Conrad Roy

Conrad Henri Roy III (September 12, 1995 – July 12, 2014) was an American man who died by suicide at the age of 18.

His girlfriend, 17-year-old Michelle Carter, had encouraged him in text messages to kill himself.

The case was the subject of a investigation and involuntary manslaughter trial in Massachusetts, colloquially known as the "texting suicide case."

It involved scores of text messages, emails, and phone calls recorded between Carter and Roy in the lead up to his death, in which Carter repeatedly texted Roy to kill himself; Roy had seen numerous mental health professionals and had been prescribed psychiatric medication.

After a bench trial, presiding judge Lawrence Moniz found Carter guilty of involuntary manslaughter, concluding that she wanted Roy dead and that her words coerced him to kill himself.

Moniz's decision rested chiefly on Carter's final phone call in which she ordered a terrified Roy to go back inside his truck as it filled with carbon Monoxide.

Initially sentenced to 2½ years in prison, Carter had her penalty later reduced to 15 months, of which she served 11 months and 12 days.

The case raised questions pertaining to the nature and limits of criminal responsibility.

Conrad Roy was born on September 12, 1995, in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts.

He worked with his father, grandfather, and uncle for several years in his family's marine salvage business, Tucker-Roy Marine Towing and Salvage, Inc., in the New England area.

Michelle Carter was born on August 11, 1996, in Massachusetts to Gail and David Carter.

She went to King Philip Regional High School, in Wrentham.

Carter and Conrad Roy met in Florida in 2012 while each had been visiting relatives.

After this initial encounter, they saw each other in person again only a handful of times over the course of two years, despite having lived only about 35 mi away from each other.

Instead, they mostly exchanged text messages and emails.

According to court documents, Roy had allegedly been physically hit by his father and verbally abused by his grandfather.

He attempted suicide in October 2012, after the divorce of his parents.

After learning that he was planning to kill himself, Carter repeatedly discouraged him in 2012 and 2014, and encouraged him to "get professional help."

In the Spring of 2014, he earned his captain's license from the Northeast Maritime Institute by completing three months of night classes.

In June 2014 he graduated on the Honor Roll (highest grades) from Old Rochester Regional High School (ORR) in Mattapoisett.

He was a high school athlete who played baseball, rowed crew, and ran track.

He graduated with a 3.88 GPA and was accepted to Fitchburg State University to study business, which he never attended.

In 2014 she was prescribed citalopram, also known as Celexa, to treat anxiety and depression.

However, her attitude changed in July 2014, when she started thinking that it would be a good thing "to help him die."

In June, Roy texted Carter suggesting they act like Romeo and Juliet, which implied that they both agreed to killing themselves.

Roy struggled with social anxiety and depression for which he had seen several therapists and counselors, including a cognitive behavioral therapist in the weeks prior to his death.

He had been hospitalized for an acetaminophen (paracetamol) overdose at the age of 17; he was talking to a girl he had met in a group and she called the police.

Like Carter, he had also been taking the antidepressant citalopram In the United States, citalopram carries a boxed warning stating it may increase suicidal thinking and behavior in those under age 24.

On Saturday, July 12, 2014, following digital exchanges with Carter, Roy died by suicide by poisoning himself with carbon Monoxide fumes in his truck in a Kmart parking lot in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.

Roy's funeral was held on Saturday, July 19, 2014, at St. Anthony's Church in Mattapoisett.

The Captain Conrad H. Roy III Scholarship Fund at the Northeast Maritime Institute in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, was established in his memory.

Michelle Carter was indicted on February 4, 2015, and arraigned the following day in New Bedford Juvenile Court in Taunton, Massachusetts on charges of involuntary manslaughter.

The grand jury found enough to charge her with "wantonly and recklessly" assisting the suicide.

She was 17 at the time and the court indicted her as a "youthful offender" rather than a "juvenile," meaning she could be sentenced as an adult.

In June 2015, a district court judge denied a defense motion to remove the Bristol County District Attorney's office from the prosecution.

The defense argued that DA Thomas M. Quinn III should be removed because he is first cousin to Roy's grandmother Janice Roy and therefore Conrad's first cousin twice removed.

However, Quinn had already handed the case over to Deputy DA William McCauley.

In 2016 the judge had refused the defense's request for funds to hire an expert on Celexa, describing it as 'speculative'.

Videos that Roy made of himself talking to a camera formed an important part of the case.

On July 1, 2016 an appeal of the grand jury indictment, to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court was also denied, allowing the case to go forward.