In 2014 pre-teen girls Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser lured their friend Payton Leutner over for a birthday party with the intent to kill her in the name of Slender Man. To the girls, Slender Man was as real as could be and they were both terrified and enamored with him, and the only way to protect themselves was to sacrifice their friend. A hometown story for Brittney, dive in as Scarlet discusses the motives, the act, and most intriguing, the aftermath.
Sources: HBO Documentary, Beware the Slender Man; 20/20 Special; TMJ4 court room footage, Wikipedia, Creepy Pasta, ABC News
Alrighty.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Hayes, Carlitos.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Hey, Scarlett fans.
Sonia Meza-Leon:We are back with episode eight of our podcast.
Sonia Meza-Leon:We are going to be talking tonight about the slender man stabbing
Brittney Sherman:you're of course, here with me, Brittany Sherman.
Brittney Sherman:And I'm here with Sonia Misa Leone.
Brittney Sherman:I'm excited for this one.
Brittney Sherman:I am batting with a home field advantage here because this happened right
Brittney Sherman:down the street from where I live.
Brittney Sherman:And I didn't really start thinking about this until I was diving into
Brittney Sherman:this conver or this topic, man.
Brittney Sherman:Some shit happens in Wisconsin.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Oh yeah.
Sonia Meza-Leon:You guys have a, you're probably went second to Florida.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Maybe.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yes.
Brittney Sherman:Yeah.
Brittney Sherman:You're
Sonia Meza-Leon:still number one.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I think only because we're able to publish that.
Sonia Meza-Leon:That's I promise there's crazy everywhere, but Florida, since the laws that you,
Sonia Meza-Leon:any criminal, you know, mugshots, all of that's all public information and the
Sonia Meza-Leon:press loves it and goes crazy over it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:But of course, yes.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Weird things happen in Florida.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yeah.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Well, so
Brittney Sherman:I was thinking about like how, I mean, I've got like a
Brittney Sherman:bevy of topics for us to talk about at some point, but I was thinking.
Brittney Sherman:Maybe five, six things that are like really close to where I was.
Brittney Sherman:So they're within a mile, maybe a mile and a half of where I grew up.
Brittney Sherman:And where at parents currently live, there were two mass shootings.
Brittney Sherman:That one that was really highly publicized.
Brittney Sherman:I think back in like 2012, maybe, um, there was the church that I grew up
Brittney Sherman:going to when I was a child and the family that lived down the street from
Brittney Sherman:the first house that I lived in, there was a mother who tragically drowned
Brittney Sherman:her two sons and was a member of the same parish that we were, who was that?
Brittney Sherman:No, no, no, no.
Brittney Sherman:It wasn't Susan Smith.
Brittney Sherman:She joined them in their bathtub.
Brittney Sherman:I don't remember her name,
Sonia Meza-Leon:unfortunately.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Okay.
Sonia Meza-Leon:We'll cover that one later.
Brittney Sherman:Yeah, we'll definitely come to that.
Brittney Sherman:Cause that was really tragic.
Brittney Sherman:Like it actually drove the priest from our church to like need to retire and
Brittney Sherman:relocate because it was too much for him.
Brittney Sherman:He couldn't handle it.
Brittney Sherman:Uh, there was there's of course, Jeffrey Dahmer for Milwaukee
Brittney Sherman:right next to where I live.
Brittney Sherman:Uh, and there was a, uh, kidnapping that happened.
Brittney Sherman:I think it was like the same week as Elizabeth smart, but never received
Brittney Sherman:the same kind of publicity except it was on wasn't unsolved mystery.
Brittney Sherman:So it was that show that John Walsh used to host.
Brittney Sherman:I can't remember what it's called now.
Brittney Sherman:America's most wanted, I think it was featured on that.
Brittney Sherman:Um, so that happened and that's deal a cold case that girl was never found.
Brittney Sherman:And now of course here is slender man, which is in the same county
Brittney Sherman:in next town, over from where.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Crazy.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So it gives us a little rundown on what's our, what's our summary of this.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So we can kind of let everybody know what to expect from this episode.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Also give fair warning when it comes to the severity of this crime
Sonia Meza-Leon:and you know, we're going to be sharing some graphic information.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, and we're going to be talking about, um, the victim as well as the, uh,
Sonia Meza-Leon:The defendants in the case, the actual perpetrators and they're all at the time
Sonia Meza-Leon:of the, um, crime were 12 years old.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So understand, we'll try to be sensitive to, uh, speaking about them because
Sonia Meza-Leon:they are children and certainly sensitive to all of their families,
Sonia Meza-Leon:um, because they're all, you know, going through their own challenges,
Sonia Meza-Leon:uh, when it comes to this case, it was a shock to everyone, certainly.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And as all.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Uh,
Brittney Sherman:we advise listener discretion advised
Brittney Sherman:because we will be getting into, into some violent conversations.
