When a Myth Becomes a Command: Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier

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It's early morning in the woods,
the kind of morning where

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everything looks normal at a
glance.

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Mist hanging low between the
trees, damp leaves sticking to

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the ground.
The world still feels half

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asleep, but nothing about this
morning is normal.

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Somewhere off the path, a 12
year old girl is crawling.

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She's injured, barely conscious.
Every movement is an effort she

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shouldn't have to make.
Her body is telling her to stop,

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But something stronger than her
is pushing her forward just a

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little farther, just far enough
until someone sees her.

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And what happened to her didn't
begin here.

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It didn't begin in these woods.
It began long before this

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moment, before fear, before
violence, before anyone

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understood what was really going
on.

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Because when investigators would
later piece this case together,

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they wouldn't just be asking
what happened.

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They'd ask how.
How do two children, two

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friends, end up believing that
killing someone is necessary to

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please a creature that doesn't
even exist?

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How does a fictional character
become a command?

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How does imagination turn into
intent?

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And more importantly, how did
nobody see this coming?

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Because this doesn't start with
the crime scene.

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It starts with childhood
isolation.

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Belief systems forms in places
adults rarely ever think to

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look, and once it begins, it
moves faster than anyone could

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stop.
My name is Brittany Ransom, and

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This is When Killers Get Caught,
a podcast where I examine the

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people, the psychology, and the
moments that lead up to the most

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extreme acts of violence and
what happens when truth finally

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catches up.
Today's episode takes us to the

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quiet suburbs of Wisconsin,
where the line between a

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childhood game and a deadly
obsession didn't just blur, it

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vanished.
We're looking at a case that

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forced the world to ask what
happens when a monster created

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by the Internet finds its way
into the minds of children.

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This is the story of the Slender
Man stabbing.

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To understand how something so
dark could take root, you first

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have to understand Waukesha.
Located about 20 miles West of

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Milwaukee, it is the
quintessential American suburb.

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In 2014, it was the kind of
place people moved to

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specifically because things like
this don't happen there.

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It's a city of parks, historic
brick buildings, top tier

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schools, a place where the
community pride is visible in

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every manicured lawn and local
festival.

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The Air Waukesha feels safe.
It's the kind of town where

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parents let their kids bike to
the library or walk to the

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neighborhood park without even a
second thought.

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There's a profound sense of
predictability to life here.

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The neighborhoods are quiet, the
streets are lined with old

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growth maples, and the social
fabric is woven with Midwestern

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politeness.
It was, by all accounts, a

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protected bubble.
But that's the thing about a

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bubble.
It's transparent, but it's also

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a barrier.
While the adults in Waukesha

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were focused on the physical
safety of their streets, a

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different kind of world was
being built inside the glowing

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streams of middle schoolers.
The world that raised them

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wasn't just the quiet streets of
Waukesha, it was the early 2000

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TENS Internet.
This was an era where the

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digital frontier was still a bit
of a Wild West for parents.

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While the physical setting of
this story is a sun drenched

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suburban park, the mental
setting is much darker.

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A place of infinite scroll,
unchecked forums and the birth

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of modern digital folklore.
The contrast couldn't be sharper

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on the outside, the piece of the
Saturday morning in May on the

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inside.
A terrifyingly vivid obsession

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that was about to shatter their
peace forever.

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Now, to the outside world, our 2
mill schoolers, Morgan Geyser

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and Anissa Weir were just two
awkward 6th graders navigating

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the social minefield of Horning
Middle School.

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Behind closed doors though,
their allegiance was becoming a

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closed circuit, a shared reality
that was increasingly detached

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from the world around them.
Morgan was in many ways the

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architect of this fantasy.
Friends and family described her

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as bright, highly imaginative,
and deeply withdrawn.

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She had a penchant for the
macabre, often seen drawing dark

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imagery in her notebooks.
But for Morgan, the line between

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a vivid imagination and
fractured reality was chemically

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very thin.
Crucially, there was a genetic

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shadow hanging over her
development.

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Her father, Matthew Geyser,
struggled with schizophrenia and

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had been hospitalized in the
past for it.

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For Morgan, the early warning
signs were there, though they

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were dismissed as simply quirks.
She would later tell evaluators

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that she had been seeing and
hearing things since she was a

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toddler, hallucinations that she
referred to as characters like

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Maggie from The Walking Dead or
different characters from Harry

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Potter.
By the time she met her best

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friend, Anissa, Morgan was
already living in a world where

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the fiction was not very
different from reality.

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To her, Slender Man was not a
legend.

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He was a tall, faceless man who
stood in her room and demanded

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blood to spare her family.
Then we have Anissa Weir.

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If Morgan provided the vision,
Anissa provided the validation.

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Anissa was a child who
desperately wanted to belong.

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She had struggled with the
social dynamics of middle

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school, often feeling isolated
and seeking a best friend who

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could offer her a sense of
security.

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When she found Morgan, she found
someone who accepted her

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completely.
But that acceptance came with a

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price.
Anissa's psychological profile

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was defined as highly
suggestible and a delayed

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emotional development.
She wasn't experiencing all the

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same hallucinations as Morgan,
but she possessed a powerful

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desire to believe in something
bigger than just her mundane

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suburban life.
She looked to Morgan for cues on

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how she should perceive the
world, and when Morgan told her

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that Slender Man was real and
they needed to become his

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proxies and prove their worth,
Anissa didn't question it.

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She leaned into it.
She became the pragmatist for

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the delusion, helping to
research the mansion and

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planning the logistics of how
they would travel to Nicolette

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National Forest after the deed
was done.

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The tragedy of this case lies in
Foliadieu, or a shared psychotic

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disorder.
Individually, these girls might

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have just remained the weird
kids in the back of the

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classroom.
Morgan might have eventually

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received clinical intervention
thanks to her father's history,

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which suggested that she really
needed it.

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And Anissa might have found a
different social circle that

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could have anchored her.
But together, they were creating

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a feedback loop.
Every time Morgan shared a

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vision, Anissa confirmed how
important it was.

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Every time Anissa showed
interest, Morgan felt empowered

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to dig deeper into her darkness.
These kids weren't killers in

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the traditional sense.
They were two very vulnerable

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children who had built a bunker
out of a myth, reinforcing the

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walls until they couldn't see
the light of reason anymore.

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By the morning of the sleepover,
they weren't acting out of

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malice.
They were acting out of a

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terrifying self-imposed
necessity.

