The Girl From Plainville true story is just as intensely disturbing as the drama suggests as the show airs in the UK

The Girl From Plainville true story might not have been known by everyone before the drama series landed on Channel 4 but it includes seriously chilling real life events.

Starring the likes of Elle Fanning, Colton Ryan and Chloe Sevigny, The Girl From Plainville preceded the Candy Hulu drama series but delivered a similarly sinister and emotional story. Originally released on Hulu in March 2022 and available to watch via Lionsgate+, the eight-episode show has now also landed on Channel 4 in the UK. This means that once again many viewers might find themselves wanting to know more about The Girl From Plainville true story that inspired its chilling plotline and about Michelle Carter and Conrad Roy.

Here we explain The Girl From Plainville true story and what we know about where Michelle Carter is now after everything that happened. 

Warning: This article contains references to suicide that some might find upsetting. 

The Girl From Plainville true story explained

For those unfamiliar with The Girl From Plainville true story, the real events that inspired the Hulu drama series involve horrific manipulations and heart wrenching details like in The Sixth Commandment true story. The dramatisation tells the tale of teenager Michelle Carter, from the town of Plainville, Massachusetts, and her long-distance 18-year-old boyfriend Conrad Roy IIII who took his own life in July 2014. Already devastating for his family, it later emerged that Michelle had been sending Conrad texts apparently encouraging him to do so. 

In February 2015, seven months after Conrad’s death, the then-20-year-old Michelle was indicted for involuntary manslaughter. This carries a maximum twenty year sentence, but in 2017 she was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. 

As reported by the BBC at the time, it was determined that Michelle would serve 15 months of her sentence behind bars and then spend five years on probation. She was charged with involuntary manslaughter as Massachusetts had no law criminalising telling or encouraging someone to take their own life.

The BBC reported that Judge Lawrence Moniz described Michelle as being guilty of “wanton and reckless conduct” when she sent a message instructing Conrad to get back inside the truck which had been filling up with fumes.

The judge went on to declare that, “[Michelle] called no one and finally she did not issue a simple additional instruction - get out of the truck.” 

Michelle’s defence team argued that the antidepressants she’d been taking could’ve affected her judgement and suggested nothing could have dissuaded Conrad. Prior to Conrad’s death the two had reportedly messaged for a month about him potentially taking his own life as he struggled with his mental health. Michelle is understood to have also experienced mental health struggles. 

She apparently replied furiously when Conrad didn’t go through with what he’d said before and it’s also reported that the two spoke on the phone twice on the day that Conrad died. It was the phone contact between them that first pointed investigators in Michelle’s direction. 

As reported by Esquire, she was waiting to be picked up from school a few months after Conrad’s death when a detective came over and told her he knew that he and Conrad had been talking the night he took his own life and that he had a search warrant to see her phone. 

After her father arrived and drove her home with the detective following, she gave over her phone with her password, and the messages were uncovered. The text messages exchanged between Conrad and Michelle were key to the case against her and supposedly filled 317 pages. 

Their relationship was primarily conducted via their phones after meeting in Florida in 2012 and two months after Conrad died Michelle sent a friend of hers a text. In it, she appeared to state that she could’ve stopped her boyfriend that night but she “told him to get back in” the truck instead of calling for help and trying to dissuade him. 

Ultimately, The Girl From Plainville true story is every bit as horrific and emotional as the Hulu drama presents it to be. Conrad’s devastated father, also called Conrad Roy, declared after the trial that his family was “heartbroken” and that his son was his “best friend”. 

Where is Michelle Carter now? 

Whether fans of the fictionalised show were already aware of The Girl From Plainville true story or have recently learnt more about Michelle Carter, many viewers might be wondering where she is now. After serving eleven months of her fifteen month sentence, Michelle was released from prison in January 2020 and her probation came to an end in August 2022. Other than that, not much is known about where Michelle is now and she’s kept a low profile since her sentence and probation came to an end. 

She is played in The Girl From Plainville by Elle Fanning opposite Colton Ryan as Conrad Roy and while the Hulu show now airing on Channel 4 is dramatised, there was also a documentary released in 2019. Entitled I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth vs Michelle Carter, this focused on the case too. 

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