True Crime Vault: Slender Man Attackers

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Speaker 1 Welcome to the True Crime Vault, home to 2020's most chilling stories.

Speaker 5 It was a Friday night in a small American town in Waukesha, Wisconsin. And it was a scene playing out like so many across the country.

Speaker 5 A small group of parents had said yes to a sleepover, a birthday party.

Speaker 8 Three 12-year-old girls were dropped off here at Skateland to begin the night.

Speaker 5 But what would happen over the next 24 hours would haunt three families to this very day.

Speaker 9 One of those 12-year-old girls, Peyton Leitner, was stabbed 19 times and left for dead in the woods.

Speaker 6 And the entire scene was planned out by the other two girls. What were you trying to do with her when you stabbed her?

Speaker 6 Kill her.

Speaker 16 I might as well just say it.

Speaker 17 We were trying to kill her.

Speaker 4 Because it turns out there was someone else looming large at that birthday get-together.

Speaker 13 A fictional character named Slenderman, who they learned of on the internet.

Speaker 5 Those two 12-year-old girls said they were doing this for him. When Morgan said to you that if we don't do this for Slender,

Speaker 21 our families are our loved ones are going to be killed. Do you honestly believe that?

Speaker 21 Well, yeah, because he could be anywhere from six feet to 14 feet tall. He's

Speaker 21 constantly wearing a suit. He doesn't have a face.
His skin is white. He can exploit these tendrils from his back and

Speaker 21 like strangle his victims.

Speaker 4 For more than three years now, 2020 has been documenting the three families nearly destroyed by the horror that played out during that sleepover.

Speaker 13 And tonight, right here, what we never knew before.

Speaker 16 Asking the questions how does this happen how do 12 year old girls fall for a fictional character what would drive them to try to kill one of their own friends and what should happen to those two girls now and morgan just 24 hours ago a judge making the final decision hey thank you please be seated

Speaker 4 after what you're about to see play out right here tonight

Speaker 28 Breaking news, a 12-year-old girl is stabbed. The girl was lured to the area by two of her classmates who allegedly stabbed her 19 times.

Speaker 29 The girls had hoped the attack would earn them a home in Slender Man's Mansion. Slender Man is a fictional horror character.

Speaker 30 We have been there for the journey.

Speaker 31 Two different mothers now visiting their daughters, locked up since they were 12.

Speaker 32 We try to visit at least once a week. On a good week, I can get up there two or three times.

Speaker 33 Anissa was actually sent to the Washington County Juvenile Detention Facility.

Speaker 30 Christy Weire, her daughter, is Anissa.

Speaker 33 Most children are only up there for an average of four months and she's been there almost three years.

Speaker 4 Angie Geyser's daughter, Morgan, who came up with the plan and who held the knife.

Speaker 32 The children have no access to the outdoors or even windows to look out of.

Speaker 33 In the last 35 months, Anissa's maybe

Speaker 33 had 40 hours of fresh air.

Speaker 32 And

Speaker 32 there is no physical contact.

Speaker 33 I can't wipe away a tear. I can't give her a hug.
I can't kiss her.

Speaker 11 Their daughters are now teenagers.

Speaker 4 Anissa is 16.

Speaker 30 Morgan is 15.

Speaker 5 They have spent countless hours driving to visit their daughters locked up, trying to wrap their heads around how their two little girls, just 12 years old at the time, could have done something so so unimaginable.

Speaker 14 And all of it began that Friday night.

Speaker 34 What was the plan for that night?

Speaker 32 On Friday nights, Skateland had free pizza. So the girls went a little early and ate dinner and skated.

Speaker 6 And the third girl who was with them, Peyton Leitner, also just 12. Stacey and Joe Leitner remember their daughter had been looking forward to it for weeks.

Speaker 34 You remember how excited she was that Friday.

Speaker 17 Oh my gosh, she was so, so excited.

Speaker 35 Do you think Peyton had any idea?

Speaker 17 No, she had absolutely no idea.

Speaker 37 She was blindsided.

Speaker 5 Blindsided by what those two friends had in store.

Speaker 12 And they'd been planning it for months.

Speaker 5 After that night of skating, they would return to Morgan's house. Morgan's mother, Angie, downstairs.

Speaker 32 They played up in Morgan's bedroom with Morgan's dolls. I mean, it was just a normal night.

Speaker 34 And no sign that two were plotting against Peyton?

Speaker 32 No, no sign whatsoever. The next morning, Morgan asked if they could go to the park.

Speaker 22 How often would they go to the park?

Speaker 32 Well, we were actually, believe it or not, pretty strict parents and didn't let Morgan

Speaker 32 go out on her own very often.

Speaker 34 But you thought because she had her two friends,

Speaker 38 it would be safe.

Speaker 5 The first sign anything is wrong, a police officer showing up at Angie's door.

Speaker 32 My heart dropped down into my stomach. Not only were there police in my living room, but they were

Speaker 32 wearing riot gear.

