Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - 12-Year-Old Girls Stab 'Bestie,' Leave Her for Dead, Now Say They're No Longer Threat to Society?

Episode Date: March 15, 2024

Two girls stab their best friend 19 times. Why? They wanted to appease the fictional horror character, Slender Man. Both girls serve time in a mental health facility. Anissa Weier was granted conditional release in September 2021. She was required to receive outpatient psychiatric treatment and was subject to GPS monitoring – though the monitoring was waived in September of last year. Now a Wisconsin judge will hear evidence in April to decide whether to release Morgan Geyser from the mental health facility where she’s being held. The 21-year-old Geyser requested conditional release from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute from Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren back in January. This is similar to a petition that Geyser filed in 2022 for conditional release, but withdrew two months later. In the latest petition filed on January 16, Geyser is asking Judge Michael O. Bohren to consider whether she is no longer a threat to herself or others — a decision that will be based on a new round of medical exams. The judge appointed three psychiatric experts — one on behalf of Geyser, one on behalf of prosecutors, and the third as a court appointee — to examine her and produce reports on her current mental condition. Judge Bohren then set a hearing for April 10-11 to consider the reports and possibly rule on the release request. Joining Nancy Grace to discuss the case: Troy Slaten – Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney, Slaten Lawyers, APC; Twitter/X: @TroySlaten Dr. Daniel Bober – Forensic Psychiatrist, Chief of Psychiatry Memorial Regional Healthcare Systems, Assistant Clinical Professor at Yale University School of Medicine; Instagram: drdanielbober Joe Scott Morgan – Professor of Forensics: Jacksonville State University, Author, “Blood Beneath My Feet,” and Host: “Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan;” Twitter/X: @JoScottForensic Levi Page -  CrimeOnline Investigative Reporter   Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Does the name Slenderman mean anything to you? Well, I luckily went my entire life with not knowing what Slender Man was until two girls lead their little best friend out into the woods during a sleepover and stab her multiple times, leaving her to bleed out dead. In a miracle, the little girl lives. Now, why did two seemingly normal young girls from Wisconsin try to murder, stabbing repeatedly their little best friend,

even going through an elaborate ruse to lure her out of the home because the two of them wanted to go live with the, oh gosh, what can I say? Nocturnal, mythical, creepy, slender man in his mansion in the woods. Yes, two seemingly normal students lured their friend, tried their best to murder her, each one stabbing her over and over and over as she begged for mercy. During a sleepover, the whole, the Wisconsin girl convicted in the infamous Slender Man stabbing, wants a release. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thanks for being with us here at Crime Stories and on Sirius XM 111. Does it never end with these two. The cold, calculated, and callous stabbing of a little girl just 12 years old at the time she was stabbed nearly to death. The case still goes on. One of the two Wisconsin girls who repeatedly stabbed their classmate because they claim they were possessed by the fictional horror character Slenderman.

One of them has just lost their appeal. Morgan Geyser was just 12 years old when she and her friend, Anissa Ware, attacked Peyton Lautner in a Milwaukee suburb in 2014. And not only is the attack itself so scary, what sends a chill down my spine is here they are living in these upscale suburbs outside of Milwaukee, going to school, making good grades,

seemingly everything is normal, if not great. And now this. Now, Morgan Geiser pled guilty to first degree attempted homicide. She was found not guilty in G.B.R.I., not guilty by reason of insanity, and was sentenced to 40 years in a mental institution. Her lawyer appeals that ruling, arguing Geiser should have been charged with second degree intentional homicide, which would have placed the case in juvie court rather than adult court. That didn't work, and the judge sentenced her to remain behind bars, even though it is in a mental health facility. Morgan Geiser, now 21, is petitioning for conditional release from the Winnebago

Mental Health Institution. She hasn't given up. Now, understand her first appeal was because her lawyer said the case should have been tried in juvie court. What does that mean? If a case is tried in juvie court, typically the maximum sentence is 18 months, maybe five years max, and you're basically in a dormitory. If you are in adult court on attempted homicide, you can get 40 years. You still serve your time in juvie jail until you become 21. Now, in this case, that's irrelevant because they're in a mental health facility. So what happened that night? Your emergency.

