A WISCONSIN woman who stabbed her classmate to please the fictional online figure, Slender Man, seven years ago has asked to be released from prison.
Anissa Weier, 19, said she should be released early from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Oshkosh as she has exhausted her treatment options and needs to integrate into society to continue her progress.
Weier was sentenced to 25 years in the specialist mental institution after she brutally stabbed her schoolmate Payton Leutner in May 2014, stemming from a fascination with the internet lore of the Slender Man.
She and her friend Morgan Geyser lured the unsuspecting Leutner to a Waukesha park after a sleepover, before launching into a horrific knife attack.
Geyser stabbed the victim 19 times as Weier cheered her on, believing that they would protect their families from being killed by Slender Man and become his servants if they attacked Leutner.
According to the criminal complaint, one of the girls said, “Many people do not believe Slender Man is real. (We) wanted to prove the sceptics wrong.”
Each of the girls were 12-years-old at the time of the attack. Leutner scarcely survived her stab wounds.
The horrific sixth-grader stabbing gained international notoriety and even inspired the HBO documentary Beware the Slenderman.
But seven years on, Weier has requested an early release from Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren, who originally handed her the 25-year-sentence.
During a hearing regarding the request on Wednesday, she submitted a letter to Bohren begging for her freedom to be granted in November.
She wrote in the letter obtained by WDJT-TV, “I vowed after my crime that I would never become a weapon again, and I intend to keep that vow. I hate my actions (on the day of the attack), but through countless hours of therapy I no longer hate myself for them.
“By petitioning the Court for conditional release, I am NOT saying I am done with my treatment. I am saying that I have exhausted all the resources available to me at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute.
“If I am to become a productive member of society, I need to be a part of society.”
Weier continued to list her hopes for her future, suggesting she would embark on some form of higher education upon her release.
“I want to reiterate that I am not saying I am done growing, changing, evolving or adapting. I just can’t do it here anymore,” she said, after vowing to comply with any conditions Borhen may set.
The judge gave prosecutors a deadline of March 26 to file written briefs on Weier’s request and scheduled a follow-up hearing for June 11.
“I understand the nature of the case, obviously, but also the nature of the procedural aspects of the matter with regard to the reports and how to present,” Bohren said, the Journal Sentinel reports.
If Weier is released, she would be monitored by senior members of the Department of Health Services until she is 37-years-old – the length of her sentence.
Her accomplice Geyser is currently serving a 40 year sentence for her role in the crime at a mental health facility.