Speaker 6 Across town, officers are also arriving at Peyton's house.

Speaker 17 Around the side of the house, up over the deck, came a uniformed officer. The first thing that goes through my mind is, something has happened to somebody that I love.

Speaker 32 And they asked me, where's Morgan? I said, she's at the park with her friends.

Speaker 5 Angie Geiser says the police tell her that Morgan is missing.

Speaker 11 They think she may be hiding her daughter.

Speaker 32 They searched the house and I just kept asking,

Speaker 32 you know, what happened? What's going on?

Speaker 32 And they wouldn't tell me other than to say there had been an incident at the park and one of the girls was hurt.

Speaker 7 At first, police refusing to reveal which one of those girls was hurt.

Speaker 4 They quickly also tracked down the parents of the third friend, Anissa Weier, telling them their daughter is missing too.

Speaker 33 My thought was child abduction. Where's my daughter?

Speaker 33 That's the only thought I had in my head.

Speaker 10 It would take hours to piece together exactly what happened at that birthday sleepover.

Speaker 16 The first moment anyone would begin to learn of the horror is this call to 911.

Speaker 39 911, man, transform over a caller on Big Bend.

Speaker 6 12-year-old Peyton Leitner had just crawled out of the woods, covered in blood, stabbed 19 times.

Speaker 4 And you can hear it in their voices.

Speaker 30 The operators cannot believe what they are hearing.

Speaker 39 He came upon a 12-year-old female.

Speaker 22 She appears to be stabbed. She appears to be what?

Speaker 39 Stabbed?

Speaker 40 Stabbed?

Speaker 14 Greg Steinberg was riding his bike that morning on a path that had actually been chained off.

Speaker 4 It was pure chance he came this way.

Speaker 34 And you were biking by and she says to you, what?

Speaker 41 Could you help me, please? I've been stabbed multiple times. I quick got out my cell phone.
I was shaken.

Speaker 9 He watches as the ambulance rushes her away.

Speaker 34 And when you looked at her, it was immediately apparent she'd been stabbed multiple times.

Speaker 32 Yeah, to her chest and abdomen and arm and leg.

Speaker 5 Doctors fear she might not survive. And her mother, Stacey, has just been told that Peyton has been rushed to the hospital.

Speaker 17 She was terrified. She was crying.

Speaker 32 She couldn't breathe.

Speaker 37 But she saw you there.

Speaker 17 She saw me and she put her hand out and I rushed over to her and I put my arms around her and I laid next to her and I hugged her and I said,

Speaker 32 you're going to be okay.

Speaker 42 It's going to be fine.

Speaker 17 But I could see that she was covered. Her arms and her legs and her abdomen were covered in stab wounds.

Speaker 5 There were so many stab wounds, it took two nurses to count them, 19 in all.

Speaker 6 And her little girl is now being raced down the hall.

Speaker 34 Did you say anything to Peyton as they were wheeling her away?

Speaker 17 That I loved her and that she would be okay.

Speaker 4 Peyton's mother could not believe that her daughter's friend could be capable of this.

Speaker 17 Morgan didn't do this, is what's going through my head. There's no way.
There's no way that's what happened. Morgan is 12.

Speaker 32 Morgan has never

Speaker 32 hurt a fly.

Speaker 32 It was just unthinkable that Morgan would do anything to hurt someone else.

Speaker 4 But that's exactly what investigators were telling Morgan's mother.

Speaker 11 That her daughter and Anissa Weire had stabbed their friend multiple times, and now both girls were nowhere to be found.

Speaker 17 They had run away and the police hadn't found them yet.

Speaker 34 They were going to find a mansion in the woods.

Speaker 17 Oh, the mansion, yeah, the mansion in the woods. They were into the Nicolay Forest because they believed that there was a mansion there that Slenderman Slenderman lived in.

Speaker 5 When we come back, the doctors discover it is worse than anyone thought.

Speaker 6 And we're with the surgeon who saves Paith.

Speaker 34 It's less than a millimeter between living and dying.

Speaker 41 Yes.

Speaker 10 And where investigators would discover those girls, they would reveal in their own words why they did this.

Speaker 4 The stunning interrogations.

Speaker 21 I didn't want to do this.

Speaker 21 Why did you assist me?

Speaker 21 I

Speaker 38 was afraid afraid of what would happen if I didn't.

Speaker 32 That's not my daughter saying those things.

Speaker 34 It was like looking at a different child.

Speaker 32 Yes.

Speaker 23 But it was her daughter.

Speaker 4 And what they would discover that had been hidden from that mother for years when we come back.

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Speaker 4 It is Saturday morning in Waukesha, Wisconsin, just outside Milwaukee, and a horrific scene is playing out.

Speaker 13 A birthday sleepover with three 12-year-olds the night before and now two of those girls are missing.

