True Crime Vault: The Wicked

Summary

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20/20 True Crime Vault: The Wicked

ABC News | October 7, 2025

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Episode Overview

This powerful episode of "20/20 True Crime Vault" delves into the infamous 2014 "Slender Man stabbing" in Waukesha, Wisconsin—a case where two 12-year-old girls attempted to murder their friend, Peyton Lightner, under the influence of an Internet-born urban legend. Through in-depth interviews, police accounts, and chilling interrogation clips, the episode explores not only the incident but also its psychological roots, aftermath, and the ongoing impact on all involved. It questions the boundaries between fantasy and reality, the dangers of digital folklore, and how the justice system grapples with such extraordinary juvenile crimes.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene

• Background:
  • Peyton Lightner, a typical 12-year-old, attended her best friend's (Morgan Geyser) birthday sleepover along with Anissa Weier, a newer friend ("She was drawn to Morgan because Morgan was a bit of a loner." – Reporter/Interviewer, 03:24).
  • What seemed a normal Friday night became the backdrop for a months-long plot.
• Location:
  • Waukesha, Wisconsin—a safe suburban community with good schools and parks.
  • The attack happened on a beautiful day in May 2014.

2. The Attack

• Initial Events:
  • After an ordinary night at Skateland and sleepover activities, the girls head to the park the next morning.
  • Peyton had no inkling of the true plans the others had made ("They kept it a secret." – Peyton Lightner, 41:58).
• Three Murder Plans:
  • Multiple aborted attempts—first at night, then in a park bathroom, before the attack occurred in the woods.
  • Ultimately, Peyton was lured with the pretense of hide and seek ("They walked deeper and deeper into the woods." – Narrator/Host, 38:22).
• The Stabbing:
  • Morgan attacks Peyton, stabbing her 19 times ("The surgeon... told me that had it been the width of a human hair deeper... she wouldn't be here today." – Reporter/Interviewer, 13:34).
  • Peyton, demonstrating remarkable resilience, drags herself from the woods and is discovered by a cyclist.

3. The Investigation & Interrogations

• Law Enforcement Response:
  • Initial disbelief from first responders; difficulty comprehending two 12-year-olds could commit such violence ("This is the most unbelievable story I've ever heard. Who the heck is Slender Man?" – Detective Tresoni, 00:43 & 17:17).
  • Both girls are found hours later, walking along the side of a freeway.
• Chilling Interrogations:
  • The girls are interrogated separately, showing a chilling lack of remorse and shocking naiveté ("It was weird. I felt no remorse. I thought I would." – Morgan, 48:40).
  • Details of their belief that the Internet character Slender Man required a sacrifice ("We had to prove ourselves worthy to Slender." – Interviewer/Interrogator, 23:46).
  • Motive rooted in delusion, but also in psychological vulnerability ("If you do not look them in the eyes, it's easier to kill people." – Interviewer/Interrogator, 37:14).

4. Origins of the Motive: Slender Man and the Internet

• Digital Folklore:
  • Slender Man: an Internet-born myth amplified by “creepypasta” stories, images, and games.
  • The girls melded fantasy and reality ("They believed all of it was real." – Peyton Lightner, 29:33).
  • Influence of obsessive research and online role-play.
• Psychological Vulnerability:
  • Morgan’s family history of schizophrenia ("Her father has schizophrenia." – Morgan Geyser's Mother, 61:06).
  • Morgan is later diagnosed with early onset schizophrenia.
  • Anissa is found to have a "shared psychotic disorder"—folie à deux—casting the act as a product of a perfect psychological storm.

5. Aftermath: Legal and Personal Consequences

• Trial and Sentencing:

  • Both girls, only 12 at the time, are charged as adults for attempted first-degree homicide—raising questions about juvenile justice ("It's unthinkable to try a 12-year-old child as an adult regardless of what they've done." – Morgan Geyser's Mother, 48:32).
  • Anissa is found not guilty by reason of mental disease and sentenced to 25 years in a state mental institution (70:21).
  • Morgan is also committed for 40 years (73:42).
  • Peyton expresses conflicted feelings: "Adult crime is adult court. If they had stolen a candy bar, sure, that's a child, but you tried to kill somebody." (Peyton Lightner, 64:18).

• Impact on Families:

  • The toll on Peyton’s family is high ("Stacey and Joe, their marriage didn't survive this. And this is a sign of the true cost of tragedy." – Reporter/Interviewer, 80:31).
  • Morgan’s mother expresses grief and guilt; Peyton’s recovery is both physical and emotional.

6. Survivor's Story

• Recovery:

  • Peyton’s physical resilience is matched by her emotional strength.
  • She initially slept in her mother’s bed for fear, and still keeps scissors under her pillow for safety ("It just makes me feel safer." – Peyton Lightner, 74:50).
  • Her trust in others is deeply affected, yet she forges ahead ("I just see myself." – Peyton Lightner, 75:31).

• Forgiveness and Reflection:

  • The episode closes with Peyton’s remarkable perspective:
    • "Because of what she did, I have the life I have now, which I really, really like." (Peyton Lightner, 82:21)
    • "What happened to me has made me who I am. And I love it." (Peyton Lightner, 82:50)
  • On Morgan’s apology: "I mean, it's a nice gesture and I appreciate it, but they're just words on a piece of paper." (Peyton Lightner, 79:29)

7. Broader Implications

• Digital Literacy & Mental Health:
  • The story becomes a cautionary tale about children's access to online fantasy ("We can't change what's on the Internet, but we can change whether our kids access it and if they do access it, how they process it." – Reporter/Interviewer, 81:24).
  • The limits of parental insight and the urgent need for mental health support.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (With Timestamps)

• "Who the heck is Slender Man?"
  — Detective Tresoni (00:43, 17:17)
• "We were trying to kill her. So why did you pick Peyton? I didn't pick her. Whoever Anissa was talking about. She made it seem necessary."
  — Interviewer/Interrogator & Suspect (23:19–23:35)
• "It's easier to kill people when they're either asleep or unconscious."
  — Interviewer/Interrogator (37:14)
• "They just wanted to go on a walk. And I didn't think much of it. It's just a walk. It's in Waukesha. Like, what bad stuff happens in Waukesha."
  — Peyton Lightner (43:38)
• "The surgeon... told me that had it been the width of a human hair deeper... she wouldn't be here today."
  — Reporter/Interviewer (13:34)
• "It was weird. I felt no remorse. I thought I would."
  — Morgan (48:40)
• "If Morgan weren't schizophrenic, probably this doesn't happen."
  — Expert/Commentator (81:33)
• "Because of what she did, I have the life I have now, which I really, really like it."
  — Peyton Lightner (82:21)
• "What happened to me has made me who I am. And I love it."
  — Peyton Lightner (82:50)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction to Case & Attack: 00:33–14:08
• Interrogations & Slender Man Motive: 20:15–30:51
• Psychology & Digital Folklore: 24:01–30:24
• Family Perspectives & Warning Signs: 56:32–62:05
• Court Proceedings & Sentencing: 66:02–74:22
• Peyton's Reflections & Conclusion: 74:45–83:08

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Conclusion

This episode is a gripping, comprehensive look into a real-life horror spawned from the blurry intersection of youthful vulnerability, online myth, and unrecognized mental illness. It offers rare insight into the minds of children caught between reality and Internet narrative, the struggles of the families affected, and the difficult questions facing the justice system. Above all, it chronicles the resilience of Peyton Lightner in the aftermath, ending not with definitive answers, but with a survivor’s evolving strength and hope for the future.

Transcript

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[Reporter/Interviewer]

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[Narrator/Host]

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[Reporter/Interviewer]

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[Peyton Lightner]

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[Narrator/Host]

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[Reporter/Interviewer]

So many people have followed this story for so long, including us. And this is the first time that Peyton Lightner is talking. Do you remember leaving the park to go to the woods?

[Detective Tresoni]

This is the most unbelievable story I've ever heard. Who the heck is Slender Man?

[Expert/Commentator]

312 year old girls at a sleepover.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

The suspects lured the victim into the woods and all three of the girls.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Are 12 years old.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

We had no idea that she believed Slender man was real.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

What did you do next? Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Was there any part of it where you thought I might not survive this?

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

What were you trying to do with her when you stabbed her? Kill her? I might as well just say it. We were trying to kill her.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

If she saw this interview, what would you want to say to her?

[Peyton Lightner]

Ooh.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Tonight, the David muir exclusive. The two hour 2020 event begins now.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

The whole time Peyton was screaming through agony. Are you going to put me in prison and I'm going to rot and die?

