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Originally, DTF St. Louis was meant to pull inspiration from the “My Dentist’s Murder Trial” article — but how much of the show is actually based on a true story?
In the new HBO show, which premiered in March, David Harbour plays Floyd, who is involved in a complicated love triangle with wife Carol (Linda Cardellini) and coworker Clark (Jason Bateman). Before the series debuted on HBO, it was announced that it would mirror an actual murder trial with Harbour, 51, and Pedro Pascal attached to star and executive produce.
The direction changed with Pascal exiting the show and Bateman coming to take over the role. In addition to Pascal’s exit, the creative direction of the series evolved into an original idea with no connection to the original article.
Ultimately, DTF St. Louis no longer follows Thomas Kolman‘s death, which took place in 2011 and made headlines when midazolam, a powerful sedative used by doctors and dentists, was found in his system.
Kolman’s friend Dr. Gilberto Nunez, was charged with the murder four years later. Prosecutors claimed Nunez — a dentist — was having an affair with Kolman’s wife, Linda. When she ended their romance, Nunez allegedly threatened to die by suicide.
The New Yorker reported that security camera footage showed Nunez’s car parked next to Kolman’s at the gym the day of Kolman’s death. Authorities also discovered vials of Midazolam in the dentist’s office — in addition to searches on his computer about the drug.
Nunez was charged with second-degree murder and two counts of forgery, including one for faking CIA documents. During his trial, Nunez’s attorneys argued that Kolman died from a heart attack. Nunez was found not guilty of murder in 2016 but was convicted of felony forgery charges related to the fake CIA documents and was also convicted of insurance fraud in two subsequent trials.
Nunez was released in 2018 after serving 19 months of a seven-year sentence in state prison. He was restricted from returning to his prior dental practice and remained on parole until October 2023.
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Creator Steven Conrad told The A.V. Club in March that the show was originally titled My Dentist’s Murder Trial — until they pivoted behind the scenes.
“I had already started along those lines with my own story, with various dilemmas for my characters,” he explained. “The challenge for me, at that time, was to take that make-believe world I was already concocting and see if I could fit it into these real circumstances from the article.”
Conrad found that the “details didn’t align with what I considered to be the facts of that case.” He switched ideas while working with Harbour on a concept centered around “middle-aged emptiness” while “wondering about the state of their lives, where their bad decisions were coming from, and what the consequences were.”