Speaker 16 The third, Peyton Leitner, has somehow crawled out of the woods covered in stab wounds.

Speaker 12 19 of them.

Speaker 28 Major search by Ground.

Speaker 10 These are the woods where the stabbing

Speaker 51 are still on the scene here.

Speaker 14 Morgan Geiser and Denise Weire were missing.

Speaker 4 And Anissa's mother was recruiting anyone she could to join the search.

Speaker 33 We had people all over Waukesha looking for her.

Speaker 5 Christy had her daughter's cell phone.

Speaker 46 She scours it, searching for any clues.

Speaker 5 Instead, discovering something else.

Speaker 33 I checked all her of her text messages, trying to figure out the people that she called and contacted last. And I found

Speaker 33 basically her goodbye notes.

Speaker 5 On that cell phone, this note, drafted by Anissa. She writes, this is my final wish to those who care.

Speaker 6 Do not grieve my absence, but remember me for who I was.

Speaker 13 I love and cherish you all and wouldn't do you harm.

Speaker 33 I still had no idea. But as soon as I found that, I called the detective right away and showed him that information.

Speaker 43 While at that hospital, Surgeon John Kelleman tells us he will never forget the wounds.

Speaker 31 He tells me about one of the stab wounds to Peyton's heart.

Speaker 34 The knife cut through the tissue, but not the artery itself.

Speaker 39 Exactly. And had it not?

Speaker 39 Had it not, she would have

Speaker 39 had a major heart attack from the amount of bleeding and probably died within a minute or two.

Speaker 18 But they would save her life as the hunt for the two other girls intensified.

Speaker 5 Nearly five hours after Peyton crawled out of the woods, her two friends are suddenly found on the side of Interstate 94, walking out of Waukesha.

Speaker 51 They have found those two girls, I'm told, around 12 years old.

Speaker 11 A knife with a five-inch blade was found in one of the girls' bags.

Speaker 31 Lieutenant Tom Moorman confronting them.

Speaker 34 I asked her to show me her hands. I noticed there was some staining on her sweatshirt.

Speaker 4 Morgan's parents raced to the police station, but they have not been told the severity of Peyton's injuries.

Speaker 32 I remember talking on the way

Speaker 32 how we were going to punish Morgan for this. I mean, we just had no idea how

Speaker 32 serious it was.

Speaker 5 Yeah, you can find the shareholders. Anissa Weier's parents arrive at the police station, too.

Speaker 7 They are told to wait.

Speaker 33 I stood right dead center of that lobby in full view of two cameras waiting to see my daughter.

Speaker 4 And listen to what their daughter, Anissa, says to the investigator.

Speaker 21 Your parents know that you're here talking to me, okay?

Speaker 21 And they're scared.

Speaker 21 They're so glad that you're safe.

Speaker 21 We were scared for you guys.

Speaker 4 Both girls in separate rooms beginning to explain their plot to kill, referring to Peyton by her nickname, Bella.

Speaker 21 Why do you think you're here today? Because Anisha and I ran off after hurting Bella.

Speaker 5 Morgan tells the detective the plan to kill Peyton had been in the works for months.

Speaker 35 She hasn't been playing this a while.

Speaker 35 She's a chumper.

Speaker 35 She was my best friend since fourth grade. Who was? Peyton.

Speaker 35 So why did you pick Peyton? I didn't pick her.

Speaker 35 Who picked her?

Speaker 35 Whoever Anita was talking about.

Speaker 35 She made it seem necessary.

Speaker 6 Necessary.

Speaker 4 A word Morgan Geiser would use again and again with that detective, saying her devotion to that fictional character, Slender Man, drove her to do this.

Speaker 21 There's this website called The Creepy Basta Wiki. Okay.
It's full of like horror stories, and there is one of them called Slenderman.

Speaker 5 Slender Man is the story of a character who suddenly appears.

Speaker 20 He changes and evolves all the time, with help from fans all over the world, adding to the story, giving a fictional character new life every day.

Speaker 31 You have said that Slender Man is the boogeyman of this digital generation.

Speaker 52 He is the thing that we fear that we don't actually encounter, right? So we check under our beds for the Slender Man, but he's, you know, not actually there.

Speaker 2 Morgan and Anissa not only believed in Slender Man, they wanted to prove to the world he was real. Morgan said, hey, Anissa, we should be proxies.
I was like, okay, how would you do that?

Speaker 53 She indicated that in order to become a proxy of Slender Man, you needed to kill somebody to prove yourself worthy to him.

Speaker 21 I was excited because

Speaker 21 I wanted proof that he existed.

Speaker 11 As Slender Man's grip on these girls begins to reveal itself, back at the hospital, Peyton Leichner is unable to talk.

Speaker 2 At first, writing to communicate.

Speaker 10 One of her first questions is this.

Speaker 37 Did they get them? We told her they were found and the police have them.

Speaker 34 And as a dad, in that moment,

Speaker 24 how hard was that?

