Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Forensic Tales discusses topics that some listeners may find disturbing. The contents of this episode may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. In 2014, two 12-year-old girls from an off-the-grid city in Wisconsin were charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide. Police say the two 12-year-old girls plotted this for months and months. The victim...
the girl's fellow friend and classmate, another 12-year-old girl. On the day of the attempted murder, Morgan Geisser and Anissa Weier lured their friend, Peyton Lightner, into the Wisconsin woods and stabbed her 19 times with a kitchen knife. What could possibly be the motive behind this horrible stabbing? Morgan and Anissa claim it was kill or be killed.
That if they didn't kill their friend and classmate, that a fictitious character by the name of Slenderman would kill them. This is Forensic Tales, episode number 53. The Slenderman Stabbing.
Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell.
Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast that covers real, bone-chilling true crime stories with a forensic science twist. Some of the stories have been solved by the help of forensic science. Others have turned cold. The stories we cover each week send a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings.
If you're interested in supporting the show and getting early access to weekly episodes, bonus material, and ad-free episodes, consider visiting our Patreon page, patreon.com slash Forensic Tales. Before we get to the episode, I want to recognize and welcome the show's newest patron, Ashley W. Thank you so much, Ashley.
For more information on how you can support the show, check us out on Patreon. Another great way you can support Forensic Tales is by leaving us a positive rating with a review. Now, let's take a deep dive into the 2014 Slender Man Stabbing. Hey guys, welcome to the first episode of 2021.
I hope you had a great as well as a safe holiday and new year. At the very least, I hope you just got some time to relax, recharge, and get ready for what I'm hopeful will be a brighter year for all of us. Before we get to the episode, we've got some really exciting updates happening here at Forensic Tales.
First, you may have heard me mention in earlier episodes that we were getting a brand new logo. If you're a patron of the show, you had a chance to vote for your favorite design a couple weeks ago. And for the new year, we revealed our brand new logo on social media as well as our website.
This was a long time coming for us, and I'm really excited and grateful for how it came out. So, new year, new logo. Second, coming up in a couple weeks is the show's first birthday. At the end of the month, we'll be celebrating our birthday, so be on the lookout for some really exciting things and announcements to come to help celebrate our first birthday.
The last couple weeks on the show, we did a two-part special on the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. JonBenet's case is one that troubles me the most, even over two decades later. So if you haven't listened to this two-part special, definitely check it out and let me know. Who do you think murdered JonBenet? The case we're talking about this week is just as terrifying as it is tragic.
It's a case with so many unanswered questions about what could have led to the events that happened on May 31st, 2014. Many of these questions leave some of the world's best forensic psychologists scratching their heads on how this could have happened. The case takes us to Waukesha, Wisconsin, a place you likely have never heard of before this story.
Waukesha is a place on the map within the outskirts of Milwaukee. It's a relatively small town known to some as Spring City and was also a place for the early start of American football. Until mid-2014, it wasn't a place known for two 12-year-old girls who attempted to stab their friend to death.
The fourth grade is a time where kids develop skills needed to go on to middle school. Fourth graders enjoy and learn from play, and they thrive in nurturing and warm environments. The fourth grade is when Peyton Lightner first met her friend Morgan Geiser. Being the sweet girl that Peyton always was, she approached Morgan at school after seeing that Morgan was sitting alone.
After their first meeting, Peyton and Morgan became instant friends. They did what all kids their age did. They had sleepovers together. They hung out after school practically every single day. They just did what young girls do. After becoming close, Morgan even gave Peyton a nickname. She called her friend Bella. Peyton became one of Morgan's only friends for a long time.
Two years later, Peyton and Morgan's friendship started to fall off the tracks. The girls were now in sixth grade, and Morgan ended up meeting a girl by the name of Anissa Weyer. Just like with Peyton, Morgan and Anissa seemed to hit it off as friends almost instantly. But their friendship was a little different right from the get-go. That's because the girls bonded over the fictitional character known as Slenderman.
