Slender Man: Victim Was Curious About Fictional Character Before Attack

The Slender Man, a fictional horror character, was blamed for the attack on 12-year-old Payton Leutner. The victim and her parents recently had their first interview. The victim’s mother revealed that her daughter was curious about the Slender Man before the attack.

Payton and her parents appeared on ABC’s 20/20 to talk about the Slender Man attack. Back in May, Leutner was stabbed 19 times by two classmates, Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser. The 12-year-old Waukesha, Wisconsin, girls planned the attack on Payton for months, according to Travelers Today. The girls claimed that they stabbed their friend in order to get on Slender Man’s good side.

Stacie Leutner, the mother of the victim, said that her daughter was curious about Slender Man before the attack. She said that Payton asked her about the fictional character from CreepyPasta.com on more than one occasion. The victim’s friends were telling stories about Slender Man, which frightened the girl. Even though Slender Man is not real, Payton told her mother that her best friend believed otherwise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEZOHn8ejhc

Slender Man is a fictional horror character that is thin and faceless. He dresses in a black suit and has tentacles, which are used to kidnap children. Slender Man was first seen on the internet in 2009. Someone with the username Victor Surge posted two pictures of the character standing behind a group of children. The pictures implied that something horrible was going to happen to them. Anissa and Morgan allegedly believed the Slender Man stories. They claim that they had to murder someone in order to get on his good side. Thankfully, Leutner survived the attack.

When Stacie was told her daughter had been stabbed and was bleeding around the heart, she went to the hospital. She recalls that the Slender Man victim was pale as a ghost, crying, and had difficulty breathing. She described her daughter’s wounds, ABC News reported.

“And I said, ‘you’re going to be OK, it’s going to be fine. But I could see that she was covered, her arms, her legs, abdomen, were covered in stab wounds. And all I hear is, ‘there’s five on her arm, there’s seven on her leg,’ and I’m thinking, ‘seven? What?'”

The trauma nurses at Waukesha Memorial Hospital counted 19 stab wounds. Although the wounds on the Slender Man’s victim did not pose an immediate threat, Leutner did have two stab wounds to major organs. One of those was her heart, but the knife had missed a major artery by less than a millimeter. Dr. John Kelleman performed surgery on Payton. He said that the other major wound was to the diaphragm. The surgeon had to crack her chest open and the surgery lasted for six hours.

Weier and Geyser have not gone to trial yet for the Slender Man attack. According to Tech Times, earlier this month attorney Maura McMahon told a judge that a psychologist questioned Weier’s mental competency. Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Michael Bohren ordered the girl to undergo an evaluation to determine if she is mentally competent. In August, co-defendant Geyser was ruled mentally incompetent and not fit to stand trial. She is currently receiving treatment and another evaluation will be scheduled to determine her competency.

If Anissa and Morgan are found guilty in the Slender Man attack, they could receive a sentence of up to 60 years. If they are sentenced as juveniles, then they could be incarcerated until they are 25. A hearing for the Slender Man defendants is scheduled for October 22.

[Photo: ABC 20/20 Facebook]