>> reporter: the jury sentenced leon to life in prison. afterwards meghan addressed him directly. >> while you sit in jail i hope you think of me. the girl you called poor and uneducated. it is because of me you will be in prison for life. >> i was really proud of her and i think it took incredible courage on her part to see this through. >> reporter: meghan nose in a way she was lucky. >> every day there are people in situations like this that don't have the means to get out. i have had so many people help me and i want to make a difference. for those who do not have a voice. e. hello, i'm andrea canning and this is dateline. i think i was just in shock

to find out that she's gone and the cause is a gun shot wound. you just wonder how could this happen? it seems very surreal. a quiet night at home shattered by a gun shot. >> she came out of the shower, and i heard a pop. >> a young wife dying on the floor. >> she wasn't talking at all. i was asking, conrad, what happened here? >> i was utterly confused. >> 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 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 that commit suicide naked. >> something else wasn't adding up either. a key piece of evidence. >> we went to the house and we

walk in and we think, a-ha. >> would a mistake in measure 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. >> something is going to break and when it does, the truth is going to be known. hello and welcome to dateline. heidy 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 gun shot to the head. fingers were pointed, but were they aimed at an innocent man? here is josh with, "as night

fell." >> the soaring imagine majestry of the utah mountains. 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 answer is 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 heidy's four sisters. >> she was just special, you know, she would walk into the room and she is ready for that good time. >> heidy grew up with no fewer

than seven of her siblings. >> tell me about her growing up. >> she was a fun-loving girl. she was rather shy, though, so heidy seemed like an appropriate name. >> heidy's mom, january et. >> the family would get together and we were loud. and she got embarrassed easily. she would hide her face. >> as heidy got older, she was still cute and bubbly. >> she was intimidating, actually. for being so small, you wouldn't think so. >> at twenty, heidy started working in the not entirely feminine gas and chemical industry just outside salt lake city. sandy sanchez was one of heidy's coworkers. >> we worked with hazardous chemicals and gases. crazy things you wouldn't expect a couple girls want to do. >> heidy thrived. >> it was dangerous if you didn't follow the rules.

in fact, quote from heidy, everything is dangerous, it's just what will kill you the quickest. >> to sandy, heidy became more than just a coworker. >> i considered her my best friend. she is a person that would never stab you in the back. she is a person that would always have your back. >> she could be 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? >> i thought she was cute, and i noticed her hard hat and they have a little personality or sticker, you know? and hers said, it's all about me, deal with it. i was thinking, this girl is kind of a feisty girl. >> soon, conrad asked heidy out on a date. >> i'm not that type usually. i don't get super serious right off the bat. it was almost like we were inseparable after that. >> that was the first night? >> yeah. >> this tough girl even shared conrad's interest in guns.

>> we would go to the range out of town and shoot in the hills. >> heidy knew how to handle a handgun? >> conrad decided to pop the question. he chose a mountain on which to do it. >> did she have any idea it was coming? >> no. i got on one knee and i asked her and i started bawling and she said yes right off the bat. >> conrad's sister, colette, couldn't believe it when her little 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 seemed to be such a great match. >> you saw love and chemistry there. >> it was almost awkward. they were definitely an envyable couple. >> another year later came the wedding. >> it was amazing. we went up on a lift, and all of the guests left down these slides. so it was just so them. they said their vows and he is

doing this champion pose, like he was just -- everything was right with the world. >> the 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 truman's were married. >> tell me about that day. >> that day was 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 year's poppers, or the halloween poppers, where you can pull two strings or pull one. and confetti and stuff comes out. >> that's when conrad turned and saw heidy standing there in the hallway, naked. >> she wasn't talking. she wasn't talking at all. she was coughing. >> she was bleeding out of her

mouth and her nose. i needed to call 911 immediately. >> 911, what's your emergency? >> orem, 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. >> there's so much blood. 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 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. >> when "dateline" continues.

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for colon cancer's a priority. indeed! everyone 45+ at average risk should screen for colon cancer. these folks are getting it done at home with me, cologuard. cologuard is a one-of-a-kind way to screen for colon cancer that's effective and non-invasive. it's for people 45+ at average risk, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your provider for cologuard. i did it my way. something was wrong at the truman house. >> she came out of the shower and i heard a pop. there's a lot of 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 gun shot wound or some sort of injury.

