to be seeing the true property agent who used to be serving to her purchase that new space close to her homeland.
Brian Wilkins: It’s worthwhile to inform, he used to be mad.
The next day to come, Kendy Howard used to be useless. To prosecutors, the circumstantial proof towards Dan Howard used to be including up. After reviewing Kendy’s post-mortem and footage taken of Kendy’s frame, investigators found out that, actually, Kendy had a couple of bruises all over the place her frame.
Stan Mortensen: Her frame used to be riddled from head to toe with bruises and a few lacerations.
And her jaw were damaged.
Stan Mortensen: I imagine that Kendy used to be beat significantly by means of Dan.
So what in point of fact came about that evening? The idea that Kendy’s loss of life scene may have been staged started to tackle a brand new gentle.
Stan Mortensen: Kendy didn’t die from a gunshot wound …
Peter Van Sant: Wait, wait. Forestall. She used to be shot, I perceive, within the mouth … the bullet lodged in her vertebrae. And it did not kill her?
Stan Mortensen: Precisely. We imagine that Kendy used to be already useless when she used to be shot.
HOW DID KENDY HOWARD DIE?
Julia Schoffstall: Dan at all times had a degree of keep an eye on over Kendy. And I feel by means of February second, he had discovered that that keep an eye on used to be long past.
Brian Wilkins 
Weeks into the investigation, prosecutors believed the circumstantial proof confirmed Kendy Howard died by the hands of Dan Howard. However with the scientific examiner’s ruling that Kendy had died from a gunshot wound, and no DNA proof linking Dan Howard to Kendy’s gun, prosecutors confronted demanding situations. So, they referred to as in different mavens to take a moment glance on the proof, together with forensic pathologist Dr. Jennifer Nara.
Dr. Jennifer Nara: I regarded on the post-mortem document, I reviewed the entire footage … the entire X-rays, the toxicology effects … I didn’t accept as true with the unique reason for loss of life, that she died from a gunshot wound on the head.
Nara walked “48 Hours” thru her research.
Dr. Jennifer Nara: When … I checked out what the trajectory used to be, the trail the bullet took within Kendy’s mouth, I assumed that used to be bizarre … reason it used to be getting into a quite downward route. Most often in gunshot-wound suicides, they move both instantly again to the mouth or move quite upward.
Peter Van Sant: And are you able to reveal the trail of this bullet?
CBS Information 
Dr. Jennifer Nara (demonstrating): Yeah, I positive can. So, I’ve a cranium type right here … I am gonna take this rod to turn the route that the bullet traveled during the mouth, during the tongue. … and it tore during the tongue … like a torpedo. … it simply went during the middle of the tongue.
Peter Van Sant: Would there were numerous blood?
Dr. Jennifer Nara: Completely. … it is gonna bleed like loopy.
Peter Van Sant: Since the middle is thrashing on the time that the bullet went thru that tongue.
Dr. Jennifer Nara: Precisely.
However, when Nara reviewed the footage of the crime scene, she says she did not see the quantity of blood she would have anticipated to.
Dr. Jennifer Nara: There used to be no longer sufficient blood.
And there have been the ones bruises on Kendy’s frame and her damaged jaw, which Nara says have been sustained earlier than Kendy had died.
Peter Van Sant: Accidents that — that recommended a bodily combat of a few type.
Dr. Jennifer Nara: Proper. … She’s were given bruises all the way through her frame. She’s were given bruising on all sides for her neck, which is in step with her being most likely choked.
Peter Van Sant: What did you conclude?
Dr. Jennifer Nara: I imagine that … Kendy Howard used to be already useless when she sustained that gunshot wound. … she used to be already strangled or choked to loss of life. And when she used to be positioned within the tub, she used to be already useless.
So, how then did Kendy die? Prosecutors say Dan Howard used a restraining method he discovered again in his days as a state trooper.
Julia Schoffstall: We imagine that he applied a method referred to as a carotid restraint.
Peter Van Sant: Display me the way it works.
Stan Mortenson (demonstrates): So, what you could do is, you’ll position your arm round any person’s neck and head, and their chin is gonna be within the criminal of your elbow.
Previous to changing into an lawyer, prosecutor Stan Mortenson were a sheriff’s deputy, and, like Dan Howard, were skilled in administering the carotid restraint cling — infrequently used, because it cuts off blood go with the flow to the mind.
