All language subtitles for Michelle.Carter.Love.Texts.Death.2021.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

Hi.
This is Conrad Henri Roy III

Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

reporting to you
about what's going on

through my mind,

what's going on through
my head the last few days.

I'm 18 years old,

and I still haven't recovered
from social anxiety,

depression.

It's controlling me.

I am who I am.

I need to be comfortable
with my skin.

I just need
to get the cobwebs out,

turn the gears.

The gears need to be turning.

Turn them gears.

That's what I gotta do.

A woman from Massachusetts
allegedly encouraging

her boyfriend to commit suicide.

I do not want another mother
to ever feel the way I do.

It was an apparent suicide.
Apparent being the keyword.

We wanna try to find out
what happened.

Conrad was constantly
texting Michelle,

but he hid it from everyone.

Sixty thousand items
are pulled from her phone.

People just hated her.

- She's a terrible person.
- To me, she's evil.

But the question became
was it criminally wrong?

She is not forming
a criminal intent.

She was dealing with her own
mental health issues.

[man] Ms. Carter,
please stand.

[Ashleigh] I've never seen
anything like it.

Was it suicide or murder?

I just remember
thinking like why?

The world definitely will
be missing out without him.

Sorry.
I can't take this.

[dramatic music playing]

[Ted]
Fairhaven, Massachusetts

is a community
near one of the largest

fishing ports in the East Coast.

It's a nice seaside community.

I would say
a working class community

where a lot of people
work on the water.

It's a great place
to be in the summer.

My kids always had access
to the beach and,

you know, fun activities,
sailing, boating.

Just a really beautiful
little town near the ocean.

[Ashleigh] It's about
10:00 PM on July 12th.

Lynn Roy is settling down
for the night.

She's a single mom of three.

And she's a little bit nervous
because her 18-year-old son,

Conrad, had gone out
earlier to a friend's house

and she hasn't heard
from him since.

[Lynn] He said, "I'm going
to see my friend, Aryanna."

I said, "Are you gonna
come back for dinner?"

He's like, "I'm not sure."

[Ted] About 10:30
in the evening,

she sends him a text
wondering where he is.

She doesn't hear back
so she asked Conrad's sister,

"Hey, have you heard from him?

Do you know where he is?"
And the sister said,

"No. I haven't seen him.
I haven't heard from him."

But she said to her mom,

"I did get this text from a girl

who is also looking for him."

Camdyn was getting
a text message,

and it read, "Do you know
where your brother is?"

I was like... She's asking
where Conrad was,

but he said he was going
to his friend Aryanna's house.

And my like mom was thinking
at the time like,

"Oh, like you don't wanna like
mess up anything for him,

really cause anything like...

'Cause he's at like a friend...

That's a girl's house."

So I just said,
"He's at my dad's house."

I wished I would have...

[sighs] I don't remember
if I picked up the phone.

I tried calling him.
He didn't answer.

And then I just said,
"I'm going to bed right now."

It's like... At that point,
it was probably 11:00.

I woke up
in the middle of the night,

a couple hours later
and I messaged him

and I just said,
"When are you coming home?

It's really, really late."

The next morning, Lynn wakes up

and she surprised to see
that Conrad still isn't home.

His mom was calling me.

She called me starting
at like 5:30 in the morning.

And she actually thought
that Conrad was at my house

because that's what
he had told her.

And then when I told her
he wasn't there,

that's kind of when I got
a weird feeling.

I just like felt
something was wrong.

Honestly, I had this feeling
that went through my body

that I've never felt in my life.

And I feel like it was
his soul going through me.

It was the most chilling
feeling I've ever had.

That's when I called the police.

[police dispatch]
And what is your son's name?

- [Lynn] Conrad Roy III.
- [police dispatch] All right.

What kind of truck
does he drive?

[Lynn] A Ford 250.
It's a diesel, big black,

and it's got a bunch
of stickers on the back.

[police dispatch]
All right. I am gonna send

an officer out to take a report.

[Lynn] Okay.

My name is David Correia,
former police officer

with the Fairhaven
Police Department.

All I knew over the radio
was I was to take

a missing person's report.
When I got there,

I talked to Lynn Roy

and she told me
what was going on,

that he suffered
from depression.

And that made me realize
that I was gonna have

to step up my game on this one.

Conrad Roy
was born in New Bedford,

St. Luke's Hospital,
September 12th, 1995.

My mother was there
and Conrad's father.

We were not married at the time

so it was kind of
uneasy in that way,

but we were very committed.

We eventually, got married
and had two more children.

I work as a nurse

and Conrad's father
is a tugboat captain.

Just ordinary working parents
trying to raise our kids.

When I think about my brother,

I think of a funny,
like happy, like smart.

He was really smart.

He just had a really funny,

kind of sometimes
sick sense of humor,

but I got him.
He was goofy like that.

Conrad wanted to be a Major
League baseball player

for the Boston Red Sox.

That was like his dream.

But as he got older,
he wanted to be a captain.

And that was like when he
started working with my dad.

My grandfather,
he's a tugboat captain,

and he kind of just like
brought that down to my dad,

and that kind of passed down
to my brother.

[Robi] By all accounts,

Conrad was a normal teenager
until 2011

when his parents divorced,

and it turned
his world upside down.

The breakup was hard
on all three of the kids,

but especially
on Conrad who was,

like many kids,

struggling with depression
and social anxiety.

[Lynn] He just started
having trouble sleeping

and couldn't focus.

He had a lot of...
a lot of knowledge

in his head and just...

He was clouded by his anxiety.

He can be the happiest
person in the room

but he had so much going on
in his head at once,

and so he was struggling a lot.

[Lynn] You wanna do your best
as a parent

to be there and support him.

We felt we were doing
the best thing.

We took him
to a few psychiatrists.

He was treated,
and his diagnosis

was anxiety, depression.

[Aryanna]
The next couple of months

was where he was super positive.

Taking his medication
like he was supposed to.

Seeing a therapist
like he was supposed to.

[Ted] But in October 2012,

he attempted to kill himself

by overdosing on Acetaminophen.

He contacted
a friend and told him,

"Hey, this is what I did."

[Aryanna]
He was at his dad's house,

and that's when I called
his mom and she said,

"No, I haven't heard from him.

Like what's going on?"
And I said,

"I feel we need
to get over there."

Aryanna saved his life,

possibly, by alerting his mom.

His mom
got the authorities involved.

I think we were all in shock.

It seemed like
a major cry for help.

[dramatic music playing]

[Lynn] I was scared.
Scared to death.

He told me that he would
never do that again.

And then, of course, I said,
"Promise me,

you will never do that.

If you ever feel
that way, you have...

You need to talk to me."

And then it was the winter
of 2013,

he seemed
like he was doing better.

I thought he was, you know,

just feeling better
about himself.

Mrs. Roy told me that the day
before he went missing,

he had actually gone for
a walk with her on the beach.

[Lynn] We walked at the beach,
and we talked,

and we shared some clam cakes.

He wanted to be with me
and his sisters that day.

I remember like just
like laughing with him,

like enjoying ourselves
like with him.

[Camdyn]
He just went back home

and he's like heading out
the house.

He said bye.

And that was the last time
we saw him.

[dramatic music playing]

At the time he left the house,

he was driving a black
Ford F-250 pickup truck.

Mrs. Roy
gave me the plate number,

she gave me
his cellphone number,

and everything that I would
need to try and find him.

[police dispatch]
To all cars in station,

this is for a missing
18-year-old boy.

Male party is driving
a black Ford pickup

250 diesel truck.

Male is gonna be a Conrad Roy.

[David] I started
actively searching for him

by going over
to Fish Island in New Bedford

where the Roys
keep their tugboats.

I started there and then
I worked my way back east

into Fairhaven
going along the waterfront.

While police begin
their canvas of the area,

family and friends
are also out looking for him.

Everyone is desperate
to find Conrad.

