In murder trial of former Idaho State Police trooper, medical experts doubt suspect’s claim of wife’s suicide

Forensic pathologist and consultant Jennifer Nara originally agreed with the opinion that Athol resident Kendy Howard died from a gunshot wound. On Wednesday, she told a Coeur d’Alene jury that with everything she knows now, she would never rule Kendy Howard’s death a suicide.

Former Idaho State Police trooper Daniel Howard, 58, is standing trial for the murder of his wife, Kendy Howard. Prosecutors allege he killed her because she was seeing another man and planning to gain half of her husband’s assets in an upcoming divorce.

Kendy Howard was found lying in blood in her bathtub full of water with a gunshot wound to her mouth on Feb. 2, 2021. Her husband told police he heard a “thud” and went upstairs almost two hours later to find her dead. Prosecutors say Howard staged the killing as a suicide. 

Around 5 a.m. the next day, Kootenai County Chief Deputy Coroner Lynette Acebedo was called to the Athol home to document the scene and remove the body. 

Acebedo walked in to the master bedroom and observed it was “very clean.” She spotted a purse and a cellphone on the counter, out of reach from the bathtub. The bath mat was wet, even though Kendy Howard was still inside of the tub.

She had her hair in a clip, but half of it seemed smeared and stuck across her face. Kendy Howard was sitting slightly up, with her legs spread out and her toes pointed against the ceramic of the tub. 

“It seems abnormal,” Acebedo said. “…The way her body was in the bathtub.”

From the hundreds, if not thousands of crime scenes Acebedo has seen since her arrival in 2004, she noted: “There wasn’t enough blood in the water” for someone that was shot while they were alive, since the person’s heart would still be pumping blood.

Acebedo immediately began taking photos, which the jury and gallery were able to view. She pointed out that Kendy Howard’s head was slanting down to the right inside the bathtub, but some of her blood on her face from the gunshot wound was pointing upward and the opposite way.

“It’s going the wrong way from someone that has their head down in the bathtub,” she said.

Kendy Howard was sent to the Spokane County Medical Examiner, who ruled her manner of death as “undetermined,” meaning a category of homicide, suicide, accidental or natural cannot be distinguished. 

Later that month, Acebedo noticed Kendy Howard’s body was back from the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office and in a Kootenai County funeral home. Acebedo walked over to her body and began taking more photos, which revealed multiple discolored, bright bruises on her entire body. That’s when Nara was requested to review the original autopsy. 

Nara, who had worked previously with Spokane County’s medical examiner, told a jury on Wednesday she noted significant bruising on Kendy Howard’s hands, knees, inner thigh, buttocks and inner arms, which were likely gained the day she died. Defense attorney Jason Johnson suggested the bruises could be from sex, which Nara said was possible. But she also noted a broken jaw, superficial cuts and a burn on her arm. Normally, medical examiners would sample the burn for further investigation, Nara said. That didn’t happen in the original autopsy.

Nara also said something that concerned her was the trajectory of the bullet in Kendy Howard’s mouth. It completely ripped through her tongue, went down her throat and tore through her spinal cord, killing her almost instantly. The bullet trajectory pointed downward, Nara said. That isn’t consistent with a suicide.

“Upward trajectory is usually suicide,” Nara said. “I’ve never seen downward direction of trajectory in a suicide.”

The tongue was saved in the original autopsy, which was something Nara didn’t expect. When she pieced it back together, she realized there wasn’t as much hemorrhaging as she would have thought. Tongues have so many blood vessels that a slight bite could make it bleed for an hour.

There also was no positive tests Kendy Howard had drugs, alcohol or anti-depressants in her system, the pathologist told the jury. And there was no blood in her airways, which would’ve ended up there from the blood in her mouth.

Livor mortis is a term for how one’s blood in the body settles after death since the heart stops pumping. Nara said that was one of the elements she tried to find. She noticed the blood in Kendy Howard’s body had pooled toward her back, which wasn’t how she was seated while in the bathtub. Nara had originally agreed that the death could be a suicide from a gunshot wound during a grand jury proceeding. But after reviewing reports and seeing the photos the Kootenai County Coroner’s Office took, she wasn’t convinced. 

“My original decision was based on circumstances known at the time,” Nara said, and added that it “can change” with more information.

When she was asked if she would rule Kendy Howard’s death a suicide now, Nara looked at the jury.

“I would not,” she said.

At the end of the day on Wednesday, Kendy Howard’s father, Wendell Wilkins, took the stand. He told the courtroom that his daughter was outgoing, happy and “enjoyed life.” But on Jan. 29, 2021, she drove to his home in Kamiah because she woke up to her husband standing over her with a pillow in his hands. Her father was terrified for her. He knew how much his son-in-law cared about money, and how much he had heard them arguing, he said.

“I said if you’re going to go back you need to take something,” Wilkins said. He handed her a gun – the same type of gun used in her death – and told her to protect herself. She didn’t like guns, Wilkins said, but she was already on her way out the door anyway. She had bought a new house and she had a new boyfriend, prosecutors said. That day, she told her father she had to go back home to get some things and go to her nail appointment. He never spoke to her again.

Wilkins got the phone call from his granddaughter that something was wrong on Feb. 2, 2021. He and his wife then drove the three hours and 30 minutes to Athol. 

When he arrived, he ran up the driveway, filled with police officers. He saw his grandson, Wyatt, standing there.

“I said, ‘You know your dad did this,’” Wilkins said. “Wyatt stood there, crying. The both of us.”

Daniel Howard’s trial is expected to last three weeks. If convicted, he could face up to life in prison.