Going West: True Crime - The Slender Man Stabbing // 349

Episode Date: October 17, 2023

In May of 2014, two young girls lured their friend out to the woods during a game of hide-and-seek, and stabbed her 19 times, after claiming a fictional creature from the internet ordered them to do so. But once a cyclist came across the victim, clinging to life, the other girls’ plan veered off course. This is the story of Payton Leutner, also known, as the Slender Man stabbing. BONUS EPISODES Apple Subscriptions: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/going-west-true-crime/id1448151398 Patreon: patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES 1. Creepypasta: https://www.creepypasta.com/slenderman/ 2. ABC: https://abcnews.go.com/US/mothers-teens-pleaded-guilty-slender-man-stabbing-case/story?id=52739807 3. Oprah: https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/tv-movies/a29591703/slender-man-stabbing-true-story/ 4. Good Morning America: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFiJvVGzdpo 5. SourceFedNerd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKG81xQjPzc 6. The Game of Nerds: https://thegameofnerds.com/2017/11/24/the-slender-man-movie-from-photoshop-contest-entry-to-horror-film/ 7. Beware the Slenderman: https://www.hulu.com/watch/2faf31a7-bee6-4357-aa18-8026fca1e2bb 8. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: https://www.jsonline.com/story/communities/waukesha/news/waukesha/2021/04/15/slender-man-stabbing-anissa-weier-should-released-attorneys-say/7236515002/ 9. Oxygen: https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/anissa-weier-to-be-released-from-mental-health-facility 10. The Cinemaholic: https://thecinemaholic.com/where-is-the-survivor-payton-leutner-now/ 11. KLTV: https://www.kltv.com/2021/09/14/slender-man-stabbing-victims-family-nervous-about-release/ 12. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: https://www.jsonline.com/story/archives/2020/09/02/slender-man-stabbing-timeline-geyser-weier-cases-wisconsin/3803170002/ 13. NBC: https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/slender-man-stabbing/slender-man-creator-speaks-stabbing-i-am-deeply-saddened-n122781 14. New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/movies/slender-man-timeline.html 15. All That's Interesting: https://allthatsinteresting.com/payton-leutner#:~:text=Born%20in%202002%2C%20Payton%20Leutner,was%20often%20sitting%20by%20herself. 16. Criminal Minds: https://criminalminds.fandom.com/wiki/Anissa_Weier_and_Morgan_Geyser#:~:text=Geyser%20was%20born%20on%20May,grew%20up%20in%20Waukesha%2C%20Wisconsin. 17. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: https://archive.jsonline.com/news/crime/critical-hearing-in-slender-man-case-to-begin-today-b99520903z1-307851871.html 18. TMJ4: https://www.tmj4.com/news/local-news/waukesha-slender-man-stabbing-case-morgan-geyser-withdraws-petition-to-be-released 19. New York Magazine: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2015/08/slender-man-stabbing.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Tee. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody. We have gotten some recommendations on our other podcast, The Dark Parts, which sorry is still on hiatus, for this underman himself, but weirdly, no recommendations came in on email about the true crime story that's associated with his lore, but this one actually has a good

twist at the end that going west has not yet seen, so I am, wow, wow, I mean, this story is just like, there's no words. I'm always interested in, you know, something kind of spooky, especially, again, now that we're in October. So this one definitely has all the elements between the dark parts and going west, but a little bit more true crime. Well, especially because we're going to dive into him and his lore first to give back stories. So yeah, this is a creepy one for sure. Well, let's talk about this creepy story today. Alright guys, this is episode 349 of Going West, so let's get into it. In May of 2014, two girls lured their friend out into the woods during a game of hide-and-seek before stabbing her 19 times, claiming a fictional character from the internet, ordered them

to do so. But once a cyclist came across the victim, the other girls' plan veered off course. This is the story of Peyton Lightner, also known as the case of the Slender man urban legend can be traced back to 2009 when a simple doctored photo was posted online. This seemingly innocuous act spawned an entire world of online lore that eventually expanded from jump scares on YouTube into real life horrors. The legend of Slender Man first surfaced on June 10, 2009 on the comedic website Something Awful, which hosts forums, debates, and discussions, so it's similar to Reddit.

Something awful user Eric Nudson, who posted under the screen name Victor Surge, stumbled upon this photo contest that challenged users to turn like a seemingly regular photo into a photo with supernatural or paranormal elements. So he posted two photos. One of them featured what looked like pre-teens and teenagers all walking in the same direction with kind of like puzzled or angry looks on their faces, and then looming in the background was an eerie, lanky creature. The caption read, quote, we didn't want to go.

