How an unfinished dryer cycle caught the attention of Idaho first responders investigating the suspicious death of a woman in a bathtub
When former Idaho State Trooper Dan Howard called 911 from his home in Athol, Idaho, on the night of Feb. 2, 2021, he was crying so much that it was hard to understand what he was saying.
"My wife ... she shot herself," Dan Howard told the operator. "She's in the bathtub dead ... I go upstairs and she's dead. She's dead ... she's gray, she has no pulse, nothing ... she's cold."
Dan Howard later told authorities that he had been downstairs and heard something hitting the floor upstairs. Dan Howard said that when he went upstairs over an hour later, he found his wife of 26 years, Kendy Howard, in a bathtub filled with water with a gunshot wound to her head.
The case — starting from the hours after Kendy's death to a surprising final twist — is investigated by "48 Hours" and correspondent Peter Van Sant in "The Bathtub Murder of Kendy Howard," now streaming on Paramount+.
Kootenai County Sheriff's Deputy Miranda Thomas was one of the first responders to arrive at the Howards' home that night. Thomas later described how Dan Howard was "screaming, yelling, asking us for help ... sobbing, gagging, just overall kind of freaking out."
Also on the scene that night was Kootenai County Sheriff's Detective Jerry Northrup. Northrup confirmed the 911 call was dispatched as a suicide, but recounts that it did not take long for his team to grow suspicious.
"For a woman to shoot herself in the tub, nude, is unusual," said Northrup. "It doesn't mean it can't happen — it just means that it's unusual."
There was also other evidence at the scene that stuck out to investigators. According to Northrup, there was broken glass found in the primary bedroom, and Kendy Howard's clothing thrown on the floor. There were wet towels behind the bathroom door, and when investigators first arrived at the scene, they reported that the water in the tub was still warm to the touch. Thomas noticed a packed duffle bag filled with women's clothing lay at the bottom of the stairs, and that the shirt Dan Howard was wearing seemed to have fresh deodorant stains.
One of the more intriguing clues, say investigators, was a load of laundry mid-cycle in the dryer. Thomas took note: "A washer or dryer doesn't run for very long, 45 minutes, maybe an hour, so when was this washer and dryer started?"
Northrup had the same thought and recorded the time left on the dryer cycle: six minutes. He told Van Sant how he pulled up the cycle running times from the manufacturer's website and compared the information against the time at which the 911 call was placed.
Northrup determined that the dryer cycle would have started at 10:42 p.m. and the 911 call came in at 10:43 p.m. Meaning, says Northrup, Howard started the laundry cycle about a minute before calling 911. But why?
Investigators continued digging, and after reviewing the evidence with medical and scientific experts, came up with a theory as to how Dan Howard could have killed his wife.
Dan Howard was arrested in April 2023, and in March 2024, went on trial for the murder of his wife.