Anyone a big fan of certain fictional characters...maybe from books or movies? I'm personally a fan of Batman and Spiderman and I have a strange fascination with Annie Wilkes from Stephen King's novel Misery. That character just blows my mind! Even though I'm a fan of Batman, Spiderman, and Annie Wilkes, amongst many other characters from books and movies I love, I don't think that I could actually be them or think that they directly affect my life. I definitely would be in big trouble if I thought I was Annie Wilkes.
Well...what happens when someone cannot separate the reality from the fiction? I will preface the story about I'm about to tell you that it does involve some undiagnosed mental illness in a young child at the time of the occurrence. The second warning is this story involves children...as the perpetrator...and a fellow child survivor.
So...where is this story going? We are traveling to Waukesha, Wisconsin, where two young girls were tangled up in the story of Slender Man. Who is Slender Man, you may ask? Slender Man is a fictional supernatural character that originated as a creepypasta Internet meme created by Something Awful forum user Eric Knudsen (also known as "Victor Surge") in 2009. Now you may be asking, "What is a creepypasta?" According to wikipedia.org, a creepypasta is a horror-related legend which has been shared around the Internet. Slender Man is a character depicted as a thin, unnaturally tall humanoid with a featureless white head and face, wearing a black suit. He is sometimes shown with tentacles growing out of his back. According to the Slender Man myths, the entity can cause amnesia, bouts of coughing, and paranoid behavior in individuals. He is often depicted hiding in forests. His stories also talk about how Slender Man stalks, abducts, and traumatizes people, paying close attention to children.
Even though the forum was a photoshop-type contest, "Victor Surge" contributed two black-and-white images of groups of children to which he added a tall, thin, spectral figure wearing a black suit along with some "witness statements" describing the abductions of the groups of children and giving the character the name "The Slender Man":
We didn't want to go, we didn't want to kill them, but its persistent silence and outstretched arms horrified and comforted us at the same time…
— 1983, photographer unknown, presumed dead.
The quote under the second photograph read:
One of two recovered photographs from the Stirling City Library blaze. Notable for being taken the day which fourteen children vanished and for what is referred to as "The Slender Man". Deformities cited as film defects by officials. Fire at library occurred one week later. Actual photograph confiscated as evidence.
— 1986, photographer: Mary Thomas, missing since June 13th, 1986.[12]
One hundred percent creep factor! "Victor Surge" definitely created a great story/character to give you ongoing nightmares. Slender Man became very popular in literature, art, and even video games.
Unfortunately, two young girls from Waukesha, Wisconsin, took Slender Man too seriously. Their names are Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser, both 12 years old back in 2014. They had another 12-year-0ld friend named Payton Leutner (also known as Bella at the time) over for a sleep over for Morgan's birthday. Every year, Morgan was allowed to have two friends over for her birthday, and for her birthday in 2014, Morgan decided to invite Anissa and Payton/Bella.
On May 31, 2014, Morgan, Anissa, and Payton/Bella went to Davids Park to play a game of hide-and-seek. While Payton/Bella was anticipating a fun day at the park, Morgan and Anissa had other plans. They pinned down Payton/Bella and stabbed her nineteen times n the arms, legs, and torso with a five-inch-long blade. Two of the wounds hit major organs - one missed a major artery of her heart by less than 1 mm, another went through her diaphragm, cutting into her liver and stomach. After the stabbing, Morgan and Anissa told Payton/Bella to lie down while they looked for help. Unfortunately, Morgan and Anissa had no intention of finding help for her.
Lucky for Payton/Bella, she found some inner strength that I cannot even fathom with all the physical and mental trauma she just suffered and dragged herself to a nearby road where she was spotting by a cyclist. Thank goddess someone likes to do cardio stuff - that is definitely not me. The cyclist spotted Payton/Bella and called 911.
While Payton/Bella was rushed to the hospital, the search was on for Morgan and Anissa. They were found about five hours later after having walked almost 5 miles away near Interstate 94. The knife used in the stabbing was found in a bag that they were carrying. It was later learned that Morgan and Anissa had been walking to where they believed Slender Man lived in a mansion in the Nicolet National Forest - roughly a 200 mile hike from their location.
During their interviews, Morgan was described as feeling no empathy while Anissa was described as feeling guilty for stabbing the victim, but both felt that the attack was needed to appease Slender Man. The lines of fantasy versus reality blurred for Morgan and Anissa. They had the belief that they had to sacrifice someone to Slender Man in order to survive him.
