onlya handfulofface-to-facemeetings,
CartercametothinkofherselfasRoy’s
girlfriend.Amongthethingstheyshared
wasa historyoftakingprescriptionanti-
depressants, and each had tried tokill
themselves before Roy succeededon
July 12, 2014.
Although Carter was nowherenear
Roy before his body was found inthecab
of his truck parked outside a Kmartin
Fairhaven, Massachusetts, the investigation
into his death took an unprecedentedturn
when police discovered text messages–
eventually more than 1000 over atwo-year
period – that appeared to show Carter
encouraging Roy to end his life.
The messages paint a horrifyingportrait:
Carter listed potential methods andadvice
on how best to succeed as well asoffering
motivation: “You just need to do it,Conrad,”
reads one text. “The more you pushitoff,the
more it will eat at you.”
Five years after Conrad’s
death, a two-part documentary
I Love You, Now Die: The
Commonwealth v. Michelle
Carter (airing on Fox Showcase)
aims to re-examine the chilling
case. “I was disgusted by
Michelle, like many people,”
documentary filmmaker Erin LeeCarr
tells WHO. “I think the better wordwould
be, I was very disturbed.”
In 2017, Massachusetts’ BristolCounty
Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz
convicted Carter of involuntary
manslaughter, noting she crosseda legalline- and assumed fault – after Roy panickedand
got out of the vehicle. “His deathismyfault,
like, honestly, I could have stoppedhim,”
Carter allegedly recounted in a message
to a friend months after the event.“Iwas
on the phone with him and he gotoutofthe
car because it was working and hegotscared
and I f--king told him to get backin.”
In doing so, “Carter’s actions andalsoher
failure to act where she had a self-created
duty to Mr Roy since she had puthiminthat
toxic environment, constituted eachandall
wanton and reckless conduct,” Monizsaid.
“She [instructed] Mr Roy to get backintothe
truck,well-knowingofallofthefeelingsthat
he[had]exchangedwithher:hisambiguities,
hisfears,hisconcerns.Shedidnothing.She
didnotcallthepoliceorMrRoy’sfamily.”
Dr Peter Breggin, a clinical psychiatrist
who worked for Carter’s defence lawyers,
argues that a distraught Carter may have
fictively accepted the blame as a way to deal
with her own grief. “This was said in a state
of morbid upset,” he tells WHO. “There’s no
reason to believe that her statement wasn’t
another aspect of her disturbed mind.”
An appeal in February 2019 to the
Massachusetts state appeals court – in
which Carter’s defence argued prosecutors
had “cherry-picked” her messages – was
rejected, and Carter began serving a
15-month sentence.
On July 8, Carter’s legal team took their
appeal to the US Supreme Court, revisiting
a prior argument that Carter’s statements
to Roy were covered by First Amendment
free-speech protections,
and that she shouldn’t be
found guilty for a crime
through words alone.
Carter’s case marks a
controversial development in
US criminal law. (Although
exact laws vary nationwide,
in Australia, it is already a crime to incite,
counsel or aid another person to commit
suicide.) Whether Carter’s conduct would
constitute a more serious crime such as
manslaughter would depend on whether her
long-distance bullying could be proven to have
“substantively contributed” to the suicide.
From a high schooler portrayed by
classmates in the courtroom as needy and
isolated, to a confident presence in her
social media, “there were so many different
Michelles,” says I Love You, Now Die
documentarian Carr. “One thing that was
so clear to me was how much pain she
was in. I wanted you to walk away from this
movie understanding what it’s like to be
in Michelle’s head,” she tells WHO. “I do
think there’s so much more to consider.”
■ By Jennie Noonan
If you or someone you know needs help,
contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.“I was very
disturbed [ by
Michelle]”
— Erin Lee CarrMichelle
attends her
trial at Bristol
County
Superior
Court on
Jun. 6, 2017.Roy’s father, Conrad Roy
Jr, comforts daughter
Camdyn Roy during the
trial on Jun. 14, 2017.Carter’s parents, Gail
and David Carter,
leave court after a
sentence hearing
on Feb. 11 this year.DEADLY TE S
Who l 29