Parents of the 12-year-old victim who was violently stabbed 19 times by two of her classmates who hoped to impress Slender Man share their horrifying story for the first time.
On May 31, two 12-year old girls Anissa Weir and Morgan Geyser lured their classmate Payton Leutner into a park in Waukesha, Wisconsin after a sleepover at Geyser's place. They allegedly stabbed Leutner 19 times and left her to die in the forest to please Slender Man, a fictional Internet character. The victim, however, managed to crawl out and a passing bicyclist called 911 and alerted them.
Simultaneously, both Geyser and Weir have been charged as adults in court for first-degree homicide and stand to face 60 years in jail if convicted. However, per the state law, if they are tried as juveniles the term may be reduced and they would be held till they are 25 years.
Geyser is said to be mentally incompetent to undergo trial per doctors, whereas Weier is going through competency tests. The hearing is scheduled for Oct. 22.
The victim has resumed school and is slowly going back to her usual self. Stacie and Joe Leutner, the parents of the victim, share their ordeal for the first time in an exclusive interview with David Muir of ABC's 20/20.
The parents recount the horror and share the trauma they underwent when they first learnt that their daughter was in ER.
"She was as pale as a ghost. She was terrified, she was crying, she couldn't breathe," recounts the girl's mother Stacie in the interview.
Upon seeing her mother the victim reached for her and Stacie hugged the girl.
"And I said, you're going to be OK, it's going to be fine,'" narrates Stacie. "But I could see that she was covered, her arms, her legs, abdomen, were covered in stab wounds. And all I hear is, 'there's five on her arm, there's seven on her leg,' and I'm thinking, 'seven? What?"
Stacie recollects the agonizing moments during the interview when she learnt that there were 19 stab wounds and how one of them had narrowly missed a major artery near her daughter's heart. She was also astounded to learn from her daughter that her attacker was none other than her best friend since fourth grade.
The parents call Payton their "hero" and revealed during the interview that their daughter survived multiple stabbings because she said she "wanted to live."