The happy part of this story, which I'm so thankful there is a happy part, is that Payton/Bella left the hospital, physically recovering well, seven days after the attack. Obviously, there would be more physical healing for her to do and also a lot of mental and emotional healing, but Payton is a survivor and I hope that she is a able to continue moving forward with her life in good ways. She even returned to school in September 2014.
During interviews, it was found that Morgan experienced many hallucinations such as ghosts, colors melting down walls, and imaginary friends (one named Maggie and another Sev). One hallucination that occurred often was of a man Morgan named "It", whose body was the color of smoke and ink that stood behind her in mirrors or shifted around corners - similar to that of Slender Man.
After the arrest, Morgan's mother, Angie, stated she became “floridly psychotic.” Correctional officers saw Morgan talking to herself often, pretending to be a cat, and keeping ants as pets. She saw unicorns as well as had continual conversations with Slender Man and other fictional characters such as Severus Snape. It was later revealed that Morgan's dad had been diagnosed with schizophrenia years prior.
In the fall of 2014, Morgan was moved to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute to determine if she would be competent enough to stand trial. They diagnosed Morgan on October 22, 2014, with early-onset childhood schizophrenia. However, instead of treatment and medication, they focused on explaining the law to Geyser to prepare her for trial. Nearly half a year later, Geyser was found competent enough to stand trial. This is a big part of the law that I will never understand. You have a mental diagnosis of schizophrenia in a young child, yet they are found competent to stand trial. Ummmm....okay.
Morgan's schizophrenia was continually left untreated for nineteen months leading her to remain in a state of psychosis, or out of touch with reality. Again, how is that a legally competent person???
In December, Morgan was sent back to Winnebago and given antipsychotics which later allowed Geyser to feel remorse after clearing her mind. Look at what actual proper treatment can do for some people...shocker!!!
But...on March 23, 2016, Morgan was sent back to jail with the medication where she rapidly deteriorated.
Following the investigation, Morgan was charged with attempted first-degree homicide, a Class-A felony, and Anissa was charged with attempted second-degree homicide, a Class-B felony. Due to the nature of the offenses, both Anissa and Morgan were waived out of juvenile court to be tried as adults.
In 2017, Anissa pleaded guilty to being a party to attempted second-degree homicide. A jury then found her "not guilty by mental disease or defect."
Morgan accepted a plea offer under which she would not go to trial, and would be evaluated by psychiatrists to determine how long she should be placed in a mental hospital. She later pleaded guilty, but was found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, and was diagnosed with schizophrenia, from which her father also suffers.
Anissa was sentenced to 25 years to life, an indeterminate sentence involving at least three years locked confinement and involuntary treatment in a state psychiatric institute, followed by communal supervision until age 37.
Morgan was given the maximum sentence, 40 years to life, an indeterminate sentence involving at least three years locked confinement, in addition to involuntary treatment in a state psychiatric institute until complete resolution of symptoms or until age 53, whichever may happen first; followed by continued communal supervision, periodic reevaluations and/or reinstitution, and further treatment as needed, as required by the sentence imposed. While Morgan will periodically have the opportunity to petition for her release from a mental health facility in the future, she will remain under institutional care for the duration of the sentence.
During her trial, Morgan had been committed to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, and was the youngest patient there.
In 2020, an appeals court rejected Morgan's petition to be retried as a juvenile. Her attorney, Matthew Pinix, argued that she should have been charged with attempted second-degree intentional homicide rather than first-degree, and argued that Morgan gave statements to investigators before being read her Miranda rights. He petitioned the Supreme Court of Wisconsin to review the ruling. In early 2021, the Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal.
At a court hearing on March 10, 2021, Anissa, who was by then 19, submitted a letter to the court stating that she was "sorry and deeply regretful for the agony, pain, and fear I have caused", not just to Payton Leutner, but to "my community as well". Anissa stated that, "I hate my actions from May 31, 2014, but through countless hours of therapy, I no longer hate myself for them."
On July 1, 2021, Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren ordered Anissa released from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, gave state officials sixty days to draw up a conditional release plan, and required that Anissa be assigned state Department of Health Services case managers to track her progress until she is 37 years old, the length of her commitment.
On September 13, 2021, Anissa was released with multiple stipulations to include: 24-hour GPS monitoring requiring her to not leave Waukesha County without permission. Anissa will also have her Internet usage monitored, and will not be allowed to use any forms of social media. Anissa will also be required to take medication, and will be personally escorted to regular counseling sessions by a case worker. She will also be required to live with her father during her probation. On September 11, 2023, the GPS stipulation was removed.
