How an unfinished dryer cycle caught the attention of first responders in Idaho who were investigating a woman's suspicious death in a bathtub

As a former Idaho State Trooper Dan Howard When he called 911 from his home in Athol, Idaho, on the night of February 2, 2021, he cried so hard that it was difficult to understand what he was saying.

“My wife…she shot herself,” Dan Howard told the operator. “She's dead in the bathtub… 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 was downstairs and heard something hit the floor upstairs. Dan Howard said when he went upstairs more than an hour later, he found his wife of 26 years. Kendy Howardin a bathtub filled with water with a gunshot wound to the head.

The case — beginning in the hours after Kendy's death and ending in 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 Howard home that night. Thomas later described how Dan Howard “screamed, screamed, begged us for help… sobbed, choked, just kind of freaked out.”

Kootenai County Sheriff's Detective Jerry Northrup was also on scene that evening. Northrup confirmed the 911 call was a suicide, but reports it didn't take long for his team to become suspicious.

“It’s unusual for a woman to shoot herself naked in the tub,” Northrup said. “That doesn’t mean it can’t happen – it just means it’s unusual.”

There was other evidence at the crime scene that caught the eye of investigators. Northrup said broken glass was found in the master bedroom and Kendy Howard's clothes were 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 that there was a packed duffel bag containing women's clothing at the bottom of the stairs and that the shirt Dan Howard was wearing appeared to have fresh deodorant stains on it.

One of the more interesting clues, investigators said, was a load of laundry that was in the middle of the dryer. Thomas noted, “A washer or dryer doesn't run for very long, 45 minutes, maybe an hour, so when was this washer and dryer put into operation?”

Northrup had the same thought and recorded the remaining time on the dryer cycle: six minutes. He told Van Sant how he retrieved the cycle times from the manufacturer's website and compared the information with the time the emergency call was made.

Northrup noted that the dryer cycle began at 10:42 p.m. and the 911 call came in at 10:43 p.m. That means, Northrup says, Howard started the laundry cycle about a minute before calling 911. But why?

Investigators continued their investigation 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 tried in March 2024 for the murder of his wife.