SUICIDE, MANSLAUGHTER OR PREMEDITATED MURDER "BY REMOTE CONTROL"?

Conrad Roy III 

[UPDATE: JUNE 17, 2017: I HAVE POSTED THE VERDICT IN THIS CASE AS A COMMENT AFTER THE BLOG.]  
Michelle Carter, above, is charged with manslaughter in the death of Conrad Roy III in 2014, when she was 17 and he was 18.
Ms. Carter, then 17, was about an hour away at the time [of Roy's suicide].
But she had urged him, through screen after screen of texts, to kill himself.
Ms. Carter [now 20 years old] waived her right to a jury trial.
If found guilty, she faces up to 20 years in prison.

The two teenagers met through their families in 2012 when they were vacationing in Florida.
It turned out they lived less than an hour apart in Massachusetts.
Once they returned home, though, they rarely saw each other in person, instead developing an intense relationship that played out in texts and Facebook messages.

Carter’s case went to the state’s Supreme Court in 2015.
Last summer, the court ruled that she could stand trial for her alleged role in Roy’s death. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison.

In the ruling, the court found that Carter’s “virtual presence” at the time of the suicide and the “constant pressure” she had placed on Roy, who was in a delicate mental state, were enough proof for an involuntary manslaughter charge. She was indicted and has appealed the decision.  

As conditions of her bail, she is not allowed to use the internet or social media and cannot text anyone but her parents.
[SEE ALSO: ‘I mean, you’re about to die’: Teen who urged boyfriend to kill himself will stand trial ]
June 13, 2017
The defense rested their case today.
The judge began deliberating late Tuesday.
He said he will announce his ruling in open court, but he did not give any timeline.

I'VE BEEN FOLLOWING THIS STORY SINCE IT FIRST APPEARED IN THE PRESS.
IT INTRIGUED AND SADDENED ME BECAUSE I WAS ONCE ON THAT DARK ROAD TO SUICIDE.
HAD FRIENDS AND FAMILY NOT INTERVENED I WOULDN'T BE HERE TO WRITE THIS.

I WILL ADMIT MY BIAS IN THIS CASE, FROM THE STANDPOINT OF MY PAST CAREER IN MEDICINE/PSYCHOLOGY AND AS SOMEONE WHO DID ATTEMPT SUICIDE AND LIVED.

I DECIDED THIS WAS IMPORTANT TO POST BECAUSE OF SO MANY WHO DAILY, EVERY HOUR OF EVERY DAY, EITHER ATTEMPT SUICIDE AND FAIL OR ATTEMPT SUICIDE AND SUCCEED.
THE NUMBERS ARE ALARMING AND GROWING, WITH YOUNGER AND YOUNGER VICTIMS ANNUALLY ACROSS THE GLOBE.

WE NEED, I THINK, MORE AWARENESS ABOUT THIS TOPIC BECAUSE WE JUST CAN'T KNOW WHO WILL BE NEXT.
IT SEEMS VERY URGENT FOR US TO BE MINDFUL OF IT.
WE NEED TO KNOW WHAT TO WATCH FOR, WHAT WE CAN PERHAPS DO TO PREVENT SUCH TRAGEDIES, TO LOOK AT THESE TEXT MESSAGES TO SEE HOW THE MIND OF SOMEONE CONTEMPLATING SUICIDE PROGRESSES FROM THOUGHT TO DEED.

BUT, FOR NOW, A LOOK AT THE BARE FACTS BEFORE THE JUDGE DECIDES THIS YOUNG FEMALE'S FATE.

LET'S START WITH THE COUPLE, THEIR RELATIONSHIP, AND NOT, AS THE DEFENSE DID, USE EITHER OF THEIR PASTS BEFORE THEY MET AS EXCUSES OR MOTIVES.

LET'S FOCUS ON THOSE ALMOST TWO YEARS AND ESPECIALLY ON THAT FEW MOMENTS IN TIME IN WHICH THESE TWO WERE ALSO ONLY FOCUSED ON THOSE FINAL MOMENTS.

