A Massachusetts teenager was urged by his girlfriend to commit suicide. Now, the Mother of the dead teen said that the girlfriend should be held responsible for the death of her son. In a statement to ABC News' "20/20." she noted that her pain will never diminish.
The former girlfriend of Conrad Roy, Michelle Carter, is now appealing her conviction from the involuntary manslaughter charge. The then-17-year-old Carter apparently urged 18-year-old Roy to lock himself inside his car where he died from inhaling carbon monoxide on July 12, 2014.
The mother of Roy, Lynn, said that Carter should face the consequences of her actions because she knew exactly what she was doing when she and Roy exchanged messages before he decided to push through with the suicide, New York Daily News reported.
Carter was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in June of this year and was sentenced to serve 15 months behind bars. She is currently at home while her legal team is appealing the conviction.
Lynn also filed a $4.2 million lawsuit against Carter. The mother of Roy also said she hoped that Massachusetts will pass a law that will criminalize coercing someone to kill themselves.
Other relatives of Roy comment
According to People, other relatives of Roy released statements about Carter. They reportedly knew little to nothing regarding Carter and she showed up during his funeral only to ask if she could take home some of his ashes.
Carter had reportedly continued to urge Roy to commit suicide even when the 18-year-old wanted to abandon the idea of killing himself.
People wrote, “I don’t think that she helped him kill himself. I think she forced him to kill himself,” Bozzi said of Carter. “I think she was responsible for his death. I think if it wasn’t for her, he’d still be here.”
Some of the text messages between Carter and Roy were revealed in court and were made public days ago. In one of the texts, Carter asked Roy how he wanted to harm himself and he responded that he did not know yet.
Initially, Carter begged Roy not to harm himself because it would only make things worse. Weeks later, however, Carter asked if Roy was sure he was not going to kill himself that night (July 8, 2014). She even offered to stay up with him if he was going to do it. Roy responded that another day of postponing his plan would not hurt then Carter said, “You can’t keep pushing it off, tho.”
On July 12, the day that Roy killed himself, Carter once again asked if it was really the time that Roy was going to do it.
Roy felt confused and was really feeling scared so he did not push through with his plan during his first attempt. Hours later, Roy went back into his truck and killed himself.
In another text message taken from Carter’s phone, it showed that she texted a classmate two months after Roy’s death. In the text message, Carter said that she could have stopped him because she was on the phone with Roy the whole time. Roy got out of his truck because he was scared but Carter told him to get back in and just do it.
Carter also texted the sibling of Roy asking where her brother was? Later, she also texted Roy’s mother asking if they had heard from Roy. When she texted Roy's sibling and mother, she knew he was already dead.
What prosecutors are saying
In a report by ABC News, prosecutors on the case such as Katie Rayburn and Maryclare Flynn believe that Carter planned the death of Roy carefully because she really wanted him to die. They said in a statement that the friends of Carter started going their own ways after high school and she was starting to lose attention. She reportedly told her friends that Roy died two days before he actually died and when she told her friends about it, she immediately got the attention back.
Carter’s defense team responds
The defense attorney of Carter, Joseph Cataldo, said that his client was actually the one affected by Roy’s suicidal thoughts because she was also struggling with her own mental health issues. Cataldo said he thinks Roy wore Carter down so when she realized he really wanted to kill himself, she thought she should just help him and encourage him.
