That Slenderman Stabbing. Yeah, that one
Three 12-year-old girls. Best friends, right? Posing for a photo. Normal stuff. But then, just a day later, two of them trick the third. Out into the woods. A game of hide-and-seek, they said. What actually happened? A gut punch. Pure horror. The Slenderman Stabbing, you know? Nineteen times she was stabbed. Left for dead. Cops ask why. Simple question. The answer? “Slenderman made us do it.”
No campfire ghost story, this. Not at all. This is Wisconsin. Our Wisconsin. A real nightmare. Shook a whole town. Hard. Online fantasy, bleeding right into brutal reality.
hallucinationsweirdstuffoftenmissedorworsejustcalledattentionseeking”>Kids with schizophrenia? Hallucinations, weird stuff. Often missed. Or worse, just called ‘attention-seeking’
Morgan Geyser. Born 2002. Had problems, super early. Cats, seriously obsessive. Mimicking them for hours. But here’s the kicker: by age three, full-blown hallucinations. Screaming at nothing. Bolting from unseen things. Whispering non-stop to these wild imaginary friends.
The family? The cat stuff? Totally normal, they figured. No big deal, right? But the hallucinations… that was just for attention. They missed something huge. Her father. Seriously battled schizophrenia. Hospitalized, a lot. Tried to end his life. More than once. Childhood schizophrenia is super rare, 1 in 10,000. But if a parent has it? Risk jumps 40 times. Big detail. Nobody saw it.
School? Nightmare fuel. Morgan couldn’t connect with anyone. Bullied. An outcast. Barking at other kids during recess. No chill spot for her, ever. She even had a hammer in her locker once. And later, after what happened? Police interviews. She’d sing, dance. Claim she controlled minds like Spock. Vulcan stuff. Thought she was a cat. Or an alien. Totally disconnected from reality. Her mom even remembered watching Bambi with her, years ago. Bambi’s mom dies? Morgan felt nothing. Zero empathy. Not a single bit.
Creepypasta, Slenderman online? Powerful stuff. Especially for kids already struggling
Anissa Weier. Bright kid. Lonely too. Twelve. Found Creepypasta. Through a Minecraft YouTuber, believe it or not. That site, you know? User-made horror stories. Said it was all true. Photoshop and fake news clippings. Super convincing. Had a hold on people. Characters like ‘Jeff the Killer’ got full, made-up backstories. So easy to mix up fact and fiction.
And then? Slenderman. Started with a 2009 Photoshop contest. This guy, tall, no face, in a suit. Exploded everywhere. Games. Movies. Fan theories all over. Vague, that’s what made him scary. No clear motives for anything. How he killed? Some said strangulation. Some said mind control. You could just dump all your fears right onto him.
Anissa, she started seeing everything connected. Even thought a pic of ‘young Jeff the Killer’ was herself. So she showed Morgan Slenderman. And for Morgan? Who always saw ‘a tall, black figure’ since she was five? Bingo. That’s him. Slenderman felt crazy real.
The obsession got dark. Really dark. Slenderman? A child killer. And they were kids. So, they were next. But here’s the twisted part: Creepypasta sites said you could become a ‘proxy’. Sacrifice someone. A loved one. To make him happy. This whole messed up storyline? It became their survival guide. All about belonging. About protection. Morgan even wrote fan fiction. Jeff the Killer, a bullied kid. Slenderman, his hero. Dark wish fulfillment. One drawing, totally chilling: Slenderman, hugging a blood-soaked Morgan. Yeah. That hinted at her horrific desires.
Bullying, being alone? Makes mental health stuff way worse. Can really mess with how you see things
Morgan and Anissa. Neither fit in. Morgan? Always getting made fun of. Anissa? Tougher. Fought back. But still mostly friendless. Folks just thought she was too much. But. Anissa did protect Morgan from the bullies. That’s how they clicked. Over their shared scary stories. Their horror obsession.
Alone. Struggling. Slenderman wasn’t just some character anymore. Not even close. He was a symbol. A dark avenger. Their hero. Sort of. He could get them revenge on those bullies. Give them power. Acceptance. A sick, twisted kind of acceptance.
