The slender man stabbing is a violent crime committed as a result of an internet myth. The slender man was a fictitious character given made ‘real’ by numerous details published online. The character is a faceless, lean and tall personality with child abduction behavior. He has a suit and tentacles growing upon his back. He is also able to read people’s minds and teleport to various places a quality that makes him available anywhere at any time. He lingers in the vicinity of children quite oblivious of his existence and takes them by hand to unknown destinations. Although he can cause violence, he is also portrayed as a protector of sort. The internet fiction about the slender man became viral and lots of information about the slender man begun to fill the internet. Owing to much details about the fictitious character, two children were swayed into believing in its existence and conspired to kill pone of their friend to please the slender man and gain their favors and protection. This paper explains the details of how the crime happened, the background of the perpetrators and how their background impacted on their violent actions.
How the Crime Occurred
The character Slender Man came due to entry into competition from Victor Surge’. The competition consisted of two images in black and white. The images contained some group of children, and he added to them a very tall thin figure of a person wearing a black suit. That character, he gave the name, The Slender Man. He added texts to the character and the image became a work of fiction attracting a lot of conversation with others adding to the story and making it viral. For a person oblivious of the origin of the Slender Man, they would think it was a real story. Victor Surge did not anticipate the fiction would go that viral.
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Owing to the success of the fictitious Slender Man on the Internet, children, as well as other oblivious individuals, often thought it was a true happening. Two girls, Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser then aged 12 years would not distinguish the story as fiction and were rather convinced that it was a reality. Anissa and Morgan needed to prove the existence of the Slender Man, perhaps from the nativity of a child. They desired to [rove their loyalty to the Slender Man and become his followers. They believed if one became his follower he would protect both them and their families. However, they also believed that the only way to become the Slender Man’s follower is by killing someone. That way, they thought, they would not only be his servant but also live in his mansion.
They sort to associate with the slender man. Morgan would tell the Police that one just sees the slender man when nobody else does. Believing that the character Slender Man was a true person with all the described attributes, the two girls sort to please him by murdering their childhood friend, Payton. As a result, they went to play a game of hide and seek and having been encouraged by Anissa, Morgan pulled out some kitchen knife she had taken from their kitchen and stabbed Payton on the back nineteen times. They had duct taped her mouth before stabbing her so that she could not scream. They would later confess to the police that they were trying to murder Payton to please the Slender Man. However, Payton survived the stabbings and was hospitalized. The young girls were arrested, and the knife found in one of their bags.
The perpetrator's background.
The perpetrators of the crime were two girls named Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser. The two were aged 12 years at the time of the attack. To understand their background, a one by one description would serve the purpose. The first is Morgan Geyse. She was 12 at the time she committed the attack, and it was a day after her birthday. Morgan’s family has a history of schizophrenic psychosis. Ethridge, (2017) details that, as a person, Morgan was never aware of her surroundings. Also, he had no emotional preference about the circumstances that faced her. She continuously hallucinated and as such would often see things that weren’t real. It is no wonder she explained to the police that the Slender Man was someone who only appeared to one when no one else was seeing. Even in the times that she faced jail. Her mother reports that she did not care her predicament because her hallucinations would be there with her to provide company.
Other details of Morgan’s background included the following. The mother reported that at a young age, Morgan showed no compassion. She noticed that at a young age her daughter lacked empathy and while sitting the Movie Bambi she said that when Bambi’s mother in the movie died they expected Morgan to feel sad but rather said: “run Bambi, save your life”. She felt no pity neither did she feel remorseful for Bambi. Even during questioning, she exhibited very little emotions. After stabbing her friend, she explains, she did not feel like anything, and to her, it was like air (Jensen, 2017).
On the other end, Anissa was reported to have the delusional disorder as well as schizotypy. The condition diminishes one’s ability to distinguish facts from fiction. In one of the interviews with the family, her older brother, Michael reported that Anissa was so much obsessed with the Internet Myth, Slender Man. She also loved creepy pasta, and just anything creepy was her favorite. Her brother also describes her to be very intelligent to a point she lacks sense. She was also a very quiet personality who mostly kept to herself. Until her fourth grade, she was always a very cool person (Cox, 2014).
Where the Persons Could Have Been Helped Before Committing These Crimes
Before committing the crime, the two children could have been helped as follows: at the point that Morgan’s mother discovered the lack of compassion in her daughter she should have taken a keen interest to ascertain her mental status. That way she could have put her in medication well in time to retract the hallucinations and gain mental health. Similarly, the other lady, Anissa displayed weird characteristics. From the point that the parents discovered her love for creepy things as well as the obsession with Slender Man, it should have ringed a bell that perhaps something is not right with their daughter.
More than responding to the manner in which the children behaved differently from others, there is a need for parents to monitor the content that their children find online. The parents should educate and advise on behavior as well as situations throughout the children teen years. Parents should be on the look-out for assign about their children especially from the behavioral aspect (Sanchick, 2014). Behavior change is a better place to spot a sign of an impending trouble among children. Observing the above would make it easier for parents to prevent such eventualities from occurring. Perhaps if both children’s parent observed the above, they would have saved them the pain of almost killing their friend.
Impact on the Victims of this Crime in Detail
The victim of the crime, Payton Leutner was a teenager just like her attackers. The attack left her with nine stabs on her body inside the woods. The doctor said one of the stabs was just an inch away from an artery leading to the heart such that had it hit the artery she would have bled to death. Payton suffered serious pains from the stabs and had to be hospitalized. Additionally, she suffered the trauma of having been attacked by her childhood friends, who apparently should be the ones to protect her. The attackers subjected the victims to physical pain and injury, jeopardized her life and left her with post-attack trauma to deal with (Ethridge, 2017).
Potential Social Service Interventions
Among the few potential social service interventions include being available for the children so as to dialogue with them and learn what they are watching, viewing online or playing with to unearth some of the potentially risky undertakings that they may be involved in. Additionally, children could be provided with a help desk that enables them to give reports on issues affecting them. Parents too could be educated on how to better dialogue with their children and build good relationships that allow the children share with them their problems or plans. It is from sharing that an issue can be unearthed and a situation of grave repercussions be mitigated.
Conclusion
Morgan and Anissa both had backgrounds of mental health problems. It is for such reasons that they became vulnerable to the Slender Man myth and ended up attacking their friend. If the children's conditions would have been detected earlier and addressed, the outcome would probably have been different. As such, it serves as a learning point for parents and the society, in general, to be closer to their children and keenly observe their behavior so that actions can be taken in good time to prevent such eventualities.
References
Cox, L. (2014, June 4). Slender man stabber is out of touch with ‘reality’ claims her brother . Hollywood Life . Retrieved from http://hollywoodlife.com/2014/06/04/slender-man-stabber-anissa-weier-reality-brother-william/.
Ethridge, M. (2017, Jan 17). Slender Man: Morgan Geyser's Mom Begs Court to Toss Confession . RollingStone . Retrieved from http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/slender-man-geysers-mom-begs-court-to-toss-confession-w461360.
Jensen, E. (2017, Jan 24). 'Beware the Slenderman': 7 things we learned about Morgan Geyser, Anissa Weier . USA Today. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2017/01/24/beware-the-slenderman-documentary-morgan-geyser-anissa-weier/96977142/.
Sanchick, M. (2014, June 4). “She was cool until 4th grade:” Classmate talks about 12-year-old stabbing suspect . Fox6 . Retrieved from http://fox6now.com/2014/06/04/she-was-cool-until-4th-grade-classmate-talks-about-stabbing-suspect/.
