BOSTON — Conrad Roy was just 18 years old when he took his own life in 2014, and three years later his 17 year old girlfriend, Michelle Carter, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for sending him text messages urging him to kill himself.
Now, for the first time since the trial, Roy’s parents are speaking out.
READ: All the texts between Michelle Carter and Conrad Roy the day he died
The texting suicide trial sparked a nationwide controversy and has parents asking, “Could this happen to my family? Can a text message lead to a suicide?”
It’s questions like those that Dr. Oz wanted answered as well.
Thursday on Fox 25, Roy’s mother, Lynn, and his sisters, will sit down with Dr. Oz to talk about how Conrad’s death and the trial have changed his family.
In 2014, Roy was found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning inside his truck. Investigators later discovered a barrage of text messages on the Mattapoisett teen’s phone.
They were from his on-and-off girlfriend, Michelle Carter.
Carter urged Roy to end his life through a series of text messages and phone calls, and was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in his death.
She will serve 15 months in jail, but that decision is under appeal.
While the legal battle still plays out in court, Roy’s mother told Dr. Oz that she does not want people to remember her son by how he ended his life, but rather how he lived it.
“He was always helping others,” she said. He cared more about others than himself. I would love to do something to help others in some way that’s how he would want me to go on without him.”
Roy’s sisters, Morgan and Camdyn, said they want their brother to be remembered as a happy person.
On Thursday, the Roy family will talk about whether they think justice has been served and why they feel worse for Michelle Carter’s parents than they do for their family.
The episode airs on Fox25 at 2 p.m.
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