Walks to a county line and I'm transferred over a caller on Big Bend at the dead end just south of Rivera. Okay. He's calling from ******. Came up on a 12-year-old female. She appears to be stabbed. She appears to be what? Stabbed. Stabbed?

Correct. Okay. Sir, you still there? Yes. Hi, sir. So, are you with this 12-year-old female? Yes. She says she's having trouble breathing.

She said she was stabbed multiple times. Stabbed multiple times? Yes. Okay, sir. Are you with her right now? Yes. Is she awake? She's awake. Is she awake? She's awake.

Is she breathing? Yeah, she's breathing. She said she can take shallow breaths. She's alert. Okay, stay with her. We're sending the police department. Don't hang up, okay? Hold on just a minute.

Don't hang up. Okay. Okay. Hold on just a minute, sir. We're sending officers. Is there any assailant around? I didn't even look. I don't see anybody. Okay, stay right with minute, sir. We're sending officers. Is there any assailant around? I didn't even look. I don't see anybody. Okay, stay right with her, sir.

Is she on the ground or is she standing up? No, she's laying on the grass. Is there any bleeding going on? Her clothing has got blood on it. Where are the wounds? Do you see where the wounds are? No, I don't know if I should be rolling her over and checking or not. Do you know where? Okay, just stay with her and just let me know if she's conscious or alert or stops breathing or anything.

Hold on a minute. Talk to the ambulance. Police are also en route. Okay, so do you see any active bleeding or blood spurting out or anything like that? No, unless it's underneath her. I just see dried blood. Okay, just dried blood. Okay. You are hearing a 911 call that becomes even more chilling when you realize the victim is a 12-year-old little girl. Listen to our friends at TMJ4. Weier told police planning the attack made her scared, but she wanted to prove Slenderman skeptics wrong. I was scared because, A, I would never see my family again, and B, I was kind of hopeful to prove that I wasn't crazy.

Geiser says the victim, Peyton, had been her best friend for years. She says she didn't choose Peyton, but went along with it. We stabbed her. It was weird. Did you stab her? Did you stab her? We had the knife. Most of the time I did.

I wanted to hurt people and they deserved it? Two girls, Morgan, Geiser, and Anissa Weir. Could they possibly have lured their 12-year-old little best friend out into the woods and then stabbed her, leaving her for dead? That's what police are reporting. And the little girl who miraculously survives, Peyton Lautner, speaks out. Joining me in All-Star panel, Jason Oceans, renowned defense attorney in the New York, New Jersey area. Cloyd Steiger, 36 years in the Seattle Police Department, 22 years homicide detective, author of Homicide, The View From Inside the Yellow Tape. Joseph Scott Morgan, professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet, renowned forensic psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Bober joining us out of the Florida jurisdiction. Right now to CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter Levi Page.

Levi, take me back to the night. This little girl was stabbed multiple times, left for dead, bleeding out, left to, quote, bleed out in the woods. You'd think it was a sex offender, a registered sex offender, a pedophile, a maniac. But it turns out it's two little girls. May 30th, 2014, Morgan Geyser is celebrating her birthday. She had turned 12 and she invited two of her classmates, her friend Peyton Lutner and Anissa Weir, who are also 12, over to her home. They went skating. They ate frozen yogurt. They had a slumber party. Okay, stop, stop, stop, stop right there. Jason Oceans, you know what it is. Things like Levi Pace just said, Jason, skating,

birthday cakes, manicures, pedicures for the little girls, laser tag for the little boys. But this is just like every other kid's birthday party, Jason Oceans. You've got two children. You've lived through it. No doubt about it. It makes it worse to me. Joseph Scott Morgan, you've lived through plenty of trials. When it's a wolf in sheep's clothes, Joe Scott, that this was supposed to be an innocent, fun birthday party for little 12-year-old girls. I mean, really. Yeah, you would think that they'd be completely and totally safe. But, yeah, and your defenses are down, wouldn't you think, 12 years old?

