The new film Primetime, starring Robert Pattinson as Dateline NBC host Chris Hansen, is based on a 2006 media event that unfolded in Terrell, according to a report from inForney. The central figure was Louis William "Bill" Conradt Jr., a former Kaufman County District Attorney.
Conradt was born in 1950 and grew up in Terrell. He was elected Kaufman County District Attorney in 1980 and served for 22 years. After losing a 2002 bid for a local district judgeship, he later became Chief Felony Assistant District Attorney in Rockwall County.
In November 2006, NBC's To Catch a Predator worked with the Murphy Police Department and the group Perverted Justice on a sting in Murphy, Texas. Court records show that an online account linked to Conradt engaged in explicit chats with a volunteer posing as a 13-year-old boy. The report says Conradt never went to the Murphy house. On Sunday, November 5, 2006, police and television cameras surrounded his home on Davidson Drive in Terrell. The report says Dateline producers had pushed Murphy police to seek warrants for the home. Conradt died by suicide later that day.