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Now, before she was a headline,
Peyton Leutner was a vibrant,

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kind hearted 12 year old girl
who loved animals, music and

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being a loyal friend to those
who knew her as Bella.

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She was the girl who went out of
her way to be inclusive.

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In fact, her kindness is what
led her to Morgan Geyser in the

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1st place.
While other children were put

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off by Morgan's eccentric
behavior and withdrawn nature,

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Peyton saw someone who she
thought needed a friend.

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She had been Morgan's best
friend since 4th grade, acting

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as a social anchor for a girl
who had trouble navigating the

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world.
The sleepover that would happen

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on May 30th, 2014 was supposed
to be a typical preteen

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milestone, a celebration for
Morgan's 12th birthday.

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There were roller skating rinks,
birthday cake and the kind of

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whispered secrets that define
middle school friendships.

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Peyton arrived at the Geyser
household with a sleeping bag

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and a sense of excitement,
completely unaware she was

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entering a space that had been
transformed into a tactical

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planning zone.
To Peyton, the night was about

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celebrating her best friend.
To Morgan and Anissa, this was

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the eve of the sacrifice, and
this is where the element of

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betrayal almost is too much to
stomach.

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Throughout the evening, they
played and laughed while Morgan

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and Anissa secretly whispered
about how and when they were

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going to kill the girl sitting
right next to them.

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They had originally planned to
do it at the sleepover while

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Taylor was sleeping, but Morgan
said she couldn't go through

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with it in the house.
Instead, they waited until the

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morning Lauren Peyton into a
game of hide and seek in David's

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Park.
Peyton followed them into the

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woods because she trusted them.
She had no reason not to.

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When they told her to lie down
and cover herself with leaves as

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part of the game, she did it not
out of fear, but out of a shared

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sense of just playing like
children do.

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The betrayal wasn't just the
physical violence that would

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follow, it was the systemic
dismantling of a years long

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friendship.
Peyton wasn't a random target,

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she was the person who had
always shown Morgan the most

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consistent compassion, and in
the warped logic of the shared

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delusion, that was exactly what
made her necessary to become an

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offering to Slender Man.
And as we look at the logistics

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of the catch later, we have to
remember this moment.

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The image of a young girl
following her two best friends

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into the trees, expecting a game
and instead just finding a

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nightmare.
Now I'm sure by now you're

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wondering how does a fictional
character created on the

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Internet become a monstrosity.
Well, to understand how a

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fictional character can command
a real world stabbing, we

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actually have to look at what we
call the birth place of modern

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monsters, creepypastas.
For people who didn't grow up

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with a tablet in your hand,
think of creepypastas as the

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digital equivalent of passing
around a ghost story at a

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campfire, except the campfire
never actually goes out and the

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story gets edited by thousands
of people online in real time.

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The name comes from copy pasta
text that is copied and pasted

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across the Internet, but with a
creepy twist.

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These were short, user generated
horror stories designed to be

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shared on forums like 4 Chan or
the Creepypasta Wiki.

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And in the early 2000 and 10s,
no character loomed larger in

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the digital shadows than Slender
Man.

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Slender Man wasn't actually born
into ancient folklore.

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He was created in 2009 by a man
named Eric Knudsen for a

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Photoshop contest.
He was depicted as this

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unnaturally tall, thin man in a
black suit with a blank,

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featureless white face.
But the Internet did what the

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Internet does and it took that
single image and it gave it a

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pulse.
Within years there were

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thousands of stories found
footage, videos that have been

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created on Blender, fan made
games were created.

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In this world.
Slender Man was a stalker.

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He lived in the woods, he always
targeted children.

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And most importantly to our
story, he had proxies, servants

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who did his bidding in exchange
for protection.

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But first you had to prove you
were worthy to enter Slender

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Man's world.
For a 12 year old like Morgan or

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Anissa, this wasn't just a scary
story, it was an immersive

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reality.
The early 2000 tens were the

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golden age of the Blurred Line.
You didn't just read about

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Slender Man, you watched leak
grainy videos that look like

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real police evidence.
You read forum posts from people

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who claimed they had seen him in
their own backyards.

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For vulnerable children, this
created a dangerous

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psychological trap.
We call it the suspension of

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disbelief when we watch movies.
But for some small children,

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they suspend disbelief when they
shouldn't.

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And when you're 12, the world's
already a pretty confusing

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place, where adults tell you
what's real and what isn't.

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And then you find a corner of
the Internet that feels like a

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secret that only you and your
friends know about.

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That mystery becomes more
intoxicating than the truth,

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even if you understand what the
truth is in the beginning.

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To Morgan and Anissa, Slenderman
offered a dark sort of

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belonging.
He was a gatekeeper to a world

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where they wouldn't be simply
awkward middle schoolers.

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They had been chosen, but the
price of admission was a blood

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sacrifice.
And because the Internet had

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00:12:26,600 --> 00:12:30,840
made this myth feel so tangible,
the girls believe the only thing

230
00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:34,280
more dangerous than killing
their friend was the monster who

231
00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:37,440
would come for them if they
didn't do it now.

232
00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:41,080
The attack on May 31st, 2014
wasn't a momentary snap or even

233
00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:44,120
a sudden burst of rage.
It was a culmination of about 5

234
00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:46,280
months of deliberate, methodical
planning.

235
00:12:46,720 --> 00:12:50,160
Beginning in early 2014, Morgan
and Anissa began to treat the

236
00:12:50,160 --> 00:12:53,200
murder of their friend not as a
crime, but as a mission.

237
00:12:53,560 --> 00:12:56,720
A mission for a higher power.
They communicated in whispers on

238
00:12:56,720 --> 00:12:58,440
the school bus and through coded
language.

239
00:12:58,680 --> 00:13:01,160
They built a secret world where
the survival of their own

240
00:13:01,160 --> 00:13:04,440
families depended on the death
of Peyton Lehner.

241
00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:06,960
In their minds, they weren't
killers.

242
00:13:06,960 --> 00:13:09,640
They were proxies.
In the Slender Man lore they

243
00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:11,760
consumed.
A proxy is a servant who carries

244
00:13:11,760 --> 00:13:13,800
out the entities will to prove
its loyalty.

245
00:13:14,200 --> 00:13:17,920
This created a twisted sense of
occupational necessity.

246
00:13:18,320 --> 00:13:20,880
They believed if they killed
Peyton, they would be granted

247
00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:24,560
passage into Slender Man's
mansion, a physical place that

248
00:13:24,560 --> 00:13:27,960
they believed existed within the
Nicolette National Forest.