Before I learned about this case, I had never heard of Slender Man, not even once in my life. This is a thing that clearly emerged after I was way too old. So if you're like me and you need a little education on what in the world is Slender Man, here it is.
Slender Man is a fictitional character that was created back in 2009. And it actually was created from a contest that was running on the website Something Awful. The original Slender Man was designed in a contest that had the participants Photoshop existing photographs together to basically come up with a brand new design.
At some point after this episode, put in a quick Google search for Slender Man. Or you can head to our website. We will have plenty of pictures up there. But you need to get the full picture of what we're talking about. But the end result of the contest came a tall, thin, definitely creepy spider-like figure.
that kind of looked like two seemingly benign pictures of kids playing that had been photoshopped together. So after the contest, the image reached the website 4chan. 4chan is a site that allows people from all over the world to post on bulletin boards and they allow them to remain anonymous.
And that's when Slender Man blew up. It went viral on the internet. Slender Man started appearing in photos, videos, and even started making appearances in video games. From what started as a simple contest on the website Something Awful, Slender Man became a figure who entered the realm of urban legends.
On the internet, Slender Man became this wood dwelling boogeyman who preyed on children. Of course, looking back, I'm positive that this was absolutely not what the creator who entered this contest intended to ever come from his Photoshop design. So the image of Slender Man that you see on the internet today is again, this tall, tall
thin guy with an entirely white face and head. He's got no facial features. He's shown wearing a black suit and sometimes in different images online, he's seen with these like tentacles coming from his back. He became this fantasy made up character on the internet that kids from all over the world started to read about and they started to follow him.
From what started as a Photoshop contest came out the other end, this obsession many kids had about Slender Man. After reading about him all across the internet, many kids and young people, for that matter, thought that this was a real person. That Slender Man wasn't just a fantasy, he was real. Morgan and Anissa became two of these kids.
The girls instantly bonded in sixth grade over their interest, borderline obsession with Slenderman. In the beginning, Peyton, on the other hand, really didn't get into the obsession with Slenderman. She even thought it was freaky, but she didn't want to lose her friendship with Morgan.
So Peyton decided she would just go along with it and pretty much pretend that she was also into Slenderman. Peyton decided back in sixth grade to be supportive of her friend Morgan because that's what her friend liked. She also wasn't very close with Anissa.
But again, Morgan was her friend, and if her friend wanted to hang around Anissa and wanted to read about Slenderman, she would too. All three girls were just 12 years old. Friday, May 30, 2014 was a Friday night.
It was almost Morgan's birthday, and she decided that for her birthday, she wanted her friends Peyton and Anissa to spend the night. She wanted a slumber party, something that I absolutely begged my parents for when I was turning 12 years old. So Peyton's mother, Stacey, dropped her daughter off at Morgan's that night and didn't really think twice about it.
She didn't really know Anissa, the other girl who was spending the night, but Stacey knew Morgan really well over the past couple years. So as a mother, she felt totally comfortable having her daughter Peyton spend the night there. That night, that Friday night, Peyton thought to herself that their slumber party wasn't like how they had been in the past.
Typically, the girls did what most 12-year-old girls do. They would roller skate, eat pizza, and play with American Girl dolls, that kind of thing. But this night was different. Something just didn't feel right to Peyton. Peyton even recalled that Morgan, who always wanted to stay up the entire night, went to bed early that night.
The following morning, now Saturday, May 31st, the girls woke up and Morgan asked her mom if they could walk to the park. Morgan's mom agrees, no big deal. The park is just down the street. So the three of them head out of Morgan's house and down to the local park. Once the girls got to the park, that's when the nightmare began.
Once at the park, Morgan and Anissa lured Peyton, who they called Bella, into the park's bathroom. Inside the park's bathroom, Anissa started to hit Peyton over and over again, trying to knock her out as Morgan just paced in circles. The two 12-year-old girls' plan was to beat Peyton to death and then use the bathroom to drain her blood.
