Death of Conrad Roy

Conrad Henri Roy III was born September 12, 1995, in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, and worked in his family's marine salvage business. He was a high school athlete who graduated with a 3.88 GPA and had earned his boat captain's license. Roy had a history of mental health struggles, including social anxiety and depression, had seen multiple therapists, was prescribed the antidepressant citalopram, and had previously attempted suicide, including an overdose at age 17. According to court documents, Roy had allegedly experienced physical abuse by his father and verbal abuse by his grandfather.

Roy met Michelle Carter, who lived roughly 35 miles away, in Florida in 2012. Over the following two years the two mostly communicated through text messages and emails rather than in person. Carter initially discouraged Roy's expressed suicidal intentions and urged him to seek professional help, but by July 2014 her messages shifted toward encouraging him to go through with it. On June, 2014 texts referenced a "Romeo and Juliet" idea implying a mutual pact around dying.

On July 12, 2014, Roy died by suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning in his truck in a Kmart parking lot in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. His funeral was held on July 19, 2014, at St. Anthony's Church in Mattapoisett, and a scholarship fund was later established in his memory at the Northeast Maritime Institute.

Michelle Carter was indicted on involuntary manslaughter charges on February 4, 2015, and prosecuted as a "youthful offender." Legal challenges to the indictment, including on First Amendment grounds, were rejected by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on July 1, 2016. Carter waived her right to a jury trial, and the case was heard by Judge Lawrence Moniz in Bristol County Juvenile Court. On June 16, 2017, Moniz found Carter guilty, concluding that while the preceding text messages were not the deciding factor, Carter's phone call urging Roy to get back into his truck as it filled with carbon monoxide caused his death, breaking what the judge called Roy's "chain of self-causation" once he had exited the vehicle.

Carter was sentenced on August 3, 2017, to two and a half years, with 15 months to serve and the remainder suspended, plus five years of probation; the sentence was stayed pending appeal. On February 6, 2019, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld the conviction, finding Carter acted with criminal intent. She began serving her sentence on February 11, 2019, and a parole request for early release was denied on September 20, 2019. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear her appeal in January 2020. Carter was released on January 23, 2020, after serving 11 months and 12 days due to good-conduct credit.

In August 2017, Roy's mother Lynn Roy filed a $4.2 million wrongful death civil suit against Carter; it was later reported as resolved and dismissed with prejudice and without costs, consistent with an out-of-court settlement. The case drew extensive media coverage, including a CBS 48 Hours episode, an NBC Dateline episode, a Lifetime telefilm, and an HBO documentary, and raised broader legal questions about criminal responsibility for encouraging suicide through digital communication.