The Fictional Online Creature That Drove Two 12-year old Girls to Stab Their Friend

Waukesha police news conference by Waukesha Police Chief Russell Jack:

On Saturday, May 31, 2014 at approximately 9:50 a.m., the Waukesha police department was notified by a concerned citizen that a 12 year old girl was stabbed in the area of Big Bend road in the city of Waukesha. The Waukesha police and fire departments responded and located the girl. The Waukesha fire department transported her to the Waukesha Memorial hospital where she was treated for her injuries. The Waukesha police department is deeply saddened that this 12 year old girl had to suffer through this horrific crime.

We are pleased to report she is in stable condition.

Victim was friends with the suspects and all three attended the same middle school. All three of the girls are 12 years old. Both suspects had a fascination with a fictitious character that often posted to a website that is a collection of small stories about death and horror.

Based on our investigation, it is believe that the suspects had planned to kill the victim for several months.

The three girls had a sleep over at the house of one of the suspects on Saturday night of May 30. In the morning, the suspects went to David's park and lured the victim into the woods near Big Bend road, south of Rivera drive to play a game. Once there, one suspect held the victim down while the other suspect stabbed her 19 times in the arms, legs and torso. Many of the stab wounds struck major organs but incredibly and thankfully, the victim survived this brutal assault.

Suspects left the area on foot.

The victim was able to crawl out of the woods onto the roadway near the end of Big Bend road where she was discovered by a bicyclist. She was transported to the Waukesha Memorial hospital by the Waukesha fire department where she underwent surgery for her injuries.

We continued to search the wooded area for the missing two girls with the assistance of the Waukesha country sheriff's department, the town of Brookville police department and Flight for Life. We wish to extend our sincere appreciation for their assistance.

Suspects were located near 94 at 2:24 p.m. by a Waukesha county sheriff's department where they were both taken into custody without incident. We are pleased about the abundant cooperation and team work between our department and the Waukesha county sheriff's department.

Both suspects are being held on charges of attempted first-degree intentional homicide. Both are expected to be charged in court today at 1:30 p.m. To respect the integrity of the investigation we will not be releasing details that could compromise the prosecution. Also we are continuing our investigation in several areas.

Keeping our children safe is more challenging now, than in years past. The internet has changed the way we live. It is full if information and wonderful sights that teach and entertain.

The internet can also be full of dark and wicked things. It has also provided an opportunity for potential child predators to reach our children like never before.

Unmonitored and unrestricted access to the internet by children is a growing and alarming problem. This should be a wake-up call for parents. Parents are strongly encouraged to restrict and monitor their children's internet usage.

We must also remember that on-line is much more than just spending time on the computer. Now smart phones and even video games are completely connected to the outside world.

Parents, please talk to your kids about the dangers that exist on-line.

http://mashable.com/2014/06/03/slender-man-meme-history/?utm_content=feature_title&utm_cid=mash-prod-email-topstories&utm_emailalert=daily&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily

This is an update to this case:

Girl Accused in 'Slender Man' Stabbing Says She Talks to Unicorns and Voldemort

By MEGHAN KENEALLY AND KELLEY ROBINSON

Girl Accused in 'Slender Man' Stabbing to Appear in Court

One of two Wisconsin girls accused of stabbing their friend so they could meet the fictional character "Slender Man" simply shrugged today before a judge ruled that she was incompetent to stand trial.

Morgan Geyser had been found not competent by two prior evaluations and today was found incompetent to stand trial by a judge. Geyser and Anissa Weier, both 12, are charged with first degree attempted murder after prosecutors said they lured their friend into the woods and stabbed her 19 times.

Geyser was seen fidgeting in her seat and playing with her hair during the hearing, even pulling a blond strand directly in front of her face at one point. She smiled while watching Weier being led out of the room.

Two mental health professionals gave testimony in the Waukesha County Courthouse today, speaking about their evaluations of Geyser before Judge Michael Bohren ruled that she is unfit to stand trial.

Dr. Brooke Lundbohm, who evaluated Geyser on June 18, 2014, said that Geyser's unusual behavior- including what she said was nonsensical rambling and inappropriate, near-hysterical laughter - contributed to her decision that Geyser is incompetent.

