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Kendy Howard: The Bathtub Murder // 583 - Going West: True Crime | Wave AI Podcast Notes

Kendy Howard: The Bathtub Murder // 583

Tue Feb 17 2026

In February of 2021, a 48-year-old Idaho woman was found dead in her own bathtub of an apparent suicide. But as troubling details emerged, suspicion fell on someone close to the investigation and her: disturbingly, someone who had a deep familiarity with crime scenes and procedure. This is the murder of Kendy Howard.

Summary

Going West: True Crime

Episode 583: Kendy Howard: The Bathtub Murder
Hosts: Daphne Woolsoncroft & Heath Merryman
Release Date: February 17, 2026

Episode Overview

In this chilling episode, Daphne and Heath explore the suspicious 2021 death of Kendy Howard, an Idaho woman whose apparent bathtub suicide raised red flags for investigators and her loved ones. As they unravel the story, deep marital tensions, a history of violence, and the disturbing actions of her husband, former state trooper Dan Howard, come to light—culminating in a conviction that would finally bring some measure of justice to Kendy’s family.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Kendy's Early Life and Family Background (03:43–07:48)

Kendy Ann Wilkins was born in 1972 in Orofino, Idaho; raised alongside her brother Brian, she was described as "funny, bubbly, and full of life."
Her childhood hobbies included dance, motorcycle racing, and competitive horse riding.
After high school and becoming a mother, Kendy married Marine Dan Howard, who later became a state trooper in Idaho.
The family settled in Athol, where Kendy worked in hospital administration and volunteered as a 4H troop leader.

2. Marital Strife and the Incident on Dan’s Record

[08:26–13:14]

In 2011, Dan shot and killed a woman, Christy Ann Little, during a traffic stop gone wrong while on duty. Though ruled a "justified shooting," the incident deeply impacted both Dan and Kendy.
Dan was suspended, then let go from the force, and later began working in Alaska—leaving Kendy alone for weeks at a time.
The couple’s marriage unraveled, with Kendy expressing a desire for divorce and relishing the time Dan was away.
Quote (Daphne, 14:43):
“She had all this time to say, hey, you know, this is—I think I prefer this.”

3. Leading Up to Kendy’s Death

[15:17–18:52]

In early 2021, during one of Dan’s returns, Kendy told him she wanted a divorce and was in the process of buying a house for herself.
Dan became suspicious she was seeing someone else; her brother Brian confirmed Kendy was having an affair.
Kendy was last seen alive on February 2, 2021, after picking up dinner and going home.

4. The Crime Scene & Initial Investigation

[18:52–29:54]

Dan called 911 at 10:43 pm, sobbing, to say Kendy had shot herself.
Suspicious details:
- Kendy was found naked in a bathtub, a handgun underwater, her belongings nearby, and the house showed signs of recent cleaning.
- Her packed duffel bag and running dryer suggested she was preparing to leave and someone was cleaning up evidence.
- Dan's reaction at the scene appeared performative rather than genuine.
  - Tease (28:13): “Oh, yeah, those were crocodile tears.”
- He resisted gunshot residue testing and may have wiped his hands.
Quote (Daphne, 18:33):
“Let us note how different a noise is from a freaking gunshot.”
Testing revealed Kendy’s and another (unknown) male’s DNA on the gun, but not Dan’s.

5. Kendy’s Loved Ones Express Doubt

[30:28–34:34]

Her daughter Brooke and brother Brian were immediately suspicious of Dan; neither believed Kendy would take her own life.
Dan quickly began discarding Kendy’s possessions, including items she wanted to leave to her granddaughter, and barred Brooke from the property.
- Daphne, 33:14:
  “On April 30, 2021, what would have been Kendi's 49th birthday, Dan held a yard sale… getting rid of as many of her things as he could.”

6. The Darker Side of Dan Howard

[34:34–42:21]

In the days before her death, Kendy told her parents she was afraid of Dan after waking up to him standing over her dressed in black, holding a pillow (implying intent to harm her).
Friends and family described Dan’s longstanding volatile, controlling, and violent behavior—firing his gun during fights, threatening Kendy’s lover (a neighbor named Matthew), and engaging in bizarre, vengeful acts (e.g., sabotaging Matthew’s belongings).
Dan’s harassment and threats led to his suspension and eventual firing from the police, followed by four months in jail.

7. Motive and Financial Tensions

[42:21–45:44]

Dan and Kendy had significant assets (over $2 million in property), but Dan was controlling about finances.
Kendy documented evidence of Dan’s violence, sending photos of bruises to friends.
A second autopsy revealed key facts:
- Kendy’s jaw was broken, body bruised, she had a burn on her forearm, and autopsy showed she was dead before being placed in the tub and shot.
- Blood evidence and wound trajectories indicated staging after her death.
- Daphne, 45:44:
  “Why the first medical examiner had ignored all these indications of foul play was a mystery and is still a mystery.”