Roy was hospitalized in October 2012 after overdosing on prescription drugs.
In a nearly two-hour October 10 conversation following Roy’s hospitalization, Carter questioned her then-boyfriend if he was serious about wanting to kill himself
Their October 10, 2012 exchange:

Roy: do you care what’s been happening to me
Carter: whats been happening?
Roy: uhhh stayed in a hospital last week
Carter: …why?
Roy: because l’m weak and sensitive and not sure why you even liked me in the first place.
Carter: was it like therepy? and becasue you made me feel special Conrad
Roy: yah i tried to kill myself
Carter: you did? why didn’t you tell me?
Roy: just remember I’m not the person you thought I was
Carter: how did you try to kill yourself? do you still want to?
Roy: no i’m not going to
Carter: you’re going to what?
Roy: just letting you know

Roy: the voices in my head tell me to
Carter: tell you to kill yourself?
Roy: I’m a freak
Carter: do you really want to kill yourself?
Roy: I’m gonna later
Carter: today?
Roy: sadly

Carter: you’re lieing. youre not gonna
Roy: believe what you want

Carter: youre not going to Conrad?

Carter: i bet you a million dollars you wont

Roy: I am
Carter: how are you gonna?
Roy: I have 2 plans
Roy: actually 3
Carter: okay what?
Roy: why do you wanna know?
Carter: just tell me
Roy: drown myself. or od on sleeping pills
Carter: whats the third olano
Carter: plan*
Roy: hanging

Carter: you’re not going to Conrad stop
Roy: I just wanted you to know. so if you text me and I’m not responding that’s why
Carter: are you being serious right now
Roy: I’m going to try my best and not fail. like last time

Carter: you wont bring yourself to do it

Roy: trust me you don’t know what it’s like to be me. an d done through what I’ve gone through
Roy: It might not seem all that bad it’s probably because I was too chicken to tell you half of my story
Carter: tell me it then Conrad.
Roy: no
Carter: why?
Roy: I don’t want to. I’m sorry Michelle

Carter: well are you seriously going to kill yourself tonight
Roy: 10-11-12 that’s what it tells me
Carter: todays the 10….
Roy: I know
Carter: so you have 1 more day
Carter: ….
Roy: nope tonight
Carter: Conrad stop. you’re not gonna do it
Carter: I know you wont
Carter: I don’t want you to
Roy: No I actually am

Carter: well when?
Carter: Conrad?
Carter: you nhave so much to live for please dont
Carter: is this my fault?
Carter: Conrad please your scaering me?
Carter: Please answer me Conrad i want to help you
Roy: It’s not your fault

Carter: are you really doing it tonight?
Roy: I’m going to try
Carter: no youre not
Roy: Yeah
Carter: how do i know that?
Carter: I have to go to practice now though
Roy: okay
Carter: so i’ll talk to you when i get backj at 930 right?
Roy: I might not be alive
Carter: Conrad yes you will be
Carter: I love you
Roy: mm
Roy: ok
Carter: just say it back
Roy: I love you too
Carter: thank you
Roy: welcome

Carter: you wont do it
Roy: you really want me to prove it?
Carter: i just know you wont
Roy: I’ve already tried, and I know what I gotta do
Roy: but it’s not at all your fault
Roy: I just have a messed up yea
Carter: promise its not my fault
Roy: head
Carter: because I will always believe it is
Carter: I could of helped you more
Roy: don’t I can’t leave that on your shoulders
Roy: I’m mean
Roy: *im not mean
Carter: Im just so sorry it has to be this way
Roy: It’s the path I chose to go
Roy: and I head about your grandmother 🙁 I’m sorry to hear that
Roy: have a good time at practice goodbye

Carter: i just want you to know that you were one of the most amazing guys ive ever met and you made me really happy that time in Florida and the day you came over, you made me so hapy and im so proud of what you accoplished with rowing and i admire how strong you were to go back to school and i will really miss you babe
Carter: and thanks its okay
Carter: are you sure you want to do this? 
Her lawyers said [CARTER] had a host of other “frailties,” including a severe eating disorder.
In her texts, she talked about being distraught over her body image and said she cut herself when she was anxious.
At one point, she told a friend that she, too, had nearly attempted suicide.
She also expressed confusion about her sexuality and lamented having no friends. All the while, she craved the attention of certain popular girls at school and appeared excessively grateful when they were nice to her.