Lundbohm said that Geyser spoke with her at length about fictional characters she believes in including unicorns, Slender Man, and Harry Potter villain Voldemort, who Geyser reportedly called "Voldy." She added that Geyser claims that she has Vulcan Mind Control.

Dr. Kenneth Robbins also examined Geyser and told the court that Geyser told him she has to be careful about what she says because she believes speaking about Slender Man could cause him to harm her or her family.

Robbins said Geyser claims she and Slender Man can communicate telepathically and Lundbohm said Voldemort "gives her direction."

Both doctors concluded that the pre-teen does not appear to understand the seriousness of her charge, and that was echoed in court when she shrugged as the judge asked if she was competent to assist her attorneys.

The mental health experts said Geyser's parents described her as a bright student who got good grades and had no behavioral issues at school except one time when she brought a mallet to class.

Weier, Geyser's alleged co-conspirator, was also in court today because her legal team unsuccessfully tried to argue that they should be given hard copies of Geyser's mental evaluations. Weier has not had to undergo any mental evaluations of her own because her attorneys have not yet requested one.

Geyser and Weier are being tried as adults because Wisconsin law dictates that anyone above the age of 10 charged with first degree murder or attempted murder will not be considered juveniles.

The 12-year-old victim, who has not been identified because of her age, was said to have nearly died from her wounds, but has since been released from the hospital and her parents recently released new details about her recovery.

"She's doing great," family spokesperson and media adviser for the Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek S.C. law firm Stephen Lyon told ABC News. He also thanked supporters for contributing to a Hearts For Healing fund to cover the victim's medical expenses. "She's healing well. Both physically and emotionally she's getting better."

https://gma.yahoo.com/girl-accused-slender-man-stabbing-says-she-talks-184523024--abc-news-topstories.html

I am watching my own grandchildren. They are playing games all of the time - pokiman, legos, video games. The oldest seems to be fine. The young one is so into fantasy, he does not know what is real and is not. He thought dogs could be his parents (for real)..... He was only 8, but man, oh man!

The oldest did not know that there were bones in chickens. (He was 10.) Apparently, he had only eaten fast food chicken, chicken nuggets or chicken breasts all of his life. Once, I gave him a real chicken leg and he bit into the bone and had a fit. He refused to finish eating it.

The thing that really bothers me about this case is first, it happened in Wisconsin - so close to home (where I am from), and second the girl doesn't think she really did anything that bad.

Both doctors concluded that the pre-teen does not appear to understand the seriousness of her charge, and that was echoed in court when she shrugged as the judge asked if she was competent to assist her attorneys.

I think they see so much of it, they don't know what is real and what isn't. There are the games, and the news. Which is real?

This is an update of a true story that happened in a local town in Wisconsin, not far from where I live. This shows how "fictional on-ine characters" can become real to some people.

'Slender Man' stabbing victim speaks publicly for first time.

October 4, 2019 [Good Morning America] KELLEY ROBINSON,Good Morning America 2 hours 24 minutes ago

'Slender Man' stabbing victim speaks publicly for first time: 'Without the whole situation, I wouldn't be who I am' originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

Until now, Payton Leutner had never spoken publicly about what happened to her in the woods at the hands of her best friend and another classmate.

Her scars -- from the 19 times she was stabbed on May 31, 2014 -- testify to that moment of betrayal. But, they also mark her incredible strength to survive.

"I've come to accept all of the scars that I have," Leutner said in an exclusive interview with ABC's David Muir. "It's just a part of me. I don't think much of them. They will probably go away and fade eventually."

Leutner survived an attack that captured headlines worldwide after her assailants, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, claimed they did it to please a fictional character named "Slender Man." Leutner, Geyser and Weier were all 12 years old at the time.

(MORE: Who Is Slender Man? Fictional Horror Character Explained) Slenderman is the fictitious, modern-day equivalent of the Boogeyman for the internet generation. Victor Surge created Slender Man. https://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/slender-man-fictional-horror-character-explained-25767149

"20/20," which has followed Leutner’s case closely since her attack as well as her recovery for years, spoke with her parents exclusively in 2014. Leutner, who was still recovering after the stabbing, appeared alongside her parents on "20/20" but chose not to speak out at that time.