249
00:13:28,400 --> 00:13:31,360
It was a very dark Peter Pan
fantasy where the goal wasn't

250
00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:34,200
Neverland, but to join a House
of monsters.

251
00:13:35,280 --> 00:13:37,280
But the plan wasn't exactly easy
to execute.

252
00:13:37,560 --> 00:13:38,880
There were multiple failed
attempts.

253
00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:41,280
Before the day in the woods.
They wanted to kill.

254
00:13:41,920 --> 00:13:44,960
They had wanted to kill Peyton
during the sleepover, while she

255
00:13:44,960 --> 00:13:47,280
was sleeping.
Morgan even brought a kitchen

256
00:13:47,280 --> 00:13:49,440
knife from her home, hidden in
her bag.

257
00:13:49,840 --> 00:13:52,600
But as the lights went out and
Peyton drifted off to sleep, the

258
00:13:52,600 --> 00:13:56,320
reality of the ACT momentarily
paralyzed them.

259
00:13:56,800 --> 00:13:59,360
On another occasion, they plan
to do it in the bathroom at the

260
00:13:59,360 --> 00:14:01,200
park.
But again, their nerves.

261
00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:04,400
Or perhaps a lingering shred of
childhood innocence and

262
00:14:04,400 --> 00:14:06,680
conscience stalled them in the
moment.

263
00:14:07,200 --> 00:14:09,440
This leads to the core
psychological question of this

264
00:14:09,440 --> 00:14:12,160
case.
Was this a shared delusion, or

265
00:14:12,160 --> 00:14:15,320
was it coercion?
In the legal and psychiatric

266
00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:19,640
postmortems, experts pointed to
Folia do the madness of two.

267
00:14:20,360 --> 00:14:22,960
In this dynamic, Morgan was
likely suffering from early

268
00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:25,720
onset schizophrenia.
She provided the primary

269
00:14:25,720 --> 00:14:28,000
delusion.
She truly believed she saw

270
00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:31,080
Slender Man Anissa, however,
played the secondary role.

271
00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:34,240
She never saw the monster, but
she was so desperate for

272
00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:37,680
Morgan's friendship, and so
suggestible to the proof

273
00:14:37,680 --> 00:14:41,160
provided by the Internet, that
she adopted that delusion as her

274
00:14:41,160 --> 00:14:43,720
own.
It wasn't traditional coercion,

275
00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:45,600
though, where one person
threatens the other one.

276
00:14:45,840 --> 00:14:49,080
It was a mutual reinforcement.
Every time one of them began to

277
00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:52,080
hesitate, the other would remind
them of the consequences.

278
00:14:52,640 --> 00:14:55,120
What would Slender Man do if we
fail?

279
00:14:55,680 --> 00:14:58,760
They trapped each other in this
loop of fear and loyalty, and by

280
00:14:58,760 --> 00:15:02,040
the time they led Peyton into
the woods at David's Park that

281
00:15:02,040 --> 00:15:05,880
Saturday morning, the plan was a
psychological prison.

282
00:15:06,440 --> 00:15:08,840
They felt they had gone too far
to turn back.

283
00:15:09,440 --> 00:15:12,560
To them, the violence wasn't a
choice, It was their only way to

284
00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:16,480
go home.
In the morning of May 31st, it

285
00:15:16,480 --> 00:15:18,880
broke with the kind of suburban
piece we talked about earlier.

286
00:15:19,400 --> 00:15:21,840
To any neighbors looking out
their window, they would have

287
00:15:21,840 --> 00:15:24,960
seen three preteen girls simply
walking toward David's park.

288
00:15:25,480 --> 00:15:27,040
Pretty familiar sight in
Waukesha.

289
00:15:27,400 --> 00:15:29,200
They look like they were just
extending the fun of their

290
00:15:29,200 --> 00:15:32,160
birthday sleepover.
But inside Morgan's backpack was

291
00:15:32,160 --> 00:15:35,280
a 5 inch kitchen knife, and
inside of their minds was a

292
00:15:35,280 --> 00:15:37,720
finish line they had been
working towards for months.

293
00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:40,600
They let Peyton into a wooded
area of the park under the guise

294
00:15:40,600 --> 00:15:43,680
of a game of hide and seek.
This is the moment where the

295
00:15:43,680 --> 00:15:46,600
childhood element of the story
becomes chilling.

296
00:15:47,360 --> 00:15:49,880
They use the language of play to
facilitate a slaughter.

297
00:15:50,320 --> 00:15:52,640
Morgan told Peyton.
Lie down on the ground and cover

298
00:15:52,640 --> 00:15:56,160
yourself with leaves to hide.
And trusting her best friend,

299
00:15:56,160 --> 00:15:58,960
Peyton complied.
What followed was a blur of

300
00:15:58,960 --> 00:16:02,600
frantic, delusional energy.
Reports would state that Anissa

301
00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:04,920
was the one who urged Morgan on
whispering.

302
00:16:05,240 --> 00:16:09,880
Go episodic, a phrase they had
developed to mean go through

303
00:16:09,880 --> 00:16:13,120
with it.
Morgan then attacked, stabbing

304
00:16:13,120 --> 00:16:16,200
Peyton 19 times in the arms, leg
and torso.

305
00:16:17,120 --> 00:16:19,520
But even in the midst of this
violence, the logic of their

306
00:16:19,520 --> 00:16:22,520
delusion remained.
When Peyton began to scream,

307
00:16:22,800 --> 00:16:24,640
Morgan and Anissa didn't run
away.

308
00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:27,760
They weren't panicked.
In fact, they tried to get her

309
00:16:27,760 --> 00:16:30,160
to be quiet.
They told her if she stayed

310
00:16:30,160 --> 00:16:31,840
still and quiet, they would go
get help.

311
00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:36,080
It was a final, devastating lie.
Instead of seeking a park Ranger

312
00:16:36,080 --> 00:16:39,760
or a passerby, they simply turn
their backs, walked deeper into

313
00:16:39,760 --> 00:16:41,880
the woods, heading toward the
highway.

314
00:16:43,280 --> 00:16:45,800
Now these girls weren't running
from the police, not yet at

315
00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:47,520
least.
In their minds, they were

316
00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:50,240
heading towards the mansion.
They believe that by completing

317
00:16:50,240 --> 00:16:53,000
the sacrifice, Slender Man would
manifest and lead them to

318
00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:55,360
safety.
They left their best friend

319
00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:58,600
bleeding on the forest floor,
convinced that their part of the

320
00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:01,680
bargain was over as they walk
away.

