Conrad Roy III, a teen from .Massachusetts, was found dead in his car parked in a supermarket parking lot in Fairhaven, Massachusetts on July 13th 2014. Afterwards, text messages from his girlfriend were discovered on his phone and all of them were of her encouraging him to end his life (read
here).
Michelle Carter has now been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Conrad. Thousand of the text messages sent by Michelle, who was 17 at the time, to Conrad were entered into evidence in the trial and the judge saw them as a reason to convict her. A few of the text messages sent shortly before the suicide were released. On July 9th 2014 the pair sent a lot of text messages to each other as they planned the suicide.
"I could just do it in my driveway. But slight chance I'm found." he wrote to her on July 9.
"Don't do it in your driveway? You'll easily be found," She responded.
On July 11, Michelle told Conrad that his family will understand and accept why that he had to take his life. She wrote:
"I think your parents know you're in a really bad place. I'm not saying they want you to do it but I honestly feel like they can accept it. They know there's nothing they can do. They've tried helping, everyone's tried. But there's a point that comes where there isn't anything anyone can do to save you, not even yourself, and you've hit that point and I think your parents know you've hit that point. You said your mom saw the suicide thing on your computer and she didn't say anything. I think she knows it's on your mind, and she's prepared for it."
On July 12, which was the day he died, at 9:52 a.m., Michelle wrote to Conrad:
"You're so hesitant because you keep overthinking it and pushing it off. You just need to do it Conrad. The more you push it off, the more it will eat at you."
That same day, at 9;53 a.m., she wrote:
"You're ready and prepared. All you have to do is turn the generator on and you be free and happy. No more pushing it off, no more waiting."
At 5:14 p.m., Conrad wrote to Michelle,: "Idkk I'm stressin,"
At 5:15 p.m., she replied:
"You're fine it's gonna be okay. You just gotta do it babe, you can't think about it."
During his final moments, Conrad became hesitant again and texted Michelle at 6:09 p.m., saying:
"I know I'm overthinking, I've been overthinking for a while now.
At 6:11, Michelle responded: "I know, you just have to do it like you said." At 6:19, she wrote again: "Are you gonna do it now."
At 6:20, Michelle wrote to Conrad: "Okay. You can do this."
Conrad's body was found the next day, On July 13th. The immediate cause of his death was listed as acute carbon monoxide intoxication. Turns out Conrad put a running gas powered water pump in his car then wound up the windows. Immediately after it became clear Conrad was dead, Michelle sent a message to one of their friends, telling of how she had encouraged him to go through with the suicide.
"I was on the phone with him and he got out of the car because it was working and he got scared and I f****** told him to get back in Sam," Michelle sent to one of her friends, Samantha Boardman, after Conrad's death.
The judge who convicted Michelle said her actions were "wanton and reckless", hence the guilty verdict. She will be sentenced on August 3 2017.