[Reporter/Interviewer]

This is one of those stories that strikes at the heart of every parent, especially the parents who take that extra effort to be aware of what their kids are doing when they go to their friends homes.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Did you feel bad I would just stay up with your best friends? I thought about it, but then I decided that remorse will get me nowhere. It's easier to live without regrets.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Now for that shocking story out of Wisconsin, brutal stabbing of a 12 year old girl. The girl told police she was with two other girls she knew.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

Victims were friends left her to die.

[Peyton Lightner]

Prosecutors asked for a million dollars cash.

[Narrator/Host]

Bail for two middle schoolers they say.

[Peyton Lightner]

Plotted for months before they attacked their best friend.

[Expert/Commentator]

Right from the beginning, the media coverage was overwhelming.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

The suspect lured the victim into the woods. All three of the girls are 12 years old.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

And as full details of this case.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Start to circulate, people that I talk.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

To literally have no words.

[Expert/Commentator]

It was just sort of a hard story for everyone to get their head. 312 year old girls had a sleepover. Happens all over the country, all the time. But this one ended a little different.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Here you have this typical 12 year old girl, Peyton Lightner. She's from Waukesha, Wisconsin. She likes what so many young girls like. And had she gone on sleepovers before?

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Oh, yeah.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Mm. And this was just, you know, her.

[Peyton Lightner]

Best friend's birthday party was just another Friday night.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

But this was, you know, a party that was gonna celebrate, you know, her, her best friend. And they were talking about it for weeks.

[Peyton Lightner]

Peyton was so, so excited.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Go back five years ago to 12 year old Peyton. How would you describe her?

[Peyton Lightner]

Hopeful, positive. An animal lover. I saw the good in people.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Peyton has a best friend. Her name is Morgan. And one of the extraordinary things about Peyton is that she was drawn to Morgan because Morgan was a bit of a loner.

[Peyton Lightner]

I made friends with her when I saw that she didn't have any friends at all because Morgan. Yeah, I didn't want her to be alone.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

She was my only friend for a long time because. Why would you hurt your only friend? It was necessary.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

There was a third girl, Anissa.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

What is your name? Anissa Williams. Anissa.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

She was new to the school that year. She became friends mostly with Morgan, so the three of them had begun to spend time together. It was a Friday night.

[Peyton Lightner]

Yeah, we went to Skateland. I've always been pretty good at roller skating, so I was going around doing my own thing.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

We were at Skateland, having a good time. Did you guys talk about the plan at all? Nope.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Peyton had no idea that the other two girls had been planning, had been plotting. And what was supposed to be sort of a typical joyful slumber party was instead really a dark plan to try to lure Peyton in. What were you expecting these young girls to be doing?

[Peyton Lightner]

Well, Peyton brought her American Girl doll. I think back to when I was 12. I played Barbies at sleepovers, so that's what I expected to be happening. Playing with dolls and spending some time on the Internet.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

They played up in Morgan's bedroom, ran up and down the stairs giggling and laughing and. I mean, it was just a normal night.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

I wanted to give her at least one more morning.

[Expert/Commentator]

The next morning, then they wake up, they have breakfast, they play games, they then go to the park.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

We're going to do it today at the park. That's what we look at.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Whose idea was it to go to the park? Do you remember?

[Peyton Lightner]

It was Morgan's idea. She normally was not allowed to go by herself. Normally there had to be an adult. But since it was her birthday, her mom let her go, which with just the three of us.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

And then we said that we were gonna play hide and seek. It happened really fast. I'm thinking, dear God, this is really happening.

[Expert/Commentator]

How in the heck can these two innocent looking 12 year old girls commit such a heinous act? What caused all this?

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

I didn't want to do this. Why'd you do it then? Because I was afraid what would happen if I didn't.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

And you never had any idea that there was any sort of.

[Narrator/Host]

Mm, mm.

[Peyton Lightner]

No.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

My name's Dan Klein. I'm a police officer for the city of Waukesha Police Department. Waukesha is a suburb of Milwaukee. It's the biggest suburb around. There's about 7,70,000 residents.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

A lot of families. We have a lot of parks out there, good schools.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Saturday, May 31, 2014. It was one of our first nice weather days that we've had on a Saturday. Sunny, 72 degrees, gorgeous day out.

[Detective Tresoni]

I thought, well, the earlier I get in, the earlier I get out and put in my eight.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

My first call of the day was a pretty easy call. The family video store is one of our local mom and PA shops. They rent videos, one of the only ones left in the area that I'm aware of. On their marquee they had a phrase that was supposed to say hot hit sale. And someone had rearranged the letters overnight to a very inappropriate message. I was kind of chuckling about it. I was just about to take a photo to send to my wife so she could get a little chuckle out of it. Just as I was trying to take my phone out over my radio, I heard that a 12 year old girl had been stabbed about a mile and a half away from this location.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

I'm transferring over. A caller on Big Bend came upon a 12 year old female. She appears to be stabbed. She appears to be what? Stabbed.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

Initially my thoughts were this isn't really what this is. I'm thinking this girl probably scratched herself, she fell down off her bike. This girl did not get stabbed.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Greg Steinberg was on his bicycle only on this Saturday he chose to take a different route and that's when he found Peyton. I quick got out my cell phone, I was shaking and dialed 911 and I just stayed with the 911. She was right here in the grass.

[Detective Tresoni]

Exactly.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

But you had no idea how many times she'd actually died? No.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Okay. Sir, are you with her right now? Yes. Is she awake? She's awake. Is there any bleeding going on? Her clothing has got blood on it.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

I offered her water because I had a water bottle on my bike. The other thing she said was she's having trouble breathing. He knew this was a Little girl in trouble. And when she began to tell him what had happened to her, he was in disbelief.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Somebody tell me you're ending that up. Who did that to you?

[Reporter/Interviewer]

The road that she was located on was Big Bend Road. At the dead end of that. Peyton wasn't moving a whole lot as I approached her. I said, hi, I'm Officer Dan. Are you okay? And she said, no. And I said, okay, help is on the way. Just stay right where you are. And as I got closer, I started to see a little bit more blood. And the closer I got, the more blood I saw. Somehow she'd been able to pull herself up out of those woods. And in another moment of strength, she was able to communicate with him. I asked her who did this? And she told me her friend Morgan. I then asked her, where did this happen? And she told me that it happened in the woods. She was the first one to reveal that it was Morgan, her best friend, who was behind this.

[Peyton Lightner]

Morgan is 12. Morgan didn't do this is what's going through my head. There's no way.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Now police decide they've got to go to Morgan Geyser's house to figure out how this happened.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

Not only were there police in my living room, but they were wearing riot gear.

[Detective Tresoni]

I thought, what in the heck would make somebody do this?

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Was it hard for you to wrap your head around what had been done to you? Do you feel like you're a survivor?

[Peyton Lightner]

Yeah, I shouldn't be alive. I really shouldn't. After what happened.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Paramedics get to the scene and even they are stunned at what they're seeing. A 12 year old girl, she'd been stabbed multiple times. They removed her clothing by cutting it off and got her on the gurney and into the ambulance. I could see multiple wounds on her. She was able to somehow communicate with them in that moment that this was a knife that had been used. They asked how long was the knife and she said that the knife is about like this. And she was talking about the blade, not the handle.

[Detective Tresoni]

I was waiting in the ER and Peyton was brought in by stretcher. The look on her face is something that I will never forget. She looked like she was in an extreme amount of pain.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

So you bring her in here. One of the first people to see her is, is the ER doctor and he told me that her blood pressure was dangerously low. Her heart was working in overdrive. I mean, this is a 12 year old girl really struggling to survive. And when you looked at her, it was immediately apparent she'd been stabbed multiple times. Yeah, to her chest and abdomen and arm and leg.

[Detective Tresoni]

My first thought is I need to get some sort of information from her in case that she does.

[Peyton Lightner]

Does die.

[Detective Tresoni]

I confirmed with her that Morgan did the stabbing. I confirmed that she was in the woods at the time and that there was another girl there at the time when this happened.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

When Detective Tresoni hears this, that she's been stabbed by her friends, she knows she has got to get to Peyton's mom, Stacey, and right away.

[Detective Tresoni]

It is never fun making a notification to anybody, because when they see us, they know it's not good.

[Peyton Lightner]

The first thing that goes through my mind is something has happened to somebody that I love, because that's the only reason a uniformed officer and a detective comes to your house on a Saturday morning.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

She was very calm, very collected. She knew that something was going on. I don't think she knew exactly to what extent it was.

[Peyton Lightner]

They said, is Peyton home? And I said, no.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

And.

[Peyton Lightner]

And they said, was she at a sleepover last night? And I said, yeah, she was.

[Detective Tresoni]

I explained to her that she is alive, but she's been stabbed.

