Michelle Carter And Conrad Roy III Were A Couple, But Did They Ever Meet In Person?

It's clear that  Michelle Carter and Conrad Roy III had an intense relationship, made even more so by the fact that it existed primarily through text messages and social media. That unusual arrangement would ultimately end with Carter being tried in court for encouraging Roy to take his own life. 

Carter, now 25, was sentenced to serve 15 months for her role in Roy's 2014 death, after being convicted in 2017 of involuntary manslaughter. A judge determined that Carter, who was 17 at the time, was culpable in 18-year-old Roy's suicide after she encouraged him to die by suicide in text messages. She also told him over the phone to get back into his truck, which was filling up with carbon monoxide. Carter was released from prison in January of 2020 on good behavior and has appealed her conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court.

So, while the majority of their interactions took place from afar, they did meet one another in person. Hulu’s new miniseries “The Girl From Plainville” depicts how the teens met and began dating.  

Carter and Roy met in 2012, while they were both visiting relatives in Naples, Florida, according to a 2019 Esquire story, and discovered they were both from Massachusetts. Later, Carter told Roy that she fell for him when the two took a bike ride together to the beach, according to the HBO documentary, "I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter." The miniseries depicts this fateful moment in Florida between the two teenagers.

Back in Massachusetts, the two towns where they lived were about an hour apart. Roy lived in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, a small harbor town with a population of about six thousand. Carter lived in the suburban Massachusetts town of Plainville, located an hour north.

Even though they lived relatively close to one another, Carter and Roy only met up about five times in person during the two years they dated. They would regularly make plans to meet up but those plans would often fall through. However, the relationship they shared was an intensely personal one. They exchanged thousands of texts, in which they explored their deepest thoughts, including Roy's suicidal ideation and Carter's eating disorder.

Within the hundreds of pages of text messages gathered by investigators, it's clear the teens cared for one another and recognized they needed help.When Conrad went to a psychological facility to help treat her eating disorder, she asked Roy to admit himself as well texting, "would be so good for you and we would get thru our issues together. Think about it. You aren't gonna get better on your own, you know it no matter how many times you tell yourself you are. You need professional help like me, people who know how to treat it and fix it." 

Unfortunately the nature of the intimate texts would evolve. As Roy and Carter began dissecting the best methods of suicide, Carter became frustrated with him and texted, "You better not be bullshitting me and saying you're gonna do this and then purposely get caught."

Roy took his own life just days later.