The sixth-grade Wisconsin girl who was stabbed 19 times by two of her classmates in a ritual to serve the internet boogeyman Slender Man has publicly opened up about the harrowing attack for the first time.
In a sneak peek of a 20/20 interview airing on Friday, Payton Leutner said she wants the world to finally see her side of the 2014 event, which took place after she was lured into the woods by Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier the morning after a birthday sleepover. All three girls were 12 years old at the time.
Once in the woods, Geyser reportedly viciously attacked Leutner with a kitchen knife while Weier encouraged the stabbing. The duo later confessed to the attack, which they reportedly plotted for over five months, admitting they committed the crime in order to appease the online urban legend born from a Creepypasta meme in 2009.
The two attackers were sentenced to a combined 65 years in a mental institution.
Related: Father Of Real-Life Slender Man Attacker Not Happy About Movie!
But now, their victim is ready to share her version of events — and her side makes the story all the more tragic.
In the interview, Leutner, now 17, explained how she came to be friends with her future assailants, telling the outlet she approached Geyser after she noticed the girl was struggling to make friends in school.
She recalled:
“She was sitting all by herself and I didn’t think anyone should have to sit by themselves.”
The pair quickly became inseparable — but, according to Leutner, “everything went down hill” in the sixth grade.
That year, Geyser became friends with Weier and, together, the trio developed a fascination for Slender Man. Leutner remembered:
“I thought it was odd. It kind of frightened me a little bit. But I went along with it. I was supportive because I thought that’s what [Geyser] liked.”
But eventually, Geyser’s interest in Slender Man became too much.
Leutner remembered asking her mother whether Slender Man was real due to all the stories Geyser told about the tall, suit-wearing creature, and was relieved to find out he was fictional. Still, she considered severing ties with her friends — particularly Weier.
She explained:
“I didn’t like [Weier] at all. I just hung out with her because I knew that Morgan really loved her as a friend. But she was always cruel to me. I feel like she was jealous that Morgan was friends with me and her.”
As for the fateful night before the attack, Leutner said she had no idea what her supposed friends were planning — but she remembered feeling something was off.
She said:
“Once I look back on it, I was like, that is really weird. Why didn’t I see something? Why didn’t I notice something was weird? But I’m not blaming myself at all. Because who could ever see something like this coming? Nobody could ever see something like this coming.”
After all, it was all disguised as an innocent game: the next morning, the girls went to a park where Geyser told Leutner to lay down in the woods close by. Leutner thought they were playing a game of hide-and-seek.
She recalled:
“Anissa told me to lie on the ground and cover myself in sticks and leaves and stuff to hide, in a sense. But it was really just a trick to get me down there.”
After she was stabbed repeatedly by Geyser, Leutner was left alone in the woods, bleeding. Miraculously, she found the strength to get up:
“I got up, grabbed a couple trees for support, I think, and then just walked until I hit a patch of grass where I could lay down.”
Leutner admitted she had no idea a bicyclist later found her and called 911. Fortunately, doctors were able to successfully treat all her injuries with emergency surgery.
When she woke up, the pre-teen wasn’t shocked to find out the motive behind the attack. She shared:
“After I heard why she did it, I was like, ‘Well, this doesn’t surprise me at all because she believed so hard in this thing that she would do anything for it.’ ”
Wow.
The teen says she isn’t afraid of Geyser or Weier’s eventual release, but made it clear she “doesn’t ever want to see or talk to” them ever again.
As for the future, Leutner plans to attend college in 2020 and pursue a career in the medical field, a move “inspired” by her tragic ordeal.
She also still sleeps with a pair of broken scissors under her pillow to this day — “just in case.”
Watch the clip of her interview (below) and keep an eye out for the full special on Friday.
A week after Payton Leutner was stabbed by her friends in the woods, Waukesha Det. Shelly Fisher interviewed the young girl at the hospital. @DavidMuir's 2-hour 20/20 airs Friday at 9|8c on @ABC. https://t.co/xgz4H4L6Jk pic.twitter.com/8S9PKEZk5X
— 20/20 (@ABC2020) October 24, 2019
[Image via Sony Pictures]
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