In January 2024, Morgan petitioned the court for her release. She made another attempt for release in 2022 but withdrew her request two months after filing it Her hearing is scheduled for April.
In the aftermath of the stabbing, the Creepypasta Wiki was blocked throughout the Waukesha School District. On the Tuesday following the stabbing, Slender Man creator Eric Knudsen said: "I am deeply saddened by the tragedy in Wisconsin and my heart goes out to the families of those affected by this terrible act."
Sloshedtrain, the administrator of the Creepypasta Wiki, said that the stabbing was an isolated incident that did not accurately represent the creepypasta community. He also stated that the Creepypasta Wiki was a literary website, and that they did not condone murder or satanic rituals.
Members of the creepypasta community held a 24-hour live stream on YouTube June 13–14, 2014, to raise money for the stabbing victim. Joe Jozwowski, an administrator on a creepypasta website, said the purpose of the stream was to show that members of the community cared for the victim, and did not condone real-world violence because they enjoyed fiction that contains violence.
On August 12, Governor Scott Walker issued a proclamation declaring Wednesday, August 13, 2014, "Purple Hearts for Healing Day", and encouraged the people of Wisconsin to wear purple on that day to honor the victim of the stabbing. He also praised the "strength and determination" exhibited by Payton during her recovery. The city of Madison, Wisconsin, held a one-day bratwurst festival to honor Payton on August 29, several days before the victim returned to school. Hot dogs and bratwurst were sold to raise money towards the victim's medical costs. The event was run by over 250 volunteers, and raised over $70,000 for Leutner.
On October 24, 2019, more than five years after the stabbing, Payton, then 17, spoke to ABC's 20/20 about her experience for the first time. She spoke of her scars, saying, "I don't think much of them. They will probably go away and fade eventually". She told the interviewers that she met her attackers in fourth grade. When asked what she would say if she ever saw Morgan again, Payton added that she would "thank" her, because the attack inspired her to pursue a career in medicine. I mean...the courage and positive frame of mind this young lady has is amazing!!!
In September 2021, in the wake of Anissa's release, it was revealed that Payton had moved out of Waukesha County, and was attending an undisclosed college as a sophomore student.
The "Slender Man" stabbing resulted in extensive debate about the role of the Internet in society and its effect on children. Russell Jack, Waukesha Police Chief, said that the stabbing "should be a wake-up call for all parents", adding that the Internet "is full of information and wonderful sites that teach and entertain", but that it "can also be full of dark and wicked things". John Egelhof, a retired agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, argued that the Internet had become a "black hole" with the ability to expose children to a more sinister world. Egelhof suggested that the best way to avoid future incidents was for parents to keep track of their children's online habits, and to educate them on the differences between right and wrong.
Shira Chess, an assistant professor of mass media arts at the University of Georgia, stated that creepypasta was no more dangerous than stories about vampires or zombies. She argued that creepypasta websites were beneficial, and that they gave people the opportunity to become better writers.
A documentary film on the incident called Beware the Slenderman was released by HBO Films in March 2016, and was broadcast on HBO on January 23, 2017.
A season 16 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, titled "Glasgowman's Wrath", is loosely based on the event.
The Criminal Minds episode "The Tall Man" (Episode 14.05, airdate October 31, 2018) was also inspired by this story.
On October 14, 2018, a movie inspired by the Slender Man stabbing, called Terror in the Woods, aired on Lifetime. The film stars Ella West Jerrier, Sophia Grace McCarthy, Skylar Morgan Jones, Angela Kinsey, Drew Powell, and Carrie Hood. Christina Ricci serves as the executive producer of the film.
On March 31, 2019, another movie inspired by the Slender Man stabbing titled Mercy Black, starring Daniella Pineda, was released on Netflix with no prior announcement. Directed by Owen Egerton and produced primarily by Blumhouse Productions, it tells the story of two girls with pre-schizophrenia who attempt to murder their friend, believing that a spirit named Mercy Black will offer them a gift in return. Later, the protagonist is released from psychiatric care, and has to deal with the realistic and paranormal consequences of her actions.
I do agree that there may be some things out on the Internet/social media that are not good for kids...hell, probably not good for some adults. But...I do want to take into consideration the mental health issues that both Morgan and Anissa suffered from at the time of their attack on Payton. I am not excusing nor condoning their actions, but undiagnosed and/or untreaterd mental health issues can be a very serious issue. Not every person may turn violent, but some people do/have.
Overall, my take on this story is that for some people, the line between reality and fantasy is very blurry and I'm very thankful that Payton is a survivor!
--Audre
Photo by: hellhorror.com
Photo by: Daily News
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