So many different stories about what might have happened. He said many things that night. Maybe someone could have shot something at the house. At one point he said that it was 80 suicide. Police had their own theory. I thought, oh, man, theres something going on here. We dont see a lot of women that commit suicide naked. Conrads stories were not adding up. But Something Else wasnt adding up either. A key piece of evidence. We went to the house, and we walked in and we think, aha would a mistaken measurement send an innocent man to prison . Or free a guilty one . We thought it was over. We thought this was settled. One suspect, so many stories. Only one of them could be true. Somethings going to break, and when it does, the truths going to be known. As night fell. Hello and welcome to dateline extra. Heidy and truman had a bond envied which others. But in one tragic even, a gunshot rang out, and in the blink of an eye, heidy was on the floor clinging to life. Conrads behavior in the minutes and hours that followed would be highly debated for years. Detectives would focus on the grieving husband, but were they looking at the wrong man . Heres josh mankiewicz. They seem so incongruous, the soaring majesty of utahs wasatch mountains, and the story of a beautiful woman, struck down in her youth. It was a lot of things. Tragic. Crushing. Stunning. But was it an accident . Or a suicide . Or a murder . Police felt they knew, but as most cops will tell you, both the evidence and the jury have their own stories to tell. And the answers not always so clear. Certainly that is true for this story and, quite possibly, for the woman at its heart. Her name . Heidy wagner. As the baby, she was favored. Everybody loved her. She could do no wrong. Autumn was one of heidys four sisters. She was just special. You know, shed walk into the room and shes ready for that good time. Heidy grew up with no fewer than seven older siblings. Tell me about her growing up. She was a funloving girl. She was rather shy, though, so heidy seemed an appropriate name. Heidys mom, janet. The family would get together and we were kind of loud and boisterous sometimes and she kind of got embarrassed easily. Shed hide her face. As heidy got older, she was still cute and bubbly, but make no mistake. Heidy was no pushover. She was kind of intimidating, actually. For being so small, you wouldnt think so. At just 20, heidy started working in the not entirely feminine gas and Chemical Industry just outside salt lake city. Sandi sanchez was one of heidys coworkers. We worked with hazardous chemicals and gasses. Crazy things that you wouldnt expect a couple of girls to want to do. Heidy seemed to thrive in a workplace that favored hard hats over heels. It was dangerous if you didnt follow the rules. In fact, quote from heidy, everything is dangerous, its just what will kill you the quickest. To sandi, heidy became more than a coworker. I considered her my best friend. Shes a person that you knew would never stab you in the back. Shes a person that you knew would always have your back. In person she could be both, sweet and salty, and that caught the attention of one of her colleagues, 25yearold Conrad Truman. I noticed her first in the hallway. What did you think . I thought she was cute, and i noticed her hard hat, and they have a little personality or stickers, you know. And hers said, its all about me. Deal with it. I was kind of thinking this girls kind of a feisty girl. Soon conrad asked heidy out on a date. Im not that type usually. I dont get super serious right off the bat, but it was almost like we were enseparable after that. That first night . Yeah, yeah. This tough girl even shared conrads interest in guns. We would go to the range out of town and shooting in the hills. Heidy knew how to handle a handgun . Yes. One year into their courtship, conrad decided to pop the question. In true utah form, he chose a mountain on which to do it. Did she have any idea it was coming . No. So i got on one knee, and i asked her and i started bawling. And she just said yes right off the bat. Conrads sister colette couldnt believe it when her brother first introduced heidy to the family. I was actually really sort of surprised when i first met her, like how did he land that girl . They just seemed to be such a great match. You saw love and chemistry there . Oh, it was almost awkward. They were definitely an enviable couple. Another year later came the wedding. It was amazing. We went up on a lift, a chair lift, then all of the guests left down these slides. So it was just so them. They said their vows, and hes kind of doing this champion pose like he was just everything was right with the world. The enviable couple was just starting out with a future as bright as their smiles. Until, that is, a sunday evening in september 2012, three years after the trumans were married. Tell me about that day. That day was like, just like any other day. As night fell, heidy decided to take a bath. Conrad said he went to the kitchen to get something to eat. As he fixed himself a sandwich, he said he heard a noise coming from the direction of the bathroom. It was like the new years poppers or the halloween poppers where you can pull two strings or you can pull one and confetti and stuff comes out. Thats when conrad said he turned and saw heidy standing there in the hallway naked. She wasnt talking. She wasnt talking at all. She was coughing, she was heaving. And she was bleeding . She was bleeding out of her mouth and her nose. I needed to call 911 immediately. 