>> sergeant bill crook went to the truman home. >> so, we all kind of rush to our cars and head 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 can't even explain it. >> with one hand, he held the phone. with the other, his bleeding wife. >> it was so hard, when it's your loved one like that. i did the best i could to try and 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 wasn't 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. >> conrad led the sergeant out the door, and into a scene straight from a horror movie. >> i could see heidy laying there. she was naked, blood everywhere. right at the top of the stories, just this horrific scene. >> what was conrad doing? >> he's screaming and he's yelling. >> as these police photos make clear, covered in blood. >> i said what's going on here? he said, she was in the bathroom. i don't know what happened. everything was just different answers and different theories. >> right away, crook went to check one of those theories, a stray bullet, perhaps coming

through bathroom window. >> the window is closed, there's no bullet hole. >> crook returned to the kitchen, and that's when he discovered a gun, laying on the kitchen floor. >> what did you think had happened in >> honestly, i didn't 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 dashcam recorded the absolute desperation in his voice. >> this is not happening. this is really not happening. i really don't 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, heidy's 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. i would not 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 wouldn't give janet any details. only where her daughter had been taken. >> i'm 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, we're going to have to be supporting conrad because he must be overwelmed with grief. >> conrad's 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. didn't 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, there's something going on here. >> you got a feeling? >> i got a feeling, yes. it wasn't just me. everybody was looking around, there was something wrong here, we needed a detective. >> coming up, was it an accident? suicide? >> she's completely naked. we don't see a lot of women that commit suicide naked, that's not common. >> or something else. >> i felt like they thought i did something. >> when dateline continues.

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sun inched above utah's mountains. questions swirled at their base. how did heidy truman wind up on her kitchen floor shot in the head? for sure, police were wondering about her husband. afterall, 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. >> we're telling him, conrad, back off, the paramedics are here. he wouldn't. >> he was moving around, keeping paramedics from getting

to the body? >> there were other scenarios that needed to be explored, like accident and suicide. that's where detective tom. >> in a number of theories, we are going to exhaust them. that's going to happen. >> the medical examiner didn't make wallace's job any easier. his preliminary finding, heidy's 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 wouldn't have been so careless. >> so, what about suicide? >> she is completely naked. we don't see a lot of suicides naked. that's not common. >> did you find anybody that heidy had spoken to about suicide or about being depressed? >> no. >> neither heidy's mother, janet, or her sister, autumn,

could imagine heidy thinking about taking her own life. >> heidy would never do that. in fact, heidy was against that. she had a friend who committed suicide. she thought it was selfish, 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 cross hairs. wallace decided to speak to the officers first on the scene about their experience with conrad. >> everyone felt his behavior was odd. he is yelling, but it's a violent yelling. he's like, if you don't save her, i'm going to -- >> those threats, he took out his phone to record them. >> everyone in your life is going to die. >> it could be the way this guy reacts to trauma. it was a red flag at that 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 dust up, 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. she kicked him out. to me, that's another -- it's just more proof of, there was an argument. a bigger argument. >> as for the location of the gun itself, that, too, was suspicious. >> the gun is how far from heidi? >> 8 feet, 10 feet maybe. it's far enough away that it wasn't a normal, if she shoots herself and falls to the ground type of thing. >> later that morning, police asked conrad to come to the station for more questioning. >> they can say whatever they want, but i did not hurt my wife. i know that from the bottom of

my heart. >> heidy's family thought otherwise. after finally learning from police the details after how heidy died. >> 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 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, 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 conrad's

story checked out. his conclusion, it did not. >> her body is at the top of the staircase. it doesn't make sense that she is traveling the distance and fallen at that location. >> it was hard for wallace to believe heidy could have traveled from the bathroom to the top of the stairs after sustaining such a severe 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 want to kill his wife is this >> under the circumstances, the motive was based on this heat of passion argument that they were having. alcohol, a fight, and guns, that's where we got murder. >> at the same time, johnson was still reluctant to press charges. remember, the state's own medical examiner couldn't say whether heidy's 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. >> johnson and wallace showed the m.e. a 96 page 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 she was shot. >> exactly. >> and so, after a ten month investigation, the orem p.d., and the d.a.'s office arrested conrad truman, and charged him with his wife's murder. >> my mom called me and i fell to the ground. i was 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, self-inflicted gun shot wound. the jury sided with the state. conrad truman was convicted of heidy's murder. >> it was like, finally got him. finally got him. >> as far as you knew, that was it. >> that was it. >> did you think that was it? >> i did. >> but if you think that was it, well then you haven't been watching enough dateline. >> coming up, heidy's heartbreak. >> she did not know her dad, and she had always wanted that. that really bothered her. >> and conrad truman's hope. >> this is going to work out. it has to, because i didn't do this. >> when dateline continues. long-lasting eylea hd could significantly