Brittney Sherman:And this is strictly our opinion and the evidence that is already out there.
Brittney Sherman:We are not introducing anything new or stating anything as fact.
Brittney Sherman:So a quick little summary on slender, man.
Brittney Sherman:Uh, he is a fictional supernatural character.
Brittney Sherman:That's really popular still among, uh, pre-teens and adolescents.
Brittney Sherman:The crux of the story is that he is this thin featureless man between eight and
Brittney Sherman:15 feet tall, and he stalks and, um, ducks and traumatizes, uh, children.
Brittney Sherman:Uh, he was invented as part of, uh, just a fun little contest, but in
Brittney Sherman:2014 in Waukesha, Wisconsin, two 12 year old girls became consumed
Brittney Sherman:by the lore of slender man.
Brittney Sherman:And believe that the only way to be safe from him was to kill their friend Peyton,
Brittney Sherman:or as they called her Bella Leitner.
Brittney Sherman:This is their story.
Sonia Meza-Leon:so, uh, interesting case, you know, it's, um, I think what
Sonia Meza-Leon:I want to hear from you is a little bit of the background of the area.
Sonia Meza-Leon:This is your hometown.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It like it really is.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And it would be awesome.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I mean, I feel like this is fairly recent 2014, you know, the kids, I
Sonia Meza-Leon:think I could definitely understand.
Sonia Meza-Leon:12 year old was going through in 2014, because it would likely be similar
Sonia Meza-Leon:technology that we have today, maybe a little more improved, but they were
Sonia Meza-Leon:still serving the internet, you know, and there was likely the same information
Sonia Meza-Leon:out there, Facebook social media.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So these two were definitely influenced by, um, any, a lot of the online material
Sonia Meza-Leon:that they received about Slenderman.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I think that was their main source of information about him.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yes.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So
Brittney Sherman:to paint a little bit of a picture of where we're talking about,
Brittney Sherman:because I didn't know this area very well.
Brittney Sherman:Uh, I grew up in a town that's right in the middle of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and
Brittney Sherman:Waukesha, Wisconsin, and it's Waukesha county is the, the area that I grew up in.
Brittney Sherman:And of course this is Waukesha, the city within Washoe county and.
Brittney Sherman:E a significant hybrid of a metropolitan area and a woodsy
Brittney Sherman:forest desolate rural area.
Brittney Sherman:Waukesha is a pretty large swath of land that.
Brittney Sherman:In one area, you are very close to the happenings, like the
Brittney Sherman:downtown areas, shopping food.
Brittney Sherman:You're only maybe a 10 minute drive from Milwaukee, but you're also only
Brittney Sherman:a five minute drive from being pretty much completely cut off from society.
Brittney Sherman:It's just, it's a lot of rural highways.
Brittney Sherman:Uh, just a lot of open land houses that live.
Brittney Sherman:Far apart from each other.
Brittney Sherman:I don't know the specific area where these girls are from.
Brittney Sherman:I kind of got the, uh, the opinion that they are from somewhere kind of on
Brittney Sherman:that border of the, the city portion of it to the more country portion of it.
Brittney Sherman:Yeah.
Brittney Sherman:It looked like
Sonia Meza-Leon:a subdivision where this park was located.
Brittney Sherman:Yes, exactly.
Brittney Sherman:So, um, to your point about how they kind of got consumed Slenderman is
Brittney Sherman:mostly just, it's an online fiction.
Brittney Sherman:There've been stories that have come out.
Brittney Sherman:There've been a couple movies made, but really at the time, and it
Brittney Sherman:originated on the website, creepy pasta as just a fun invention that
Brittney Sherman:was meant to garner a little attention and win an award for some guide.
Brittney Sherman:Create this new creepy story that could be used to freak out
Brittney Sherman:kids and kind of become a new
Sonia Meza-Leon:bogeyman.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Do you think really the creep out kids, or do you think it was targeted
Sonia Meza-Leon:at a more adult audience and kids just became interested in it or
Sonia Meza-Leon:it was a really targeting kids?
Brittney Sherman:Well, okay.
Brittney Sherman:So that's a really good question.
Brittney Sherman:I'm not really sure what the original intent was, but when this person, uh,
Brittney Sherman:Eric Knutson is his name, uh, submitted his story to the creepy pasta website.
Brittney Sherman:He included with it two pictures.
Brittney Sherman:One picture was of kids playing on a playground and slender man hanging out
Brittney Sherman:in the trees behind kind of creeping around a tree and watching the kids I use
Brittney Sherman:watching lightly because Slenderman as the story goes, has no facial features.
Brittney Sherman:There is no eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.
