Cops: Teen Urged Friend to Kill Himself—and He Did

The sad story of one teen's suicide is turning into a bizarre criminal case for another. Police say Michelle Carter egged on friend Conrad Roy to kill himself—even when he seemed to change his mind at the last minute—because she wanted the sympathy and attention of others, reports the Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, Mass. The 18-year-old has been charged with involuntary manslaughter. Roy's text messages show he was in contact with Carter right up until he died of carbon monoxide poisoning in his truck in a Kmart parking lot. The toughest detail of all: Prosecutors say Carter told Roy to get back in his truck when he had second thoughts. She was texting him at the same time she was texting other friends expressing worry that he was missing.

The Boston Globe has one example: “I’m losing all hope that he’s even alive,” she texted a friend. Then she texted Roy, “Let me know when you’re gonna do it." Two months after his death, police say that Carter texted a friend to say that she had ordered him back into his truck. “I knew he would do it all over again the next day, and I couldn’t have him live the way he was living anymore,” she wrote. “I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t let him.” An attorney for Carter tells the Standard-Times of New Bedford that prosecutors are "cherry picking" texts to present a misleading narrative. Roy, 18, suffered from depression and had attempted suicide before. "It was his voluntary decision," says the attorney. "It was not caused by Michelle Carter." In one of his final texts to her, Roy wrote, "I love you, btw." (In California, a mother is suing Target over her son's suicide.)