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Nancy Grace
Nancy Grace Mysteries: The Murder of Annie Le; The Slenderman Defense
Aired June 06, 2014 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: Slumber party nightmare. Shocking new developments as two 12-year-old girls allegedly lure and stab their friend 19 times during what
was supposed to be an innocent game of hide and seek, both girls allegedly claiming it was a freaky bid to please the Internet fantasy creature
Slenderman. But will the Slenderman defense hold up with a jury?
A beautiful and brilliant young Yale graduate student vanishes just days before her dream wedding. She`s last seen on surveillance video
entering a research building on Yale`s campus, but she`s never seen again. We go inside Annie Le`s disappearance and the shocking discovery that blew
the case wide open.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She left her pocketbook, her cell phone, everything in the lab. She didn`t go home last night. Her fiance -- she`s
getting married Sunday. Her fiance hasn`t heard from her. So everybody`s pretty worried.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Twenty-four-year-old Annie Le was a doctorate student, a Ph.D. student, at Yale getting her degrees in pharmacology and
molecular medicine. She was not only beautiful but brilliant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This surveillance photo is all that Yale University police have, showing the 4-foot, 11-inch 90-pound Plasserville
(ph) native walking through Yale`s campus the day before she was reported missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I found out by somebody coming into our office, asking us if we had we seen Annie.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-four-year-old Annie Marie Le was a graduate student at Yale, pursuing a joint Ph.D. and M.D. degree. She was last seen
in a research facility on campus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The day before that she disappeared -- and this was just before her wedding date, which would have been September the 13th. A few
days before that, she goes into Yale University as normal in the morning around 10:00 o`clock to conduct her research. She is spotted on video
surveillance walking into the research building around 10:09 AM. Her card, her ID card, was used to swipe access into room G-13. That was an animal
research laboratory. So we know she made it that far.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police have used bloodhounds to search for clues as to where Le went. The FBI and Connecticut State Police are now
involved. Friends of Le describe her as a very brought young woman. In high school at Union Mine (ph) in Eldorado County, she was voted best of
the best, named most likely to be the next Einstein. Her science teacher loved her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) focused, disciplined, well-rounded, vibrant, and actually, this teacher`s favorite student of all time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With that kind of character reference and a wedding that is scheduled for this Sunday of Long Island in New York,
everyone is wondering where could Annie Marie Le be tonight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: At one 1:55 PM that same day, just before 2:00 o`clock, a fire alarm is set off. Video or swipe cards, neither one show her leaving the
building before or after the fire alarm. She wasn`t seen leaving. She wasn`t seen coming back in. In fact, she was never seen on video
surveillance again.
But logically speaking, you would think that if she swiped in at 10:13, when the fire alarm went off at 1:55, she would have left the
building. And you would have known that electronically through her swipe card or through all the video surveillance that caught everyone from every
exit as they left what they thought could be a fire. Not Annie Le. She never left the building.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Across the street from a small poster that displays the picture of missing 24-year-old pharmacology student Annie Le,
FBI investigators dig through yet another trash can. Although Le is listed as missing, students here question the seriousness of the case when men in
yellow suits dig through trash.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of (INAUDIBLE) come here, look for her, but so far, they haven`t found her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing since Tuesday. Le is seen here on surveillance video leaving the building on 10 Amistad wearing a brown skirt
and a green shirt. Her purse, credit card, cell phone and money were left behind three blocks away at her office at Sterling Hall. Even more
concerning, Le`s wedding is Sunday. People we approached outside her New Haven apartment did not want to speak on camera.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s just really sad. It`s really sad. I`m just going down for -- just to get some lunch and get to see that it could
happen, like (INAUDIBLE) to anybody is just a scary situation, so...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: News Channel 8 learned Thursday that Le had written for a Yale publication earlier this year called "B" (ph) magazine.
The title of the article was, "Crime and safety in New Haven." The last sentence in the February edition reads, "New Haven is a city and all cities
have their perils, but with a little street smarts, one can avoid becoming a statistic."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) walk to work, and I actually walk the same path as she does. And of course, you`re going to look around, I
would think would be the natural response.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Now, we`ve heard of runaway brides. You know, it was a movie with Julia Roberts. I mean, there was a real, live runaway bride that made
the headlines, too. Could Annie Le be a runaway bride? Her wedding was set for a few days after she went missing. Could she have just disappeared
into thin air to get out of the nuptials?
