Woman who admitted Slender Man attack will be released on Monday

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MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) – A Wisconsin woman who admitted to helping stab a classmate to please online horror character Slender Man will be released from a mental health facility on Monday under strict conditions, said a judge on Friday.

Anissa Weier, 19, will be released after spending nearly four years at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Oshkosh. A parole plan requires him to live with his father, undergo 24-hour GPS monitoring, and receive psychiatric treatment, among other things. She will not be allowed to use the Internet except at home, and the state Department of Corrections will monitor her online activity.

Weier and a friend, Morgan Geyser, both made a commitment to Winnebago after pleading guilty to attacking Payton Leutner when they were all 12 years old. Geyser stabbed Leutner multiple times as Weier cheered him on. Leutner suffered 19 stab wounds – including one that narrowly missed his heart – and barely survived.

Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren said Weier’s terms of release were fair and the plan “provides for the protection of the community” as well as Leutner and Weier herself.

Weier, dressed in a dark suit and smiling every now and then, said nothing during the 20-minute procedure. The judge delayed his release until Monday after his lawyer Maura McMahon said the mental health facility would be able to better process his release after the weekend.

“She can’t wait to move on to a productive life,” McMahon told the judge.

Leutner’s family declined to speak at the hearing. Leutner declined to comment when contacted by phone later Friday afternoon.

As part of Weier’s release conditions, a case manager will monitor his medication for post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and personality disorder. Her cell phone will not be able to access the Internet and she will not be allowed to use social media at all. She will also not be allowed to consume alcohol or drugs, enter a bar, own a gun or have contact with Leutner or his family.

Deputy District Attorney Ted Szczupakiewicz said he had no objection to the release conditions.

The attack happened in May 2014, after Weier and Geyser invited Leutner to a sleepover. The next day they lured Leutner into the woods of a park in Waukesha. Weier and Geyser left Leutner for dead, but she managed to crawl out of the woods and a passing cyclist found her.

Police found Weier and Geyser later that day walking on Interstate 94 in Waukesha. They told investigators they attacked Leutner because they believed it would make them servants of Slender Man and prevent him from killing their families. After the stab wounds, they started walking to Slender Man’s mansion, they said.

The character of Slender Man was born from stories on the Internet. He is depicted as a spider figure in a black costume with a blank white face. Sony Pictures released a movie about Slender Man stalking three girls in 2018. Weier’s father, Bill, criticized the movie as an attempt to capitalize on a tragedy.

Weier ultimately pleaded guilty to attempted second degree manslaughter. Borhen sentenced her to 25 years in Winnebago in December 2017.

In her parole application, she argued that she had exhausted all of her treatment options at the facility and needed to be reintegrated into society. She vowed that she would never let herself “be a weapon again”. Bohren reigned in July than Weier no longer posed a threat and ordered state officials to work out a release plan.

Geyser pleaded guilty attempted first degree murder. Bohren sentenced her to 40 years in a mental health facility in February 2018. She argued her case should have been heard in juvenile court, but an appeals court ruled last year that the case had been properly heard in adult court.

His general counsel, Anthony Cotton, said on Friday that Geyser had not filed a request for release and declined to comment further. Court records show that upon his conviction, Bohren ruled that parole “would pose a significant risk of bodily harm” to Geyser or others.