Conrad Henri Roy III (September 12, 1995 – July 12, 2014) was an American marine salvage captain who died by suicide at the age of 18.

After a bench trial, presiding judge Lawrence Moniz found Carter guilty of involuntary manslaughter, concluding that she wanted Roy dead and that her words coerced him to kill himself.

Moniz's decision rested chiefly on Carter's final phone call in which she ordered a terrified Roy to go back inside his truck as it filled with carbon monoxide.

[8] In June 2014, he graduated on the Honor Roll (highest grades) from Old Rochester Regional High School (ORR) in Mattapoisett.

[22] On Saturday, July 12, 2014, following digital exchanges with Carter, Roy died by suicide by poisoning himself with carbon monoxide fumes in his truck in a Kmart parking lot in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.

The Captain Conrad H. Roy III Scholarship Fund at the Northeast Maritime Institute in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, was established in his memory.

[23] Michelle Carter was indicted on February 4, 2015, and arraigned the following day in New Bedford Juvenile Court in Taunton, Massachusetts on charges of involuntary manslaughter.

[26] On July 1, 2016, an appeal of the grand jury indictment, to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court was also denied, allowing the case to go forward.

[27][28] Justice Robert J. Cordy, writing for the unanimous court, found there was probable cause to sustain the manslaughter indictment.

Therefore, the case was heard by Judge Lawrence Moniz in the Bristol County Juvenile Court of Massachusetts, in Taunton.

[33] As there was limited legal precedent for prosecuting the encouragement of suicide, Cataldo initially asked a Taunton Juvenile Court judge for summary dismissal, arguing that Carter's texts were protected under the First Amendment and that the text history showed that Roy had been contemplating suicide without Carter's input.

[56] Some expected the case to set a legal precedent,[57] regarding, as Ray Sanchez and Natisha Lance of CNN put it, "whether it's a crime to tell someone to commit suicide."

Sanchez and Lance also stated that "The ruling [...] may spur lawmakers to codify the behavior highlighted in the case as criminal.

In addition to covering the court proceedings of Carter's conviction, Dateline correspondent Andrea Canning interviewed both the prosecution and defense attorneys, along with Conrad Roy's family members.

[65] The same week as the documentary release, Carter's lawyers submitted a petition[66] to the Supreme Court to consider her encouragement to commit suicide as protected free speech.

[69] On August 7, 2020, Variety reported that Elle Fanning would be starring as Michelle Carter and the series would be titled The Girl from Plainville which would be on Hulu.

[70] Fanning, Liz Hannah, Patrick Macmanus and Brittany Kahan Ward are executive producers of the series and Unbelievable director Lisa Cholodenko was announced to direct the first two episodes.

[71] On May 7, 2021, the band SKYND, known for their true crime-inspired music, released a single titled "Michelle Carter" based on the events of the case.