Lucy Devine
The victim of the 'slender man' stabbing has revealed exactly what happened on the day she was attacked.
Payton Leutner was stabbed 19 times in 2014, by her classmates Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier. All three of the girls were aged 12 at the time.
Geyser and Weier later told police they had stabbed Payton to 'prove themselves worthy' of the fictional Slender Man, claiming that they feared their families would be harmed if they didn't do it.
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Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide and was sent to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, Wisconsin, with a 40-year sentence.
Meanwhile, Weier also pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted second-degree intentional homicide. She was sent to the same institute and was given a 25-year sentence. However, Weier was released just a few years later, in 2021, on the condition that she wore a GPS monitor.
Following her horrific ordeal, Payton has spoken about what happened on the day in 2014, explaining she believed she was playing hide and seek with the girls after they had had a sleepover for Geyser's birthday the night before.
"I shouldn't be alive after what happened," Payton told ABC's Nightline.
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"They just wanted to go on a walk. And I didn't think much of it. It's just a walk. It's in Waukesha. What bad stuff happens in Waukesha, Wisconsin?
"Anissa told me to lie on the ground and cover myself in sticks and leaves and stuff to hide, in a sense. But it was really just a trick to get me down there."
Geyser stabbed Payton 19 times before the girls left, telling her they were going to get help.
"I got up, grabbed a couple trees for support, I think," said Payton.
"And then just walked until I hit a patch of grass where I could lay down.
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"I couldn't focus much because my body was working so hard to keep itself alive. It was probably like, 'Vision isn't really a priority right now.'"
Moments later and a cyclist came across Payton, who was covered in blood.
The 12-year-old was rushed to hospital, with the surgeon explaining that if the wound to her chest had been 'the width of a human hair' deeper, she would not have survived.
Meanwhile, Geyser and Weier had walked for five hours before they were stopped on the side of a road by authorities.
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It has now been reported that Geyser will also be released from hospital, following a number of failed petitions over the last few years.
The first two petitions were withdrawn, meanwhile a third - submitted in April 2024 - was denied due to Geyser still being considered a threat to the public.
However, Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren has now approved Geyser's release from the hospital after finding the 22-year-old to no longer be a risk.
Bohren has ordered the state's Department of Health Services to make plans within 60 days to house Geyser in a group home where they can be supervised.
He said Geyser had since grown up and must exist as part of society if there is to be rehabilitation.