Well, this is what we know about that. She had known her fiance for years. They had actually attended University of Rochester together at
undergrad. Now, remember, she`s in her third year of her doctorate now. So they`ve known each other for years, at least four years. And he is a
graduate student at Columbia.
And just before the wedding, a week before the wedding, which would have been around September the 5th, she posts on Facebook, One week until
the big day, and she`s excited and happy. This is a wedding she has taken it upon herself to plan for a year. She was all about the wedding. So
friends and family find it very difficult to believe she got cold feet and ran away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On this Ivy League campus, among the Gothic archways and majestic halls, ominous signs that something is very wrong.
There are bloodhounds, crime scene investigators sifting through garbage, and this, a haunting surveillance picture of a bride-to-be student who
vanished without a trace.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone`s sort of shocked by it. Everyone`s in disbelief that something like this could happen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But it did happen. Annie Le, 24 years old and pursuing a doctorate at Yale University School of Medicine, was last seen
Tuesday morning outside a research facility. This snapshot from the building security camera shows Le entering, but no one ever saw her leave,
evidence and perhaps clues that Le who, was just 4-foot-11 and 90 pounds, may have met foul play.
Le disappeared just five days before her wedding. She was supposed to marry Columbia University graduate student Jonathan Widoski (ph).
Authorities say her fiance is not a suspect and is helping in the search.
Dogs were brought in again to search the building where Le disappeared. And as campus police, local law enforcement and the FBI look
for Le, colleagues and classmates paint a picture of an energetic scholar known for her smile and laugh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was just a very, very cool person, very down to earth, you know, always willing to help someone out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Focused, disciplined, well rounded, vibrant and actually this teacher`s favorite student of all time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In a bizarre twist, Le`s disappearance comes seven months after she wrote an article for a magazine on personal
security. Titled "Crime and Safety in New Haven," Le offers tips to reduce the chances of being robbed or mugged. She writes, "Pay attention to where
you are and avoid portraying yourself as a potential victim." Good advice, but it may not have been enough to protect Annie Le.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Just ahead, two 12-year-old girls allegedly stab their friend during a sleepover, claiming it was an offering to the mystical
character Slenderman. Tonight, shocking new developments that you won`t believe.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Annie is vivacious, outgoing, smart. She`s brilliant, science-oriented, clearly somebody that -- I mean, if you listen
to the people at Yale that are talking about her, she was going to be breakthrough scientist and have an impact.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The female roommate reports Annie Le missing the evening of September 8. The next day, the FBI, local police are there at the research
lab at Yale, and they begin processing the scene, the last room she was in, which we all know is G-13, the animal research laboratory. While the FBI
is there, they first notice a lab technician, Raymond Clark.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He never indicated any sort of violent tendencies. I was aware of a rumor, an unsubstantiated rumor, that he had had an
altercation with a prior girlfriend. I didn`t think anything of it at the time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Apparently, he was very concerned about how people kept their mice, their cages. There have been some reports he got very
upset when people wouldn`t wear plastic booties into the lab or when people wouldn`t keep their cages clean.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Kept coming in and out and in and out of G-13 for no apparent reason. As they were processing the scene, one of the agents notices
Raymond Clark changes his outfit. I mean, at work, he changes his outfit. He gets rid of the clothes he was wearing.
They decided to find him on the surveillance video, and they see him in a yellow lab coat. They seize that yellow lab coat. And on that lab
coat, they find Annie Le`s DNA.
Now, back to the time they`re processing the scene. After they notice Raymond Clark has actually changed clothes while the FBI is right in the
room processing it for an apparent crime, they notice that Raymond Clark keeps fussing with items in the room. He shouldn`t even have been in
there, but he kept coming in and out, in and out, moving things around. And they notice that he is moving a box of wipes, that he has moved it.
Well, one of the agents goes over, looks at the box of wipes, and they see that he has positioned away from their view blood spatter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty miles from the crime scene, the street where Raymond Clark lives is buzzing. Police took him into custody at his
apartment here to collect DNA. He`s since been released, and his lawyer says he is cooperating. But no one we met has seen him back home, so
neighbors like Ashley Rowe (ph) are remembering times they spoke to him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was decent. You know, his dog was really excited, and he was just, like, Oh, he`s like he`s friendly. Don`t worry.