For whatever reason, it's not entirely clear. Their idea didn't go to plan. Anissa stopped hitting Peyton. Then her and Morgan headed out of the park's bathroom. Now, instead of running away or trying to go get help, Peyton decides to follow Anissa and Morgan out of the bathroom.
Maybe it's because she was scared. Maybe she was confused. Anissa and Morgan were supposed to be some of her best friends. When the girls left the park bathroom, that's when another plan was hatched. Plan B. The girls went into the nearby forest, known as David's Park. What exactly happens next remains a slight mystery.
That's because Anissa and Morgan have provided two different stories about what actually happened. What is true is that once the girls got deep into the forest, Morgan slipped out a five-inch long kitchen knife from her backpack and started repeatedly stabbing Peyton. She was stabbing the same friend she once nicknamed Bella.
the same girl that had been her only friend for years. While Morgan was stabbing Peyton, their friend Anissa just stood by, watching the whole thing like it was rehearsed. Peyton would be stabbed a total of 19 times by her friend Morgan, while Anissa just stood by and watched the whole thing. Peyton was stabbed in her stomach, her chest, her arms, her legs, everything.
pretty much her entire body was covered in stab wounds. One of her wounds just barely missed a major artery in her heart by less than a millimeter. Other wounds cut through her diaphragm, and others cut right through her liver and stomach. It quickly became apparent that her friends, Morgan and Anissa, lured her to the park that day,
in an attempt to stab her to death. Right before Morgan and Anissa left their friend Peyton to die, they did something kind of odd. They told Peyton, after stabbing her 19 times, that they would be back, that they were just going to go get some help. They never did come back, and they never did call for help. After Morgan and Anissa left Peyton in the forest, covered in stab wounds,
Peyton somehow managed to get herself up from the ground and basically drag herself to a nearby road where she ultimately collapsed. Even at just 12 years old, she was determined to survive. She wanted to live. Several moments later, a man by the name of Greg Steinberg was out that Saturday afternoon riding his bicycle. And for some odd reason, maybe fate,
This guy decided to go around a chained off route and ride his bike along the route that was supposed to be closed and blocked off. Along the chained off route, he saw something. He saw movement in a grassy area right next to his bike. So the man puts the brakes on, hops off, and that's when he spots a young girl lying on the grass, bleeding.
Peyton tells the cyclist, can you help me? Please, please. I've been stabbed multiple times. So Greg Steinberg immediately pulls out his cell phone and dials 911. He has no idea how badly Peyton's been stabbed. He has no idea who did this. This guy doesn't even know if her attacker is still around.
The only thing he knows at this point is that he needs an ambulance and he needs it right away. While the two of them wait for the ambulance to arrive, the cyclist pulls out his water bottle off of his bike and gives it to Peyton. He has no idea what to do, but wants to do whatever he can until help arrives. And he keeps reassuring Peyton, honey, he's coming. They'll be here any minute.
Moments later, the ambulance arrives at the grassy area along the chained-off route. It's a part of the route that's not too far from the thick part of the woods. Peyton is then immediately rushed in the ambulance to the nearest hospital for treatment on her 19 stab wounds. While the police arrived at Peyton's parents' house to tell them what happened to their 12-year-old daughter,
Morgan and Anissa are nowhere to be found. They didn't return back to Morgan's house. They were making an attempt to run away. They would later say that they were tearing through the woods on a quest to find Slenderman, that they needed to get to Slenderman's mansion somewhere within the Wisconsin's Nicollet National Forest.
Now that they thought they killed their friend, they needed to see Slenderman. Police knew they needed to find Morgan and Anissa after learning from Peyton's parents that the girls were together that morning after they had a slumber party, which doesn't take them long to catch up with the girls. You can't exactly get far on foot in the forest when you're only 12 years old.
