The Girl from Plainville true story confirms that Michelle and Conrad met in 2012 while they were each visiting relatives in Naples, Florida. They quickly discovered they were both from Massachusetts — Michelle from Plainville and Conrad from the coastal town of Mattapoisett, less than an hour away. According to the HBO documentary I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter, which explores the texting-suicide case, she later told Conrad that she fell for him when they took a bike ride to the beach together.
Court documents reveal that Michelle Carter's lawyer, Joseph Cataldo, argued that Conrad had been verbally abused by his grandfather and uncle and hit by his father. In February 2014, Conrad Roy's father was arrested for assault and battery after attacking his son. A photo of his son's injuries is displayed below. In arguing what became known as the "texting-suicide case," Cataldo attempted to convince Judge Lawrence Moniz that the father's abuse was the reason for Conrad Roy's suicide. -Radar Online
Yes. In researching how true is The Girl from Plainville, we learned that Conrad had battled depression and social anxiety and had been hospitalized for a recent acetaminophen overdose when he was 17. Prior to Conrad Roy's death, the teen had attempted suicide a total of four times (People). Things had gone downhill for Conrad after his parents' divorce in 2011 and he had attempted suicide not long after in 2012. Conrad had seen counselors and therapists for help, including a cognitive behavioral therapist in the weeks before his death in July 2014. A little more than a week prior to his death, he had tried to take sleeping pills in another failed suicide attempt. Much of this became known when detectives reviewed Michelle Carter's text messages.
Yes. Her eating disorder had started around age eight or nine. She also suffered from depression and allegedly engaged in self-harm by cutting. Friends told New York Magazine that she had made references to spending time at McLean Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts that had also treated author David Foster Wallace and mathematician John Nash.
Yes. In exploring The Girl from Plainville fact vs. fiction, we discovered that Conrad had worked with his father, grandfather and uncle in the family's marine salvage business, Tucker-Roy Marine Towing and Salvage, Inc. After attending night classes at the Northeast Maritime Institute, Conrad earned his captain's license in the spring of 2014.
Yes. As their texts evolved, they began to discuss different ways to commit suicide. Michelle's desire to help Conrad get better changed in the month before his death. She appeared to grow frustrated with Conrad and warned him, "You better not be bullshitting me and saying you're gonna do this and then purposely get caught." She suggested to him different ways he could do it, texting messages like, "What about hanging yourself or stabbing yourself?" and "Why don't you just drink bleach?" -Esquire
It was actually Michelle Carter who helped give him the idea of how he was going to kill himself. "Carbon monoxide poisoning is the best option..." she texted. "If you fall asleep in your car while it's running in a garage, it will kill you. ...And there's no pain." Conrad then texted back that he could use a portable generator from work and turn it on in his truck. He told Michelle she was a "genius" for coming up with the idea.
In the Hulu series, Susie Pierce (Pearl Amanda Dickson) is not only Michelle Carter's best friend, she is also in love with Michelle. We found no evidence of a real-life friend named Susie Pierce. However, it seems she could have been inspired by Alice Felzmann, a girl who Michelle became close friends with earlier in 2012 while playing on the travel softball team (prior to Michelle meeting Conrad in Florida). They had weekly sleepovers and Michelle had even lost sleep over their friendship.
Regarding her feelings about Alice, Michelle texted a friend, "I'm obsessed with her like idk how to stop. Every love song or whatever, it's her I think about." In a separate message to the same friend, she texted, "I thought it was a phase at first like I thought we were just really good friends. But we started talking like a relationship would, flirting and stuff. Like idk if I am bi. I guess because I never had that type of relationship with another girl to really tell." While the show depicts Alice (Susie) as being the first to have romantic feelings, the above text suggests the opposite could be true. Eventually, Alice stopped responding to Michelle out of the blue. -TheCinemaholic
By examining Conrad Roy's text messages with Michelle Carter, detectives discovered that in the last week of his life, Michelle asked him when he was going to kill himself more than 40 times. -20/20
Yes. While she first encouraged him to get professional help, her texts to her boyfriend, Conrad Roy, started to change in tone in June 2014, the month before his death. She became frustrated that he wasn't following through with it, texting, "So I guess you aren't gonna do it then. All that for nothing. I'm just confused. Like you were so ready and determined." Conrad responded, "I am gonna eventually. I really don't know what I'm waiting for but I have everything lined up."
