Prosecutor: Slender Man attack cold, calculated

WAUKESHA, Wis. — Prosecutors say a Wisconsin girl accused of helping stab a classmate to appease online horror character Slender Man participated in a cold and calculated attack.

According to investigators, Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser stabbed Payton Leutner in a suburban Milwaukee park in 2014, nearly killing her. All three were 12 at the time.

Weier and Geyser told detectives they believed they had to kill Leutner to become Slender Man’s servants and protect their families from him.

Weier’s attorneys are trying to convince jurors she was mentally ill during the attack and should be committed to an institution rather than prison. Waukesha County Deputy District Attorney Ted Szczupakiewicz told the jury during his closing arguments Friday that the girls had planned the attack for months and that they were not in a “kill or be killed situation.”

Jurors are now deliberating.

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