It was this yearning for attention that prosecutors said drove Ms. Carter to push Mr. Roy to kill himself. His death, they said, would allow her to play the role of the “grieving girlfriend” and become the focus of sympathy.

Ms. Carter’s voluminous correspondences showed she texted freely about her own problems and Mr. Roy’s. In June 2014, she wrote to Samantha Boardman, one of the girls she admired:

“Hes suicidal and has severe depression and social anxiety which is the bad part but I’m the only one he has and he needs me. I mean it’s not helping that I’m kinda going thru my own stuff but if I leave him he will probably kill himself and it would be all my fault. I’m keeping him alive basically.”

But by early July 2014, Ms. Carter’s attitude changed.
She abruptly turned her attention to helping Mr. Roy end his misery.
She also gave him elaborate instructions on how to do it.

Most of the prosecution’s case against Ms. Carter is built on texts she sent in the two weeks before his death on July 12. In those, she counseled Mr. Roy to overcome his doubts. She told him that he was “strong” enough to commit suicide and that his parents would manage:

“I think your parents know you’re in a really bad place. I’m not saying they want you to do it but I honestly feel like they can accept it.” She added, “Everyone will be sad for a while but they will get over it and move on.”
When technical and logistical issues arose, Ms. Carter provided direction and advice. If the gas did not work, she noted at one point, he had other options:

“Hang yourself, jump off a building, stab yourself idk there’s a lot of ways.”
Oddly, she began texting her classmates on July 10 that he was missing, even though he was not; in fact she was texting with him at the time and instructing him on how to fix the generator that he wanted to use in his suicide.

He would not kill himself for two more days, after more exchanges in which Ms. Carter declared, more than once, “You just have to do it.”

Mr. Roy sent his last text to Ms. Carter at 6:25 p.m. on July 12: “Okay, I’m almost there.”
They spoke by phone then. It is not known what was said, but she later texted Ms. Boardman that he got out of the truck because the carbon monoxide was working “and he got scared.” She “told him to get back in.”

Shortly thereafter, Ms. Carter texted Mr. Roy’s mother and Conrad's sister, asking where he was, not mentioning the call she had just had with him while he was killing himself.

He was found dead the next day.

A short time later, she arranged a fund-raising baseball tournament in Mr. Roy’s name — in her hometown, Plainville, not his — and presented herself as an anti-suicide advocate.
“Even though I could not save my boyfriend’s life,” she wrote on Facebook, “I want to put myself out there to try to save as many other lives as possible.”

JUNE 7, 2017

On July 12, 2014, Michelle Carter texted Conrad Roy III and said, “If u don’t do it now you’re never gonna do it,” according to court documents.

Several hours later, Roy went through with the suicide, using a gas-powered water pump. He died of carbon monoxide poisoning inside the cab of his pickup. His body was found in a Kmart parking lot several miles outside Boston.

Court documents include text messages exchanged between Carter and Roy hours, days and weeks before his death — messages that prosecutors argue pushed the 18-year-old to kill himself. Carter is charged with involuntary manslaughter in his death.

[Her texts pushed him to commit suicide, prosecutors say. But does that mean she killed him?]

Now, nearly three years later, she is on trial in a case that experts say raises new and contentious questions: Can a person be charged and convicted in someone’s death even if she was not with the victim when he died? And can a person be found guilty of killing someone based solely on what she said in text messages?

The prosecution’s evidence against Carter, now 20: dozens of text messages they allege pushed Roy to commit suicide.

