Michelle Carter texted her boyfriend, 'You can do this.' Hours later, he was dead.

Michelle Carter was 17, and she wanted to be liked.

She lived in the quiet suburb of Plainville, Massachusetts — a place where very little ever happened.

She was battling an eating disorder, struggling to connect with her classmates, and spending much of her time alone.

Then she met Conrad Roy III, a friendly boy with his own scars.

They spent a few days together in February 2012 while visiting family in Naples, Florida — riding bikes, playing games, and sharing a quiet bond.

Back in Massachusetts, they lived about an hour apart.

Over the next two years, they only met in person a handful of times, according to Conrad's mum, Lynn Roy, who didn't even realise they were dating.

But online? Their connection was intense. Texts. Calls. Thousands of late-night exchanges.

Their relationship unfolded almost entirely through screens — a steady stream of anxiety, confessions, declarations of love, and desperate pleas for help.

Then, on July 13, 2014, Conrad's body was found in his truck behind a Kmart. He'd died from carbon monoxide poisoning. He was 18.

Michelle was devastated. She was the grieving girlfriend.

Classmates who had once kept their distance now rallied around her with sympathy.

But Conrad's death wasn't what it seemed. Not even close.

Because soon, police discovered a trove of messages on his phone — more than 1,000 of them.

Many were from Michelle. And they told a very different story.

Watch a snippet of Michelle Carter's guilty verdict In Conrad Roy III trial. Post continues below.

Two struggling teenagers.

Michelle and Conrad confided in each other. According to Esquire, Conrad told Michelle about his past suicide attempts. Michelle opened up about her own mental health, including her eating disorder and struggles with anxiety.

Behind their phone screens, they were both quietly coming undone.

In the winter of 2014, Michelle was receiving treatment for anorexia. She was lonely. Intensely isolated.

"People walked all over her," her friend Evan Andrews told Esquire. "Michelle wanted the confidence she saw others having."

Conrad was also struggling. He battled anxiety and depression. He had attempted suicide before and had been hospitalised.

When he first told Michelle he was suicidal, she urged him to speak to someone. She told him things could get better. She said she cared.

But over time, the tone of her messages shifted.

Michelle began to encourage Conrad's suicidal thoughts,

"What about hanging yourself or stabbing yourself," she wrote on June 29.

"If you wanted it bad enough then you'd at least try it right? What about over dosing on sleeping pills? Or suffocating with a plastic bag?"

Michelle in court. Image: Getty.

Their conversations flipped between support and pressure. Some days, Michelle encouraged him to try a mental health facility. Other times, she pushed him to end his life.

She told him his family would be okay. That they'd move on. She told him she'd support them. She asked him to pick a method. A day. A plan.

"I just want to make sure you're actually gonna do this, or if you're all talk. Because I need to get myself prepared. I tried the best I could and I can never talk you out of it," she wrote on July 1.

Two days later, Conrad told Michelle he was going to go through with it. The next day, when he was still alive and texting her, she was angry. She accused him of dragging it out.

Michelle didn't tell anyone what Conrad was planning. She didn't reach out for help.

Instead, she texted him on the night of July 12, 2014.

Conrad Roy III. Image: CBS News.

Their final messages:

MICHELLE: So it's time?

CONRAD: Oh, it's been time.

MICHELLE: Are you gonna do it now?

CONRAD: I just don't know how to leave them, you know.

MICHELLE: Say you're gonna go the store or something.

CONRAD: Like, I want them to know that I love them.

MICHELLE: They know. That's one thing they definitely know. You're over thinking.

CONRAD: I know I'm over thinking. I've been over thinking for a while now.

MICHELLE: I know. You just have to do it like you said. Are you gonna do it now?

CONRAD: I still haven't left yet, ha ha.

MICHELLE: Why?

CONRAD: Leaving now.

MICHELLE: Okay. You can do this.

CONRAD: Okay. I'm almost there.