[Peyton Lightner]

I said, well, are the wounds superficial? And they said, well, we really don't know, but call your husband. Find somebody to take care of your son.

[Detective Tresoni]

She just went right up there, and she made it in time. Before Peyton went into surgery.

[Peyton Lightner]

I walked into the trauma room that she was in, and she was pale as a ghost. She was terrified. She was crying. She couldn't breathe. And all I hear is, there's five on her arm, there's seven on her leg. And I'm thinking, seven what? And one of the nurses says, all right, I count 19. And then the second nurse said, I count 19 as well. 19. What?

[Narrator/Host]

This?

[Peyton Lightner]

There's no way.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

There were so many of them that they were carefully going over Peyton's body to make sure they hadn't missed one. Stacey says she will never forget.

[Peyton Lightner]

I said, you're gonna be okay. It's gonna be fine. But I could see that she was covered. Her arms and her legs and her abdomen covered in stab wounds.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Does it seem surreal even to this day?

[Peyton Lightner]

Yeah, it's. I mean, there are definitely, like, moments from that day.

[Detective Tresoni]

They're just.

[Peyton Lightner]

They're burned into my mind. I'll never forget them.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Describe the moment you first see her. The surgeon who was there that day, when he was looking at the wounds and in particular the stab wound to the chest, he told me that had it been the width of a human hair, deeper, that stab wound, that she wouldn't be here today. The knife stopped at the wall of the artery. Had it not, had it not, she would have had a major heart attack from the amount of bleeding and probably died within a minute or two. And now police decide they've got to go to Morgan Geiser's house to figure out how this happened, what was behind this.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

They asked me, where's Morgan? I said, she's at the park with her friends.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

Angie Geyser told us that there was three girls, a third girl named. And the three girls left earlier in the morning for the park and they hadn't heard from him since.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

They searched the house and I just kept asking, you know, what happened, what's going on? And they wouldn't tell me other than to say there had been an incident at the park and one of the girls was hurt.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

The thing that really struck me is the way that she portrayed her daughter to be that she was totally normal, she was a good kid and she thought that this was totally out of character for Morgan to be involved in anything like this. After we had found out that there was this third girl, Anissa, that was there, we were able to get in contact with Anissa's dad, Bill.

[Narrator/Host]

My ex husband called me and told me to get to the condo as soon as possible. The police are there looking for Aneesa.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

We searched the house. We didn't find either of the girls there.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Where are these other two girls? They know those two girls were in the woods, but they cannot be found.

[Narrator/Host]

Where's my daughter? That's the only thought I had in my head. I looked at her cell phone, checked all of her text messages, trying to figure out the people that she called and contacted.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

Last Christy Wired said that she had found Anise's cell phone and found a particularly disturbing message that was on there.

[Narrator/Host]

I found basically her goodbye notes.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

I thought that they were in grave danger that we may find these girls dead.

[Detective Tresoni]

What was the meaning of this? We need to find these two girls.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

So what's going on with you?

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Why do you think you're here today? It is a scene you rarely see. 212 year old girls in separate interrogation rooms.

[Detective Tresoni]

And when she began explaining, I just remember going, this is the most unbelievable story I've ever heard.

[Peyton Lightner]

Breaking news. A 12 year old girl is stabbed.

[Narrator/Host]

Leading to a big police search in Waukesha.

[Detective Tresoni]

There is a very active scene where Peyton was found.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Police are still investigating. They still have this neighborhood shut down.

[Detective Tresoni]

We've realized now that we have two missing girls. Are these girls injured? Where are these girls? What was the meaning of this we.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Had just an overwhelming police presence throughout the community. Squad cars zooming everywhere.

[Narrator/Host]

A major search by ground and air.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

At one point I heard a helicopter overhead. You never hear a helicopter.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

We called in additional resources. We had camp officers that were up. We also started to put some stuff out into the media.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

So here's what we know.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

At this hour, a 12 year old Waukesha girl is stabbed 19 times.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

These are the woods where the stabbing actually happened. A massive search for two girls who were with the victim before she got hurt.

[Expert/Commentator]

We have absolutely no idea what's happened to my younger sister.

[Narrator/Host]

My daughter was supposed to be at a slumber party and now she's missing.

[Expert/Commentator]

It was one of those kinds of stories where newsrooms go crazy and everybody starts trying to find an angle. You just wonder what puts a 12 year old girl in this state of mind.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

Morgan was a very happy child. She was intensely creative. She was always making up songs and stories.

[Narrator/Host]

Vanessa did enjoy choir. She did enjoy singing Bring Back, Bring back, oh, Bring Back my Bonnie to me. Anissa was very imaginative. She would always imagine a bigger and better life for her Barbie dolls. Looking back, Anissa was never really invited to a lot of birthday parties or anything. I don't think she really made friends that easy.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

Morgan did endure a lot of bullying, especially in the sixth grade by the other students. In the last year, she started to become moodier and a little bit more reclusive.

[Narrator/Host]

She never talked about any of the sadness or any of the bad things. They knew what each other had gone through and they were going to be there for each other.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

Initially, when we were first on scene, Christy Wire, Anise's mom, had called me and said that she had found Anise's cell phone.

[Narrator/Host]

I looked at her cell phone, checked all of her text messages and I found basically her goodbye notes.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

The message said, this is my final wish to those who care. Do not grieve my absence, but remember me for who I was. I love and cherish you and wouldn't do you harm.

[Narrator/Host]

It then changed my thoughts from abduction to running away.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

It was about 2:53 in the afternoon. I had gotten a message that the sheriff's department had located the girls on the site of i94.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

They have found those two girls, I'm.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

Told around 12 years old. They were sitting on the side of the freeway.

[Detective Tresoni]

By the time we found them, they had walked about five hours and made it to the north end of our city and they were transported back to our police department.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

The detective told us that they were taking them to the police station to ask them some questions. I remember talking on the way.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

How.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

We were going to punish Morgan for this. I mean, we just had no idea how serious it was.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

When they brought the girls back, Peyton was actually still in surgery, and we did not know if she was going to make it at this point. So we didn't know if this was going to be a homicide investigation or what this was going to turn out to be.

[Detective Tresoni]

They were kind of dirty, covered in some stains. Their demeanor was very calm. They seemed kind of meek.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

It is a scene you rarely see. In fact, I don't know the last time I have seen two 12 year old girls in separate interrogation rooms about to describe in excruciating detail what it is that played out in the woods.

[Detective Tresoni]

I could tell that they were somewhat scared. At least Anisa was showing me that emotion.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Your parents know that you're here talking to me, okay? And I'm glad they're so glad that you're safe.

[Detective Tresoni]

I did notice she had a blood stain on the front of her shirt, and she was wearing two shirts. And I asked her, you know, are you okay?

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Can you just stand up and kind of stand? There you go. Just like right there. Okay. And it's on a white shirt underneath it. And it's on the shirt underneath it, too. Okay. What is your name? Anissa Wire. Anisa. Okay.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

Morgan seemed like she was very calm, very relaxed. I mean, she's at a police department and she's covered in blood, and this is like a normal day for her.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

All right, he's gonna help us out. We're gonna take some photographs of you right now. Do you mind just standing up maybe? All right. Just stand up like that. Perfect. Do you know what happened to Bella?

[Law Enforcement Officer]

Morgan called Peyton by the name of Bella.

[Detective Tresoni]

She said there was a nickname because there was another girl named Peyton.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Is she dead? I don't know. She was taken to the hospital. What? I was just wondering.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

She was very nonchalant. It didn't seem like it really concerned her too much if she was dead or alive.

[Detective Tresoni]

First thing I needed to do in order to talk to Anissa and find out what happened, I needed to read to her her Miranda rights.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

You have the right to remain silent. If you decide to give up that right, anything you say may be used against you in court.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Apart from the law. It is jarring to see 12 year olds being interrogated without their parents present.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

If you cannot afford an attorney, one.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Will be provided to you by the courts. Understanding these rights. You want to sit down and Talk to me about tonight.

[Narrator/Host]

Here in the state of Wisconsin, a child can be interrogated without the presence of their parent or guardian being in the room at that time. I did not know that.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

We find that people are more truthful when they don't have their parents present.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

He's doing a favor. And initial right there and sign right there.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

I thought that she really did understand what her rights were and made an eligible decision to waive those rights.

[Detective Tresoni]

I've never gone into an interview so blind as I have in this one. I thought that maybe this was all about a boy. This is a fight about a boy.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

I still don't know what happened and I don't know who did what. And I need to that today. Okay.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

We didn't know what these girls were gonna tell us.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

What were you trying to do with her when you stabbed her? Kill her? I might as well just say it. We were trying to kill her. So why did you pick Peyton? I didn't pick her. Who picked her? Whoever Anita was talking about. She made it seem necessary.