This conversation took place a few weeks before Roy’s death:

ROY: we should be like Romeo and Juliet at the end

CARTER: Haha. I’d love to be your Juliet :)

ROY: but do you know what happens in the end

CARTER: “OH YEAH F— NO! WE ARE NOT DYING”

Days later, June 19, 2014, but still WEEKS before Roy’s suicide:

CARTER: But the mental hospital would help you. I know you don’t think it would but I’m telling you, if you give them a chance, they can save your life
CARTER: Part of me wants you to try something and fail just so you can go get help
ROY: It doesn’t help. trust me

CARTER: So what are you gonna do then? Keep being all talk and no action and everyday go thru saying how badly you want to kill yourself? Or are you gonna try to get better?
ROY: I can’t get better I already made my decision.

June 23, 2014: (Carter had told some of her friends that she often cut herself, but no one recalls seeing evidence of that.)

Carter: "How do you want to harm yourself"
Roy: "Something idkk yet"
Carter: "Please don't"
Roy: "I hate myself I'll always hate myself, I'm never gonna view myself as good I'm so far behind"
Carter: "What is harming yourself gonna do!? Nothing! It will make it worse!"
Roy: "Make the pain go away like you said"
Carter: "It will make the pain go away temporarily, but when you're done, you'll just regret it and feel even worse!"

At one point, Carter brainstormed ways for Roy to kill himself, according to court documents.

“I bet you’re gonna be like ‘oh, it didn’t work because I didn’t tape the tube right or something like that,’ ” she texted him “You always seem to have an excuse.”

When Roy decided to use a generator instead, Carter was impatient.

CARTER: “Do you have the generator?”
ROY: “Not yet LOL”
CARTER: WELL WHEN ARE YOU GETTING IT?

Eventually, Roy did find a generator — his father’s — but it was broken. Carter told him to take it to Sears for repairs.

And if Roy couldn’t find a way to use carbon monoxide, Carter suggested alternatives: “I’d try the bag or hanging,” she told him. “Hanging is painless and take like a second if you do it right.”

On July 8, 2014, a few days before Roy killed himself:

CARTER: “So are you sure you don’t wanna [kill yourself] tonight?”
ROY: “what do you mean am I sure?”
CARTER: “Like, are you definitely not doing it tonight?”
ROY: “Idk yet I’ll let you know”
CARTER: “Because I’ll stay up with you if you wanna do it tonight”

ROY: “another day wouldn’t hurt”

CARTER: “You can’t keep pushing it off, tho, that’s all you keep doing”

On July 11, 2014, the day before Roy died:

CARTER: “ … Well in my opinion, I think u should do the generator because I don’t know much about the pump and with a generator u can’t fail”
On July 12, 2014, a day before Roy’s body was found:

CARTER: “So I guess you aren’t gonna do it then, all that for nothing”

CARTER: “I’m just confused like you were so ready and determined”

ROY: “I am gonna eventually”

ROY: “I really don’t know what I’m waiting for. . but I have everything lined up”

CARTER: “No, you’re not, Conrad. Last night was it. You keep pushing it off and you say you’ll do it but u never do. Its always gonna be that way if u don’t take action”

CARTER: “You’re just making it harder on yourself by pushing it off, you just have to do it”

CARTER: “Do u wanna do it now?”

ROY: “Is it too late?”

ROY: “Idkk it’s already light outside”

ROY: “I’m gonna go back to sleep, love you I’ll text you tomorrow”

CARTER: “No? Its probably the best time now because everyone’s sleeping. Just go somewhere in your truck. And no one’s really out right now because it’s an awkward time”

CARTER: “If u don’t do it now you’re never gonna do it”

CARTER: “And u can say you’ll do it tomorrow but you probably won’t”

Carter: "You just need to do it Conrad or I'm gonna get you help"
Carter: "You can't keep doing this everyday"
Roy: "Okay I'm gonna do it today"
Carter: "Do you promise"
Roy: "I promise babe"
Roy: "I have to now"
Carter: "Like right now?"
Roy: "where do I go? :("
Carter: "And u can't break a promise. And just go in a quiet parking lot or something."
Roy’s body was found by police the morning of July 13.
Carter’s friends testified Wednesday that she told them she was on the phone with Roy when he died.