We didn't want to kill them. But its persistent silence and outstretched arms horrified us and comforted us at the same time. 1983 photographer Unknown Presumed Dead. And he let's take a second. I'm going to show you this picture. You can kind of tell us what you think. So it's a real picture.

It's a black-and-white photo. It definitely looks like it's from the 80s. And then there's that in the back. It just looks like a bowling pin flying. It does, it looks like a flying fucking bowling pin. But yeah, I mean, not super creepy when you first take a look at it, but I don't know. You can see there's something there.

Yeah. And especially with this caption, you're kind of like, what is that? What is it supposed to be? So then like I said, there are two photos. The next one features younger school aged kids playing on a playground with the same thin, creepy man in the background, but this one is a little more visible. So the caption read, one of the two recovered photographs from the Sterling City Library Blaze,

notable for being taken the day which 14 children vanished and for what it's now referred to as the Slender Man. Deformities cited as film defects by officials, fire at library occurred one week later. Actual photograph confiscated as evidence. 1986 photographer Mary Thomas missing since June 13th 1986. Okay he's now check out this one this one. I'll say is creepier. Do you see him back there?

Yeah yeah I do see him. So there's like this little girl climbing up the slide and she's looking at the camera and she's like looks happy and then back in the distance under a tree next to some other kids there's this really tall shadowed man. Yeah just kind of looks like a like a tall dude though. Well you see back here so we're gonna talk about the tendrils that come out of his back. You see these like things, these lines, tendrils, these tendrils. Yeah, it kind of looks like, it kind of looks like maybe like octopus arms or something. Exactly, so I'll get into that,

but I know that didn't help anybody who's not looking at the photo right now. I mean, we are gonna post the photos on our socials. Yeah, so definitely go check them out if you wanna see. So later, Eric claimed that his influences for this made up story were works of science fiction by author hp lovecraft steven kings the mist and the movie silent hill among others i love the

silent hill video games so so scary and this is this really is a creepy lore i think the pictures are interesting they're black and white it makes it seem like all these kids went missing there's this creepy tall lanky man standing in the background behind the kids. Like it's scary for sure. Yeah, it absolutely is. But let's talk for a second about what Slenderman kind of looks like and what he's all about. So Slenderman is characterized by his thin, lanky frame, long, outstretched fingers and stark white skin.

He's always outfitted in a suit and tie, and sometimes has tentacles coming out of his back. Okay, I said tendrils tonight. Well, that's kind of the same thing. I guess you're right. Yeah, yeah. Okay, next, though. So the most disturbing detail, however, is that he is faceless. So no face.

And the fact that he lures children to the forest with him, presumably to kill or eat them is also, you know, one of the scarier parts of this story. So the internet really fed on these first inklings of Slenderman fiercely, and soon he had stories, history, and even sightings. Within days of Slenderman's creation, a film major at the University of Alabama, a guy named Troy Wagner and his friend Joseph DeLage, had created their own web series based on this legend. They published their shorts on YouTube and created the narrative that, through abandoned footage

from their various student film projects, they discovered that they were being followed, or even hunted by Slenderman himself. And they titled this film Marble Hornets, and it became somewhat of an online sensation in the horror and fantasy communities. And Slenderman was an instant hit because he was easily replicable and malleable to suit anyone's horror story telling needs. So mythology about him and his origins quickly spread to Tumblr, DeviantArt, YouTube, Forchan, and Creepypasta, which is a website where users can share original horror content and stories.

And for those who aren't familiar, many horror films from the last decade or so have originated from stories that were found on Creepypasta. And Daphne and I love a good Creepypasta story. For real, there are some really good, like a lot of very original scary stories come from Creepypasta. Yeah, and we actually talked about a lot of them on the dark parts. We did. Yeah, so if you're interested, go check them out.

Slenderman also spawned multiple video games, including the popular Slender, the eight pages, where users need to collect scribbled documents written by Slenderman himself before he apprehends you. YouTube videos of kids and teenagers playing the game and screaming at his jump scares became popular in the Slenderman universe. And there were also dozens of real life sightings that were posted to YouTube, which many kids seemed to genuinely enjoy fanning the flames

of this legend, and some even seemed to believe it. So five years after the creation of Slender Man in May of 2014, where this story takes place, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, three friends were preparing for a birthday somber party. Sixth grader Morgan Geyser had just turned 12, and she and two friends were headed to a skating rink and then back to her house for a sleepover. By Morgan's own admission, it had not been an easy year from her. Her mom Angie Geyser recalls Morgan being bullied and feeling alienated by most of her peers. One former friend claimed that Morgan hit a turning point in fourth grade where she began having outbursts and once even threatened violence with a sledgehammer in hand.