Speaker 37 Harder than I would have ever been able to imagine.

Speaker 29 This is my little girl who's laying there.

Speaker 37 And the only thing that I could tell her at the time to make her feel better was that the police have them and

Speaker 37 she was safe with us.

Speaker 19 When we come back, the girls now describe their original plan, why it changed, and who actually held the knife in the woods.

Speaker 21 So she gives me the knife, and then I give it back to her and say, you do gobalit and go crazy.

Speaker 14 And for every family watching tonight, we also learn what these parents never noticed.

Speaker 32 I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

Speaker 44 When we come back.

Speaker 30 Two mothers now trying to reconcile the little girls they raised with the 12-year-olds who brutally attacked their friend.

Speaker 32 Morgan was a very happy child. She was intensely creative.
She was always

Speaker 32 making up songs and stories.

Speaker 33 Banissa did enjoy choir. She did enjoy singing.

Speaker 47 Bring back.

Speaker 47 Bring back.

Speaker 33 Oh, bring back my body

Speaker 33 to

Speaker 6 And only now do moments along the way seem to carry greater weight.

Speaker 5 Morgan's mother telling me she remembers showing her daughter a movie, a children's classic.

Speaker 34 You were watching Bambi

Speaker 34 and you noticed something.

Speaker 32 What was it?

Speaker 32 We had been concerned to show Morgan the movie. We were afraid when Bambi's mother died, she would be devastated, that she'd be very upset.

Speaker 32 She, in fact, had quite the opposite reaction.

Speaker 32 And after Bambi's mother was shot, Morgan just said, run, Bambi, run, and had no reaction whatsoever to the mother dying.

Speaker 34 She wasn't at all concerned about the mom.

Speaker 32 No, no, not at all.

Speaker 24 And Anissa's mom points to her daughter's childhood and her struggle to fit in.

Speaker 33 Looking back, Anissa was never really invited to a lot of like birthday parties or anything. I don't think she really made friends that easy.

Speaker 4 Which is why both mothers say they were happy when their two daughters met at the bus stop in middle school.

Speaker 32 Morgan did endure a lot of bullying, especially in the sixth grade by the other students.

Speaker 33 They knew what each other had gone through and

Speaker 33 they were going to be there for each other.

Speaker 18 What was Anissa like?

Speaker 32 Anissa was

Speaker 32 always extremely polite.

Speaker 34 You were witnessing what you thought was a very normal friendship.

Speaker 32 That's true, yes.

Speaker 4 It was a new friend for her daughter Morgan, who had already been friends with Peyton since the fourth grade.

Speaker 2 And their friendship seemed normal, too.

Speaker 42 They were just typical, giggly girls.

Speaker 11 Peyton's parents told us the same thing.

Speaker 4 Were there ever any red flags?

Speaker 17 They would have little arguments, but every 12-year-old girl has little arguments.

Speaker 14 Peyton's parents had never met Anissa Weier, but they say that Peyton spoke of her at school.

Speaker 11 And they could never have imagined that their daughter's friends were plotting against her.

Speaker 43 And it turns out the horror that played out in those woods was not the original plan for Peyton.

Speaker 21 Morgan said that

Speaker 21 at

Speaker 21 her birthday party while

Speaker 21 Bella was sleeping, we were gonna

Speaker 21 like duck hamper mouth shut, stab her in the neck, and then leave.

Speaker 53 She would bleed out. They would cover her up with covers to make it look like she was sleeping, and the two girls would run.

Speaker 4 But when they got home from skate land, the plan would change.

Speaker 21 I didn't think it would work. I didn't think any of this would work from the start.
I wanted to give her at least one more morning.

Speaker 30 The next morning, a new plan.

Speaker 21 We're going to do it today at the park. That's what Morgan said.

Speaker 24 As they leave for the park, Anissa tells police that Morgan lifts up her white jacket, the knife tucked in her waistband.

Speaker 21 What were you thinking? I'm thinking, dear God, this is really happening.

Speaker 14 Morgan and Anissa lead Peyton into a bathroom at the park.

Speaker 11 But one more time, they would change the plan.

Speaker 12 The girls leave that bathroom and walk down a nearby road.

Speaker 21 I cleared out the woods to Morgan and said we should do it there. So I told Bella we were going to play hide and peak.

Speaker 4 At the edge of those woods, Peyton's parents tell me that Peyton remembers her two friends luring her in.

Speaker 17 They got to the park and they told her they wanted to play hide and seek in the woods. And she told me she didn't want to go.

Speaker 22 She sensed it.

Speaker 17 Yeah, she did say she was forced to go.

Speaker 21 She was going to hide one place, I was going to hide another, and then Morgan and I were going to be like lionesses chasing down the scene road, so I was going to tackle her, and then Morgan was going to

Speaker 21 do the snapping.

Speaker 4 Anissa tells police she sits on Peyton.

