Teen charged with manslaughter after encouraging friend to kill himself

18-year-old Michelle Carter has been charged with manslaughter in the July, 2014 death of her friend Conrad Roy III. Conrad died of carbon monoxide poison by idling his truck.

Michelle’s currently on bail, and is due back in court in April. The evidence against Michelle’s involvement in his suicide is more substantial than an idle “kill yourself” comment. The pair exchanged thousands of text messages in the days leading up to his suicide, and even during it. At some point, he decided he didn’t want to die, and left his truck, but Carter told him to follow through with his suicide.

Fairhaven police Detective Scott Gordon wrote in the police report after reviewing the text messages: “Not only did Conrad tell Carter in several of his texts prior to his death that he was scared and didn’t want to leave his family, she continued to encourage him to take his own life, and when he actually started to carry out the act, he got scared again and exited his truck, but instead of telling him to stay out of the truck … Carter told him to ‘get back in.'”

After his death, Michelle Carter wrote on Twitter, “Such a beautiful soul gone too soon. I’ll always remember your light and bright smile. You’ll forever be in my heart. I love you, Conrad.” A few days later she posted, “I will never understand why this had to happen.”

In September Michelle Carter advertised a softball tournament to raise money for suicide prevention called “Homers for Conrad.” When she shared the event on Facebook, Michelle wrote, “life can be tough, but helping others makes it easier.” After the event, she thanked Conrad via Twitter for the event raising $2,300.

Michelle’s currently out on a $2,500 bond, and is required to not use social media or the internet, except for school work. She is barred from texting anyone except her parents. Because she was 17-years-old when Conrad killed himself, she will be tried as a “youthful offender.”