Turning Point: Arrest, Trial, and Conviction

[47:42–53:15]

April 2023: Dan was arrested, charged with Kendy’s murder and a prior domestic battery.
He attempted to flee during the trial but was caught due to his ankle monitor.
- Tease, 48:56:
  “So you're not getting away, Dan.”
Dan's defense cited another man's DNA on the gun and argued for suicide; prosecution brought in a strangulation expert who explained how Dan could have used a carotid restraint without leaving marks.
- Dr. Bill Smock (Paraphrased, 49:57):
  “It takes only 11 pounds of pressure to block blood flow to the brain—enough for strangulation, possibly without leaving marks.”
The jury found Dan guilty, swayed by the overwhelming circumstantial and physical evidence.

Sentencing & Aftermath

[53:15–54:32]

Dan Howard was sentenced to life in prison without parole, plus an additional 10 years for domestic battery.
He maintained his innocence at sentencing:
- Dan Howard, 52:38:
  “I love my wife and I miss her, and I'm not that monster I assure you… Your honor is about to sentence an innocent man to prison.”
The judge, Lamont Baritz, responded:
- Judge Baritz, 53:02:
  “It’s clear to me that you are a remorseless killer… You snuffed [Kendy’s life] out because of your own pride and greed.”
Victim Impact Statement – Kendy's daughter Brooke:
- “You'll never understand the damage you have caused… You are not the victim… She won’t see me get married. She won’t see my daughter grow up. She didn’t see me finally get it together.” (~53:08)

Notable Quotes

Daphne, 29:30:
“Which is obviously bullshit because we know that she was trying to buy a fucking house.”
Tease, 35:15:
“I mean, that's absolutely horrifying.” (On Dan standing over Kendy in the dark)
Tease, 53:24:
“Thankfully, that monster Dan is exactly where he needs to be—in prison.”

The Hosts’ Tone & Notable Moments

Candid, often irreverent, and deeply empathetic toward Kendy and her family.
Strong condemnation of Dan’s actions; explicit criticism of law enforcement for repeatedly failing to stop his escalating violence.
- Daphne, 53:24:
  “It just really disturbs me that somebody like that can be a state trooper… and you’re just allowed to be a cop, is crazy.”
Both express disbelief at the repeated institutional failures and the pattern of abuse escalating to murder.

Timestamps for Major Segments

03:43 – Kendy's background and early life
08:26 – Dan’s deadly shooting as a trooper
13:14 – Growing marital strife and signs of abuse
18:52 – Discovery of Kendy’s body and crime scene analysis
27:10 – Signs of staging and Dan’s suspicious behavior at the scene
30:28 – Family and community reaction
34:34 – Unveiling Dan’s prior violence and escalation
42:21 – Motive, financial, and forensic evidence
45:44 – Second autopsy findings
47:42 – Arrest, attempted flight, and trial strategies
52:38 – Sentencing, statements from Dan, the judge, and Brooke

Conclusion

This episode paints a detailed portrait of Kendy Howard’s tragic end and the harrowing impact of domestic violence—set against a backdrop of small-town life and police culture. Through methodical storytelling, Daphne and Heath underscore not only the importance of listening to victims and their families but also the failures that occur when red flags are overlooked.

Final Message:
For listeners seeking justice-driven true crime and a no-nonsense dive into red-flag relationships, this episode powerfully illustrates why vigilance and thorough investigations matter, especially when the perpetrator might have the law on their side—until they don’t.

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Transcript

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Daphne (3:43)

