Teen who pleaded guilty to 2014 Slender Man stabbing to be released early
One of the two Wisconsin teenagers who conspired in the 2014 Slender Man stabbing that nearly killed their middle school classmate will be released early from a mental health lockup.
Anissa Weier, now 19, is set to be released Sept. 10 from Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Wisconsin.
Weier was sentenced in December 2017 to 25 years behind bars after pleading guilty, but applied for early release as soon as she was eligible in March 2021.
Judge Michael Bohren ruled Thursday that prosecutors could not prove Weier was still a threat to society and granted her release application, according to online court records. Officials have 60 days to draw up a conditional release plan that pleases the court.
Weier was eligible for early release because a jury found her not criminally responsible because of a mental disease.
Weier and Morgan Geyser schemed to kill classmate Payton Leutner in May 2014, fearing that Slender Man, a mysterious evil figure they read about online, would kill their families otherwise.
Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier encouraged her, and the two left their friend to die in the woods of Waukesha, a west Milwaukee suburb. Leutner survived the attack. All three were 12 years old at the time.
Weier was sentenced to 25 years in a mental health institution and will have to be monitored in some form until she is 37 years old, even after she is released. Geyser, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, got 40 years.
