Two 13-year-old girls were deemed competent to stand trial in a case that involved them allegedly stabbing a friend 19 times after being inspired by fictional horror character Slender Man, ABC News reported.
The Slender Man stabbing case in Wisconsin has been ongoing since last May when suspects Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser and victim Payton Leutner, were all 12 years old.
On Friday, Wisconsin Judge Michael Bohren reportedly deemed both suspects Weier and Geyser as mentally sound enough to participate in trial. Bohren announced the ruling after the prosecution's doctors were able to provide enough proof to convince the court that Weier was not incompetent, while Geyser's camp waived the hearing to determine her competency agreeing with doctors that she can stand trial.
A preliminary hearing has been set for Feb. 18, 2014, with both girls being charged as adults, according to CNN.
News, reports and expose about the stabbing case and the mythology of the internet phenomenon Slender Man have appeared online on sites such as CNN, The Washington Post, Bustle, Tech Crunch and more.
Here are five chilling facts about the stabbing case and the fictional character that inspired it all.
1. Slender Man is an Internet meme that gained attention back in 2009 after an obscure forum started a competition featuring paranormal photos. This led to the editing of old pictures that gave birth to the tall, faceless figure said to lurk at the background of black-and-white photos dressed in a dark suit with skeletal limbs, CNN reported.
2. After numerous edits and stories that built up the Slender Man, one thing has become known about the fictional character -- his preferred victims were children.
This allegedly inspired Weier and Geyser to take their classmate Leutner to the park and kill her, convinced that Slender Man spoke to them, wanting them to do killings in his name. Both girls even admitted to having planned to kill Leutner's death since December of the previous year, Bustle added.
3. Slender Man is also said to kidnap children and both Weier and Geyser reportedly left Leutner for dead to pacify the ghoulish figure. Leutner ended up having to crawl her way to find rescue before being saved by a passing cyclist.
"Many people do not believe Slender Man is real. We wanted to prove the skeptics wrong," one of the girls was quoted as saying by Washington Post.
4. Slender Man was reportedly a humorous idea at first before moving to a more paranormal theme. The figure gained attention in horror fiction site Creepypasta.
Reports have it that Weier and Geyser said they first found out about Slender Man when they saw the Creepypasta Wiki website. One of them even claimed that Slender Man was the site's leader and for them to be able to join him in his realm, they had to kill someone.
5. The Wisconsin girls are not the first and might not be the last. Reports also have it that the Wisconsin girls still believed that Slenderman is real and similar cases have appeared following the stabbing. A Cincinnati teen, who had a history of mental illness, ended up attacking her mother around the anniversary of Slenderman's creation, Tech Crunch reported.
Given the power of the internet and Slenderman being just one trend among the many that is created every day, no one is certain if or when another horrifying case will occur.
