Girls held in Slender Man stabbing seek bail reduction
WAUKESHA, Wis. -- A judge will consider whether to reduce bail for two Wisconsin girls accused of trying to kill their friend as a sacrifice to the horror fiction character Slender Man.
The girls have been in custody for nearly two years. A hearing is set for Friday on their requests that bond be reduced from $500,000 to an amount their families can afford.
The girls were 12 years old when authorities say they lured their friend into the woods and stabbed her. Investigators say the girls hoped the 2014 attack would earn them a home in Slender Man's mansion.
The Associated Press hasn't identified the defendants because their cases could move to juvenile court, where proceedings are closed.
Prosecuting attorney Ted Szczupakiewicz has declined to comment on the girls' bond requests.
A Wisconsin judge suspended the case in September so an appeals court could decide whether to review the case's placement in adult court.
Investigators say the two plotted to lure Payton Leutner into woods in Waukesha after a sleepover. They say the girls intended to kill Leutner to win the favor of Slender Man, a fictional character usually depicted as unnaturally tall and thin with no visible facial features.
Slender Man stories have proliferated online in recent years. The girls wanted to kill for him, in part, to prove his existence, police documents alleged.
The girls believed they would have a home in Slender Man's mansion if they carried out the attack, police said.
Police documents alleged that, after stabbing their friend and leaving her for dead, the girls started walking to a forest 300 miles away, where they believed Slender Man lived.
Payton suffered 19 stab wounds, including one that doctors say narrowly missed a major artery near her heart. After the attack in a wooded park, she crawled to a road and was found lying on a sidewalk by a passing bicyclist. Despite the attack, she staged what her family called a "miraculous" recovery and was back in school three months after the attack.
Defense attorneys have argued that the case belongs in juvenile court, saying the adolescents suffer from mental illness and won't get the treatment they need in the adult prison system.