He’s typically depicted as a slim, spidery figure in a black suit with a featureless white face. Slender Man was created online by Eric Knudson in 2009 as a mysterious spectre photo-edited into everyday images of children at play. The case drew widespread attention in part because of the girls’ fascination with the Slender Man character. The appeals court said it didn’t need to rule on whether the lower court made a mistake in allowing the comments to police.Įven if the lower court was wrong, “such error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt due to the additional, unchallenged and overwhelming evidence in this case,” the appeals court said. Geyser’s attorney argued on appeal that Geyser couldn’t really understand what rights she gave up when she agreed to speak alone with a detective while she was in custody and confessed to the stabbing. Weier was committed to a mental health facility for 25 years. Geyser was ordered to spend 40 years in a mental health institution because she was the mastermind and did the stabbing, prosecutors said. After the stabbing, Leutner said she eventually got up, grabbed trees for support, and made her way to a road where a bicyclist found her and called for help. Leutner recalled in a 2019 interview with ABC News how, before the stabbing, Weier told her to lay down on the ground and cover herself with sticks and leaves, as part of what Leutner believed to be a game of hide-and-seek. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times, as Weier encouraged her, leaving the girl for dead. Geyser and co-defendant Anissa Weier lured Payton Leutner from a sleepover to a nearby wooded park in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha. She was found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide in a deal with prosecutors to avoid prison. Waukesha County District Attorney Susan Opper, who prosecuted the case, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

The slender man stabbing