So just a few hours after Peyton was rushed to the hospital, the police spotted Morgan and Anissa along the side of the road near I-95. When the police approached the girls, they told investigators that they were on their way to go live with Slenderman. Inside of a backpack the girls were carrying was the same kitchen knife used to stab Peyton.
The girls also had on them extra clothes, granola bars, and water bottles, the kind of items kids would pack with them if they think they're running away. Even though Morgan and Anissa were just 12 years old, they were arrested that same day and brought down to the police station for questioning, just like anyone else who was being accused of attempted murder.
And once they arrived at the police station, things, well, things just got even stranger. This episode of Forensic Tales is sponsored by Podcorn. When I first started looking for sponsors to feature on the show, it was really important to me that the brands I worked with were not only a good fit for me, but also for my listeners.
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To learn more about what Podcorn can do for you and your podcast, click the link in my show notes to sign up to Podcorn and start browsing sponsorship opportunities. At the police station, investigators start to get conflicting stories from the girls about what really happened that day. And they don't even know if their friend Peyton is alive or not. By all accounts, the girls thought they left her for dead.
During the police interrogation, just hours after the stabbing, this is when investigators learn more and more about the girls' obsession with Slenderman. The girls admit to police that they stabbed their friend and fellow classmate in order to please this fictional character.
In their very own words, they believed that Slenderman was going to come after both of them and their families if they didn't kill Peyton. If they didn't kill their friend, who they called Bella. Morgan is heard on the interrogation tapes telling police that she didn't want to do this. That she was afraid of what would happen if she didn't do it. If she didn't stab Peyton.
And when police asked Morgan why she decided to hurt Peyton if she didn't want to in the first place, her response was that it was necessary in order to please Slenderman. The police detective who was interviewing Morgan didn't really understand who this Slenderman was, as I wouldn't either if I was in his shoes.
So when he asked her to describe him, she said he was this tall, skinny, faceless guy who preyed on young children. She said, he watches you. And even though she's never seen him herself, she knows he's, quote, everywhere.
Both Anissa and Morgan say during this initial police interrogation that they needed to kill Peyton in order to become proxies of Slenderman. And once they become these proxies, they'll be able to go live with him inside of his mansion in the woods. Anissa and Morgan admit that the first plan was to kill Peyton the night before, Friday, May 30th.
the night before the actual attack happened. But both girls admit that they kind of chickened out that first night. So the attack inside of the park bathroom was actually plan B, and the stabbing in the forest was plan C. The plan to kill Peyton in order to go live with Slenderman started as early as December 2013, almost six months before the stabbing.
So for six long months, it's hard to even believe that these two 12-year-old girls were plotting to stab and kill one of their very own best friends. Anissa told police that she was excited when Morgan came to her with this plan. She said she was excited because it would finally provide proof that Slenderman, this character she's been obsessing over, is real.
According to Anissa, there were a lot of skeptics out there that didn't believe in him. And they were determined to prove these skeptics wrong. And once they proved everyone wrong, they were going to go live with him inside of this mansion. The interrogation gets even more disturbing when Anissa begins to describe the attack on Peyton in pretty graphic detail.
She says that her and Morgan's attack on Peyton was supposed to be like lionesses chasing down a zebra. Anissa was supposed to be the one to tackle and hold Peyton down, and Morgan was going to be the one to do the stabbing. The day after the stabbing, Morgan and Anissa, even though they were only 12 years old,
were both charged as adults and each charged with one count of first-degree attempted murder. It would take several months for a judge to finally decide whether to charge the girls as an adult or charge them as juveniles. Seven long days after the attack, Peyton is finally released from the hospital.
After receiving the injuries that this girl did, and after experiencing the type of trauma that she must have experienced, Peyton is a living, breathing miracle. And she was only 12 years old. She has her entire life in front of her and somehow has to heal from all of this.
not only physically, but she also has to heal mentally, spiritually, emotionally. After Peyton's miraculous survival and release from the hospital, Peyton's dad, Joe, was interviewed by the media where he said that he truly believed that after all of this, after everything she's been through, that his daughter Peyton was meant to do something special in life.