Morgan's mom Angie describes her daughter as imaginative and creative and and said that she had been, for the most part, a happy child. She was quirky, marched to the beat of her own drum, and never seemed to care what anyone thought about her. But Angie also recalled indications that there was something different about her daughter when compared to other girls her age. So Angie remembered, quote, one thing about Morgan that always struck me as a little odd was that she didn't react the same way you would expect her to react. Like in the movies, like if something bad happened to the main character, she wouldn't have

empathy for them. I remember watching Bambi with her for the first time and we were so worried to watch it with her because we thought she was going to be so upset, you know, when the mother dies. But the mother died and Morgan just said, run, bam, be save yourself. And she wasn't sad about it. And I could think of a lot of other examples along those lines where she hasn't reacted in the way that you would expect a little girl to react. So the bullying seemed to be getting worse as Morgan got older, and in sixth grade, it

was at its most frequent. And Angie specifically recalls noticing a mood shift in her daughter that very year. But Morgan had taken solace in another girl who felt like an outcast. Her new friend, Anisa Wire. Both of the girls' mothers remembered their daughters feeling excluded and alienated from their classmates, so they were thrilled that the girls had become friends and started to spend a lot of time together. Christy Wire, who is Anisa's mom, said Anisa was a quiet child. She loved to sing and

enjoyed participating in choir, but outside of that mostly just kind of kept to herself. She had a very rich imagination and let those fantasies play out and role-playing with her Barbies, like obviously many kids do. On Friday, May 30, 2014, so about two weeks after Morgan's birthday, Morgan and Anisa were headed to Skateland, which is an indoor skating rink in their hometown of Waukesha, Wisconsin, which is one of the largest suburbs of Milwaukee. And a third friend of Morgan's was also joining them, Peyton Lightner, who had been best friends with Morgan since the 4th grade. Peyton was known to be a very kind soul, describing herself as hopeful, positive, and

an animal lover. According to their parents, Morgan and Peyton met in kindergarten, but became inseparable from the fourth grade on. Peyton remembers that Morgan seemed lonely, so she stepped in to befriend her after realizing that she needed friends too. Like that's Peyton. The girls were compatible and loved spending time together, although Peyton did admit that Morgan was kind of controlling.

Anisa was a newer friend of the girls, and her entry into Morgan's inner circle with Peyton was not completely welcome. Because basically, Peyton described Anisa as jealous and even cruel. But she tolerated Morgan's new friend in order to spend time with Morgan, especially in celebration of her birthday.

So that Friday evening, after they went skating and they had pizza, the three 12-year-old girls played dolls and hung out in Morgan's room before retreating to the basement to play on their iPads. Angie remembers them giggling and enjoying themselves, claiming that nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. Morgan had retreated to bed earlier than she usually did on sleepovers, but other than that, the night went according to plan. The next morning, Morgan's mom served them doughnuts and strawberries for breakfast, and when the girls finished, they asked if they could go to the park to play. Now Angie usually didn't allow them to go alone, but permitted it this time because it was Morgan's 12th birthday celebration. So the girls headed to David's Park on Garfield Avenue to play on the

playground that day, and the next time their parents would see them. One would be hospitalized, and the other two would be detained by police. Later that spring morning, shortly before 10am, a local guy named Greg Steinberg was out for a solo bike ride when he rode past 12-year-old Peyton, bleeding and collapsed on the ground, begging for help. So he immediately hopped off his bike and sat with her as he dialed 911. On the recording, he could be heard saying, quote, honey, he's coming, they'll be here any minute.

Peyton had pulled herself out of the forest to where she was found, describing later, quote, I got up, grabbed a couple trees for support, I think, and then I just walked until I hit a patch of grass where I could lay down. An officer was first to arrive on the scene, comforting her as they waited for EMTs to arrive, and when he asked Peyton who had done this to her, she said, my best friend. She was loaded into the ambulance and rushed to the hospital very quickly, which is remarkable because covered in blood. Peyton had sustained no less than 19 stab wounds, from a 5-inch blade to her chest, arms, abdomen, and legs.

Before she was rushed into surgery, she explained to investigators that her two friends, Morgan and Anisa, had lured her into the woods under the guise of playing hide-and-seek, and then left her there to die after attacking her. They apparently told Peyton that they were gonna get medical attention for her, but instead, they took off and were nowhere to be found. That's so weird to me that they attack her and then they say, oh, like, we're gonna get you help.