There's a McDonald's
that he would always go to,

and so I went there.

Looked around
in the McDonald's parking lot

and then just kept going
towards the Fairhaven Bridge.

While I was looking for him,
I was just a mess.

I was super scared, anxious.
I was nauseous.

Kind of seemed like the world
was just like still

and just like nothing
was happening

and time wasn't moving.

[dramatic music playing]

I'd just come out
of the parking lot

of the Seaport Motel,
and as I looked to my right,

I see going south
on Middle Street

a black Ford F-250.

The vehicle
takes a right-hand turn

into the Kmart parking lot.

While following that truck,

he sees another black
F-250 in the parking lot.

I looked,
and it was the plate number

of the Ford F-250
that I was looking for.

I didn't see
that there was anybody

inside of the truck

until I walked up to the truck.

I've seen what he looks like.
It's his vehicle.

[sighs] At this time,
I'm 99% sure that it's him.

He was lying
askew in the front seat.

His glasses
were slanted on his face.

His hat was cocked to one side.

It wasn't natural.

[sighs]

[dramatic music playing]

I called it in
that I had found the vehicle.

And I called
the fire department.

[Ted] Officer Correia
wants to enter the car

but he is also being smart.

He wants to make sure
that he doesn't expose himself

to anything dangerous.

My name is Wally Therrien.

I was in charge
of the shift that morning

that the incident happened.

When I thought
it was safe to open the door,

I opened up
the driver's door of the car.

So I checked for a pulse
or carotid artery,

and he had no pulse.

He was obviously deceased.

[Ashleigh]
It is a really sad moment.

Everybody had hoped that they
were gonna find Conrad alive.

He had no trauma on his body,

but then they noticed
a gasoline-powered

water pump in the backseat.

And it was evident
that it was a suicide.

We came to the conclusion
that what had happened

was he used the pump
to asphyxiate himself

with exhaust gases.

[dramatic music playing]

[Lynn] Conrad's father
was looking for him

and he was in touch
with the police.

And they had called him first.

Then he called me and he said
"Are you alone?"

And I said, "No.
I've got the girls with me."

And he was like,
"It's not good."

He said he passed.
He's not here.

He's not with us.

[sighs]

[Camdyn] And my mom
was in the passenger seat

just like hysterically crying.

She couldn't say anything
for like a little bit

'cause I don't know
how you tell your 13

and 11-year-old daughter

like their big brother
has passed away.

So she was like keep on saying,

"He's gone. He's gone."

[Morgan] And we were just like
crying the whole car ride.

I didn't like know what to feel,

because my mom was like that...

I've never see my mom
like that before.

[Aryanna]
I was actually driving

over the Fairhaven Bridge

when they told me the news.

Lynn was a mess
and she just kept saying,

"He finally did it.
He did it."

I don't know really
remember too much after that.

[Lynn] I try
not to think about that day.

The worst day of my life.

[dramatic music playing]

In Massachusetts, there is a law

where any unattended death
needs to be investigated

and authorities
need to sign off on it.

I'm Chief Michael Myers

of the Fairhaven
Police Department.

It was an apparent suicide.

But obviously
apparent being the key word,

our protocol
is to obviously handle

any death investigation as
thorough as we possibly can.

I'm Sgt. Gordon
and I was an investigator

for the Conrad Roy case.

It's not very common
that we see people

of that age
take their own lives.

As a result of that,
I dug in a little deeper.

The most important thing
that was actually taken

from the scene that day
was Conrad's cellphone.

Many cases today
are solved through things

located and found in cellphones.

Every suicide is tragic,

but this would prove
to be more awful

than anyone imagined.

And what was in that phone
would end up

being pivotal to this case.

When I opened the phone
and started going through

the phone is when it came
to light that there was

something we need
to look into a little further.

I'm Det. Glenn Cudmore

with the Fairhaven
Police Department.

I was made aware the case
by interacting

with Det. Scott Gordon.

Our desks were across
from each other,

and Det. Gordon
was looking through the phone

and he started reading out
loud the text messages.

There was only one thread there,

whereas, most of us,

we open up
our text message thread

and we have everyone
we talk to on a daily basis.

It appears
that he had taken the time

to delete everyone else
thread's messages,

but there was thread messages,

text messages between Conrad Roy

and someone
named Michelle Carter.

[dramatic music playing]

[Ashleigh] These texts
are really alarming.

This person clearly knew

that Conrad
was thinking about suicide,

and yet
seem to be encouraging him.

Who is this Michelle Carter?

[dramatic music playing]

My name is Maryclare Flynn.

I'm an assistant district
attorney in Bristol County.

What I said to the detectives

was we need to find out
who this girl is,

and we also have to make sure
that we don't tip

the Roy family off
to an investigation

that might mean nothing
in the end.

Through social media
and different things

that we could look at,

we were able to identify her,
her family.

Michelle Carter appeared to us

to be just a young girl

from Plainville, Massachusetts.

[Ted] Plainville
is a town south of Boston.

It's a typical New England
bedroom community.

Michelle Carter
is a senior in high school

at King Philip Regional
High School

where she's an honor student.

She plays sports.

I'm Ed McFarland.

I'm a friend
of the Carter family.

Michelle came in
through the softball program.

I could always
count on her showing up.

She was very loyal.
She has a younger sister,

and her parents were
the typical very helpful type.

You know, the father
would help out coaching,

the... You know,

the mother would do
the snack shack,

and the other type
of supportive things.

I remember
when I saw the senior class

of [indistinct] she was named

"student most likely
to make you feel good

about your day."

[Ashleigh] But detectives
still don't know

how Michelle and Conrad
knew each other.

Plainville is about an hour's
drive from Fairhaven.

Plainville
is upper middle class.

Fairhaven is more blue-collar.

And, in some respects,
they're worlds apart.

When we spoke with people
in the early stages

of the investigation,

we kind of just tried
to figure out

what was her role
on his life at that time.

[Robi] Police felt it was
just a little too soon

to go to the family.

They still had
a funeral to prepare for.

It was just a little too
soon to start digging around

and asking them if they knew
who Michelle Carter was.

At the autopsy,
the medical examiner

finds no evidence of drugs
or alcohol

in Conrad's system but confirmed

that he had died
of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Authorities believe
that the time of death

was about 8:00 PM

the night before he was found.

On July 18th,

five days after
Conrad Roy was found dead,

friends and family
attended a funeral

and a wake to say goodbye.

[Camdyn] At the wake,

it was the longest line
I've ever seen.

That just shows like how
many people cared about him.

And I just wish...
I remember thinking,

like I wished he saw
like this many people here,

you know?

[Ashleigh] Afterwards,
the detectives

finally interview
Conrad's family.

And his mother and sisters
surprise the detectives

by bringing up Michelle
Carter's name unprompted.

Now, the cops know
the family was aware of her,

but they didn't know the
extent of the relationship

until Lynn
made an important discovery.

[Lynn] I ended up
finding a notebook.

And I found this letter
that he wrote.

Everyone in this life
that he loves.

All of us, me, his dad,

the girls.

He wrote if everyone's happy
that he's gonna be happy.

And he'll be smiling down.

And, um...

And then he wrote
something to her.

[Ted]
Detectives are also given

several suicide notes
that Conrad had written,

and one of those suicide
notes was to Michelle Carter.

[Lynn] He never told me
he was dating anyone.

He was more low-key.

He held a lot of...
a lot of...

a lot of it in.

There was just so much hidden.

[dramatic music playing]

[Jan] The story of Michelle
and Conrad

actually starts before 2014.

It starts in 2012
when the two teenagers

were on separate
family vacations

and they met each other.

[Camdyn] Almost every
February vacation,

we try to go to Florida

to visit our great aunt
and uncle.

And one year
while we were there,

my great aunt introduced us all

to her friends and their family.

And their granddaughter Michelle

was my brother's age.

