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this week's 48 Hours digs into the investigation of a former Idaho state trooper suspected in the mysterious
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death of his wife Dan Howard says he found his wife dead in the bathtub in February of 2021 and he told deputies
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she took her own life but investigators decided to take a closer look at him after finding certain evidence at the
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crime scene Peter Van Sant reports this 911 call my wife sent deputies from cutney County in northern Idaho to the
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home of a distraught former state trooper Dan Howard was a gunot with their body cameras rolling deputies
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captured Dan telling them what happened on that cold February night in 2021 she's in the
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bathtub upstairs deputies found 48-year-old Kendy Howard's body in the bathtub with a gunshot wound to her head
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Dan Howard told them she had taken her own life but investigators were suspicious Deputy Miranda Thomas says
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too many things seemed out of place I went into the house and found a packed duffel bag was someone planning on
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leaving the house in the laundry room the dryer was still turning full of clean bath towels and mats having a
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dryer running at midnight very odd cuz I don't do laundry at midnight sure you could and despite the shock of finding
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his wife dead Dan Howard appeared to have recently showered changed his clothes and applied fresh deodorant
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detective Sergeant Ken Laton said Howard seemed to have a story he planned to share almost scripted in a way yeah
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definitely scripted and there were other challenges authorities did find the gun
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in the tub but there were no prints or DNA connecting it to Howard there wasn't enough on the scene to arrest him still
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authorities were not about to give up Dan knows things that most normal people Ordinary People don't know things like
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like things like killing someone and staging it to look like a suicide and Peter vanent joins us now
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here in studio good morning Peter talking about that dryer you mentioned that it was going at midnight what did
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investigators find there well what was fascinating about that so you saw the hysterics uh the 911 call and also when
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when deputies first arrived imagine going inside that house and what you hear is the sound of a spinning dryer
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how odd that would be but they had the the perception to take a photograph it had 6 minutes left on it and that became
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significant because sometime later detectives were able to determine that the time he made that 911 call with all
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of the emotion and hysterics he was actually doing laundry so it called into question whether that was a performance
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that they were listening to on that 911 call what else made them suspicious suspicious about Dan Howard well well
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Kandi was shot in the head and she was in a bathtub but there was surprisingly little blood there that undermined this
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notion of a suicide and also raised the possibility for investigators was she possibly killed somewhere else and
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placed in the wow so they weren't able to make an arrest immediately I think it took over two years for them to make an
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arrest how come well you know he's a former Idaho State patrolman they had to get all their ducks in a row but the
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biggest obstacle was the medical examiner did not rule this case a homicide the the me said it was a
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undetermined manner of death so they had to go out and find medical experts to actually challenge their own medical
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examiner in a trial which is fascinating you have the defense attorney saying well if the medical examiner says this
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isn't a homicide you members of the jury you shouldn't either and Peter you made
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another observation um during that video when police arrived the husband didn't seem that upset no uh we we were told by
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the people who actually went into that house with all that sobbing there wasn't a single tear wow so revealing lots of
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signs and we'll find out how this all ends yeah it's a dramatic trial and it's a terrific terrific tale good to see you
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Peter thank you you and you can watch Peter's report the bathtub murder of Kendy Howard on 48 hours tomorrow night
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at 10: 9 Central here on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus