True Crime Vault: Words to Die By

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Speaker 5 Step into the 2020 True Crime Vault where you'll hear our most gripping stories.

Speaker 9 Hi, I'm a nice kid.

Speaker 9 I got a nice smile.

Speaker 10 This is Conrad Henry Rui III.

Speaker 10 I've created a monster out of myself.

Speaker 11 Two troubled teens looking for the end of their problems. And the sad part of this is the solution that they found was Conrad's death.

Speaker 12 How could the girl who's most likely to brighten your day encourage her boyfriend to take his life?

Speaker 14 In the last week of Conrad's life, Michelle texted him asking him when he was going to kill himself more than 40 times.

Speaker 2 This case was so bizarre, it went national quite quickly.

Speaker 7 The tragic story of Michelle Carter and Conrad Roy, now the subject of a new series on Hulu. Conrad's dead.

Speaker 7 Who's Conrad?

Speaker 16 Michelle Carter also had her own struggles. She suffered from depression.

Speaker 7 The idea that this is the spot that he was in. It shouldn't be.

Speaker 18 In a parking lot.

Speaker 19 How did you even wrap your mind around that?

Speaker 7 As a kid.

Speaker 21 I didn't know how I was gonna possibly live another second without my son.

Speaker 10 There's something wrong with me.

Speaker 14 He's telling her that he really wants to die.

Speaker 3 Why isn't she doing anything about it?

Speaker 24 That doesn't make her behavior okay or good.

Speaker 16 But the question is: is it criminal?

Speaker 16 Conrad, I love you so much.

Speaker 16 I love you too.

Speaker 13 You're the best boyfriend ever.

Speaker 11 You're the best girlfriend ever.

Speaker 13 It's okay to be scared, and it's normal.

Speaker 13 I mean, you're about to die.

Speaker 25 So this is basically a story about two teenagers from the south shore of Massachusetts.

Speaker 25 Conrad Roy was a high school athlete who lived in Matapoiset, a shore town of about 6,000 people right on the coast.

Speaker 8 This is a historic old whaling port.

Speaker 7 They've even got a lighthouse from the 1830s.

Speaker 8 This place is all about the water and families.

Speaker 7 It's where Conrad Roy grew up. Tell me about him as he was growing up as your nephew.

Speaker 28 He was adorable. He just, he

Speaker 28 was always, he's so funny. Like he was always laughing.

Speaker 30 He was always involved.

Speaker 21 Conrad had the side of him that was very silly and he loved to tease his sisters. They didn't think it was funny.
When they were smaller, they would scream and yell, but it was just fun for him.

Speaker 32 Athletic.

Speaker 33 Oh yeah.

Speaker 34 Yeah.

Speaker 28 He played baseball.

Speaker 35 He loved baseball.

Speaker 21 He was so passionate about it and he stuck through it even though sometimes he was really, really hard on himself about how he played and everything.

Speaker 21 Conrad loved the Red Sox. Of course, it was Boston,

Speaker 21 you know, Patriots.

Speaker 15 They were always number one.

Speaker 16 I think everyone has described him as being a well-rounded kid, someone who had a lot of friends, and someone who was very active with his family.

Speaker 18 They call him Coco.

Speaker 14 That's his nickname. He graduated from high school on his way to college, although he's not quite sure what he's going to do with his future.

Speaker 11 He was a smart kid. He was well loved.

Speaker 11 His grades were good, so good in fact, that he got a full ride to his state college.

Speaker 25 He was Conrad Voy III. His grandfather and father both worked on tugboats.

Speaker 32 His father's a tugboat captain.

Speaker 21 His grandfather owns a tugboat business and it was just always in their blood.

Speaker 7 And do Conrad like it?

Speaker 33 Yeah, he loved it. He loved being on the water.

Speaker 28 He went and got his captain's license at the age of 18, which was pretty awesome.

Speaker 10 I do have a lot going for me. Like I just got a job from the Boston Tuck Tourists to captain their boat.
Like that's a huge accomplishment

Speaker 10 to be a captain.

Speaker 21 He wanted to go to school for business

Speaker 21 to help his father with running the company someday. But at that time, he felt a little unsure about what he wanted to do.
He never wanted to fail at anything.

Speaker 14 50 miles north, about an hour away, lived a young girl, 17-year-old Michelle Carter.

Speaker 14 She lived in Plainville, Massachusetts.

Speaker 7 Michelle's got a big smile on her face in her yearbook photos. Looks Looks to be the picture of happiness.

Speaker 25 Michelle Carter was bubbly. High school classmates described her as fun to be around, constantly making you try to laugh.
She played softball for years. She had close friends from that team.

Speaker 39 I've known Michelle

Speaker 24 when she was like eight, nine years old.

Speaker 36 She would play on different teams that I coached up until she was about 14 years old. Quiet kid.
Never known her to do a mean thing, would do whatever she could to help you in the process.

Speaker 25 She was, you know, a camper and a camp counselor and developed friends there. She was in this business club.
She was apparently quite bright. She was an honor roll student.

Speaker 25 Nothing externally to indicate what was going on inside her mind.

Speaker 41 In her class superlatives, she got the person most likely to make a day better.

Speaker 42 That's the type of person she is.

Speaker 16 We know teenagers text a lot, but it seems as though a lot of her relationships and her friendships were based on texting.

Speaker 16 But I don't know if she was outwardly like what we would think of as being a popular girl.

Speaker 43 Do you remember writing a note where you would kind of pass around the class and it would be like, do you like me? Do you not like me? You know, like check the box kind of thing.

Speaker 43 I mean, literally, it's like what we do as teens. And that's exactly what they do.

Speaker 45 Do you like me?

Speaker 7 Michelle and Conrad actually meet by chance. Both of their families were on vacation in the same place.

Speaker 25 And then once they returned to their respective homes, this friendship developed into this kind of like intimate friendship and quasi-romance.

Speaker 2 In a true New Age relationship, the majority of Conrad and Michelle's communication was online. They'd met maybe a handful of times or less in real life.

Speaker 2 So she was just someone that Conrad texted, according to his mother.

Speaker 43 We have seen kids say, this is such an important part of my life. And if I didn't have this,

Speaker 46 it would be really lonely.

Speaker 36 If you're on a seafood diet, doesn't mean you just see food and eat it, right? I'm a genius.

Speaker 13 Haha, these are very clever. Yes, see, I told you you were smart.

Speaker 25 I got it from a website, LOL.

Speaker 2 I figured, LOL.

Speaker 25 They exchanged thousands upon thousands of text messages, talking about everything from school and athletics and the music they liked.

Speaker 7 They've even got their own song. At least Michelle thinks so.

Speaker 13 I love you. Listen to Your Mind by Leah Michelle, my idol and favorite person ever.
Ha ha.

Speaker 13 That's our song.

Speaker 43 Part of being a teenager is feeling things intensely. Finding that love interest is just super, super important.

Speaker 16 So that's always been the case. They were intimate with each other over text message because they talked so much about their personal feelings.
But were they a traditional boyfriend and girlfriend?

Speaker 16 It's hard to say.

Speaker 7 But it turns out there was something darker in their text to each other, something nobody else saw.

Speaker 47 No one truly knows what's going on with me.

Speaker 42 No one.

Speaker 47 I feel trapped in my own skin and nothing will work for me. Like if you only knew what I go through, you would be amazed how I'm still alive.

Speaker 6 I'm a nice kid.

Speaker 9 I got a nice smile.

Speaker 10 Hi, this is Conrad Henry Roy III.

Speaker 10 Reporting to you about what's going on through my mind. What's going on through my head the last few days.

Speaker 7 Conrad Roy is busy making a video diary. A diary his family knows nothing about.

Speaker 10 If I keep talking, it's gonna get better.

Speaker 10 I've created a monster out of myself.

Speaker 10 Past few years because of my depression, racing thoughts,

Speaker 10 suicidal thoughts.

Speaker 16 It is a hard video to watch.

Speaker 16 I think we see a very troubled teenager. who's obviously going through a multitude of emotions and issues.

Speaker 10 You just have to accept yourself as an individual.

Speaker 10 The hardest thing for me is to be comfortable in my own skin.

Speaker 7 The other thing his family doesn't know about, Conrad and Michelle Carter are sending thousands of text messages back and forth. Some just what you'd expect to see with teens.

Speaker 15 Hello. Hi.
Hi.

Speaker 13 I got you something.

Speaker 6 Oh, really?

Speaker 50 Yep.

Speaker 51 What?

Speaker 36 Did you get me a brain?

Speaker 7 It's kind of a long-distance relationship in a way.

Speaker 2 They lived about an hour apart from each other, but they didn't see each other very often.

Speaker 2 They only met in person a couple of times that we know of, but they texted back and forth constantly, almost two and a half years.

Speaker 21 Conrad was dealing with a lot of insomnia. He had trouble sleeping.
His anxiety and depression made him feel like he was a failure, which

Speaker 21 he was not.

Speaker 25 He was very, very, very worried about how people perceived him and felt very insecure about his social status.

Speaker 43 Right, and that's what teens have always been. So popularity, being noticed,

Speaker 43 being relevant. They're trying really hard to get other people to notice them.

Speaker 10 I didn't really connect with people in high school.

Speaker 30 Just felt alone.

Speaker 16 In the text messages, he tells her pretty definitively early on that he wants to die and that he's going to do it.

Speaker 2 And there's many recurring themes where he brings that up throughout their texting relationship that he wants to die and he doesn't see a way to get better.

Speaker 10 I want to recover from this and I feel like I haven't recovered from it yet.

Speaker 25 He attempted suicide in 2012 by swallowing Tylenol and this was right after he'd actually gotten out of an inpatient mental health treatment program for severe depression.

Speaker 14 But he didn't succeed because he called a friend and told her that he was trying to kill himself and she called 911.

Speaker 52 Within his family, when he did

Speaker 21 have issues, he got help for it and he was helped through it and he got through it and he came out on the other side every single time.

Speaker 7 At one point he did try to harm himself. Did you know about that?

Speaker 7 How hard was that for the family?

Speaker 21 It was hard, but it was more of a

Speaker 54 kind of like an adolescent cry.

Speaker 15 He wasn't

Speaker 30 wanting to hurt hurt himself.

Speaker 53 He had everything going for him.

Speaker 7 Did you think that he wanted to take his life?

Speaker 44 No, no.

Speaker 30 I didn't.

Speaker 10 I feel.

Speaker 42 What's the word?

Speaker 10 I feel like I'm differently wired from everyone else.

Speaker 11 I want to die.

Speaker 13 I know you want to, and you research it and everything, but are you actually really gonna do it?

Speaker 47 Yeah, if I can find a way to 100% work.

Speaker 14 He's looking up hanging and poisoning what's the easiest fastest maybe most painless way to kill himself He was looking up things like cyanide death by cops and easy ways to find poison Conrad even sends Michelle images of a rifle and a noose and she's trying to talk him out of it Conrad stop you're not gonna do it.

Speaker 13 I know you won't. I don't want you to.

Speaker 29 No, I actually am.

Speaker 13 You have so much to live for. Please don't.

Speaker 47 We should be like Romeo and Juliet at the end.

Speaker 13 Haha, I'd love to be your Juliet.

Speaker 56 But do you know what happens at the end?

Speaker 15 Oh yeah.

Speaker 13 No, we are not dying.

Speaker 16 Michelle Carter also had her own struggles. She suffered from depression and she had an eating disorder, was hospitalized even.

Speaker 2 She also used to cut herself when she was depressed.

Speaker 13 I used to eat a carrot and then feel like I'd have to run three miles to burn it off. And recently, I have started to cut.
If I was skinny, I wouldn't cut or feel bad or hate myself.

Speaker 13 It all goes back to my weight, so I really need to change like soon.

Speaker 25 She would constantly message friends asking for support, and she would talk about this with Roy as well, just the sort of anxiety and insecurity she felt in her own body.

Speaker 13 I'm just having a hard time with food again and losing weight, and it makes me really upset.

Speaker 47 I wish you had my problem and I had yours because we both wouldn't have a problem.

Speaker 16 Most of the text messages are talking about what they have in common, their feelings and their struggle.

Speaker 47 I'm never gonna be better.

Speaker 29 I have to accept that.

Speaker 13 You're in a dark tunnel, but it's not gonna last forever. You'll find the light someday.

Speaker 2 The entire text relationship for the majority of that two plus years, she's trying to convince him to get help, to go into treatment, to do different things, to be outgoing, to meet more friends.

Speaker 13 You aren't gonna get better on your own. You need professional help like me, people who know how to treat it and fix it.

Speaker 13 Like, I think I'm gonna go away to a place for my eating disorder to help me overcome it and stuff. And we can go together so we will be there for each other.

Speaker 16 It's just between the two of them. She never goes to anyone else to say, let's get Conrad help.

Speaker 10 The sooner I like myself,

Speaker 10 the better I'm going to be.

Speaker 24 There are a lot of reasons that she may not have sought help, but one of them may be that Conrad had asked her not to seek it.

Speaker 47 And the only way I'd hate you is if you told people about this. You hear me?

Speaker 13 I'm not going to tell anyone because if I did, then you'd have to go to a hospital, and I know that's not what you want.

Speaker 16 This is not something that any one of us can manage. Never mind a 17-year-old girl.

Speaker 58 She's overwhelmed by this caretaker role she has with her boyfriend. She can't handle it.

Speaker 7 And then in the summer of 2014, it's about two years into their relationship, Michelle's texts suddenly change completely in a way that's unimaginable.

Speaker 13 If you really want to die, you'll make this work tonight.

Speaker 13 I'm tired of you not taking this seriously.

Speaker 59 I have to do it.

Speaker 25 I like have to.

Speaker 13 Well, you keep saying that, but you never do anything.

Speaker 11 When you look at the messages, you see two troubled teens looking for happiness, looking for the end of their problems.

Speaker 13 Everyone will be sad for a while, but they will get over it and move on.

Speaker 11 The sad part of this is the solution that they found was Conrad's death.

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Speaker 27 By July of 2014, Conrad Roy's family is cautiously optimistic.

Speaker 7 They think he might be doing better.

Speaker 32 Conrad and his dad were doing a job on tugboats for the 4th of July.

Speaker 31 And there's a video when he was like really proud because Conrad was driving the tugboat.

Speaker 14 Outwardly, he seems to be doing fine.

Speaker 22 But on the same day, he's texting Michelle about his suicidal kind of feelings.

Speaker 14 His family sees no sign of that.

Speaker 13 So are you still gonna do it?

Speaker 29 Yeah,

Speaker 47 I have to at this point.

Speaker 51 I want to be with Jesus, and I'm completely losing my mind.

Speaker 47 I forgot everything.

Speaker 2 On the morning of July 12th, Conrad goes to the beach with his family. People flying kites, his sisters and him go get some ice cream.
He goes for a long walk on the beach with his mom.

Speaker 2 He's talking about maybe joining the family business. He's having a great time with his family, but he does sneak off to the car.
He was texting. Looking back, he was talking to Michelle Carter.

Speaker 7 And when he gets home, there is even more texting.

Speaker 13 Are you going to do it now?

Speaker 47 I just don't know how to leave them, you know.

Speaker 13 I know. You just have to do it, like you said.
Are you going to do it now?

Speaker 47 I haven't left yet.

Speaker 65 Haha.

Speaker 15 Why?

Speaker 14 At 6:20 p.m. that day, Conrad says he's going out, and he's going to take the black pickup truck.

Speaker 47 Leave in now.

Speaker 13 Okay, you can do this.

Speaker 16 His mother asks, Will you be home for dinner? And he says he doesn't know. He doesn't think so.

Speaker 2 He says goodbye to his mom, and that's the last time anyone in his family sees him alive.

Speaker 21 I messaged him before I went to bed and just wanted to know what time he would be home and he didn't answer right away. And I woke up maybe two in the morning and messaged him again.

Speaker 21 And then I fell back asleep. And in the morning,

Speaker 21 his truck wasn't there. I panicked.

Speaker 21 I was really concerned.

Speaker 21 that something happened to him.

Speaker 25 She calls his friend Tom Gammel, another friend of his, asking, have you seen him? Do you know where he is? And none of them do.

Speaker 30 You could tell she was worried.

Speaker 16 I said, well, you really

Speaker 28 need to call the authorities and see if they can start searching for him.

Speaker 20 They walk around the truck as he drives. Ford 250.
It's a diesel big black and it's got a bunch of stickers in the back window.

Speaker 37 All right.

Speaker 53 I am going to send an officer out to take a report.

Speaker 37 Request.

Speaker 21 So when Officer Correa came to the house, I explained to him him Conrad's history of depression and anxiety.

Speaker 67 I was hoping that he was off with a friend somewhere and his phone was dead.

Speaker 41 Police put out a bolo.

Speaker 51 Be on the lookout for Conrad.

Speaker 68 A18 to all cars and stations. Be ready to copy a bolo.

Speaker 69 This is for a missing 18-year-old boy.

Speaker 68 It's going to be stopped in check the welfare.

Speaker 68 Mail is going to be a Conrad Roy.

Speaker 25 The Fairhaven police officer used this technology to try to triangulate his cell phone signal. So they knew the rough area that his phone was in.

Speaker 25 And so this police officer ends up driving around Fairhaven, just looking down streets, and eventually just happens upon this Kmart parking lot.

Speaker 9 Saw in the corner of my eye a black F-250 parked over there.

Speaker 67 There was the truck, but I didn't know where he was. I had to get out of the car and walk up to the truck before I saw where he was.

Speaker 9 He was inside the truck, but it was obviously too late.

Speaker 9 I had seen enough people that were gone to realize just by looking at him that he was gone.

Speaker 9 There was nothing that anybody was going to be able to do for him.

Speaker 25 They call a hazmat team who eventually clear the car, see the water pump, and determine that he did kill himself with carbon monoxide.

Speaker 24 When you run a gasoline-powered gasoline-powered engine in an enclosed area, the carbon monoxide that's emitted can be deadly.

Speaker 21 I got a call from my ex-husband. He said, it's not good, Lynn.

Speaker 21 He said, there's

Speaker 21 yellow tape around Co's truck.

Speaker 15 And I said, no, there isn't.

Speaker 21 He said, yeah, there is.

Speaker 21 I didn't know how I was going to possibly live another second

Speaker 21 without my son.

Speaker 30 I just grabbed my sister and hugged her as tight as I could and she.

Speaker 19 How did you even wrap your mind around that?

Speaker 15 You can't.

Speaker 21 There's no way. He was a kid.

Speaker 3 He was ours. He was our kid.

Speaker 25 They find a few important pieces of evidence. They find the water pump and they also find his cell phone.

Speaker 7 Conrad had told Michelle that he was going to delete all of their texts to each other from his phone. Turns out, he never did.

Speaker 52 Where was his phone?

Speaker 67 It was in the waistband of his pants, but the phone was dead.

Speaker 7 At home, he'd left a note for his family.

Speaker 47 Don't feel any guilt. It's all my fault.
Everyone, be happy.

Speaker 49 Work hard for me, because that's what I want. And live life to the fullest.

Speaker 15 I love you.

Speaker 49 Look in my blue notebook for my Bank of America and Apple laptop password.

Speaker 7 And there was a separate note for Michelle.

Speaker 47 We will meet up someday in heaven. Our songs.
Listen to them and remember me.

Speaker 14 And then the family starts receiving these text messages from this young girl, Michelle Carter.

Speaker 13 You did not fail him, not even a little bit. You tried your hardest.
Please stay strong. We are all here for you and your family.

Speaker 71 Michelle also began began reaching out to Conrad's sisters and trying to befriend the family.

Speaker 13 Hey, love, please talk to me if you need to. I want to do everything I can to help you and your family through.

Speaker 21 Her words comforted me and they made me feel

Speaker 21 so much better.

Speaker 21 All the signs were that this was a suicide.

Speaker 24 But once police realize that he's provided the codes to access his phone, they find these text messages.

Speaker 14 And then they start reading.

Speaker 13 Hang yourself, jump off a building, stab yourself, IDK. There's a lot of ways.
I don't get why you don't just overdose again. When are you going to do it? Well, is it going to be soon?

Speaker 13 When are you going to do it tonight? And what time are you going to do it? Because I can't stay up past 12, remember?

Speaker 14 In the days after Conrad's death, his family family is reeling. They are trying to come to grips with how this could have happened.

Speaker 54 We all met up at this beach in Mattapoisa,

Speaker 37 and to see my whole family crumble

Speaker 19 just didn't seem real.

Speaker 11 They had known that he had suffered from depression and he had taken attempts on his life, but they thought that things were getting better. They were devastated.

Speaker 7 So at that point,

Speaker 7 you're all thinking

Speaker 7 he took his life.

Speaker 21 You don't know why.

Speaker 54 Yeah, I was mad at him.

Speaker 43 I was upset with him for what he did to his mom and his sisters.

Speaker 7 Meanwhile, Michelle keeps on sending those messages of support to Conrad's family.

Speaker 13 I'm so very sorry. Conrad meant so much to me, and he was loved by so many.

Speaker 7 What is she saying to your sister?

Speaker 72 I'll be there for you and the girls, and I'll take care of you.

Speaker 13 He was an amazing son because he had such an amazing mother.

Speaker 14 Michelle even goes to Conrad's memorial service where she sees the family and meets some of his friends.

Speaker 7 Michelle Carter was showing up at these various times.

Speaker 34 Yeah.

Speaker 7 And even asked for part of his ashes.

Speaker 30 Yeah, she wanted to go through his room and take some of his belongings.

Speaker 7 What did you all make of that?

Speaker 30 And that's when things started to get a little weird.

Speaker 21 And he's like, hmm.

Speaker 20 Yeah, you don't do that.

Speaker 24 Meanwhile, what had seemed to be an open and shut case of suicide becomes something else once the Fairhaven Police Department get access to his phone.

Speaker 40 There was only one thread on the phone. And that was with a female.
There were thousands of text messages between Conrad and Michelle.

Speaker 24 These messages are beyond dark. They're beyond disturbing.

Speaker 13 I don't get why you don't just overdose again, but go somewhere in private. You already know it works.

Speaker 16 She actually begins to almost agree with him. Like, okay, so you want to kill yourself? When are you going to do it? How are you going to do it?

Speaker 13 You're really going to do this?

Speaker 35 Yeah.

Speaker 13 Okay, there's no turning back now.

Speaker 25 She starts saying, you know, you keep saying this, but you never follow through. Like, are you serious? Like, you should just do it.

Speaker 14 About a week before Conrad died, Michelle thought that he was going to kill himself using pills, but he didn't.

Speaker 52 And she was really annoyed that he was still alive.

Speaker 13 I knew you weren't going to try hard. I feel like such an idiot.
Why?

Speaker 13 Because you didn't even do anything. And I poured my heart out to you thinking this was going to be the last time I talked to to you.
I thought you really wanted to die, but apparently you don't.

Speaker 13 I feel played and just stupid.

Speaker 71 Michelle was almost bullying Conrad into killing himself.

Speaker 13 Tonight?

Speaker 47 Eventually.

Speaker 13 See, that's what I mean. You keep pushing it off.

Speaker 14 In the last week of Conrad's life, Michelle texted him asking him when he was going to kill himself more than 40 times.

Speaker 13 When are you gonna do it?

Speaker 42 I'll let you know when.

Speaker 13 Well, is it gonna be soon?

Speaker 16 Whenever he had doubts, she diminished them.

Speaker 47 I have a bad feeling that this is gonna create a lot of depression between my parents, sisters.

Speaker 16 Whenever he had guilt about leaving his family, she assured him that she would comfort them.

Speaker 13 Everyone will be sad for a while, but they will get over it and move on.

Speaker 11 And this isn't just a general conversation about how Conrad can take his life. No, Michelle is helping him with the details.

Speaker 13 Carbon monoxide poisoning is the best option. If you fall asleep in your car while it's running in a garage, it will kill you.
And there's no pain.

Speaker 25 They get into the very specifics of how it should happen.

Speaker 29 Portable generator.

Speaker 15 That's it.

Speaker 13 Do you have one of those?

Speaker 47 There's one at work. I was thinking turning it on in my truck and passing out asleep.

Speaker 11 You're a genius.

Speaker 25 He gets a gas generator, but it malfunctions or it breaks down.

Speaker 16 She was really in a very practical way helping him work through any problem he saw with this plan.

Speaker 13 OMG, go to Sears. They sell them.
They can help.

Speaker 24 Instead of going to Sears, he goes to a relative's house and takes a gas-powered water pump. But as was the case in the previous attempts, he seems to waver.

Speaker 29 I'm scared, babe.

Speaker 13 It's okay to be scared, and it's normal. I mean, you're about to die.

Speaker 11 You can hear him crying for help. The shocking, the chilling, the frightening aspect of this is when Michelle comes back and says, you have to do this.

Speaker 9 Like, why am I so hesitant lately?

Speaker 13 You're so hesitant because you keep overthinking it and pushing it off. You just need to do it, Conrad.
It's time to do it today.

Speaker 24 That evening, Conrad seems to be procrastinating, and Michelle appears to be pushing.

Speaker 13 Are you going to do it now?

Speaker 42 Leaving now.

Speaker 13 Okay, you can do this.

Speaker 24 Five minutes later, Conrad fires off another text.

Speaker 47 Okay, I'm almost there.

Speaker 25 That last text message is before he drives to the Kmart parking lot, where he turns the water pump on in the cabin of his truck.

Speaker 25 Then he's gone.

Speaker 13 Today has been one month since you passed. It was a hard day for all of us.
I hope you were looking down with a smile.

Speaker 7 It's been weeks since Conrad Roy died, and Michelle Carter is still sending texts to his phone.

Speaker 25 There's this sort of strange element where she sends him these obviously one-sided text messages.

Speaker 13 I can't handle you being gone. I miss you incredibly.
It hurts. I love you forever.

Speaker 16 She continues to text him, saying that she misses him and she loves him and that she's so sorry that all of this happened.

Speaker 13 I'm planning your tournament today. I know you'd be proud of me.

Speaker 14 Two months after Conrad dies, Michelle has a fundraiser in her community to raise money for suicide awareness.

Speaker 66 Michelle actually had a Facebook posting where she created this Homeless for Conrad page. And then at the actual event itself, she was laughing happy amongst her friends.

Speaker 7 Photos from that event, which were posted on social media, would later be used in the investigation. By now, police believe Michelle Carter has played a critical role in Conrad's death.

Speaker 66 We had an undercover detective at that event.

Speaker 7 The detective is there because investigators want to prove that it is Michelle who's texting from that phone, even though it's registered to her mom.

Speaker 66 So how do we actually prove that Michelle Carter is on the other end of that phone? We call her phone and videotape her as she answered the phone.

Speaker 66 So now we've connected the phone with her as she answers it.

Speaker 7 Now armed with that information, police are ready to make make their next move.

Speaker 14 Two and a half months after Conrad died, detectives go to Michelle's high school. They want to talk to her.

Speaker 66 The detectives go there and they approach her and say, Michelle, can we talk with you?

Speaker 49 On October 2nd, we're talking to Michelle Cotter at King Phillip High School.

Speaker 25 Police began asking her questions about her relationship with Conrad Roy.

Speaker 49 Michelle, the reason why we came out here is because we were looking into Conrad's unfortunate passing. We did determine a little bit that you probably had a lot of contact with him.

Speaker 15 Yeah.

Speaker 25 She lies to them. She does not give the full story.

Speaker 49 Do you think you had contact with him that day?

Speaker 45 Um, I don't think so. Yeah.

Speaker 77 I was talking to him on the phone, like, the night before the 12th,

Speaker 77 and we were talking, and then

Speaker 77 like the phone, like, hung up, but I didn't, I didn't really think anything of it.

Speaker 66 Did you have any contact with Conrad the day that he passed? Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 66 And just the deceptiveness in that. I mean, she's not, she's not telling the truth.
She's saying, I might have.

Speaker 77 I had a feeling that if he didn't get help, then something was going to happen.

Speaker 77 And I was trying to get help for him sooner. I like wanted him to go with me, and

Speaker 45 I should have done something sooner, but

Speaker 78 by the time it was just too late.

Speaker 49 You have a search warrant for your phone.

Speaker 49 Okay, so we'll be taking it.

Speaker 45 Wait, so your team have phones?

Speaker 78 Yes.

Speaker 49 For what?

Speaker 49 I'll explain it. We're going to explain it all to you.

Speaker 11 When law enforcement takes Michelle's phone, they already know the messages between Conrad and Michelle.

Speaker 11 The interesting part is the conversations between Michelle and her friends about Conrad's death.

Speaker 24 They find messages sent to her friend, Samantha Boardman.

Speaker 24 This one the day he died.

Speaker 13 Sam, he just called me, me and there was a loud noise like a motor and I heard moaning like someone was in pain.

Speaker 24 Then a week after Conrad dies and Michelle knows that they're searching through his phone, she then sends this message.

Speaker 13 Sam, they read my messages with him. I'm done.
His family will hate me and I could go to jail.

Speaker 25 She is intensely aware that police have Conrad's phone and that there could be serious consequences for her if they recover his text messages.

Speaker 24 Two months after Conrad dies, it gets worse because she sends an even more incriminating message.

Speaker 13 Sam, his death is my fault. Like, honestly, I could have stopped him.
I was on the phone with him, and he got out of the car because it was working, and he got scared. I told him to get back in.

Speaker 24 She appears to be admitting that, yes, I'm responsible. He wasn't necessarily gonna do it,

Speaker 24 and I convinced him to do it.

Speaker 16 That is the saddest part of this whole story.

Speaker 25 It's this direct sort of admission to a friend that he was outside. He had a chance to live.
He was having second thoughts.

Speaker 25 And she told him to return to the truck as it filled with the deadly carbon monoxide.

Speaker 13 I couldn't have him live the way he was living anymore. I couldn't do it.
I wouldn't let him. I could have stopped him, but I didn't.

Speaker 14 What the police find is pretty horrendous, right?

Speaker 21 They're like, something is wrong here, but what is it?

Speaker 66 The police station and the fire station was a quarter mile down the road.

Speaker 5 He would have been saved if she made a call.

Speaker 66 She knew exactly what she was doing and she knew it was wrong, and she still tried to cover it up.

Speaker 24 Six months after Conrad dies, a grand jury indicts Michelle Carter for the crime of involuntary manslaughter.

Speaker 7 Prosecutors finally tell Conrad's mom and the rest of the family about all those text messages she'd sent to him.

Speaker 66 To actually have to sit in front of her for the first time and tell her, Michelle Carter, that girl that you thought was his friends, these are the texts.

Speaker 66 And I had to leave the room and let them read them. This is the girl that was coming to them at the wake and the funeral and completely, completely deceiving them.

Speaker 21 We felt numb.

Speaker 21 We were in disbelief that someone could want someone else to die. Her messaging and her being there for me and telling me I was an amazing mom and,

Speaker 21 you know, how much Conrad loved me absolutely is a betrayal to me.

Speaker 7 You were sort of angry with your nephew at first for taking his life and then suddenly

Speaker 7 There's a different spin on this.

Speaker 34 Yeah.

Speaker 7 What did you start to feel then?

Speaker 54 I started to feel feel like he was on targeted and he was a victim.

Speaker 43 He was targeted and a victim. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 66 And then we also had to tell the family, be prepared for media trucks to be at your house when you get home.

Speaker 79 A pretrial hearing today for a plane guilty charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Speaker 71 A lot of people learned about the case once Michelle was charged.

Speaker 26 The young woman is now charged with manslaughter after her then-boyfriend killed himself.

Speaker 7 The story seems to have caught everybody's attention and Michelle Carter is now an object of revulsion and fascination. There's even a new Hulu Limited series about this case.

Speaker 18 But I didn't do anything wrong.

Speaker 45 There are text messages, thousands of them.

Speaker 16 We had never heard of a story like that before, a case like that before.

Speaker 8 That trial making national headlines.

Speaker 50 She absolutely knew it was wrong and she absolutely caused the death of this 18-year-old boy.

Speaker 75 This is not a homicide. Michelle Kata did not kill Conrad Roy.

Speaker 24 These messages are horrific and morally reprehensible. But is it a crime? Is she responsible for his death?

Speaker 7 And Michelle has some surprising words on the stand.

Speaker 7 I remember pulling up to the Taunton Courthouse with my crew. There were cameras everywhere.
Everybody was talking about this case. And America seemed to be pretty split.

Speaker 73 Could words kill?

Speaker 35 Yourna, this case is a suicide case. It is not a homicide.
And the evidence of the texting is overwhelming that Conrad Roy was on this path to take his own life for years.

Speaker 16 She actually begins to almost agree with him. Like, okay, so you want to kill yourself? When are you going to do it?

Speaker 31 This is a story that seemed to captivate the world.

Speaker 7 And now it's the subject of a Hulu Limited series.

Speaker 18 But I didn't do anything wrong.

Speaker 45 There are text messages, thousands of them.

Speaker 28 I don't think that she helped him kill himself.

Speaker 33 I think she forced him to kill himself.

Speaker 7 People see Michelle Carter as a devious, despicable young woman.

Speaker 70 They should.

Speaker 42 She had her own demons that she was struggling with.

Speaker 66 He got out because he knew he was being poisoned. And she ordered him back into the gas chamber.

Speaker 5 He would have been saved if she made a call.

Speaker 30 She has to live the rest of her life in her skin.

Speaker 21 One of the most hated people in the country.

Speaker 58 She said, you don't want to take your life.

Speaker 81 You don't want to. She said this to him for two years until she eventually says, do it.

Speaker 24 From the moment that Michelle Carter was indicted in 2015, this case has been a lightning rod.

Speaker 17 We're going to turn now to a pretty shocking story. A Massachusetts teenager facing trial for manslaughter after taunting her boyfriend to commit suicide.

Speaker 13 You just need to do it, Conrad.

Speaker 4 Prosecutors say she had been pressuring him to do it via text message and was even talking on the phone with him when he ended his life.

Speaker 13 All you have to do is turn the generator on and you'll be free and happy. No more pushing it off, no more waiting.

Speaker 20 The prosecution making the case that this teen coaxed her boyfriend into killing himself right up until the moment that he took his own life.

Speaker 13 It's time, babe. You know that.

Speaker 71 When the text messages came out, Michelle instantly became this villain.

Speaker 2 I think people are dumbfounded.

Speaker 66 When they see Michelle Carter, she comes from a nice family. She was a smart girl.
She lives in a nice community. And then you just juxtapose that against those text messages.

Speaker 66 And it's like, where is this coming from?

Speaker 29 I do want to, but like, I'm freaking out for my family, I guess.

Speaker 13 Conrad, I told you I'll take care of them. We talked about this.
They will be okay and accept it.

Speaker 7 When you began to hear and read some of those text messages,

Speaker 8 what went...

Speaker 18 Through your mind?

Speaker 28 It's shocking because you don't think a human being is capable.

Speaker 30 Just a different caliber of person that I've ever experienced in my life.

Speaker 54 So it was pretty disturbing.

Speaker 28 I don't think that she helped him kill himself.

Speaker 53 I think she forced him to kill himself.

Speaker 7 You think she is the cause of his death?

Speaker 28 Yeah, I think if it wasn't for her, he'd still be here.

Speaker 7 Conrad's aunt Kim and cousin took me to a memorial in the parking lot where he died.

Speaker 13 Do you come out here at all very often?

Speaker 32 I do.

Speaker 54 Every chance I get actually.

Speaker 77 I drive by here a lot and I like seeing what people leave and sometimes I'll write little notes.

Speaker 7 So you brought flowers today.

Speaker 28 Jaden bought these flowers.

Speaker 54 This is a place to visit him.

Speaker 18 It shouldn't be in a parking lot.

Speaker 43 How much do you think about Conrad?

Speaker 54 Every single day.

Speaker 45 Almost every minute.

Speaker 54 He's always with us.

Speaker 14 This is a truly tragic story of two teens, one of whom is no longer with us and who really should be here today.

Speaker 24 This case is incredibly fascinating, both from a human perspective and from a legal perspective. From a human perspective, the question is, how could someone do this?

Speaker 24 And as a legal matter, is she responsible for causing his death?

Speaker 2 A lot of people questioned whether this was dangerous to say that words could be something that you would be charged for.

Speaker 82 He specifically said that he wanted to kill himself.

Speaker 17 He is responsible for his own death.

Speaker 82 Look, she gets the prize for being pretty wicked and pretty creepy, but,

Speaker 82 you know, I just don't see,

Speaker 82 I don't know how a jury would convict her of this.

Speaker 20 The girl's lawyer claims that those messages are a form of protected speech under the First Amendment.

Speaker 71 From the beginning, Michelle's defense team tried to fight the charges.

Speaker 24 There are some states that have laws on the books that ban assisting in a suicide. Massachusetts isn't one of them.

Speaker 24 With no specific assisted suicide law, prosecutors said this is involuntary manslaughter.

Speaker 2 Just the fact that she was even being considered to be charged with this was groundbreaking.

Speaker 79 A pretrial hearing today for a plane guilty charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Speaker 11 Michelle Carter's attorney filed motion upon motion, trying to get this case dismissed before it even went to trial.

Speaker 79 Carter's lawyers want the case dismissed, citing a lack of evidence and precedent.

Speaker 58 Carter's attorney says she is being punished for her speech.

Speaker 76 He has, in fact, brainwashed her to the point where she's now accepting his idea of this is my only option.

Speaker 7 People see Michelle Carter as a devious, despicable young woman.

Speaker 70 Well, they should.

Speaker 56 She had her own difficulties, her own demons that she was struggling with.

Speaker 7 How would you describe this relationship between these two young people?

Speaker 25 A tragic.

Speaker 56 It was Conrad Roy laying a lot of his baggage on Michelle Carter.

Speaker 6 He consistently bombarded her with his suicidal thinking.

Speaker 56 She came to realize that Conrad was going to kill himself no matter what. And so she felt that she should help him and encourage him to do what he wanted to do.

Speaker 24 SJC 12043, Commonwealth v.

Speaker 39 Michelle Carter.

Speaker 7 Michelle Carter's defense team loses their battle to have the case dismissed, so they appeal all the way to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

Speaker 39 It doesn't matter how reprehensible we might think her conduct is, it simply isn't a crime, and it was not at the time, and we can't make it a crime retroactively.

Speaker 42 You're saying that encouraging somebody to do something that's not only stupid, but potentially deadly is not a crime.

Speaker 9 It's not.

Speaker 2 It went up to the highest point, but they eventually decided that Michelle would stand trial for what she did.

Speaker 4 Her attorneys have tried twice to have the charges against her dropped, but now they must go to trial.

Speaker 14 So now it's early June 2017. It's time for trial and all eyes are on the Taunton, Massachusetts courthouse.

Speaker 2 Michelle shows up for court and she looks completely different than anything we've seen. She's much thinner.
She's chopped her long hair off.

Speaker 2 She has these very prominent eyebrows and she's almost unrecognizable to what she looked like before.

Speaker 7 Right off the bat, a big surprise. Just as jury selection is about to begin, Michelle Carter's defense team decides they don't want a jury trial.

Speaker 2 Instead, they're going to allow the judge to make a decision in this case.

Speaker 14 She actually gets on the witness box. Michelle does.

Speaker 83 Has anyone promised you anything or threatened you in any way to make you forego your right to a jury trial?

Speaker 37 No.

Speaker 24 I think Michelle Carter's lawyers were worried that a jury might be so angry at those text messages that they wouldn't be able to objectively evaluate the evidence.

Speaker 66 We knew from the beginning, if it was going to be a jury trial or if it was going to be a bench trial with just a judge, that we were going to present the case the same way.

Speaker 24 The prosecution will lay out its case.

Speaker 84 She pushed him to kill himself sooner rather than later.

Speaker 24 And they're going to offer a motive for why she might have done this.

Speaker 50 If you really look at it, Your Honor, she's really desperate for attention.

Speaker 50 Look at me.

Speaker 2 I lost my boyfriend.

Speaker 7 We know what Michelle texted Conrad, but the big question is why?

Speaker 7 Well, prosecutors have a theory, and it's pretty alarming.

Speaker 66 What would make this girl who supposedly loved this boy do what she did? She wanted to be in the spotlight.

Speaker 84 She wanted to be the grieving girlfriend.

Speaker 7 It's been three years since Conrad Roy's death, and Michelle Carter is about to stand trial. All eyes are on this courthouse in Taunton, Massachusetts.

Speaker 2 I was a reporter and anchor in Providence, Rhode Island, which covers the Michelle Carter and Conrad Roy case. It's hard to describe the feeling in the courtroom today.

Speaker 2 There's tons of family for Conrad Roy in the courtroom. Michelle Carter's family is also in the courtroom, so you feel the tension between both sides.

Speaker 7 What did you make of Michelle Carter as you watched her walk into the courtroom?

Speaker 4 That she doesn't care.

Speaker 53 Her demeanor, her attitude.

Speaker 21 Like, what am I doing here?

Speaker 11 This trial could go either way. And when you have a judge who's making the decision as to whether to acquit or convict, it's going to be difficult to guess how this case will end.

Speaker 84 17-year-old Michelle Carter, who for weeks badgered, berated her depressed boyfriend, Conrad Roy, 18 years old, into killing himself.

Speaker 66 So, for the opening statement, what we did have to do is we obviously had to have a motive and show

Speaker 66 what would make this girl who supposedly loved this boy do what what she did.

Speaker 14 The picture that is painted of Michelle Carter in opening statement is not a pretty one.

Speaker 8 Who would do this and why?

Speaker 84 What suggests the evidence will show that the defendant was a very needy person who craved attention from anyone, quite frankly, but she didn't have many close friends.

Speaker 16 You could sense that the prosecution felt very strongly about their argument that she was encouraging Conrad so that she could then get sympathy and become the grieving girlfriend.

Speaker 11 The defense's strategy starts off painting Conrad as a young man who had issues of his own and that Michelle was miles upon miles away from Conrad when he alone took his own life.

Speaker 35 Your Honor, this case is a suicide case. It is not a homicide.
A young man who has had a long, long history of suicidal ideation finally caused

Speaker 42 caused his own death.

Speaker 35 Michelle Cotta was not present.

Speaker 24 The defense is trying to say this is very sad and heartbreaking, but you can't possibly hold Michelle Carter legally and criminally responsible for what Conrad did to himself.

Speaker 35 And the evidence of the texting is overwhelming that Conrad Roy was on this path to take his own life for years.

Speaker 14 Lynn Roy is called to the stand to basically set the scene and describe her son, describe his life.

Speaker 21 I was extremely

Speaker 21 nervous, shaken. And all I could think of why she knew the type of person he was and how gentle and kind he was.

Speaker 16 And his mother talks about Nat, the issues that he'd had in the past. She kind of felt a little more encouraged that maybe he was moving forward.

Speaker 84 In July of 2014, did you have any concerns about his mental health?

Speaker 28 I knew he was a little depressed, but I thought he was doing

Speaker 18 great.

Speaker 28 I mean, he just, you know, graduated from high school,

Speaker 28 got his captain's license, and I thought everything was moving forward, not backwards.

Speaker 25 Linroy choked up on the stand.

Speaker 25 His younger sister, Camden, gave extensive testimony about how Michelle Carter tried to forge this friendship/slash relationship with her after her brother's death.

Speaker 7 Was that the last time you saw your brother?

Speaker 45 Yes.

Speaker 66 And so later on that night, do you recall getting a text message from Michelle Carter?

Speaker 45 Yes.

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Speaker 14 There was a parade of her classmates who took the stand for the prosecution.

Speaker 50 Can you tell the court, give the court the idea of how often Ms. Carter would either ask you in person or via text message to do things with her outside of school?

Speaker 44 Probably a couple, a few times a week.

Speaker 50 And what was your usual answer?

Speaker 44 That I was working or had something else to do or, you know.

Speaker 14 It seemed that Michelle thought that some of the relationships were closer than they were.

Speaker 50 Was texting the way that you and the defendant communicated?

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 50 Were you ever seeing her outside of school in any sort of social way at all?

Speaker 2 Not at that point, no.

Speaker 2 Michelle didn't have a lot of close friends, so she reached out to a lot of people that she went to school with and texted them, probably over-sharing and inappropriate things because she was trying to be closer with them.

Speaker 24 On July 10th, two days before Conrad dies, Michelle is telling friends she doesn't know where Conrad is, that he's missing.

Speaker 50 July 10th, 2014, at 5:48, do you remember getting a text message about Conrad?

Speaker 44 Conrad's missing, they can't find him anywhere.

Speaker 50 What did she say?

Speaker 48 He's missing, like, they don't know where he is.

Speaker 24 But of course, in reality, she is texting with Conrad. She knows exactly where he is and what he's doing,

Speaker 24 and that he is actually trying to find an engine he can use

Speaker 24 to kill himself with.

Speaker 13 Okay, are you going to buy it?

Speaker 47 I think so.

Speaker 15 Okay, when?

Speaker 36 Soon.

Speaker 29 Haha.

Speaker 66 That was part of the dry run is that she knew she was going to get the attention that she was seeking. So she had to make it happen.
So that's why the pressure, we say, became so intense.

Speaker 29 Okay,

Speaker 25 I'm going to do it today.

Speaker 13 Do you promise?

Speaker 47 I promise, babe.

Speaker 50 And now, on the night of July 12th, 2014, at 8.25, does Michelle Carter send you now another text that you receive later on that night?

Speaker 2 Yes. And what does she tell you?

Speaker 48 I think he just killed himself.

Speaker 25 And they also pointed to it as a motive because she had told her friends that he was missing. And if he didn't do it shortly afterwards, she would be exposed as a fraud.

Speaker 7 And Samantha Boardman is testifying about that incriminating text she got from Michelle two months after Conrad died.

Speaker 48 I was on the phone and he got out of the car because it was working and he got scared and I told him to get back in, Sam.

Speaker 11 From a legal standpoint, the text message between Michelle and Samantha is probably the most damning evidence against Michelle.

Speaker 66 She didn't call the police, she didn't tell her parents, she didn't just say, stay out of the truck. He got out because he knew he was being poisoned.
And she ordered him back into the gas chamber.

Speaker 24 After three days, the prosecution rests its case, and now it's the defense's turn.

Speaker 2 The defense is going to call controversial psychiatrist Dr. Peter Bregan to the stand.

Speaker 58 I think she's going through a lot of very weird things inside her head.

Speaker 7 The Kmart parking lot where Conrad Roy's black truck was parked.

Speaker 7 Is it a crime scene or just a tragic site where a teenager took his own life?

Speaker 7 During the course of the trial, the judge pays a visit.

Speaker 66 We had what they call a view there. We all met at the parking lot and we explained this is where the police were standing when they did this and that in order for the judge to see it.

Speaker 7 And right there, Michelle Carter.

Speaker 66 I don't know how she felt knowing that that was the place where Conrad had died.

Speaker 11 The prosecution in their case has just finished showing Michelle to be kind of devil on Conrad's shoulder, pushing him towards suicide.

Speaker 11 The defense is going to have to pull back that imagery and show Michelle didn't really push him towards anything he wasn't going to do on his own.

Speaker 7 Tell me a little bit about Michelle.

Speaker 80 She was at the time a nice person, but struggling with mental health issues.

Speaker 56 And people have to understand that.

Speaker 80 Mental health struck Michelle Cotter as well.

Speaker 24 The heart of the defense is basically Conrad and Michelle were this troubled team together. That she wasn't malicious, but that she was just as troubled as he was.

Speaker 2 The defense begins their case by calling a Matapoisette police officer to the stand. Morning, sir.
Good morning.

Speaker 2 And they detail some domestic abuse issues within Conrad's home.

Speaker 25 I responded to an assault call, sir. We attempted to find the person that had been assaulted.

Speaker 57 Conrad Roy III.

Speaker 25 His face was swollen, red, and he had some lacerations to his face.

Speaker 14 He had a falling out with his father, and they had gotten a physical altercation. His father was arrested, but not prosecuted.

Speaker 2 The defense really wanted to paint the picture that Conrad had a lot going on in his personal life that didn't involve Michelle Carter in any way, and that could have led to a lot of his depression and ultimately his suicide.

Speaker 66 Conrad did not kill himself because he had an argument with his dad. That wasn't it.

Speaker 66 That's part of the, let's try to beat up on everybody else except for the person who's actually responsible for what happened.

Speaker 2 The defense is going to call controversial psychiatrist Dr. Peter Bregan to the stand.

Speaker 24 Dr. Peter Bregan is a psychiatrist who has made a cause of criticizing doctors who prescribe certain drugs to teens, in particular, antidepressants.

Speaker 12 How could the girl who's most likely to brighten your day encourage her boyfriend to take his life?

Speaker 58 The short explanation is she thought that was the only way to help him.

Speaker 22 There's no question she really did want to help Conrad.

Speaker 14 The defense needs to explain when that switch flipped. right in early July.
Like, why did she all of a sudden start encouraging him?

Speaker 58 She didn't want him to take his life. She said, you don't want to take your life.

Speaker 81 You don't want to. She said this to him for two years.

Speaker 27 Until she eventually says, do it.

Speaker 58 She said, if that's what you want, do it.

Speaker 43 She breaks.

Speaker 58 She breaks under his pressure, under the drugs.

Speaker 30 Dr.

Speaker 2 Peter Bregan introduced the theory of involuntary intoxication.

Speaker 58 She has an involuntary intoxication where she is not forming a criminal intent.

Speaker 6 I'm going to harm him.

Speaker 58 She feels definitively that she's done a good thing.

Speaker 2 The defense was trying to present a case to say that the medications Michelle was taking affected her decision-making and that's partially why she was encouraging Conrad to kill himself.

Speaker 50 If I may approach the witness, Your Honor.

Speaker 71 So on cross-examination, the prosecution grilled Dr.

Speaker 2 Bregan.

Speaker 50 This is the DSM-5 for the record I'm handing the witness.

Speaker 71 Asking him whether the term involuntary intoxication was actually a thing.

Speaker 50 I'm asking you to please find involuntary intoxication so we can go over what the subject is.

Speaker 58 Oh, there's no involuntary intoxication. Yeah, it's a legal term.

Speaker 69 Then

Speaker 50 what are you diagnosing her with? If you're saying she's involuntarily intoxicated, what is the diagnosis for her?

Speaker 58 Oh, she has a drug intoxication,

Speaker 58 which I believe is involuntary.

Speaker 73 What I see there is a young girl who is struggling to deal with his suicidal thinking. I have to do this.
You need to help me. So she finally succumbs to his wishes.
Go ahead and just do it.

Speaker 73 If this is what you really want, then do it.

Speaker 58 I think she's going through a lot of very weird things inside her head, very disturbed things.

Speaker 83 I think in fairness to both, to all of you, I'll give each of you 40 minutes for your closing.

Speaker 56 Thank you very much, Your Honor.

Speaker 2 For closing remarks, what both sides tried to do was just get that raw emotion. So for the defense, Joseph Cataldo really hammered home that Michelle Carter wasn't physically present.

Speaker 75 It was a suicide brought about by his own physical actions.

Speaker 57 He accomplished what he wanted.

Speaker 75 He dragged Michelle Carter into this, Your Honor.

Speaker 2 The prosecutors really relied on the fact that she didn't need to physically be there to encourage him and keep him in that truck when it was filling up with carbon monoxide.

Speaker 2 She was there on the phone.

Speaker 50 It's a new day and age, Your Honor. And the phones that we have now allow you to be virtually present with somebody.
People fall in love on the internet and via text.

Speaker 50 People bully via text and the internet. And you can encourage someone to die via text.
And you can commit a crime via text.

Speaker 75 Michelle Cotta did not kill Conrad Roy. It's sad, it's tragic, but it's just not a homicide.

Speaker 50 She absolutely knew it was wrong and she absolutely caused the death of this 18-year-old boy. And I ask you to find her guilty.

Speaker 84 Verdict wants continues in the Michelle Carter trial this morning.

Speaker 11 With closing arguments done, now it's up to a single judge to decide whether Michelle Carter is guilty or not guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

Speaker 7 The judge's verdict, verdict.

Speaker 52 Will he decide that words can kill?

Speaker 25 If the judge had written this for maximum dramatic tension, I don't think he could have done a better job.

Speaker 4 The judge announcing earlier today he has reached his verdict, and in less than 24 hours, he'll reveal Carter's fate.

Speaker 14 The judge took three days to render his decision, and once again, all eyes are on that courtroom.

Speaker 7 There was a lot of anticipation, and I remember pulling up to the Taunton courthouse with my crew. There were cameras everywhere, everybody was talking about this case.

Speaker 7 And America seemed to be pretty split.

Speaker 73 Could words kill?

Speaker 7 We were about to find out.

Speaker 14 it was a packed courtroom and many relatives of conrad roy were filling the first couple of rows the right side the first few rows filled with conrad roy's relatives the left side michelle carter's parents the judge could have just given his verdict like a jury does guilty not guilty right but he's like i'm gonna give an explanation for my decision okay that could be good for either side to provide some context for the decisions that have been made as the judge begins to read his decision, Michelle Carter is visibly upset.

Speaker 2 She's crying, she's sobbing into her hand.

Speaker 41 This court first finds that the actions taken by Ms. Carter constituted wanton and reckless conduct by her.
The Commonwealth has not proven that said behavior caused the death of Mr.

Speaker 25 Roy. He starts off by saying that it was not reasonable behavior, but that didn't make him kill himself.

Speaker 2 Joseph Cataldo is comforting Michelle. He has his arm around her.

Speaker 25 I thought it was going very well.

Speaker 73 It sounded like he was going to acquit her.

Speaker 41 However, he breaks that chain of self-causation.

Speaker 2 But then the judge really changes course.

Speaker 41 When Miss Carter...

Speaker 11 And that's when you can see from the defense table, hearts start to drop.

Speaker 41 This court finds that instructing Mr. Roy to get back in the truck

Speaker 41 constituted wanton and reckless conduct by Miss Carter, creating a situation where there is a high degree of likelihood that substantial harm would result to Mr. Roy.

Speaker 25 If the judge had written this for maximum dramatic tension, I don't think he could have done a better job.

Speaker 25 For 15 minutes, this courtroom was dead silent.

Speaker 25 I could hear my pen scratching on my notepad when I was taking notes.

Speaker 15 She called no one, and finally,

Speaker 41 she did not issue a simple additional instruction. Get out of the truck.

Speaker 24 The judge was really focused on the fact that by not stopping him and continuing to encourage him, that that added to her legal responsibility.

Speaker 39 Ms. Carter, please stand.

Speaker 41 This court, having reviewed the evidence and applied the law thereto,

Speaker 41 now finds you guilty.

Speaker 66 I just felt relief and I felt that I could look at the Royce and not cry, basically.

Speaker 66 Before the trial, I would go and stop at that little shrine where Conrad died and just to remind myself of why we're doing this. This isn't about the media.

Speaker 66 This isn't about, you know, how evil is Michelle Carter. It's about the fact that this should never have happened.

Speaker 21 I felt a sense of peace. My son was heard and his voice was heard.
And

Speaker 21 for me, that is

Speaker 36 victory.

Speaker 48 Mr. Burr, what kind of relief are you feeling right now?

Speaker 15 I feel like you got a little clue for what?

Speaker 7 Do you regret not seating a jury?

Speaker 80 If I had to do it over again, I might pick 12 people in the box.

Speaker 2 In August of 2017, Michelle Carter was going to be sentenced for her conviction of involuntary manslaughter.

Speaker 71 At the sentencing, Conrad's family spoke about how it felt to have to go through this process and to not have Conrad anymore.

Speaker 2 His younger sister Camden read a statement. She was so emotional.
Your heart broke for her.

Speaker 15 Not a day goes by without him being my first thought waking up and my last thought going to bed.

Speaker 71 Conrad's father also spoke about missing his son.

Speaker 37 Where was her humanity?

Speaker 37 In what world is is behavior okay and acceptable?

Speaker 71 Michelle's father wrote a letter to the judge explaining that his daughter was troubled, had struggled with her own issues, and he pleaded with the judge for leniency.

