2nd Girl in ‘Slender Man’ Killing Enters Insanity Plea

The second Wisconsin girl accused of trying to kill a classmate to impress a made-up horror character in 2014 entered a not guilty plea by reason of insanity on Friday. The 14-year-old girl, whose name has been withheld because she is a juvenile, followed in the footsteps of the other suspect in the case, who entered the same plea last month. Both girls, who were 12 at the time of the crime, are being tried as adults in accordance with a state law that allows anyone over the age of 10 to be considered an adult in cases of attempted homicide. The girls face up to 40 years in prison on the charge of first-degree attempted intentional homicide. The girls’ May 2014 attack on fellow student Payton Leutner shocked the nation. The girls allegedly lured Leutner to a wooded area in Waukesha, Wisconsin, before stabbing her repeatedly. They later told police they had stabbed her to please “Slender Man,” a fictional character with whom they wanted to live. If doctors find that the girls truly are suffering from a mental disease, they could be committed indefinitely to a mental hospital.