Is DTF St. Louis True Story? Changes to the Crime of Murder Explained

In the beginning, DTF St. Louis was meant to draw inspiration from the title “My Dentist’s Murder Trial” – but how much of the show is 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 our colleague Clark (Jason Bateman). Before the series premiered on HBO, it was announced that it would be based on a real-life murder case with Harbor, 51, as well. Pedro Pascal attached to the star and the top product.
The formula changed when Pascal left the show and Bateman came in to take over the role. In addition to Pascal’s departure, the creative method of the thread has evolved into an original idea that has no connection to the original article.
Finally, DTF St. Louis no longer follows Thomas Kolman‘S’s death, which occurred in 2011, also made headlines when midazolam, a powerful drug used by doctors and dentists in his system, was found.
Kolman’s friend Dr. Gilberto Nunezhe was charged with murder four years later. Prosecutors say Nunez – a dentist – was having an affair with Kolman’s wife, Linda. When he ended their relationship, Nunez allegedly threatened to kill himself.
The New Yorker reported that surveillance footage showed Nunez’s car parked next to Kolman’s at the gym on the day of Kolman’s death. Authorities also found vials of Midazolam in the dentist’s office — in addition to searching his computer for the drug.
Nunez was charged with second-degree murder and two counts of forgery, including falsifying CIA documents. During his trial, Nunez’s lawyers argued that Kolman died of a heart attack. Nunez was acquitted of murder in 2016 but was convicted of fraud related to fake CIA documents and insurance fraud in two subsequent cases.
Nunez was released in 2018 after serving 19 months of a seven-year prison sentence. He was barred from returning to his former practice of dentistry and remained at large until October 2023.
Creator Steven Conrad told the AV Club in March that the show had an original title Test to Kill My Dentist – they even turned to behind the scenes.
“I had already started those lines with my story, which has various problems with my characters,” he explained. “The challenge for me, at the time, was to take that make-believe world that I was already building and see if I could put it into these real situations that appear in this article.”
Conrad found that “the information did not match what I considered to be the facts of that case.” He changed perspectives while working with Harbor on a concept that focused on “the emptiness of middle age” while “wondering about the nature of their lives, where their bad decisions came from, and what the consequences were.”