It's like, like, why did you attack me in the first place? I don't understand why you're gonna go get help now. Because they weren't getting help. That was just something they were saying. I know, but why even, I guess why even say it if you know that you're not gonna do that. I guess in case she survived, which she did. And then so they're like,

oh, we're gonna get you help in case she did live. And so then maybe trying to manipulate the situation to make Peyton believe that they wanted to help her and not hurt her after, I mean, I mean, there's no thought here. Yeah, it's pretty dumb. So police fanned out, knowing that they had their work cut out for them. With Payton and Rue to getting much needed medical attention, officers stopped by the lightener household to notify her parents that she had sustained very serious injuries.

Again, she was stabbed no less than 19 times. Peyton's mom Stacy raced to see her before she was taken away for her operation, describing Peyton as terrified. And the doctor who operated on her later said that one of the blows of the knife to her chest had been so close to her heart that if it had been the width of just a strand of hair closer, she would have died. That's so hard to even understand, like a strand of hair is so thin that it's hard to imagine that where it hit her still wasn't enough to kill her, like a strand of hair is nothing. Thinking about that just makes me kind of shiver inside.

It's insanely scary. Yeah. So as doctors work to save Peyton, police headed to Morgan's house. Now Morgan and Anisa had not yet arrived home. So as far as Angie Geyser knew, the girls were still at the park having fun. Confusion obviously ensued, as no one was able to assess the situation outside of the brief account that Peyton had given at the hospital. But due to her emergency operation, she was now unconscious and Morgan and Anisa were still

missing and no one knew exactly what happened. Police also headed to Anisa's mom's house, but no one was home there either. They were able to get in touch with Anisa's dad Bill, who called his ex-wife Christy, telling her to head home to greet the police. Neither of the girls parents had heard from them, and they were beginning to panic, not yet knowing what Peyton had said about what happened that morning. So unaware that their daughters were responsible for such a horrific attack. All they knew at this point was that two girls were missing and that one was severely hurt.

So please and their families frantically searched for Anisa and Morgan, and as the hours wore on, Anisa's mom recovered her cell phone, and on it found what read like a suicide note, and it said quote, This is my final wish to those who care. Do not grieve my absence, but remember me for who I was. I love and cherish you and would not do you harm." Well, finally at 2.53 pm that afternoon, Morgan and Anisa were located walking along Interstate 94 away from town. By that point, they had been walking for about five hours, so when they were found they were immediately transported to a police station

and separated for questioning, but surprisingly, they both remained very calm and quiet. Anisa appeared scared and kind of withdrawn, and her clothes were splattered with blood. But disturbingly, as Morgan waited in her room to be questioned, she was captured singing and dancing and seemed to be in good spirits, despite the fact that she was also found to have blood on her clothing, which indicates that she had been a part of it. But here she is in such a great mood. So when she was questioned, she asked what had happened to Bella,

which I guess was a nickname for Peyton, and she wondered if Bella was dead. Detective Tom Casey, who was questioning her, responded that Peyton had been taken to the hospital, and Morgan said, flatly, quote, I was just wondering. As Tom tried to extract what happened from Morgan, she said, quote, I was just wondering. As Tom tried to extract what happened from Morgan, she said quote, this is going to get me arrested, isn't it?

Tom later said that he was shocked at her callousness and her candor, just remembering that she exhibited no remorse or even emotion. Tom asked Morgan quote, what were you trying to do to her when you stabbed her? To which Morgan replied, kill her. I might as well just say it. We were trying to kill her. At public mobile, we do things differently. From our subscription phone plans to throwing a big sale right now when no one else is. Well, maybe they are, but who cares, our sale is better.

And it's on right now, no waiting necessary. You have the latest phone, now take advantage of a great price on a 5G subscription phone plan. It's the perfect deal for anyone who could use some savings right now. Subscribe today at publicmobile.ca. Different is calling. So before that quick break, we learned that Morgan admitted to attempting to kill one of her best friends, Peyton Lightner. So when Detective Tom Casey asked her why she chose to kill Peyton, Morgan responded, quote, I didn't pick her.