On the morning of his suicide, Conrad started to again back off going through with his plan to end his life, telling Michelle Carter in the early a.m. that it was "already light outside" and that he was "gonna go back to sleep." She disagreed, replying, "No. It’s probably the best time now because everyone is sleeping. Just go somewhere in your truck and no one is really out there right now because it’s an awkward time. If you don’t do it now you’re never gonna do it, and you can say you’ll do it tomorrow, but you probably won’t. Tonight? Love you."
18-year-old honor student and recent high school graduate Conrad Roy was found dead inside his truck in a Kmart parking lot in Fairhaven, Massachusetts on July 13, 2014. He had committed suicide by way of carbon monoxide poisoning the day prior, July 12. Roy had placed a gas-powered water pump in the backseat of his truck and started the pump with the windows up. It is believed that it took up to 20 minutes for him to succumb to the poisonous fumes.
Yes. Classmates recalled Michelle's uplifting personality. The Girl from Plainville true story reveals that she was in fact voted "most likely to brighten your day."
Yes. She told friends that she continued to listen on her cell phone as Conrad succumbed to carbon monoxide while sitting in his truck. -People
Conrad had been taking the antidepressant citalopram under the brand name Celexa, which includes a boxed warning stating that it may increase suicidal thoughts and actions in individuals under age 24. Given how incriminating Michelle Carter's text messages were in encouraging Conrad, especially on the day of his suicide, it would have been hard to argue that the drug's possible side effects admonished her of a significant amount of guilt. Still, there's certainly an argument to be made that the drug could have helped to spark his somewhat ongoing thoughts of suicide, which were eventually encouraged by Michelle.
Like Conrad, Michelle Carter had started to take Celexa for depression. Her change in attitude toward Conrad and her encouragement of his suicide seems to correspond to when she started taking the drug in June 2014.
Conrad Roy's suicide note to Michelle Carter, which is briefly seen in The Girl from Plainville Hulu series, is featured in its entirety below. It is followed by an image of Conrad Roy's suicide note to his father, Co.
Yes. During our investigation into The Girl from Plainville fact vs. fiction, we confirmed that she pled not guilty to manslaughter in relation to Conrad Roy's death in what became known as the "texting-suicide case." Prosecutors planned to make the argument that Michelle Carter used "emotional coercion" via text messages to convince Roy to take his own life. She faced up to 20 years in prison. Michelle remained free on bail for three years until the trial in 2017. She waived her right to a jury trial and left it up to the judge to decide the case.
The defense team knew that Michelle Carter's text messages were damning and would likely heavily sway the jury toward a more severe punishment. They were hoping that by allowing the judge to decide the case, he would view the texts with a cooler head and more rationally, focusing instead on causation and the definition of the statute. -20/20
After being convicted of involuntary manslaughter on June 16, 2017 at age 20, Michelle Carter was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison (Esquire). After an appeals process, her sentence was reduced to 15 months in prison plus five years probation with the eligibility of parole after serving 11 months of her sentence. She was incarcerated at the Bristol County Women's Center in North Dartmouth.
Michelle Carter was released more than three months early on January 23, 2020 for good behavior, having spent less than a year in prison. A spokesperson for the Bristol County Sheriff's Office said that she was "a model inmate," adding, "She has attended programs, had a job inside the jail, has been polite to our staff and volunteers, has gotten along with other inmates, and we've had no discipline issues with her whatsoever." She was to remain on probation until sometime in 2021.