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i'm richard lui with an

update. the israel military launched air strikes against hezbollah early sunday. this coming as hezbollah says it started an attack on israel to avenge the killing of one of their top command cores last month. the militant group saying it launched more than 300 rockets at multiple sites and israel and a large number of drones. secretary of defense, lloyd austin, speaking with israel's defense minister following the strikes as well. for now, back to "dateline." just more than two years after his wife, heidy's, death, he was looking down the barrel of a life sentence when he returned to a utah courtroom to learn his punishment. this is the moment where some convicted killers ask for mercy because of their difficult lives or tell the court they've

been misunderstood. and sometimes, of course, they don't speak at all. but not conrad truman. >> listen to me, please. i can't say sorry for something i did not do. >> i understood speaking out would make it way worse, but i was like, i don't know. i need to speak my mind. >> i didn't kill my wife. there's just no way. there would be some proof, i would think, if i really did. but there's no proof. you know, this is just a big injustice. >> the judge had heard that before. the sentence he imposed, 16 years to life. crushing for conrad and his family sitting behind him. including sister colette. >> you want to believe that the things turn out the way they are supposed to, and that's just not always the case. >> imprisoned conrad did what many do, he retraced the steps

that led him there. he thought a lot about the night heidy died. as conrad saw it, the police rushed to judgment, began precisely when officers first rushed through his front door. >> it felt like this guy is drinking, there's firearms in the house, so he must have shot her. >> well, why couldn't 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. conrad told 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 have upset her with some of the things i've said, or the way i acted with not being attentive, you know, i notice i do that when i drink. i don't pay a lot of attention, you know. >> this doesn't seem grounds

for a gigantic fight. it got to the point that i upset her. i was really, i just know she went to go take a bath. >> which is what she did when she was irritateded? >> conrad picked the bathroom lock, not to confront heidy, but to apologize. >> she just said, get out. i was like, okay. i just let her be. >> his behavior after police arrived at his door, he said he had good reason for acting that way. >> i was trying to save my wife. does that make sense? i just wanted her to live. >> i get how frantic you must have been. i'm not sure i understand the threatening part of that. and i think that's one of the things that ended up getting you in trouble. >> could be. i was like, how do i explain this to you guys? get her help. when you can't explain that to someone, i just started making threats. >> well, if all that is true,

then why and how did heidy wind up with a bullet in her head? >> i think police found it hard to believe that you could be right there with her in a very small area and she is shot and you don't know what happened. >> yeah, maybe in their heads, in mine, i was just confused. >> could this will been accident? >> i don't know what happened. >> that's how he felt just hours after the shooting. but as the months passed, conrad came to the conclusion, heidy may have taken her own life. his wife, he said, wasn't as tough as she appeared. >> was she a sad person? was she a depressed person? >> when she would drink a little bit, you could see it come out. it wasn't every time, but it did. >> heidi sanchez saw another side to heidy. >> that strong, funny, you

know, person also had some things inside that were very painful. >> according to sandy, those things had to do with heidy's upbringing. most significantly, heidy 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. >> she never talked about it? >> no. >> it's hard to believe what was going on in heidy's life at the time, what seemed like a happy marriage to you, she will decide to commit suicide like that? >> that's a tough question. it's like, how do you really know when someone is going to do that, you know? >> as he lived his life behind bars, conrad continued to speculate. he also tried to stay hopeful. >> i was just like, this is going to work out. it has to, because i didn't do

this. >> conrad's family never gave up on him. so they scraped together the money to hire conrad some new attorneys. >> mark and annie looked into the case. to them, it was immediately apparent that there were a lot of problems. >> mark moffet was that attorney. they visited what had become the scene of the crime. >> we went to the house. and we walked in, and we think, ah-ha. >> within moments of being in that home, we knew immediately there was a huge problem. >> not a problem for them, more for the people who had put conrad truman away. >> coming up. is an innocent man in jail for someone's mistaken math? >> i remember thinking, well that's strange. that couldn't be right. >> we immediately started measuring. we knew right away that there was a big problem.