Conrad drove to a Kmart parking lot in Fairhaven and set up a water pump in his truck, releasing carbon monoxide into the cabin.

At one point, he got out, panicked, scared. According to investigators, Michelle told him to get back in.

Conrad died that night.

In the hours that followed, Michelle texted Conrad's phone multiple times. Esquire reports she called him 28 times. She messaged his mum, asking if she knew where he was. And again the next day, July 13, saying, "Did you call the police yet?"

Conrad's body was discovered that afternoon.

Conrad has been deeply struggling with his mental health. Image: CBS News.

That morning, Michelle had sent Conrad a desperate-sounding message: "Did you do something??! Conrad I love you so much please tell me this is a joke. I'm so sorry I didn't think you were being serious. I need you please answer me. I'm gonna get you help and you're gonna get better we will make it thru this."

But prosecutor Katie Rayburn argued that by then, Michelle already knew Conrad was dead.

Rayburn pointed to the timeline: their final phone call started at 7:12pm and ended at 7:58. That, she argued, was the last possible moment Michelle could have intervened.

According to Esquire, there are no recordings of the final calls, but detectives later found Michelle's own words in messages to friends.

Two months after Conrad's death, she reportedly texted: "I could have stopped him. I was on the phone with him and he got out of the car because it was working and he got scared and I f***ing told him to get back in… because I knew he would do it all over again the next day and I couldn't have him live the way he was living anymore I couldn't do it, I wouldn't let him."

In the months that followed, Michelle publicly mourned him. On the day after what would've been his 19th birthday, she organised a fundraiser in his honour. Classmates who'd never looked her way before now offered sympathy and support.

The Washington Post reports she posted on Twitter: "Such a beautiful soul gone too soon. I'll always remember your bright light and smile. You'll forever be in my heart, I love you Conrad."

And: "I will never understand why this had to happen."

But behind the scenes, investigators were already reviewing her messages.

Michelle's story became the cenre of a 2019 documentary I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter. Image: HBO.

The trial and conviction.

In February 2015, Michelle was indicted for involuntary manslaughter — a charge that carried up to 20 years in prison. She waived her right to a jury trial.

Prosecutors said Michelle was lonely. That she craved attention and validation.

They alleged she had encouraged Conrad's suicide to gain sympathy and pointed to messages she sent friends two days before his death, telling them he was missing. In reality, he was still alive and texting her.

According to Esquire, Rayburn argued Michelle was crafting two timelines: in one, she was the distraught girlfriend, telling friends she was "losing all hope".

In the other, she was actively helping Conrad plan his death, texting him: "Let me know when you're gonna do it."

Rayburn told the court that Michelle confided in a friend: "If the police read my messages with him, I'm done. His family will hate me and I could go to jail."

One of her final texts to Conrad was: "Did you delete the messages?"

"Her own words show that she knew her conduct was against the law," Rayburn said.

In the days before Conrad's death, Rayburn said Michelle not only encouraged him, she pressured him. She berated him when he hesitated.

Michelle's family said the narrative had been twisted. That she wasn't a villain, but a deeply troubled teenager trying to help someone she loved through his depression, and failing in the most tragic way.

Michelle Carter arrives at Taunton District Court in Taunton, MA on Jun. 16, 2017 to hear the verdict in her trial. Image: Getty.

On August 3, 2017, Judge Lawrence Moniz delivered the verdict. He said while Michelle's text messages alone may not have caused Conrad's death, her failure to act, when she knew he was in danger and urged him back into the truck, was enough.

Michelle was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. She was sentenced to 15 months in jail.

She began serving her sentence in February 2019 and was released early for good behaviour in January 2020.

Her probation ended on August 1, 2022, the Massachusetts Probation Service confirmed to MassLive.

Since then, Michelle has remained out of the public eye. She has never spoken publicly about Conrad's death.

Feature image: Getty.