Speaker 6 Peyton says to her, I can't breathe.

Speaker 21 She knew you and I. And then I give it back to her and say, you do go ballistic, go crazy.

Speaker 36 What did she do next?

Speaker 21 Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab.

Speaker 31 Peyton is stabbed 19 times, stumbling, trying to get up.

Speaker 5 And listen to how Anissa describes that moment. The whole time, Peyton was screaming and begging.

Speaker 46 They would leave her right there.

Speaker 24 And has Peyton talked at all about the horror of that moment?

Speaker 17 We asked her what she remembered about what happened, and she said she remembered everything.

Speaker 17 She went out to the nice answer.

Speaker 17 Peyton got stamped.

Speaker 32 I put it back in the bag and walked.

Speaker 21 It was weird. I felt no remorse.

Speaker 4 Morgan said, it was weird that I didn't feel remorse.

Speaker 17 Yeah.

Speaker 39 This was a girl who had been in your home many, many times.

Speaker 17 That was hard because I thought that she really cared about Peyton as a person and they were good friends. Do you know what happened to Bella? Is she dead?

Speaker 17 I don't know. She wants to take in the hospital.

Speaker 17 I was just wondering.

Speaker 32 That's not my daughter saying those things.

Speaker 34 It was like looking at a different child.

Speaker 32 Yes. She appears to have no remorse.
She doesn't appear to be frightened.

Speaker 4 After hours of waiting, detectives finally reveal to Angie what her daughter has done in the woods.

Speaker 11 Could you believe what you were hearing?

Speaker 32 No, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. No.

Speaker 32 No,

Speaker 32 I never would have imagined that my daughter was capable of hurting another person.

Speaker 34 I mean, not only was this hurting, it was

Speaker 34 multiple stabbings with the attempt to kill.

Speaker 32 Yes. Yes.

Speaker 6 When we come back, what these parents would learn about their own daughters, an extraordinarily rare diagnosis.

Speaker 5 And for parents watching across this country tonight, what are you to do when children are drawn in by someone or something that you never knew existed?

Speaker 33 Anissa never talked about Slender Man to me.

Speaker 44 When we come back.

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Speaker 5 For more than three years now, those two girls who confessed to brutally stabbing their 12-year-old friend have been locked up.

Speaker 4 Their mothers still hope their daughters will one day come home.

Speaker 5 Christy Weier's daughter, Anissa, sits behind these walls at the Washington County Juvenile Jail. And Christy shows us one of Anissa's paintings done just a few months before that horror in the woods.

Speaker 33 She's drawing flowers and sunshine and hearts.

Speaker 6 She tells us she had no idea her daughter had fallen so completely under Slender Man's spell.

Speaker 58 They did it to impress Slenderman. Who is the shadowy figure? I was really scared, knowing that Slenderman could easily kill my both family in three seconds.

Speaker 33 Bill and I, although we were divorced, we were still very active parents. I did search her iPad.
I did watch over her shoulder. Anissa never talked about Slender Man to me.

Speaker 4 And Morgan was convinced Slender Man was real too.

Speaker 21 Who's this creepy guy that you're talking about?

Speaker 39 Did you know anything about Morgan's fascination with Slender Man?

Speaker 32 We did, and

Speaker 32 she would show us some of the pictures and she would

Speaker 32 read us some of the stories.

Speaker 34 Did you ever think that, you know, this is a little too dark for my daughter?

Speaker 32 When I was Morgan's age, I was reading Stephen King novels, so I...

Speaker 32 I just thought it was normal for a child of middle school age to be interested in scary stories.

Speaker 46 And it turns out that Peyton, who crawled out of those woods alive, had even told her mom that Morgan thought that Slenderman was real.

Speaker 56 Did it give you pause?

Speaker 17 A little bit, but at the same time, these girls are 12 years old. And fantasy, when you're 12 years old, is still a very active part of your life.

Speaker 4 But their fantasy would give way to reality.

Speaker 5 And Morgan and Anissa now face charges of attempted first-degree intentional homicide.

Speaker 25 When a child 10 or older commits a crime like this, Wisconsin law requires them to be charged in adult court.

Speaker 4 Anthony Cotton is Morgan's attorney. He says he knew the moment he met her that he was not dealing with a typical 12-year-old.

Speaker 34 Was it clear to you she was struggling with mental illness?

Speaker 25 Yeah, it was apparent right out of the gate. She'd be looking around the room, she'd be looking in the corner, she'd seem to be responding to things that weren't in the room.

Speaker 5 The girls are formally charged as adults, each facing the possibility of up to 65 years in prison.

Speaker 33 Seeing her in the courtroom, in the jumpsuit, with the shackles, really hit hard.

Speaker 4 Morgan and Denise's families launch a legal fight to get their daughters' cases moved from adult court to juvenile court.

Speaker 56 Children's court is the right place for this case.