[Detective Tresoni]

My thought was, why would she do this?

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Searching's website full of like horror stories and there is one of them called Slenderman.

[Detective Tresoni]

Who the heck is Slenderman?

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

We had to prove ourselves worthy to Slender.

[Narrator/Host]

To think that two 12 year olds would come up with something like this and plan it out for six months. As soon as I heard, I knew that this was gonna be a big deal.

[Peyton Lightner]

Come to me. Come to me.

[Narrator/Host]

This show is supported by Mind of a Monster, the killer nurse from ID from 1989 to 1995, nurse Karen Gilbert killed four of her patients at the Veterans Affairs Medical center in Massachusetts and she suspected of killing dozens more.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

On Mind of a Monster, a podcast.

[Narrator/Host]

From ID, criminal psychologist Dr. Michelle Ward dives into the mindset of Kristen Gilbert to try to find out why she would kill her patients and how she was able to do it in front of her colleagues. Ward speaks with detectives, journalists, nurses and victims families to unpack Gilbert's life and crimes on Ward C. Listen to Mind of a Monster, the Killer Nurse. Wherever you get your podcasts.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

This episode.

[Peyton Lightner]

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[Reporter/Interviewer]

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[Narrator/Host]

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[Reporter/Interviewer]

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[Peyton Lightner]

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[Reporter/Interviewer]

Discover your next possibility. So now you have Morgan Geyser and Denise Wire in separate rooms, interrogated for hours. And to this day, what you see on those interrogation tapes is Simply chilling.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

A little bit more comfortable here. I have a daughter that's almost the same age as her. Like she could be my daughter. But then she started saying things that were really very earth. Hearing him coming out of a 12.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Year old's mouth, this is going to get me arrested, isn't it? Can I ask a quick question? Sure.

[Detective Tresoni]

She didn't realize the enormity of this.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

If I just wanted to know how far I walked because I'm usually not very athletic and just want to know.

[Detective Tresoni]

In that moment I thought, all right, I am talking to a 12 year old.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

So did you guys talk about doing this beforehand? I mean, she told me we had to. Why? Because she said that he'd kill our families. Was he a man? I didn't know him, but Aneesa knew him.

[Detective Tresoni]

She began explaining right away about something from the Internet.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

There's this website called the creepypasta Wiki. It's full of like, horror stories that are meant to purposely scare you. And there is one of them called Slenderman.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

We all remember growing up, there was always the folklore, the spooky stories that would be shared among kids of a certain age. And in this case, this is the story of Slenderman.

[Detective Tresoni]

It all started online with two paragraphs and two photographs. One of them showed a bunch of smiling kids and is sort of happily playing on a playground with a slender.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Man in the background.

[Detective Tresoni]

And the other one was sort of a more pensive picture. The story that went with it sort of explained that these were photos that.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Were taken right before a bunch of.

[Detective Tresoni]

Children had gone missing. And that was it.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Who's Slenderman? He's. He's this tall, faceless man who preys on children. He could be anywhere from 6ft to 14ft tall. He. He's a tall guy who constantly wears a suit. He doesn't have a face, his skin is white.

[Detective Tresoni]

Anissa actually was the first one who had found Slender man in the creepypasta wikis. The stories that were out there about.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Slender man, at his own will, he could exploit these tendrils from his back and strangle his victim. From all the creepypasta. When he said he targets children most, who tells you about him? He's everywhere. How do you mean? Because I've read so many things about him.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

It's sort of going down the rabbit.

[Detective Tresoni]

Hole of the Internet.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

The idea became very crowd sourced and everybody loved it. And they all Started jumping in. So this is a little concept art.

[Expert/Commentator]

I drew of Slender Man.

[Detective Tresoni]

People were making new images, new photos. The first Slender video game came out.

[Narrator/Host]

He's never played it before, so he's gonna play for the first time.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

People would write different kinds of stories.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

The stories looked real, articles that looked.

[Detective Tresoni]

Like real news articles.

[Peyton Lightner]

Today we're gonna be looking for Slenderman.

[Narrator/Host]

Every little thing looks like him, and.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

I'm starting to see him everywhere, and I'm dreaming about it.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

[Detective Tresoni]

No, no, no.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

I'm actually so scared. It brings it to life in a way that is almost hard to contain, especially for children who are of an age where they might struggle between what is fantasy and what is reality. At this stage of life, they're really searching a lot of this stuff that may scare them or that may draw them in. There is no discussion around. There's no critical thinking around. And so they can get carried away. Do you think, looking back, that they couldn't differentiate between what was fictional and what was real?

[Peyton Lightner]

Yeah, I think that all of those fake pictures that were going around, I think very strongly that they believed all of it was real.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

I actually thought that he was real because I saw him. We were, like, talking on the bus. I look out the window and I see this. If it was a fig standing like this with tendrils, looks exactly like a tree, they would go like that.

[Detective Tresoni]

The facelessness of the character makes him infinitely interpretable.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

There were a lot of different variations.

[Detective Tresoni]

Out there, and the girls found a version that complemented the things that they wanted believe. Anissa explained to me that to prove yourself worthy to slander, you would have to kill somebody.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Morgan said, we have to kill Bella.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

Then they weren't going to walk to the Nicolai Forest to try to find Slender Man.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Morgan found out that Slender has this big mansion in the middle of Inkollet National Park.

[Detective Tresoni]

What needed to make this happen, that for them to live in this mansion, was to kill somebody. And that idea came from Morgan. And my thought was, is she doing this for Morgan?

[Reporter/Interviewer]

What was Morgan like when you met her?

[Peyton Lightner]

She seemed a little lonely, Controlling sometimes, but I just went with it at the time.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Did you consider her your best friend?

[Peyton Lightner]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

She was my only friend for a long time. Why would you hurt your only friend? It was necessary.

[Narrator/Host]

It wasn't until sixth grade that Anissa came into the picture.

[Detective Tresoni]

Anissa was moving to a new school, so she didn't know anybody. Their interests were similar with regards to what they liked to read. They were into horror stories.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

The Supernatural.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

We're so close with like sisters.

[Expert/Commentator]

They were lonely girls. They didn't have a lot of friends. Came across, I think, to other students, the best word I can think of is weird.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Were you ever really friends with Anissa?

[Peyton Lightner]

No, not really. She was always cruel to me. I feel like she was jealous that Morgan was friends with me and her.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

As Morgan learned more about Slenderman, it came to dominate her thoughts. And she got closer to Anissa and a little more distant from Peyton.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

I didn't really understand what we were doing, but I really didn't want to make Anissa mad. It's hard enough to make friends. I don't want to lose someone or something like this. Do you understand what it means to kill someone? I mean, I've seen stories on the news, but I never fully understood what it meant to kill somebody. So, yeah.

[Detective Tresoni]

As she's explaining it to me, I'm digesting it. And I'm thinking, where is this gonna lead?

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

And then I started to count again. Five feet away. I said, now go ballistic, Go crazy.

[Detective Tresoni]

That's a stone cold plot.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

What did you think was going to happen after you stabbed Peyton? I don't really know. I figured that I'd get in trouble eventually, though, because mommy always says that whatever you do catches up to you eventually. And it did.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

So about halfway during the interview with Morgan, I got up and I took a little break. I went and met with Detective Tresoni and we sort of compared notes.

[Detective Tresoni]

I just remember looking at him going, this is the most unbelievable story I've ever heard.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

Who's ever heard of two 12 year old girls planning for six months to kill one of their best friends?

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

We have no idea how difficult it was not to tell anyone. We would all be together. It was a flawless plan, actually.

[Expert/Commentator]

I think they wanted to kill Peyton because they felt Peyton was accessible in that way. You know, they didn't have a lot of friends. She was somebody that they would be able to get to be alone with.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Did you ever talk about killing Bella in the bus at the birthday party? We did sometimes, but we made sure we whispered. Granted, the bus was really loud, but people are eavesdroppers. We used co words like for knife, we meant. We used cracker. And so the killing, we would use words like it.

[Detective Tresoni]

There are actually three plans that were devised to kill Peyton.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Morgan said that at her birthday party, while Bella was sleeping, we were gonna like duct tank her mouth shut, stab her in the neck, and then leave.

[Detective Tresoni]

Morgan was gonna put on a set of headphones connected to her iPad and set an alarm to wake her up in the middle of the night, like 2 in the morning. She would wake up Anissa, but we.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Didn'T stab her then. We were too sleepy tired until we were at Skateland. That was the original plan. Yeah, until it changed.