“Liv, I heard him die. I just wish I got him more help,” Carter texted Olivia Mosolgo, who said she knew of Roy but never met him, MassLive.com reported.

During opening statements Tuesday, prosecutor Maryclare Flynn said Carter played a “sick game” with Roy’s life and accused her of seeking sympathy and attention by being the “grieving girlfriend,” ABC affiliate WCVB reported.
More than a month after Conrad Roy III ended his young life in July 2014 by inhaling carbon monoxide in his pickup truck, Samantha Boardman said she got a disturbing text message.
It was from a friend, Michelle Carter, 17, who had been Roy's girlfriend.
And it said, in part: "He got out of the car because it was working and he got scared and I f-----g told him to get back in."

Boardman, who knew Carter from high school, also testified Wednesday that her then-classmate had sent an ominous text message the day before Roy's body was found slumped in his truck with a portable gasoline engine in the back seat.

"Is there any way a portable generator can kill you somehow?" the message said. "Because he said he was getting that and some other tools at the store."

Prosecutors argue that these and other texts are overwhelming evidence that while Carter, now 20, played the role of a loving and distraught girlfriend, she had secretly urged Roy to kill himself.
The defense claims that Roy's long-standing mental health issues contributed to his suicide.

On Wednesday, Boardman and other classmates testified about exchanging texts with Carter about the defendant's struggles with an apparent eating disorder, about her loneliness and feelings of worthlessness over not having friends, and about her "cutting" herself at times.

One classmate, Olivia "Livy" Mosolgo, testified that Carter sought to get the attention of girls who had stopped talking to her and lamented not having friends.
In one text, Mosolgo told the court, Carter asked her to stop complimenting her as "pretty" and "wonderful" because she wasn't invited to parties.
"Livy, I have like no friends," one text said.
"No one hangs out with me," said another. "I'm alone all the time."

Another school friend, Alexandra "Lexi" Ebla, testified that about a month after the suicide, Carter texted her about a charity softball tournament she had organized in Roy's honor.
She said Carter's text said, "I put the Homers for Conrad on Facebook! I'm like famous now haha. Check it out!"

Ali Eithier, who worked as a counselor at a summer camp where Carter volunteered, told the court she was surprised at the intimate details about Roy's death that Carter revealed in a text message to her. Eithier said she didn't know Carter well.
One text to Eithier, sent days after the young man's death, read: "I was on the phone talking to him when he killed himself. I heard him dying."

In a text to Boardman on the night Roy died, Carter wrote: "I heard moaning like someone was in pain and he wouldn't answer when I said his name. I stayed on the phone for like 20! mins and that's all I heard."
She followed up with another text the next night: "Can we do something tonight to get my mind off it."
A large part of the prosecution's case is based on a series of text messages from Carter that popped up on Roy's phone on the final day of his life. One after another, prosecutors said, the messages appear to show her pressuring him to kill himself:
"You need to do it, Conrad."
"You can't think about it, you just have to do it."
"Are you going to do it today?"

The day before, authorities say, Carter had urged him to go through with his plan to commit suicide.
"You're ready and prepared. All you have to do is turn the generator on and you will be free and happy," she wrote, according to a document disseminated by the Bristol County District Attorney's Office.
"No more pushing it off," she allegedly wrote. "No more waiting."

Conrad was a troubled youth who had tried to kill himself in 2012 by overdosing on Tylenol, his mother testified.
But after he began taking medication and went to counseling, he seemed much better, Lynn Roy said. He graduated from high school in 2014 and was making plans for the future, she said.
Her son never talked about Carter and she rarely saw them together, she said.
On the day he died, she went to the beach with Conrad and his sisters, Roy testified. He was laughing and joking about other people on the beach.