When asked who did, she just said, whoever Anisa was talking about. So she seemed either too scared or maybe too embarrassed to admit that she was talking about Slender Man. But Morgan continued frankly quote, she made it seem necessary. Meanwhile Detective Michelle Trasunni was working on getting Anisa to open up. Anisa definitely came across as more contrite, you know, she was crying, her voice was shaking, and she at least seemed upset. But then again, she also had paused her testimony to ask how far she had walked, saying that

she wasn't usually athletic, and that she was curious and even excited to see how far she made it before being apprehended by the police. But let's dive into this lore a little bit more, so it's unclear when Slenderband switched from being a creepy internet fable to someone that, you know, the girl's viewed as a real life threat, but at some point in the months leading up to the attack, fantasy had given way to reality. Anisa became fixated on him first, consuming creepypasta stories and enjoying the genuine

fear that she got from them. After coming upon Slenderman fanfiction in its own forum on creepypasta, Anisa became obsessed, convincing herself that he was actually real. When she told Morgan about him, Morgan seemed to welcome and affirm the narrative, even telling Anisa that she had seen him before, lurking around her when she was just five years old, which would have been about two years before the Slenderman lore actually hit the internet,

so this doesn't really make a lot of sense. Yeah, I mean, when I was in high school, that's when the Slenderman story broke. So I remember this story. I also went on Reddit a lot in high school. I would go on like our slash no sleep. I read a ton of those very creepy kind of made up stories. But then creepy as pastas. But it's like you go to wait or you go one of two ways. You're either think it's creepy and fascinating and like spooking yourself and that's it. And then there's like this,

where they're taking it all very seriously. They believe that he's real. They believe that they're seeing him. They believe that they need to listen to him, that he can get them. Right, right. This is not just some creepy internet story. This is a real person to them.

And to be fair, I feel like there are a lot of people who actually do believe certain creepy pastes are real. I'm not really one of those people, but also, aside from that, they're not going out and saying that the slender man told them to stab somebody like 20 times like these girls are saying. Right. Well, this actually really brought them together because like you said, Anisa was the one to find this story

and the Morgan's like, oh yeah, I know who that is. I saw him when I was five, you know, like she's, she's, and again, I don't know how much of this is truly in their heads or if they're trying to impress each other. Like I don't really know. Yeah, they're kind of just like hyping each other up on this story. Yeah, like I believe him, you believe him,

and then that went way too far. But basically because they were both interested in this story and they both believed it, this really is what made them become best friends or start to become best friends because remember Anisa was kind of newer to the group. But ever since they met, they really almost bonded over Slenderman.

But then remember, like we said earlier as well, Peyton didn't really like Anisa because she thought that she was a mean girl. Yeah, yeah, kind of controlling and jealous. Exactly, so basically Anisa and Morgan believe Slenderman was after them and that it was their duty to serve and appease him in order to save their families. So sounding very fearful and shaken in her interview, Anisa told Detective Trasuni, quote,

he can be anywhere from 6 feet to 14 feet tall. He constantly wears a suit, he doesn't have a face, his skin is white, and at his own will, he can explode these tendrils from his back and strangle his victims. She also claimed that he could read minds and teleport. Anisa continued quote, "'We had to prove ourselves worthy to slender. I was really scared knowing that slender man could easily kill my family in two seconds. So Anisa claimed that they had seen him following them while they rode the bus, and Morgan

said that he stalked her in her dreams. And Anisa explained to Michal exactly how they were radicalized into believing that they needed to offer a human sacrifice. So she said, quote, he has these proxies or servants as people would call them. And Morgan said, hey, Anisa, we should be proxies. And I said, okay, how do we do that? And she said, we have to kill Bella. Because we had to supposedly prove ourselves worthy to slender. If you're a proxie, supposedly you live in the slender mansion that all the creepypastas supposedly live in. And it's supposedly in the middle of Nicolay National

Forest. I wanted to prove all the skeptics wrong. So Nicolay National Forest is this vast woodland spanning over a million acres in Northern Wisconsin, almost 300 miles or close to 500 kilometers from Waukesha. But somewhere in the recesses of the internet, they came across what they thought was evidence that he actually lived there. So the girls were planning on walking there to find Slender Man and his mansion, living out the rest of their lives with him in order to spare their families.

So obviously stunned, Detective Michelle said quote, So do you think you actually had to kill someone to do it? And Anisa responded simply, yeah. When Detective Tom Casey asked Morgan why she had done what she did, she said that she was afraid of what would happen if she didn't. Morgan blamed Anisa, explaining quote, Anisa told me we had to when asked why,' she said quote, "'because she said that he'd kill our families.' Tom asked Morgan almost the same sequence of questions that Michelle was asking

Anesa in another room, questioning who Morgan was referring to, and she responded quote, "'A man, I didn't know him, but Anesa knew him.' And then she continued saying, quote, "...he's a tall, faceless man who prays on families." Anisa, however, blamed Morgan for hatching the diabolical plan to kill their friend, meaning that these two girls were like in separate rooms, just pointing the finger at each other.

