Bill Conradt was a Texas prosecutor whose 2006 case became tied to NBC’s To Catch a Predator. Police and the show’s crew went to his home as part of a sting operation, but Conradt died by suicide. The case is back in focus with A24’s Primetime, in which Robert Pattinson plays a fictionalised version of Chris Hansen.
Who was Bill Conradt?
Louis William “Bill” Conradt Jr. was born on January 30, 1950, in Kaufman County, Texas. He had one younger sister, Patricia Conradt, and was raised in Terrell, Texas.
Conradt attended the University of Texas and earned his law degree from Texas Tech University. By the age of 30, he had become the district attorney for Kaufman County. In 2002, after more than 20 years as DA, he ran for district judge but lost. The defeat affected him deeply, and he was unable to work for nearly a year.
He later returned to law practice and became the chief felony assistant district attorney in Rockwall County, Texas. In 2000, after his parents died, he moved back into the Terrell home where he had grown up. He never married.
What was Bill Conradt accused of?
In November 2006, police in Murphy, Texas, launched a sting operation with NBC News and the internet activist group Perverted Justice. A Perverted Justice member posed as a teenager and exchanged messages with a user named “inxs00.” Murphy police alleged the account belonged to Conradt.
The messages were reportedly “sexual in nature,” Xavier von Erck, then-operations director for Perverted Justice, told The New York Times. During a phone conversation, authorities traced the number to Conradt.
But the messages suddenly stopped. Conradt never showed up at the house set up for the sting. He also began deleting his MySpace profile, apparently trying to erase his online activity.
What happened to Bill Conradt?
Dateline producers pressured Murphy police to obtain an arrest warrant and a search warrant for Conradt’s home. On November 5, 2006, Murphy police, two Terrell police officers, a tactical team, and a Dateline camera crew for To Catch a Predator, including host Chris Hansen, went to Conradt’s home to execute the warrants.
Conradt refused to open the door, so the tactical team forced their way in. SWAT officers found Conradt in a hallway. He then went into a dark room and shot himself in the head.
He was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, where he was pronounced dead.
Later, a recovery of Conradt’s digital devices found ten images of child pornography on his laptop. A workbook was also found titled “Investigation and Prosecution of Child Sexual Abuse,” suggesting he understood his legal situation.
The controversy and aftermath
Conradt’s death raised serious questions about To Catch a Predator and its tactics. The Murphy Police Department and its chief, Billy Myrick, came under criticism over claims that they were taking orders from Dateline NBC’s news crew.
Esquire magazine obtained footage showing Murphy officers taking instructions from Chris Hansen and the Dateline crew, and that the Dateline crew had arrived at Conradt’s home five hours before the arrest warrant was obtained, even setting up a catering service. It was described as a sensationalist media circus rather than a controlled arrest.
Conradt’s sister Patricia filed a $109 million wrongful death lawsuit against NBC. The network settled the case out of court for an undisclosed amount.
Separately, the Collin County DA’s Office refused to prosecute others caught in the Murphy sting. This ended the segment on Dateline NBC, and Myrick was fired in 2008.
It also emerged that if Conradt had not died by suicide and had gone to trial, much of the evidence police had would have been spoiled because the warrant had the wrong date and the wrong county. He likely would have been acquitted or had the case dismissed.
What Chris Hansen said
Chris Hansen said in a 2026 interview with The Hollywood Reporter that the To Catch a Predator team was “completely transparent” about the Conradt case. “It was unfortunate that somebody chose to take his life rather than face criminal consequences,” he said. “They found child pornography on his computer. He had sexually explicit conversations with two different decoys posing as 13-year-old boys.”
Hansen also said he had no regrets about the incident. “No. We continued to conduct investigations after that.”
But some others involved with the show have said the opposite. Decoy actor Dan Schrack, who spoke to Conradt on the phone, said in the documentary Predators: “You could offer me $10 million to film that episode in Texas again. I wouldn’t take it.” Former detective Walt Weiss said his role in the Conradt sting was “a stain on my soul.”
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