Trigger Warning: this article mentions mental health and suicide and may be distressing to some readers.
For true crime fans, The Girl From Plainville is must-watch content—not least because the milestone court case that inspired it was front and centre barely five years ago.
Indeed, the “texting suicide” case of 2017 gripped the world when Michelle Carter was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter after the suicide of her boyfriend, Conrad Henri Roy III. Now, Hulu’s The Girl From Plainville unpacks the details around the case, with the lens firmly fixed on Carter, who was just 17-years-old when the shocking crime took place.
As each episode drops, we gather more insight into Carter’s life—from school, to friends, to love interests. And while you’d expect the question as to where it all took place would be answered in the very title of the series, well… think again.
Here, we look at some of the sprawling, greenery-filled locations where The Girl From Plainville was filmed.
Where was The Girl From Plainville filmed?
Unlike the title suggests, a lot of the series is based in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, which is where Carter and Roy spent some of their time together—and where the death of Conrad Roy III actually took place.
Roy himself was from Fairhaven, while Carter was from Plainville—about an hour’s drive inland.
But as for where the real life filming of the series took place? The state of Georgia, as it turns out.
Per Cinemaholic, many of the outdoor scenes were shot in the Savannah metropolitan area, while Bloomingdale’s Taylor Park was the backdrop to the baseball scenes.
Other major filming locations included Tybee Island in Savannah (which posed as Florida’s Miramar Beach, where Carter and Roy first met). Jesup and Wilmington Island were also key shoot locations.
Cobb County’s Mableton (specifically in the neighbourhood of Providence) was another backdrop to the series.
Where did the texting suicide case actually happen?
Conrad Roy III was in his car parked outside Kmart in Fairhaven, Massachussetts, when he committed suicide. He was just 18 years old at the time.
On the day of his death, Carter reportedly sent him a message saying, “You keep pushing it off and say you’ll do it but u never do. It’s always gonna be that way if u don’t take action.” Evidence presented in her trial also revealed she had texted him step by step instructions on how to do it.
Carter’s lawyer has previously said that Carter, now 24, regrets her actions.
“A lot of what has been reported thus far is that Michelle Carter always wanted to endorse Conrad Roy’s plan to kill himself. But it will be abundantly clear that for weeks prior to agreeing to his plan, she tried to talk him out of it, and he tried to get her to commit suicide with him,” her lawyer Joseph Cataldo told PEOPLE.
After her guilty verdict in 2017, Carter spent two years appealing her case. She was released from prison in January 2020, three months early due to good behaviour. She is now on parole, due to end in August 2022.
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