As Night Fell is one of the popular episodes of NBC's Dateline: Secrets Uncovered. Long-running investigations, courtroom developments, and the emotional toll on the families involved are the main topics of the series. It is renowned for its in-depth examination of actual criminal cases.
The Dateline episode As Night Fell revisits Heidy Truman's well-known murder case in Utah and the ten-year legal and emotional fallout involving her husband, Conrad Truman. He was jailed in 2013 for the shooting death of his wife, Heidy, in their Orem, Utah, home in 2012.
As per the Dateline episode, Truman was given a retrial when the initial forensic study was found to be incorrect, despite having been found guilty in 2014 and given a prison sentence. In 2017, he was found not guilty. The entire case—from arrest to exoneration—is examined in the Dateline episode, along with the long-term effects on each party.
More about Conrad Truman and why was he arrested
After his wife, Heidy Truman, was discovered shot dead in their Orem home on the evening of September 30, 2012, Conrad Truman became the focus of a murder investigation. Heidy committed suicide. This was mainly according to Truman's 911 claim. But police soon became suspicious due to contradictions in both his assertions and the tangible evidence. The trajectory of the blood spatter and the gunshot wound did not fit the description of a suicide.
Truman was charged with first-degree murder and obstruction of justice after being taken into custody by authorities in October 2013. Prosecutors suggested a financial motive during his 2014 trial. During the study, they also highlighted what they considered to be manipulative behavior. In October 2014, Truman was found guilty by a jury and given a sentence of 16 years of life in prison.
With this, defense lawyers learned that the crime scene measurements were used to bolster important forensic findings. In 2016, an appeals court found that jurors might have been misled by this flawed data. As per the Dateline episode, these forensic differences led to Truman being given a new trial. Defense specialists provided a revised analysis during the 2017 retrial.
In October 2017, the second trial ended in an acquittal. The forensic evidence that was initially used to condemn Truman was deemed untrustworthy by the jurors. The jury exonerated him of all accusations due to a reconstructed crime scene and the lack of direct evidence linking him to the act. Truman was released from prison after almost four years, and the case became a landmark case in the debate over forensic integrity in criminal prosecutions.
The emotional destruction on both sides—Heidy's family, who continued to believe Truman was guilty, and Truman, who insisted on his innocence from the start—was brought to light by Dateline's As Night Fell. The episode demonstrated how, even in cases that appear to be straightforward, a combination of faulty evidence, pressure from the media, and prosecutorial hurry may result in erroneous convictions.
Where Is Conrad Truman Now?
There are no details about Conrad's whereabouts as of 2025. He filed a federal civil action against Orem City officials, including police and prosecutors, after being acquitted in 2017. He claimed that he had been wrongfully imprisoned, that he had been subjected to unlawful interrogation techniques, and that false evidence had been produced against him.
Judge Ted Stewart of the U.S. District Court dismissed the case in August 2019 after concluding that no reasonable jury could have found that the authorities had engaged in deliberate misconduct.
Since the dismissal, Truman has not taken any other public legal action. His last known legal participation was in an ongoing civil case involving the estate of his late wife. Truman has reportedly kept a reclusive life since his acquittal, avoiding media appearances.