Who's going to expect that this kind of behavior is going to rise up among what would seemingly be a few innocent little children. To Dr. Daniel Bober, it's like when, let me just compare it to a little old lady. You pass in the street and she's got a walker and she pulls out an Uzi on you and takes your money and runs. You don't see it coming. What am I trying to say? Put it in forensic psychiatric words. Well, Nancy, it's a little bit different than an old lady a 12 year old doesn't really have the capacity to make those types of

i'm saying you don't see it coming bober i know there's a difference in a little old lady and a 12 year old girl what i'm saying is the whole wolf in sheep's clothing thing bober yeah well i i agree with you you definitely don't see it coming it coming. It's not something you would ever see coming. I agree with you on that. Wait, you're the renowned forensic psychiatrist, and your takeaway is, yeah, Nancy, it's something you don't see coming. That's it? I've already said that, Dr. Bober. You're going to have to think of something impressive and psychiatric right now.

Well, let me just say that if it was something we would see coming, then this wouldn't even be a story that we'd be talking about. But my point is that it's something that you would not expect out of a 12-year-old. But when it happens, it's something that is explainable by the fact that they don't really have the capacity to weigh the future consequences of their actions. Well, you're certainly right about that. Levi Page, see, all you had to do was say skating rink and everything went sideways. Let's just go back to the party. What happened? So they had a sleepover. And after the sleepover in the morning, the three girls went to the park. They went for a walk. And this was Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weir's idea to go for a walk. So they

went out into the woods. And while they were in the woods, they were playing hide-and-seek, or they were pretending to play hide-and-seek. And they told Peyton Lautner to lay down in the leaves and that they were going to hide. Well, instead, Morgan Geyser pulled out a knife and stabbed her 19 times. And this is after they have a spend-the-night

with the little girl, the three of them besties. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Welcome back to Crime Stories, the saga of Slender Man, where two little girls attack their friend, claiming they did it to appease the fictional character Slender Man. The case won't go away. Now, again, one of the two defendants, Geyser, is trying to get out of her cushy mental health facility. We know that Geiser and co-defendant Weir admitted to luring Lautner from a sleepover to a wooded park

there in Waukesha. That's a Milwaukee suburb. All three girls were just 12 years old at the time. Weir stabbed Lautner 19 times while urging Geyser to do the same. The two left the victim for dead, but somehow she managed to crawl out of the woods to a path where, praise the Lord, a passing bicyclist found her. Now, both Geyser and Weir told detectives at the time they had to kill Lautner to become Slender Man's servants and that the character would kill their families if they didn't follow through. Take a listen to our friend David Muir at ABC 2020 with Angie Geyser's Morgan's mom. It's Friday night in Waukesha, Wisconsin, a Milwaukee suburb. Peyton is getting ready to celebrate her best friend Morgan Geyser's birthday at that slumber party. Peyton was so, so excited. The girls met in fourth grade, Peyton drawn to Morgan because she was a

loner who needed a friend. I made friends with her when I saw that she didn't have any friends at all. Also at that sleepover, Anissa Wire, who was new to the school and who had grown close to Morgan. They played up in Morgan's bedroom, ran up and down the stairs, giggling and laughing. And I mean, it was just a normal night. But there was nothing normal about what happened the next morning when Morgan and Anissa suggest they all go to the park and then to the woods together. Anissa told me to lie on the ground and like cover myself in like sticks and leaves and stuff. But it was really just a trick.

Okay. And now this one wants out to walk free amongst the public. I do not want her for a sleepover at our house. You want her to get out? Invite her to your house. But how did the whole thing unfold? Morgan said, don't be afraid. I'm only a little kitty cat.

And jumped on top of Bella and stabbed her repeatedly. And do you remember when it started? Kind of. I didn't feel anything because my body was in shock. They told me to lay down, and you'll lose blood slower. Like, we're going to go get help. And she tried to get up. Yeah, she tried to get up.

She said that she couldn't see, she couldn't walk, and that she couldn't breathe. And they told her they were going to go get her help. But Anissa flat out said, no, we weren't getting her help. We wanted her to die. I got up and I just walked until I hit a patch of grass where I could lay down. A bicyclist notices Peyton bloodied and lying in the grass. He calls 911.