[Ted] They meet,
and the first thing

they do together
is go on a bike ride.

And they had a great time.

After they get back
from Naples, Florida,

they start communicating.

And they do
what a lot of teens do now,

they communicate through texts.

[Rebecca] Many Gen Zers
will engage

with their friends
over text predominantly.

There's less of a pressure
there in the relationship too

so that I can really let
my guard down let's say

because I'm using my phone
or my computer to talk to

rather than having
to stress myself out

to talk to you in person.

What starts benign
but flirty stuff

starts to get
a little more involved.

But they only actually
hung out about five times.

The first time
I met Michelle was in 2013.

It was in the summer.

It was at his baseball game.

She seemed like a nice girl
and she had a nice family.

I could see him
texting her all the time,

and her name
would come up on his phone.

I didn't think anything of it.

Realizing that Conrad
and Michelle's relationship

was almost
entirely via text messaging,

the police asked the family
for permission

to search Conrad's devices.

We wanted to get his computers.

We wanted to get
anything that we could

that could potentially
shed more light

on this relationship.

The family eventually found
some videos

on a computer
that he had made of himself.

[Camdyn] I was just looking
at mom's computer,

then I saw this "I" movie,

and it was Conrad.

And that was like a month
before he passed away.

I rushed and got my mom,

and we were just like...

It's the first time
I heard his voice

since he passed away.

Hi. This is Conrad Roy.

I'm gonna talk to you
about social anxiety.

For me, social anxiety

feels like it's overwhelming
my life.

You know,
it's bunch of bull [bleep]

I am who I am.

I need to be comfortable
in my skin.

And in order to be
comfortable with my skin,

I'd have to just
be happy with myself,

of who I am,

Conrad Henry Roy III.

I want to recover from this,

and I feel like I haven't
recovered from it yet.

I feel like I still have
a long way to go

to recover
from this social anxiety,

this feeling of insecurity,

feeling of neglect
towards myself.

[Lynn] It was June 13th
when he did that video.

It was exactly a month
before he passed away.

The way he talks in that video,

I think he's telling himself,
"Yeah, I'm gonna do better."

What I'm doing is looking
at myself so negatively,

looking at myself minuscule,

little particle
on the face of this Earth.

But I have a lot
to offer someone.

I'm introverted,
nice and caring,

with some benefits.

I'm a nice kid.

But it just comes
to point where I'm just...

He just wanted to be better.
Like he wanted to live.

And you could like see it
in that video.

And now I wanna take steps
to control it.

If I keep talking, keep talking,

it's gonna get better.

And when it gets better,

I start to feel better
about myself.

I just need my confidence.

Just the ability to move
forward and move forward.

It was very evident
that he was a very sensitive

young man that was going
through a lot

of similar things that a lot
of teenagers go through,

and, unfortunately,

Michelle Carter ended up
on the end of that phone.

When detectives
looked at the text

that Michelle sent To Conrad,

the text make it clear
she had been texting him

repeatedly
before he killed himself

to go ahead and do it.
Don't back out.

This is your time.

The text messages
towards the end,

you know,
eventually went strictly

towards pursuing Conrad
to commit suicide.

And she asked for assurance

that he was deleting
the messages.

She was trying to make sure

that they weren't available
to be seen.

[dramatic music playing]

[Maryclare] We knew
that there was a phone call

after the last text message.

He calls her
for approximately 38 minutes,

and then she calls him back
for another 42 minutes.

[Ashleigh] That last
phone call happened

right about the time

authorities
think that Conrad died.

That means that Michelle
was probably

on the phone with him
as he passed.

One would wonder why Conrad
did not delete

the text messages with Michelle.

He deleted everything else.
Why not Michelle?

[Scott] I truly believe that
that was left intentionally.

I mean, he didn't leave the
text thread with his mother.

He didn't leave the text thread

with his sisters or his father.

He just left
the text thread with Michelle.

Did he want evidence
that somehow

she encouraged him
to kill himself? Maybe.

And despite their suspicions,

the detectives
still don't wanna bring up

the text messages
with Conrad's family.

[Glenn]
For quite a period of time,

the Roys were
kind of kept in the dark

purposely from us

in regards to the evidence
we had in front of us.

We felt it was necessary
to keep it

as quiet as possible
because we didn't know

if it was gonna be
criminally charged or not.

After he passed,

all summer long
she sent me messages

telling me how much she loved me

and thought the world of me.

[dramatic music playing]

She really comforted me.

Like made me feel
like I was the best

I could
because he confided in her.

I even told her,
"I'm so glad that my son

had someone like you
in his life that,

you know, really cared
about him."

[dramatic music playing]

So even as Michelle
was comforting Lynn,

some of Conrad's friends
felt like Michelle

was making herself
a bigger part of Conrad's life

than she really was.

We're reading Facebook posts,

and that's when I came
across Michelle's post,

and it was like,
"I love you so much.

You were there for me.
You were my rock.

I'm sorry
I couldn't be yours."

We were all like,

"Did everybody see
like this girl's post?

Like who is this crazy girl?"

And then that's when I was like,

"That's the girl Michelle
from the funeral."

At Conrad's funeral, Michelle
was making a big scene.

She's just crying,
sobbing quite loudly.

We still call her
the "grieving widow"

to this day.

During the bereavement
process or at a funeral,

when the death is incredibly
emotionally charged, right,

it can be a way to get a bit
more quick type of attention.

[Ashleigh] Two months
after Conrad's death,

Michelle Carter organizes
a baseball charity event

in Plainville called
Homers for Conrad.

And a lot of people were there
taking pictures

and posting them on Facebook.

We see more Facebook posts
and see Michelle

had come up with the idea to do

a fundraising
softball tournament

with the proceeds going
to help in suicide prevention.

[Camdyn] My family,
we had a team.

Conrad's best friend Tom and
his teammates all had a team.

Then there's like
some of Michelle friends.

The strange thing
about that is Michelle

organized it for her hometown
instead of Conrad's

hometown which is an hour away.

One thing nobody realized
at the time

is that the detectives
were actually there watching.

[man] The main purpose of me
being there was I placed

an undercover phone
call into Michelle phone

when she was in plain view
at Homers for Conrad.

We knew from subscriber
information

from the phone company that
it was in her mother's name.

So we couldn't take the chance
that we were actually

reading messages from someone
that wasn't Michelle.

And she answered the phone.

So, at that point,
we've checked another box.

This is Michelle Carter on
the other side of this phone.

[dramatic music playing]

Detective Sergeant Patello
and I went to her school

in the Plainville area
to try and locate her

to have a quick
conversation with her,

but also our main goal
that day was to retrieve

her phone for the...
For forensic analysis.

We had brought
a handheld recorder.

And when we started
talking to her,

let her know that we
were recording the interview.

[detective speaking]

[Michelle speaking]

[detective speaking]

[Michelle speaking]

[detective] Mmm-hmm.

[Michelle speaking]

So right off the bat,
they know she's not being

entirely truthful with them.

And they present
her with a warrant.

They confiscate her phone,
a phone that has God knows

how much evidence on it.

It is a shame that
they only had an audio

recording of this happening
because you can really

only imagine
the look on her face.

The plan the next day
was for the family

to contact me so
we could speak with Michelle.

Ultimately, they contacted
and said that they obtained

a lawyer and they wouldn't
be speaking with us.

[Ted] Police did
what is called an extraction

of the phone.

It's where they use a device
that pulls everything out,

even stuff that's been deleted.

And about 60,000 items
are pulled from her phone,

texts, videos, messages,
years of data.

At first, Conrad would text her

about his feelings
of wanting to kill himself,

and Michelle often tried
to dissuade him

from doing that or thinking
those things.

There's certainly
a point in time where it went

from nurturing and caring
to malicious and mean.

[Ted] She tells him,
"Why don't you drink

some bleach?

Why don't you hang yourself?"