Shared messed-up thinking. ‘Folie à Deux’. Happens when one person’s crazy ideas rub off on another. Especially with close friends
Look, Morgan’s schizophrenia set it all up. But Anissa? She spiraled too. Into what they call ‘Folie à Deux’. Shared psychosis. Anissa even messed around online, posting YouTube comments about being a psychopath. Acing tests, she said. Later, shrinks figured she wasn’t one. She felt bad. Really bad during questioning. But you know what? Morgan’s delusions got to her. Big time. Anissa didn’t see everything like Morgan. But she started seeing Slenderman in specific trees on her way home. Wild.
Anissa, she tried to make sense of the plan. Child logic. She thought one punch would knock Payton out, like in a video game. But. When Morgan gave her the knife in the bathroom? Nope. Anissa couldn’t. But she convinced Morgan to do it. Morgan was “sick of this drawn-out process.” Just wanted it over. And Morgan? She told Anissa, “Forget logic. We’re beyond logic now.” Deep into the delusion. A dangerous loop. Two messed-up brains, supercharging bad ideas.
Juvenile justice. Mental illness. Complicated stuff
Both girls? Only 12 when the Slenderman Stabbing happened. Charged. Anissa got hit with second-degree attempted homicide. But, you know, mental health issues. So, straight to a mental hospital for 25 years. Got parole in 2021. Lives with her dad now. GPS monitor. No tech, basically.
Morgan? Way longer. Forty years total. In a mental hospital. For first-degree attempted homicide. And another thing: when word got out about her possibly going to a group home in early 2025? People lost their minds. Rightly so. And the anger popped up again when they talked parole. Cops found she was reading stuff. Sexual sadism. Murder. Seriously. Then, last November. This past November. She broke her ankle monitor. Gone. Escaped her group home. Found sleeping outside, 300km away. With a 43-year-old dude. Arrested. Probably going back to the hospital. No parole for her. Not happening.
Surviving something awful. Victims find strength. They really do
Payton Leutner. Nineteen stab wounds. She shouldn’t have made it. Seriously, a miracle. Knife went through her diaphragm, liver, stomach. An artery near her heart? Missed by less than a millimeter. Doctors said a hair’s width more. That’s it. She’d be gone.
She recovered. Physically. Emotionally. Amazing, truly. But at first? Paranoia, super rough. Couldn’t sleep alone. For years. Even hid a knife under her pillow. Because her ‘friends’ tried to kill her. In her sleep. Big betrayal. Literal backstabbing. Trust, broken.
But Payton? She found strength. Five years after the attack, she talked. Said she’d moved on. Not angry anymore. “They made me realize how strong I am,” she said. Just lives a quiet life now. No social media. No interviews. And kinda crazy, considering Morgan’s whole cat thing? Payton still pets every stray cat she spots.
Spotting mental health issues early. Super important. Stops bad things from happening
That Slenderman Stabbing case? What a warning. Shows what happens when kids’ mental health problems get ignored. Passed off as just quirks. Or attention-seeking. Morgan’s super bad schizophrenia. Clear since she was tiny. Hallucinations. Weird stuff. Dangerously missed. Her family didn’t get how mental illness runs in families. Paved the way for disaster. Add the constant bullying. Plus, this dark online world that told her all her demons were real? Devastating. And another thing: we gotta get better at seeing the signs. Offering help. Acting fast. Not just to stop future horrors. But saving kids. From themselves. And from each other.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: So, how old were the girls in this whole Slenderman Stabbing mess?
A: All three of ’em. Payton, the victim. And Morgan and Anissa, the ones who did it. Just 12 years old. All of them.
Q: Why’d they do the Slenderman Stabbing, though? What was the big reason?
A: They thought if they stabbed Payton, they’d become Slenderman’s ‘proxies’. Make him happy. Keep their own families safe from him. Crazy, I know.
Q: Payton, the victim. Is she okay after the long Slenderman Stabbing recovery?
A: She lived, somehow, after 19 stab wounds. A miracle. Went through a ton, physically and emotionally. Got scars, yeah. And trauma. But she’s said publicly she’s moved on. Found strength. Lives a quiet life now. Stays out of the public eye. Definitely pulling through.