You can pet him. He`s a really nice man, so he -- pretty much, he was just known to love his dog and walk around wit the dog all the time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you said he was sort of different, in that he wanted to know a lot about the people he was talking to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wanted to know their full name, where they`re from, stuff like that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clark, who is 24, is not a student at Yale, but works there taking care of mice in the medical labs. His fiance and two
relatives also work in the labs, according to police. But officials will say little about how Clark knew Annie Le.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They worked in the same building. They passed in the hallways. Anything beyond that, I`m not going to talk about.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any past troubles for Le?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m not going to talk about that issue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any video of Clark in the building that day?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not going to talk about what video we have and not -- don`t have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An old high school friend, Lisa Hesslin (ph), remembers Clark well.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was a nice kid. I mean, he was a jokester, kind of like a class clown. Everybody knew him. Everybody liked him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For a while, Clark lived here, not far from Yale, but neighbors here have little to say. This is the house where he used to
live, up there on the second floor, we`re told. But all of the residents of this building now say that they either moved in after he left, or if
they knew him, they did not know him well. They saw him in passing, at best. He had a girlfriend and a dog, by most accounts, but that`s about
all they know.
For now, police are still collecting evidence and stressing that Clark is not a suspect, while signs at a family member`s home are keeping the
curious away from this person of interest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: When they ultimately speak to the lab technician -- who, by the way has a fiance that lives with him, as I recall -- when they actually
speak to Raymond Clark, he says he`s known Annie Le for about four months. They only know each other through work. They have never socialized
together at all. He says he saw her come in that morning around 10:00 o`clock and that he saw her leave around 12:45 PM, around lunchtime, that
same day -- this even though she was never caught on surveillance video.
As they are speaking to Raymond Clark, they`re looking at him, sizing him up, and they notice that he`s got scratches around his face and his
biceps. When they ask him that, he blames the cats that live with him and his fiance.
The police start all over at square one searching the building. They go downstairs to the lowest levels of the research building there at Yale
University. A smell is emanating behind -- from behind lockers. And they can`t figure it out.
They bring in cadaver dogs. The cadaver dogs are having a really difficult time searching in the building because of all the chemicals, the
chemical compounds, the experiments going on in the building. It`s throwing off their scent of smell.
But there`s no mistaking the odor that is emanating from behind the lockers. So they go into the wall. There`s a metal chase in the wall.
The metal chase is located behind the toilet area. And it is there in the wall that they find the body of 24-year-old research student Annie Le.
ANNOUNCER: Next, how did the Yale killer almost get away with murder?
And also tonight, slumber party nightmare. Two little girls allegedly stab their friend in an offering to the Internet craze surrounding
Slenderman. Tonight, shocking new developments you won`t believe.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: The condition of Le`s body is horrific. She was virtually upside down, crammed into the wall, and you can imagine someone picking her
up and putting her in with her head down and her feet up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ray Clark knew he was in trouble. He knew he was being followed by more than half a dozen police investigators. He
likely also knew where the investigation into Annie Le`s death was heading.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: In the end, Raymond Clark enters an Alfred plea, which is he neither confesses nor denies guilt. He did, however, apologize to the Le
family for taking a life and lying about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tuesday morning, investigators went to him. Armed with search warrants, they wanted hair and fingernail DNA samples.
Investigators focused on Clark in part because of what they saw on the more than 700 hours of videotape from the security cameras. On that tape, Ray
Clark stood out.
A source with knowledge of the investigation told me Clark was seen leaving the building after someone, possibly him, pulled the fire alarm.
He had his head in his hands and looked distraught.
After Clark gave a DNA sample on Wednesday, he got a room at this Super 8 motel in his family`s hometown. He stayed there with his parents,
hiding from the media, likely knowing it wouldn`t be long before officers came knocking again.
By this time, investigators had interviewed about 150 people and had collected 300 pieces of evidence. Then came the DNA match our source says
clearly connects Clark to the murder, indicating the victim`s DNA was found on Ray Clark. Early Thursday morning, Clark was arrested and charged with
killing Yale medical student Annie Le.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: He was sentenced to 44 years behind bars. Annie Le was the all-American girl. Her family from Sacramento rejoiced, so proud when
Annie Le made it to Yale University. Another twist -- her body found the day of her wedding.
