Court Rules Wisconsin Girls Should Be Tried As Adults in Slenderman Attack

The two girls who allegedly tried to kill their classmate in order to satisfy Slenderman, a fictional character, should be tried as adults, a Wisconsin Appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The girls were identified in open court and the criminal complaint as Morgan E. Geyser and Anissa E. Weier, who were 12 years old at the time of the incident in 2014.

According to police, Geyser and Weier both plotted for months to kill Payton Leutner, luring her to a weekend birthday-party sleepover and then a wooded park where one they stabbed her repeatedly, according to authorities.

The girls were particularly fascinated with the story of Slenderman, a killer of children. According to the criminal complaint, the girls planned to kill their friend so they could be "proxies of Slenderman."

One child held Leutner to the ground while the other plunged the knife into her chest, arms and legs a total of 19 times, according to police.

After the incident, the victim, also 12, crawled to a nearby road in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where a passing bicyclist found her the next morning.

Leutner underwent surgery at Waukesha Memorial Hospital before she made a faster-than-expected recovery and was back in school a few months later.

According to a report by ABC News, the 2nd District Appeals court affirmed a lower court's determination that it was reasonable to try both girls as adults. Citing the ruling last year, the appeals court said if the girls were found guilty in the juvenile system they would be released at age 18 with no supervision or mental health treatment.