In Spring of 2014, three girls were having a slumber party at their home in Waukesha, Wisconsin – about 20 miles west of Milwaukee. At some point in the evening two of the girls lured the third into the woods where they stabbed her 19 times and left her there to die.

While the victim crawled toward the road to find help the other two girls wandered the woods searching for Slender Man, hoping that he would be happy with their tribute and take them away to his kingdom.

The victim was eventually discovered by a cyclist and taken into emergency surgery where her doctor said she was just a millimeter away from death. The victim has recovered and returned to school. The juvenile attackers are awaiting trial, and their case has only gotten more tangled.

While the victim was in surgery a major hunt was underway to catch the perpetrators, who were eventually found walking along interstate 94. In one of their backpacks authorities found the five-inch long kitchen knife that was used to stab the victim. Little remorse was shown because it was an action the girls’ thought necessary in order to prevent Slender Man from harming them or their families.

During the interrogation, the girls claimed that they needed to kill someone not only for protection but to become proxies of Slender Man. They believed by killing someone they would prove their loyalty to him and thus he would take them to live in his mansion in the woods.
The court proceedings have been ongoing then. As of August 2016, the girls have pleaded guilty by mental disease or defect. One of the girls’ attorneys claims she suffers from oppositional defiant disorder and schizophrenia. The other girl has been said to have schizotypy and a delusional disorder. As of October 2016, both girls will have separate trials.

The girls discovered Slender Man through the Creepypasta Wiki, a website that hosts creepypasta fiction, which are short horror stories that originated on the internet. The origin of the Slender Man is often traced to an internet image of a tall man, dressed in black with an obscured face. His mythos has evolved from internet users who have written thousands of stories about the faceless man in a black suit who sometimes has tentacles that reach out from his back. As part of the mythos, it’s said that the Slender Man can cause amnesia, confusion, and paranoia. He is often depicted in forests and with children.
Immediately after the attacks the administrator of the Creepypasta site released a statement sending their thoughts to the victim and stating that the stabbings did not reflect the creepypasta community whose focus was that of a literary site.

There have been suspicions of other children aiming to do harm because of this fictional character. For now, we will wait to see how the trial of these two young girls develops.

-Gravedigger