In July of 2014, Conrad Roy III committed suicide by inhaling carbon monoxide in his pickup truck, at the help of his girlfriend Michelle Carter. While she was not physically there, she was speaking to Roy in the days prior and the minutes before he committed suicide.

The issue is that as his girlfriend, knowing about his overwhelming want to commit suicide, she should have not pushed him closer to the edge but rather kept him from it. In the beginning of their exchanges regarding his suicide, she was determined to keep him from doing it; she did not want him to do it. Carter at first tries to encourage Roy to get help for his suicidal thoughts. From CNN, this is the first part of their days-long conversation, this one from June 19, 2014:

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 wanna kill yourself? Or are you gonna try to get better?"
Roy: "I can't get better I already made my decision.

As the days go on though, Carter gets frustrated with Roy; going from trying to convince him to get help for his suicidal thoughts, to not wanting him to hurt himself, to then helping him culminate ways to kill himself. He voiced words of concern in the days prior, being that he didn't want to hurt his family, to which she promised to be there for his family and said this:

"Conrad. I told you I'll take care of them. Everyone will take care of them to make sure they won't be alone and people will help them get thru it. We talked about this, they will be okay and accept it. People who commit suicide don't think this much and they just do it"

On July 12th, right before he killed himself, Carter said to him that the best time to do it would be at night, when everyone is sleeping. Carter then told Roy that he needs to do it or she will get him help. She makes him promise that he will kill himself, telling him that he cannot break a promise.

Now, Michelle Carter has been sentenced to 15 months in a Massachusetts jail but she will remain free pending an appeal. The trial strongly depended on text messages between Carter and Roy the days before his suicide. Carter, who could have taken Roy’s moments of hesitation and convinced him not to kill himself, instead took them and manipulated him into doing something that he was terrified of. Suicide is not something to be handled lightly and I hope that Carter takes this with her for the rest of her life.