Roy said she exchanged some messages with Carter after her son's death but the teen never mentioned that she had been in touch with Conrad on the day he died.

Conrad Roy III wrote to Michelle Carter that he loved her in a suicide note that was introduced in Carter’s involuntary manslaughter trial Tuesday. A note to Roy’s father was also introduced into evidence.

“I’ll forever be in your heart and we will meet up someday in Heaven,” he wrote to Carter:
"To Michelle

Keep strong in tough times. You taught me how to be strong and carry on. This life has been too challenging and troublesome to me but I’ll forever be in your heart and we will meet up someday in Heaven. Put your best foot forward and your chin held up high. Our songs. Listen to them and remember me. Take anything from my room at my moms/dads to remind you of me. You’ll get there, I’m sorry about everything. I am messed up I guess. I wish I could express my gratitude but I feel brain dead. I love you and greatly appreciate ur effort and kindness towards me. Keep your heart beating, and keep pushing forward. Go on YouTube type in Rocky Balboa quote, and let the light guide you.

I <3 you "

HERE'S MY TAKE ON THIS, AS HONESTLY AS I CAN PUT IT, NOT THAT IT MATTERS ONE WHIT....

CARTER NEVER ONCE ALERTED ROY'S PARENTS, OR HERS, OR A TEACHER, OR THE POLICE, OR A PHYSICIAN, OR ANY ADULT THAT ROY WAS SUICIDAL.

SHE COULD HAVE.  
SHE SHOULD HAVE.

SHE DID NOT.

SHE WAS VERY ACTIVE ON 'SOCIAL MEDIA', DID QUITE A BIT OF ONLINE 'RESEARCH' INTO WAYS FOR ROY TO KILL HIMSELF.

DID SHE EVER ONCE VISIT SUICIDE HOTLINES, SUICIDE PREVENTION SITES,

WHEN THAT YOUNG MAN TOLD HER GOODNIGHT AND THAT HE WAS GOING BACK TO SLEEP, WHY WASN'T SHE AT LEAST GRATEFUL HE HAD CHANGED HIS MIND AND WHY DIDN'T SHE JUST HANG UP THEN AND CALL HIS MOTHER, CALL ANYONE WHO COULD HAVE INTERVENED RIGHT THEN TO HELP CONRAD?

SHE SAID SEVERAL TIMES THAT SHE LOVED THIS LAD.

DOES LOVE WANT TO SEE THE BELOVED DESTROYED?

WOULD ANYONE WHO REALLY CARED FOR ('LIKED') ANOTHER WANT TO SEE THEM END THEIR OWN LIFE?

HER TEXT MESSAGE TO ONE OF THE GIRLS SHE SO HOPED WOULD LIKE HER CLEARLY STATES THAT SHE COULD HAVE STOPPED CONRAD ROY FROM KILLING HIMSELF.

WHY DIDN'T SHE?

SHE ALSO STATED IN TEXT MESSAGES TO SOME OF THOSE GIRLS SHE 'ADMIRED' THAT IT WAS HER FAULT THE YOUNG MAN WENT AHEAD WITH HIS SUICIDE PLANS. 

“He told me exactly what his plan was,” Carter told another friend. “And he told me he loved me. And then he just stopped talking.”

“Yeah and I was on the phone talking to him when he killed himself. I heard him dying," she texted another friend.

“I was talking to him on the phone when he killed himself. Liv, I heard him die. I just wish I got him more help,” she texted yet another.

Two days after the suicide, Carter texted Boardman, “I do blame myself, it's my fault. I was talking to him while he killed himself. I heard him cry in pain. I should of known I should of done something.”

Later she told Boardman, “I helped ease him into it and told him it was okay, I was talking to him on the phone when he did it I coud have easily stopped him or called the police but I didn't.”