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it had to do with the

diagrams used by the state, depicting the area where heidy's body was found. >> i remember thinking, well that's strange. that couldn't be right. >> post verdict, colette shared her concerns with conrad's new attorneys, mark moffet and annette. they decided to visit the truman home to see for themselves if the state's diagrams were accurate. that same trip, with moffet, who shared us what they discovered. >> this is the area in question. it is pretty small. >> it is. it's really small. we knew right away, that there was a big problem with their diagrams and the measurements. >> the problem, all those measurements were off. >> instead of 139 inches, somebody took the figure 139 and interpreted it to be 13.9 feet. 33 inches became 3.3 feet.

and on and on and on. >> according to moffet, those flawed measurements made the house appear much bigger than it was. >> they used the theme of distance to argue that mr. truman was lying about where he said his wife was when he heard what turned out to be this fatal shot. >> at trial, the prosecution argued, to believe conrad, you would have to believe heidy shot herself in the bathroom and then walked 12 feet before falling to the floor. and according to the medical examiner, that was impossible. he testified heidy's head wound was so severe, that she could have at most walked a step or two. >> this issue of distance was this big issue. >> just seeing the house and how small it was, was proof enough that the prosecution's argument didn't hold up. >> when you walk in the house, there's no way that there's even 12 feet there.

>> what's more, according to the defense team, conrad never told the police heidy shot herself in the bathroom. instead, he told them, he had no idea where she was. >> is this just a case of a small-town police department making some incorrect measurements or adding up some figures wrong? >> i don't believe so. i believe they willfully lied

to secure a conviction against conrad truman. >> and for these attorneys, there were more issues with the state's case. one had to do with gun shot residue tests. the defense learned police swabbed both heidy and conrad's hands, but those swabs were never sent to the lab. >> when you have gun shot residue that was never tested, those things matter. >> the defense team decided to test those swabs themselves. conrad's hands were negative for residue, but there was a question as to whether conrad washed his hands before they were tested. so those results were meaningless. >> as for heidy's swabs on her right hand, and significantly heidy was right-handed. >> when you have gun shot residue in a location and in a quantity that is absolutely

consistent with her firing a semi-automatic weapon, one of the possibilities is that she fired a gun. you can't discount that. >> the deeper moffet got into the case, the more it seemed to them heidy's wound was self- inflicted. they believe the head wound, a contact wound, ruled out homicide. >> a contact gun shot wound to the right temple are the most common site of self-inflicted gun shot wounds that there are. >> they decided to take their findings to the m.e., hoping to sway his ruling on the manner of death once again. just as police did prior to conrad's arrest. >> we gave him a bunch of information and his own, his investigator, went to the home to look at it. the result was just what they asked for, heidy's manner of

death once determined a homicide was now officially once again, undetermined. it was forensic heaven. >> how often do medical examiners change their findings and change them back? >> i never had a case where that happened ever. >> it took another year, conrad's conviction was overturned and he was granted a new trial. >> i never thought that was even a possibility for the medical examiner to change. i never would have thought that. >> is there part of you that thinks, i can't get my hopes up about this? >> that's exactly how i felt. >> i was beyond happy. we were just absolutely over the moon. >> for heidy's family, it was just the opposite. >> we couldn't believe it. >> you thought this was over? >> we thought it it was over. we thought this was settled. >> that was a hard, hard moment. we hated it. we just thought, so, what are they going to come up with this time? >> and we know that's what

you're thinking, too. >> coming up, a new trial, a new jury, a different verdict? >> there was enough there, beyond a reasonable doubt. >> why would things work out if it didn't work out the first time? >> when "dateline" continues. rsv can severely affect the lungs and lower airways. but i'm protected with arexvy. arexvy is a vaccine used to prevent lower respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. rsv can be serious for those over 60, including those with asthma, diabetes, copd and certain other conditions. but i'm protected. arexvy is proven to be over 82% effective in preventing lower respiratory disease from rsv and over 94% effective in those with these health conditions.

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years. now, the revelation of those flawed police measurements had led to conrad truman's new trial. that stunned everyone in the utah county d.a.'s office. especially the man responsible for conrad's conviction. prosecutor. >> this something that really took us by surprise. >> the defense says you had to have known. >> that's their take and they are doing their job to represent their client. i can tell you that's not correct. >> just as stunned was the man whose team took the measurements. lead detective, tom wallace. >> in the process of transposing numbers from actual measurements at the scene to the crime scene program, numbers were just transposed wrong. >> wallace admits the error, but it was minor, that conrad truman did not deserve a new trial. >> it's not that significant as they made it out to be.