ANNOUNCER: Next, Slenderman. Did fantasy and reality collide in a brutal and almost deadly stabbing?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s extremely disturbing as a parent and as a chief of police that these -- especially the age of our suspects -- we told
you they`re all 12 years old -- the age of these suspects and being female both lead into -- and obviously, the details of what happened in the
investigation -- this is a very disturbing investigation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He came upon a 12-year-old female. She appears to be stabbed.
911 OPERATOR: She appears to be What?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stabbed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The two middle-school-aged suspects said they believed in a fictional evil character called Slenderman, and essentially
wanted to be one of his disciples.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After the three woke up Saturday morning from a sleepover at Weier`s house, the two acted out the horrific plan.
GRACE: An innocent sleepover with three 12-year-old girls turns deadly when two of the girls, obsessed with on-line sci-fi stories, fantasy
characters that they found on some bizarre Web site -- they lure their 12- year-old little friend to play hide and seek. And then they hold the little girl down, stabbing her 19 times, all in a bid to please some
mythical fantasy creature called Slenderman, then after the horrific stabbing of the little girl stating, Part of me feels remorse, but part of
me doesn`t. Well, since they are going to be tried as adults, these two, the two 12-year-old girls will have plenty of time to sort out their
conflicting feelings behind bars.
Straight out to Miguel Marquez, CNN national correspondent. It`s almost too much for me to take in.
At 12 years old, they should be in 4H or Girl Scouts or something like that. They should be worried about what camp they may go to over summer
vacation.
Instead -- let me see their pictures, please, Liz. Instead, these two girls, 12-year-old girls, everybody -- hold on, Miguel -- are obsessed with
some sci-fi fantasy Web site -- I never even heard of it before -- where they start believing in some mythical sci-fi creature named Slenderman.
Let`s see a picture of Slenderman as seen on line. There -- I now know there are a lot of them.
Miguel Marquez, let me try you again. To CNN national correspondent Miguel Marquez, standing by on the scene there in Waukesha. Miguel, what
happened?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, this all happened -- it started a few blocks down the way here at a park, where they initially
tried to kill this young woman. These two girls, Ms. Geyser and Ms. Weier, they got it into their heads that this Slenderman character was somehow
real, and to prove that he was real and to prove their loyalty to him and - - that they would kill their friend, and then they could move up the ranks and that they would -- he would accept them into their lives. So the plot
was, so say police, was to kill their friend, and then go to the fictitious mansion up in the north woods of Wisconsin, where Slenderman lived.
GRACE: Miguel...
MARQUEZ: This was the trail of almost -- yes?
GRACE: ... do you hear yourself? Go to the fictitious mansion where Slenderman lives.
MARQUEZ: Hey...
GRACE: Hold on just a moment. These are 12-year-olds. Now, my question, Miguel, is how many hours and hours did they spend -- what`s the
name of this Web site? It`s some crazy Web site.
MARQUEZ: It`s...
GRACE: What is it?
MARQUEZ: The Web site where they found this initially was Creepypasta.wikia.com...
GRACE: That`s it.
MARQUEZ: ... but look, Slenderman is ubiquitous...
GRACE: Creepypasta Wiki.
MARQUEZ: ... he`s all -- he`s all over the Web. He`s all over the Web site. There are films. There are Web site. Kids dress up as them
(ph). These are -- these are very popular characters for kids.
GRACE: Liz, please pull up the picture...
MARQUEZ: These two just got...
GRACE: ... the actual picture of Slenderman, Liz. There`s one where a little girl is walking along with this really tall, creepy-looking guy.
And that is Slenderman. I don`t want to see any pictures. I want to see what these girls were -- it`s a picture, Liz. It`s like it`s out of a
magazine. Oh, that`s it! Yes. That -- hold that. Hold that for me, Charles. That`s Slenderman.
Now, what I don`t understand, Miguel Marquez, is how many hundreds of hours these two 12-year-old little girls, just in the 5th grade, were
allowed to pore over on-line fantasy and sci-fi to where they believe Slenderman is real.
And there`s a triangle. I don`t know if you know about the triangle, Miguel Marquez, but there is Slenderman at the top, then there`s a proxy,
then there`s a murder victim. And to become a proxy...
MARQUEZ: And there`s a killer.
