Aaron Carter’s family sheds light on what led to his tragic death in ‘The Carters’

It’s no secret Aaron Carter struggled with substance abuse and mental health issues in the years leading up to his tragic death in 2022. Now, a new documentary, titled “The Carters,” exposes intimate, never-before-shared details behind the famous family’s history of loss, trauma and heartbreak. 

In the two-part documentary premiering April 15 on Paramount+, Aaron’s twin sister, Angel Carter Conrad – as well as close friends and family members – open up about the experiences that led to Aaron’s demise, including a terrifying moment in which an “unhinged” Aaron drove to his brother Nick Carter’s house with a gun in his car. 

“I could tell that he was already taking drugs again,” Angel said in the documentary. “He was real manic, all over the place and all the same bad habits were happening again.”

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Angel recalled a phone conversation she had with Aaron, in which he told her he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. 

During that conversation, said Angel, Aaron said he often had thoughts of “killing babies” and Nick’s wife, Lauren Kitt Carter. 

“I was just processing and taking it all in,” Angel said. “I was so stunned by the conversation and so taken back and was processing everything that was happening.”

Angel made the conscious decision to not tell her Backstreet Boys brother for fear that Nick would take action and, in turn, ruin Aaron’s career. 

“I didn’t want to hurt [Aaron],” Angel confessed. 

However, weeks later, Aaron started to acquire multiple guns, including shotguns, AK-47s and more, and showcase them on social media. 

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“He was so clearly in a very, very dark place and making threats to Angel, to Nick, to me,” Angel’s husband, Corey Conrad, said in the documentary. “Obviously he’s not in his right mind.”

Angel admitted she was “so scared” of what her brother would do, so she eventually told Nick. 

In September 2019, Angel and Nick filed a restraining order against their brother. 

“After careful consideration, my sister Angel and I regret that we were required to seek a restraining order against our brother Aaron today,” Nick announced on X (formerly Twitter) at the time.

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“In light of Aaron’s increasingly alarming behavior and his recent confession that he harbors thoughts and intentions of killing my pregnant wife and unborn child, we were left with no choice but to take every measure possible to protect ourselves and our family.”

“We love our brother and truly hope he gets the proper treatment he needs before any harm comes to himself or anyone else,” the statement concluded.

The family felt that “there was no other option.”

“He was not in control of himself at the time,” Corey said. 

Despite their efforts, the restraining orders made Aaron become “even more violent,” Corey revealed. 

Aaron became “even more violent.”

— Corey Conrad

“He drove to [Las] Vegas with a gun in his car, live-streaming to where we knew that he was there driving to Nick’s community,” he recalled.

Aaron’s assistant at the time had the late star’s location via Find My Phone and was giving the family live updates on where Aaron was. 

“Instead of going to Kentucky [where he was scheduled to perform], he’s going toward [Las] Vegas,” Aaron’s longtime manager and Carter family friend, Lori Knight, said. “We get a ping that he’s getting off the exit that Nick’s home is on and then the next ping we get is at some restaurant across the street from the entrance to Nick’s gated community.”

“We literally had this moment, where like, ‘Oh my God, he’s going to kill Nick or Lauren, He’s going to kill somebody. Then, he’s going to kill himself,'” Knight added. 

“They had helicopters, they had SWAT. We did not know what he was going to do, what he was going to try,” Corey added. 

“It was such a scary time to listen to their voices, to Lauren and Nick,” Knight recalled. “You could hear the terror that they felt in those moments. There was complete chaos going on in the home.”

“[Aaron] sat in the parking lot for 45 minutes and then left, and we tracked him to Kentucky,” she said. 

Angel said the last time she saw her twin brother was in the courtroom when the guns were legally taken away. 

“He was really angry. He yelled to me, ‘You’re dead to me.’ It was horrible. I didn’t even recognize him. He was too far gone at that point,” she said.

“What we wanted was for Aaron to get help, get healthy,” Corey added. “We were trying to save him in any way we could.”

“Aaron’s mental illness manifested into very dark things,” Lori said. “He did very monstrous things in the last few years of his life. He hurt a lot of people. The people he hurt the most were the people who really loved him and cared about him.”

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Angel, who reconnected with her brother shortly before he died, said the family was in “crisis mode,” the week of his death. 

“He said, ‘You’re the reason why I’m addicted to drugs. It’s your fault,'” Angel recalled Aaron telling her at the time. “He said, ‘You guys always made me the scapegoat.’ I was frustrated that he blamed me and that he wasn’t owning what he was doing.” 

That was their last conversation. 

Aaron died on Nov. 5, 2022. He drowned in his bathtub, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner. The “effects of difluoroethane (aerosol propellant found in spray cans) and alprazolam (commonly known as Xanax)” were listed as contributing factors in his death. 

The manner of death was ruled an “accident,” according to the coroner. 

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“I’ll never forget being in London and getting the text message,” an emotional Nick said in the documentary. “It’s still unbelievable to this day. I haven’t had a chance to grieve.”

With the documentary, the family hopes to spread awareness about mental illness, especially among children. 

Angel and Nick have not only been grieving the loss of Aaron, but their two other siblings, as well as their father. 

Leslie Carter died of a drug overdose in 2012, Bobbie Jean died of a fentanyl overdose in 2023 and their father, Robert Gene Carter, died in 2017. 

“We have to do something. This cannot just be swept under the rug,” Angel said in the documentary. “How do we stop this? We stop this by speaking out about it. I just think there’s a life lesson within this. To take something so tragic and turn it into something positive, which is exactly what Aaron would want.”

“Aaron loved people,” she added. “He loved being there for people and showing up for people. I want people to remember that part of him.”

Despite the tragedy, Angel – who is an activist for the nonprofit Kids Mental Health Foundation (formerly On Our Sleeves), an initiative of Nationwide Children’s Hospital, to raise awareness of the importance of children’s mental health – remains focused on what matters most: family. 

“I don’t ever want to not feel the pain and the sadness that I feel for my siblings, because at this point, that’s how I connect with them,” she said. “I don’t want to ever not cry for them because they’re not forgotten. They’re remembered. They deserve that.”

 The two-part documentary, titled “The Carters,” premieres April 15 on Paramount+.