>> did those incorrectly entered measurements change your opinion >> >> they didn't change my opinion. >> nor did it change the opinion of the deputy district attorney, tim taylor, who decided to take on the task himself of prosecuting conrad once again. >> craig had been into the case a long time. i went through all the evidence, and even with the medical examiner changing the opinion, there was enough to go forward. we knew going into it, it was going to be tough. >> the prosecution's case was familiar. starting with the officers who testified about conrad's rambling off an incoherent description of what had happened that night. >> the core of our case were his inconsistent statements. >> the story was hard to follow. he was jumping around all over. it wasn't making sense to me, so it was hard to follow. >> those officers also told the jury about conrad's threats.

>> he was telling us that we were going too slow and we needed to hurry up or he was going to kill us. >> if you're making these violent threats to people trying to help your wife, how are you treating your wife when it's only you and her alone? >> taylor tackled the theory of suicide, by calling witnesses to testify heidy was not suicidal. >> in your experience as heidy's mother, was she a sad or depressed person? >> no. i didn't see her that way. >> did heidy not knowing her father or really not knowing who he was, did that make her depressed or sad? >> no. no. >> the prosecutor pointed out, conrad's story evolved over time. immediately following the shooting on the way to the hospital, conrad insisted heidy would never commit suicide. >> i think something shot her or something, because she would never shoot herself. she would never shoot herself.

>> taylor argued it was only later after suspicion against conrad had mounted that he changed his tune. as for the gun shot residue, taylor called an expert to say it proved nothing. >> nobody can identify a shooter based on the results of this test. that is the major limitation of this test. >> defense attorney, mark moffet answered by telling the jury that before being allowed to wash his hands that night, conrad had pleaded with police to confirm he had no residue on them. >> he's telling them, test my hand, i didn't shoot a gun. >> did you wash your hands? >> no, absolutely not. i never washed my hands until they said, go wash your hands. >> conrad's attorneys were working hard to establish reasonable doubt. and the state medical examiner shifting opinion on heidy's manner of death only helped them. >> that's your case right there. >> you would think. >> i mean, if he has reasonable doubt, hard to argue a jury

shouldn't. >> exactly. >> the medical examiner told the jury that in the final analysis, he didn't know the manner of heidy truman's death. >> i finalized the autopsy report with the cause of death as a gunshot wound and the manner of death could not be determined. >> the m.e. also testified how in his experience, a contact wound like heidy's is rare in homicide cases. >> with a contact gun shot wound, it would be consistent with a wound that is self- inflicted. >> after 15 days of testimony, the jury began deliberations. >> so you felt pretty good leading up to the verdict? >> yes. there was enough there, beyond a reasonable doubt. >> conrad was having a much harder time. >> it was really difficult. why would things work out if it didn't work out the first time, you know what i mean? >> eight hours later, the verdict. >> hold up your hands. you're not wearing handcuffs. >> no cuffs.

>> you're not in custody. >> i'm free. >> that's right, this time conrad truman got the verdict he wanted. not guilty. >> conrad just kept saying, did they say not? >> he grabbed my arm and said, are you sure? >> conrad's family shared tears of joy. >> i was giggling and crying at the same time. it was weird. >> on the other side of the courtroom aisle, were tears of a different kind. >> i don't know, my heart sank and i was in shock. >> you fainted. >> i did. i couldn't believe there was a situation where that long shot happened, where he would be freed. >> juror brian christiansen they had no choice but to set conrad free. >> i believe we all pretty much felt that he probably did it. >> but? you voted to acquit.

>> we voted to acquit. >> because you had reasonable doubt. >> we had reasonable doubt. >> whether you believe mr. truman is innocent or not, those measurements put an innocent man in prison or a guilty man go free. >> you're right, that my opinion changed. do i think he got away with murder? yeah, i do. >> ends up freeing the guy you helped convict. >> it's frustrating to know that a measurement that was inconsequential actually ended up freeing him. >> what's life been like for your family since then? >> we're trying to put the pieces together. >> for heidy's family, that is easier said than done. >> i miss the things that we had together. i miss the simple conversations. i miss her sassiness. i miss her wonderful personality. she lives on for ever in our hearts. >> conrad is left looking both

backward and forward. >> i mean, i would do anything to take another day, another walk with her. i loved her. and i do love her, still. >> you have a lot of life left, a lot. how are you going to live it? >> to the best of my abilities. >> there are jurors who think he might have done it, but i had reasonable doubt. i couldn't vote to convict. >> well, god bless them. there's a lot of people that do believe in me. >> he's made his own peace with a simple truth. the very thing that freed him, reasonable doubt, could also shadow conrad truman for the rest of his life. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline," i'm andrea canning, thanks for watching.