The slender man sta*bbing was an incident that took place on May 31, 2014, in Waukesha, Wisconsin. That night, two 12-year-old girls, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, lured their best friend, Payton Leutner, into the woods and brutally st*abbed her 19 times. Their motive? To please the fictional internet character known as Slender Man.
The Story
Weier and Geyser had become obsessed with the Slender Man, a tall, faceless entity that had originated from an online Photoshop contest and later expanded into a complex supernatural legend. The girls believed that in order to become Slender Man’s “proxies” and protect their families from him, they needed to ki*ll Payton.
Weier later told investigators that Geyser had proposed the idea of ki*lling Leutner in late 2013 or early 2014, and that Geyser had made it seem “necessary.” The two girls kept their sinister plot a secret for months, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.
On the night of May 30, 2014, Geyser, Weier, and Leutner were celebrating Geyser’s 12th birthday with a sleepover. The trio went to a local roller skating rink, returned to Geyser’s house, and woke up the next morning to play dress-up and eat breakfast.
It was then that Geyser secretly showed Weier the knife she had taken from her kitchen, and the two girls carried out their plan. As Leutner walked ahead of them, Geyser sta*bbed her 19 times with the 5-inch blade, leaving her for dead in the woods.
Survival
Miraculously, Leutner survived the attack. A biker named Greg Steinberg happened upon the blood-soaked girl and immediately called 911, providing comfort and aid until the ambulance arrived. Leutner was rushed to the hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery to repair her heart, liver, stomach, and pancreas.
Meanwhile, Geyser and Weier fled the scene, their goal being to find Slender Man’s mansion, which they believed was located hundreds of miles away in the Nicolet National Forest. However, they were apprehended by police a few hours later, sitting in the grass near the interstate.
Trial and Sentencing
The case, dubbed the “Slender Man Sta*bbing,” captured national attention for its chilling connection to the internet urban legend. Both Geyser and Weier were charged as adults with attempted first-degree intentional homicide.
In a plea deal, Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide, while Weier pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide. Both were found to be suffering from mental illness at the time of the attack and were committed to psychiatric institutions rather than being sent to prison. While Weier showed remorse for what they did, Geyser was not.
Geyser, now 21 years old, has since made multiple attempts to be released from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, but her requests have been denied. The judge overseeing her case has emphasized the gravity of the crime and the ongoing need for specialized care and treatment.