Two Wisconsin preteens were arrested Monday night after viciously stabbing a 12-year-old classmate 19 times.
The two suspects, who have now been identified as Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, have been charged with attempted first-degree murder after attacking their still unidentified friend, telling police that they did so because of their fascination with a demonic creature named Slender Man who they learned about online.
After inviting the victim to a sleepover at the home of one of the suspects on Friday night, Geyser and Weier lured their friend to a wooded area Saturday morning, telling her that they wanted to play hide-and-seek, before attacking her.
The girls allegedly left the victim in the woods to crawl to her own rescue. She crawled to a nearby road where a bicyclist found her lying on the sidewalk. According to the criminal complaint, the victim was “one millimeter away from certain death” as one of the stab wounds nearly ruptured a major artery.
Geyser and Weier told police that they had been planning to kill their friend for months in order to impress Slender Man, a mythical Internet character who preys on children. The girls say that they read about the character on Creepypasta Wiki, a website where users can publish short horror stories. According to the girls, in order to join the demon’s army, a user must kill someone. They planned on running away to the creature’s realm in the woods after the murder.
The two girls were charged as adults after being arrested Monday night and, if convicted, could serve up to 65 years in prison.
The victim is currently in stable condition while the suspects are being held in jail on a $500,000 cash bond.