GRACE: ... you have to kill somebody.
MARQUEZ: Slenderman, the killer and then the proxy. Yes.
GRACE: Yes.
MARQUEZ: These girls wanted to be proxies. And they felt by killing their friend, they could become proxies of Slenderman. Police now saying
that they are now looking at the computer hard drives and trying to recreate everything these young women were looking at and doing up until
this thing happened.
The big thing will be that computer hard drive, police telling us they suspect it`ll be more than just Creepypasta they were looking at, that
there was lots and lots of stuff. If you read the criminal complaint...
GRACE: Where is Mommy...
MARQUEZ: ... it looks like a tiff between...
GRACE: ... and Daddy...
MARQUEZ: ... two 12-year-olds -- crazy.
GRACE: ... while they`re spending hundreds of hours on Creepypasta Wiki, believing in Slenderman?
MARQUEZ: This is the other thing that police say. If you push your kid in a room with the Internet and you close the door, it`s the same thing
as letting a stranger, a grown man into your 12-year-old`s room with them. Why would parents do that? They are warning parents not just about
Creepypasta, not just about Slenderman, but about hundreds, thousands of characters and Web sites out there that kids can get into, very
impressionable kids.
GRACE: OK, Miguel...
MARQUEZ: And for whatever reason, this took off with them.
GRACE: Miguel, let`s get back in the middle of the road. Tell me what happened. They lure -- they`ve been planning this for a year, 12-
year-olds...
MARQUEZ: Well, they`ve been planning it...
GRACE: ... planning a murder for a year!
MARQUEZ: They`ve been planning it -- they`ve been planning it for a few months, actually. They came out (ph) of (ph) Slenderman and
Creepypasta back in October. In January or December, they said, Let`s kill our friends that we can become proxies. And then in February, they said,
On my birthday slumber party, that`s the night that we are going to do this.
They took her first to the park. They were going to -- they were going to kill her in her sleep. They were going to duct tape her mouth and
then stab her in her neck and then cover her so that she would die without them having to see her eyes. Then they were going to kill her in the...
GRACE: Wait, wait! Go back...
MARQUEZ: ... bathroom in the park...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Miguel, Miguel, Miguel! Where did you get the detail? I learned all of that from reading the warrant that I`ve got in my hand right
here that outlines what the two 12-year-olds said about the murder. You know, October to June, what is that, 10 months? You call it a few months.
I call it a year.
But Miguel, I didn`t know that they actually said they did not want her looking them in the eyes when they murdered her? I didn`t hear that.
MARQUEZ: That was the initial -- that was the initial thing that they were going to do. And then they decided, No, we`re going to kill her in
the bathroom at a park just a few blocks away from here so that her blood could drain into the drain in the park bathroom. And then they fought in
the bathroom over who was going to stab her. They got freaked out. And then they went to play hide and seek in the woods. These are the woods
here, very...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Wait, wait, wait!
MARQUEZ: ... woods in this area here in Waukesha.
GRACE: They lured the 12-year-old girl into the woods, claiming they were going to play hide and seek. Everybody, look behind Miguel Marquez.
What you are seeing is a rural area...
MARQUEZ: These are the woods.
GRACE: ... there near Waukesha. So they lure her into the woods to play hide and seek. Then what happened, Miguel?
MARQUEZ: Then they finally get up the gumption. They basically egg each other on. One of them sits on her. She starts yelling and screaming.
They worry that it`s going to attract people from the neighborhood around here. So they get off of her. And then they tell -- then one of them
tells the other one, Go ballistic, go crazy. And then Geyser says that that`s when she said, Don`t worry about it, I`m a kitty cat, and began
stabbing her friend. They stabbed her 19 times, her stomach, her pancreas...
GRACE: I didn`t hear what you said about...
MARQUEZ: ... her liver, her heart...
GRACE: ... a kitty cat. What did you say about a kitty cat?
MARQUEZ: She said before she stabbed her -- the line that she used was, Don`t worry, I`m a kitty cat, and then began stabbing her friend. The
kitty cat was a reference to the fact that one of them had cats. But it is fairly sick stuff...
GRACE: Miguel? Miguel...
MARQUEZ: ... that these two kids got themselves into.
GRACE: I`m looking at this...
MARQUEZ: Nancy?
