Here’s Where Michelle Carter Is Now & if She’s Still Jail For Causing Her Boyfriend’s Suicide
Since the “Texting Suicide Case,” there have been questions about where Michelle Carter is now and if she’s still in jail for the death of her boyfriend, Conrad Henri Roy III.
Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2017 after a judge ruled that she caused the death of her boyfriend, Conrad Henri Roy III, who died in 2014 by suicide. The case, which became known as the “Texting Suicide Case,” involved thousands of text messages, emails and phone calls between the teenagers that were used as evidence to prove Carter’s part in Roy’s suicide. Since the case made national news, there have also been several television and movie projects based on Carter and Roy’s story, including Hulu’s 2022 miniseries, The Girl From Plainville, in which Elle Fanning, who also executive produces the series, stars as Carter.
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“You can’t judge,” Fanning told Deadline at the time about why she wanted to produce The Girl From Plainville. “Part of the reason why I like being an actor…is exploring the psychology behind, Michelle in this case, what could bring her to do the things that she did.” She continued, “I felt very close to her and the young people in this story…We’re seeing the effects of this now, and how modern this story truly is and how that effects your mental health (which) was something, I wanted to dive into.”
Watch ‘The Girl From Plainville’ $6.99+
Fanning also told reporters at the 2022 Television Critics Association’s winter press tour in March 2022 about why she was interested in Carter and Roy’s story. “I think for me what attracted me to the project in the first place was I’m a young person living today and that relationship that I have with technology, and with my phone, and with kind of that false sense of intimacy, and false sense of reality that that creates,” she said. “I grew up in high school with kind of that obsession and I’d look at my phone every morning. We all do. And, for me, it was diving deeper into how technology affected these two people. Especially with Michelle, she was very much alone. And meeting Conrad, that relationship sparked that kind of instant gratification that you feel. That can be a dark place to live in.”
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So where is Michelle Carter now? Read on for what happened to Michelle Carter and if she’s still in jail after her conviction for Conrad Roy’s death.
What happened to Michelle Carter?
What happened to Michelle Carter? Carter was 17 years old when she was indicted and arraigned in Taunton, Massachusetts on charges of involuntary manslaughter on February 4, 2015. Carter was charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Conrad Henri Roy III, her 18-year-old boyfriend who died by suicide on July 13, 2014, after he poisoned himself with carbon monoxide fumes in his truck in the parking lot of a Kmart in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Roy and Carter met in Florida in 2012 while visiting their respective relatives. Though they lived only 35 miles away from each other in the suburbs of Boston Massachusetts, they communicated mostly by text and email and only saw each other five times since they met.
Both Carter and Roy had a history of mental health issues and were on prescribed antidepressants. Carter suffered from an eating disorder, while Roy had tried to commit suicide once before his death. At the start of their relationship, Carter encouraged Roy to seek treatment for his depression and anxiety. “The mental hospital would help you,” she texted him on June 19, 2014, according to HBO’s 2019 documentary, I Love You, Now Die:The Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter. “I know you don’t think it would but I’m telling you, if you give them a chance, they can save your life.” In a text on June 23, 2014, Carter texted Roy to “please” not harm himself. “What is harming yourself gonna do!? Nothing! It will make it worse!” she texted, to which Roy responded, “Make the pain go away like you said” She wrote back, “It will make the pain go away temporarily, but when you’re done, you’ll just regret it and feel even worse!”
As their relationship continued, however, Carter’s attitude toward Roy’s suicidal ideation took a turn. On July 8, 2014, Carter asked Roy if he was “sure” he didn’t want to commit suicide that night. “I’ll stay up with you if you want to [commit suicide] tonight,” she texted him. When Roy responded that “another day wouldn’t hurt,” Carter wrote back, “You can’t keep pushing it off, tho, that’s all you keep doing,” A few days later, on July 11, 2014, Carter told Roy that he should use a generator in his truck rather than a water pump to kill himself. “Well in my opinion, I think u should do the generator because I don’t know much about the pump and with a generator u can’t fail” she wrote. Carter continued to encourage Roy to commit suicide in texts throughout July 2014. “SEE THAT’S WHAT I MEAN. YOU KEEP PUSHING IT OFF! You just said you were gonna do it tonight and now you’re saying eventually…” she wrote in one text. “But I bet you’re gonna be like ‘oh, it didn’t work because I didn’t tape the tube right or something like that’ … I bet you’re gonna say an excuse like that,” she wrote in another.