911, what city is your emergency . Utah. Come quick an unimaginably shocking scene. Heidy on the Kitchen Floor in a pool of her own blood. Conrad on the phone pleading for help. Theres so much blood. If you dont get here right now, shes going to die. I dont know what happened. I really dont know what happened. Oh, my god. It was bad to begin with and it got so much worse. As you will learn, truer words may never have been spoken. What had happened in that house . Coming up im asking him, conrad, whats going on . He said, i dont know what happened. Everything was just different answers and different theories, different Little Things. A search for answers and a race to save heidy. This is not happening. This is really not happening. I really dont understand any of this. This is so crazy. When as night fell continues. Its rukmini here from the new york times. Hey, you see this . Something was wrong at the truman house. She came out of the shower, and i heard a pop, and theres blood and shes in blood i have officers and paramedics on the way. Okay . The 911 call came into the orem, utah, Police Department at about 11 00 p. M. That september night back in 2012. We got a call of a gunshot wound or some sort of injury. Sergeant bill crook went to the truman home. So we all kind of rushed to our cars and headed that direction with lights and sirens. On the other end of the phone was conrad, kneeling on his Kitchen Floor covered in blood and consumed by panic. It was devastating. It was a nightmare. You cant even explain it. With one hand he held the phone. With the other, his bleeding wife. It was so hard. When its your loved one like that. I had no i just did the best i could to try to keep her breathing. By then, conrad said he realized heidy had been shot in the head. When you went to heidy, did you see a gun . No. He remembered the pop he had heard and wondered if a stray bullet might have come through the bathroom window and hit heidy. I was trying to think of the noise and how it wasnt very loud and, you know, maybe someone could have shot something at the house. It seemed farfetched but he said neighborhood vandals had recently been shooting the back of his house with paint balls. I was utterly confused. Within minutes, sergeant crook arrived. Conrad by now had moved to the doorway of his home to wave crook down. He had blood on his hands and he was screaming and shrieking. Conrad led the sergeant through the front door, up the stairs, and then into a scene straight from a horror movie. I could see heidy laying there. She was naked, blood everywhere, just right at the top of the stairs, just this horrific scene. Whats conrad doing . Hes screaming and hes yelling. And, as these Police Photos make clear, covered in blood. Im asking him, like, conrad, whats going on . What happened here . He said, she was in the bathroom, you know, and just, i dont know what happened. Everything was just different answers and different theories, different Little Things. Right away crook went to check one of those theories, a stray bullet perhaps coming through the bathroom window. The window was closed but theres no bullet hole. Nothing to indicate that anybody fired a shot. Thats correct. Crook returned to the kitchen, and thats when he discovered a gun lying on the Kitchen Floor. What did you think had happened . Honestly, i didnt know. Was this an accident . An attempted suicide . Or something far more sinister . At least for now, those answers would have to wait. Heidy was clinging to life. My focus at that time was, honestly, was to help heidy. Paramedics took heidy to a nearby hospital. Conrad followed in a police cruiser. A dash cam recorded the absolute desperation in his voice. This is not happening. This is really not happening. I really dont understand any of this. This is so crazy. About an hour after conrad arrived, hospital staff delivered the devastating news. Heidy Wagner Truman could not be saved. It was pain, it was misery. It was why, how . In a neighboring town heidys mother janet would soon agonize over those very same questions. It was after midnight when two Police Officers came to her door. What must that be like . The most horrendous thing ever. And i would never want anybody to have to feel that and that pain, that agony of knowing that your daughter, for whatever reason, is dead. Is gone. The officers wouldnt give janet any details. Only where her daughter had been taken. Im driving down to the hospital, and i make a comment to my daughter. I go, you know, autumn, as hard as it is that we lost heidy, were going to have to be supporting conrad because he must be overwhelmed with grief. Conrads sister colette was thinking the same thing as she raced to the hospital. What kind of condition was your brother in then . He was just a total wreck, just absolutely hysterical. Didnt know how it could have happened. No one did. But back at the truman home, sergeant crook had started analyzing the evidence and was already developing a theory. I thought, oh, man, theres something going on here. You got a feeling . I got a feeling, yes. It wasnt just me. Everybody was kind of looking around like theres something wrong here. We need a detective. Coming up was it an accident . Suicide . Shes completely naked. We dont see a lot of women that commit suicide naked. Thats not common. Or Something Else . I felt like they thought i did something. When as night fell continues. Ues. Its tough to quit smoking cold turkey. So chantix can help you quit slow turkey. Along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. With chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting. Chantix reduces the urge so when the day arrives, youll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. When you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Stop chantix and get help right away if you have changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts or actions, seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking, or lifethreatening allergic and skin reactions. Decrease alcohol use. Use caution driving or operating machinery. 