Post Mortem | The Bathtub Murder of Kendy Howard
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Welcome back to another episode of Postmortem. I'm your host, Anne-Marie Green. And today we're diving into the case of Kendi Howard, who was found dead in her bathtub with a gunshot wound to her head on the night of February 2nd, 2021. Now, her husband, Dan Howard, made the 911 call claiming that Kendi shot herself. But when first responders arrived at the scene, they noticed several things that did not quite fit with what they expected to see.

So joining me now from on the road in Montana are 48 Hours correspondent Peter Van Sant and producer Chuck Stevenson. Hello, Peter and Chuck. Hey, Anne-Marie. Howdy from Big Sky Country. Good morning. Listeners, if you have not listened to the 48 Hours episode that we're talking about yet, head on over to your podcast feed and then listen to the full audio version. You can find it just below this episode in your feed and then come back for our conversation.

All right, we're going to dig into it. What, of course, is unusual and interesting about this case is that Dan Howard was actually a former Idaho state police trooper. And because of that, prosecutors really believe that he had insider knowledge on just how to stage a murder so that it actually looked like a suicide.

But first responders, they noticed some suspicious things at the scene almost immediately, like the broken glass in the bedroom, the dryer that was running at midnight. If Dan was trying to cover up a crime, these seem like pretty obvious mistakes. Absolutely. It's a bit crazy. Yeah.

You know, in all the stories that I've ever done in which first responders come to a place, a man claiming his wife had committed suicide. Generally, the spouse doesn't go off and do some laundry after discovering the wife is dead. And it immediately suggested to them, well, what was in that dryer? Right.

And the broken glass is an indication of a struggle that went on. But it's important to remember that when investigators first arrived at the house, they entered that house with an open mind. I also want to say that Dan actually did a pretty good job of cleaning up that crime scene, even though there were some odd clues. The pieces of glass they found were minuscule.

One of the detectives told us the walls had been wiped down and cleaned. It was a pretty damn good crime scene cleanup.

But Dan was a unique guy. He had a tremendous arrogance. I think when the first responders arrived, because he'd been a former trooper, he thought he'd get some professional courtesy. He'd get a break from them. And at one point, I've got it here from a body cam from one of the officers. Dan's actually acting like he's running the investigation. The deputy asked him, did you kill your wife?

And he flies off into a rage. He goes, F no, this will be over if you keep this up.

He's telling the officer, you're not going to investigate. You're not going to be asking me questions that are typical at any scene like that. And it was part of the arrogance of this man. So in the episode, we also heard about several concerning incidents that occurred while Dan was still a state trooper. When you were looking into Dan's background, were you able to dig up anything else about his track record? You know, it's interesting, Emery. He was back in 2011.

He was involved in a traffic stop that went really bad. His car and the car he was chasing actually kind of rammed into each other, and he ended up unleashing a full magazine of bullets at the car. He hit the passenger, a woman.

who later died, and he wounded the driver. There was a big investigation, as you can imagine, and at the end of the day, he was cleared, but some of the officers that we talked to who were actually involved in that initial investigation didn't work for the state police. They felt that it was really a bad shoot. I've always wondered

Because he, in a way, got away with this, according to one of the detectives that we spoke with. Did this inspire him to go on later thinking, I can talk my way out of that one as well?

And, you know, when you first mention it in the episode, I thought, oh, that may have been what led to him ultimately getting out of law enforcement. But then it turns out, no, there were other incidents after that. Back in 2013, Dan was known to have a temper. He learned that Kendi, his wife, was having an affair with a neighbor who also happened to be one of Dan's good friends. And Dan put...

fertilizer to burn pornographic messages into his lawn. He threatened him, went to his office, threatened to blow his brains out. There's even an accusation that he fired a couple of shots into his former best friend's house, Kendi's lover's house. Chuck, as I recall, even put something in the guy's gas tank, I think, to ruin his...

We should note that he spent, I think, almost four months in jail for this crime. And that ultimately led to his resignation from the state troopers. But at the end of the day, these charges were reduced to misdemeanors. Again, if he's taking mental notes on all of this, I'm kind of getting away with this, too. Right. And here's a guy who already may have sort of an arrogant, I'm the smartest guy in the room kind of personality. So this was just sort of reinforced by.

his own belief in himself, right? And then we get to this 911 call that Dan made the night of Kendi's death. We heard some of that recording in the broadcast, but I want to play a little bit more, an extended clip. He said his son shot himself?

