Girls who stabbed friend 19 times reveal twisted plan in chilling interview
Two “meek” blood-stained 12-year-old girls who attempted to murder their friend to death to appease the fictitious Slender Man felt no remorse as they detailed their horrific crime to police, detectives have revealed.
In an interview with ABC, which will air on October 25 in the U.S., detectives Michelle Trussoni and Tom Casey describe the chilling moment Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier confessed to stabbing Payton Leutner 19 times.
At around 10am on May 31, 2014, Leutner was found bleeding on the side of a Wisconsin road.
Geyser and Weier were later picked up walking along a freeway in Waukesha - having walked for five hours.
Detective Trussoni said she noticed the girls were covered in stains and that their demeanour was very calm.
“They seemed very meek, if you will,” she said.
As the girls were brought in for questioning at the police station, Payton was rushed into surgery.
Geyser and Weier were taken to seperate rooms for questioning.
“I have never gone into an interview so blind as I have in this one,” Trussoni added.
“I thought that maybe this was all about a boy - this was a fight about a boy.”
She quickly learned she was very wrong.
“We were trying to kill her”
As the interview began, Geyser, who Detective Casey recalled acted as if her being in a police station covered in blood was “normal”, asked police if Payton was dead.
Casey noted that it seemed as though it didn’t matter to Geyser whether her friend, who was also known as ‘Bella’, was dead or alive.
"I might as well just say it. We were trying to kill her," Geyser ultimately confessed.
Geyser insisted to police the pair stabbed their friend because Weier insisted it was necessary.
"Because she said that he'd kill our families,” Geyser said.
“A man. I didn't know him. But Anissa knew him.”
The man was revealed to be a fictitious character named Slender Man, an internet meme, which became popular in 2009 after appearing on an online forum.
"He's, like I said, a tall guy who constantly wears a suit. He doesn't have a face. His skin is white," Weier told police during her interview, according to ABC.
Weier said she saw Slender Man, who she believed actually killed people, especially children.
"I was really scared, knowing that Slender [Man] could easily kill my whole family in three seconds," Weier added.
According to Trussoni, the girls hatched a plan to kill Payton in an effort to prove their worth to Slender Man.
After the murder, they planned to walk to Slender Man’s rumoured mansion in the middle of Nicolet National Park.
While Geyser implied Weier was the ringleader, Trussoni had her doubts.
“My thought was, 'Is she doing this for Morgan [Geyser]?’” Trussoni said of Weier.
Detective Casey said there was “a lot of deception” in Geyser’s interview.
Three murder plots
Geyser and Weier drafted three plans on how to murder Payton.
The two told police they would speak about the plan, even in public, using codewords, like “cracker” instead of “knife” and “itch” in place of “killing”.
Each of the three plans revolved around a sleepover at Geyser’s house.
Initially the girls planned to duct tape Payton’s mouth shut in the middle of the night and stab her in the neck, but changed their minds because they were too tired from roller skating.
The next morning, Geyser and Weier began brainstorming again.
"While Payton is putting on a pink dress — a princess dress — the two start talking and they start devising plan number two," Trussoni told ABC News.
Geyser then suggested killing Payton in a bathroom stall at a park, as there was a drain for the blood.
Both girls claim it was the other who took a knife from the kitchen.
Weier told police she read online it was easier to kill people if they were asleep or unconscious.
“It’s also easier if you do not look them in the eyes,” Weier told police.
After Weier knocked Payton’s head against concrete in the bathroom stall, the pair briefly lost their nerve, before ultimately luring her into nearby woods with the promise of playing hide and seek.
It was there the two launched their attack.
“People who trust you become very gullible, and it was sort of sad,” Geyser said.
"It was weird. I felt no remorse. I thought I would… I actually felt nothing," she admitted.
Trussoni told ABC the entire situation was “absolutely terrifying.”
After the stabbing, Payton managed to crawl out of the woods and was later discovered by a cyclist.
In 2017, Weier pleaded guilty to second degree homicide as a party to a crime with use of a deadly weapon, and was sentenced to 25 years in a mental health facility.
Geyser was ordered to spend 40 years in a mental institution.
Peyton, who survived the brutal attack, will speak out about the attack the first time during the ABC segment.
In a victim impact statement, Stacie Leutner said her daughter had 25 scars - nineteen from the attack and six more from surgeries on “Payton’s heart, liver, stomach and pancreas.”
“In the end it was that compassion that led Payton into the woods with Morgan and Anissa. You see, Payton knew that if she wasn't Morgan's friend then Morgan wouldn't have any friends,” Ms Leutner said.
Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.
You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter, download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play and stay up to date with the latest news with Yahoo’s daily newsletter. Sign up here.
