This heartbreaking case shocked the nation as it made international headlines. Two teens, both suffering mental illnesses tried to lean on each other with a devastating outcome. Michelle Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after telling her boyfriend to commit suicide via text messages.
Michelle Carter sent over 1,000 texts in the week prior to Conrad Roy's death. Conrad and Michelle, met in 2012 when their families were vacationing in Florida. Although they had never met until Florida, they both lived in Massachusetts. In fact, they only lived about an hour apart at the time - Roy in Fairhaven and Carter in Plainville. They began a long-distance relationship that consisted of text messages, Facebook messages and phone calls. They bonded over their mental health struggles. Conrad Roy struggled with social anxiety and depression. He had stayed in a psychiatric facility and attempted to commit suicide on several occasions. Michelle Carter struggled with body image, severe anxiety, and depression.
On July 13, 2014, 18-year-old Conrad Roy III was found dead by the police inside his pickup truck, in the parking lot of a Fairhaven Kmart. The night before, Conrad told his mom he was going to visit a friend. Instead, he drove to the Kmart parking lot, ran a gas-powered water pump in the car and committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. When Conrad's mom hadn’t heard from him, she called police.
At first, officials believed this was a standard case of suicide but as they began investigating they came across the text messages that were exchanged between Conrad and Michelle. Going through the messages, they realized that many of the messages from the then 17-year Michelle was actually encouraging Conrad to take his own life. Although Michelle Carter was portraying herself as the grieving, supportive girlfriend, the messages painted an extremely dark picture of what was actually going on.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. You can also text TALK to 741741 for free, anonymous and 24/7 crisis support in the U.S. from the Crisis Text Line.
Watch I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter on Youtube
Watch Conrad & Michelle: If Words Could Kill on Lifetime
Sources
https://people.com/crime/michelle-carter-suicide-text-case-urging-boyfriend-suicide-texts/
https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a28284327/michelle-carter-text-messages-conrad-roy/
https://www.cnn.com/2017/06/08/us/text-message-suicide-michelle-carter-conrad-roy/index.html
http://fun107.com/we-watched-the-conrad-michelle-lifetime-movie-and-have-some-thoughts/
https://www.southcoasttoday.com/news/20180921/lifetime-to-air-film-on-michelle-carter-case
https://www.southcoasttoday.com/news/20170615/timeline-of-michelle-carter-case
https://radaronline.com/p/suicide-texts-conrad-roy-reelz-documentary/