Texting and traipsing to tragedy.
Streaming television currently abounds with true crime series, especially those where the culprit employed manipulation and emotional blackmail to bring forth disastrous results. Hulu’s latest, The Girl From Plainville, recounts the true and tragic story about Michelle Carter, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for encouraging her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III, to kill himself.
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Based on and named after an article in Esquire, the show follows the events that succeeded Roy’s suicide as the police start digging into the factors that led to his demise, while his mournful girlfriend uses her “grieving status” to quell her own social anxiety issues. We learn via flashbacks how Conrad and Michelle met, and how such tragedy came to unfold.
Conrad Roy III
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A resident of Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, Coco (as his loved ones called him) had struggled with extreme social anxiety and depression. He had failed in four prior suicide attempts. He had been accepted to Fitchburg State University a month before but had decided not to attend. According to his mother, he and Michelle had met each other no more than five times in their entire relationship. He was 18 years old in July 2014 when he asphyxiated himself by carbon monoxide in his truck outside a Kmart.
And here’s Colton Ryan as Conrad Roy III:
Here’s the real Michelle Carter:
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A resident of Plainville, Massachusetts, Michelle had met Conrad in 2012 in Naples, Florida, when they were visiting their respective relatives who happened to be neighbors. A student of King Philip Regional High School, she was athletic, excelled at softball, well-liked by her peers (voted “most likely to brighten your day”), and a big fan of the television series Glee. She also struggled with anxiety, anorexia, and body image issues. She had texted Conrad suggesting ways to kill himself and kept encouraging him when he expressed hesitation. She was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for Conrad’s death. She was 17 when Conrad killed himself. She’s 25 now.
And here’s Elle Fanning as Michelle Carter:
Here’s the real Lynn Roy (Conrad Roy’s mother):
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Lynn was a nurse and divorced from Conrad Roy III’s father. It was at her son’s wake that she met Michelle for the very first time.
And here’s Chloë Sevigny as Lynn Roy:
Here’s the real Conrad “Co” Roy II (Conrad Roy III’s father):
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Conrad Roy II worked for his father’s tugboat company. When US Airways Flight 1549 landed on the Hudson River in 2009, he helped tow the plane to shore.
And here’s Norbert Leo Butz as Conrad “Co” Roy II:
Here are real Gail Carter and David Carter (Michelle’s parents):
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David was employed as the sales manager for a forklift supplier and Gail used to stage interiors for real estate agents.
And here are Kai Lennox as David Carter and Cara Buono as Gail Carter:
Here’s the real Joseph Cataldo:
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Joseph was hired by the Carters to defend their daughter. He had previously worked on cases involving students from Michelle’s school.
And here’s Michael Mosley as Joseph Cataldo:
Here’s the real Katie Rayburn:
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Katie was an assistant district attorney when she prosecuted Michelle for involuntary manslaughter. She had carried out 14 murder trials and won 13 of them. A few months after Michelle’s conviction, Katie was confirmed unanimously for a district court judgeship.
And here’s Aya Cash as Katie Rayburn:
In 2017, Michelle was sentenced to 15 months in prison and five years of probation. She was released from the Bristol County House of Corrections in 2020 after serving only approximately 11 months of her prison sentence. Bristol County Sheriff had called her a “model inmate”.
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/feynman12/girl-from-plainville-cast-compared-to-real-life