Now 17, Leutner has worked hard over the last five years to heal and rebuild a normal life. She told ABC News that she was ready to reclaim her story.

"I feel like it's time for people to see my side rather than everyone else's," she said.

Payton, Morgan and Anissa become friends

In 2014, Leutner was a sixth-grader in Waukesha, Wisconsin, when Geyser and Weier attacked her after a slumber party at Geyser's home. They had been celebrating Geyser's birthday the previous night.

Leutner described herself as hopeful and positive before the attack, and said she'd tried to see the good in people, including Geyser. Leutner said Geyser had struggled to make friends and that in fourth grade she'd befriended Geyser herself.

"She was sitting all by herself and I didn't think anyone should have to sit by themselves," Leutner told Muir.

While they were friends, Leutner said, Geyser seemed like a happy girl, albeit "a little lonely." They would have sleepovers together, play outside and draw -- "all the things that kids do," Leutner said.

Leutner said she'd considered Geyser her best friend and thought Geyser was somebody she could trust.

"She was funny, I will give you that," Leutner said. "She had a lot of jokes to tell. … She was great at drawing and her imagination always kept things fun."

Then, "everything went downhill," she said.

Around the time Geyser became friends with Weier in sixth grade is when Geyser also started talking to Leutner about "Slender Man," she said.

"I thought it was odd. It kind of frightened me a little bit," Leutner told Muir. "But I went along with it. I was supportive because I thought that's what she liked."

Eventually, though, the fictional stories Geyser told about "Slender Man," a tall, faceless creature in a suit that could use tendrils growing from his back, became too frightening, Leutner said. She even asked her mother, Stacie Leutner, whether "Slender Man" was real and was relieved when she was told that he wasn't.

"I told [Geyser] that it scared me and that I didn't like it," Leutner said. "But she really liked it and thought it was real."

Leutner even considered ending her friendship with Geyser, she said.

"I saw the change from fifth to sixth grade when she met Anissa," she said. "That's when I was really wanting to get out of that friendship."

Ultimately, however, Leutner stayed friends with Geyser. She said she felt bad for her friend and didn't want her to be alone. Geyser even "guilted" Leutner into staying friends, Leutner said.

"Payton was such an empathetic kid," her mother, Stacie Leutner, told ABC News in a new interview. "She recognized that Morgan maybe wasn't the healthiest friendship to have. But if Payton wasn't her friend, she wouldn't have any other friends. So, she thought everyone deserved at least one friend."

As Geyser's fixation with "Slender Man" grew, it appeared to Leutner that Geyser's friendship with Weier blossomed, too. Weier lived in the same apartment complex as Geyser and rode the bus with her to school.

"I didn't like [Weier] at all," Leutner said. "I just hung out with her because I knew that Morgan really loved her as a friend. But she was always cruel to me. I feel like she was jealous that Morgan was friends with me and her."

It was Weier who had "really convinced" Geyser that "Slender Man" was real, Leutner thought. Leutner said she is now convinced that Geyser and Weier were a toxic combination.

Morgan Geyser has her 12th birthday party

Leutner said she had no idea what the two girls had planned for her in the name of "Slender Man" when she arrived to Geyser's 12th birthday party. The trio had skated together at a local roller rink and eaten frozen yogurt before the slumber party. Looking back, Leutner said she thinks she can recognize a glimpse of something feeling off that night.

"Something was strange because at all of our past sleepovers, [Geyser] always wanted to stay up all night because she could never do that at home," Leutner said of Geyser. "But on [the night of] the birthday party, she wanted to go to bed."

"Once I look back on it, I was like, that is really weird," she told Muir. "Why didn't I see something? Why didn't I notice something was weird? But I'm not blaming myself at all. Because who could ever see something like this coming? Nobody could ever see something like this coming."

Geyser and Weier later told investigators that they had planned to kill Leutner in her sleep that night, according to their police interviews, but then they changed the plan to kill her the next morning at a nearby park.

"I remember waking up," Leutner said. "They had already gone, woken up and gone downstairs on the computer. So I woke up and I went down with them. We had doughnuts [and] went to the park."