Over the next couple months, Morgan and Anissa remain in custody. They never returned back home after that slumber party. And over the months, both girls were extensively interviewed by a number of different forensic psychologists. Police and prosecutors knew that this was far from your average attempted murder case.
And before the court could decide whether or not to charge the girls in either adult court or juvenile court, they first need forensic psychologists to determine if these girls were even competent to stand trial in either court. Based on the initial police interrogation, it was pretty obvious that these two young girls suffered from some pretty severe delusions.
that their behavior and beliefs surrounding this Slenderman character were far from normal and indicate that there might be some possible serious mental illness here. So four months after the stabbing, this is now in August 2014,
Two forensic psychologists provide court testimony based on their interviews and psychological assessments with both Morgan and Anissa. And based on the testimony in court, the judge assigned to the case found that Morgan was, in fact, incompetent to stand trial.
So under Wisconsin law, once someone, a kid or an adult, are found by the court to be incompetent, that essentially suspends all criminal proceedings. Under the law, someone who is found incompetent can't be held criminally liable for their actions. Now, this absolutely doesn't mean this is a final ruling. You can be found incompetent at one court hearing,
but then be found competent at the next hearing. In reality, in the way that our American criminal justice system works, competency is a thing that the court always addresses. It's not a get-out-of-jail-free card, what many people may think. In these types of cases, you're held in custody while experts and treatment teams help to get you to become competent to stand trial.
And once you're found competent again, based on appropriate treatment and therapy, maybe medication, combination of both, that's when criminal proceedings are reinstated. I think it's a common misconception that if someone is declared incompetent, then that's the end of things. But that's not exactly how it works.
So in Morgan's case, in August 2014, the judge believed, based on the forensic psychologist's testimony, that she was incompetent at the time.
So in this case, they have to suspend the prosecution of the attempted first-degree murder charge, basically putting a stopwatch on the criminal timelines that usually have to be met. Now, once Morgan was found incompetent based on her mental condition at the time, they also had to do the same forensic testing and evaluation on Anissa.
Just like Morgan, Anissa had the same delusions. So in September 2014, the judge also ordered a psychological evaluation to be done on Anissa. And the judge wanted this evaluation done before the court would even determine if their cases would be transferred back down to juvenile court or if they were going to remain in adult court.
Unfortunately, like many things in our judicial system, at least here in the States, most things don't happen overnight. And the girls wouldn't be back in court in front of a judge until December later that year.
And it was Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bowren who finally ruled that both girls did in fact understand the charges against them, number one, and that number two, they were able to provide aid in their own defense. These are two very important things when we determine competency. We want to know
that a criminal defendant understands what they're being charged with, what the potential penalties are, and we want to make sure that they're going to be able to provide aid in their own defense if they're going to be able to help their lawyers or not. So Waukesha Judge Bowron set a preliminary hearing for February 2015 and basically said that the criminal proceedings were going to be moving forward.
So in February 2015, at this preliminary hearing, Morgan's defense attorney told the judge pretty much the same thing that she had said to police on the night of the stabbing, that Morgan and Anissa believed that they had to stab their friend Peyton and that if they didn't, they would both be killed by Slenderman himself.
The goal of the girls' defense was that they tried to present to the judge this kill-or-be-killed type of defense. That Morgan and Anissa, they had to try and kill Peyton. That if they didn't, they believed their fictitious character Slenderman would kill them. If the defense could prove this kill-or-be-killed theory,
This would allow the charges be reduced to attempted second-degree intentional murder, a charge that would allow the girls to be transferred back down to juvenile court. Because they're in Wisconsin and they're being charged with first degree instead of second degree, that's what makes them stay in adult court, even when they're only 12 years old.