321
00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:06,160
As they walked away, they said
that they felt a sense of

322
00:17:06,160 --> 00:17:08,680
relief.
They had done what was required.

323
00:17:09,119 --> 00:17:11,319
They didn't look back to see if
Peyton was moving.

324
00:17:11,599 --> 00:17:14,040
They didn't check her pulse.
They simply stepped out of the

325
00:17:14,040 --> 00:17:17,880
trees and back into the world.
Two children covered in blood,

326
00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:21,200
waiting for a monster to reward
them for their loyalty.

327
00:17:22,920 --> 00:17:25,240
When Morgan and Anissa walked
away, they left behind a girl

328
00:17:25,240 --> 00:17:26,359
who was never supposed to get
up.

329
00:17:26,839 --> 00:17:30,240
Peyton had been stabbed 19
times, Her liver was pierced,

330
00:17:30,440 --> 00:17:34,760
her stomach had been punctured,
and most terrifyingly, one of

331
00:17:34,760 --> 00:17:37,640
the wounds had come within a
hair's breath of her heart.

332
00:17:38,440 --> 00:17:41,280
To her attackers, they had
finished the offering.

333
00:17:41,760 --> 00:17:44,760
To the medical world, she was a
statistical impossibility.

334
00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:49,880
But Peyton refused to be a ghost
in the silence of the woods.

335
00:17:50,280 --> 00:17:53,800
As adrenaline began to fade and
the gravity of her injuries set

336
00:17:53,800 --> 00:17:56,160
in, she didn't succumb to the
sack.

337
00:17:57,160 --> 00:18:02,000
She started crawling.
Just imagine the sheer physical

338
00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:05,720
and mental fortitude required
for a child to drag herself

339
00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:09,480
through the dirt and the leaves
clutching her abdomen, moving

340
00:18:09,480 --> 00:18:11,560
toward a road she couldn't even
see yet.

341
00:18:11,760 --> 00:18:15,160
She didn't even know if she was
going the right direction, every

342
00:18:15,160 --> 00:18:18,840
inch a battle against her own
body's urge to shut down.

343
00:18:19,360 --> 00:18:21,160
She wasn't just crawling away
from the trees.

344
00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:23,000
She was crawling back to the
world of the living.

345
00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:27,400
She eventually reached the edge
of a bicycle path near Big Bend

346
00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:29,200
Rd.
It was there that a passing

347
00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:33,080
cyclist, Greg Thomas.
It was there that a passing

348
00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:36,640
cyclist, Greg Thompson, saw her.
At first he thought it was a

349
00:18:36,640 --> 00:18:38,760
prank, a child just playing in
the grass.

350
00:18:39,040 --> 00:18:41,840
But as he got closer, the
reality of the blood and the

351
00:18:41,840 --> 00:18:44,560
Help me she whispered shattered
the suburban peace.

352
00:18:44,960 --> 00:18:48,280
When the paramedics arrived,
they found a girl who was calm

353
00:18:48,520 --> 00:18:52,560
despite the chaos around her.
Even as her blood pressure began

354
00:18:52,560 --> 00:18:55,640
to plummet, Peyton was able to
give the names of the girls who

355
00:18:55,640 --> 00:18:58,320
had done this to her.
She was a witness to her own

356
00:18:58,320 --> 00:19:00,280
attempted murder before she
Evan.

357
00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:05,560
She was a witness to her own
attempted murder before she even

358
00:19:05,560 --> 00:19:08,760
reached the operating room.
The medical reality of her

359
00:19:08,760 --> 00:19:11,360
survival is often described by
surgeons as a miracle.

360
00:19:11,800 --> 00:19:14,400
One of the stabs had tracked so
close to her heart it had

361
00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:19,240
actually grazed her pericardium.
One of the stabs had tracked so

362
00:19:19,240 --> 00:19:22,440
close to her heart that it
actually grazed her pericardium.

363
00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:25,400
The protective sack around your
heart.

364
00:19:25,960 --> 00:19:29,480
If the blade had been the width
of a human hair closer, or if

365
00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:34,240
the heart had been mid beat in a
different position, Peyton would

366
00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:37,560
have died in those woods.
But Peyton's resilience wasn't

367
00:19:37,560 --> 00:19:39,960
just in her physical survival,
it was in her clarity.

368
00:19:40,280 --> 00:19:42,720
She fought through the betrayal
of her best friends and the

369
00:19:42,720 --> 00:19:45,920
literal darkness of the forest
to ensure that the truth reached

370
00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:48,840
the light.
In a case defined by the people

371
00:19:48,840 --> 00:19:51,960
who couldn't tell fact from
fiction, Peyton became the most

372
00:19:51,960 --> 00:19:54,040
grounded, undeniable fact of
all.

373
00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:58,320
She was the proof that monsters
don't win.

374
00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:02,920
Now, while Peyton was being
rushed into emergency surgery,

375
00:20:02,920 --> 00:20:07,000
fighting for every breath,
Working Geyser and Anissa Weir

376
00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:09,560
were just walking.
They weren't running, they

377
00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:11,600
weren't hiding.
They were marching along the

378
00:20:11,600 --> 00:20:14,640
shoulder of Interstate 94 headed
toward Nicolette National

379
00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:16,440
Forest.
They had a backpack filled with

380
00:20:16,440 --> 00:20:19,760
snacks, a map they had drawn
themselves, and the five inch

381
00:20:19,760 --> 00:20:22,440
steak knife they had used just a
few hours before.

382
00:20:22,800 --> 00:20:25,520
To them, this was a pilgrimage
to the rest of the world.

383
00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:28,920
They were two blood stained
children walking into a trap.

384
00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:33,000
The catch happened rather
quickly based on the description

385
00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:34,520
that Peyton gave from her
stretcher.

386
00:20:34,520 --> 00:20:37,400
A police officer spotted the
girls near a furniture store

387
00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:39,160
about 5 miles away from the
park.

388
00:20:39,360 --> 00:20:42,480
When the squad car pulled over,
there was no high speed shades.

389
00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:45,120
There was no resistance.
Morgan and Anissa simply stopped

390
00:20:45,120 --> 00:20:47,400
walking.
When the officer asked them what

391
00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:49,640
they were doing, they didn't
offer a frantic alibi.

