On Saturday, May 31. 2014. a cyclist from Waukesha, Wisconsin rode his regular route when he found a 12-year-old girl lying on the ground in blood.
He immediately notified the police, and ambulances also arrived at the scene soon. Shortly afterwards, authorities arrested two other 12-year-old girls hiding 5 miles from the scene.
A total of 19 knife stabs were found on the victim, Peyton Leutner, and her injuries were caused by a 13-centimeter-long knife. The knife was found in the bag of one of the guilty girls. Annisa Weier and Morgan Geyser did not deny their guilt when they were caught. In their confession, the girls said they thought they could join the infamous faceless giant, Slenderman, as a helper after their horrific deed.
One of the attackers, Morgan, told police it was strange to her that she did not feel remorse. The other girl, Annisa, felt guilty, but said they had to do what they did. The attack was planned for six months and was intended to present a victim to Slenderman. They thought that in return the monster would appear before them. They thought the dark figure was reading their minds and threatening their families.
No one could know what the girls were planning because they used codewords. Morgan's father said his daughter was obsessed with Slenderman, almost unable to think of anything else.
(It is at this point that the guilt of parents arises in me in the story. Because such a passion for a bad character may not be healthy. Parents should have dealt more with this problem, possibly seeking medical help, so perhaps the attack could have been prevented.)
Slenderman
Now imagine that you are walking in the evening and after the last street light you know you have to go into the dark forest. You try to be quiet and fall into the darkness, sometimes you hear ness, but you just go on. The noises are getting closer, the sounds, the whispers are following you. Suddenly your vision starts to weaken, your mind seems to be dominated by something. Then you look back and see in the dark the faceless giant in suit, with his long hands and tentacles protruding from his back. Lost!...
This is how we can describe the Slenderman phenomenon, which has several versions. But it’s not special about this, it’s special about the fact that this is the first truly known monster in the internet world that we, the online community, have created. The birth of the legend can be traced exactly.
In relation to such beings, the question is not whether or not it exists, but whether we believe it exists. The difference is huge. The Slenderman legend initially started out as just a scare, but serious psychology gave an imprint of its creator, the internet society, and there were people who really wanted to kill for it.
Slenderman was born on June 8, 2009, when a photoshop contest was organized on a website called SomethingAwful, participants had to create all sorts of paranormal phenomena.
One of the entrants, Eric Krudsen of Florida, also took part in the competition with two black and white photos. The photos show photos of unknown children, but in each photo a tall, dark figure appeared in the background, named Slenderman by the creator. Eric added quotes to both photos.
"We didn't want to go, we didn't want to kill them, but its persistent silence and outstretched arms horrified and comforted us at the same time..."
1983, photographer unknown, presumed dead.
One of two recovered photographs from the Stirling City Library blaze. Notable for being taken the day which fourteen children vanished and for what is 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.
Then more and more people captured the imagination of this creature and began to continue the story. Monster targets are almost always kids, but adults aren’t safe either. Some have loss of consciousness, others have amnesia, but some have the potential to cause death. In the case of children, several stories circulate, in many cases a special relationship develops between the child and the creature, but at other times he may even cause their disappearance.
The monster is able to teleport and disrupt technical devices, the phenomenon itself fits into a centuries-old trend. Creature-like giants or unknown creatures who kidnap children appear in several countries, such as Japan, Germany, Scotland. The original purpose of the stories about them was to scare the misbehaving children with them.
From 2010, plenty of pictures, videos and animations depicting Slenderman appeared on the internet, and then a video game and film were made about his story. Its symbol became a circle crossed out with an x.
The creator added a few more photos later. One particularly clever image is a modified woodcut. In the original, a skeleton takes a child from its parents, perhaps into death. In the modified version, the skeleton has long arms and legs and its misshapen skull is hidden by the eaves of the house. The created added a definition too:
The Slender Man is a supernatural creature that is described as appearing as a normal human being but he is described as being 8 feet tall and he has vectors or extra appendages that are described to be as sharp as swords. The creature is known to stalk humans and cause many disappearances. He is described as a shadow creature that has missing a face. The creature fits into many mythologies in legends from nations such as germany and celts which brings up the possibility that he could be real. A man named victor Surge found this legend and made his own version of it which he called slender man. The slender man is not exactly evil according to mythology but victor Surge’s version shows him as an evil creature that stalks humans to kill. In mythology he was actually trying to save you from a painful death by taking you to the under world early.
This part has already gone beyond fiction, as there are those who actually wanted to kill people for Slenderman, like Morgan and Anissa.
At the trial of the two girls, Morgan’s scary drawings of Slenderman and a cat-like creature were presented, over which the girl wrote “I love killing people!”. More than 60 of the girl’s similar drawings have been found. Authorities collected the girl's 6 barbiedolls, which had been mutilated and stained with red felt-tip pen, nor was there one for which she had painted Slenderman's mark.
The two girls tricked their girlfriend into the woods to playing and then invite her to them. The two teens attacked Peyton here, squeezing her to the ground and attacking his arms, legs and torso with a knife. Luckily, the girl still had enough strength after the attack to climb out of the woods to the road where the cyclist found her.
It turned out that Annissa had encouraged Morgan to kill the girl, because if they didn’t, Slenderman would hurt them and their family. The psychologist, having spoken to Morgan several times, said he had no doubt that Morgan really believed Slenderman existed.
The Slanderman phenomenon was also addressed at the scientific level by one professor at the University of Georgia, Shira Chess. The expert said Slenderman is a stalker, so a creature who follows and harasses others, but you will only be interested in him if you have already noticed him. She also said that Slenderman also had helpers in some of the stories, presumably this could have started the process in Anissa and Morgan so that they too could be the monster’s helpers. What was even more ominous was that the girls told police that after the attack they wanted to get to Slenderman Castle. In this regard, the professor said that until then, the headquarters of the creature had not appeared in any of the stories. This is a good indication of how far the girls have moved away from reality and they have begun to expand the Slenderman universe. And unfortunately they believed this to be a reality.
Peyton finally survived the attack, one of the stabs being less than a millimeter from her heart. She was released from the hospital 7 days after the attack.
In 2017 Anissa was sentenced to up to 25 years , Morgan up to 40 years in a mental institution. Morgan turned out to be schizophrenic, like her father.
Anyone who would love to read more about Morgan can read the report with his mother here.
Another attack in 2014 is linked to the Legend of Slenderman, when a 13-year-old Ohio girl attacked her mother with a knife.
And a 14-year-old girl set fire to her family’s house in Florida while her mother and brother were in the house. The girl turned out to be obsessively reading Slenderman stories online before this incident.
In early 2015, a series of suicide attempts took place among 12- to 24-year-olds in an American Indian sanctuary. One Sioux leader said of this that they believe in a ghost like Slenderman there, who warns society if they are evolving in the wrong direction.
Closing thoughts
Nowadays, children also spend a lot of time surfing the internet. Although we can’t always control them, it would be important to notice if our child is over-interested in certain things, especially if it’s unusual, or possibly downright bad. Talk to the child about this and seek medical help in severe cases.
Oh shoot, that's just. But they are just a kid 😱. We can't really blame the one created it because it's still up to the people who'll believe in that Slenderman story 😱.