Girl in ‘Slender Man’ Stabbing Sentenced to 25 Years in Mental Hospital

A Wisconsin girl who attempted to kill her friend in order to appease the fictional horror character named Slender Man has been sentenced to 25 years in a mental hospital.

Anissa Weier, now 16, pleaded guilty to being a party to attempted second-degree intentional homicide, claiming that she wasn’t responsible for her actions because she was mentally ill, the New York Post reports. On Thursday, Weier learned her sentence, Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren sentencing her to be hospitalized for 25 years from the date of the crime.

Weier’s sentence will keep her institutionalized until she is 37. In court, she apologized and accepted responsibility for her crimes.

On May 31, 2014, Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser lured their friend, Payton Luetner, into a wooded park in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier urged her on in an attack meant to impress the fictional Slender Man. Leutner managed to crawl out of the woods, where a bicyclist found her and called 911.

All three girls were 12 years old at the time of the attack.

The attack and what led Weier and Geyser to believe in the fictional character was recounted in the HBO documentary Beware the Slenderman, which debuted on the streaming platform on January 23, 2017.

Weier’s parents have previously expressed their remorse over the incident and have stated that Leutner, who managed to survive her life-threatening injuries, is on their minds every day.