392
00:20:49,960 --> 00:20:54,400
They were calm, eerie, polite
and almost helpful.

393
00:20:55,880 --> 00:20:58,200
But the true chilling heart of
the investigation lies in the

394
00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:00,920
police interview tapes.
As the girls were brought into

395
00:21:00,920 --> 00:21:03,760
separate interrogation rooms at
the Waukesha Police Department,

396
00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:07,560
the detectives expected to find
terrified children or hardened

397
00:21:07,560 --> 00:21:10,920
young criminals.
Instead, they found 2 girls who

398
00:21:10,920 --> 00:21:14,440
seemed to think that they were
participating in a basic

399
00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:17,360
debriefing.
Morgan sat in her chair, her

400
00:21:17,360 --> 00:21:19,840
legs dangled.
Her face was blank.

401
00:21:20,080 --> 00:21:22,400
When the detective asked her
about the stabbing, she spoke

402
00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:25,600
about it with the same emotional
weight as if she were describing

403
00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:28,040
a school project.
She admitted to the stabbing,

404
00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:30,440
explaining it was necessary
because Slender Man would have

405
00:21:30,440 --> 00:21:32,040
killed her family if she didn't
do it.

406
00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:36,760
There was a profound, haunting
lack of understanding of

407
00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:39,880
consequences.
When Morgan was told that Peyton

408
00:21:39,880 --> 00:21:44,160
was alive and in surgery, she
didn't look relieved, and she

409
00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:45,720
didn't look like she regretted
anything.

410
00:21:46,120 --> 00:21:49,920
She was confused.
She asked the detective, can I

411
00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:52,960
still go to the mansion if the
sacrifice isn't complete?

412
00:21:53,920 --> 00:21:58,640
She was more concerned about the
rules of the myth than the laws

413
00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:02,800
of the state of Wisconsin.
Anissa's interview was equally

414
00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:04,760
jarring.
She spoke about Slender Man as

415
00:22:04,760 --> 00:22:07,200
if he were a neighborhood bully
they were trying to appease.

416
00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:10,120
She detailed their months of
planning with a sense of pride

417
00:22:10,120 --> 00:22:12,680
in their thoroughness.
When the reality of a life

418
00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:16,360
sentence or a prison cell was
brought up, they both reacted as

419
00:22:16,360 --> 00:22:18,120
if they were being told they
were grounded.

420
00:22:18,120 --> 00:22:22,080
For a week, their brains had not
bridged the gap between the

421
00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:26,240
digital creepypasta world and
the cold, hard reality of a

422
00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:29,720
cinder block interview room.
The investigation quickly

423
00:22:29,720 --> 00:22:33,920
shifted from who did it to what
exactly are we looking at?

424
00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:37,040
Because detectives realized they
weren't just dealing with a

425
00:22:37,040 --> 00:22:41,320
crime, they were dealing with
psychological collapse, and they

426
00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:43,480
felt like they were way out of
their depth.

427
00:22:45,360 --> 00:22:48,640
The truth had caught up to
Morgan and Nisa, but they were

428
00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:52,280
still miles away, lost in the
forest of their own minds.

429
00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:55,280
It wasn't just an arrest, it was
the moment the digital monster

430
00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:58,960
finally evaporated and it left 2
little girls standing in the

431
00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:01,480
wreckage of their own lives they
had just destroyed.

432
00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:06,760
When the handcuffs clicked shut
and the legal system took over,

433
00:23:07,200 --> 00:23:10,680
the psychiatric community was
left staring at a puzzle that

434
00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:15,120
defied all traditional labels.
At the center of this puzzle was

435
00:23:15,120 --> 00:23:18,640
early onset schizophrenia.
And while schizophrenia

436
00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:22,600
typically manifests in late teen
years or early 20s, Morgan

437
00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:25,240
Geyser is considered to be a
rare and heartbreaking

438
00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:28,120
exception.
Clinical evaluations following

439
00:23:28,120 --> 00:23:32,480
her rest feel Clinical
evaluations following her arrest

440
00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:35,400
revealed that Morgan wasn't just
imaginative, she was

441
00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:38,440
experiencing a full scale break
from reality that had likely

442
00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:41,360
been going on for years.
She believes she possessed mind

443
00:23:41,360 --> 00:23:44,080
control abilities.
She spoke to Vulcan from Star

444
00:23:44,080 --> 00:23:45,600
Trek.
She spoke to her favorite

445
00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:48,280
characters from Harry Potter as
if they were sitting in the room

446
00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:50,080
with her.
To Morgan, the world was a

447
00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:53,640
translucent veil where fictional
entities were as tangible as her

448
00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:57,160
own parents.
Crucially, this wasn't a choice.

449
00:23:57,480 --> 00:24:01,360
It was a biological inheritance,
with Morgan's father's history

450
00:24:01,360 --> 00:24:04,120
of the same condition.
Morgan's brain was already

451
00:24:04,120 --> 00:24:07,840
primed for a distorted
perception of the world by the

452
00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:10,920
time she'd encountered the
Slender Man mythology online.

453
00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:14,640
Her mind wasn't processing
things as creepy entertainment,

454
00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:19,800
it processed it as data.
It was a new character, someone

455
00:24:19,800 --> 00:24:24,640
to add to her internal.
It was a new character, someone

456
00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:27,640
to add to her internal
landscape, one that happened to

457
00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:30,320
be much more demanding and
violent than the others.

458
00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:33,200
But a hallucination usually
stays internal.

459
00:24:34,120 --> 00:24:36,240
To turn a vision into a
stabbing, you often need a

460
00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:38,440
witness.
And this is where the concept of

461
00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:42,240
Folia Do, or the madness of two
becomes the biggest part of this

462
00:24:42,240 --> 00:24:45,120
case.
In Folia Do, a symptomatic

463
00:24:45,120 --> 00:24:48,040
person, in this case Morgan,
transmits their delusional

464
00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:50,480
beliefs to the non psychotic
person.

465
00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:53,520
But highly suggestible, that's
Anissa.

466
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:56,880
Anissa never saw Slender Man,
she never heard his voice.

467
00:24:57,120 --> 00:25:00,480
But she was so emotionally
tethered to Morgan, and so

468
00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:03,880
desperate for the specialness
that their friendship gave her,

469
00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:07,160
that she allowed Morgan's
reality to simply overwrite her

470
00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:09,400
own.
She was the enabler of the

471
00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:11,680
delusion.
She didn't just believe Morgan,

472
00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:15,480
she began to fear the monster
for Morgan.