All right. Come on, Dan. I can't understand you. Okay. All right. Okay. Hold on. Okay. This just reinforces how I felt about Dan.

Dan Howard. I felt like he was overacting. And I could be wrong because, you know, who knows how you react under these circumstances. But based on all my 48 hours watching, when someone's in these circumstances and they're calling 911,

They really want to help first responders. To me, they have a tendency to sort of pull themselves together, get calm enough to get the information out. They're not all messy and confusing usually. And so when I heard him, I know this is a guy who's, you know, former law enforcement. He should be able to give the 911 operator clear information and he's not. And it doesn't feel authentic.

And keep in mind, one of the things that really struck the arriving first responders when they got there, he'd start talking and then he would launch into this sobbing. And they noticed not a single tear, not a single tear. And he's choking and gagging. And as you watch these body cam videos, it's really like he turns it on and he turns it off. Then he gets on the phone with Kendi's daughter from a previous relationship. Her name is Brooke.

And she confronts Dan as soon as she learns that Kendi's dead. What was Brooke's relationship like with Dan? And what did she know about their marriage that made her so certain right away that he had something to do with it? You know, Ann Marie, I think she was kind of a classic angry adolescent with a with a stepfather.

By her description, they had a tortured relationship for most of their life. She and he fought over just about everything. He was a strict, disciplined, straight arrow kind of guy in terms of child rearing. And she was, you know, more of a free spirit. She wasn't living with them at the time. She knew that her mom was not happy. And I think that when she heard that her mom had allegedly shot herself,

I mean, that just didn't make sense to Brooke. And she went off. You can hear her screaming on the phone. Can't hear her exact words, but, you know, Dan called her to sort of say what had happened. And she just launches into him.

So we do find out that, you know, they were in a bad place in their marriage at this point, a really bad place for several years, actually. Prosecutors argue that this is part of the motive, right? Kendi wanting to leave him. She wanted a divorce and was planning a new life without him.

And certainly her friends seem to reinforce that. But did they have any other evidence besides her friends saying, you know, she spoke to us about how bad this marriage was? Well, keep in mind what the friends had to say was was very powerful in terms of powerful evidence because they had heard it directly from her. But at trial, they had text messages between Dan and Kenny that went into evidence saying,

And it showed that they talked about divorce. They would fight sometimes in these text messages. There was some sense of understanding and of resignation. There was discussion of the finances between the two of them. And so there was some stuff about how she wanted to get from him in writing divorce.

various things such that she could make the divorce smoother. And his messages back to her at this point were pretty rational. And so she was thinking, this is good. We're going to be able to get through this divorce as civil human beings, which of course never did happen. Oh, that just struck me too, is that she really believed in those days leading up to her death.

That it was going to be okay. That everything was going to work out. And she would tell her close friends or her family, don't worry about me. Oh, he's going to accept this. It's going to be okay. And it wasn't okay.

Obviously not. And don't forget, too, there had been this incident where police had come or sheriff's deputies had come to their house to do a welfare check. And despite that, some time had passed, these text messages exchanged, and she's thinking it's smooth sailing from here on out, which, of course, it wasn't.

This is a guy who could be pretty controlling. But as the episode goes on, I started to wonder if that was a problem all along in the marriage. And she was just to come to the point where she couldn't live like this anymore. I definitely had the impression that it's a kind of a control marriage. And in fact, maybe she had some comfort in that control. When she first meets him, he's a good looking guy in an authority position. And she's a girl from a small town, right?

And there is a certain sense from her daughter, Brooke told us, that that sort of security was important to her. And maybe that's just a dynamic that played out throughout their marriage, that she always wanted that to some degree, that she wanted that security and that sense of he's in control.

He's seven years older than she is. And as she got older, she became this much more of a free spirit. She was artistic, great personality. And Dan wasn't. And so I think then heads started to really bud.

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Welcome back. So even though suspicions were raised about Dan right away, it took prosecutors two years to charge him. Why did it take so long to charge him? Well, there's obviously there's COVID and there's a long process there, but there wasn't a lot of evidence on the scene. The gun had none of his DNA on it, none of his blood.

There wasn't a slam dunk piece of evidence. Right. And there was a confusing report from the medical examiner. This medical examiner, it really was quite extraordinary. He'd been with the department for many, many years, but the prosecution alleged that he did a terrible job on this autopsy.