Speaker 7 In it, he says, I hope you will consider a term of probation and continued counseling for her. She will forever live with what she has done, and I know will be a better person because of it.

Speaker 7 What do you want people to know about the Carter family? What are they dealing with at this moment?

Speaker 56 They feel for the Roy family.

Speaker 73 They really do.

Speaker 42 But they want people to know that they have a wonderful daughter who was struggling with her issues at the time and it's a sad set of circumstances.

Speaker 74 This is a tragedy for two families.

Speaker 17 Everyone is entitled.

Speaker 55 to a decision devoid of any emotion with respect to this case.

Speaker 16 The judge has the option of just sentencing her to probation, no jail time, or a maximum of 20 years in prison. Ms.

Speaker 55 Connor, a guilty finding haven't entered, now sentences you to two and a half years in the Bristol County House of Correction. 15 months of said sentence shall be deemed a committed sentence.

Speaker 21 15 months

Speaker 21 goes by in the blink of an eye, and I have a lifetime without my son.

Speaker 2 Many people maybe not familiar with the legal process were shocked that she wasn't immediately sent to jail.

Speaker 11 That's because the defense attorneys won an argument that pending an appeal, she would be a free person.

Speaker 66 And it was difficult for the family to understand: okay, now we've gone through a trial, we waited for the verdict, we got the verdict,

Speaker 66 now we have sentencing, and still she's walking free.

Speaker 37 You don't want to know our thoughts on her. No, you don't want it.

Speaker 15 You really don't want it.

Speaker 30 She has to live the rest of her life in her skin, as her

Speaker 30 one of the most hated people in the country.

Speaker 16 So

Speaker 9 good luck with that.

Speaker 14 No sooner is Michelle Carter's case tried and over than another, sort of similar case happens in Massachusetts.

Speaker 87 A former Boston college student now facing charges for encouraging her boyfriend to take his own life.

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Speaker 7 People were fascinated by this girl, Michelle Carter.

Speaker 23 Thank you all for coming.

Speaker 23 It means so much to see you all here for Conrad.

Speaker 7 And now, Michelle Carter is the subject of a Hulu Limited series called The Girl from Plainville.

Speaker 36 They've opened an investigation into your connection with the death of Conrad Roy.

Speaker 18 But I didn't do anything wrong.

Speaker 45 There are text messages, thousands of them.

Speaker 2 L Fanning is playing Michelle Carter.

Speaker 23 Everyone definitely had an opinion about this case. It definitely shocked the nation.

Speaker 65 Part of why I like being an actor was exploring kind of the psychology behind for Michelle in this case, what could bring her to do the things that she did.

Speaker 2 Chloe Sevigny depicts Lynn Roy.

Speaker 28 It was a very like deep exploration of grief and forgiveness and finding peace through tragedy.

Speaker 7 Neither the Roy's nor the Carters were involved in the making of the series, which dramatizes key moments from the story. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with them.

Speaker 7 Lynn told us that she hasn't seen the series, and she says she really wants to keep the focus not on Michelle, but on Conrad and on mental health awareness.

Speaker 2 The appeal process was

Speaker 2 something that we knew the defense was going to go through as soon as that verdict came down.

Speaker 16 Michelle Carter continues to live her life. So in those three years, despite all of this going on, she's been free on bail and has continued to do all the things that 17, 18, 19-year-olds have done.

Speaker 7 In February 2019, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court announced a decision on Michelle Carter's appeal.

Speaker 2 She walks into the courtroom. She had a short cropped haircut.
She had those signature eyebrows. She was very signifiable in her new look.

Speaker 71 Her defense lawyers said that Michelle's change in appearance was also a reflection of how she had changed personally.

Speaker 66 They upheld the conviction she had, by her wanton and reckless conduct, caused the death of Conrad Roy.

Speaker 7 Michelle is immediately taken into custody.

Speaker 7 She doesn't look back at her family. She doesn't say a word.

Speaker 57 She just quietly walks away.

Speaker 14 But no sooner is Michelle Carter's case tried and over than another sort of similar case happens in Massachusetts.

Speaker 2 Former Boston college student accused of encouraging her boyfriend to take his own life.

Speaker 87 These allegations echoing another Massachusetts case. Carter is now serving 15 months in prison.

Speaker 24 It's a similar-ish case in that you have

Speaker 24 someone

Speaker 24 who is

Speaker 24 writing horrible texts encouraging that person to take his life.

Speaker 14 A Boston college student jumped off the rooftop of a parking garage on the day of his graduation.

Speaker 7 In Young Yoo and Alexander Ortulla dated for about a year and a half.

Speaker 8 Like Michelle Carter, she was charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Speaker 14 Now, in Young Yoo's case, she wasn't charged with failing, omitting to act. It was the thousands and thousands of text messages that bullied this man into killing himself.

Speaker 24 In Young Yoo pled guilty to manslaughter and received a two and a half year suspended sentence and 10 years probation.

Speaker 14 I was pretty surprised to see a case so quickly after Michelle Carter's prosecuted, which makes me wonder:

Speaker 14 are are there a lot more out there?

Speaker 71 It's just really emblematic of the times that we're in in this digital age where young people and teenagers, much of their lives are over social media and text messages to communicate.

Speaker 14 Teen suicide has always been an issue, but There's no question that social media and cell phones and texting has caused young people to have a different type of relationship with each other.

Speaker 43 Online, you can't see the person's face. It's easy to put something out that you would never, ever do face to face.

Speaker 66 We have to know that our words matter and that something

Speaker 66 that can seem so trivial like a word can really impact people.

Speaker 7 Conrad's mom, Lynn, has a new mission. She wants to honor her son by changing the legal system.

Speaker 21 I will never stop loving him and I will never stop honoring him and carrying him with me.

Speaker 2 New developments in that case involving Michelle Carter.

Speaker 22 Well, she's getting out early for good behavior.

Speaker 18 23-year-old Michelle Carter leaving jail today more than three months earlier than expected.

Speaker 7 Since she came out of prison, we haven't seen much of Michelle Carter. She's kept a pretty low profile.
What can you tell us about Michelle's remorse and her feelings about what happened?

Speaker 75 She regrets it.

Speaker 42 She is remorseful over the situation, but she's got to come to grips with it.

Speaker 36 She understands.

Speaker 7 If you could say something to Michelle Carter,

Speaker 7 would you want to? No.

Speaker 30 Honestly, I got my personal closure that day when she was found guilty. As far as what happens after that,

Speaker 54 I'd be happy if I never heard her name or saw her face ever again.

Speaker 2 Massachusetts is one of the few states where there is no written law that says you cannot assist someone to commit suicide or encourage someone to commit suicide.

Speaker 7 Conrad Roy's mom is spearheading legislation that would make it a crime to encourage someone to take their own life.

Speaker 72 I would like to make one thing clear.

Speaker 31 Conrad's law has nothing to do with seeking justice for my son.

Speaker 72 This law has everything to do with preventing this from happening again to others who are struggling with mental illness.

Speaker 88 It makes it crystal clear that if you

Speaker 88 coerce someone into suicide, that there is clearly a crime and there will be a punishment. You can be held guilty and you can serve up to five years in prison for that act.

Speaker 21 My hope is to have something positive to come out of his passing and

Speaker 21 help others in the future.

Speaker 27 What do you miss most about Conrad?

Speaker 54 I miss him for my sister. I know how much he loved his mom and his sisters.

Speaker 89 I just try to watch over him like I know he'd want me to.

Speaker 21 Love never dies and I will never stop loving him and I will never stop honoring him in carrying him with me.

Speaker 89 There's been a lot of people who has even like reached out to me saying that Conrad's story has saved their lives. I think that's like a legacy in its own.

Speaker 54 Honestly, I think the world gained an angel. I think he's in his absence just making a huge impact on people's lives.

Speaker 28 He's happy.

Speaker 37 You can see him smiling.

Speaker 42 And we should note tonight that Michelle Carter is currently on probation, which is scheduled to end this summer. She declined to speak to ABC News.

Speaker 8 If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or you're worried about a loved one, help is available. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Speaker 52 Thanks for listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault. We hope you'll join us Friday nights at 9 on ABC for all new broadcast episodes.

Speaker 7 See you then.

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