Speaker 46 It would mean more resources to help treat their mental health, but it also meant that each girl could be freed as soon as their 18th birthday, something prosecutors would immediately fight.

Speaker 59 In spite of the fact that they they were 12, these were two girls that made an extreme serious effort to try to kill Peyton.

Speaker 5 After the brutal attack, investigators searching Morgan's room would find disturbing evidence of a deteriorating young mind, dismembered Barbies, drawings of Slender Man with children, and pages and pages of messages that she had written to herself.

Speaker 5 We pour through those drawings with Morgan's mother and find one of the darkest messages.

Speaker 56 How typical is it for a 12-year-old to write, I want to die?

Speaker 32 I don't think it's very typical at all.

Speaker 35 Morgan also writes, help me escape my mind.

Speaker 32 This one makes me sad.

Speaker 36 Why?

Speaker 32 Just knowing how long she was sick and suffering inside her own head before we had any idea.

Speaker 5 While prosecutors build their case, two mothers visit their daughters behind bars weekly, sometimes daily.

Speaker 3 It's just her and I,

Speaker 33 divided by glass,

Speaker 16 talking.

Speaker 33 There are moments where my heart is so full of sadness. That's when I put on a mask.
I don't allow myself to break down in front of her and see

Speaker 33 how much this is.

Speaker 33 this is hurting me.

Speaker 15 And Morgan's mother tells me about the barrier between her and her daughter.

Speaker 10 And you would see her through the glass?

Speaker 32 Yes. I mean, it was painful.
We went months without being able to touch her.

Speaker 5 Both families now say their daughters are trapped between adult and juvenile courts. And on this day, we are at Anissa's home when she calls to wish her sister a happy birthday.

Speaker 8 Her father Bill wearing a Superman t-shirt, Anissa still reveres her father to this day.

Speaker 22 Hello?

Speaker 36 How are you doing? Pretty good.

Speaker 11 And then a song for her sister. Happy birthday to you.

Speaker 4 But as they sit behind bars, they are cut off from the resources typically available to treat children who commit crimes at such a young age.

Speaker 25 There's social workers,

Speaker 25 there's treatment professionals, as opposed to the adult system, which is designed to be punitive.

Speaker 5 And while they are not treated for mental illness, they are given a court-ordered mental health evaluation.

Speaker 4 And Morgan, who held the knife, who drew those pictures discovered in her bedroom and who was unmoved by the movie Bambi all those years ago

Speaker 4 she would now receive an extraordinarily rare diagnosis for someone so young early onset schizophrenia

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Speaker 60 Mom Talk started as a sisterhood and that's gone to flames. New secrets and lies are coming out.
This is going to be catastrophic.

Speaker 53 We're fighting for our marriages and the girls are just putting us through hell.

Speaker 49 They make everything about themselves i can't hopefully this doesn't end in a bloodbath watch the hulu original the secret lives of mormon wives now streaming on hulu and hulu on disney plus for bonus subscribers terms apply

Speaker 40 it started with a phone call in the early hours of the morning

Speaker 40 what is the address to your emergency A terrified woman tells the operator she's been kidnapped, assaulted, and that she's trapped in a room with her attacker.

Speaker 40 He's fallen asleep, so she quietly and ever so carefully finds his phone and calls for help.

Speaker 38 Is there any way you can get out of the building?

Speaker 42 I don't know without waking him. I'm scared.

Speaker 40 This 911 call began an investigation that would turn the town of Ashland into a crime scene.

Speaker 50 We've got something big going on here.

Speaker 49 The first thing that hit my mind is a monster.

Speaker 40 A new series from ABC Audio and 2020, The Hand in the Window. Out now, wherever you listen to podcasts.

Speaker 56 Are you surprised?

Speaker 32 No.

Speaker 32 I wasn't surprised simply because there is a family history of schizophrenia.

Speaker 36 Her father.

Speaker 32 Yes, her father has schizophrenia.

Speaker 5 In fact, Morgan's father had been hospitalized at least four times as a teenager himself.

Speaker 10 Was that one of the first things you thought of after the stabbings?

Speaker 32 It was. That she must be sick.

Speaker 4 But if Morgan's father had a history of schizophrenia, we asked, did her parents look for warning signs along the way?

Speaker 32 I think it was something that had been building that we both didn't notice

Speaker 32 and also

Speaker 32 attributed to the changes she was going through as an adolescent.

Speaker 34 Do you feel responsible?

Speaker 32 I think on some level I'll always feel responsible for not knowing that my daughter wasn't well.

Speaker 4 Her daughter Morgan would stay in that jail for a year and a half, untreated for mental illness, until a judge gets her moved to a mental health institution where she receives medication.

Speaker 10 And did you see a change?

Speaker 32 When she started medication, oh yes, we saw a dramatic change.

Speaker 38 All right.

Speaker 14 And after more than a year of hearings and evaluations, Judge Michael Boren makes his decision on whether the children should remain charged as adults.