So this is really, really big. If their defense team can persuade the judge that this was some sort of kill or be killed type of situation, then they can get their case transferred back down to juvenile court. The problem is, is that Judge Bowen doesn't agree with this kill or be killed theory.
He had a hard time believing that this type of defense can be used when the so-called killer we're talking about is a fictitious character. They aren't a real person. So he rules against the defense's theory and says, nope, this case remains first degree attempted murder. And he then sets both girls to go to trial in adult court.
The court's ruling, the judge's ruling, is obviously a huge letdown for the families of both Morgan and Anissa. They are going to be tried and probably convicted in adult court for a charge that could potentially send these girls to prison for the rest of their lives. Leading up to trial, there were still a lot of questions about the girls' mental state.
Not only at the time of the crime, of course, but also while in custody. So during the preparation for trial, there were a lot of attempts by both Morgan and Anissa's attorneys to get their cases transferred to juvenile court. They wanted them out of adult court.
And Anissa's defense attorney ended up hiring a private forensic psychologist to come to the facility and evaluate her to potentially find out if Anissa can be rehabilitated, which is the primary goal of juvenile court. And this forensic psychologist, after evaluating Anissa for quite some time,
testified that he believed Anissa posed very little risk for criminal future activity and that there was a high likelihood of success in treatment in order to deal with the issues that led her to commit the stabbing. But again, the judge disagreed. Her case would still go forward to adult trial.
Also, before trial, we learned about Morgan's family history with schizophrenia. We learned that her father had a severe case of schizophrenia. His condition was so bad that he'd been hospitalized on four separate occasions. Even though there is no specific gene that's been linked to schizophrenia based on hereditary genes,
Most research in that area suggests that this mental illness is absolutely hereditary. So if your parents, your grandparents have schizophrenia, you are at a higher chance of also developing the illness. So this raises the alarm bells in Morgan's case. Morgan's father had a lengthy, decades-long history of really bad schizophrenic episodes and
And in Morgan's case, this might be a episode of early onset schizophrenia. So armed with this new mental health diagnosis, the defense once again appeals the court's decision on the waiver denial, basically the denial to send the case to juvenile court. Not surprisingly, the appeal would take another several months before a decision by the court was made.
And in the meantime, Morgan is finally transferred out of the juvenile facility and she's transferred to a mental hospital where that's where she can finally start receiving treatment for schizophrenia. Finally, in July 2016, the Court of Appeals sides with the original judge. Despite the testimony of several expert forensic psychologists,
The Court of Appeals in 2016 ruled one final time that the case would in fact stay in adult court. And in his ruling, the judge cited that the two girls, quote, failed to show by a preponderance of the evidence that they should be transferred from adult court to juvenile court, end quote.
So in the case of Morgan, right before her case was set to go to trial in adult court, the defense and prosecution come to an agreement. Morgan agreed to plead guilty as charged to the attempted first-degree intentional homicide, but would not be held criminally liable. Instead, will remain in a state hospital receiving treatment indefinitely.
By February 2018, when Morgan is now 15 years old, the judge commits her to a state mental hospital for a term of 40 years. In other words, Morgan will be under institutional supervision until she's at least 55 years old. Anissa was next.
Anissa, who was also 15 years old, also received the maximum length of supervision. She was committed to the state mental hospital for 25 years, where she'll also be under supervision until she's at least 37 years old.
In the case of Anissa, the judge and prosecution believed, although she was guilty, she played a lesser role in the attempted murder compared to her friend Morgan, who was the one doing the actual stabbing. So where does everything stand now?
Well, Morgan continued to appeal her case and challenged the judge's decision to let her stay in adult court for a crime that she committed when she was 12 years old. Initially, she lost the appeal. Then her lawyers filed a petition to have the case heard all the way up to the Supreme Court. And that just happened in September 2020. So just a couple months ago.
