Kendy Howard | “48 Hours”

COEUR D’ALENE — When sheriff’s deputies were called to the northern Idaho home of distraught former state trooper Dan Howard, something didn’t seem right. Howard told investigators he found his wife, Kendy Howard, dead in their bathtub with a gunshot wound to her head.

Howard told police his wife took her own life. There was a gun found in the bathtub, though there were no prints or DNA that connected it to the trooper.

The case will be the focus of “48 Hours” this Saturday in a program entitled ‘The Bathtub Murder of Kendy Howard.’

“From the beginnings, it looks odd,” Kootenai County sheriff’s detective Jerry Northrup tells correspondent Peter Van Sant.

Deputies on the scene noticed things out of place. A packed duffle bag was ready to go, and a clothes dryer was running full of clean bath towels. Howard also appeared to have recently showered and changed his clothes.

“Dan knows things that most normal people, ordinary people, don’t know,” says retired Kootenai County Sheriff’s Det. Sergeant Ken Lallatin. “Things like killing someone and staging it to look like a suicide.”

Two years after Kendy Howard’s death, Howard was charged with her murder.

“48 Hours” airs Saturday, Sept. 28 from 9-10 p.m. MDT on CBS and streams on Paramount+.

Watch a preview of the episode in the video player above.

Bryan Kohberger, the 29-year-old criminology Ph.D. student accused of murdering four undergrads at the University of Idaho days before Thanksgiving in 2022 is preparing to appear in a new court for the first time after his successful push for a change of venue.

The hearing Thursday is the first in Boise and is expected to be a minor event to bring the new judge up to speed on the case. But it marks the beginning of a new phase in the proceedings against Kohberger, who could face the death penalty if convicted.

Experts don’t expect to see any surprises but say the new judge will make his presence known to both sides as he takes over the case.

IDAHO STUDENT MURDERS SUSPECT BRYAN KOHBERGER ASKS NEW JUDGE FOR COURTHOUSE WARDROBE EXCEPTION

“It’s just a check-in, since the case was moved, and probably just to let the parties know what he expects going forward,” said Edwina Elcox, a Boise-based defense attorney who is not involved in the proceedings.

Judge Steven Hippler is the Ada County jurist now in charge after his counterpart in Latah County, Judge John Judge, agreed to a defense motion for a change of venue.

“The judge will introduce himself,” said David Gelman, a New Jersey-based defense attorney who has been following the case closely. “They have to get familiar with everything and what motions are still left to do. 

“I’m sure they already have a good idea, but when you change venue, it’s chaotic. Not saying it resets everything, but it definitely makes the case take a couple steps back.”

NEW IDAHO JUDGE IN BRYAN KOHBERGER TRIAL NO STRANGER TO BRUTAL MURDER CASES

Bryan Kohberger is in the custody of the Ada County Sheriff’s Office, according to online jail records. Along with the transfer came a new booking photo, taken when he arrived earlier this month. (Ada County Sheriffs Office)

The case’s previous judge entered not guilty pleas on Kohberger’s behalf to four counts of first-degree murder and a felony burglary charge at his arraignment last year.

His lawyers have asked the court to throw out the possibility of the death penalty.

A hearing on the capital punishment issue has been scheduled for Nov. 7, nearly two years after the slayings.

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Madison Mogen, top left, smiles on the shoulders of her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and two other housemates in Goncalves’ final Instagram post, shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death. (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)

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According to prosecutors, a man with a large knife entered an off-campus house around 4 a.m. Nov. 13, 2022, and killed four students inside — Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.

As investigators scoured the bloody crime scene, they found a Ka-Bar knife sheath under Mogen’s remains, according to court documents. On the sheath, they say, they found a DNA sample that led them to Kohberger.

Bryan Kohberger arrives at the Monroe County Courthouse in Pennsylvania in advance of an extradition hearing. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)

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Additional evidence revealed in court includes cellphone records and video showing the movements of his car.

Two additional roommates were not attacked, and prosecutors said one of them froze in place as she watched a masked man leaving out the back door.

The trial has already been delayed and is expected to begin in June 2025.

Bryan Kohberger, the man charged with fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students, has asked a judge to let him wear civilian clothing to trial instead of a jailhouse orange jumpsuit.

Kohberger, 29, is accused of killing the students at their off-campus house in 2022. He was a criminology Ph.D. student at Washington State University in Pullman at the time of the murders. The universities are a short drive away from each other.

The defendant has been wearing suits to court ever since his first initial court appearances in 2023.

His attorneys previously requested to move his trial from Latah County to Ada County citing a “mob mentality” that threatened their client’s safety. The new motion on Kohberger’s court attire has been submitted to Ada County Judge Steven Hippler for consideration.

Kohberger’s attorneys argue his right to a fair trial would be protected if he is allowed to wear civilian clothing to proceedings.

“Authorizing Mr Kohberger to wear street clothing to all public hearings is one way to reduce potential for prejudice,” his attorney Anne Taylor wrote in court filings obtained by Fox News.

Taylor cited a Supreme Court decision from 1976 stating that forcing a defendant to wear a jail uniform to court could negatively impact whether a jury saw them as guilty of alleged crimes.

Additionally, his legal team has successfully argued against having media inside the courtroom, which has restricted the ability of news outlets to photograph Kohberger.

Police say Kohberger entered an off-campus rental home around 4am on 13 November 2022 and stabbed four students to death: Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20 and Ethan Chapin, 20.

Upon searching the home, police found a Ka-Bar knife sheath under Mogen’s body that they say had the man’s DNA on it. Data from Kohberger’s phone also put him in the same neighborhood at the time of the murders.

Steve Goncalves, Goncalves’ father, has raised his frustrations over the defendant’s ability to wear suits in court, calling the move one of the “unprecedented” pretrial privileges that have been given to the accused murderer.

Kohberger’s trial has been set for 2 June 2025.