Girlfriend Orders Boyfriend to Kill Himself Over Text and Gets Convicted of Involuntary Manslaughter
In 2014, Michelle Carter ordered her boyfriend, Conrad Roy to kill himself while the two were texting.
In 2014, Michelle Carter ordered her boyfriend, Conrad Roy to kill himself while the two were texting. The eighteen-year-old listened to Carter and killed himself. In 2017, seventeen-year-old Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
The Friendship
In 2012, both Carter and Roy were in Florida on vacation when they met. They became friends pretty quickly when they realized that they both lived in Massachusetts. At some point, they began to date, but their relationship mostly consisted of texting and they only visited each other a couple of times between 2012 and 2014.
Both Carter and Roy had histories of mental health problems, revealed by documents in court. Roy struggled with depression for years, causing him to try to commit suicide several times before, including overdosing on drugs, suffocating, and drowning.
In the beginning, Carter tried to help Roy and stop him from taking his own life. While they were texting in October of 2012, she told how much he had to live for, and asked him to seek professional help. Carter suggested the hospital at which she was treated for her eating disorder.
Carter’s tone changed, however, and by 2014, the two were talking about taking their own lives constantly. They considered the logistics of killing themselves, and even about what kind of machine could produce the most carbon monoxide.
Carter was no longer supportive and now would argue with Roy about why he should kill himself. He told her in 2014 how he thought that if he committed suicide, it would hurt his family and give his sisters and parents depression like he has now. However, Carted insisted that nothing could ever help him at this point, that he is beyond help and needs to kill himself to end it all.
That Night
On July 12th, 2014 in the early evening, Roy drove to a parking lot alone. He attached a hose to his car that allowed carbon monoxide to leak into his car.
Roy and Carter talked on the phone twice that night for an extended period of time. Carter told a different friend about what they talked about on the phone. Roy had apparently changed his mind at one point and gotten out of the car, saying that he changed his mind and was not ready to kill himself. Carter seemed rather fed up with Roy at this point and told him to get back into the toxic car. She stated that she did so because she knew he would keep trying to kill himself every day and she didn’t want him to keep living like that.
The Verdict
In February of 2015, Carter was arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter. She was found guilty on June 16th, 2017, and sentenced to two and a half years in prison, however, she was let out after only fifteen months on good behavior. She was put on probation which ended in 2022. Not much is known about where she is now. Carter has managed to stay out of the spotlight since her release.
Was it a Homicide?
Carter’s attorney had argued during the trial that Roy was going to kill himself no matter what and that his death could not be considered a homicide because of it. However, the judge focused on one specific thing that Carter texted roy: she told him to get back into the truck when he got out, attempting to save his own life. It was said that if it were not for Carter ordering him to follow through with the suicide, he would not have done it.
Others say that it was just cyberbullying. Because Roy had attempted to take his own life in the past, some argue that Carter had no reason to believe that he would follow through this time.
It was said that manslaughter was not the correct charge for Carter, so a new law was codified, known as Conrad’s Law, which makes coerced suicide a felony and also punishable by up to five years in prison. This includes a person who knows someone has suicidal tendencies and encouraging them to commit suicide. This law is still pending in the Massachusetts legislature as of September 2021.
Another argument during the trial brought up by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was that this charge goes against Carter’s first amendment right to free speech.
The trial brought up lots of discussions on what this age of digital technology could mean for cases like this. Children say things to each other that they don’t always think through and with depression and suicidal rates skyrocketing, this could be the first of many cases like this.
If someone makes a dumb comment about another person, and they kill themselves, did that person really commit manslaughter?
The Aftermath
Carter acted strangely after Roy died. She texted his sisters and asked if she could have some of his ashes because he apparently told her that she could have anything of his that she wanted. The family never gave her anything, despite her begging. Roy’s mother, Lynn Roy also said that she immediately suspected that Carter had something to do with his suicide because of the way she tried to console her and later, Carter revealed to Lynn that she knew that Roy was going to kill himself. It was even said during the trial, that she listened to him die on the phone.
The family finds Carter guilty, saying that she could have done something. She could have called the police, she could have called his family, she could have done something, but she didn’t. She wasn’t with him, so she didn’t have to see him as he died, she didn’t have to see his face. He was unsure about doing it, but she wasn’t. It’s possible that she thought he would always be in pain and that this was the only way to end it.