Attacker in Slender Man Stabbing Goes Free Monday

Judge says release plan will keep community and victim safe
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 10, 2021 4:04 PM CDT
Woman Goes Free Monday in Slender Man Stabbing
Anissa Weier enters a courtroom for sentencing in 2017.   (Michael Sears/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP, File)/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP)

A Wisconsin woman who admitted helping stab a classmate to please the horror character Slender Man will be freed Monday from a mental health institution, a judge ruled Friday. Anissa Weier, 19, has spent almost four years at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, the AP reports. She will be subject to constant GPS monitoring and receive outpatient psychiatric treatment under the conditions of her release. Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren said the report prepared for Weier's release was fair and "provides for the protection of the community" as well as for the victim, Payton Leutner, and for Weier herself.

Weier and friend Morgan Geyser lured classmate Leutner into a park in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha following a sleepover in May 2014. Geyser stabbed Leutner multiple times, while Weier urged her on. All three girls were 12 at the time. They left Leutner for dead, but a passing bicyclist found her. She suffered 19 stab wounds and barely survived. Police found Weier and Geyser later that day walking on Interstate 94 in Waukesha. They said they were traveling to Slender Man's mansion and attacked Leutner because they thought it would make them Slender Man's servants and keep him from killing their families. Bohren had ruled in July that Weier no longer posed a threat and ordered state officials to draw up a release plan.

The Slender Man character grew out of internet stories. He's depicted as a spidery figure in a black suit with a blank white face. Weier pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide. Borhen sentenced her to 25 years at Winnebago in December 2017. She argued in a petition for conditional release that she has exhausted her treatment options and needs to rejoin society, vowing she'd never let herself "become a weapon again." Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide. Bohren sentenced her to 40 years in a mental health facility in February 2018.

(More Slender Man stories.)

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