Speaker 26 It was a premeditated attempt to kill someone.

Speaker 26 On that basis, then I'll order that the defendants, disguised, and misweed be retained in the adult jurisdiction.

Speaker 33 They were just children.

Speaker 33 They weren't.

Speaker 33 chronic offenders.

Speaker 5 When we come back, the families battle to save their daughters, to get them help, and to get them a chance to one day come home. But will they be sent away for years after what they did in the woods?

Speaker 4 Their fates revealed when we come back.

Speaker 5 It has been more than three years now since that horror in the woods in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Speaker 27 And now a community torn.

Speaker 7 As brutal as the attack was, what do you do with two girls who were just 12 years old when they did it?

Speaker 14 Morgan Geiser and Denise Weier are now preparing to be tried as adults, facing the possibility of decades in prison.

Speaker 32 I mean, to me, it's unthinkable to try a 12-year-old child as an adult, regardless of what they've done.

Speaker 34 You know, there are some who will say she planned it, and look what she did.

Speaker 32 I don't think that any of that changes the fact that she was a child. We do everything else possible in our society to protect our children from themselves.

Speaker 32 For some reason, we view that differently within the criminal justice system, and that just doesn't make sense to me.

Speaker 8 Both girls plead not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

Speaker 18 The girls will be tried separately.

Speaker 4 Anissa's case is first and just days before her trial, she strikes a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to a lesser charge of attempted second-degree intentional homicide.

Speaker 33 Anissa took the plea deal. It was her decision to plead guilty to save Peyton from reliving that day.

Speaker 4 But as part of that deal, Anissa will now stand trial so a jury can determine if she should be sent to prison or to a state mental institution instead.

Speaker 26 The evidence will show.

Speaker 46 Now 15 years old, walking into court,

Speaker 5 Anissa's attorney, Joe Smith, acknowledges that she attacked her friend, but argues she is not criminally responsible because she was under the spell of a delusion.

Speaker 4 The prosecution paints a starkly different picture of a calculating 12-year-old.

Speaker 26 She knew what she was doing was wrong.

Speaker 5 The defense calls family members, friends, teachers to the stand to testify that they never knew Anissa was struggling with mental illness.

Speaker 6 I do.

Speaker 30 Starting with her father, Bill.

Speaker 53 Was there any time where she expressed that she had seen things?

Speaker 22 There was an episode when Anissa was about 10.

Speaker 22 She had gone to bed for the night. She saw something in her closet looking at her.
So, you know, 10-year-old monster in the closet.

Speaker 22 We turned the lights on. We opened the closet.
Nothing's in there. I didn't give it any more credit than that.

Speaker 4 But it would turn out the centerpiece of Anissa's defense would be testimony from three mental health experts.

Speaker 39 Had you ever seen a case like this before?

Speaker 22 No.

Speaker 54 It's almost unfathomable that this could happen.

Speaker 8 Dr. Melissa Westendorf was one of the court-appointed forensic psychologists who evaluated Anissa.

Speaker 54 What they had in common was the delusion about Slender Man.

Speaker 34 Neither family knew that their daughters were mentally ill.

Speaker 5 Is that difficult for you to believe?

Speaker 42 No.

Speaker 4 That it would go unnoticed?

Speaker 54 It can go unnoticed. You know, especially with delusions, delusions can remain compartmentalized for people.

Speaker 4 And it was Morgan's mother, Angie, who told us she believes her daughter actively hid her delusions from those around her.

Speaker 32 I think that as she got older and she realized that, hey, maybe this isn't normal, that she did make a conscious effort to hide it.

Speaker 32 A lot of her hallucinations were friends to her,

Speaker 32 and I don't think that she wanted to lose those friends.

Speaker 5 And Dr. Westendorf says there also may have been something uniquely compelling to these already vulnerable minds of Morgan and Anissa about the way Slender Man is presented online.

Speaker 54 Once you find this character on the internet, you can read all these stories that look real.

Speaker 5 And the doctor says with Anissa, there was something different at play.

Speaker 4 Remember, it was Morgan who was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Speaker 11 Dr.

Speaker 4 Wessendorf then diagnosed Anissa with what's called a shared psychotic disorder, saying that Morgan's schizophrenia, when paired with both of their delusions about Slender Man, would create a perfect storm, luring Anissa into.

Speaker 34 A lot of parents will say that my 12-year-old knows the difference between right and wrong.

Speaker 11 They would know that it's wrong to stab your friend 19 times in the woods.

Speaker 34 How did they not know this?

Speaker 54 They appreciated that what they were doing was wrong.

Speaker 6 So if they knew it was wrong, why do it?

Speaker 54 Because their belief in Slender Man was so powerful and was so strong. They believed that if they did not fulfill their plan, Slender Man was going to come back and kill their families.

Speaker 8 Dr.

Speaker 5 Westendorf testified that because Anissa's mental disorder led to her actions that day in the woods, that she should not be held criminally responsible.