Yeah, but then they think that, to think that Anisa described being shocked but also excited at the prospect of killing their friend, like both of them are acting very off here. Yeah, absolutely. And both of them are very much responsible. Without a doubt. So her parents remember her showing them pictures of Slenderman, but they really didn't know how deeply her consumption of Slenderman went. But they did try to implement some rules to kind of keep her away from that, so they

remember imposing screen time and just keeping a close eye on her media consumption and were in disbelief that her obsession could have gotten so out of hand. Not helping matters was her struggle to make connections at school, and the fact that she suffered frequent bullying and would often break down into tears. She found solace in escape in her online worlds, even those that scared her. And her YouTube history search revealed that she had searched, watched, and liked videos such as, are you a psychopath, are you a sociopath, and sanity test?

She even commented on many of them, joking that she fit all of the qualifications laid out in the videos, and liked to make light of her fear that she was different than or alienated from her peers. Although Morgan had a best friend in Peyton, she seemed to echo the same fears, telling Tom, quote, I didn't really understand what we were doing, but I really didn't want to make a niece a mad. It's hard enough to make friends, I don't want to lose someone over something like this. Tom, however, continued to note that Morgan sounded bored, remorseless, and even detached in our interview. Also something like this, you mean attempted murder?

Yeah. Like, yeah. OK, so it probably would help you guys and maybe you're interested in kind of hearing a little bit from both of them, just so you can hear their cadence and how their answers come across in their own voice. So we're going to go ahead and play a clip from each

of their interrogations, first Anisa. I was going to write her out here, so I decided to go on and take a long time to write what it needs to be. So I'm going to skip this one. Okay. So Morgan and I were also meeting, and who does the deed? And that first of all, me, but like I said, I'm used to the squeegee and said no, you do it. So I'm going to say it whenever you want. So I finally just had nothing said it now, because I would certainly be a little freaked out.

And then I'm going to jump on top of Bella and start stabbing her and teething. And that's when I turn around so I couldn't stand to see that. Okay. And then, um, the whole time people was screaming, and I think stuff like, I hate you guys. I'll never forgive you you and I trusted you. Still hot in here.

And now Morgan. Yeah. Why do you think you're a superman? We were all, we would all be together. It was a flawless plan actually. We let her there and trick her. The last thing she said to me was, I trusted you. And then she said, I thank you. And then we lied to her. I mean, she said that she'd go get help. I didn't tell anything to do with the lying. I don't know what my niece said.

People who trust you become very gullible. And it was worth it's fact. I don't like a fence of what I said, but it was sad to do this. So you heard my idol speak? Because normally, we like playing hide and seek. Because hide. Because hide-and-seek is a fun game. I like hide-and-seek. So you're in that decent chunk term? Mm-hmm.

And she said Morgan. Now, luckily she said Kate. Because her code names for each other were Scorpion and Kate. She was a Scorpion because she tends to be aggressive, things like that. So she said, Katie, now what are they, of you? My name is Katie's because, well, she sort of, I have four cats at home. She says that I act like a cat sometimes. So, she said, Kitty, now what did you do?

Some we satir. Who had, who stand her first? I think, um, I need to step her first and then I continued and then she was like, more than three dozen of games and then I was like more than she does in this game and I was like um so you think that it was a niece of hers? mm-hmm you sure? yeah

not really sure it's confusing, the others are trying to block out the screen all day. Alrighty, so Anisa and Morgan both agreed that attacking Peyton in the park had not been their original plan. In fact, the girls had been scheming about their options for months. They initially plotted to descend on Peyton after she fell asleep, like they were planning to duct tape her mouth shut, stab her in the neck, and then wrap her body up in blankets to give the appearance that she was sleeping before fleeing in the middle of the night.

But when they couldn't bring themselves to do it, saying they were too tired after skate land, they hatched a backup plan. The next morning, they were playing dress up, and Morgan apparently told Anisa, quote, we're going to do it today at the park. Morgan took the knife from her family's kitchen, which is like a pairing knife, telling Tom that Anisa had been carrying it. But Anisa said the opposite, claiming that Morgan was keeping the knife in a waistband, and that she'd even flashed it to Anisa when they were on their way to the park. After a few minutes of playing on the playground, the girls retreated to the public park bathroom

and well inside, the morning took a strange turn. So Payton obviously was oblivious to the very nefarious plans that Morgan and Anisa had in store for her, but she was asked to sit on the toilet and she obliged. Anisa then asked her to go to sleep or at least close her eyes, but when she wouldn't, Anisa pushed her forehead back into the concrete wall, hoping to knock her out before they started stabbing her. And she had actually said in the interrogation that she read online that it was easier to kill someone when they were already unconscious. So that's kind of what she was trying to do, like knock her out and then just kill her