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How did heidy truman wind up on her Kitchen Floor shot in the head . For sure, police were wondering about her husband. After all, Conrad Truman was in the house when heidy was shot, and there was no evidence of an intruder. I felt like they thought i did something. Soon after he arrived at the scene, sergeant bill crook did begin to have his suspicions. Were telling him, conrad, back off. The paramedics are here. Back off. And he wouldnt. He was what, moving around . Yes. Keeping paramedics from being at the body . Yes, sir. There were other scenarios that needed to be explored, like accident and suicide. Thats where detective tom wallace came in. There had been a number of theories. We obviously are going to exhaust them. Thats going to happen. The medical examiner didnt make wallaces job any easier. His preliminary finding heidys manner of death could not be determined. So wallace tackled each theory one by one. Accident seemed hard to believe. Thanks to conrad, heidy had firearms experience. Can you think of any way it could have been an accident . No. Heidy wouldnt have been so careless. So what about suicide . Shes completely naked. We dont see a lot of women that commit suicide naked. Thats not common. Did you find anybody that heidy had spoken to about suicide or about being depressed . No. Neither heidys mother janet nor her sister autumn could imagine heidy even thinking about taking her own life. Heidy would never do that. In fact, heidy was against that. She had a friend who committed suicide, and she thought it was selfish and, in her words, dumb. Heidy ever tell you she was depressed . No. Ever act depressed . No. She was probably one of my happiest, most upbeat kids. That left wallace with homicide, and it put conrad back in the police crosshairs. Wallace decided to speak to the officers first on the scene about their experience with conrad. Everyone felt his behavior was odd. Hes yelling, but its a violent yelling. Hes like, if you dont save her, im going to [ bleep ] kill you. Crook found those threats so alarming, he took out his phone to record them. Youre gonna [ bleep ] die and everyone in your life is going to die if she dies. It could be the way this guy reacts to trauma, but im telling you it was a red flag at the time. Also a red flag conrad was drunk. He admitted he and heidy had been drinking earlier that night. I could see in his eyes, the redness. Red flag number three. Conrad told crook he and heidy had been arguing. A minor dustup, he said. No big deal. But enough for heidy to draw a bath and ask to be left alone. She went and locked herself in the bathroom. And then he details how he picked the lock and went in the bathroom. And then she kicked him out. To me, thats another its just more proof of there was an argument, a bigger argument. As for the location of the gun itself, that, too, was suspicious. That guns how far from heidy . Oh, i would say eight feet, ten feet maybe. Its far enough away that it wasnt a normal if she shoots herself and falls to the ground type of thing. Next morning they ask conrad to come to the station for more questioning. They can say whatever they want. But i did not hurt my wife. And i know that. Bottom of my heart, i did not hurt my wife. Heidys family thought otherwise. After finally learning from police the details of how heidy died. The minute i heard how she died, i knew he did it. Sounds like he had a temper, and he was very intoxicated, and he did something that perhaps he didnt plan . I just knew he did it. Detective wallace next pored over conrads statements to police about what happened that night. As wallace saw it, conrads story went like this conrad was in the kitchen. Heidy was in the bathroom. At some point conrad heard a pop, and when he turned, he saw heidy standing somewhere between the kitchen and the bathroom hallway bleeding. And he either runs over and catches her or she falls down. Wallace then went back to the truman home, making detailed measurements of the kitchen and surrounding rooms. He wanted to see if conrads story checked out. His conclusion it did not. Her bodys at the top of the staircase. It doesnt add up that she would have traveled that distance he said she had gone then fallen in that location. It was hard for wallace to believe that heidy could have traveled from the bathroom to the stairs after sustaining such a head wound. She would have fallen immediately to the ground. Wallace shared his findings with assistant District Attorney craig johnson. Johnson agreed. Everything pointed to conrad. Why would Conrad Truman want to kill his wife . Under the circumstances, id say the motive was just based on this heat of passion argument that they were having. Alcohol, a fight and guns, thats where we got murder. At the same time johnson was still reluctant to press charges. Remember, the states own medical examiner couldnt say whether heidys death was a homicide. And johnson knew that would be a huge hurdle in court. Based on my experience in courts with juries, a medical examiner carries a lot of weight. So johnson and wallace showed the m. E. A 96page power point presentation of all their evidence including those measurements, hoping something would sway him. The presentation worked. The medical examiner changed his ruling to homicide. It sounds like one of the things that got the medical examiner to move from inconclusive to homicide was the measurements of the crime scene suggested that her body was too far from where mr. Truman said shed been shot. Exactly. So after a tenmonth investigation, the orem p. D. And the d. A. s office arrested Conrad Truman and charged him with his wifes murder. My mom called me and i fell to the ground crying and so happy that he was finally behind bars. Going into trial, what did you think . I thought we had a strong circumstantial case. At trial the prosecution argued Domestic Violence ending in homicide. The defense, selfinflicted gunshot wound. The jury sided with the state. Conrad truman was convicted of heidys murder. It was like, finally got him. Finally got him. And as far as you