In February of 2021, a 48 year old Idaho woman was found dead in her own bathtub of an apparent suit suicide. But as troubling details emerged, suspicion fell on someone close to the investigation and to her, disturbingly, someone who had a deep familiarity with crime scenes and procedure. This is the murder of Kendi How. Kendi Ann Wilkins was born on April 30, 1972 in Orofino, Idaho to parents Janie and Wendell. Raised alongside a brother named Brian, they did speak spend time in the small town of Orofino in the northwest of Idaho before settling in Lewiston, which is right on the border of Idaho and Washington. But this didn't last very long because when Kenny was in elementary school, the family relocated back to northwest Idaho and settled in Kami, which is only like a 30 minute drive from Orofino. Kenny's parents remember that she loved the spotlight from a young age and enjoyed taking dance classes and singing for anybody who would listen. But as she got older, she started running track and racing motorcycles like those were her biggest hobbies. Well, alongside riding horses of course. Actually, for a while she rode them competitively at state rodeos. Kendi is remembered as funny, bubbly and full of life. After graduating from high school, she worked at a local pizza restaurant and then a cafe, which was particularly fun because she worked alongside her brother Brian and her mom Janie. Well, just after reaching adulthood. Shortly after graduating from high school, Kendi became a young mother when she and her boyfriend Jim had a daughter they named Brooke. And although their relationship didn't last, Kendi was a present and loving mother to her baby. And she didn't have to do it alone for very long because in her early 20s, Kendi met a Marine named Dan Howard and they became inseparable. They married when Kendi was 22 and Dan was 28 and he gladly stepped into the role of stepfather to Brooke. And then he and Kendi also had their own child together, a son named Wyatt. After retiring from the Marines, Dan went on to become a state trooper and then the family purchased a sprawling property in Athol, Idaho, which is about 30 minutes north of beautiful Coeur d'. Alene. Kendi worked in hospital administration and she and her husband Dan also invested in real estate as a couple. At the time of Kendi's death in 2021, they had been married for 26 years and both of Them were very entrenched in their community. They maintained close relationships with their friends and neighbors. You know, they had a happy life, or at least it seemed like that on the outside. Right. So Kendi was also a 4H troop leader and really enjoyed fostering her many female friendships. For anybody who doesn't know what 4H is, by the way, it is like a positive youth development program here in the US that has the goal of empowering young people to learn. By doing so, she has a career, she has a husband, they have two kids. Kendi volunteers with a wonderful organization. And then in 2012, her daughter Brooke had a daughter named Kenley, who was the light of Kendi's life. You know, she got to become a grandmother. So in many ways, like I'm saying, things were very good.

Tease (15:17)

Yeah, I mean, Kendi had just simply explained her intentions and desires, but no divorce had been officially filed yet. She definitely had not changed her mind, but they were kind of still figuring out the next steps. Now, in the meantime, on Monday, February 1, 2021, Dan and Kendi's brother Brian drove to Lucille, Idaho, which is four hours south of Athol, in order to help Dan's dad with something at his house. And on the drive there, Dan confided in Brian that he believed Kendi was seeing another man or, you know, possibly having an affair. And that's when Brian broke down and actually confirmed that she was, which in part is why she kinda wanted a divorce. So she was already moving on past Dan. Well, enraged by this, Dan was up pacing all night, according to Brian, who was staying in the bedroom next door to his. The next day, which was February 2, 2021, Dan drove them home and apparently seemed pretty agitated, driving erratically the entire way home. While Dan and Brian drove home, Brian, Kendi went to work as usual and actually received some pretty good news. The house that she was trying to buy had passed inspection. Afterwards, she got her nails done and headed home for the day, stopping to pick up dinner on her way. And this would be the last time that Kendi would be seen alive in public. At 10:43pm on the evening of February 2, 2021, Dan called 911 and through guttural sobs, told the operator, my wife, she shot herself. After he'd arrived home to find her in the bathroom. When first responders arrived, they found Kendi deceased in the bathtub with a handgun in the murky water beneath her. She had been shot in the mouth with the bullet lodged in her vertebrae. Now, regarding who this gun belonged to, it was Dan's. Remember, at this point, he was no longer an officer, so this would have been his personal firearm. Also, since he was a state trooper, he worked for the Idaho State Police and the Kootenay County Sheriff's Office were the ones reporting to the scene of Kendi's death. So there wasn't a conflict of interest going on here. So these weren't his old buddies or anything. So that night, while being questioned about what had happened before Kendi's death, Dan claimed that he and Kendi had gotten into a fight over the division of their assets if they were to finally separate them, given that, like I said, they hadn't gone through with a divorce quite yet. It was just something that Kendi made clear that she was intending on filing for and she was intending on doing that pretty soon. So without reaching a conclusion in their disagreement, Kendi and Dan called off their fight temporarily, and Kendi headed upstairs to take a bath. Dan says that he then heard a noise upstairs, but claims that he waited about two hours to head upstairs to investigate it.

Tease (30:28)

But as Kendi's family and children were notified of her death, shockwaves rippled through the community, and not very many people were able to believe that she would be capable of taking her own life. Her brother Brian claims that he rushed to his sister's house and asked Dan directly if he had hurt Kendi and that Dan seemed confused and wasn't even able to look him in the eye. When Dan called he and Kendi's daughter Brooke to inform her of her mother's death that night at the scene, she immediately jumped on the defense and yelled at him, asking him what he had done to her. And like he had done with Kendi's brother, Dan just brushed his stepdaughter off. But even after the phone call assuring her that he hadn't had anything to do with Kendi's death, Brooke claims that she remained convinced that the truth would come to life and it would implicate her stepfather. Now, this phone conversation that Dan and Brooke had was overheard by detectives. So they asked Dan if Brooke had accused him of killing Kendi himself, which he declined. But this sowed even more doubt in the minds of investigators who wondered why Brooke would instantly be suspicious of murder when it came to her stepfather. Within just hours of Kendi's strange and very sudden death, Dan found himself fielding accusations from homicide detectives. Detective Ken Laleton later admitted that phone call put chills down my spine. Ken then asked him directly, you did it, didn't you, Dan? To which Dan quickly responded, no, I didn't. Ken admitted that even he hadn't truly suspected Dan until the phone call in which Bradley Brooks seemed so sure that Dan was responsible. Like that call basically changed everything. Dan scrambled for an explanation, saying, she doesn't know she wasn't here. But without concrete evidence implicating him, detectives were forced to wait out their suspicions. The first autopsy was concluded the day after Kendi died on February 3, 2021, and quickly concluded that she had died from a gunshot wound. Of course. But her family and friends had their doubts, because after Kendi's death, the facade of the loving small town couple that had been carefully curated by Dan began to crack. And despite stepping into the role of grieving widower, Dan's behavior in the aftermath of Kendi's death was exceedingly suspicious.