Speaker 46 Prosecutors disagreed.

Speaker 59 All the psychiatrists were saying the same thing, which is they had this shared delusion and that compulsion was, if we don't kill Peyton, then Slender Man's going to either kill us or our families.

Speaker 59 And what we argued repeatedly was Anissa, by her own words, said she didn't even know that Slenderman was a threat till after the act was over.

Speaker 21 The silly thing about this was I didn't know I wasn't saved or until after.

Speaker 4 The case goes to the jury.

Speaker 5 The seven men and five women deliberate for 11 hours.

Speaker 2 As they file in, we see Anissa visibly shaking.

Speaker 26 Anissa Weire was found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. With that, I will order that she be committed to the Department of Health Services.

Speaker 33 Their decision was

Speaker 33 humane.

Speaker 4 But her daughter's sentencing was yet to come.

Speaker 4 And given the jury's decision in Anise's trial, prosecutors now allow Morgan to plead guilty too.

Speaker 2 Her family awaits sentencing as well.

Speaker 32 She's sick and she belongs in a mental health facility as opposed to a prison.

Speaker 8 At her plea hearing, Morgan is required to tell the judge what she did.

Speaker 52 What did you do on May 31, 2014?

Speaker 38 I hurt Bella.

Speaker 26 All right, so what did you do?

Speaker 38 I came up from behind her.

Speaker 38 I jumped on her.

Speaker 41 And then what happened?

Speaker 38 And then I stopped her.

Speaker 4 When we come back, a judge's decision.

Speaker 2 How long will Morgan and Anissa be sent away for?

Speaker 43 Or will they be allowed to go home?

Speaker 11 And that remarkable little girl who crawled out of the woods determined to live, How is she doing now?

Speaker 23 More than three years after we first met her.

Speaker 11 It was just 24 hours ago, the final sentence in a case that began with a sleepover more than three years ago.

Speaker 14 Morgan Geiser is about to learn her fate.

Speaker 5 It was just weeks ago that Anissa's sentencing came first.

Speaker 7 The case is here today.

Speaker 8 The judge ordering her to a state mental facility for up to 25 years.

Speaker 5 Anissa will now be under state supervision until she is 37 years old.

Speaker 33 My fear is she will not really know how to

Speaker 33 interact with normal people at Walmart, at the gas station, at pick and save, after spending 25 years in a mental institution.

Speaker 3 And before Morgan's mother would learn her own daughter's fate, she shares with me a letter that her daughter has now written to Peyton.

Speaker 32 Dear Bella,

Speaker 32 I wish I had words that could make everything better, but I don't, so all I can say is how sorry I am. I can promise you, not a day will go by that I don't regret what I did.

Speaker 32 Stay strong, Morgan.

Speaker 5 Just yesterday, a judge deciding that Morgan will also be sent to a state mental health facility for up to 40 years.

Speaker 5 It was more than three years ago we first met Peyton, shy in front of the cameras.

Speaker 22 We did see a glimpse of her smile returning as she shared with us her love of kittens and of family.

Speaker 7 She's doing well in school.

Speaker 59 She has friends. She's social.

Speaker 4 And overnight, Peyton's mother sending us a message for any family dealing with the kind of pain and horror they have faced.

Speaker 46 If you trust in your strength and believe in your resiliency, you will get through this.

Speaker 13 And tonight, the new images of Peyton.

Speaker 8 And in just over a week, she will celebrate a milestone, her 16th birthday.

Speaker 4 A milestone Morgan Geiser will soon reach as well.

Speaker 34 It's not where you pictured her turning 16.

Speaker 32 No, you know, I see on social media my friends and family who have children Morgan's age, and they'll post pictures of them driving a car,

Speaker 32 you know, going to homecoming.

Speaker 32 You know, it's

Speaker 32 that's difficult.

Speaker 4 And now, after learning Morgan's fate, her mother says life for all three families has changed forever.

Speaker 32 We're leaving Waukesha.

Speaker 29 What?

Speaker 32 For a new start. I frequently drive by these places that hold horrible memories, and I just want to get us all away from that.

Speaker 5 Away from those woods that have since been cleared to make way for a new residential development. The scene of that horror now erased.

Speaker 6 But for those three families tonight, they will never be able to erase the pain.

Speaker 1 You've been listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault, and you can find all new broadcast episodes of 2020 Friday Nights at 9 on ABC.

Speaker 58 It's one of Britain's most notorious crimes, the killing of a wealthy family at Whitehouse Farm. But I got a tip that the story of this famous case might be all wrong.

Speaker 24 I know there's going to be a twist, won't they? A massive twist. At every level of the criminal justice system, there's been a cover-up in this case.

Speaker 16 I'm Heidi Blake.

Speaker 58 Blood Relatives is a new series from In the Dark and The New Yorker. Find it now in the In the Dark podcast feed.