GRACE: ... this little 12-year-old girl. My twins are almost 7. And all can I think about is Lucy, my little girl. And she wants to have a
sleepover -- you`ll see, Miguel. She want to have a sleepover so much.
This little girl was struck in the heart, the liver, the pancreas, the stomach, 19 stab wounds, these two here, this Morgan Geyser and Anissa
Weier -- 19 stab wounds. Doctors say she was 1 millimeter from death.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was, like, pretty cool (INAUDIBLE) until, like, probably 4th grade, when she started to act kind of weirdish.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The plan, the attack, the motive all to please the fictitious horror character Slenderman.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that, quote, "many people do not believe Slenderman is real," and she wanted to, quote, "prove the skeptics wrong."
GRACE: In Waukesha, Wisconsin, a community is rocked after a 12-year- old little girl gets invited to a sleepover with two of her little friends, both 12. It`s all a plot to lure the little girl and stab her to death.
They stabbed this child 19 times in the heart, the pancreas, the liver.
Now, what you`re looking -- the girl you`re looking at is one of the two alleged assailants. We are not releasing the victim`s name or picture.
This little girl right there is one of the two accused of stabbing their little friend 19 times!
With me right now, hopefully, to shed light on this, in addition to Miguel Marquez, Meg McKenzie, also with me is Emily Edwards, neighbor and
former baby-sitter of one of the girls accused in the stabbing.
Emily Edwards, thank you for being with us tonight. I need some help understanding this whole thing. You were a neighbor to one of the girls
for years. Did you ever notice any unusual behavior at all?
EMILY EDWARDS, FORMER BABY-SITTER (via telephone): No, I didn`t notice any unusual behavior with Morgan. She was very normal. You know,
she liked to do normal 12-year-old things, like riding a bike or playing with sidewalk chalk.
GRACE: You know, that sounds like all the girl children that I know. They like to play with chalk. They like to try to ride their bikes. They
all have American girls, or a facsimile of an American girl. I don`t -- I can`t get my head around this, Emily. Did you know that they were obsessed
with Slenderman, some sci-fi he creature they found on Creepypasta Wiki?
EDWARDS: No, I didn`t know. I actually had no idea.
GRACE: So they never mentioned Slenderman to you?
EDWARDS: What?
GRACE: She never -- Morgan never mentioned Slenderman?
EDWARDS: No, she didn`t.
GRACE: Was there anything in her behavior that would have even suggested this stabbing could ever occur?
EDWARDS: No.
GRACE: Everyone, with me, Emily Edwards, neighbor and baby-sitter, says Morgan Geyser, of one of the two 12-year-old alleged stabbers, was
just like any other little girl.
Out to the lines. Meg McKenzie, news anchor WISN. Meg, what more can you tell us?
MEG MCKENZIE, WISN (via telephone): Nancy, what I can tell you is after the girls appeared in court yesterday, we`re getting little bits and
pieces of information coming out. Now, they are being tried, as you said, as adults. However, at least one of the girls` attorneys is making a bid
to get this kicked back to juvenile court.
Now, what that would mean is several things. One, juvenile court proceedings, as you`re well aware, are in secret, so we would not get as
much information if they do get kicked back to juvenile court. Two, these girls would be out no later than the age of 25. Charged as an adult and
tried as an adult, as you know, they would possibly facing up to 60, maybe 65 years in prison.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: What do we know about the lure of Slenderman?
MCKENZIE: Slenderman is a fictitious character developed back in about 2009 by someone. It got picked up by Creepypasta and sort of morphed
into a much larger-than-life character. And there`s a lot of mythical beliefs surrounding it. And you know, these girls weren`t the only young
people that wonder if Slenderman is possibly real.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For three months, these two 12-year-old girls plotted to kill one of their best friends, according to police, and finally
put their plan into action on Friday night. That`s when they lured her out into the woods and stabbed her 19 times.
According to the criminal complaint, Morgan Geyser came up with the idea of the murder and enlisted her friend, Anissa Weier, to help her.
Both girls were fans of horror Web site, where they say they were introduced to a fictional character called Slenderman. They thought he was
real and could only meet him if they physically killed someone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Both suspects had a fascination with a fictitious character that often posted to a Web site that is a collection of small
stories about death and horror. Based on our investigation, it is believed that the suspects had planned to kill the victim for several months.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They invited their friend, identified in the complaint only as 12-year-old P.L., to Geyser`s house for a sleepover on
Friday night, and had first planned on duct taping the victim`s mouth and stabbing her in the neck while she was sleeping. Geyser told police that
was so they wouldn`t have to, quote, "look into her eyes."