She really starts pushing Conrad

and really starts gnawing
at him that,

"Hey, you gotta get this done
and you gotta get it

done now."

[Maryclare] They come up
with the water pump idea.

And not only does she help him
with all of that,

she explains to him,
"Oh, it'll be easy.

All you have to do
is get into your car.

It's gonna take
about 20 minutes.

It'll be painless.

It'll be quick."

I had must have read over
a thousand text messages.

Scott did the same.

We all felt pretty
strongly that without her

interaction in his life,
he truly would still be here.

Pretty much everybody
who read the texts all agreed

that what we're reading
was pretty disturbing.

There was no doubt
that it was wrong,

but the question became
was it only morally wrong

or is it criminally wrong?

[dramatic music playing]

Three months
into this investigation

and the police pretty much
know that Michelle Carter

encouraged Conrad Roy
to take his own life.

But it's no slam dunk,
and so they can't rush

into this arrest.

I'm Dana Curhan.

I'm an appellate lawyer.

I was brought into this case
to work

on some of the pretrial motions.

There are probably about
30 states that have a statute

that prohibits encouraging
somebody to commit suicide.

Massachusetts
is not one of them.

So the problem
is they look and there's no...

There's no specific statute
telling them

that this is prohibited.

So despite the fact
that there is no law,

in February 2015,
a grand jury decides

to indict Michelle Carter
on involuntary manslaughter.

After the grand jury
indicted that afternoon,

it was a Thursday afternoon,
I had to sit down

with the Roy family
for the very first time

and put those text messages
in front of them.

And it was heartbreaking.

[Lynn] It wasn't real.

I don't know.
I just couldn't believe it.

I don't know what it's like
to have someone go

in your mind like that.

But she went into a
vulnerable young man's mind

and twisted his mind thinking
that he was better off

not being here.

She manipulated my son
in the worst way possible.

I just remember
like thinking like,

"Why?" I just don't know why
anyone would want like

my brother to pass away.

Michelle Carter turns herself
in the next day,

and she's released
on $2,500 bond,

and she's ordered not to text
anyone except her parents.

And over the next couple
of months,

this story takes off.

A woman from Massachusetts

allegedly encouraging
her boyfriend

to commit suicide
through text messages.

She was an honor roll
student previously

at King Philip High School.

[woman] The state plans
to enter more than 20,000

texts as evidence.

[dramatic music playing]

[man] Good morning.
Today is June 9th, 2015.

[Ashleigh] With her parents
watching, Michelle Carter

pleads not guilty
and she remains on bond.

And her attorneys
make it crystal clear

that they are going to fight
this until the end.

We are dealing
strictly with words.

We have a person
who was not present

when he made his own voluntary
decision to take his own life,

and she did not do
anything physical in nature.

Can you tell somebody
to kill themselves,

and is that First Amendment
or is that a crime?

And that became a huge debate.

[Jan] Michelle was portrayed
as this evil villain.

She garnered
no sympathy in the public.

Michelle, unfortunately,
made a face.

Just made a momentary face.

And that image was captured
and has become symbolic

of her.

Everybody looked
at that and said,

"Oh, there's a girl
who just doesn't care."

And I don't think
that was particularly fair.

[reporter]
She's a terrible person.

I can't believe how indifferent

she was to his life.

It's disgusting.

[Ted] She became sort
of this national pariah.

I mean, people just hated her.

To me, she's evil.

Why can't she be held
accountable when she was

sitting there purposely
texting this young man

and telling him to kill himself?

Because this case is
so unique and unprecedented,

it is really hard to say
what it's gonna take

to convict Michelle.

The whole world is watching.

On June 5th, 2017,

Michelle Carter's trial begins.

[man] Michelle Carter
from Plainville,

Mass on trial, accused
of involuntary manslaughter.

This is one of the first
trials to rely on text

and a digital trail
that teens leave.

And, in many ways,

it's setting
a precedent for future trials.

[Ted] The charges
in the case are read.

[judge speaking]

And the defense then calls
Michelle Carter to the stand.

This is the first time anyone
has heard from her.

[judge speaking]

[Michelle speaking]

[judge] Has anyone promised
you anything or threatened you

in any way to make you forego
your right to a jury trial?

No.

Michelle Carter elected to waive

her right to a jury.

She gets to say,
"I want you, the judge,

to be the decider
of the facts and the law,

and ultimately make the decision

on whether she's guilty
or not."

I think when

you have a jury looking
at a case,

they do look
at moral culpability

and not necessarily
legal culpability.

The advantage of going before
a judge without

a jury is a judge can make
a dispassionate decision.

Once that was decided,
rather than starting

to select the jury,
the judge said, "Okay,

tomorrow morning
we'll start hearing evidence."

[Ashleigh] This was riveting.

No one knew
what was gonna happen.

[dramatic music playing]

Who would do this and why?

We suggest the evidence
will show that the defendant

was a very needy person
who craved attention

from anyone, quite frankly.

[Ted] The prosecution goes
right at Michelle Carter.

Here's this young woman
who not only wanted

her boyfriend to kill himself
but she wanted to ride

the wave of what
would come after that,

where she would get attention,

people would feel bad for her,

and her friends who may
have ignored her before

might actually
give her some love.

[Dr. Robi]
Who thinks like that?

A normal person doesn't think,

"You must die in order
for me to be popular."

I think she had a love
of herself

beyond everybody else.

I think it was a very
disturbed form of narcissism.

She put him
in the car that night.

I think the prosecution
really pushed this as,

you know,
this is this evil person.

We don't know why she would do
a thing like this.

And she needs to be punished.

Your Honor, this case
is a suicide case.

It is a suicide,
it is not a homicide.

[Ted Daniel] The defense
really stuck with two arguments.

She may have been repugnant and
what she did may have been reprehensible,

but it wasn't criminal.

And they also really delved
into Conrad's state of mind,

and they looked at his
past mental health history.

A long, long history
of suicidal...

suicidality, suicide attempts,
suicidal ideation,

finally caused,
caused his own death.

[Dana Curhan] He was the one
that set this whole scheme into motion

and drove himself there and
put himself in the vehicle,

and essentially
he took his own life.

[Lynn Roy] The prosecutors wanted me
to talk about what type of person he was,

what he had to live for.

Of course, with your child,

you're always going to think
they're like the best thing in the world.

Well, he really was.
[chuckles softly]

He just...

took whatever was given to him,
so he really didn't complain much.

- He did the best he could.
- Was he close to his sisters?

[Lynn] Very much.

[Ashleigh Banfield] As Lynn
testifies,

she mentions her son's
suicide attempt back in 2012.

And she also mentions the friend
of Conrad who saved him at the time.

[Maryclare Flynn] Did you find
out that he had told somebody

that he had done that?

- Yes.
- [Flynn] And what did you learn about that?

-[defense] Objection.
-[Judge Lawrence Moniz] Sustained.

[Banfield] The defense actually
succeeded in stopping Lynn,

from telling the judge
about Aryanna Taylor,

who saved Conrad
on his first attempt.

[Taylor] They were comparing the time
I called Lynn, who called the ambulance

for when Conrad consumed the
over-the-counter medications.

At the time, I really
didn't know what was going on,

but just in case,
I got him help.

And Michelle knew exactly
what was happening

and she did nothing to help him.

Aryanna's actions in 2012 were very
different than Michelle's actions in 2014.

And unfortunately, Michelle
was the only one who knew

that Conrad was suicidal
that second time.

In July of 2014, did you have any
concerns about his mental health?

[Lynn] I knew he was a little depressed,
but I thought it was, he was doing...

great.

I mean, he just, you know,
graduated from high school,

got his captain's license. I thought
everything was moving forward,

not backwards. So...

[Rebecca Berry] Some people are
very good at internalizing that pain,

and putting on a different
type of front, let's say.

Many will say, "I don't
want to burden my mother.

