Slender Man: Two girls accused of trying to kill classmate to be tried as adults
- Published
Two 14-year-olds will be tried as adults in the Slender Man case in the US.
The girls, who were aged 12 at the time, are accused of trying to kill their classmate to please the fictional horror character.
The pair could now appeal against the rulings to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
State lawyers say Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier lured 12-year-old Payton Leutner to a park near the city of Milwaukee.
The victim has recovered and returned to school last year
They claim the girls then stabbed Payton 19 times in an attempted sacrifice to the Slender Man.
Payton managed to crawl from a wooded area on to a path, where she was discovered by a cyclist.
The two girls are charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide.
Waukesha is about 20 miles west of near Milwaukee
A US judge first ruled that they should be but the girls' lawyers had been trying to get that overturned.
Wisconsin's 2nd District Appeals court has now confirmed a lower court's decision that it was reasonable to try both girls as adults.
Last year Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren found that, despite evidence of the girls' non-violent histories and psychological issues, having them prosecuted as juveniles would "unduly depreciate the seriousness of the offense".
He cited the fact that they had allegedly discussed the crime for months beforehand and tried to flee by starting to walk to northern Wisconsin.
If the pair are convicted, they could go to prison for up to 45 years.
As juveniles, they would have been locked up for up to three years if found guilty and then supervised until they're 18.
The Slender Man myth
Slender Man is described in fictional stories as an unnaturally tall, thin, demon-like figure that lacks facial features.
He's said to live in a mansion in a forest.
Authorities say the girls hoped to live in that fictional home after the attack and thought it was in Wisconsin's Nicolet National Forest.
Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier were found walking near a local highway after the alleged stabbing
Both have been held at a juvenile jail since their arrests on 31 May 2014.
premiered at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, earlier this year.
It follows the 18 months after the stabbing happened.
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