But by the next morning, the plan had changed. Police say the two girls plotted to kill P.L. in a nearby park bathroom because, Weier said,
she noticed a drain in the floor for, quote, "the blood to go down." When the three girls left for the park, on the way there, police say, Geyser
lifted up the side of her jacket and showed the knife tucked into her waistband. Weier then told police, quote, "I thought, dear God, this was
really happening."
This is the park bathroom where they initially wanted to kill their friend, but they got nervous, they started fighting and arguing. They
decided they had to do it by playing hide and seek in the woods right down this way, so they lured her down there, Weier telling the police that
Geyser did all the stabbing, Geyser telling police that they both did the stabbing. Once the stabbing started in those woods, though, they left
their friend for dead, hoping that they could then see Slenderman.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Many of the stab wounds struck major organs, but incredibly and thankfully, the victim survived this brutal assault.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The victim managed to crawl to the road and was found by a bicyclist, who called the police. Doctors say one of the knife
wounds missed a major artery near her heart by just a millimeter.
Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser were found walking near the interstate. They later told police they planned to walk to Slenderman`s mansion after
the crime, which they believed was in the Nicolet National Park. They are now charged with first degree attempted murder and have been cooperating
with police. Miguel Marquez, CNN.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The creator of Slenderman has said, basically, Well, I`m so sorry this happened. What do you think is going to happen when the whole
myth is, to live with Slenderman in his mansion, you`ve got to kill somebody?
SHIRA CHESS, SLENDERMAN SCHOLAR (via telephone): That`s not actually the original myth. And I think part of the problem that`s happening here
is that we`re seeing something that has been internalized and then reinterpreted by these young girls. The original Slenderman stories as
they appeared initially on Somethingawful.com, and then later throughout the Web but also Creepypasta, as you`ve noticed, they`re no more dangerous
than a vampire story. It`s the same sort of thing. And part of the problem here is that they took something out of context and they put their
own sort of -- they internalized...
GRACE: Well, you know, Ms. Chess, they are children. And when you put a story like Slenderman on line, what do you think children are going
to do?
There is no way that they`ve got an insanity defense. What are you going to say, Slenderman made them do it? Is that your defense, the two of
you?
AREVA MARTIN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You know, Nancy, they absolutely do have a defense. Everything that I`ve heard about this case -- of course,
it`s horrific, but these girls had a break with reality. One of the statements that we`re not hearing about is the fact that one girl said she
believed that if they didn`t kill their friend, that Slenderman would kill them.
GRACE: Oh, OK...
MARTIN: So there`s also some clear evidence...
GRACE: ... so I take it...
MARTIN: ... of psychiatric issues here.
GRACE: What you`re saying then, Areva Martin, in layperson`s talk is coercion, that if they didn`t kill the little girl, then Slenderman was
going to jump out of the computer and kill them?
MARTIN: But Nancy...
GRACE: No, it`s got to be a real coercion.
MARTIN: ... they did this based on a mythical character. Thy did this based on a mythical character.
GRACE: That doesn`t...
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: ... delusional.
GRACE: You know what?
MARTIN: It doesn`t...
GRACE: I`m going to wish you a lot of luck with that.
MARTIN: That shows a degree of psychiatric issues, Nancy.
GRACE: Let`s see what else they said behind bars. Tonight, we have obtained their statements. Geyser claimed she was having a nervous
breakdown, and Weier had to calm her down, but they still did the stabbing. Weier pointed to the woods to Geyser and suggested they kill the little
girl in the woods.
Weier stated the little victim, P.L., got up and tried to walk towards the street, but was stumbling. They told her they were going to get her
help, but Weier indicated to police they never planned on getting help for the victim. It was the hope that the victim would die. And they would see
Slender and know that he was real.
Once they left, they walked through the bushes and walked to Walmart. Weier talked about the planning stages and said every now and then, she and
Geyser would whisper about the plan to kill the victim when they were on the bus. They didn`t want to be overheard. They whispered because they
didn`t want people to hear them. They feared they would go to prison if they ever found out.
END