You're hearing our friends at ABC 2020. That was David Muir with Peyton along with Detective Trussoni. Did you notice, Joseph Scott Morgan, that the little victim, the 12-year-old Peyton, says, oh, by the way, when you hear them refer to Bella, that's her nickname. Peyton's nickname is Bella. Did you hear her say, I didn't feel anything? Well, that means, and she's actually, in some of her interviews, she's gone on to say that she was in shock. And I'm sure that that's what's been conveyed to her because she would have asked, why didn't I feel anything? It's a primal response that we have to being attacked like this. And Nancy, this little girl was stabbed 19 times over a variety of areas in her body. So after a

period of time, the body is beginning to shut down just so that she's not going to feel this response. Man, I've always heard of your body going into shock and you don't feel things. You know, Jason, you and I have discussed this many, many times. Jason Ocean's with me, veteran defense attorney in the tri-state area, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. Jason, I always wondered about my fiance when he was murdered. You know, he was shot five times in the neck, the face, the head. I always hoped that he went into shock and didn't understand or know what was happening, that he was alive, and then he was gone. But I also know that when he got to the hospital, even after all that,

he was physically still alive, his heart was still beating. So I guess it's a blessing when people physically go into shock. For sure, Nancy. You know, as the doctor said, that's a natural reaction. And, you know, you listen to the testimony of and're just, you're shocked as well. You know, she reacted that way, and the 12-year-old, the scenario of what happened to her, she explains it. It'd be only natural and in some way a blessing that she doesn't feel that physical pain of being stabbed 19 times. Dr. Bober, what is that instinct when you are in shock and you just freeze? Well, Nancy, they talk about fight or flight, but it's really fight, flight, or freeze.

And that's the freeze. And the freeze is sort of what we call dissociation, where you're disconnected from your thoughts and your emotions when you become too overwhelmed. That's what it is. That is what this little girl was saying, that she didn't feel anything at the beginning. Listen. Do you remember leaving the park to go to the woods? They just wanted to go on a walk, and I didn't think much of it. It's just a walk.

It's in Waukesha. Like, what bad stuff happens in Waukesha, Wisconsin? After we go into the woods, we say we're going to put you to hide and seek. Anissa told me to lie on the ground and, like, cover myself in, like, sticks and leaves and stuff, but it was really just a trick i give it back to her and say you do go ballistic and she said okay i'll go ballistic whenever when you say you want me to and i'm like when i'm five feet away i said now i'm like i'm gonna go ballistic go crazy make sure she's down.

What did you do next? I already told you. What was that? Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab. When you hear them describe to investigators, Anissa, telling Morgan just to do it, I think the word was go ballistic. Oh, I remember that.

I do remember them chatting right next to me while I was just laying there. Stabbed 19 times and left by her attackers to, quote, bleed out dead in the woods. The shock, her attackers are two other 12-year-old little girls, the victim who miraculously survived, her mom says doctors claim that they found one of the stab wounds about an eighth of an inch from one of her arteries. An eighth of an inch between life and death. How could two 12-year-old little besties do something like this? Listen to our friend David Muir with Peyton. After they stabbed her 19 times, they encouraged her just to lay down in the woods and rest. What they really wanted her to do was bleed out in the woods.

Do you remember what you said to them? I trusted you, and then they told me to lay down. You'll lose blood slower. Like, we're going to go get help. Did she try to get up? Yeah, she tried to get up. She said that she couldn't see. She couldn't walk, and just that she couldn't breathe. And they told her they were gonna go get her help,

but Anissa flat out said, no, we weren't getting her help. We wanted her to die. Do you remember the moment they left you? I think I remember them running away, but I kind of just laid there for a minute. You walked out of the woods? I got up, grabbed a couple trees for support, I think, and then just walked until I hit a patch of grass where I could lay down. It's amazing that she had

the strength to do that with the injuries that she had. When I told her that the girls were in custody, it seemed to give her a sense of relief. The girls were ultimately arrested for first-degree attempt homicide. Two 12-year-old girls had a plan for six months to kill their friends. You don't often see this with adults. And to have this happen between 12-year-olds is absolutely horrifying. Can I ask you a question? Yes.

Where is Bella's body now? Bella's at the hospital. Okay. I thought it was still out there. The crime scene. Did you think that she died? Yes. She is alive.