on the toilet and flee. However, when that didn't work, Morgan started kind of getting cold feet. She allegedly said to Anisa, quote, I can't do this, I'm too scared you have to. So Anisa calmed Morgan down and do this, I'm too scared you have to. So Anisa calmed Morgan down and they all emerged from the bathroom together. But Peyton was obviously still unaware that any of this planning was happening and she may have just thought that they were like roleplaying or playing a game when they pushed her or when Anisa pushed her into the wall. But she still like pushed her

head into a wall to try and knock her out. Yeah, and she probably did it hard enough to try to knock her out. But, and she probably did it hard enough to try to knock her out. But obviously, Peyton is like, oh, these are my friends. They're probably just messing around or it was an accident or, you know, they're so young. That's true, yeah. So seemingly recommitted to the plan, Morgan asked if they could play Heiden's Seek. Rattled by what had just happened, Peyton said that she didn't want to, but Morgan told her that the next game could be her choice, so Peyton agreed. Peyton later claimed

that she had no idea that anything was abnormal about the girl's behavior during the sleepover until they were at the park. When asked to initiate the stabbing, Morgan said half-heartedly, I think Anisa told me to. It's sort of foggy because I've been trying to block it out. Peyton agreed to a game of hide and seek, and the three set off into the wooded area surrounding David's park. Morgan added, quote, people who trust you become very gullible, and it was sort of sad. very gullible, and it was sort of sad. Morgan then counted in Peyton and Anisa hid. Anisa, who had been holding the knife, passed it to Morgan, and Morgan said that she would start when Anisa told her to do so. Then Anisa walked a few paces from Peyton and said, quote, now, go ballistic, go crazy, make sure she's down. Morgan got on top of Peyton's legs, pinning go ballistic, go crazy, make sure she's down.

Morgan got on top of Peyton's legs, pinning her down, and allegedly saying quote, don't be afraid, I'm only a little kitty cat. What the fuck? And then she whispered in Peyton's ear, I'm so sorry, and then started stabbing her. At this point in the interview, Tom implored her quote, what did you do next to which Morgan responded confidently, I already told you. Tom then asked, quote, what was that? And Morgan said, quote,

stab, stab, stab while making stabbing motions with her hand. She described that quote, it didn't feel like anything. It was like air. As Peyton had explained to investigators, she was told by her friends that they would be back with help, but she knew that they wouldn't be. So she waited until they were gone and then dragged herself to the grassy area where she happened upon Greg Steinberg. So after Morgan and Anisa had been walking for a while, Anisa described having what she called

quote, a total mental breakdown, and that she was crying and wanting to call her mom and go home. But Morgan threatened that she would spend the rest of her life in prison and even be put to death for what they had done. So obviously they did at least kind of understand the gravity of what they were doing. Oh yeah, they knew that it was a horrible thing. So the girls began to kind of turn on each other. Like, Anisa told Morgan that she was to blame for everything that had happened.

And at that point, Morgan started crying and begin begging slender to come help them. But obviously nobody but the police came like so. Wonder man is not real. Yeah, so- Thunder Man is not real. He did not come save the day. So this is like really, really deep. Like when we mentioned earlier that they really believed this, now she's asking for Slender Man to come save them and save the day and bring them to the mansion.

Exactly. So realizing the magnitude of having two 12-year-old girls who were these wannabe murderers, Waukeshaw police tried to figure out how to proceed. And you know, the police really were condemned for their handling of the interrogations because there were no attorneys present, there was no family present,

it was just the 12-year-old girls and the detectives. So back at Pro Health W Waka-Shama Memorial Hospital, Peyton was recovering from six hours of invasive surgery. She was intubated and couldn't speak, so obviously while investigators were trying to question her, all she could do was write her answers on a whiteboard. Now, she was released a week later to the relief of her family, but she had a long road of recovery ahead,

which would be as much mental and emotional as it was physical. And it's awful, but her parents claim that she slept with scissors under her pillow for a long time because she was so afraid that she was gonna be attacked again. Like this was, I mean, unimaginably traumatic. That's so tragic to think about a little girl having to feel like she needs to protect

herself in her own bed and her family's home. But what I meant earlier in the beginning of this where I said there's like a twist that we haven't covered on the show is that she survived because we have somehow, I don't think, ever covered a survivor case. Yeah, never. This is the first one. So luckily she did live. She made a full recovery, which is again insane because she was stabbed almost 20 times.