[Detective Tresoni]

So 5:30 in the morning comes and they wake up. They get up, start playing with Silly Putty and playing with their iPad and playing dress up. And while Peyton is putting on a pink princess dress, the two start talking and they start devising plan number two.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Hey, we could go to the park and kill her in one of the bathrooms. Was Bella around at that time? Yeah, we were playing dress up and Bella was putting on costumes in the bathroom.

[Narrator/Host]

It's mind boggling. How do you one minute want to play like a normal 12 year old and then switch back to, oh, wait, we're going to kill her.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

We asked for the ones that could go down to the park because we were going to do it down in the bathroom and sit her on the toilet. There was a drain for blood to go down. And when did she take the knife? She took it before we left. Where did she get it? From her kitchen. So who left the house with it? I think Anisa did. It was in the bag.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

To me, she was trying to deflect the blame from herself back onto Aneesa.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

How did you know that she grabbed one? Cause she showed it to me. As we were walking to the park.

[Detective Tresoni]

Morgan lifts up her jackets and shows Anissa that she's got this knife in her waistband.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

What were you thinking? I was thinking, dear God, this is really happening. And she told us we had to kill her. Who did? Aneesa.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

There was a lot of deception. In Morgan's interview, it seems like Anissa is saying this is what happened. But when you listen to Morgan, she always says, well, I think that Anissa did it. I think this happened.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

I think Aneesa told me to. Anissa might as well. It's sort of foggy because I've been trying to block it out.

[Expert/Commentator]

They then walk to the park. They go into the bathroom at the.

[Detective Tresoni]

Park, they're in the bathroom stall and they're kind of passing the knife back and forth.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

From what I read of increasing fossiliki, it's easier to kill people when they're either asleep or unconscious. And it's also easier if you do not look them in the eyes.

[Detective Tresoni]

Anissa tells me that she actually tries to knock Peyton out.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

I kind of went like that to her forehead and banged her head up against the concrete.

[Detective Tresoni]

And you Were doing this to knock.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Her off so you guys could kill her in there.

[Expert/Commentator]

Yeah, they lose their nerve. They don't kill her at that point. They then go outside, they leave the.

[Detective Tresoni]

Bathroom, and they start to walk through the park. And that's when plan three is devised.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

I say, hey guys, why don't we go take a walk around the block? That's when I pointed out to Morgan the trees and bushes and all that and say, you can take her in there to the deep. We led her there and tricked her. How did you trick her to get down there? We said that we were going to go bird watching. People who trust you become very gullible and it was sort of sad.

[Narrator/Host]

And once they got closer to the woods, they had suggested that they play a game of hide and seek. They walked deeper and deeper into the woods and. And then Morgan said that she would go off and count and that Peyton and Anissa should go hide.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

She was gonna hide one place, I was gonna hide another. And then Morgan and I were gonna be like lionesses chasing down the Z road. I was gonna tackle her like Morgan was gonna do the snapping.

[Detective Tresoni]

Anissa passes the knife back to Morgan and Morgan's like, all right, I'll do it only if you tell me why, when to do it.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

So I started walking away. And then like when I was five feet away, I said, now I'm like, I meant go ballistic. Go crazy. Make sure she's down.

[Detective Tresoni]

I couldn't believe these words were coming out of a 12 year old's mouth. It's awful.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

What did you do next? I already told you. What was that? Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

In all my years of law enforcement, I've never heard anything like this.

[Detective Tresoni]

It's almost as if they are writing their own story. They're living their own creepypasta story.

[Expert/Commentator]

You look at that video and say, see, she's bloodless. She's just cold hearted. She was going to kill. And other people said, oh, she's so clearly disturbed.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Do you remember when leaving the park to go to the woods, they just.

[Peyton Lightner]

Wanted to go on a walk. Who could ever see something like this coming? Like nobody.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

And you were 12 years old.

[Peyton Lightner]

Exactly.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Oblivious, they made the wrong turn at each point to the point where it just was out of control.

[Detective Tresoni]

You just have to think about this locomotive that is just going down the tracks and there's no brakes on it.

[Expert/Commentator]

Is it possible that we have that extremely rare thing going on here, which is, well, you just have an evil 12 year old.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

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[Reporter/Interviewer]

So many people have followed this story for so long, including us. And this is the first time that Peyton Lightner is talking.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Down the zebra.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Was there anything that night that made you think something's up here?

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

No.

[Peyton Lightner]

They kept it a secret.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Always says that whatever you do catches up to you eventually. And it did.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Tonight, the David muir exclusive. The two hour 2020 event continues right now.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

It wasn't until we sat down and we started talking with the girls that we really knew what was on going that it was two 12 year old girls that had planned for six months to kill their friends.

[Detective Tresoni]

You don't often see this with adults and to have this happen between 12 year olds is absolutely horrifying.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Can I ask a question? Yes. Where is Bella's body now? Bella's a Baxel. Okay. I thought it was still out there, the crime scene. Did you think that she died? Yeah. She is alive. Okay.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Have you ever watched any of those interrogations?

[Peyton Lightner]

I watched a little bit.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

What was your reaction?

[Peyton Lightner]

It was a little shocking to me to see that they had this big, huge plan that they had been working on for months.

[Narrator/Host]

Less than a week after the attack, I was asked to go to the hospital to interview Peyton. She was very, very quiet. We had to turn up the sound on the recording equipment really high, just to get her voice.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Do you remember leaving the park to go to the woods?

[Peyton Lightner]

They just wanted to go on a walk. And I didn't think much of it. It's just a walk. It's in Waukesha. Like, what bad stuff happens in Waukesha.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Wisconsin, after we go into the woods. We say we're gonna play a hide and seek.

[Peyton Lightner]

Anissa told me to lie on the ground and, like, cover myself in, like, sticks and leaves and stuff, but it was really just a trick.

[Narrator/Host]

It took a long time throughout the interview to finally get her to say Morgan's name or that Morgan had even stabbed her.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

I give it back to her and say, you do go ballistic. And she said, okay, I'll go ballistic whenever. When you say you want me to.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

When you hear them describe to investigators Anissa telling Morgan just to do it, I think the word was go ballistic.

[Peyton Lightner]

Oh, I remember that. I do remember them chatting right next to me while I was just laying there.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Morgan said, don't be afraid. I'm only a little kitty hat, and jumped on top of Bella and stabbed her repeatedly.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

And do you remember when it started?

[Peyton Lightner]

Kind of. I didn't feel anything because my body was in shock from the adrenaline. I didn't feel a thing.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

So at one point during the interview with Morgan and I specifically asked her about who stabbed Peyton, who stabbed her?

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Both of us. Who stabbed her first. How am I supposed to remember that? Helms is just pretty important, so just gotta trick him some trades. Anisha or me, One of those two, of course, but I don't know.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

Morgan is the person that did all the stabbing.

[Narrator/Host]

I asked Peyton how it stopped, and she simply said that Morgan just stopped and stared at her. That both her and Anissa, just for a while, just stared at her with, like, this blank stare.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

You know, what happened. Are you trying to do this over and over again and see if I tell the story differently? I'm just trying to make sure that I get it right.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

I thought that she was very aware of what was going on, actually. Very sophisticated.

[Expert/Commentator]

After they stabbed her 19 times, they encouraged her just to lay down in the woods and rest. What they really wanted her to do was bleed out in the woods.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

And do you remember what you said to them?

[Peyton Lightner]

I trusted you. And then they told me to lay down. You'll lose blood. Slower, like, we're going to go get help.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Did she try to give up? Yeah, she tried to get up. She said that she couldn't see, she couldn't walk and that she couldn't breathe.

[Detective Tresoni]

And they told her they were going to go get her help. But Anissa flat out said no, we weren't getting her help. We wanted her to die.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Do you remember the moment they left you?

[Peyton Lightner]

I think I remember them running away, but I kind of just laid there for a minute.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

You walked out of the woods.

[Peyton Lightner]

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.

[Narrator/Host]

It's amazing that she had the strength to do that with the injuries that she had. When I told her that the girls were in custody, it seemed to give her a sense of relief.

[Detective Tresoni]

The girls were ultimately arrested for first degree attempt homicide. That's a very serious charge.

[Narrator/Host]

We were permitted to come to the police station and see Anissa. I remember her saying she was very, very scared. That day plays out almost every night in my nightmares.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

Morgan has never hurt a fly. It was just unthinkable that Morgan would do anything to hurt someone else. It wasn't until the following day that we knew that she would be charged as an adult.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

The current situation in Wisconsin is there are certain categories of offenses that if they're committed by an individual over the age of 10, that that individual has to be prosecuted in adult court. These 12 year old girls could face decades behind bars, questions about whether or not they'll ever be free. This law about juveniles being treated like adults for certain crimes was part of a get tough on crime initiative. And the goal was to say, even if you're young, if you commit a horrible, heinous crime, you're going to be treated as an adult. The flip side of that is when you see a 10 or 11 or 12 year old charged with as an adult suddenly makes you say, wait a sec, does this make sense?

