Editing Michelle Carter (section)

==Carter and Roy's relationship==
Carter and Conrad Roy met in Florida in 2012 while each had been visiting relatives. After this initial encounter, they saw each other in person again only a handful of times over the course of two years, despite having lived only about 35 miles (56 km) away from each other in the Boston suburbs. Instead, they mostly exchanged text messages and emails.

According to court documents, Roy had allegedly been physically hit by his father and verbally abused by his grandfather, and tried to kill himself in October 2012 while despondent after his parents had divorced. After learning that he was planning to kill himself, Carter repeatedly discouraged him from attempting suicide in 2012 and 2014 and encouraged him to "get professional help". However, her attitude changed in July 2014, when she started thinking that it would be a "good thing to help him die". In June, Roy had texted Carter suggesting they act like Romeo and Juliet, checking that she understood they had each killed themselves.

Roy struggled with social anxiety and depression for which he had seen several therapists and counselors, including a cognitive behavioral therapist in the weeks prior to his death. He had been hospitalized for an acetaminophen (paracetamol) overdose at the age of 17; he was talking to a girl he had met in a group and she called the police. He had been taking Celexa for some time. In the United States, citalopram carries a boxed warning stating it may increase suicidal thinking and behavior in those under age 24. In 2016 the judge had refused the defense's request for funds to hire an expert on Celexa, describing it as 'speculative'. Videos that Roy made of himself talking to camera formed an important part of the case.

=== Death of Conrad Roy ===
On Sunday, July 13, 2014, following digital exchanges with Carter while interacting with his family, Roy died by suicide by poisoning himself with carbon monoxide fumes in his truck in a Kmart parking lot in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.

Roy's funeral was held on Saturday, July 19, 2014, at St. Anthony's Church in Mattapoisett. The Captain Conrad H. Roy III Scholarship Fund at the Northeast Maritime Institute in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, was established in his memory