Okay. Have you ever watched any of those interrogations? I watched a little bit. What was your reaction? It was a little shocking to me to see that they had this big, huge plan that they had been working on for months. A big, huge plan they had been working on for months? A little girl has a spend-the-night birthday party with her other 12-year-old friends. The three of them go for a walk, and the two friends, Mark and Geyser and Anissa Weir, execute a long-planned scheme to murder Peyton Lautner, just 12 years old, also known as Bella. The legal odyssey surrounding the fictional character

Slenderman goes on. I'm remembering a particular photo of defendant Geiser wearing bloody clothing, the blood of her little friend after her 2014 attack. And when she's being let out of court, acting like, what happened? This is what happened. He tried to murder your best friend. It was described during the attack, Geiser told Lautner, don't be afraid, I'm only a little kitty cat, and then stabbed her. Lautner actually spoke out about the attack, which left her traumatized for months, covered in 25 scars. The girls ran out of the woods, leaving Lautner

for dead. They told detectives they thought Lautner was dying. They said, quote, we told her we're going to get help, but we really weren't. We were going to run and let her pass away. A huge plan that they had for months. But why? Listen. This is where the story takes another turn. What happened?

To a fictional character on the Internet? There's this website called The Creepy Bastard Wiki. It's full of horror stories that are meant to purposely scare you. And there's one of them called Slimmin' It. Who's Slender Man? He's this tall, faceless man who preys on children. Anissa explained to me that to prove yourself worthy to slender, you would have to kill somebody. You have to kill someone to go live with Slender Man.

You're hearing our friend David Muir and detectives during the investigation of the attempt to stab little 12-year-old Bella dead. Levi Page with me, CrimeOnline.com investigative journalist. Who is Slender Man? So this is a fictional character, Nancy, that is very prevalent in creepypasta communities. And creepypasta communities is like horror stories that people tell on forums like Reddit. It's very popular there. And this is a guy that someone drew, an artist, and he has a featureless face. He's tall, thin. He's often wearing a suit. He looks very ghost-like. And he likes to stalk and traumatize children in these creepypasta stories. He also uses mind control to tell them what to do. And apparently, Morgan Geyser was obsessed with Slender Man. When law enforcement got a search warrant

for her room, they found drawings of Slender Man. She had researched him on the internet, had read creepy pasta stories about him. And they also found that she had been thinking about murder for a long time because months in advance of this attack, she had searched on the internet how to get away with murder. Well, there's everything you need to show premeditation to defense attorney Jason Oceans. The girls tell police they were convinced to murder their little friend, Peyton Lautner, known as Bella, by Slenderman. Slenderman's not real, Jason. He's fictional.

And how can both girls have the same psychiatric delusion at the same time? That's the same thing I keep talking about all of Epstein's guards in the jail. How can they all fall asleep at the same time and leave him to be found dead? How can two little girls have the same psychiatric break with reality? This was just their excuse for murdering their little friend. They are murderers. Nancy, I analogize this type of, you know, mind control that the young lady placed in this Slenderman character to, you know, Jim Jones or any cult or David Koresh, where people are willing not only to sacrifice themselves, but their children and belief. And those are adults. Right. Brain formed out all the way by 22, right? And these are adults with children. And you would think, my God, you know, sacrifice yourself. How do you do your children? It does shock the conscience that this happened.

And clearly from, you know, monitoring your children and, you know and creepy pasta stories because they're creepy with fun, but noticing some differences in your children with being withdrawn or just something more sinister is the responsibility of parenting. You can't just be disengaged when your child has been having seemingly these thoughts, murderous thoughts, for so long. You've got to see a change in your child. You just can't be an absentee parent. What about it? Dr. Daniel Bober joining me, forensic psychiatrist out of the Florida jurisdiction. Apparently, the parents knew nothing, had no idea anything was going on with their children. Yeah, Nancy, you see this a lot. For example, I remember during

the Columbine shootings, parents had no idea that that Klebold and Harris were stockpiling weapons in their own garage, like they never bothered to check that there were weapons being stockpiled in their garage. So unfortunately, this is something that happens with parents. They just kind of give their kids these electronic babysitters like cell phones. They're not really paying attention to what's going on. But in regards to what you said before, yes, of course, the kids did not have the same delusion. But sometimes when you get two kids together and one of them has a more dominant personality and more dominant traits, they will lead the weaker kid to go along with their plan, even though it's not something

they would have done on their own. Take a listen to this. I've never gone into an interview so blind as I have in this one. I thought that maybe this was all about a boy. This is a fight about a boy. I still don't know what happened and I don't know who did what and I need to know that today. Okay. We didn't know what these girls were going to tell us. What were you trying to do with her when you stabbed her? Kill her. I might as well just say it. We were trying to kill her.