Leutner said that it was Geyser's idea in the morning to go to the park and that normally Geyser wouldn't have been allowed to go without an adult. But because she was with friends and it was her birthday party, her mother had let the three girls go on their own, Leutner said.

Once the girls got to the park, the plan to kill Leutner changed again. Weier told investigators that she suggested they go for a walk to play hide-and-seek in nearby woods

"They just wanted to go on a walk," Leutner said. "And I didn't think much of it. It's just a walk. It's in Waukesha. What bad stuff happens in Waukesha, Wisconsin?"

In the woods, as they prepared to start what Leutner thought would be a game of hide-and-seek, Weier told Leutner to lay down.

"Anissa told me to lie on the ground and cover myself in sticks and leaves and stuff to hide, in a sense," Leutner told Muir. "But it was really just a trick to get me down there."

With a kitchen knife Weier told investigators Geyser had brought from her home, Geyser repeatedly stabbed Leutner.

Leutner said she didn't remember every detail of her brutal attack and was glad for the relief in not knowing. But, she said, she does remember her trust being broken by her best friend and not believing that Geyser and Weier were going to get help for her.

After Geyser stabbed Leutner with the knife, she and Weier left Leutner alone in the woods. Injured and bleeding, Leutner did what many couldn't believe she had the strength to do: She pulled herself out of the woods and into the open where someone could find her.

"I got up, grabbed a couple trees for support, I think," she said. "And then just walked until I hit a patch of grass where I could lay down."

It was there, at the end of Big Bend Road, that a bicyclist found her and called 911. Police and EMT workers arrived. Leutner's focus, she said, faded in and out while in the ambulance.

"I couldn't focus much because my body was working so hard to keep itself alive," she said. "It was probably like, 'Vision isn't really a priority right now.'"

Payton Leutner undergoes surgery in the hospital

At the hospital, she told Muir, she remembers seeing her mother as nurses counted her wounds.

"I said, 'You're gonna be OK. It's gonna be fine,' but I could see that she was covered. Her arms and her legs and her abdomen, they were covered in stab wounds," Stacie Leutner told ABC News in 2014.

The doctors at ProHealth Waukesha Memorial Hospital performed emergency surgery and were shocked by Leutner's critical injuries. The stab wounds she'd suffered to her arms and legs had only damaged soft tissue, but the two to her torso had hit major organs. One had cut through her diaphragm, damaging her liver and stomach. The other had nearly penetrated her heart and missed a major artery by less than a millimeter.

"If the knife had gone the width of a human hair further, she wouldn't have lived," Dr. John Kelemen, who operated on Leutner that day, told ABC News in 2014.

When she awakened after six hours of surgery, Leutner said, she first started worrying about where her attackers were.

"I remember the first thing that I thought after I woke up was like, 'Did they get them?'" she said. "'Are they there? Are they in custody? Are they still out?'"

She said she was relieved to hear that police had captured both Geyser and Weier as she struggled with the pain from the attack and surgery.

"I wrote on whiteboards to communicate because I couldn't speak much," Leutner said. "I had the intubation tube in my lungs because I couldn't breathe on my own for a while."

Her recovery was difficult, both physically and emotionally. She said she was also frightened after the attack and slept in the bed with her mother so she wouldn't be alone at night.

To this day, Leutner told Muir, she sleeps with a pair of broken scissors under the pillow next to her "just in case."

When Leutner learned why Geyser had stabbed her, she said, she wasn't surprised by the motive: The girls had intended to kill her to appease the fictional character "Slender Man" and prove that he was real.

"After I heard why she did it, I was like, 'Well, this doesn't surprise me at all because she believed so hard in this thing that she would do anything for it.'"

What did surprise Leutner, she told Muir, was that Geyser and Weier had immediately confessed to the attack and that they'd told police they had been planning it for a long time.

"It was a little shocking to me to see that they had this big, huge plan that they had been working on for months," Leutner said.

Payton Leutner regains a sense of normalcy in her life

Since the attack, Leutner said she has done her best to resume a normal life despite the notoriety of the case and the years of litigation. Trusting others, especially new friends, she said, has been particularly difficult after the attack.

