In one of the more bizarre crimes you may ever here about, two 12-year-old girls from southeast Wisconsin have been arrested and face up to 60 years in prison for allegedly stabbing their 12-year-old friend 19 times in the woods. The victim is currently in stable condition and is expected to survive. The assailants were apparently motivated by a spooky Internet meme known as ‘Slender Man.’
According to a criminal complaint, the girls had been planning to kill their friend for months and finally made the attempt in a park on Saturday morning, after a slumber party.
One of the girls told a detective they were trying to become "proxies" of Slender Man, a mythological demon-like character they learned about on creepypasta.wikia.com, a website about horror stories and legends. They planned to run away to the demon's forest mansion after the slaying, the complaint said.
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According to the criminal complaint, one of the girls told an investigator they began planning to kill their friend in December. The other girl told police they decided to kill her so they could become proxies of Slender Man, who would accept them and let them live with him in his mansion in the Nicolet National Forest.
The other girl said she sees Slender Man in her dreams. She said he watches her and can read her mind and teleport.
The so-called Slender Man emerged from disparate works of fiction and is usually depicted as an unnaturally tall man with a featureless face. He wears a black suit and is said to stalk, abduct, or traumatize people – especially children.
Both girls will be tried as adults, and bail was set at $500,000 cash per child. The victim was apparently left lying in the woods after the attack, but she managed to crawl to a nearby road where she was discovered by a cyclist. She was able to give the police the names of her attackers before being rushed into surgery.
On radio this morning, Glenn reacted to the disturbing story and questioned the type of content children are able to access on the Internet today. As technology comes to play a larger and larger role in everyday life, it will be up to parents to police what their children have access to, but are enough parents willing and ready to take such an active role?
“I'm sorry, but there are too many weird things about this story,” Glenn said. “I mean darkness will use any path, so while this is completely made up, these kids got so into it, they started to believe that he was real, and they wanted to serve him.”
Urban legends and scary stories have been around for a very long time, and there is no way to predict a internet meme could lead to two 12-year-olds to commit such a gruesome crime. When it comes to children, Glenn explained that it is up to parents to understand what is appropriate for their family.
“It's about our choices and what's appropriate for each of us. That's what it's about. But in today's society, you can't say that you should use your own noodle and maybe think things through,” Glenn said. “How many times do my kids tell me that they wanted to watch a movie? Nope. It's PG-13… When you figure out how many years there are between eight and 13, you'll know how close you are to watching that movie.”
“That doesn't mean ban movies that are PG-13, doesn't mean ban rated R movies. I don't have a problem with rated R movies. There are a lot of rated R movies I want to see,” he continued. “I've had made the choice myself, my wife and I don't want to go see them… You can go watch the rated R movies all you want. I don't care… That's up to you.”
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