So why did you pick Peyton? I didn't pick her. Who picked her? Whoever Anitil was talking about. She made it seem necessary. My thought was, why would she do this? Who the heck is Slenderman? To think that two 12-year-olds would come up with something like this and plan it out for six months.

As soon as I heard, I knew that this was going to be a big deal. The road that she was located on was Big Bend Road at the dead end of that. Peyton wasn't moving a whole lot. As I approached her, I said, Hi, I'm Officer Dan. Are you okay? And she said, No. And I said, Okay, help is on the way. Just stay right where you are.

And as I got closer, I started to see a little bit more blood, and the closer I got, the more blood I saw. Somehow, she'd been able to pull herself out of those woods, and in another moment of strength, she was able to communicate with him. I asked her who did this, and she told me her friend Morgan. I then asked her where did this happen, and she told me that it happened. I then asked her, where did this happen? And she told me that it happened in the woods. You're hearing Officer Dan Klein speaking with 2020's David Muir, Levi Page, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Levi, when the search warrant was executed on Geiser and Ware's homes,

what was found? So I mentioned about the internet searches on Morgan's computer that said how to get away with murder. They had also found mutilated dolls in her room that had the body parts cut off of them. Oh, dear Lord in heaven. To Joseph Scott Morgan, forensics expert, professor of forensics and author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon. Joseph Scott Morgan, this is right up your alley. Speaking of forensics and author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon. Joseph Scott Morgan, this is right up your alley. Speaking of forensics.

Yeah, well, Nancy, let me go to something real quick that, you know, we've talked about this obsession that these girls have with Slenderman and they're doing his bidding and living in this fantastical world where they're, you know, they've got to make some kind of, I don't know, sacrifice this guy. Let me tell you what's based in reality. What's based in reality is this poor girl was subject to being stabbed by a blade of five inches in length, and she stabbed 19 times. Nancy, her liver was actually clipped. It passed through her pancreas.

It passed through her diaphragm,. It passed through her diaphragm. And she was very close to dying. You know, I did a calculation just a moment ago. Let's just say that she only weighed 80 pounds, 12 years old. You know, she's gotten less than a gallon of blood in her body. It is an absolute miracle that she survived. And I'm just talking about the organs, not to mention all the little peripheral stab wounds that she sustained. She had an angel on her shoulder at that time.

The injuries done to this 12-year-old little girl are overwhelming. But listen to this. After Weir and Geiser tell detectives they had to kill Bella to become Slender Man's servants. We now know that when the jury decided the little girls were mentally insane, had a mental defect, this means that every six months they can petition the court to be released. Every six months, according to the victim's mom. She says the potential release of an assailant that methodically planned and executed an attack on our little girl, where she was stabbed 19 times,

puts the community and our family at risk. Anissa Weir took a plea deal, and she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of attempted second degree intentional homicide. As part of her deal, a jury would hear her insanity defense, then they were going to decide on whether or not she would be responsible and sent to prison or not guilty by a reason of a mental defect and sent to a mental institution. They wanted to send her to a mental institution, so she didn't get sent to prison. In 2017, a jury found her not guilty by reason of a mental disease or defect and was sentenced to a 25-year commitment into a state institution.

And Morgan Geiser's lawyers also made a similar deal. She pleaded guilty to attempted first degree intentional homicide and prosecutors agreed as part of this deal not to challenge her insanity defense and she was sentenced to 40 years in a mental institution. Anissa Weier, who was committed for her role in the attack, was granted conditional release in September 2021. She was required to receive outpatient psychiatric treatment and subject to GPS monitoring, though the monitoring was waived in September of last year. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Slenderman is actually a fictional character. Slenderman originated in an online art contest back in 2009.

Then Slenderman became a popular meme. It drove Anissa Ware and Morgan Geyser to stab their 12-year-old friend, Peyton Lautner. The girls claimed they feared their own families would die if they did not do Slender Man's bidding. This mythical creature is depicted as an unnaturally tall, thin figure with a blank, featureless face wearing a black suit. He has creepy, long, tentacle-like arms, and they can be extended to catch his prey.

