Athol woman didn’t die from gunshot, medical examiner says

COEUR d’ALENE — Police and death investigators said Kendy Howard’s death appeared suspicious from the beginning.

Daniel C. Howard, 57, is accused of killing his wife at their Athol home Feb. 2, 2021. The former state trooper has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and felony domestic battery.

Prosecutors said Daniel Howard killed Kendy Howard by asphyxiating her, then placed her body in the bathtub, shot her in the mouth and staged the scene to look like she shot herself.

In court Wednesday, jurors heard Daniel Howard’s 911 call, which he made after he said he found his wife dead.

“She shot herself,” he told the dispatcher, through sobs.

The 17-minute phone call was punctuated by Daniel Howard wailing, gulping for breath and retching.

When sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene, they found Daniel Howard outside. Body camera footage played in court showed him shouting, moaning, gagging and repeatedly doubling over in apparent distress. He often covered his face with his hands.

Though he continually sobbed, police said his eyes were dry.

“At no point did I observe any tears,” said Deputy Miranda Thomas.

Inside the house, police saw a duffel bag packed with a woman’s clothing. Elsewhere, the dryer was running, full of towels and rugs.

Lt. Zach Sifford said he’s responded to about 100 suicide deaths in his law enforcement career. In those cases, he said family members typically “beg” police for a sheet to cover their deceased loved one’s body or for a pillow to place under the person’s head. Daniel Howard didn’t make any such requests, though his wife was nude in the bath and many deputies were around.

“There didn’t seem to be any care for the dignity of the body,” Sifford said.

Lynn Acebedo, chief deputy coroner for Kootenai County, responded to the scene several hours after police arrived.

In the master bedroom, she photographed tiny shards of glass on the beige carpet. Across the hall, she photographed the bathroom where Kendy Howard lay in the tub.

The water was still warm when police arrived — tinged red from blood, though less blood than Acebedo would’ve expected for someone who died from a gunshot wound — with bubbles on the surface. The bath mat was sopping wet, though Kendy Howard was still in the tub. The only towels in the room were decorative ones, “perfectly folded.” A purse and cellphone sat on the counter by the sink, out of Kendy Howard’s reach.

Acebedo noticed some of Kendy Howard’s dark hair had fallen across her face, though most of her hair was pulled back and clipped in place. Her body seemed to be positioned strangely, Acebedo said, with her feet wedged against the side of the tub.

The blood around Kendy Howard’s mouth and cheek appeared to have flowed upward, Acebedo said.

“It’s going the wrong way for someone who has a head down in a bathtub from a gunshot wound to the mouth,” she said.

There was blood on Kendy Howard’s chest, too.

“The blood resting on her skin didn’t appear to be in a normal form for someone that has shot themselves intraorally,” Acebedo said.

Kootenai County doesn’t employ a medical examiner, so Kendy Howard’s body was sent to the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsy.

After the autopsy was complete, Acebedo happened to see Kendy Howard’s body while she was at a funeral home following up on a different case. She examined the body again, this time noticing “significant discoloration” that wasn’t apparent on the night of death.

Acebedo photographed Kendy Howard’s body from head to toe, documenting bruises on her right arm reminiscent of fingers, as well as bruises on her knees and legs, wrist and chest. A dark pink burn was visible on her right forearm, as well as bruising. The left side of her jaw was swollen and bruised; her jaw had been broken.

Former Spokane County Medical Examiner Dr. John Howard, of no relation to Daniel Howard, performed Kendy Howard’s autopsy. He didn’t note the bruising all over her body, the burn on her arm or the broken jaw.

At the time of Kendy Howard’s autopsy, John Howard was close to retirement; coworkers said he was eager to reach that milestone. In 2018, he was subject to a state investigation after 14 cases where manner of death was disputed, including that of a woman who was cut in half and had her death ruled “undetermined.” The state ultimately determined he had followed protocol.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Jennifer Nara was tasked with revisiting Kendy Howard’s autopsy. She previously worked for the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office and is now a forensic pathology consultant for Engineering Systems Inc.

In court Wednesday, Nara said she’s performed about 4,300 autopsies, including 150 to 200 cases where the person died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the mouth.

The bullet traveled through Kendy Howard’s tongue, Nara said, passed through the spinal cord and came to rest in the soft tissue in the back of the neck. Her tongue “looked like a torpedo had gone through,” Nara said, but there was little bleeding, indicating she was shot after her heart stopped beating.

Self-inflicted bullet wounds typically have an upward or horizontal trajectory, Nara said. In Kendy Howard’s case, the bullet had a downward trajectory, which Nara has never observed in a suicide death.

“I do not believe Ms. Kendy Howard died by a gunshot wound,” Nara said.

Kendy Howard’s parents also took the stand Wednesday. Her father, Wendell Wilkins, said his daughter was happy in the months and weeks before her death, especially when she visited her parents in Kamiah while her husband was in Alaska for work.

“It was like old Kendy,” he said. “Just happy. She loved coming down there. She was back home.”

The Wilkinses learned of Kendy Howard’s death from their granddaughter, Brooke. The same morning, they drove three and a half hours from Kamiah to the Howard home in Athol, where their grandson, Wyatt, had already arrived.

“I said, ‘You know your dad did this,’” Wendell Wilkins recalled. “And Wyatt stood there crying.”

The Wilkinses said Daniel Howard never emerged from the house, nor did he ever contact them after their daughter died. Though he paid for Kendy Howard’s cremation, he reportedly did not contribute money for her funeral or cemetery plot. Her parents paid for both.

More than 200 people attended Kendy Howard’s funeral in Kamiah, which occurred some time after her death. Daniel Howard wasn’t among the mourners.