Where Is Michelle Carter Now? Inside Her Life, 11 Years After Encouraging Her Boyfriend to Kill Himself

NEED TO KNOW

• Michelle Carter encouraged her alleged boyfriend, Conrad Roy III, to die by suicide in 2014

• The infamous case ended in her conviction for involuntary manslaughter and sentencing

• Now, Carter and Roy’s story has set a legal precedent and inspired multiple TV shows

Michelle Carter went from a grieving girlfriend to a convicted criminal in the 2014 death of her alleged boyfriend, Conrad Roy III — and the only evidence was thousands of text messages.

Roy’s death initially looked like a tragic teen suicide: The Massachusetts teen died on July 12, 2014, from carbon monoxide poisoning.

However, the 18-year-old’s untimely death quickly evolved into a complex and controversial case. During the investigation, detectives uncovered more than 1,000 chilling texts between Carter, who was 17 at the time, and Roy. From 2012 to 2014, she attempted to discourage his death by suicide but eventually urged him to complete the act of violence and declined to notify anyone when he did, per The New York Times.

“It was one of those things where you keep reading and it just keeps getting worse. And that’s what kinda put everything in motion,” Fairhaven Police Detective Scott Gordon said in an episode of Dateline: Reckless.

As a result, Carter was charged with involuntary manslaughter in February 2015. She was ultimately found guilty a little over two years later and was sentenced to 15 months in prison.

She was released after 11 months in January 2020 and has maintained a low profile since returning to her home in Massachusetts. But while Carter, who is now 28, may be avoiding the spotlight, her story has gained widespread media attention over the years.

So, where is Michelle Carter now? Here’s a look at her life over a decade after Conrad Roy III died by suicide.

Who is Michelle Carter?

Born Aug. 11, 1996, Carter is the daughter of David and Gail Carter, a sales manager and a home stager, respectively, according to Esquire. She grew up in Plainville, Mass., a suburban town between Providence, R.I., and Boston.

As a teen, Carter struggled with mental illness. In 2014, she was switched from the antidepressant Prozac to Celexa and, in June of that year, she was admitted to McLean Hospital — a psychiatric facility in Belmont, Mass. — for treatment for anorexia.

Socially, Carter struggled to find a group to belong to, according to friends of hers at King Philip Regional High School in Wrentham, Mass.

“People walked all over her,” Carter’s friend Evan Andrews told Esquire. “Michelle wanted the confidence she saw others having.”

Were Michelle Carter and Conrad Roy III dating?

Despite living an hour apart in Massachusetts — Roy in Fairhaven and Carter in Plainville — the teens first met in February 2012 in Naples, Fla. According to Esquire, Carter was visiting her grandparents, and Roy was visiting his great-aunt a few doors down. They spent time together on vacation and continued their relationship when they returned home to Massachusetts.

Over the next two years, Roy and Carter saw each other in person no more than five times, according to his mom, but the two kept in touch with hours of phone calls, emails and text messages. In their conversations, Roy opened up to Carter about his previous suicide attempts (he had tried to die by suicide at least four times before he died in 2014, per The New York Times).

The two bonded over taking antidepressants and shared mental health struggles (Roy also struggled with social anxiety and depression).

By the summer of 2014, Carter reportedly asked Roy about their relationship status, texting things like “Are we basically dating?” and “I want to be able to say I was your girlfriend.” Roy responded by telling Carter, “Yes you are.” However, Roy’s parents were unaware that he was in a relationship with anyone at the time of his death.

On July 12, 2014, Roy died by suicide in a Kmart parking lot. Authorities found his body the following day.

What was Michelle Carter charged with?

Carter was charged with involuntary manslaughter in February 2015 for allegedly convincing Roy to die by suicide via text message. She denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty.

Police leveled the manslaughter charges against Carter after uncovering more than 1,000 text messages between her and Roy. In the texts, she reportedly “strongly influenced his decision to take his own life, encouraged him to commit suicide and guided him in his engagement of activities which led to his death,” according to a statement from the Bristol District Attorney’s office.

Carter suggested several methods for Roy to die by suicide, and in the hours prior to his death, she urged him to follow through with his suicide plan, writing: “You’re ready and prepared. All you have to do is turn the generator on and you [will] be free and happy. No more pushing it off. No more waiting.”

More damning texts include messages that Carter sent to Roy’s mother, Lynn, and a friend, Samantha Boardman, in the days following his death. She wrote to Boardman on July 21, 2014, that if police or relatives read her text exchanges with Roy, she would be “done.”

“His family will hate me and I could go to jail,” Carter continued in her message to Boardman.