It's an urban legend that Slender Man can cause memory loss, insomnia, and paranoia. We think Slender Man originated in a Photoshop contest on the comedy website Something Awful. It went viral, and then there were several stories written about Slender Man on Creepypasta that was published online. Then the character seemingly developed his own life. He got two feature-length films funded by Kickstarter and a lot of amateur video games. So these girls get sucked into Slender Man, but that's not insanity. Take a listen to Peyton, the victim, also known as Bella, as she speaks out.

Have you ever watched any of those interrogations? I watched a little bit. What was your reaction? It was a little shocking to me to see that they had this big, huge plan that they had been working on for months. Do you remember leaving the park to go to the woods? They just wanted to go on a walk, and I didn't think much of it. It's just a walk. It's in Waukesha. Like what bad stuff happens in Waukesha, Wisconsin. And Nisa told me to lie on the ground and like cover myself in like sticks and leaves and stuff. But it was really just a

trick. When you hear them describe to investigators and Nisa telling Morgan just to do it. I think the word was go ballistic. Oh, I remember that. I do remember them chatting right next to me while I was just laying there. And do you remember when it started? Kind of. I didn't feel anything because my body was in shock from the adrenaline. I didn't feel a thing. Do you remember the moment they left you? I think I remember them running away, but I kind of just laid there for a minute. You walked out of the woods. I got up, grabbed a couple trees for support, I think, and then just walked until I hit a patch of grass where I could lay down. Wow. To Dr. Daniel Bober, forensic psychiatrist joining us, what would be the prospects of these two girls would be killers ever becoming

anything less than a threat if they are released nancy i totally agree with you i'm sorry i i strike that i totally disagree with you the brain of a 12 year old i believe that's what you call a freudian slip but go ahead the brain of a 12 year old is just not the brain of a 12-year-old. I believe that's what you call a Freudian slip, but go ahead. The brain of a 12-year-old is just not the brain of a 25-year-old, and the science is not consistent with what you guys are saying. For example, children who display what we call conduct disorder behavior, two-thirds of them do not go on, I repeat, do not go on to become antisocial. So a 12-year-old committing a murder. Wait a minute.

Did you say conduct disorder it's what we call conduct disorder it's sort of the the forerunner does that include stabbing deaths i agree that a stabbing i mean you're making it sound like she just threw a tantrum in the floor of target no that's not what happened but no that's actually that would actually be more oppositional behavior but the point i'm trying to make is you can't say that someone who's 12 who commits a murder at 25 is going to be a menace to society because they're a totally different person. They have a totally different brain at 25 than they did at age 12. I do know that what happened has changed Peyton Lightner, the victim's life, forever. One of the things I will never forget from this interview with Peyton Lightner, the victim's life, forever. One of the things I will never forget from this

interview with Peyton Lightner all these years later is what she said to me when I asked, what would you say to Morgan Geiser if you saw her today? If she saw this interview, what would you want to say to her? There's a lot that I would want to say to her. I would probably initially thank her, I would say. Because of what she did, I have the life I have now, which I really, really like it. You do know that when people hear you say, I would probably thank her, that they're going to be surprised. Yeah, I'm surprised to hear myself say that. Why? Because I wouldn't think that someone

who went through what I did would ever say that, but that's truly how I feel. Like, without the whole situation, I wouldn't be who I am. Stronger. Mm-hmm. A Wisconsin judge will now hear evidence in April to decide whether to release Morgan Geiser

from the mental health facility where she's being held. The 21-year-old Geiser requested conditional release from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute from Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Boren back in January. This is similar to a petition that Geiser filed in 2022 for conditional release, but Geiser withdrew that request two months later. The judge appointed three psychiatric experts, one on behalf of Geiser, one on behalf of prosecutors, and the third as a court appointee to examine Geiser and produce reports on her current mental condition. Judge Boren then set a hearing for April 10th through the 11th to consider the reports and possibly rule on the release request. The dichotomy is that the other defendant, Weir, has been released.

Frankly, I think they should both still be behind bars. I perceive them as a threat. We wait as justice unfolds. Goodbye, friend.