heidy wagner and conrad truman had a powerful connection. a deep love envied by others. then one fateful night, the young couple was jolted by unforeseen tragedy when heidy was killed by a single john gunshot to the head. in the aftermath, fingers were pointed. but where the aimed at an innocent man? here s josh mankiewicz with as night fell . they seem so in congress. the soaring majesty of utah s 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 who will tell you, both the evidence and the jury have their own stories to tell. and the answers are 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 a baby, she was favored. everybody loved her. she could do no wrong. autumn was one of heidy s four sisters. she was ju
you just wonder how this could happen. it seems very surreal. a quiet night at home shattered by a gunshot. she came out of the shower and i heard a pop. and there s blood. a young life dying on the floor. she wasn t talking at all. i m asking, what happened here? i was utterly confuse. so many different stories about what might have happened. he said many things that night. maybe someone shot something at the house. at one point he said it was 80% suicide. police had their own theory. i thought, oh, man, there s something going on here. we don t see a lot of women commit suicide naked. his stories weren t adding up. but something else was it adding up either. a key piece of evidence. we went to the house and we walked in and we think, ha. would in the stake in 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.
later that morning, police ask conrad the to come to the station for more questioning. they can say whatever they want, i did not hurt my wife. and i know that. bottom of my heart, i did not hurt my wife. heidy s family thought otherwise. after finally learning from the police the details of how heidy died. the minute i heard how she died, i knew he did it. it sounds like he had it to her and he is very intoxicated. and he did something that perhaps he didn t plan? i just knew he did it. detective wallace next poured over conrad s statements to police about what happened that night. as wallace saw it, conrad s 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, leading.
and that s just not always the case. in prison, conrad did what many do. he retraced the steps that led him there. and he thought a lot about the night heidy died. as conrad saw it, the police rushed to judgment began precisely when officers first rushed into his front door. i just felt like, this guy is drinking. there s firearms in the house. so, he must have shot her. well, why could it be exactly that simple? this wouldn t be the first time that mixing alcohol, an argument, and a handgun, led straight to a prison sentence. told conrad us what he told police. it isn t that simple. sure, he and heidy had been drinking, and yes they had been arguing. but, he said, neither was an explanation for what happened. i could ve upset her with some of the things i said. you know? or the way i ve acted with not being attentive. you know? to her. i know i do that sometimes when i drink.
and confetti and stuff comes out. that s when conrad said he turned and saw heidy standing there in the holy, naked. she wasn t talking. she was not talking at all. she was coughing. she was heaving. and she was bleeding? she was bleeding out of her mouth and nose. i needed to call 9-1-1 immediately. 9-1-1. what is your emergency? orem, utah. come quick! an unimaginable shocking scene. heidy on the kitchen floor in a pool of her own blood. on conrad the phone, pleading for help. there s so much blood. if you don t get here right now, she s going to die. i don t know what happened. i really don t 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 happened in that house? coming up i m asking conrad what s going on. he said, i don t know what happened. everything was just different answers. different theories. a different little.