I don't want to let my friends in on my pain,
because I think that they can't handle it."

[Lynn] We had a really
close relationship.

But he held a lot inside.

Because he didn't
want to hurt me.

He was trying to protect me.

[sighs softly]

[Joseph Cataldo] He never
complained to you

- about a girl by the name of Michelle Carter, did he?
- No.

[Cataldo] He never told you that
anybody was trying to convince him

- to do something he didn't want to do?
- No.

[Cataldo] Nothing further,
Your Honor.

[Judge Moniz] Thank you very
much. Please step down, Miss Roy,

thank you very much
for your assistance.

Does the Commonwealth
have another today?

[Katie Rayburn] I do, Your
Honor, thank you very much.

[Banfield] The defense didn't
really go after Lynn hard,

because no one wants to be
seen as attacking a grieving mom.

But then, Conrad's sister
Camdyn Roy took the stand

and she testified about her
experiences, the night her brother died.

[Flynn] Did he seem upset
to you?

No, he was just like,
"I'm going to Aryanna's. Bye."

- [Flynn] Was that the last time you saw your brother?
- Yeah.

That night, I got a text
from Michelle Carter.

And she was saying, "I'm Conrad's
girlfriend now. Do you know where he is?"

[Dr. Robi Ludwig] So that breezy
text with the IDK and the ha, ha, ha,

came in after Michelle was
on the phone with Conrad

right around the time
that he died.

And when you think about it in those
terms, it really makes your skin crawl.

[Flynn] Michelle tried to say she
didn't really know where he was.

Which of course,
we knew that wasn't true

but she was trying to create
an alibi for herself,

again showing her state of mind.

[Camdyn] Now we can just see
how it was just

her, like, manipulating
all of us, basically.

[Banfield] Next up
for the prosecution

is a young man
named Tom Gammell,

and he's one of the people
who's closest to Conrad.

We determined that Tom Gammell
was best friends with Conrad.

That they had known each other throughout
their lives, played baseball together.

[Scott Gordon] Tom said, he really
didn't know anything about Michelle,

or that there was even any
type of relationship that existed.

[Flynn] So, Tom became important
because of the baseball tournament,

Homers for Conrad.

[Rayburn] Is there
any contact information

- for who's running this Homers for Conrad?
- Yes.

- [Rayburn] And what was the name?
- [Gammell] Michelle.

[Rayburn] Did that name mean
anything to you at that time?

- No.
- [Rayburn] So what did you do?

[Gammell] I contacted her.

The prosecution sought to demonstrate
that Michelle was just focused on herself.

That the event had nothing
to do with Conrad at all,

but more to do with her effort
to be seen as popular.

I was curious as to why the
tournament was being held in Plainville,

and not in Mattapoisett.

Why were you curious about that?

'Cause all of Conrad's family
and friends are from Mattapoisett.

[Rayburn] And how did she
respond to you when you suggested

that maybe it should be moved to be
more convenient for his friends and family?

She wasn't willing to move it.

[Rayburn] On August 27, 2014
at 12:47 p.m.,

do you recall getting a text message that
I actually just sent to the judge but...

"Okay, awesome, thank you! You're
not taking credit for my idea right? Lol."

- Do you recall getting that?
- [Gammell] Yes.

She wanted to make clear that
she was getting credit for all this.

[Flynn] She did not hide anything.
This was really not about Conrad Roy.

She's not even talking about
Conrad Roy any more.

She's talking about what
she's going to get out of it.

- [Rayburn] Now, were there some photographs taken?
- [Gammell] Yes.

And at some point, did Miss Carter
ask that her photograph be taken

- with some of the teams?
- Yes.

[Rayburn] How would you
describe Miss Carter's demeanor

throughout Homers for Conrad?

[Gammell] Um, she seemed
very happy.

I remember,
it just seemed, like, off.

'Cause it was supposed to be,
like, honoring Conrad.

And it was just like,
Michelle was like,

laughing and like,
goofing off the whole time.

[Banfield] When the defense
takes over, they really press Tom

about the claims that he'd
never heard of Michelle

before the Homers
for Conrad situation,

and then they produced Facebook
messages to contradict this.

Isn't it true
that on October 10, of 2012,

that Michelle Carter
reached out to you?

And had a Facebook
conversation with you?

[Gammell] I believe so.

[Cataldo] About when Conrad
had tried to kill himself in 2012,

when he was just out of
the hospital in early October.

Okay, yeah.

[Cataldo] And she said, "I know,

but he told me he was going to
kill himself last night. Is he okay?"

So the defense showed that there
was a time when Michelle actively cared

about Conrad's well-being.

And the prosecution
cannot deny this.

It's actually a really good move
by Michelle's defense team.

Then the prosecution pivots

from a person
who barely knows Michelle,

to some people
who know her all too well.

On June 7, the prosecution sets aside
time for some pretty important witnesses,

who let us into Michelle's world,
and those are Michelle's classmates.

The first one to testify
is Alexandra or Ali Ethier.

Michelle met Ali
at a summer camp.

And what you find out is, yeah,
they had a text relationship,

but they didn't really
hang out a lot.

Other than
camp-related activities,

had you ever spent time
with Michelle Carter?

No.

Prosecutors painted a portrait of
Michelle as this needy teenager,

who was desperate to improve
her social standing at any cost.

So, when she began to text you
on July 12, 2014,

what was your reaction?

Um...

I was kind of surprised.

[Banfield] When Michelle texted
Ali, out of the blue, on July 12,

it was the same day
that Conrad died.

And even though
they barely knew each other,

Michelle is immediately sharing
intimate information with her.

At the same time
that she is texting Conrad,

pushing him to kill himself,
Michelle is also texting Ali,

saying, "Hey, you want to be
good friends? Ha ha ha."

[Rayburn] Do you remember
the time on July 12, at night,

where there was inquiry about
whether or not you had a boyfriend,

- you remember that?
- Yes.

And you recall whether or not you
asked her if she had a boyfriend?

Um, yeah.

[Rayburn] And what does Michelle
Carter send you at 10:21 p.m.?

[Ethier] "Thank you,
that's nice of you.

And well, I actually do have
a boyfriend right now,

but he's going through
a tough time."

And is there
further information there?

Again now on...
July 12, 2014, 10:30 at night.

She says, "Ha ha, yeah. But
idk, he's in a bad place right now."

[Banfield] At that same time,
10:30 p.m. on July 12,

while Michelle is texting, "Ha
ha, he's in a bad place," to Ali,

Conrad has already died.

And it seems Michelle knew this.

[Daniel] And then all of a sudden,
the next day, Michelle drops this bomb,

that Conrad
has committed suicide.

And Michelle tells Ali that
she was on the phone with him

at the moment that Conrad died.

[Rayburn] Can you read
your response back?

[Ethier] "Honestly, I don't mean
it this in a bad way but I feel like

you should talk
to someone about it, you know?

Because I can't really help
considering I don't know you very well,

and I certainly don't know
the situation very well."

For Michelle to be telling her
something of that magnitude was,

was really strange for her.

And this is part of the
prosecution peeling back the layers,

that there may be
an ulterior motive here,

that Michelle was doing this
for attention.

Then, the defense wants to
humanize Michelle.

And when they get their chance
to question Ali,

they ask about a text
that Michelle sent to Ali.

Wasn't there a text just
three minutes before that,

where she stated to you,
"Yeah, he told me everything.

I'm the only one
he told things to,

which is why I feel so at fault because
I should've gotten him more help.

I just never thought he would
actually do this."

- Do you recall that?
- Um, yeah.

[Banfield] The defence did their best to
spin the content of these text messages

and try to make it seem like
Michelle really cared about Conrad.

And that might play well
to a jury's emotions,

but the question is, was it
going to affect the judge?

So, please state your full name and
spell your last name for the record.

Olivia Leigh Mosolgo.
M-O-S-O-L-G-O.