Stan Mortenson: If it is implemented too lengthy, it may reason loss of life. … And that proper there used to be our concept on how Dan killed Kendy.
Peter Van Sant: It is a captivating concept, however you do concede this can be a concept, proper? … no witness got here ahead to mention that Dan advised me he did this or … there is not any bodily proof that proves that he did this, proper?
Stan Mortenson: No longer the carotid restraint method, right kind. … however Dan knew the way to use this system and taught folks the way to use it. So, we were not simply grabbing this concept out of skinny air. This used to be one thing that Dan in reality knew.
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Place of business 
It took two years for the prosecutors to construct their case. After all, in April 2023, Dan Howard used to be charged with homicide. He used to be additionally charged with home battery from that incident seven months earlier than Kendy’s loss of life, when she took the ones footage of her bruises and despatched them to her pal Michelle Lampert. He pleaded no longer accountable and posted bail. Dan Howard used to be ordered to put on an ankle observe whilst he awaited trial.
In his opening commentary, prosecutor Stan Mortenson mentioned Dan and Kendy Howard had fought over funds that evening, and it grew to become bodily, with Dan bruising Kendy, breaking her jaw, then killing her with the carotid restraint cling. Then, he mentioned, Dan Howard staged the scene by means of striking Kendy’s frame within the tub and capturing her.
STAN MORTENSEN (in courtroom): Girls and gents, the proof will are available in and can reveal that this used to be no longer a suicide. … Proof will display that Kendy died of asphyxiation. … Proof will display that Dan Howard is accountable of homicide.
Dan Howard’s legal professional, Jason Johnson, countered the state’s claims by means of announcing that an emotionally stricken Kendy Howard has shot herself.
JASON JOHNSON (in courtroom): She is suffering with whether or not she needs to depart Dan.
He identified that Dan Howard’s DNA used to be no longer even on Kendy’s gun.
JASON JOHNSON (in courtroom): The gun had Kendy’s blood on it. … However Dan is excluded.
And he brushed aside the State’s statement there used to be a bodily battle that evening.
Jason Johnson: Kendy didn’t have any … DNA underneath her fingernails. … there have been no defensive marks on Dan.
Johnson additionally mentioned the investigators have been all incorrect concerning the loss of blood on the scene, stating that a number of hours had handed earlier than one of the vital crime scene images of the tub were taken and one of the vital water may have tired.
JASON JOHNSON (in courtroom): How a lot blood went down that drain?
Johnson attacked the prosecution’s declare that Kendy Howard used to be useless from asphyxiation earlier than she used to be shot by means of calling that scientific examiner who carried out Kendy’s unique post-mortem.
JASON JOHNSON (in courtroom): Your reason for loss of life is gunshot wound?
DR. JOHN HOWARD (in courtroom): That is my opinion.
Greater than per week into the court cases, the trial recessed for a protracted weekend damage. That evening, prosecutors discovered of a brand new, dramatic building that looked to be proper out of a tv crime display. It gave the impression Dan Howard used to be creating a run for it.
WAS DAN HOWARD MAKING A RUN FOR IT?
Together with his trial winding down, Dan Howard, who used to be out on bail with an ankle observe, all at once took off.
Peter Van Sant: This used to be the good break out. He used to be hoping to break out?
Stan Mortenson: He did it proper once we completed with all of our proof.
A deputy used to be monitoring Dan Howard that evening.
Stan Mortenson: You recognize, that is I-90, going 70 miles-an-hour. He impulsively took an go out after which were given again at the freeway … you understand, having a look in his rear-view replicate, “is any person following me?”
About an hour later, Dan Howard made it to the Spokane World Airport.
Peter Van Sant: He is proper there on the airport terminal.
Stan Mortenson: He is proper there on the airport terminal. Dan used to be taken out of the auto. He used to be put into handcuffs.
Dan Howard claimed he had long past there to assist a chum go back a apartment automobile — to not make a run for it.
Stan Mortenson: And I feel it is imaginable that he used to be gonna reduce the ankle observe off, depart it in his automobile after which pressure away in every other apartment automobile.
As an alternative, Dan Howard’s pressure used to be a brief one again to a prison mobile in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. His bail used to be revoked. Days later, the prosecution made last arguments.
JULIA SCHOFFSTALL (in courtroom): Girls and gents, the state has proven you … this used to be no longer suicide ‘reason a useless individual can’t shoot themselves within the mouth.
