BY EMILIE WEINBECK, FEATURES EDITOR
A new Hulu drama called “The Girl From Plainville,” is the newest true-crime story to hit TV screens. The show is based on the unfortunate true story of Michelle Carter who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of her boyfriend back in 2017. The story is not as straightforward as it may seem. The narrative of the show packs suicide, murder, romance, mental health struggles, horrific text messages, and a landmark murder trial altogether. But, there is a bigger story to be told.
On July 13, 2014, 18-year-old Conrad Roy was found dead in his pick-up truck in the parking lot of a supermarket close to his home in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Roy’s death was ruled a suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. At the time his family thought it was a tragic but simple story, but unfortunately, it was just the start of a long road to finding out the truth.
Soon after Roy’s body was found his mother, Lynn, was contacted by a girl named Michelle Carter who was concerned about not hearing from Roy for several hours. Carter also reached out to Roy’s sister not long after his body was found saying, “Conrad did not kill himself because of bullying as everyone assumes. I know the real reasons.” Carter went on to attend Roy’s funeral where it would be the first time meeting his family. Roy’s mother only knew of Carter as someone her son had met on vacation in 2012 and had texted her on a regular basis.
When Roy’s phone was found, it was searched by police, and hundreds of text messages between the two were discovered. Some of those text messages changed everything about what happened to Roy and ultimately led to Michelle Carter being indicted for involuntary manslaughter in February 2015. But, before Carter was indicted she was just a regular girl.
Carter lived in a middle-class suburb of Plainville, Massachusetts, about an hour away from where Roy lived. Even though the two would only go on to see each other a handful of times after meeting, they quickly fell in love with each other. The two originally bonded over their struggle with mental health. Carter suffered from anxiety and an eating disorder while Roy struggled with anxiety and depression that had led him to make several previous suicide attempts.
Roy would often talk about killing himself to Carter, but what got the police interested were Carter’s responses to those text messages. She would encourage him to do it and say things such as, “If you want it as bad as you say you do, it’s time to do it today.” Responses like that prompted the landmark trial which was held in June 2017. In total there were 317 pages of messages between the couple where the couple discussed suicide and the best way in which to do so. Throughout those messages, Carter never discouraged Roy away from the act.
Carter’s defense ended up arguing that a person can not be held liable for the actions of another in that regard, meaning that Carter’s texts did not physically kill Roy. After the trial lasted two weeks, Carter was found guilty and was sentenced to two and half years in prison and five years of probation. She was released from prison in January 2020 and remains on probation until August.
New episodes of the show starring Elle Fanning, Colton Ryan, and Chloe Sevigny are released on Hulu every Tuesday at midnight.