473
00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:19,840
They created this closed loop
system together where doubt was

474
00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:22,840
viewed as life threatening
betrayal.

475
00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:26,800
And this leads us to a
relatively new and terrifying

476
00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:30,800
concept in modern psychology,
Internet based psychosis.

477
00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:35,320
And since this case, there have
been a lot of different

478
00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:40,000
situations where people have
become psychotic due to their

479
00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:43,560
obsession with the Internet.
And now with the invention of

480
00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:48,400
artificial intelligence and easy
to use AI like ChatGPT or

481
00:25:48,400 --> 00:25:53,880
Gemini, we are now finding AI
psychosis where people become so

482
00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:58,360
emotionally connected to the
fake personalities the AI create

483
00:25:58,360 --> 00:26:02,800
for them that they can no longer
distinguish between reality and

484
00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:09,600
fiction.
See, before the Internet, a

485
00:26:09,600 --> 00:26:12,000
child like Morgan might have
been isolated.

486
00:26:12,360 --> 00:26:14,840
Perhaps she could have had
imaginary friends that she saw

487
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:18,440
in her books or on the TV.
But the Internet is different

488
00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:23,680
because it provides 24/7 high
definition reinforcement of

489
00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:25,760
whatever it is that you happen
to like.

490
00:26:26,360 --> 00:26:28,640
In this case, the mythology of
Slender Man.

491
00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:33,080
For every doubt Anissa could
have had, there were thousands

492
00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:37,760
of forum posts and eyewitness
videos that proved that Morgan

493
00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:40,080
was right.
The digital world was a

494
00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:43,200
megaphone for their mental
illness, validating the

495
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:46,480
delusion, providing a community
of believers that made the

496
00:26:46,480 --> 00:26:49,160
mansion seem like a real place
they could go.

497
00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:52,640
And the core of this tragedy is
the intersection of mental

498
00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:54,800
illness, digital influence, and
isolation.

499
00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:58,400
These girls didn't spend their
time in supervised after school

500
00:26:58,400 --> 00:27:03,240
programs or engaging in a wide
variety of activities with their

501
00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:05,120
peers.
They were treated into the

502
00:27:05,120 --> 00:27:09,120
digital.
In that vacuum, Slender Man grew

503
00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:14,040
from meme to God.
When we asked why this happened,

504
00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:16,800
the answer isn't just the
Internet or mental illness.

505
00:27:17,320 --> 00:27:22,200
It was the way a broken mind
found a broken myth and a lonely

506
00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:24,840
friend provided the hands to
carry out the deed.

507
00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:29,400
A tragedy of synchronization,
the moment where a ghost story

508
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:33,840
finally found a host.
The legal journey for Morgan and

509
00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:35,920
Anissa began with a
controversial decision.

510
00:27:36,360 --> 00:27:39,560
Despite being only 12 years old,
they were both initially charged

511
00:27:39,560 --> 00:27:43,120
as adults with first degree
attempted murder in the eyes of

512
00:27:43,120 --> 00:27:45,080
the law.
A sheer calculation of the plan.

513
00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:48,080
The months they spent hunting
their friend suggested a level

514
00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:51,160
of maturity that the defense
team spent years dismantling.

515
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:54,360
When the conversation shifted
towards the insanity plea, the

516
00:27:54,360 --> 00:27:57,320
court had to determine if the
girls truly lacked the capacity

517
00:27:57,320 --> 00:28:00,320
to understand the wrongfulness
of their actions.

518
00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:03,400
This wasn't just about if they
were crazy, it was a rigorous

519
00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:08,200
multi year evaluation of these
children's brain architecture.

520
00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:11,000
For Morgan Geyser, the
determination was almost

521
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:12,440
undeniable from a clinical
standpoint.

522
00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:16,720
State appointed doctors watched
as she carried on conversations

523
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:19,200
in thin air in the middle of her
interviews.

524
00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:23,840
She was never She was not just
claiming to believe in Slender

525
00:28:23,840 --> 00:28:28,880
Man to avoid prison.
She actively hallucinated

526
00:28:28,960 --> 00:28:32,720
proxies and protectors the
entire time she was in custody,

527
00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:37,600
as experts argued that her brain
was not capable of

528
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:41,160
distinguishing between the
kitchen knife and a magical

529
00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:43,840
tool.
For Morgan, the defect was a

530
00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:46,400
documented genetic and active
psychotic break.

531
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:50,040
For Anisa Ware, the
determination was more nuanced.

532
00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:52,440
It's centered on that shared
psychotic disorder.

533
00:28:52,720 --> 00:28:55,800
The defense argued that Anisa's
defect was her total

534
00:28:55,800 --> 00:28:59,800
psychological immersion into
Morgan's world, a state where

535
00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:03,320
her survival instincts had been
hijacked by a secondary

536
00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:05,800
delusion.
The court eventually landed on a

537
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:09,080
middle ground that satisfied
neither the Lock Em Up crowd or

538
00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:12,440
that they're just kids.
Advocates institutionalization.

539
00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:15,400
Instead of a prison cell, they
were committed to the Winnebago

540
00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:17,840
Mental Health Institute.
And to the critics who called

541
00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:20,520
this a cop out, the legal
counter argument was the

542
00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:23,280
duration of control in the
prison system.

543
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:26,880
You have a set release date in a
mental health commitment.

544
00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:30,760
The state essentially owns your
freedom until you can prove to a

545
00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:34,360
degree of medical certainty that
you are no longer a threat.

546
00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:38,560
For Morgan, this has resulted in
a 40 year commitment.

547
00:29:38,920 --> 00:29:42,760
For Anissa, 25, they were not
set free.

548
00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:46,840
They were placed in a high
security facility where every

549
00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:50,160
hour of their day they were
clinically interrogated,

550
00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:54,680
sometimes by their own minds.
The not guilty verdict was an

551
00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:57,200
exoneration.
It was a legal admission that

552
00:29:57,200 --> 00:30:01,440
you cannot punish a person for a
prime committed while their

553
00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:06,600
brain is effectively offline.
The question that haunts every

554
00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:09,680
true Crime Story, can a person
truly come back from the

555
00:30:09,680 --> 00:30:11,840
unthinkable?
In the case of the Slender Man

556
00:30:11,840 --> 00:30:14,200
stabbing, the answer is
currently being written in real

557
00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:17,520
time and it remains one of the
most polarizing debates in

558
00:30:17,520 --> 00:30:22,100
Wisconsin legal history.
Anissa Weir was the first to re

559
00:30:22,100 --> 00:30:25,680
enter the world in September of
2021, after serving seven years

560
00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:28,320
of her 25 year commitment at the
Winnebago Mental Health

561
00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:31,800
Institute, a judge granted her a
conditional release.

