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Michelle Carter Has Been Keeping a Low Profile After Manslaughter Conviction in Texting Suicide Case
Where is Michelle Carter now? She’s been keeping a low profile after she was convicted of manslaughter in the now infamous texting suicide case.
Carter is currently on probation until August 2022 and therefore likely hasn’t left the United States. She doesn’t appear to be on social media. Keep scrolling to learn more about the 24-year-old after a Hulu series about her case, The Girl From Plainview, premiered.
What happened in the Michelle Carter case?
On July 13, 2014, the body of Conrad Roy III was discovered in his truck, parked outside a store in Massachusetts. He committed suicide by attaching a hose from a generator and filling his truck with carbon monoxide. Roy, who was an honor roll student, had been struggling with anxiety and depression.
Upon investigation, authorities discovered Roy had exchanged a slew of texts with his long-distance girlfriend, Carter, in the weeks leading up to his death. In the texts, Carter encouraged Roy to end his life.
Carter texted Roy, “You keep pushing it off and say you’ll do it but you never do. It’s always gonna be that way if you don’t take action.”
In other texts, she said, “You just need to do it,” and, “No more pushing it off, no more waiting. If you want it as bad as you say you do, it’s time to do it today.”
On the day he ultimately took his life, she told him to “get back in” the truck when he expressed to her he was having second thoughts, prosecutors said.
Seven months after his suicide, in February 2015, Carter was indicted for involuntary manslaughter.
How did Michelle Carter and Conrad Roy III meet?
Carter and Roy met in 2012 while they both vacationed with their families in Florida. Despite living just a few towns away from each other, they maintained a relationship primarily through texts.
What was Michelle Carter’s sentence?
Carter was sentenced to 15 months in prison and five years probation in 2017. After pleading not guilty, she opted for a bench trial, meaning a judge, not a jury, would determine her fate, and she did not testify in her own defense.
She faced up to 20 years in prison. That said, Carter wasn’t incarcerated until after the Massachusetts Supreme Court denied her appeal of the conviction in February.
She was denied parole in September, but jail officials said she garnered enough credits for good behavior and attending jail programs to be released more than three months early.
Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson said Carter had been a “model inmate” with no disciplinary issues who liked “keeping busy” behind bars. He said Carter enjoyed gardening.
“She has completed her sentence and completed her obligation,” Hodgson said at the time.
What was Michelle Carter’s Documentary About?
Carter’s case was turned into a two-part documentary for HBO called I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth vs. Michelle Carter.
The 2019 film was described as: “This documentary about the texting suicide case that captured national interest raises difficult questions about technology, mental health and whether or not one teenager can be held responsible for the suicide of another. While many believe that Michelle Carter’s texts urging boyfriend Conrad Roy to end this own life are immoral, the film asks is it criminal? With unprecedented access to the families, friends and communities that were forever changed by the Commonwealth vs. Michelle Carter case, this series follows a story that has wider implications for society at large, online and IRL.”
What did Roy’s family say?
“Why didn’t he give me a hug if he knew he was never going to see me again?” Roy’s mother, Lynn St. Denis, asked People in March 2022.
St. Denis has been working with lawmakers to make Massachusetts the 43rd state to criminalize suicide coercion, with a penalty of up to five years in prison. The proposed bill is called Conrad’s Law.
Both St. Denis and Roy’s father, Conrad Roy Jr., hope to prevent others from enduring the same pain.
“I don’t want another family to deal with what I had to deal with,” St. Denis said, while Roy Jr. agreed, “No parent should go through this.”
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or considering suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
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