In another text in July 2014, Carter told Roy that his family would “accept” his death if he killed himself. “I think your parents know you’re in a really bad place. Im not saying they want you to do it, but I honestly feel like they can accept it,” she wrote. “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 you’re mom saw a 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.” She continued, “Everyone will be sad for a while, but they will get over it and move on. They won’t be in depression I won’t let that happen. They know how sad you are and they know that you’re doing this to be happy, and I think they will understand and accept it. They’ll always carry u in their hearts.”
When Roy expressed doubts about his suicide plans days before he killed himself, Carter talked him back into his plans. “I thought you wanted to do this. The time is right and you’re ready, you just need to do it! You can’t keep living this way. You just need to do it like you did last time and not think about it and just do it babe. You can’t keep doing this every day,” she texted. On July 12, 2014, the day before Roy’s body was found, Carter told Roy that she didn’t think he would ever kill himself because he hadn’t done it yet. “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,” she texted. She continued, “Conrad. Last night was it. You keep pushing it off and you say you’ll do it but u never do. Its always gonna be that way if u don’t take action. You’re just making it harder on yourself by pushing it off, you just have to do it.”
When Roy told Carter that he still planned to kill himself “eventually” but was going back to sleep, Carter told him that early morning was the “best time” for him to commit suicide because his family was asleep. “Its probably the best time now because everyone’s sleeping. Just go somewhere in your truck. And no one’s really out right now because it’s an awkward time,” she texted. Later that day, Roy texted Carter that he planned to kill himself that day. “Okay I’m gonna do it today,” he texted, to which Carter responded, “Do you promise.” He wrote back, “I promise babe.” Roy then texted Carter, “I have to now” and asked, “Where do I go? :(” Carter then recommended that he find a parking lot to commit the act. “U can’t break a promise. And just go in a quiet parking lot or something,” she wrote in one of her last texts to him.
At 6:19 p.m. on July 12, 2014, Roy texted Carter that he was leaving his house. At 6:28 p.m., Roy called Carter and they talked on the phone for 43 minutes. At 7:12 p.m., Roy called Carter again and they spoke for another 47 minutes. That call to Carter was the last phone call Roy ever made. In a text to a friend after Roy’s death, Carter revealed that Roy told her he had doubts about killing himself minutes before he died and tried to leave his car, but Carter convinced him to get back in. Roy was found dead in his truck in a Kmart parking lot a day later on July 13, 2014.
On June 16, 2017, Carter was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in Roy’s death. Though the prosecution used Carter’s texts to prove her role in Roy’s suicide, the judge ruled that it was Carter’s phone calls with Roy while he was in his truck that caused the teenager’s death. The judge found that Roy had broken the “chain of self-causation” toward his suicide when he left his truck, but it was Carter’s encouragement for him to return to his vehicle that caused his death. Carter was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison and five years of probation on August 3, 2017.
Where is Michelle Carter now?
Where is Michelle Carter now? After two years of appeals, Carter started serving her sentence, which was reduced to 15 months, on February 11, 2019. While she was in prison, Carter continued to fight for her innocence. She requested a parole hearing for early release, but her request was denied by the parole board on September 20, 2019. Carter’s lawyers also petitioned the case to the Supreme Court of the United States in July 2019 based on the First Amendment and Fifth Amendment. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case in January 2020.
Carter was released from early prison on January 23, 2020, due to good behavior. Her release came three months before her sentence was set to end. “Ms. Carter has been a model inmate in Bristol County. 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,” Jonathan Darling, a spokesperson for the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office, said in a statement at the time. According to Darling, Carter enjoyed gardening while in prison and served food in the “chow hall.”
While Carter has stayed out of the public eye since her release, there have been several projects made about her and Roy’s story. In 2018, Lifetime released a movie titled Conrad & Michelle: If Words Could Kill. In 2019, HBO released its two-part documentary, I Love You Now Die: The Commonwealth Vs. Michelle Carter. In 2022, Hulu released its miniseries, The Girl From Plainville, in which Elle Fanning plays Carter. Carter’s probation ends on August 1, 2022. Under her parole conditions, Carter is prohibited from profiting off of the interest around her and Roy’s case. When her parole ends, however, she will be able to make money from her story.
The Girl From Plainville is available to stream on Hulu. Here’s how else to watch it for free.
Watch ‘The Girl From Plainville’ $0+
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