“I don’t think about her,” Lynn Roy tells Dr. Mehmet Oz for an episode ofThe Dr. Oz Showto be broadcast Thursday. “It is what it is. You know, I don’t think about her at all.”
Due to “good credit” earned through her participation in programs inside the Bristol County House of Corrections in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, Carter, who began serving her sentence in February, already has shaved two months off that time, a spokesman for the county sheriff’s office tells PEOPLE.
Conrad was 18 when he was found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in his pickup truck on July 13, 2014, in the parking lot of a Kmart in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.
Police and prosecutors said Carter deliberately misled friends in the days and hours before Conrad died, claiming she didn’t know where he was at the same time the two of them were in contact while he prepared to take his life.
Conrad’s sister, Camdyn, tells Oz in the broadcast that Carter “could have texted me” to help prevent it. “She had my number and she texted me that night,” says Camdyn.
“What did she text you that night?” asks Oz.
“That he was missing,” says Camdyn.
“She knew,” says Lynn. “She heard him die in the truck. The police reports [said] that she was on the phone with him while he was dying.”
Glenn C.Silva/Fairhaven Neighborhood News/Pool
In hundreds of texts and statements that came to light after Roy’s suicide, Carter, then 17, was revealed to have pushed him to go through with the act. The Massachusetts judge who found her guilty cited Carter’s written admission to a friend that, after Conrad got out of the truck and shared his last-minute fears with Carter in a phone call before he died, she told him to “get back in” the truck.
Both teens had struggled with depression, and Conrad had made previous attempts at suicide.
Although Carter’s defense acknowledged her exchanges with Roy, her attorneys argued that prosecutors had“cherry-picked”only those text messages that served their case against her, ignoring others in which Carter urged Roy toward help for his struggles.
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“She did nothing,” Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz said atCarter’s sentencing. “She did not call the police or Mr. Roy’s family. Finally, she did not issue a simple additional instruction: ‘Get out of the truck.’”
Michelle Carter.AP/REX/Shutterstock
Carter, now 23, appealed her conviction to the state’s highest court but lost and was ordered to begin her sentence. In September, shesought early release after serving seven months.The Massachusetts parole boarddenied that request, writing in its decision that Carter’s “self-serving statements and behavior, leading up to and after [Conrad’s] suicide, appear to be irrational and lacked sincerity.”
The board’s decision further stated, “Ms. Carter needs to further address her causative factors that led to the governing offense.”
As of Nov. 8, Carter’s participation in those programs had so far moved her release date up to March 3, 2020, from May 5, he confirms in an email.
After losing her appeal in the state courts, Carter’s defense team has since appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds and is waiting to learn whether it will be heard.
The Dr. Oz Showfeaturing the Roy family airs Thursday. Check local listings.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact theNational Suicide Prevention Lifelineat 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 for free 24/7 support or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
source: people.com