Carter also texted Lynn on July 25, 2014, writing, “It’s my fault. And it’s something I’ll never forgive myself for.”

The criminal charge and subsequent court case set legal precedent, as the prosecution was attempting to prove that blame for Roy’s death could be verbal, not physical. Carter’s defense, however, argued unsuccessfully that her “only role in this is words” and even moved for dismissal on the grounds that the texts were free speech and, therefore, protected by the First Amendment.

What was Michelle Carter convicted of?

Carter faced a criminal trial for the involuntary manslaughter charge in June 2017. Though thousands of text messages were presented during the 10-day trial, the precedent-setting case came down to an exchange that Carter had with her friend, Boardman, after Roy’s death by suicide.

According to the text message, Roy allegedly tried to abort his suicide attempt by exiting the truck at one point, telling Carter, who was supposedly on the phone with him at the time, that he was scared and didn’t want to abandon his family. Carter reportedly responded by telling him to “get back in” and see through his initial plan.

“His death was my fault he got out of the car, and I told him to get back in because I knew he would do it all over again the next day,” Carter wrote to Boardman.

While the hundreds of text messages from Carter encouraging Roy’s suicidal planning were “deliberate and reckless,” according to Judge Lawrence Moniz, they did not cause his death. However, it was her instructions to Roy to “get back in” his pickup truck — which had become a “toxic environment inconsistent with human life” — and her failure to notify anyone else of Roy’s suicide that ultimately led to Judge Moniz’s guilty verdict of involuntary manslaughter.

“She [instructed] Mr. Roy to get back into the truck, well-knowing of all of the feelings that he [had] exchanged with her: his ambiguities, his fears, his concerns,” Moniz said as he read his decision to the court.

And after Roy re-entered his vehicle, “She did nothing. She did not call the police or Mr. Roy’s family,” Moniz continued. “Finally, she did not issue a simple additional instruction [to Roy]: ‘Get out of the truck.’ ”

How long did Michelle Carter spend in prison?

Though Carter faced up to 20 years in prison, she was sentenced to 15 months in jail. She was allowed to remain free while her attorney appealed her case — but after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld her conviction in February 2019, Carter was ordered to begin her prison sentence.

In July 2019, Carter’s legal team appealed her conviction and sentence to the U.S. Supreme Court. That September, after seven months behind bars, Carter asked the parole board for an early release. Both requests were ultimately denied: She was denied parole, with the board stating she “lacked sincerity,” and the Supreme Court declined to hear Carter’s appeal.

However, Carter did not serve her full 15-month sentence. She was released from prison on Jan. 23, 2020 — three months early — for what is called “good time” credit, a program where inmates can take up to 10 days off their sentence per month for exemplary behavior, attending programs and classes and working inside the jail, as sheriff’s office spokesman Jonathan Darling told PEOPLE.

Where is Michelle Carter now?

Details about Carter’s whereabouts and life post-prison are scarce. Since her release from the Bristol County House of Corrections in January 2020, Carter has only been spotted once outside of her Plainville home — doing yard work in April 2022, according to photos obtained by the New York Post.

Carter’s probation ended on Aug. 1, 2022, as the Massachusetts Probation Service confirmed to MassLive.  When her probation ended, so did its terms, which included a condition prohibiting Carter from profiting from her story or the case.

Despite the conditions being lifted, Carter has yet to speak out publicly regarding Roy’s death and her subsequent conviction.

What are the implications of Michelle Carter’s conviction?

Though Carter’s conviction is now in the past, the legal ramifications of her case have the ability to affect what constitutes a criminal act going forward.

Martin Healy, chief legal counsel to the Massachusetts Bar Association, said in a statement that Carter’s conviction will have “national implications.” Healy added that “seemingly remote and distant communications … could rise to the level of criminal culpability” as a result of Carter’s case. Matthew Segal‏, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, also warned that Carter’s guilty verdict could threaten free speech statewide.

But one person looking to use Carter’s case to effect legal change is Roy’s mother, Lynn. Since Carter was found guilty in connection with her son’s death, Lynn has been working to criminalize suicide coercion in Massachusetts.

The legislation, dubbed “Conrad’s Law,” would impose a punishment of up to five years for anyone convicted of pressuring another to die by suicide. Massachusetts is currently one of only eight U.S. states that do not criminalize suicide coercion. As of August 2023, the bill was awaiting passage in the state House of Representatives, according to the Fall River Reporter.

“With this tragedy, my son would want me to help other people, other families,” Lynn told PEOPLE. “If we get the law passed — when we do — that’s going to be a win for me, for him. I just want my son to be proud of me.”

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.

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