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

It's unthinkable to try a 12 year old child as an adult regardless of what they've done. I mean, she was 12.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

It was weird. I felt no remorse. I thought I would.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

It was weird that you didn't feel remorse.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

I actually felt nothing.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

There's something that's not right with a 12 year old that's saying the things that she is. But I think she genuinely understood what she did was wrong.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

But how about saving you friend?

[Law Enforcement Officer]

Do you think that's right or wrong?

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Probably wrong. If it were right, I wouldn't be.

[Narrator/Host]

How should they be punished for this when they're 12 years old? Did they know right from wrong?

[Detective Tresoni]

You can certainly know what is right from wrong. But still have a problem controlling your behavior.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

You feel compelled.

[Expert/Commentator]

There's a chance that these two girls did something just simply because they wanted to do it. They wanted to experience it.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

I wanted to hurt people before, but they're not nice to me, so they deserve it.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Police now have to dig into their childhoods to see if there were warning signs missed. In her drawers, in the closet, there were numerous items that were disturbing in nature.

[Expert/Commentator]

They found all kinds of strange things going on there.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

How typical is it for a 12 year old to write I want to die?

[Narrator/Host]

You would think that a parent would notice that something was going on.

[Expert/Commentator]

People wanted to blame the parents for somehow creating monsters.

[Narrator/Host]

You could be looking at a sociopath, definitely.

[Detective Tresoni]

State of Wisconsin versus Morgan Geyser. State of Wisconsin versus Anissa Weier.

[Expert/Commentator]

Because they charged them with attempted first degree intentional homicide. That made the case automatically start in adult court. That also led to the judge releasing their pictures.

[Narrator/Host]

Seeing Anissa in the courtroom and the jumpsuit with the shackles and the handcuffs and the belly chain really hit hard. It broke my heart.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

That's what I think gripped the public's attention was how extreme that looked to see children shackled.

[Expert/Commentator]

That really started the whole split, I think, of public opinion on the case between those who saw it as, these are dangerous actors out in the community that need to be locked up forever, and those who thought, like, something's really wrong with these children. They needed help and should be in juvenile court.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Detectives now have this information that came from the girls themselves about this plot.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

The bad part of me wanted her to die, but the good part of me wanted her to live.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

But. But obviously police now have to dig into their childhoods, see if there were warning signs missed. And they come upon some startling evidence.

[Narrator/Host]

The middle school called me and said, we want to go through these girls lockers. There was one picture found in Anissa's locker. Everything else was found in Morgan's locker. So she had tons of notebooks that had all kinds of writings and drawings related to Slender Man.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Slender man was originally created as sort of fan fiction and an extension of the campfire horror story. These images that were unclear whether they were nurturing or threatening. One of the first things we did was we talked to Morgan's parents, told the parents, don't go in the bedrooms, keep the door closed. We're going to come over there and I'm going to have my investigator process that scene. When I first entered Morgan's bedroom, it just looked like a normal room for a girl her age. But in her Drawers and in the closet, there were numerous items that were disturbing in nature.

[Expert/Commentator]

They found all kinds of strange things going on. There's strange drawings, dolls that had been mutilated.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Some of the dolls had their hands cut off, arms cut off, legs cut off.

[Expert/Commentator]

They found a lot of things that most people would say, geez, that should have been a red flag to a parent. And yet no indication that a parent ever said, hey, wait a minute, what are you doing here? Maybe we should get you some help.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

I spoke with mom and dad and they had no idea what was in her room.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

We started to look at some of the emails and we also looked at the computer that Morgan had at her house, the iPad that Anise I had.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Whenever I'm really bored, I go on my iPad and I look up, go to the creamy bashto in geo.

[Narrator/Host]

I had no idea that besides the school issued email address that she had on her own, made a Hotmail address and falsified her age.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

A week before this happened, Morgan sent Anissa an email that said, make sure to click clean out your browser history.

[Expert/Commentator]

One of the things that shows whether you know right from wrong is saying, clear your Internet history. Because we don't already know that we've been searching for these things.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

In looking through the Geyser home computer, there's literally thousands of Internet searches that were done. How to get away with murder. What kind of insane am I? She was searching these things ahead of time.

[Narrator/Host]

The school had turned over to me a list of books that Anissa and Morgan had checked out of the school library. Morgan had checked out books on crime scene investigations, the prison system, mental health conditions. I look at it as boy, how do I act after this happens? What role do I play?

[Detective Tresoni]

I definitely had a clear sense of who was, was the ringleader who was driving this between the two girls. It was definitely Morgan. During Anissa's interview, she was being truthful and honest. I could tell because she would say that Morgan did A, B and C, but then she would take responsibility for some things herself.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Is any Morgan completely to blame for? No, I don't think I knew this would have happened if I had told her about creepy pastas.

[Detective Tresoni]

Whereas Morgan was just putting it all on Anissa.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Aneesha told me we had to.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

She knew tactics that police used. She knew the criminal justice system. She's done research on past cases.

[Detective Tresoni]

You can't get more intentional than that. You're preparing, you're planning, you're thinking about this.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

If she wasn't 12 years old, I would think that she was some type of sociopath or a seasoned criminal.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

I was hired by the defense to evaluate Morgan. I don't think she was deviously planning. I think she was feeling controlled by Slender Man. What she would tell me is that she really had no choice but to listen to Slender Man. Was it hard for you to wrap your head around what had been done to you?

[Peyton Lightner]

No. Which I guess says a lot about our friendship. I kind of wasn't really too shocked about it. 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. I was angry for a long time, especially Morgan's parents. I thought that they were maybe just in denial.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

I don't think I've insane.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Were you surprised?

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

No, I wasn't surprised simply because there is a family history.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Her father.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

Yes. Her father has schizophrenia.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

We have been documenting this story for years, and part of this journey has been with the parents of the two girls who were accused of this horrible, horrible crime.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

We try to visit at least once a week. On a good week, I can get up there two or three times.

[Narrator/Host]

In 2014, Anissa was actually sent to the Washington County Juvenile Detention facility.

[Expert/Commentator]

And that's typically a place kids spend maybe five days after they're arrested. These girls just kept sitting there all these months while the case dragged on.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

The children have no access to the outdoors or even windows to look out of.

[Narrator/Host]

In the last 35 months, Anissa's maybe had 40 hours of fresh air.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

There is no physical contact.

[Narrator/Host]

I can't wipe away a tear. I can't give her a hug. I can't kiss her.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

It's indistinguishable from a jail. You go through a metal detector. You go through locked doors. There are not mental health treatment providers on staff to evaluate, provide services, and medicate individuals.

[Narrator/Host]

There are moments where my heart is so full of sadness. That's when I put on a mask. I don't allow myself to break down in front of her and. And see how much this is hurting me.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

The first time I went to visit her, she looked at me, and she had sort of this flat expression on her face. And she said, why are you here?

[Reporter/Interviewer]

What did you think in that moment?

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

It's heartbreaking.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

One of the things we knew people would want to know at home, were there warning signs. Did these parents look back at the childhoods of their daughters and see something now that perhaps they missed? Along the way, Angie told me the story about showing her daughter Morgan. Bambi.

[Narrator/Host]

Bambi, come here.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

We had been concerned to show Morgan the movie. We were afraid when Bambi's mother died, she would be devastated, that she'd be very upset. Master Bambi. She, in fact, had quite the opposite reaction. After Bambi's mother was shot, Morgan just said, run, Bambi, run. And had no reaction whatsoever to the mother dying.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

She wasn't at all concerned about the mom?

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

No, no, not at all.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Did you know anything about Morgan's fascination with Slenderman?

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

We did. We did.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

You talked about it with her?

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

We did. And she would show us some of the pictures. Pictures. And she would read us some of the stories.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Do you remember when she first started talking about Slenderman?

[Peyton Lightner]

That was in sixth grade. It was early sixth grade when she had met Anissa. I thought it was really weird and odd. I was never into it. I just kind of went along with it because she was my best.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

We had no idea that she believed Slender man was real.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Did you ever think that? This is a little too dark for my daughter.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

When I was Morgan's age, I was reading Stephen King novels. I remember being 11 years old and riding home from the library on my bike with it under my arm. And that's a very scary and dark story. So I just thought it was normal.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

As this is playing out, this whole legal process, they're holding a competency hearing for Morgan Geyser. And during that hearing, it's suddenly revealed that she's been diagnosed with early onset schizophrenia.