Nothing in the case has happened yet. Supreme Court cases take forever and a day to begin with. And now with COVID-19 and everything else that the Supreme Court is currently dealing with, it's unlikely that they will rule on Morgan's appeal anytime soon. And that's in the reality if they even decide to hear it. In Anissa's case, also in November 2021,
Her attorneys filed a petition to have her released from the state mental hospital. Anissa, who is now 19 years old, finally an adult, and her attorneys filed a petition to get her conditional release
citing in the petition that she poses a low risk to society. Her petition is set to be heard sometime in early 2021. Again, if all goes well with COVID-19, that date may also be delayed. Now, what about the victim at the center of all this? The person who truly has been affected the most, Peyton Harkins.
In October 2019, five years after the stabbing, Peyton, now a 17-year-old girl, a high school senior, went on ABC's 2020 to speak publicly for the very first time. I think many people, myself included, wanted to hear from Peyton when she was ready to talk.
One of the things she said during this 2020 interview was that if she were face to face with either Morgan or Anissa again, she would thank them. She said she would thank them because what they did to her has inspired her to pursue a career in medicine to help other victims.
When the 2020 anchor David Muir asked Peyton what she thought about the judge's decision to keep both of her former friends in adult court, she was straightforward and said that she agreed. Her words in the interview, which I thought were so brave and so true, were that, quote, adult crime is adult court. She's saying, which I completely agree 1000% with, that
is that what Morgan and Anissa did was an adult crime. First-degree attempted murder is a very, very serious crime. And if you commit what is considered an adult crime, you should be tried in adult court. I don't think we can take away just how serious this crime was. And I don't think the seriousness of it can be taken away simply based on the age of the offenders.
I think besides the debate surrounding age and surrounding mental illness when it comes to serious crimes, this case also raised some serious questions about the impact the internet has on our children. You know, I was lucky enough to pretty much grow up with the internet, although let me tell you, it was dial-up internet back then.
Um, you know, that the one that didn't allow you to use your home phone at the same time that you were online. That's what I grew up with. But as a kid, I had access to the entire internet. And back then, there was a lot less out there. But I can tell you, as a kid, I had access to it.
And in today's world, that access, that reach is 10,000 times greater than what I had, probably more. Since this very incident, experts have come forward to say that this should be a wake-up call to parents of all young children, middle schoolers, high schoolers,
that the internet is full of dark and wicked things that vulnerable and impressionable children are exposed to. Of course, the internet is also filled with wonderful websites that help teach our children. We're seeing that more and more even this year with distance learning.
But without the presence of things like Slender Man, like creepypasta on the internet where he came from, maybe unsupervised, what happened to Peyton would have never happened. And that's not to blame the parents. That's not to blame anyone per se.
But that's just to bring awareness to what brought us to having two 12-year-old girls in our community do something like this. And it's awareness to help create better policies to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again. The Slender Man stabbing in 2014, what it's been dubbed in the media,
is a case that presents a lot of opportunity for better policymaking. It's an example of a case where policymakers can look to the field of forensic psychology to create better judicial precedent around juvenile offenders, better policy on offenders who suffer from mental illness.
It's also a case, like I just mentioned, where we need to look. We need to look hard at what our children learn and look at on the internet and in the media. We need to look at this case and say, how can we use forensic psychology to better understand this intersection between mental illness and the criminal justice system?
We know that mental illness manifests in some children at a very early age. And we also know that mental illness increases our chances of getting involved in the criminal justice system. There's so much we can learn from this very case, from the forensic psychology of it, to prevent it from happening ever again. This time, we were so lucky, so fortunate that
that the victim at the center of all of this survived. To check out photos from this case, or to watch some of the police interrogation videos of Morgan and Anissa, stop by the website ForensicTales.com. Also, as always, if you'd like to share your thoughts on the Slender Man stabbing, and you want to let me know what your opinion is,
You can connect with the show on Facebook or on Instagram at Forensic Tales, and you can join in on the discussion. Until next week, remember, not all stories have happy endings. ♪
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