Chapter 1: What tragic event is the focus of this episode?
I believe that he had an old soul, a beautiful soul. I know he's my son, but he was the kindest person I've ever met in my life. He was definitely God's gift to me. A dramatic development in the case of a beloved teenage boy who disappeared.
I have to report my son missing.
They saw his truck with caution tape around it.
The police told my father that he was gone.
He said, are you sure? Like, what are you talking about?
Grieving alongside his family, his girlfriend.
She sent messages of condolences. We all need to be strong together. She gave me a lot of support, just there for me when I needed her. But was there something about these two that no one knew? What are you seeing? A series of messages. I had to read them a couple of times to really sort of take it all in. Utterly shocking. A trail of text messages leading to the darkest of discoveries.
Keeping all the lies straight is difficult. She did it masterfully. That's not normal. I closed my eyes and I said, this is not real.
Now, a new twist in a story every parent needs to see.
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Chapter 2: What role did text messages play in Conrad's death?
Never gave me a hard time with anything. Did well in school, had friends, loved baseball. Conrad was her firstborn. Two daughters would come later. Looking back, she remembers his early years as good ones. Every picture I have of him, he looks like a little goofball. The happiest child. He was always happy.
Conrad grew up in and around the old fishing town of New Bedford, Massachusetts, where his father and grandfather run a tugboat and barge business. His dad said it seemed Conrad was destined to take to the sea from day one.
I think I was like two or three days old when my dad brought him on the tugboat. I just wanted to have him to follow in my footsteps. I was hoping he'd be able to just take over the business someday.
Not only was Conrad the firstborn in the Roy family, he was also the first grandchild. His aunt, Chrissy Roy, says his cousins adored him.
My youngest, Henry, would follow him around like a duck. He was the cousin that all of the kids looked up to.
But during his sophomore year in high school, his mom says her happy-go-lucky son started to change. His father and I, we got divorced. And I don't know one child that doesn't get affected by a divorce. He was 16 at the time? And it's, you know, going through the hormones. And he obviously had anxiety and depression. It just manifested at that time. He talked about it in this video diary.
I feel like I'm differently wired from everyone else. like there's something wrong with me.
It was at 16, while struggling with anxiety and depression, that Conrad encountered a 15-year-old girl named Michelle Carter. They met, Conrad's grandmother says, when Conrad and his sisters went to Florida to visit family. And this was just supposed to be Some R&R?
Yep. A week during school vacation.
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Chapter 3: How did the relationship between Michelle Carter and Conrad Roy develop?
Friends describe both of them as quiet and funny. And even though the two communicated regularly, Conrad's Aunt Becky says he never mentioned Michelle. He had other girlfriends where, you know, you knew their names and you had met them. She was not someone that he talked about. Apparently, he kept a lot to himself.
By the time he was 17, he had checked into psychiatric facilities a few times, suffering from deep depression. His mom says one time, on the day he was discharged, he attempted suicide by swallowing a bottle of cough syrup. He felt bad. I said, Conrad, you have no idea how much you were loved. And I appreciate it. But he swore at that time after that he would never attempt suicide again.
And things did seem to be getting better. A year later, by June 2014, Conrad had graduated from high school, gotten a scholarship to college, and earned his captain's license. That must have been a really big day, Conrad getting his captain's license.
It was. You know, I was very proud of him.
Are you feeling good about the place that he's in? I felt that he was still, like, struggling. But I felt very, very positive that he wasn't going to do anything to harm himself. It was right around this time when Conrad recorded that private video sharing his innermost thoughts.
I feel like I still have a long way to go to recover from this social anxiety, this feeling of insecurity. But if I keep talking, keep talking, it's gonna get better.
On July 12th, Conrad headed to the beach with his mom and two sisters. Lynn vividly remembers walking the shoreline with her son. He seemed in good spirits that day. We talked about school and he's like, I'm not sure where I am right now in my head. I said, well, you just got your captain's license. You don't have to worry about anything right now. He's looking toward the future. Yeah.
When they returned from the beach, Conrad drove his sisters to get ice cream. He was laughing. I said something, and he was, like, smiling. Conrad told his mom he was going to his friend's house and wouldn't be back for dinner. But later that night, Lynn says, out of the blue, her daughter got a text message from someone quite unexpected.
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Chapter 4: What evidence did detectives find in their investigation?
It was around 10.30 that night. Michelle Carter is asking where Conrad is, and they have boyfriend and girlfriend now. This was news to Lynn. She knew Conrad and Michelle had only seen each other in person a few times. The next morning, Lynn woke up at 5 a.m. and noticed Conrad wasn't home. She called around and drove by his friend's house but couldn't find him. Conrad was missing.
A son disappears, a mom worries, and a dad receives a troubling clue. A family friend said they saw his truck with caution tape around it. The news is about to go from bad to worse.
Are you sure? What are you talking about?
When Dateline continues.
Word spread quickly. Conrad Roy III was missing. His family and friends, growing more frantic by the hour, searched everywhere for him. By mid-morning, his mom decided to call 911. That evening, about 24 hours after Conrad left his house, his father got a call.
A family friend said they saw his truck at Kmart with caution tape around it.
So you go down there to Kmart.
And I think the police told my father that he was gone.
An officer found Conrad dead behind the wheel of his pickup truck. His dad called Lynn to tell her the awful news. I couldn't even see. I felt like I was drugged. I couldn't eat, slept in the same clothes for days. Most horrible time in my life. The rest of Conrad's family was in disbelief.
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Chapter 5: What was Michelle Carter's response to Conrad's death?
Four months later, the court upheld her conviction, saying the evidence against the defendant proved that by her wanton or reckless conduct, she caused the victim's death by suicide. Michelle began serving her sentence in February 2019, and after just under a year behind bars, in January 2020, she was granted early release with credit earned for good behavior.
I feel worse for her mother than I do for myself. That's... A powerful statement. Well, I... Your son died. I know, but I had the son that I did. And I couldn't be more proud of the young man that he was. Kind, selfless, and compassionate. Everything. Conrad's mom says this is a hard story to tell, but she hopes sharing it will help others.
There are children in this world just like Conrad, and I can't even imagine anything like this happening again.
That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.
Friday night on Dateline.
All hell breaks loose. Sarah was good at playing everybody.
I think it takes women sometimes to realize how awful women can be.
The deeper you went into these, the more crazy things you'd find out, right?
This is a once-in-a-lifetime case.
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