[Expert/Commentator]

I'm not a doctor, but all the doctors agree that schizophrenia in a 12 year old is extremely uncommon. It develops later in life.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Are you surprised?

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

No, I wasn't surprised simply because there is a family history of schizophrenia.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Her father.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

Yes, her father has schizophrenia.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

HBO came out with a documentary called Beware the Slender man where Morgan's father talked about his own schizophrenia.

[Expert/Commentator]

Like you.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

You can, like, see it and like, you know it's not real. It totally doesn't matter because you're still terrified of it. Like, I know that there's, like. I know the devil's not in the backseat, but the devil is in the backseat, you know? Morgan's behavior was directed by her psychotic symptoms. Morgan was being guided by voices that were ordering her to kill someone. When you look back, are there moments when you can see her suffering from that?

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

It's difficult to say. She was always kind of a quirky kid, but not pathologically so.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

I expected that he would get put in prisoner in Spanish. I didn't know what to expect. I don't think I've insane though.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Do you feel responsible?

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

I think on some level I'll always feel feel responsible for not knowing that my daughter wasn't well. Your job as a mother is to protect your children and to keep them safe. And of course I felt as though I had failed.

[Expert/Commentator]

Even then. I think there were people who thought, well, they should have known. They should have had her in treatment earlier. Why didn't they see that she Was schizophrenic at 12?

[Reporter/Interviewer]

It's very hard to identify psychosis. I don't think it would have been obvious to anyone unless Morgan told them the symptoms she was experiencing.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

For the first 18 or 19 months after her arrest, she was not treated and she remained in a very acutely psychotic style state.

[Expert/Commentator]

These fictional characters, Voldemort from the Harry Potter books, Spock from Star Trek, Slenderman. She considered these people to be her friends. She had conversations with them and she was concerned that if she took medications that would make them go away, she wouldn't have anybody to talk to.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

What would you say to them if they were watching the other parents?

[Peyton Lightner]

I was angry for a long time that they, especially Morgan's parents, knowing that, that Morgan's dad had schizophrenia. And for a long time I thought that they were maybe just in denial and ignoring her symptoms. But I recognize that they're going through their own hell.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Their lawyers are trying to get their case moved out of adult court and into the juvenile system.

[Expert/Commentator]

It's now the summer of 2015. Judge Boren makes a ruling, a major.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Ruling tonight from Wisconsin. A judge deciding that the two 13 year old girls will now be tried as adults. I'll order that the defendants, Ms. Geiser and Ms. Wer, be retained in the adult jurisdiction.

[Detective Tresoni]

Each of the girls has pleaded not guilty by reason of mental defect or disease.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

No question in your mind where they.

[Peyton Lightner]

Needed to be adult crime is adult court. If they had stolen a candy bar, sure, that's a child, but you tried to kill somebody.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

So it seems the cases are going to trial. There's immense risk going to trial because a jury could conclude that she is not only guilty, but legally responsible.

[Expert/Commentator]

We truly believe that Anissa knew what she was doing was wrong.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

This huge question looms over all of this. Will these girls be locked up for decades? What will the court decide? Hey guys.

[Expert/Commentator]

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[Reporter/Interviewer]

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[Expert/Commentator]

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[Reporter/Interviewer]

Just go to goldbelly.com and for a limited time get 20% off your first.

[Expert/Commentator]

Order with promo code gift.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

That's promo code gift. Comcast is committed to bringing access to the Internet to all Americans, including rural communities across the country like Sussex County, Delaware. We were being left behind. Everybody around us seemed to have Internet.

[Detective Tresoni]

But we did not.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

High speed Internet is one of those good things that we needed to help us move our farming, our small businesses, our recreation forward. Learn more about how we're bringing our.

[Expert/Commentator]

Next generation network to more more people.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Across the [e-mail] investmentinamerica nearly three years have passed since the so called Slenderman stabbing attack on a Waukesha sixth grader by her two classmates.

[Expert/Commentator]

In 2017, the first of these cases goes to trial. It's Anissa's case.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

The courthouse had areas roped off for the media. There were so many people. We had to have security push, you know, the reporters away from us.

[Expert/Commentator]

By the time she shows up, she looks completely different. She looks grown up as opposed to just a few years earlier when we have the mug shot of her at 12 years old and she seems to get it. We're all looking forward to this kind of coverage.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

And then we hear that Anissa has pled guilty and cut a deal. That means you participated in the offense.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

I understand.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Once she enters into this plea, there's then a separate trial in effect to determine what should be the punishment.

[Expert/Commentator]

They would go to trial simply on whether she suffered from a mental disease or defect and should not be held criminally responsible.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

So the jury now has to decide whether should she have to go to prison or should she simply go to a mental institution? We're in the record in that state versus why.

[Expert/Commentator]

It's basically both sides going for broke on the day this happened. She did it because she wanted something out of it. She wanted to be Morgan's friend. On the other side, of course, they saw it just the opposite. The evidence will show that at the time this occurred, Anissa's broken mind caused.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Her to lose touch with reality.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Anissa's lawyers were arguing that she was delusional. The bulk of the defense's case was mental health experts. They called three of them to back up the defense's argument that Anissa was mentally ill.

[Detective Tresoni]

I was hired specifically by the court to do an evaluation of Anita.

[Expert/Commentator]

Did you Find a diagnosed disorder for Anissa.

[Detective Tresoni]

Yes, I did diagnose her with a disorder. Anissa was diagnosed with shared psychotic disorder. There's an old French word, right, Folies du, which is madness, shared by two.

[Expert/Commentator]

Three different doctors or experts. All agreed that as rare as it is, she happened to meet another 12 year old who was more ill than she was and kind of got caught up in her own delusions and what they call a shared delusion.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

You have a new girl that comes.

[Detective Tresoni]

Into school who's desperate for a friend, being introduced to a girl who is having some mental health problems, and then they have this shared interest, and you.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Couple that with the fact that they're.

[Detective Tresoni]

12 years old and still retaining some of the magical thinking of childhood, and it's this perfect storm. They believed they had to do it.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

I was really scared knowing that Slender could easily kill my whole family in three seconds.

[Detective Tresoni]

Essentially, it was protecting their family. They needed to kill somebody to prove themselves to Slender man and that their families would be safe.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Prosecutors were saying she knew exactly what she was doing when they stabbed Peyton. And point to a very specific moment in the interrogation.

[Detective Tresoni]

The first line that she tells me in my interview was saying the silly thing about this was I didn't know.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

I was in danger until after Morgan stabbed Peyton.

[Expert/Commentator]

That statement is to me the most powerful statement in the whole case. If she didn't know that Slenderman had made the threat till after she did it, that couldn't have been what motivated her to stab Peyton. If that's not what motivated her, what is? Is it possible that we have that extremely rare thing going on here, which is, well, you just have an evil 12 year old.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

The case goes to the jury and they deliberate for 11 hours.

[Expert/Commentator]

It took quite a while. I think the final verdict didn't come until like 10:30 or 11.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

The time had come. Anissa Weier sitting in that courtroom shaking.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

Has the jury reached the verdict?

[Narrator/Host]

Yes, we have, you, Honor.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

She's about to hear what the punishment will be and where she'll be sent.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

Anissa Weier was found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

In the end, the jury decides she should be committed to a state mental institution rather than going to. With that, I will order that she be committed to the Department of Health Services. A late night verdict in the Slender man trial, the decision not to send Anissa Weyer to prison.

[Narrator/Host]

Their decision was humane. And the actions of a 12 year old didn't deserve the harshest punishment.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Age was everything. If you're an adult, what when you say you didn't understand right from wrong. That's an argument that almost never succeeds. But when you were 12 at the time it happened, you got a much stronger argument. But it's up to the judge now. The judge will decide how long she'll be sent away.

[Expert/Commentator]

We argued strongly for 25 years.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Ms. Weihert, do you want to say anything?

[Detective Tresoni]

I know that nothing I say is.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Gonna make this right, you, Honor.

[Peyton Lightner]

And nothing I say is gonna fix what I broke. I'm never gonna let this happen again.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

And I'm sorry.

[Expert/Commentator]

Ultimately, Judge Boren committed Anissa for the maximum period of time with Athen.

[Law Enforcement Officer]

I committed Anissa wired for a period of 25 years.

[Narrator/Host]

After spending 25 years in a mental institution, my fear is that she will not really know how to interact with normal people. At Walmart, at the gas station, at Pick N Save.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

All of the focus now shifts to Morgan Geyser. And Morgan is the one who actually stabbed Peyton.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

I'm sorry, I meant never meant this to happen.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Anissa Weyer will be heading to a mental hospital rather than prison. So now you have one of these girls. Anissa Weier, found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. And all of the focus now shifts to Morgan Geyser. It becomes clear to prosecutors that they're not going to be able to convince a jury to send Morgan, who is even more mentally ill, to a prison. Morgan's lawyers end up cutting a deal with prosecutors.