The jury used to be no longer advised about Dan Howard’s break out try. His protection lawyer insisted that Kendy took her personal lifestyles.
JASON JOHNSON (in courtroom): The scene is in step with suicide.
And that Dan Howard didn’t have the abilities to “level” a homicide scene.
JASON JOHNSON (in courtroom): There is no proof that he labored as a detective. No proof that he had any type of murder coaching. Uh, no proof of the data of staging a scene.
After 10 days of trial, 62 witnesses and simply over 8 hours of deliberations, the jury reached a verdict: accountable of second-degree homicide.
Brooke Wilkins: I cried. There used to be — I feel I gasped that — there used to be crying and —
Peter Van Sant: And did you have a look at Dan?
Brooke Wilkins: I am having a look at him and as he turns there is simply — there is not any expression. There is no glance of regret.
Dan Howard had proven no emotion. However two months later at his sentencing, he begged the pass judgement on for leniency.
Pool 
DAN HOWARD (in courtroom): I like my spouse, and I omit her. (cries) And … I’m really not that monster, I guarantee you, that, um, other folks have portrayed me to be. Kendy and I had, um, 28 years in combination. And, um, raised a circle of relatives. Had most commonly a just right marriage and a just right lifestyles. … I am not that animal that they painting me to be. … It’s not my purpose to anger the courtroom or disrespect the method that, uh, I used to imagine in … However, your Honor is ready to condemn an blameless guy to jail.
However the pass judgement on wasn’t moved.
JUDGE LAMONT BERECZ (in courtroom): What we all know past an affordable doubt is that you simply strangled your spouse. You murdered her. And then you definately staged her bare frame within the tub, shot her during the mouth, and attempted to cross this off as a suicide. … You killed a mom. You killed a grandmother. You killed a sister. … You snuffed that out on account of your individual satisfaction, greed, and anger.”
“Delight, greed, and anger,” mentioned the pass judgement on. However others saved coming again to the phrase “keep an eye on.”
Julia Schoffstall: To me, this situation used to be a few guy who idea that he may keep an eye on a lady. … And if he could not get his approach, he used to be going to power it.
Brooke Wilkins: I cried. … it is one of these reduction. … that … other folks were given to listen to what in reality came about.
Brooke Wilkins’ daughter Kenly used to be simply 8 when her liked grandmother used to be murdered. Now 12, she treasures those glass chickens that her grandma accumulated.
Peter Van Sant: Do you are feeling a connection in your grandmother whilst you — whilst you see those?
Kenly Wilkins: Yeah.
Brooke Wilkins: She had had a china hutch.
Kenly Wilkins: Yeah, a china hutch. It used to be simply filled with chickens. So I would at all times simply try to like, have a look at what number of other colours there have been.
Peter Van Sant: Lovely cool grandma. You really liked her, did not you?
Kenly Wilkins: (Nods sure)
Brian Wilkins 
Peter Van Sant: What’s the toughest factor for you?
Kenly Wilkins: Most likely her smile.
Peter Van Sant: It is difficult, is not it?
Kenly Wilkins: Yeah. (cries)
Michelle Lampert: I need justice for Kendy. … what I am hoping they get from the tale that you simply wouldn’t have to reside like this. … I want I may have stopped it. I am nonetheless surprised that we are nonetheless speaking about home violence … And that now and again you’ll’t do the rest. (cries)
Dan Howard used to be sentenced to lifestyles in jail with out the potential for parole.
When you or any person you understand is a sufferer of home violence, touch the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
“48 HOURS” POST MORTEM
Sign up for “48 Hours” correspondents Anne-Marie Inexperienced and Peter Van Sant and manufacturer Chuck Stevenson for a behind-the-scenes dialogue concerning the homicide of Kendy Howard: the cover-up by means of Kendy’s husband, Dan, to make her loss of life seem like a suicide, Dan’s troubling previous as a state trooper, and his surprising pressure to the airport all the way through his trial. Additionally they speak about an unaired clip of Dan’s 9-1-1 name that used to be used as proof towards him in courtroom.
Produced by means of Chuck Stevenson and Lauren Clark. Cindy Cesare, Danielle Austen and Sara Ely Hulse are the improvement manufacturers. Megan Kelly Brown is the affiliate manufacturer. Greg Kaplan and Michael Baluzy are the editors. Anthony Batson is the senior manufacturer. Nancy Kramer is the manager tale editor. Judy Tygard is the manager manufacturer.