562
00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:35,640
Her transition was not simple.
She was not allowed to just walk

563
00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:37,880
out the door.
It was a calculated, highly

564
00:30:37,880 --> 00:30:40,240
monitored process.
Under the terms of her release,

565
00:30:40,240 --> 00:30:42,960
Anissa is awarded the state
until she is 37 years old.

566
00:30:43,480 --> 00:30:47,440
She is suspect to 24/7 GPS
monitoring restricted Internet

567
00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:51,200
access which is monitored by the
Department of Corrections in

568
00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:54,080
mandatory psychiatric treatment
to the public.

569
00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:56,840
The site of the then 19 year old
Anissa returning to the

570
00:30:56,840 --> 00:31:00,280
community she wants terrorized
was a bitter pill to swallow.

571
00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:04,440
They launched into a huge debate
over rehabilitation versus

572
00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:07,640
public safety.
Supporters of the release argued

573
00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:10,960
that the system had worked, that
a child who was formerly broken

574
00:31:10,960 --> 00:31:12,880
had been treated and was no
longer a threat.

575
00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:16,960
Critics, however, pointed to the
19 scars on Peyton's body as

576
00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:20,720
proof that some lines once
crossed should not lead back to

577
00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:25,840
freedom.
Morgan, on the other hand, it's

578
00:31:25,840 --> 00:31:29,360
been a lot more turbulent
because of her diagnosis of

579
00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:32,280
early onset schizophrenia.
Her commitment was sent to 40

580
00:31:32,280 --> 00:31:35,680
years, effectively a life
sentence in clinical settings.

581
00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:38,960
While Morgan has made multiple
attempts to seek a conditional

582
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:42,360
release similar to Anissa, the
court has repeatedly denied her,

583
00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:45,000
citing that she remains a
significant risk to the public.

584
00:31:45,520 --> 00:31:47,960
In one of the most jarring
moments in Morgan's post

585
00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:53,560
conviction history in two in
2022, a detail many casual

586
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:57,680
followers of the case might not
know, she had a moment of

587
00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:02,920
stability in which she used that
moment to escape from the

588
00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:04,920
Winnebago Mental Health
Institute.

589
00:32:05,720 --> 00:32:08,840
It wasn't a high speed case,
nothing violent happened.

590
00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:13,280
It was desperate.
She was confused, a lapse in

591
00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:15,520
security.
Obviously she was found

592
00:32:15,520 --> 00:32:18,680
relatively quickly, brought back
without incident, but the escape

593
00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:21,120
served as a chilling reminder to
the community that there is a

594
00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:24,440
thin line between patient and
prisoner, and it's easily

595
00:32:24,440 --> 00:32:26,960
blurred.
For the prosecution, this event

596
00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:30,160
solidified the argument that
Morgan's grip on reality is

597
00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:35,000
still quite fragile and she
still needs to be committed for

598
00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:40,000
public safety reasons.
The controversy lies in the

599
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:42,080
nature of not guilty by reason
of insanity.

600
00:32:42,480 --> 00:32:45,120
In Wisconsin, if a person is
found to be no longer insane,

601
00:32:45,400 --> 00:32:47,720
the state technically loses its
right to hold them in the mental

602
00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:50,120
institution.
This creates a paradox.

603
00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:53,320
If the doctors do their job and
cure the patient, the patient is

604
00:32:53,320 --> 00:32:56,760
legally entitled to go home,
even if the crime they committed

605
00:32:56,760 --> 00:32:59,840
was attempted murder.
This is why many true crime fans

606
00:32:59,840 --> 00:33:02,320
feel the system is flawed.
It feels like a loophole where

607
00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:04,720
the punishment is tied to a
diagnosis rather than to the

608
00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:07,400
deed itself.
Not every state follows this.

609
00:33:07,600 --> 00:33:11,520
In California, there have been
cases where they have committed

610
00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:16,280
someone, that person's been
cured, and then they immediately

611
00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:20,240
filed charges and put that
person on the stand to defend

612
00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:22,920
themselves.
Not everybody agrees that that's

613
00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:27,000
fair, either.
Now, while the legal battles of

614
00:33:27,120 --> 00:33:30,560
her attackers play out in the
news, Peyton Bella Leutner has

615
00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:33,360
been busy building a life
defined by more than just those

616
00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:36,680
few minutes in the woods.
For years, she remained silent,

617
00:33:36,680 --> 00:33:38,520
choosing to heal away from the
cameras.

618
00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:41,840
And then, in 2019, she finally
stepped into the light, and what

619
00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:44,480
the world saw was a master class
in resilience.

620
00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:47,320
Peyton didn't just survive, she
thrived.

621
00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:49,280
Graduated high school with
honors.

622
00:33:49,280 --> 00:33:51,840
Moved on to college.
Pursue a degree with the same

623
00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:54,360
quiet determination that saved
her life.

624
00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:57,800
Peyton has been incredibly
candid about the physical and

625
00:33:57,800 --> 00:33:59,680
emotional scars that she still
carries.

626
00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:03,120
She still has the 19 marks on
her body, and she has spoken

627
00:34:03,120 --> 00:34:05,080
about the difficulty of trusting
people.

628
00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:08,280
But she has also stated that she
does not want to live her life

629
00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:11,520
in fear or anger.
She has a job, a social life,

630
00:34:11,840 --> 00:34:14,880
and a future that she fought for
with every ounce of her being.

631
00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:18,880
When we talked about when we
talk about what happens when the

632
00:34:18,880 --> 00:34:21,600
truth catches up, we usually
focus on the killers.

633
00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:25,000
But in this case, the most
powerful truth is Peyton's.

634
00:34:25,159 --> 00:34:28,120
She is the living proof that a
victim doesn't have to stay a

635
00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:30,120
victim.
She took a story that was meant

636
00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:32,679
to end in a sacrifice, and she
turned it into a story of her

637
00:34:32,679 --> 00:34:35,800
own survival.
As Morgan and Anissa navigate

638
00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:39,120
their continually restricted
lives, Peyton is out in the

639
00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:41,600
world living the life they tried
to take from her.