He said that she had died as a result of a gunshot wound, but the manner of death as undetermined and not a homicide. And as a result, the medical examiner, who's normally a witness for the prosecution,

became the star witness at trial for the defense because this man was asserting, even though he hadn't looked at crime scene photos and things at the time that he did his report, he was basically sticking to the notion that this was a suicide. And I've never seen anything quite like it. So prosecutors-

sought out other medical experts to review the autopsy information, go through the photographs to come up with a new conclusion that in fact, Kendi was

was dead at the time that that bullet was fired into her mouth and lodged in the back of her head. That was fascinating because it explained something that investigators had wondered, which was, where is the blood? Absolutely. The blood was maybe the best piece of evidence that they had. There just wasn't a lot of blood in the bathtub. And without getting too gory, if somebody takes their life in the bathtub with a gun...

They would expect that tub, which was full of water when they arrived, to be at least murky and full of blood. And it wasn't. Right.

So, you know, Dan was charged with murder in April of 2023. He pleaded not guilty and he posted bail. But then, of course, there is a shocking twist. In the middle of the trial, he violates the terms of his bail. He drives to the airport. I mean, I would presume that getting anywhere close to an airport would be something you're not allowed to do when you got an ankle monitor on. Absolutely. Dan.

takes off one night after the a long weekend is about to happen. He jumps in his car and he starts racing toward the airport using counter surveillance techniques, according to the deputy who was actually secretly following him. He's like taking turns and checking behind him and weaving and then getting on the freeway again. And he pulls into the airport.

And, you know, this time the secret detective who's been following him has been radioing back to the DA and the guy goes, bust him, hook him up. And they do. But Dan says he was just trying to return a rental car. But...

That's not what happened. They think they actually believed Dan was going to cut off his ankle bracelet, leave it in a car there, get another rental car and disappear. And here's a man, remember, who prosecutors have said over and over, thinks he's the smartest guy in the room. And what a boneheaded thing this was at that moment. Absolutely. It interrupted the trial. It, you know, it was discussed in the courtroom and things. And it was, it appeared to be an obvious attempt to flee.

It's a bit of a wild move to make because, you know, that's not going to end well. Absolutely. Absolutely. You're probably not the first guy to think about something like that as sort of a getaway plan. It doesn't work out well. The jury ultimately found Dan guilty of second degree murder. He didn't testify at trial, but he gave a statement at his sentencing two months later. And I want to play a little of that. I love my wife that I've missed her.

And I love that monster of a ship that people are trading. Jenny and I had 20 acres together. And Grace and Alan had a supposedly good marriage and a good life. I thought that made a little bit of a difference. It's not my intention to hinder the court or disrespect the process that I used to believe in. But Your Honor, it's valid in the sense that it's been opposite.

I found that statement to be hollow. The judge was appalled by it. He called him a remorseless man. It was, again, an example of his arrogance. His belief all along the way, I think that he would prevail in this.

through his intellect and his cleverness, and it all backfired. And the statement was appalling to family members who were inside that courtroom and to the journalists who knew this case inside and out. He was guilty. He knew it. And I found the whole thing disgusting. I couldn't agree more. He's a narcissist.

controlling kind of guy. And he's just, he was trying to sway the judge and the judge wasn't having it at all. This is one of the, one of the more angry judge responses I've heard. It was impressive. At the end of the hour, you include Kendi's granddaughter, Kenley. And she talked about what it meant to lose her grandmother and the relationship they had.

And it was just a reminder that there's never one victim when it comes to these cases. Why did you think it was important to include that?

you know we were out uh shooting and we met uh kenley kenley was an absolute delight um she loved her grandmother so much she sat across from me and she said that her grandmother had this collection of porcelain chickens that she had gathered through antique stores and lawn sales and things and that she loved these chickens and it was a real connection between her and her grandma well she said that dan

to raise money for his defense had sold these porcelain chickens, which was just outrageous to her. And when we expressed some sympathy about all of that, Kenley decided then that she would speak with us. And it became a very powerful moment in the story. And actually, as somebody who has a bunch of kids, it was appalling that those porcelain chickens that he knew meant so much to her that he turned around and sold them. But Kenley was a sweetheart of a girl.

And you're right. This will resonate in her life, obviously, for the rest of her life. And we hope an hour like this will give her some peace that at the end of the day, justice was served. And we honor her grandma with this report. Yeah, indeed. Well, you certainly did. It was also a reminder that even though she did not have her grandmother for the length of time she should have, her grandmother has such an impact on her life.

It's just another powerful episode. You guys, of course, are fantastic storytellers. Peter and Chuck, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Anne-Marie.

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