Chances are you’ve heard of, or read about, the Slender Man-inspired stabbing of a 12-year-old girl by two friends who were allegedly hoping to win the approval of the shadowy figure that’s become the stuff of urban legend.
Payton Leutner is that girl, and her family is happy to report she’s thriving despite the horrific attack that saw her lured into woods near her home in Waukesha, Wisconsin in May 2014 and stabbed 19 times by Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, also just 12 at the time.
The now 14-year-old is taking AP classes (college-level classes) at high school and joined her French club on a trip to Canada, as well as enjoying time with family and new friends.
“There’s some normalcy, after this horrific premeditated crime, and we’re just very proud of her,” said a family spokesperson.
It’s been almost two years since Leutner was lured to woodlands by her two ‘friends’ – just a day after celebrating Geyser’s twelfth birthday with a sleepover – and viciously stabbed in the chest, abdomen and arms.
Doctors later said that a knife allegedly carried by Geyser passed less than 1mm from a major artery, leaving Leutner “the width of a human hair” away from death.
She was left to bleed out but managed to crawl to a bike bath on the edge of the woods and was found by a passerby.
Geyser and Weier are set to be tried as adults, meaning they could receive life sentences if found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, to which they’ve entered pleas of insanity.
Appearing on Good Morning America this week, Weier’s parents said their daughter genuinely believed Slender Man – who’s terrified and fascinated the Internet in equal measure since the meme was born in ’09 – and wanted to prove it by attacking Leutner.
“They thoroughly believed that Slender Man was real and they wanted to prove that he was real,” said mum Kristi.
Despite trying hard to move on with her life after the horrific crime, Leutner’s family has said she finds the prospect of giving evidence at each of the girls’ trials understandably “very difficult”.
The update on her progress comes a week before the release of HBO‘s hugely-hyped doco ‘Beware the Slenderman’, which details Geyser and Weier’s alleged five month plan to murder their friend.
Both their families agreed to participate in filming, while Leutner’s declined so she could continue her recovery in private.
If you haven’t already sussed it, here’s the trailer.
Source: WCVB.
Photo: Supplied.