Yeah, just the brutality of that attack. It's hard to imagine that you could survive something like that, but she did. And she seems to be doing well. So Morgan and Anisa were detained in a juvenile detention center, a waiting trial. And their parents just reeled from the absolute shock and horror of this entire situation. And it how they went from having fun at a birthday slumber party to the girls being missing, to their girls being murderers in the course of less than one day. Regarding Peyton's family and the stabbing, Bill Wire said, quote,

for as much as they're struggling with trying to process this and what happened to their daughter, we're struggling equally trying to process this with what happened, not only to their daughter but to our daughter. As the girls awaited their trials, they were both assessed by doctors to determine whether an insanity plea was actually on the table here. Which as we've discussed before is very hard to prove that somebody was mentally insane when they committed a crime.

It is. And basically Morgan was diagnosed with schizophrenia, which didn't come as a surprise to her parents actually, because her dad, Matthew Geyser, had also been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and endured hospital stints for treatment as a teenager as well. Her parents remember Morgan having hallucinations as young as three, claiming that she saw in her ghosts, but that they weren't sure if it was her childhood imagination or an actual cause for concern.

So as she awaited sentencing, her doctors noted that she had an active fantasy life, as you can imagine, obviously, claiming to befriend multiple fictional characters, including Snape from Harry Potter and another friend that she named Maggie. And she was reportedly reluctant to take medicine for her condition due to fears that she would like lose these relationships. Morgan was also diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder or ODD, and ODD is basically characterized by aggression, irritability, argumentative behavior, and vindictiveness, and it's known to create problems for the child both in school and also at home.

Morgan did plead guilty here, but ultimately she was found not guilty by reason of mental disorder. In February of 2018, she was sentenced to 40 years at a mental health institute where she remains to this day and she's now 21 years old. Since entering the facility, she's been taking anti-psychotic medication and is said to be doing well. In May of this year, Morgan and her attorneys petitioned for an early release, but in August, they mutually agreed to withdraw this request. So in December of 2017, Anisa wire was sentenced to 25 years in a mental health institute,

so that's 15 years less than Morgan got. Now she also pleaded guilty, but her charges, which were, quote, being a party to attempted second degree intentional homicide, were less severe than Morgan's. Like Morgan, Anisa was found not guilty by reason of mental disorder, and in her mental health assessment, she was diagnosed

with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the attack, and had previously been suffering from depression and delusion disorder. As Anisa spent her teen years in the Mental Health Institute, many pushed for her conditional release, citing good behavior and steady improvement since the incident occurred. In her letter to the Wakusha County Circuit Judge, Anisa wrote quote, aside from being committed to being healthy, I'm also committed to using this negative situation and publicity for something good. I want to use my experience losing myself in a mental illness as a way to make others who are dealing with mental struggles see that they are not alone. This is not the end of who you are.

This does not define you, and give a reality check to people who are asking for help. And as wild as it may seem, on September 13, 2021, so just under four years after entering, Anisa was released from the institute. There were however many stipulations like she must remain at home in her dad's house for most of her time. She was ordered not to have any contact with either Payton's family or Morgan. Her location is monitored by GPS 24 hours a day. She's not allowed to possess weapons or use social media, and her internet usage is monitored. She's also required to receive psychiatric care and will be on probation until she is 37

years old, which is in about 16 years because she's 21 years old now. Eric Nudson, the creator of Slender Man, released a statement after the attack, saying, quote, I am deeply saddened by the tragedy in Wisconsin, and my heart goes out to the families of those affected by this terrible act. In the wake of the court proceedings, Peyton and her family claim that they were happy with the outcome of the sentencing, and Peyton has said that she just wants to put the ordeal behind her, which is fair. I mean, she deserves to just go off and live a happy, normal life where this story

doesn't follow her and haunt her anymore. She's now studying healthcare at a university, which is a fascination that she said came as a result of her attack. Also 21, she has two cats and lives a quiet life mostly out of the spotlight. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and on Friday we'll have an all-new case for you guys to dive into. This case was really a very tragic one, and I know that there was some very sensitive content in this episode, and we were trying to be very mindful while we were talking about this case, but at the end of the day, it is truly just a tragic and very interesting story.

Yeah, our hearts really go out to Peyton. I hope that she can find peace and happiness in her life, for sure. This was a very difficult case to cover, but thank you guys so much for tuning in. And I'm actually really happy that, you know, we were able to bring you a story where the victim in this case was able to survive, because like we said, we've never done that before, but it was really refreshing to get to that conclusion at the end of this case. Absolutely agree. Again, thank you guys so much.

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