[Expert/Commentator]

I'll be blunt. One of the reasons we did that is clearly Morgan is much more psychologically damaged.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

What did you make of what you heard?

[Peyton Lightner]

I remember feeling sad at Morgan's sentencing hearing because she was not the girl I remembered. So that was Sad for me.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Ms. Geiser, would you like to say anything?

[Peyton Lightner]

I just want to let Ella and her family know I'm sorry.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

I never meant this to happen.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

What would you want to say to them?

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

I'm so sorry for what Peyton went through and for what they must have gone through. And I would take it back if I could.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Do you accept their apologies?

[Peyton Lightner]

I don't think I'm there yet. We're still healing and we're still trying.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

To rebuild our lives.

[Peyton Lightner]

So it's still a little hard.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

The length of the commitment, I believe is appropriate at 40 years. And that'll be the order of the court. 15 year old Morgan Geyser, sentenced in Wisconsin today to 40 years in a mental institution.

[Detective Tresoni]

If Morgan had never been Anissa, I think Morgan probably would have acted out in some other way. Would it have Been this violence? I don't know. But Morgan was ready to do something, and she found Anissa to put it.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

All on Morgan or say she led. This, I think, underestimates the power of schizophrenia. It underestimates the power of the Internet to influence people to behave in ways they wouldn't behave in real life.

[Peyton Lightner]

I really think it was them working as a team.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

You're convinced that it was a toxic combination.

[Peyton Lightner]

Yes.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

That one fed into the other.

[Peyton Lightner]

Mm.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

For Peyton Lightner, it was months recovering from the physical wounds. But the lingering question was how long would it take for her to recover, embrace emotionally?

[Peyton Lightner]

I know you.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

How frightened were you still?

[Peyton Lightner]

I slept in my mom's bed for a while just because I didn't want to be alone. I still sleep with, like, a broken pair of scissors underneath the pillow next to me, just in case. To this day, it just makes me feel safer.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Do you think that'll ever go away?

[Peyton Lightner]

I hope so. But for now, I don't think so.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Did you ever think you would get her to where she is?

[Peyton Lightner]

She had so much determination to not.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

Be defined by this event and not.

[Peyton Lightner]

Be the girl who was stabbed, that I really think that it's her determination to live a different kind of life that's what's gotten us here. I've come to accept all of the scars that I have.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

When you see them, do you see a survivor?

[Peyton Lightner]

I just see myself.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

What she has taught me is strength and. And will. Just the sheer will to get through anything. There are so many moving, full circle moments to this story of Peyton Lightner.

[Narrator/Host]

It's pretty good.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

After Peyton had gone back to school, the man who would be made school resource officer would be Dan Klein. Up there is a school that she goes to, and I thought, that's really cool. I was the first officer on scene to see her, and now I'm gonna have the opportunity to protect her. He has said that he feels, in a way, sort of lucky that he's still able to watch over you.

[Peyton Lightner]

Yeah. I really like Officer Dan. He's a great person.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

It didn't work this time, obviously. And we're never gonna try again. Because I hope I never have to see a news guy again.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Morgan Geiserville. Anissa weier. They're both 17 now. They're both being held at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. And this was the picture that Morgan's mother posted of her not so long ago on Facebook. It's not where you pictured your daughter?

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

No. You know, I see on social media, my friends and family who have children Morgan's age, and they'll post pictures of them driving a car, you know, going to homecoming. You know, it's. It's hard.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

One of the things I asked Angie, would they still be able to live in Waukesha? And she sat across from me and said, we're going to move.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

You know, I frequently drive by these places that hold horrible memories, and I just want to get us all away from that.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Every six months, under Wisconsin law, you can petition the court for release from a mental hospital.

[Expert/Commentator]

I know at some point we'll start seeing the petitions for release, and we're back in Waukesha County.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

I think Morgan could rejoin the community, if not immediately, in the very near future. Waukesha is not a big city, and so if she was released, you know, you can honestly run into each other at the grocery store or the park. Good. Peyton is her senior year of high school. She's going to move on to big, wonderful things. She's going to go off to college. So I think right now, I think it's too soon. All rise.

[Expert/Commentator]

But that's going to come back to George Boren again, and he can decide, you did this once. I'm not convinced. I think it takes 10 more years. And deny it. She could go back to the hospital. So that's her uncertain future.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Do you fear for the day that either one of them is back out in the community?

[Peyton Lightner]

No, because if they ever come near me, they're going right back in. So.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

So you don't walk around with that?

[Peyton Lightner]

No. When they get out, I don't think it's gonna change my life at all.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

If she were released today, do you think she would be a danger to society?

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

No.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

Morgan's untreated mental illness is what made her a danger, and she is no longer a danger.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

You talked about Morgan's mother.

[Peyton Lightner]

Mm.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

And you have thought about her?

[Peyton Lightner]

Yeah. I've thought about what she's going through and how hard it must be for her, because I'm sure a lot of people are saying that it was her fault and, like, she raised her wrong, that it wasn't her fault. Morgan's schizophrenic.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

She's written a letter.

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

She did write a letter. To Peyton? Yes.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Would you read it to us?

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

Dear Bella, I wish I had words that could make everything better, but I don't. So all I can say is how sorry I am. And I can promise you not a day long.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

A day will go by that I don't regret what I did. Stay strong. Morgan.

[Peyton Lightner]

I mean, it's a nice gesture and I appreciate it, but they're just words on a piece of paper.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

If she saw this interview, what would you want to say to her?

[Peyton Lightner]

Ooh, there's a lot that I would want to say to her. I'm happy. I have good friends that I trust pretty much.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

But I imagine that the trust part is the hardest part.

[Peyton Lightner]

Yeah, I would say that trust is a big, big thing for me.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

But you've worked on that.

[Peyton Lightner]

I'm trying. Yeah. This happened at 4:30 in the morning.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

What do you make of your sister's survivor story? I think it really brings a lot of people hope. People knowing that even when you're down so far under and you think there's no way you can get out of something, there's always a way that you can survive.

[Peyton Lightner]

When you go through something like this, it's really, really challenging on families, on marriages.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Stacey and Joe, their marriage didn't survive this. And this is a sign of the true cost of tragedy. I know that the two of you have been tested. What does just being here together for your children, what kind of message do you hope that that sends a sense of unity for the kids, for the family?

[Morgan Geyser's Mother]

We will always do what we need to do for them. We'll do it together because they are.

[Peyton Lightner]

The most important thing to us.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Have you all taken any time for yourselves to give yourself credit for how far the family has come since this? Yeah, I don't want credit for it because true, truly, it was Stacy that did everything, and I'm truly thankful for that.

[Expert/Commentator]

There'll be people talking about this forever. There was just an endless fascination.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

We can't change what's on the Internet, but we can change whether our kids access it and if they do access it, how they process it.

[Expert/Commentator]

I think that the whole dangers of the Internet thing, that's probably the simplest thing people will remember. But I think what we found out from the case was if Morgan weren't schizophrenic, probably this doesn't happen.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

One of the things I will never forget from this interview with Peyton Lightner all these years later is what she said to me when I asked. What would you say to Morgan Geiser if you saw her today, if she saw this interview? What would you want to say to her?

[Peyton Lightner]

Ooh, there's a lot that I would want to say to her. I would probably initially thank her. I would say, because of what she did, I have the life I have now, which I really, really like it.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

You do know that when people hear you say I would probably thank her.

[Peyton Lightner]

Mm.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

That they're gonna be surprised.

[Peyton Lightner]

Yeah. I'm surprised to hear myself say that.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Why?

[Peyton Lightner]

Because I wouldn't think that someone who went through what I did would ever say that. But that's truly how I feel. Like without the whole situation, I wouldn't be who I am.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Stronger.

[Interviewer/Interrogator]

Mm.

[Peyton Lightner]

What happened to me has made me who I am. And I love it.

[Narrator/Host]

You've been listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault Friday nights at 9 on ABC. You can also find all new broadcast episodes of 2020.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Thanks for listening.

[Peyton Lightner]

From your fryer to the table. It's a quick trip for crispy fries, but how about a crosstown delivery? McCain sure. Crisp fries are designed to go from fryer to container to carrier to passenger seat across town during rush hour down.

[Detective Tresoni]

A shortcut that wasn't all that short.

[Peyton Lightner]

To a doorstep before they hit the table in that first bite. The crispiness speaks for itself. To the last bite. McCain's sure. Crisp fries go the distance. See how far our fries can take your [e-mail] delivery.