"There is yellow tape around our son's car."
The voice of Conrad II trembles when he tries to explain to Lynn, the mother of his children, what is happening, through the telephone.
He observes the scene from his car.
Police are studying the scene, his son is unconscious in the front of his vehicle and everything suggests that he committed suicide, according to the agents present on the spot.
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On July 13, 2014, Conrad Roy was found dead in his 4X4.
According to the elements collected by the police officers, the young man would have poisoned himself with carbon monoxide.
If this event simply looks like a suicide case, the truth is much more complex.
Last March, the Hulu streaming platform unveiled the adaptation of this story in a TV series called
The Girl From Plainville,
the last episode of which will be broadcast on Tuesday May 3.
The show is inspired in particular by the eponymous article written by Jesse Barron and published in
Esquire
on August 23, 2017. Starring Colton Ryan as Conrad Roy and Elle Fanning as Michelle Carter, the series focuses on this sordid affair, in which Michelle allegedly pushed her boyfriend to commit suicide.
On video,
The Girl from Plainville
, the trailer
The encounter
In February 2012, Michelle Carter met Conrad Roy while visiting her grandparents in Florida.
The two teenagers come from two small towns in Massachusetts, located an hour's drive from each other.
17 years old at the time, Conrad was from Mattapoisett.
His parents being separated, he lives with his mother, Lynn, who is a nurse, and his sister Camdyn.
Since the separation, the young Conrad has had a complicated relationship with his father, Conrad II.
Michelle comes from Plainville and is two years younger than her new friend.
Blonde with blue eyes overhung by thick eyebrows, she is kind, polite, discreet.
"She was a young woman who really had hopes and dreams and desperately wanted people to like her," said Patrick Macmanus, one of the series' creators, in an article published in
Time .
, March 29, 2022. In Florida, the two teenagers spend their few days of vacation together and once back in Massachusetts, they keep in touch while each staying in their respective cities.
This correspondence, which will turn into tragedy, begins the day when Michelle learns that Conrad has attempted suicide by swallowing a bottle of Tylenol (paracetamol).
The boy sends her the first message and one of the most important pieces of evidence in the case begins to build.
Full screen
Elle Fanning plays Michelle Carter in
The Girl From Plainville.
Hulu
The tragedy
For two years, Michelle and Conrad messaged each other regularly but only saw each other a few times.
They share their days, their thoughts, flirt with each other or criticize the people they meet.
"This whole thing with Alice is getting me down," Michelle wrote to Conrad, referring to an old friend who stopped talking to him, according to Jesse Barron's
Esquire
article .
"Do you want to make love?" Asks Conrad a few messages below.
They dream of fleeing to California, imagine stories.
But behind these many text bubbles and their common dreams, the duo also goes through darker and more difficult periods, which bring them closer together.
Full screen
Conrad Roy's sister, Camdyn, testifies at Michelle Carter's trial.
(Taunton, June 6, 2017) Getty Images
Conrad gets kicked out of high school after being accused of getting into a fight.
Michelle is confined to McLean Hospital to treat her anorexia.
She also encourages her friend to join her: “We could overcome our problems together.
Think about it.
You're not going to get better on your own, you know that, no matter how many times you tell yourself.
You need the help of professionals, like me, people who know how to treat and repair”.
The two teenagers support each other in their misfortune and in this life that they do not always appreciate.
“They are very open and very vulnerable;
they're mean to each other and they're lovers,” Liz Hannah, one of the show's creators, told
Time
.
Their conversation goes further and further and the subject of death begins to settle into their words.
Conrad confesses to him that he is suicidal and evokes his desire to take action, wondering what would be the best way to do it.
"What if you hanged yourself, or stabbed yourself?"
Michelle told him.
“Why don't you drink bleach?”.
Perhaps thinking that the young man was not serious in his words, Michelle continues to get involved. “Carbon monoxide or helium gas.
I want to deprive myself of oxygen,” Conrad told him.
Several times, he confides in his friend that he is really going to do it, but in the end does not take action.
“You keep putting off the moment,” Michelle tells him.
After all these failed attempts, this harmful
Romeo and Juliet game
will end in the most tragic of ways.
The trial
Conrad ends up cracking.
On the evening of July 12, after strolling on the beach with his mother Lynn, he gets behind the wheel of his car.
All day he had been chatting with Michelle.
"You have to do it Conrad or I'll get you help," she told him.
"I'm going to do it today," replies the young man.
He goes to the parking lot of a completely empty supermarket.
He connects his vehicle's exhaust to a water pump and lets the gas spread through the car.
He then calls Michelle with whom he will stay on the phone until the end, without anyone being informed of this drama.
Full screen
Michelle Carter goes to court under the cameras of journalists, to hear the verdict of her trial.
(Taunton, June 16, 2017.) Getty Images
Michelle knows what happened that night.
But she decides to pretend not to know anything and sends messages to Conrad's mother wondering if anyone has heard from her boyfriend.
In the state of Massachusetts, an unattended death is treated as an unsolved crime and when police find the teenager's body, an investigation is launched.
The inspectors, who examined Conrad's phone and discovered the messages exchanged with Michelle, decide to question him: "He told me that there was no one to help him", she explains to police “I was talking to him on the phone the night of July 12-13, and the phone hung up.
I didn't really think about that."
After studying the long conversations that the teenagers had exchanged by SMS,
In February 2015, Michelle Carter was finally charged with manslaughter.
After the investigation, a long, highly publicized trial began in 2017 at the Taunton court in Massachusetts.
The judge accuses Michelle of having done nothing to help Conrad, when she knew he was committing suicide.
“She did not call the police or Mr. Roy's family.
She did not notify her mother or her sister, whereas a few days earlier she had asked for their telephone numbers.
And finally, she did not give this simple additional instruction: “Get out of the 4X4”.
Therefore, Michelle's failure to act, when she had a self-created obligation, constitutes willful and reckless conduct."
Full screen
Michelle Carter is released from Bristol Reformatory.
(North Dartmouth, January 23, 2020.) Getty Images
In 2017, Michelle Carter was finally convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to two and a half years in prison, including 15 months suspended.
She begins her incarceration in 2019 and will be released in January 2020. Since her release, the young woman, aged 25 today, has been placed on probation … which will end in August 2022.