5 facts from Michelle Carter case

The Girl From Plainville, inspired by Michelle Carter's case, is shaping up to be one of those shows that send shivers up your spine. Not only is Michelle Carter's 'texting suicide' case unsettling, but Elle Fanning's physical transformation into a 24-year-old is on par with that of Hollywood giants such as Christian Bale as Dick Cheney in Vice (2018) and Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker in The Dark Knight Rises (2017).

From combed-back blonde hair and dark eyebrows to mannerisms, the actor's likeness to Michelle Carter's (post hair and make-up) is remarkable.

The Girl from Plainville will air on Hulu in the spring, and Fanning will play Carter, the adolescent who persuaded her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III, to commit suicide by text messages. Here are some Michelle Carter facts you may not know.

5 facts of Michelle Carter who inspired Elle Fanning's The Girl From Plainville

1) Michelle Carter has been charged with involuntary manslaughter

Conrad Roy, Carter's 18-year-old boyfriend, and Carter corresponded constantly via text messaging. Prosecutors discovered a detailed record of what they claimed was incitement to suicide through those texts, leading up to Roy's death from carbon monoxide poisoning in a Kmart parking lot in 2014.

Prosecutors also claim that Roy had second thoughts and fled his truck shortly before his death, but that Michelle Carter persuaded him to carry out the plot over the phone.

2) Words were considered crimes, not actions

When considering Ms. Carter's case, the Massachusetts Supreme Court cited two previous decisions, one involving a game of Russian roulette and the other involving a husband who assisted his wife in loading a revolver and giving her advice on how to use it.

On July 12, 2014, Conrad was about an hour away from Ms. Carter. Prosecutors made their case over the texts Ms. Carter had sent Mr. Roy in the two weeks before his death, where it was revealed that he had said "he was miserable and debated whether to kill himself." In numerous messages, Ms. Michelle Carter encouraged him to put aside his doubts and go through with it.

3) A final phone call substantiated the conviction

Prosecutors focused on Ms. Carter's texts to Mr. Roy, but the judge in her case said it was a final phone call that proved her liable. Ms. Michelle Carter chatted on the phone with Mr. Roy while he sat in his truck in an isolated area of the Kmart parking lot, a compression pump filling the cab with fumes, according to prosecutors.

The call was not recorded, but Ms. Carter texted a friend months later to explain the conversation: in the text, she stated that Mr. Roy had been afraid and climbed out of the truck at one point, and that she had told him to get back in.

4) Prosecutors claim Carter intended to capitalize on Roy's death

The accusation against Carter presents her as a willing participant in Roy's death who then pretended she had no knowledge of the plot. She texted Roy's relatives hours after his death, asking about him, and she also organized a tribute baseball tournament in her hometown.

She later told a friend that she had saved a suicidal acquaintance who had called her after hearing about the baseball competition.

5) Carter and Roy had an almost digital connection

Carter and Roy's relationship was almost completely online, according to Cataldo, who told MassLive in November. Roy's parents claim in a New York Magazine piece that the two almost never met in person. They met for the first time while on vacation in Naples, Fla., and spoke largely through messages after that — he in Mattapoisett, she in Plainville, an hour distant.