Tease (43:00)

Yeah, exactly. And that she felt disenchanted by their marriage and that she longed for her freedom and a fresh start. When enough time had passed, Kendi felt emboldened enough to announce to Dan that she wanted a divorce and that she would be moving out, which again, happened in January of 2021. And she had begun to look for a new house back in her hometown of Kamiai. When asked at the scene of her discovery about the state of their relationship, Dan said candidly that they had 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. So Dan has already told detectives that they had a fight. They know what happened three days before she died, and now he's saying that she wanted a divorce and brought home paper. So this really isn't looking good for her motive, buddy. Well, the most damning evidence was the second autopsy, because when an additional autopsy was ordered In June of 2021, the trajectory of the bullet that supposedly killed her was, of course, called into question. Not only that, but eerily, there had not been nearly enough blood in the water as there would have been if her heart had been beating at the time that she had been shot. So they're looking at this blood, and they're saying, well, you know, if. If she was shot when he said that she was, there would be just a lot more blood in that water. But there wasn't. So it was determined that Kendi was already dead, which she was placed in that bathtub. Bruises and lacerations were scattered all over her body, and her jaw had even been broken. She had sustained a second degree burn to her forearm as well, indicating that perhaps an altercation broke out in the kitchen before she died. There were also cuts to the bottoms of her feet, tipping off investigators that she may have walked on board. Broken glass on the floor upstairs during a struggle, which we did mention that in the bedroom, there was broken glass. There were bloody marks on her arms that appeared to have flowed upward, which would have been impossible if she had gotten into the tub and then shot herself. So none of this was really lining up at this point. So instead, prosecutors believed that she had been dragged by her arms upstairs after she was already killed and then placed in that bathtub.

Daphne (49:57)

And we assume, you know, they would have cross checked it with possible partners of Kendi's if the sample was substantial enough. But we don't actually know what happened with this. So instead, to rebut their clip claims, the prosecution focused on the suicide angle and brought in Strangulation expert Dr. Bill Smock, who maintained that Kendi could have been strangled without there being significant damage done to her neck, because the defense had noted the lack of petechiae, which are like the small pinprick marks that occur beneath the skin when capillaries pop. But Dr. Smock argued that petechiae isn't always present when strangulation has occurred, and that using carotid restraint, which is what they thought he used, like it would just take 11 pounds of pressure to kill somebody, saying, that's nothing. That's how easy it is to block blood flow to the brain and never, ever leave a mark. Ultimately, the evidence against Dan was too damning, and he was found guilty of the murder of his wife, Kendi Howard. At his sentencing, he offered up a very lukewarm statement to the judge while looking at the ceiling and blinking through what was supposed to look like tears. In an affront to the memory and those grieving her, Dan told the court, I love my wife and I miss her, and I'm not that monster. I assure you that people are portraying me to be Kendi and I had 28 years together and raised a family and had mostly a good marriage and a good life. I'm not that animal that they portray me to be. It is not my intention to anger the court or disrespect the process that I used to believe in, but your honor is about to sentence an innocent man to prison. Thankfully, the judge presiding over Dan's case, Lamont Baritz, took a no nonsense approach to his excuses and addressed him in court, saying, it's clear to me that you are a remorseless killer, and I don't say that lightly. You killed somebody who brought a lot of life and light to those around her. You snuffed that out because of your own pride and greed. You were not beyond redemption. But in this case, it will have to happen within the walls of a prison. On May 23, 2024, Dan was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of prison parole. To the utter relief of Kendi's family and loved ones, he was also sentenced to 10 years for domestic battery, to be served concurrently with his lifelong prison sentence. In a heartbreaking victim impact statement, Kendi's daughter Brooke told her stepfather in court, you'll never understand the damage you have caused to us all. You are not the victim. You deserve to be here today. You deserve to never again live a free life. She won't see me get married. She won't see my daughter grow up. She didn't see me finally get it together. Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West.