[Daniel] The prosecution
calls another classmate.

Livy, like several
of the other witnesses,

tells the court, "Yeah, I knew Michelle,
but we weren't really that close."

But she knew that Michelle has
been dealing with mental health issues.

At the age of 14, Michelle was
given Prozac, to deal with depression.

She expressed having anxiety.

[Daniel] Livy did explain that
Michelle had confided in her

some serious information about her
life. That she had an eating disorder.

[Flynn] When you say eating disorder, did
you ever see her weight go up and down?

Yes.

[Flynn] Now, at some point,

- did that affect her ability to play softball?
- Yes.

[Flynn] And your call,
what it was that

she could not play
on the softball team with you?

I believe it was sophomore year.

[Jan Ransom]
Michelle struggled,

and she had even been placed into
a psychiatric facility for some time,

in the month
before Conrad's death.

[Ludwig] Michelle suffered
from anorexia nervosa,

which usually means that there's a
distortion in how someone sees themselves.

They see themselves
as fat when they're thin.

And she wants to take control of
that reality, even though it's distorted.

As Olivia's testimony
continues, the prosecution again

tries to build on its theory that Michelle
was absolutely desperate for attention.

Now, when you were back
at high school with Michelle,

is it fair to say that she expressed to
you that she felt like she had no friends?

- Yes.
- [Flynn] Could you read that to us please?

[Mosolgo] "Stop telling me
how wonderful and beautiful I am

and how I'm such a funny girl,

because beautiful girls get
invited to parties,

and their friends call
and wanna hang out."

"They don't spend
Friday nights alone,

and funny girls don't lock
themselves in their room to cry."

[Daniel] You realize Michelle
had a ton of trouble herself.

We also know
from Livy's testimony

that Michelle had
a softball friend named Alice,

prior to her relationship
with Conrad.

They played on the same team. It was
a travelling team, a competition team.

Um, and they became
good friends.

But, at some point
during that relationship,

Alice, her parents,
specifically her mother

became concerned with the way
Alice was acting.

And she texted you that she was
talking to her therapist about Alice?

- Yes.
- [Flynn] But she also texted you

that she was obsessed
with Alice.

Alice's mom worried that
Michelle was a little too needy.

That she was texting too much and
trying to get too much into Alice's life.

And that ended up ending that.

[Cudmore] Michelle was very
upset, very distraught.

Tried to rekindle that
friendship, um, in different ways,

Including even sending a letter to
the house with a fake name on it.

But the mother was smart enough
to pick up on that and intercept it.

[Bayfield] This whole episode
with Alice seems to be

like another example of Michelle's
intensity driving people away.

But on top of that, the prosecution's
getting at something deeper.

And implying that the whole breakup
with Alice was so upsetting to Michelle,

that she hoped Conrad's suicide
would actually move Alice to rekindle,

bring the friendship back.
But, Alice did not,

and the relationship
never recovered.

May I direct your attention
to July 20, 2014.

A text that was sent at 11:59
p.m. If you could read that text.

[Mosolgo] At the end of
the day, I just really miss him.

He was who I talked to until 3
a.m., and now he's just gone.

But his mom called me today, she
found a suicide letter he wrote to me.

He didn't write one
to anyone else.

His mom said, I was the most
important person in his life.

[Lynn] We found out
after he passed,

she told him to write
a note to her,

which is even more disturbing.

The way her mind thinks.

It's all like, in her plan,

to just, you know, make off
that she's a grieving girlfriend.

She definitely loves attention.

[Banfield] Michelle's attorneys again
tried to flip the script with the texts,

this time between Michelle
and Olivia.

And they tried to drive home the idea that
Michelle didn't even need Olivia's attention,

because she already had it.

[Cataldo] Fair to say that you and Miss
Carter texted throughout that time period,

- many times. Fair to say?
- Yes.

[Cataldo] And sometimes you
would say, "I love you Michelle."

Isn't that fair to say?

[Mosolgo] Yes.

[Ransom] Prosecution next called
Alexandra Lexie Eblan to the stand

and Lexie described her
relationship with Michelle

as more of like
a in-school friend.

[Rayburn] Other than texting,
would you guys ever hang out

and just like go out
on a Friday night.

Not usually. I don't...

I can't remember a time
that we did.

[Ransom] Another piece of
stunning testimony was

two days before Conrad's death,

Lexie said that she received
a text message from Michelle,

who said he was missing.

- [Rayburn] What did she say?
- [Eblan] "I'm losing all hope that he's even still alive."

Do you then just ask,
"Seriously??"

- [Eblan] Yes.
- And how does she respond, please?

[Eblan] She says, "Yes, he's been
missing since Wednesday night."

That's two days before
Conrad died.

So, Conrad was fine.

Conrad was not missing
and Michelle knew that,

because Michelle was texting
with him all throughout the day.

She completely made it up.

She had done what we termed in the
investigation, a dry run with her friends,

to see what kind of reaction
she would get from them,

as a result of telling them
that he was gone.

[Flynn] So at that point,
she's getting what she wants.

That's why she continues to
goad him. In the days following.

"Why haven't you done it yet?
You said you were going to do it."

[Camdyn] She already told her friends,
like, "Oh, I don't know where he is."

Like, they're going to be,

like, empathetic towards her.
And, like, "Oh Michelle."

It was like, he was just like
a pawn in her game.

Prosecution hands
the witness over

and the defense repeats
it's strategy

of trying to show that these young
ladies already adored Michelle.

And they really lean in on the
text messages where Lexie says,

"Thanks Michelle, love you."

But you've got to wonder
if that's enough

to distance Michelle
from the ghastly dry run

that the prosecution
had pointed out.

Next up, a powerful witness
for the prosecution.

Sam Boardman
is about to take the stand.

[Cudmore] Sam Boardman,
she was the big one.

And after that is when, you know,
the mood changed at that point.

The prosecution calls a number
of Michelle's acquaintances

and they described how they
never considered her a friend.

It would seem pretty difficult
to be in a position of

hearing people that you
believe was your friend,

testifying to the opposite.

But Michelle just continues to
stare at the witness stand blankly.

She didn't look sad
or she didn't look hurt.

She didn't look like she thought
that she did anything wrong.

[Ransom] Among the witnesses that
were called to testify for the prosecution,

Samantha Boardman proved to be
the most crucial.

Out of all the young women that
Michelle had wanted to be her friend,

she wanted most to be
closest to Sam.

In her eyes, Sam was,
"Amazing and beautiful."

But, Samantha testified that
Michelle did not understand boundaries.

Other times, during
the academic school year,

during these
thousands of text message,

where there were times when the defendant
would text you and you would be late,

- or take a while for you to text back?
- Yes.

And what, how would her reaction be if
you took a long time to respond to her?

She would often, repetively,
repeatedly texted me,

until I responded.

[Rayburn] And what would you
generally describe,

sometimes to be the length of the
defendant's text messages to you.

Very lengthy.

[Rayburn] I'm going to ask you to
read that text message, please, aloud.

[Boardman] "Yeah, I have school
friends that all say they love me,

but that doesn't mean [bleep] when
no one ever asks to hang out with me.

So when someone actually
makes an effort to talk to me,

and hang out and stuff, it makes me
so happy and I actually feel important.

Like when I look back
on my high school career,

I'm honored to say that I got the
opportunity to be friends with Sam Boardman.

And I'll be honest, I cried when
you said you wanted to help me,

and hang out and stuff.
It just meant so much to me.

Like, I finally
found a friend."

[Rayburn] For the summer
of 2014,

did you have any plans to spend
time with her over the summer?

Um, I believe I saw her
once that summer.

And probably the most explosive
text that Michelle Carter sent,

was about the night that
Conrad committed suicide.

Could you read that for us?
From the defendant to you.

"I wasn't supposed to let that happen
and now I'm realizing I failed him.

Sam, his death was my fault. Like
honestly, I could've stopped him.

