5 chilling details about Heidy Truman's death ahead of Dateline

Dateline returns to the Heidy Truman case, a Utah shooting from 2012 that led to a conviction, a new trial, and an acquittal. The episode tracks what police found, the early theories, and the evidence fights that followed.

A re-air of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered is scheduled on Oxygen on Friday, September 12 at 12:00 am ET. The episode is titled As Night Fell and traces the case from the first call for help to the second verdict.

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Dateline case background

Heidy Truman died from a single gunshot wound inside the Orem home shared with her husband, Conrad Truman. Police arrived at a chaotic scene and treated it as a homicide investigation..

Early reports described shifting statements, a frantic 911 call, and heavy blood at multiple points in the home. According to ABC News (October 2014), officers also documented erratic behavior at the scene.

Police responded to a late-night shooting at a home in Orem in 2012. (Image via Pexels)

Conrad Truman was charged in 2013, tried in 2014, and found guilty of murder and obstruction of justice. Years later, defense work uncovered a key measurement error in a hallway diagram. Once corrected, the medical examiner changed the manner of death from homicide to undetermined.

A judge ordered a new trial, and in 2017, a second jury found Truman not guilty after visiting the home and hearing revised evidence, as reported by KSL (February 2017).

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5 key details about Heidy Truman's death ahead of Dateline

1) The 911 call and a house in disarray

Responding officers found Heidy on the floor with a fatal head wound. Blood was noted on the stairs, walls, and furniture. Police also recorded that Conrad was shouting and making threats while pleading for help, a scene later replayed in court. ABC News described the audio and officer accounts from that night, which framed the early direction of the case.

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2) The medical examiner revised the manner of death

The medical examiner first listed Heidy’s death as a homicide. After learning that the hallway length used in the first trial was misstated, the examiner revisited the file and changed the manner to undetermined. That shift meant the forensic record could not determine whether it was an accident or suicide.

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3) A measurement error helped trigger a new trial

A diagram presented to the first jury showed about 13.9 feet between key points in the home. Later checks found the actual distance was 139 inches, roughly 11.6 feet. That difference mattered because it affected whether Heidy could have moved as described.

A judge ordered a new trial after errors surfaced from the first proceeding. (Image via Pexels)

A judge ruled that the wrong length removed a fair view of the defense theory and granted a new trial. FOX 13 reported the correction and the ruling ordering a retrial (August 2016).

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4) Money motive claims met counterevidence

Prosecutors argued that life insurance, about $900,000, was part of a possible motive. The defense pointed to gunshot residue on Heidy’s hand and none on Conrad’s swab, along with other inconsistencies in earlier state theories.

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5) The second jury saw the house and acquitted

In 2017, jurors toured the home, compared distances, and heard from witnesses again. With the corrected layout and the medical examiner’s revised stance, the panel returned not guilty on murder and cleared the obstruction count as well. KSL.com reported the acquittal and the factors jurors weighed after eight and a half hours of deliberation (February 2017).

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Where to watch Dateline: Secrets Uncovered

The Heidy Truman case re-airs on Oxygen at 12:00 am ET in Dateline: Secrets Uncovered season 6 episode 6, As Night Fell. The episode follows the call to 911, the first trial, the measurement dispute, and the second verdict.

Craig Melvin, the host of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered (Image via Oxygen)

Dateline: Secrets Uncovered can also be streamed on fuboTV, YouTube TV, NBC, and Oxygen.

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