640
00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:44,840
And in the end, that's the
ultimate form of justice.

641
00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:49,560
In the wake of the 2014
stabbing, though, the world

642
00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:52,480
didn't just react to this crime,
it reacted to a ghost.

643
00:34:52,920 --> 00:34:56,040
As headlines blare the name
Slender Man on every major news

644
00:34:56,040 --> 00:34:59,600
network, a wave of media driven
moral panic swept through the

645
00:34:59,600 --> 00:35:02,680
living rooms across our country.
For many older listeners, this

646
00:35:02,680 --> 00:35:06,080
might feel familiar, like the
2000 Tens version of the Satanic

647
00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:10,080
Panic, or the 1980s, or the
outcry against heavy metal and

648
00:35:10,080 --> 00:35:13,040
violent video games in the 90's.
The narrative was simple.

649
00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:16,760
The Internet was its predator,
and creepypasta was the Lord.

650
00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:19,560
School districts began blocking
horror sites.

651
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:21,960
Parents were urged to scrub
their children's tablets.

652
00:35:22,200 --> 00:35:25,480
Some even called for the total
censorship of digital folklore.

653
00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:27,920
But as the dust settled, it
became clear that banning a

654
00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:30,280
fictional tall man in a suit
wasn't the solution.

655
00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:33,480
It was a distraction.
The Slender Man didn't stab

656
00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:36,760
Peyton. 2 profoundly struggling
children did it.

657
00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:40,600
The case forced a much needed,
thoughtful and painful

658
00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:44,760
conversation about Internet
exposure and using the Internet

659
00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:48,040
as a digital babysitter.
We began to realize that the gap

660
00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:50,720
wasn't just in what kids were
watching, but in how they

661
00:35:50,720 --> 00:35:53,600
processed it.
For the I Gen. and the Gen.

662
00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:56,240
alpha, the line between the
physical and digital worlds is

663
00:35:56,240 --> 00:35:59,960
very porous.
Without parental mediation or

664
00:35:59,960 --> 00:36:03,800
just teaching your kid digital
literacy, A myth feels as heavy

665
00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:06,480
as a mountain.
More importantly, this tragedy

666
00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:09,360
exposed the massive gaps in
mental health intervention.

667
00:36:09,720 --> 00:36:13,680
We have to ask, how did a child
with direct genetic links to

668
00:36:13,680 --> 00:36:17,080
schizophrenia, who had been
hallucinating since she was a

669
00:36:17,080 --> 00:36:20,880
toddler, slip through the cracks
of a modern school system?

670
00:36:21,320 --> 00:36:24,560
The focus on the spooky Internet
story allowed us to ignore the

671
00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:27,840
much harder reality.
Our system for identifying and

672
00:36:27,840 --> 00:36:31,600
treating early childhood
psychosis are, in many ways

673
00:36:31,800 --> 00:36:35,480
woefully inadequate.
To my older listeners, I want to

674
00:36:35,480 --> 00:36:38,680
emphasize this.
Moral panic is a reactionary

675
00:36:38,680 --> 00:36:40,920
shield.
It isn't a solution.

676
00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:44,480
Hiding the scary story won't fix
the broken mind or the lonely

677
00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:46,680
heart.
The broader impact of this case

678
00:36:46,680 --> 00:36:50,360
isn't that the Internet is evil,
it's that digital isolation acts

679
00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:52,880
as an incubator for untreated
mental illness.

680
00:36:53,320 --> 00:36:56,640
The solution isn't better
firewalls, it's keeping better

681
00:36:56,640 --> 00:36:59,840
eyes on our children, better
conversations about what they

682
00:36:59,840 --> 00:37:03,520
see online and what they're
involved in, and a much more

683
00:37:03,520 --> 00:37:06,680
aggressive approach to mental
health care before a delusion

684
00:37:06,920 --> 00:37:11,880
turns into a plan.
We spend so much time teaching

685
00:37:11,880 --> 00:37:14,400
our children how to navigate the
physical world, how to cross the

686
00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:17,160
street, how to stay away from
strangers in a park, how to find

687
00:37:17,160 --> 00:37:19,720
your way home.
But in the case of Slender Man,

688
00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:22,160
it reminds us that there is
another world entirely. 1

689
00:37:22,160 --> 00:37:24,720
without physical boundaries or
clear cut rules.

690
00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:27,800
Was this preventable?
It's the question that still

691
00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:29,520
haunts the quiet streets of
Waukesha.

692
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:32,440
Maybe the answer lies in the
gaps that we failed to bridge,

693
00:37:32,680 --> 00:37:34,800
the space between a father's
clinical history and a

694
00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:37,880
daughter's vivid imagination, or
the exact moment a digital myth

695
00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:41,880
becomes a life or death command.
As Morgan and Anissa continue

696
00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:44,240
their journey through the legal
system and toward a world even

697
00:37:44,240 --> 00:37:47,280
more digital than the one they
left in 2014, we're left to

698
00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:49,840
wonder.
Have we learned how to look into

699
00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:52,360
the shadows?
We tell our children monsters

700
00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:54,360
aren't real.
But perhaps the real danger

701
00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:56,280
isn't the monster under your
bed, or even the one on the

702
00:37:56,280 --> 00:37:58,320
screen.
It's the belief that if we just

703
00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:01,400
ignore the darkness for long
enough, the lights can stay on

704
00:38:01,400 --> 00:38:04,720
forever.
Sometimes the truth doesn't just

705
00:38:04,720 --> 00:38:08,560
come out though, it catches up.
I'm Brittany Ransom and this has

706
00:38:08,560 --> 00:38:11,360
been wine killers get caught.
Thank you for joining me for

707
00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:13,920
episode 96.
If you found today's deep dive

708
00:38:13,920 --> 00:38:15,680
into the Slender Man case
insightful, please leave a

709
00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:17,040
review.
Please subscribe.

710
00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:19,240
You can always find more
information about all the

711
00:38:19,240 --> 00:38:21,680
different cases that I am
covering on TikTok.

712
00:38:22,040 --> 00:38:25,920
And I will see you next time as
we continue our countdown to our

713
00:38:25,920 --> 00:38:29,240
milestone 100th episode in my
brand new studio.

714
00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:33,760
Until then, keep an eye on the
shadows and remember the truth

715
00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:35,880
always leaves a trail.