I was on the phone and he
got out of the car

because it was working
and he got scared.

And I [bleep] told him
to get back in, Sam."

[Ransom] That moment,
the courtroom fell quiet.

There was this chill.

[Lynn] She told him
to get back in.

I don't know,
I just couldn't believe it.

In that moment where she said,
"Get back in the truck."

She could've said like, "Oh
get out." Or something like that.

And, like, that single sentence
could have, like, saved my brother.

[Flynn] That changed the case for
us, because there's two phone calls.

Now, those were phone calls, so we
had no idea of what was or wasn't said,

other than the fact that she told us in
those subsequent text messages to Sam.

[Curhan] This was certainly
a complex legal issue.

She said, "Get back in the
car." But he didn't have to do it.

She didn't compel him to
get back in the car by force.

She didn't have the ability
to force him back into the car.

She just told him to.

[Banfield] During cross examination,
the defense does what it can,

to minimize the impact of Sam's
testimony for the prosecution,

but that's not going to be easy.

And you just went over
various text messages

with the
district attorney's office,

and they put it up
on the big screen, right?

- Mm-hm.
- Would you agree with me that was probably less.

- Far less than 1% of all your conversations with Michelle.
- Yes.

They go on to expand the list of things that
Michelle and Sam had privately discussed,

all in an attempt to show how
deep and varied the relationship was.

But frankly,
mopping up the venom

that was the, "I told him
to get back in" text,

that is an uphill climb.

Throughout the course of the
trial, it drew national attention,

and so, you had media
from all across the country.

It was always, you know, huge
media presence outside the courtroom.

It was a media circus.
There was helicopters...

I'm still trying to figure out why you
have a helicopter at a courthouse.

The town police had to assist
us on escorting the family.

It was kind of hard
to deal with.

There's one particular text from the
trial that, um, really catches the eye

of some uber fans of the
blockbuster TV series, Glee.

And BuzzFeed pointed this out.

After Conrad's death,

Michelle texted Sam,
"I had it all planned out."

I had it all planned out.

[Bayfield] Almost word for word.

This text matches something
that the character, Rachel said,

right after her boyfriend,
Finn died.

I don't know,
something different.

- Maybe something better.
- I don't think that that's possible.

[sobbing]
He was my person.

[Banfield] After actor
Cory Monteith passed away,

his character on the show
also died, Finn.

Lea Michele had played Rachel,
on screen.

But the two were also couple
in real life as well.

And the diehard fans of Glee
started to wonder,

"What is Michelle Carter's
deal with Glee and Lea Michele?"

We saw in looking at her phone

that there was like a lot of
images of Lea Michele.

She clearly had an obsession
with that program.

It's just so eerie to
emulate someone in mourning.

And the timing of Monteith and
Conrad's death is just so chilling.

[Camdyn] He passed away close
to the same day that Conrad did.

And it was kind of like, um...
Could be why

she was trying to, like, get him
to do it maybe on that exact day.

So they think maybe
that could've been, like,

correlated with
her love for Glee.

[notification sound]

[Banfield] So, amid this whole
media circus,

After three days of calling
witnesses, the prosecution finally rests.

And on its face, you know,
it looks good.

They've laid out motive,

they've showed the depths to
which Michelle wanted Conrad to die.

But it is by no means
a slam dunk.

This is a very unique case,

and manslaughter's not
an easy charge to prove.

The outcome of this one
is impossible to predict.

The next day, on June 9, the
defense calls it's first witness.

Mattapoisett police officer
Justin King.

And were you employed by them
back in 2014, specifically February 19?

Yes, I was.

[Ransom] In calling
the police officer,

the defense seemed to try to highlight the
fact that Conrad was dealing with other issues.

Particularly in his family life.

I responded to
an assault call, sir.

[Cataldo] And who were you
trying to find?

We attempted to find the
person that had been assaulted.

[Daniel] It turns out, that officer had
responded to Conrad's dad's house,

about five months
before Conrad's suicide.

And that was for
a domestic violence case.

That night,
Conrad had called 911,

alleging that his father
had punched him.

[Cataldo] Okay, and did you
make any observations of him?

Yes. His face was swollen red and
he had some lacerations to his face.

[Banfield] In his
police statement,

Conrad said that this was
all about an incident

where his dad wanted him
to wash some pots and pans.

He didn't do it when he
was asked, it got physical.

Conrad's dad was arrested
that night.

But it is really important to know that
he was never charged for the crime.

The defense was clearly
trying to show that

that could have contributed
to him wanting to kill himself.

On Jun 12, the defense calls it's
most important witness in this case.

Dr. Peter Breggin.

And he becomes, essentially
the star witness for Michelle Carter.

[Banfield] Dr. Breggin
has a very impressive résumé.

He is a Harvard-trained doctor with decades
and decades of experience, and he is also

an outspoken critic of having
antidepressants prescribed to teenagers.

[Cataldo] And what have you spoken
before the FDA on? What subject?

[Peter Breggin] Um, a number
of different subjects.

Um, the adverse effects
of antipsychotic drugs,

the adverse effects
of stimulant drugs.

Dr. Breggin sought to lay out

the way in which Michelle's exchanges
with Conrad changed over the months.

You started reviewing
Facebook communications,

- Starting in...
- Between Miss Carter and Mr. Roy in October 2012?

Yes.

He says, "Yeah I tried to kill myself."
And she says, "Why didn't you tell me?"

[Ludwig] Dr. Breggin is painting
Michelle in a whole new light,

using the texts between
her and Conrad

to show that Michelle was
actually trying to help him.

And help him to stay alive.

It's a radical change
in perspective.

He talks about hanging himself
that night.

And she says,
"You're not going to..."

"Conrad stop."

[Banfield] Michelle Carter's defense
team is now questioning Dr. Peter Breggin.

An expert witness,

who's introducing some evidence that
shows Michelle really tried to help Conrad.

This is the kind of stuff that the
judge hasn't heard much before.

[Breggin] She's a helper.

Her whole life is helping,
everybody says.

She's the... Just about
everybody. She's the biggest helper.

He noted that the tone
of her messages were kind,

that she sought to try to get
him some sort of psychiatric help.

This is from Conrad to Michelle,

on October 8, 2013
at 4:50 p.m.

- [Cataldo] All right.
- He says, "I feel hopeless."

She says, "Do you still feel the
same way you've been feeling?"

"Yeah, it's bad."

"Did you get
a new psychiatrist?"

"He cancels my appointment
all the time."

"Yeah, you need to get
a new one fast!!!"

And she says, "Try my best
every day

to think of ways to help you,

and I just wish you knew
how much you mean to me."

[Daniel] Dr. Breggin
also talks a bit about

that Michelle had...

been on antidepressants.

April 1, Michelle says

that she's talking to the doctor
about starting Celexa and why.

Because it will help her
eat more.

Breggin said that the medication that
Michelle was taking, which was Celexa,

affected the frontal part
of the brain,

which deals with empathy,
decision making, the ability to love.

[Daniel] Dr. Breggin centers
his testimony on his theory,

this involuntary intoxication.

Due to the antidepressants
that she was on.

[Cataldo] In terms, Doctor,
what is involuntary intoxication?

Well, by definition,

it's an intoxication,
which means

that the neurochemistry of
the brain has been disrupted.

And that this intoxication is observable
through thoughts, behaviors, activities.

[Cataldo] And in terms of your opinion
that she became involuntarily intoxicated,

are you able to pinpoint about when
she became involuntarily intoxicated?

Yes, on July 2,

she begins...

to help him go to heaven.

She begins to give him advice
and she'll encourage him.

Dr. Breggin says, Michelle has
this diminished mental capacity,

and in her mind,

that she actually believes
that she's helping Conrad,

when she starts making the
suggestions about killing himself.

But at this point, she has
an involuntary intoxication,

where she is not forming a criminal
intent, "I'm going to harm him."

