A Wisconsin woman who admitted to helping stab her former classmate to please the fictional character Slender Man will be freed from a mental health institution, a judge ruled Friday.
Anissa Weier, 19, has been at Winnebago Mental Health Institute since December 2017 after pleading guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide. She was initially sentenced to 25 years at the hospital but will now be subject to constant GPS monitoring and will receive outpatient psychiatric treatment under the conditions of her release, according to the Associated Press.
Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren ordered Weier’s release in July, accepting the plan to release her on Friday. The conditional release plan was fair and “provides for the protection of the community,” as well as for the victim of the stabbing, Payton Leutner, and Weier herself, according to Bohren.
Weier and her friend Morgan Geyser both pleaded guilty to attacking Leutner, with Geyser pleading guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide. The two girls lured Leutner into a park during a sleepover in May 2014 when Geyser repeatedly stabbed while Weier egged her on. All three of the girls were 12 when the stabbing happened.
Leutner, who had 19 stab wounds, was left for dead, but a passing bicyclist found her. Leutner survived her stabbing.
Geyser and Weier, who said they stabbed Leutner because they thought it would make them servants of Slender Man and protect their families, were later sentenced to mental health facilities, with Geyser getting 40 years in February 2018.
The Slender Man, a fictional supernatural character who preys on children, grew in popularity in the 2010s through stories on the internet and a free-to-play computer game. A movie based on the character was released by Sony Pictures in 2018, angering Leutner’s father.
“It’s absurd they want to make a movie like this,” Bill Weier said. “It’s popularizing a tragedy is what it’s doing. I’m not surprised, but in my opinion, it’s extremely distasteful. All we’re doing is extending the pain all three of these families have gone through.”
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The Winnebago Mental Health Institute did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
