church social, talk of a family even preceded the engagement ring. he used to scare the girls away by saying he wanted 12 children. and i said well, i always thought i wanted to have 12 children. he says, oh my god. reporter: they didn t have 12 but this devout roman catholic couple did raise their five in a baltimore, maryland suburb. heidi the only girl in a sea of brothers. when i hear that, i think poor heidi. yep, yep. reporter: growing up with all those boys. she wasn t treated like she was a little princess, that s for sure. heidi grew up to be a happy, outgoing, athletic girl, surrounded by friends. it was a noisy, loving family with strict rules. everyone at the table for dinner. mass on sunday and no back talk. heidi s brothers frank and harold. true that your mom was known to
i thought she was cute and i noticed her hard hat and they have a little personality or stickers. and hers said, it s all about me, deal with it. i was kind of thinking, this girl is kind of a feisty girl. soon, conrad asked heidi out on a date. i m not that type usually. i don t get super serious right off the bat. but it was almost like we were inseparable after that. that was it, that first night in. yeah. yeah. this tough girl even shared conrad s interest in guns. we would go to the ran him out of towns range out of town and shoot into the hills. one year after the year, he chose to pop the question and chose a mountain on which to do it. did she know it was coming?. i got on the knee and started balling. she said yes right off the bat. reporter: conrad s sister colette couldn t believe it when he first introduced heidi to the family.
intimidating, actually, for being so small, you wouldn t think so. reporter: at just 20, heidi started working in the not so entirely gas and feminine industry just outside salt lake city. sandy sanchez was one of heidi s co-workers. we worked with hazardous chemical and gases, crazy things you wouldn t expect a couple of girls to do. heidi seemed to thrive in a place with hard hats. everything is dangerous it s what will kill you the quickest. to sandy, heidi became more than a co-worker. i considered her my best friend. she was a person you knew that would never stab you in the back. she was a person 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, 25-year-old conrad truman. i noticed her first in the hallway. what did you think?
have their own stories to tell. and the answer is not always so clear. certainly, that is true for this story. and quite possibly for the woman at its heart. her name, heidi wagner. as a baby, she was savored, everybody loved her. she could do no wrong. autumn was one of heidi s four sisters. she was just special. you know, she d walk into the room and she s ready for that good time. reporter: heidi grew up with no fewer than seven older siblings. tell me about her growing up. she was a fun-loving girl. she was rather shy, though. so heidi seemed like an appropriate name. heidi s mom, janet. the family would get together. we were kind of loud and boisterous sometimes. she got kind of embarrassed and she d hide her face. as heidi got older, she was cute and bubbly, but make no mistake, heidi was no pushover. she was actually
came to the conclusion, heidi may have taken her own life. his wife, he said, wasn t as tough as she appeared. was she a sad person? was shea depressed person? when she drank little bit, you could see it come out. it wasn t every time, but it did. heidi s friend sandy sanchez also saw another side to heidi. that strong, funny, you know, person also had some things inside that were very painful. according to sandy, those things had to do with heidi s upbringing, most significantly, heidi grew up not knowing the identity of her father. that really bothered her. you know, she did not know her dad. and she had always wanted that. it bugged her, tremendously. enough to take her own life? had she ever attempted suicide before? never to my knowledge?