"She has friends, but initially, even with those friends, she kept them at arm's length," Stacie Leutner said. "And for a long time, even trusting family members was hard for her."

Payton Leutner told Muir that she sometimes thinks about her former best friend's mother, Angie Geyser, with sympathy.

"I've thought about what she's going through and how hard it must be for her," Leutner said. "Because I'm sure a lot of people are trashing on her and hating her. And saying that it was her fault, she raised [Geyser] wrong."

"It wasn't [Angie's] fault," Leutner continued. "Morgan's schizophrenic. There is nothing that she could have done to stop that or control that. It was not her fault."

In 2016, Geyser's mother told a newspaper that her daughter had been diagnosed with early onset schizophrenia while in custody. A forensic psychologist also testified for the defense during a 2015 hearing that Geyser's father had been hospitalized several times as a teenager because of mental illness, according to that newspaper.

Stacie Leutner also said she has thought about the mother and father on the other side of the shattered friendship.

"I was angry for a long time, especially [at] Morgan's parents, knowing that Morgan's dad had schizophrenia. ... For a long time I thought that they were maybe just in denial and ignoring her symptoms," Stacie Leutner said. "But I'm not angry anymore, because I recognize that they're going through their own hell."

Geyser and Weier were charged in adult court with first-degree attempted intentional homicide after the attack.

Weier pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was found by a jury to be not guilty by mental disease or defect in 2017. Geyser pleaded guilty to the first-degree charges against her. In 2018, as a part of her plea agreement with prosecutors, Geyser was convicted but found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

Weier and Geyser each were sentenced to up to 25 years and up to 40 years, respectively, in a mental health institution.

Leutner said she is aware of the longstanding public debate about whether the two girls were old enough to be charged in adult court, but doesn't herself question whether their cases should have been handled in juvenile court.

"Adult crime is adult court," Leutner said. "If they had stolen a candy bar, sure that's a child. But you tried to kill somebody. That's an adult crime."

Leutner said she doesn't ever want to see or talk to Geyser or Weier again, and said what Geyser did was "probably unforgivable." She knows Geyser is already eligible to petition the court for release from the mental institution, but said she doesn't fear her eventual release.

"If she ever like tried to come by me, she would go right back where she was," Leutner said.

Stacie Leutner acknowledged her own reservations about Geyser potentially petitioning for release soon.

"I don't know that I'm comfortable with her being released right now," Stacie Leutner said. "I know that their sentences were up to 25 and 40 years, and if that's how long it takes, then that's how long it takes."

Payton Leutner on what she would tell her former best friend who attacked her

Payton Leutner even surprised herself when responding to the question of what she would like Geyser to know, she said.

"I would probably, initially thank her," Leutner said to Muir. "I would say, 'Just because of what she did, I have the life I have now. I really, really like it and I have a plan. I didn't have a plan when I was 12, and now I do because of everything that I went through.'"

"I wouldn't think that someone who went through what I did would ever say that," Leutner said. "But that's truly how I feel. Without the whole situation, I wouldn't be who I am."

Leutner is a senior in high school and plans to attend college in fall 2020. She said she'd like to pursue a career in the medical field, which she believes is a goal inspired by what happened to her.

To the many people who supported Leutner and sent her well-wishes through the years, she said she is "very grateful for all of the love and support." She said she now wants people to know that she is doing well and that her hope for moving forward is to "put everything behind me and live my life normally."

"We've seen her go from a victim to a survivor," said Leutner family spokesman Steve Lyons of SJL Government Affairs and Communications. "Now she's a young lady with a really bright future ... [She has] great grades, great friends. She's got so much to live for and I can't wait to see what the next chapter of her life is."

As far as "Slender Man" goes, Leutner said she had advice for parents whose children might not understand the difference between what is real and fake online. "Parents need to talk to their kids directly, saying, 'This is not real. This is fake,'" she said to Muir.

She also shared some sage advice to young people regarding bad friendships that she wished she'd known at 12 years old.

"Get out before something bad happens to you," Leutner said. "Even if you're guilted into it, if you've been friends with them for years. … If you feel something is bad, you need to get out while you still can."

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/slender-man-stabbing-victim-speaks-publicly-first-time-095706169--abc-news-topstories.html