Michelle Carter stunned the nation in 2014 when she was found guilty of persuading her lover Conrad Roy III to commit suicide in the famed “texting suicide case.”
Hulu has launched a webseries based on the dark tale, named The Girl from Plainville, with Elle Fanning in the lead role. On January 20, 2022, when the first batch of photographs from the performance was released, spectators were taken aback by Fanning’s initial appearance and a remarkable similarity to Carter.
The eight-part series was inspired by an article in Esquire with the same title. Conrad Roy III is played by Colton Ryan, his mother is played by Chloe Sevigny, Michelle Carter’s mother is played by Cara Buono, and her attorney Joseph Cataldo is played by Michael Mosley.
Must Read: Is Hulu Miniseries ‘The Girl from Plainville’ Based on a True Story?
Michelle Carter, Who is She?
In 2012, Michelle Carter met Conrad Roy III in Naples, Florida. At the time, they were both on vacation in the area. Conrad and his sisters were visiting relatives in the area. This family knew Michelle, and it was via them that they were introduced.
Her classmates recognised her as a lively and athletic student. While they only lived about an hour apart in Massachusetts, they spoke primarily through text messages, internet chats, and phone conversations.
Conrad and Michelle both struggled with depression. Michelle suffered from an eating disorder, while Conrad attempted suicide in October 2012, following his parents’ divorce. While Michelle did everything she could to help him get past it by discouraging him from taking such an extreme step again for months, something shifted in the two weeks leading up to his death.
After all, on July 13, 2014, he was discovered dead in his pickup truck, parked at a local grocery shop, the cause of death being deliberate carbon monoxide inhalation.
When the authorities examined Conrad’s text messages, they discovered a troubling pattern. In his conversations with Michelle, it appeared as if she was pressuring him to commit suicide, particularly on the day it happened.
“You gotta…do it when you get back from the beach,” she texted him on July 12 in the afternoon. “You’re all set.” “Sam, his death was my responsibility, like honestly, I could have stopped him,” she wrote in another text to her friend Samantha.
I was on the phone when he got out of the car because it was functioning and he was afraid, so I ordered him to get back in…. they read my messages to him, and I’m finished. His family will despise me, and I may end up in prison.”
Michelle, who was 17 at the time, had even told her friends she was on the phone with Conrad in his final moments. She was charged with involuntary manslaughter as a result of all of this.
Investigators discovered thousands of text conversations between the victim and his girlfriend, revealing that the latter gave Roy a step-by-step plan on how to commit suicide:
Carter continued to persuade Roy to commit suicide via text messages on the day of his death:
The prosecution’s main case throughout her bench trial was coercion, as evidenced by the scores of disturbing text messages she sent. The defence, on the other side, had an expert testify that Michelle’s depressive prescription influenced how she felt about the best method to heal Conrad.
What Happened to Michelle Carter and Where Is She Now?
Michelle Carter was found guilty of all charges by a judge in June 2017, who noted that her encouraging Conrad Roy III to get back into his automobile on that fateful evening was nothing short of reckless conduct. More crucially, they drew attention to the fact that, despite knowing he was in difficulty, she never sought assistance.
As a result, Michelle was sentenced to 212 years in prison two months later, of which she was only had to serve 15 months because the rest was suspended. She was, however, allowed to remain free while appealing her conviction, which was upheld in early 2019.
Michelle’s parole request was denied in September 2019; however, she was granted early release four months later, in January 2020, based on good behaviour and inmate labour credit. In other words, the young woman served 11 months in prison before being sentenced to probation, which she is expected to complete later this year.
Michelle has remained out of the public eye since her discharge, but her legal status indicates that the 25-year-old is most likely still in Massachusetts.
Conrad & Michelle: If Words Could Kill, a Lifetime telefilm, was released in 2018. The next year, HBO broadcast I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth Vs. Michelle Carter, a two-part documentary on the case.
The Girl From Plainville, a new Hulu series, was announced in 2019 and is set to premiere on March 29, 2022.