She also expressed her fear about the police reading her messages. In a text to Boardman, she wrote, “Sam, [the police] read my messages with him I'm done. His family will hate me and I can go to jail.”
She continued to deceive Boardman about Roy's whereabouts a day BEFORE he killed himself, writing,

"I was supposed to save him he needed me. I let him down, I should of knew what he was saying was suspicious and I should of called his mom or someone. I could of prevented this."

IT APPEARS TO ME THAT SHE IS CORRECT IN THAT.

LOOKING AT HER MESSAGES TO CONRAD FROM 2012, ONE CAN SEE HER GOADING HIM.

Carter: you’re lieing. youre not gonna

Roy: believe what you want

Carter: youre not going to Conrad?

Carter: i bet you a million dollars you wont

Roy: I am

Carter: how are you gonna?

Carter: are you really doing it tonight?

Roy: I’m going to try

Carter: no youre not

Roy: Yeah

Carter: how do i know that?

Carter: you wont do it

Roy: you really want me to prove it?

Carter: i just know you wont

AND THEN SHE JUST WROTE HIM OFF BY SAYING...

"i just want you to know that you were one of the most amazing guys ive ever met and you made me really happy that time in Florida and the day you came over, you made me so hapy and im so proud of what you accoplished with rowing and i admire how strong you were to go back to school and i will really miss you babe "

THE CHARGE IS INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER.

INVOLUNTARY?

DID SHE INVOLUNTARILY PUSH HIM TO "JUST DO IT" FOR 2 LONG YEARS?

DID SHE INVOLUNTARILY RESEARCH NO-FAIL WAYS FOR HIM TO KILL HIMSELF AND TELL HIM HOW TO DO IT?

DID SHE INVOLUNTARILY TEXT 'FRIENDS' BEFORE AND DURING THE SUICIDE THAT SHE COULD HAVE CALLED THE POLICE, ETC?

DID SHE INVOLUNTARILY SIT THERE, KNOWING WHAT HE WAS DOING AND NOT CALL ANYONE TO HELP THE ONE SHE CLAIMED SHE LOVED?






_____________________
FURTHER READING:


Here is a sampling of text messages exchanged between the two in the days and weeks before Roy’s death, seen in court documents.


Before Roy's death in 2014, Carter texted Samantha Boardman ...

"Yeah I have school friends that all say they love me but that doesn't mean shit when no one ever asks to hang out with me. No one ever calls me or texts me it's always me that has to do it. So when someone actually makes an effort to talk to me and hangout and stuff it makes me so happy and I actually feel important like I'm worth something.

I don't even remember the last time someone asked to hangout with me before you did. But idk what I was thinking I knew I was just gonna make it all come crashing down like I always do.

I push people away I text them too much or try talking to them too much and they leave. Every single one and then I'm left crying in bed at night because I have no one, no friends, barely a family like they don't even like me half the time and no plans for the future. I'm nothing and I just have no idea what I'm doing.

Her friends testified that she texted them about her eating disorder and told them that she was cutting herself. One friend, however, told the court that she never observed any self-harm wounds on Carter.
===

IN A SIMILAR CASE, AN 11-YEAR-OLD BOY HUNG HIMSELF AFTER HIS "GIRLFRIEND" PLAYED A PRANK ON HIM ON 'SOCIAL MEDIA', TRICKING HIM INTO BELIEVING SHE HAD KILLED HERSELF.

TYSEN BENZ POSTED TO THAT PRANK THAT HE WAS GOING TO KILL HIMSELF...AND HE DID.

THAT YOUNG GIRL ALLEGEDLY LAUGHED ABOUT WHAT SHE DID AT SCHOOL... UNTIL SHE WAS CHARGED FOR THE PRANK THAT LED TYSEN TO END HIS LIFE.

HIS MOTHER HAS STATED:
"I urge families to speak out, reach out and communicate with your children about life's precious gift and the dangers of the internet and texting and how telecommunications can have the same effects as speaking face to face. I want Tysen to be remembered as he was and all the joy he's brought to everyone. Keep his spirit alive by standing strong & fighting against social media bullying!!"









//WW