She's not doing something
that she thinks is criminal.

This is bad.

She's actually going ahead
and going to help him do it better,

the way he wants, to reassure
him he's going to heaven.

[Flynn] Katie Rayburn
did the cross examination,

so she had done
tremendous amount of research

in his prior case testimonies.

July 10. where you're telling
us, she's involuntarily intoxicated,

she can't decipher between
right and wrong,

she goes to see her therapist.

And you would agree with me, the
therapist describes her appearance

as good eye contact,
well groomed, correct?

- Yeah.
- [Rayburn] All right.

- Short-term memory intact, judgement good. Correct?
- Mm-hm.

[Rayburn] Her attitude
is cooperative and pleasant

- and her thoughts logical. Correct?
- [Breggin] Yes.

And you're now telling us that she didn't
know right from wrong at that same time.

Well, actually, she thought she
was doing absolutely the right thing.

Prosecutor Katie Rayburn says,
"Hey, can you show me

in the list of mental health issues that
people may have, where this exists?"

[Rayburn] This is the DSM-5, for
the record, I'm handing the witness.

Could you please grab
the section in that book

that covers involuntary
intoxication for me.

Oh, there's no involuntary
intoxication here, it's a legal term.

This is a huge deal.

Involuntary intoxication
is not a psychiatric term,

even though Dr. Breggin
tries to apply it in that way.

Katie Rayburn,
with that one question,

basically decimates Dr. Breggin's
whole theory on Michelle.

Fair to say, you're not board
certified in psychiatry, correct?

[Breggin] I never
took the boards.

[Rayburn] You had no longer, or if
ever had medical privileges or a hospital?

Breggin did some very helpful
things for the defense.

Like, he gave context to
Michelle's life, and Michelle's actions,

certainly regarding
her own mental health.

And the theory that she really
did think she was helping Conrad.

That was interesting,

but the prosecution poked a
lot of holes in his presentation.

[Ransom] Dr. Breggin was
the last witness in the case.

At that point,
the defense rested,

and the defense and prosecution
presented their closing remarks.

Then, on the day
of the decision,

the atmosphere
in the courtroom was tense.

[Daniel] So the trial ends, and
now it's all in Judge Moniz's hands.

He's got to decide, whether or
not a crime was committed here.

And this is a crime that can
carry up to 20 years in prison.

It took three days
to get a verdict.

Finally, we hear from
Judge Moniz.

[Judge Moniz] The law does not require that
any explanation, as to a verdict, be given.

Nonetheless, I am of the
opinion that some explanation

of my verdict is warranted.

[Flynn] There was as they say,
that, the hush in the courtroom.

And it was just very tense.

You know, you have all these people
wondering what's going to happen,

and then he starts
reading his decision.

[Judge Moniz] This court
first finds,

that the Commonwealth has
proven beyond a reasonable doubt,

that the actions taken by Miss Carter
as to the period from June 30 to July 12,

constituted wanton
and reckless conduct by her.

The Commonwealth has not
proven, as to that time period,

that said reckless or wanton
behavior caused the death of Mr. Roy.

He's saying, Commonwealth has
met it's burden in certain things, but,

that doesn't meet the threshold. And
it sounds like he's going to acquit her.

[Judge Moniz] He's secured
the water pump.

He's located his vehicle
in an unnoticeable area,

and commenced his attempt
by starting the pump.

To be honest, the verdict, to us,
was a bit of a rollercoaster ride.

At one point, it seemed like
he was going in our direction.

Then it seemed like he was
going in the defense's direction.

However,

he breaks that chain
of self-causation

by exiting the vehicle.

When Miss Carter realizes
that Mr. Roy has exited the truck,

she instructs him to get back
into the truck,

which she has reason to know is
or is becoming a toxic environment,

inconsistent with human life.

That's when it took
the sharp turn.

And...

It was going to go very badly
for Michelle.

[Judge Moniz] This court
does not find,

that the intentionality necessary
for such wanton and reckless conduct

is obviated by Dr. Breggin's
theory of involuntary intoxication,

and that the court did not
find that analysis correct.

Miss Carter, please stand.

This court,

having reviewed the evidence
and applied the law there too,

now finds you guilty,

on the indictment.

Charging you with the involuntary
manslaughter of the person Conrad Roy III.

I just remember being kind of
shocked and still for second

and having to digest it.
And then just being relieved.

There was kind of,
like a sigh of relief,

from, like me and my family, because we
thought that, like my brother got justice.

So the judge
had determined that,

all the text messaging
that had taken place,

that didn't quite hit the mark
for manslaughter.

But the moment that he stepped
out of that truck and in her own words,

she told him to get back
in the f-ing truck.

That was the crime.

What a shocking verdict! I
mean, guilty of manslaughter,

for texting and telling Conrad
things over the phone.

When you're not even there.

So this is a very powerful
precedent, obviously.

Michelle and her parents have never
really spoken out about their reaction,

but you can only imagine
how scared they are. Right?

Their daughter's facing
20 years in prison.

[Flynn] With the
court's permission,

I'd like to read the impact statement
of Lynn Roy, Conrad's mother.

[Judge Moniz] Certainly.

In that sentencing, Lynn
provided an impact statement

describing the pain and the anguish
that she and the family had been through,

after losing Conrad.

[Flynn] "There is not one day that I do
not mourn the loss of my beloved son.

Everyday, I strive to be
a better mother

to his sisters,
and a better person for him.

I want him to be proud of me
and how I'm handling everything.

I'm trying to be there for his
sisters in the best way that I can,

with all of my pain that we
will carry with us until eternity."

I just wanted...

my son to be recognized.

And for, you know,
his life to matter.

I don't know how
she can live with that,

knowing what she did.

[Ransom] The prosecution
sought seven to 12 years.

But Michelle only got 15 months.

[Morgan] When I found out how short her
sentence was going to be, it kind of hurt me.

I'm not saying she deserves
like, life in prison,

but she, like, deserves, kind of like
the hurt that she put on my brother.

Ultimately, Michelle
only ends up serving

12 out of 15 months
that she was sentenced to.

On January 23rd, 2020, Michelle
Carter was released from prison.

[Flynn] She was released early

because she didn't get into any
trouble while she was incarcerated.

She'll be on probation
until August of 2022.

[Lynn] I don't know if someone
like her can feel that emotion of guilt.

If she didn't feel it
that night,

that he died, I don't know how
she could feel it now.

I don't believe
that people change.

I suppose one day, I'll
have to forgive her for myself.

But I'm really not
at that stage, like, you know.

I really pray that she feels...

remorse, badly. I'm not sure
if she does, though.

[Ransom] This case is one
that you don't ever forget.

And to see it play out the way
that it did...

It's a case that is
in many ways haunting.

There were no winners.

Conrad is dead
and Michelle went to jail,

and they both just
badly needed help.

I think that there is this
compelling cultural script

of the evil, beautiful,
young woman,

who annihilates and eliminates
this poor boy.

Without looking a the reality
behind that imagery.

And the reality is,
Michelle was a sick girl.

She wanted to be respected,
she wanted to be popular.

And I think in her mind, someone needed
to die and in this case it was Conrad.

Conrad Roy was
one of the most intelligent,

kind-hearted people
I've ever met in my life.

And the world definitely will
be missing out without him.

In Massachusetts, we're still in the process
of trying to get a law in my son's name.

Conrad's law would explicitly
make it a crime,

if someone knows
a person is suicidal,

and then encourages that
person to commit suicide anyway,

or provides the means to do so.

There is, however,
a medical exemption.

[Lynn] This year, for the first
time, I just wrote a letter to him.

It was the first time that
I could really express and...

my feelings, towards--
About him.

Because child loss
is traumatic, very traumatic.

It takes so much out of you.

Um...

And just writing that
felt really good.

Really good.

Think about him everyday.

I feel like he's always with me.