Spooky Scary Skeleton, They Made Him Up Online

Remember back in 2009 when relatively unknown creator Eric Knudsen, also known as Victor Surge, submitted the Slender Man as a creepypasta on the Something Awful forum as an entry to a Photoshop paranormal image contest? If not, you probably remember the surge of Slender Man based memes and media content since there are several games and movies loosely based on the Slender Man.

What is the Slender Man, you might ask? Slender Man is a fictional character depicted as a thin, faceless, unnaturally tall humanoid wearing a black suit. Periodically, the Slender Man is also described to have long fingers and tentacles and is said to stalk, abduct, or traumatize his victims. Why are we bringing this up now? Well, this weird story starts in 2014 with an attack that was planned by two 12-year-old girls that almost killed their 12-year-old "friend" in Waukesha, Wisconsin. In May of 2014, two 12-year-old girls lured a girl they had previously considered a friend into the woods and stabbed her 19 times because the Slender Man "told them to." By a miracle, the victim survived and found it in her to crawl towards the street where she was found by a cyclist who of course called the police. The two almost-murderers were caught pretty quickly. Both girls were tried as adults and the primary aggressor was charged with attempted first-degree murder (Class-A felony) and the other girl was charged with attempted second-degree murder (Class-B felony). In 2017 the girl charged with the Class-B felony was found not guilty by mental disease or defect while the aggressor took a plea deal in which she would not go to trial and instead would be evaluated by psychiatrists to determine how long she would need to be placed in a mental hospital. She was also found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

The interesting part of this story is that Anissa Weier, also mentioned as the girl charged with a Class-B felony, was released in September of last year. Of course, there were some conditions: Weier must live with her father, she must submit to 24-hr GPS monitoring, she still has to receive psychiatric treatment, and she is not allowed to use the internet except at home which will be monitored by the Department of Corrections. She was originally sentenced to 25 years in a mental facility, but after 4 years filed for an appeal and won. As far as we know, Weier is still living quietly with her father.

Did the other girl do the same? In short, yes, but unsuccessfully. Morgan Geyser was sentenced to 40 years in a mental facility and to this day is still in one. Her situation is a little different since her diagnosis of schizophrenia is a more severe diagnosis than what Weier received that is unfortunately hereditary, as Geyser's father also has schizophrenia. Will she file for another appeal for release? Time will tell.

Be careful of what you breathe life into on the internet - you may end up creating a tulpa.