Brittney Sherman:It's just a blur.
Brittney Sherman:Canvas more or less.
Brittney Sherman:And then he submitted another picture which had slender man chasing
Brittney Sherman:after a bunch of kids crossing a
Sonia Meza-Leon:bridge.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Oh, got it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So there was depictions of, of him visual depictions of him actually
Sonia Meza-Leon:chasing children and somewhere another, they got this because what I thought
Sonia Meza-Leon:was interesting about this case was that when the girls in question, um,
Sonia Meza-Leon:and we'll talk about them a little more detail when they started, um, becoming
Sonia Meza-Leon:interested in slender, man, they.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It was a little confusing on from, from my standpoint, because a lot of what they
Sonia Meza-Leon:talked about felt like that they were instructed by slender man, or that they
Sonia Meza-Leon:had gotten information that somehow again, as you said, um, you know, that they
Sonia Meza-Leon:went ahead with this plan to murder this little girl, I E Morgan's best friend.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And, um, because they needed to protect their own families from slender man.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Like their.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Did they get direct orders?
Sonia Meza-Leon:Did they just, was there an implication based on the information that was online?
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, you know, I think all of those things that we'll definitely talk about as we
Sonia Meza-Leon:get a little bit further in the case, but let's start at the beginning, um, of this
Sonia Meza-Leon:case, which is in 2014, um, May 31st.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, so if we back it up a little bit, we've got, uh, two girls
Sonia Meza-Leon:Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weir.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So Morgan Geyser had known T uh, uh, Peyton Lautner
Sonia Meza-Leon:for quite a number of years.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, Lightner, Lightner.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yes, like Christian later, later that's Christian later.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And this is lightener Peyton lightener liner.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Got it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, So it sounds to be like Peyton liner and Morgan Geyser
Sonia Meza-Leon:had become friends when they were five, six years were really young.
Sonia Meza-Leon:They,
Brittney Sherman:I mean, at this point, I think they were 12 years
Brittney Sherman:old, but more or less considered themselves be lifelong best
Sonia Meza-Leon:friends.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Right.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And from what I could see in the documentaries that I
Sonia Meza-Leon:watched, um, I took a look.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I became really interested in the Slenderman case when I started
Sonia Meza-Leon:watching beware of the slender man, the Amy HBO documentary.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And then I did a little more research, um, in watching the 20,
Sonia Meza-Leon:20 special that had a little more information, a little more precision
Sonia Meza-Leon:in the way that they approached it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, but it both, you know, shared a lot of the same information.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I, this case is fairly simple in my opinion.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I mean, there's no doubt what happened.
Sonia Meza-Leon:There's no doubt who did it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It's really just the.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Interest to finding out why.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And I think we even know why they did it, but there's still for me so much
Sonia Meza-Leon:to talk about in the why, because, um, you know, this is well documented.
Sonia Meza-Leon:There's a lot of video footage of them being interrogated and just
Sonia Meza-Leon:the reactions of the girls and the things that they said and the way that
Sonia Meza-Leon:they said them, their demeanors, as they conveyed this message of what
Sonia Meza-Leon:they actually did and their intense.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It was, they were delivering this message.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It was so flat, you know, they were just, as a matter of fact, you know,
Sonia Meza-Leon:like they were explaining something happening to someone else, not
Sonia Meza-Leon:themselves, which was really interesting.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And I completely understand and appreciate that these are 12 year
Sonia Meza-Leon:old girls, very impressionable.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, but I think it's interesting to look at those interrogations, if you are
Sonia Meza-Leon:interested in that kind of thing, because there's definitely a difference in the
Sonia Meza-Leon:turn interrogations of Anissa and Morgan Geyser and how they convey that message.
Sonia Meza-Leon:There are a lot of similarities, similarities as well, but the
Sonia Meza-Leon:differences are what I find interesting.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And I feel like that gives me a little more insight into the
Sonia Meza-Leon:motivations of both of these.
Brittney Sherman:So talking about the event itself, like you said,
Brittney Sherman:it's really straight forward.
Brittney Sherman:There's nothing up for debate, both girls and Peyton and the
Brittney Sherman:authorities all shared the same story that everyone's on the same page.
Brittney Sherman:So I think really what we're ultimately going to get to is a conversation about
Brittney Sherman:the motivations and the aftermath.
Brittney Sherman:But before we do that, we're going to run you through a little bit
Brittney Sherman:of the actual details of the case.
Brittney Sherman:So on May 30th, 2014, Uh, Peyton was invited to a sleepover at Morgan's house.
Brittney Sherman:It was to celebrate Morgan's birthday and Peyton, uh, Nissa
Brittney Sherman:and Morgan went to skate land,
Sonia Meza-Leon:which sounds so fun.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And by the way, I have a note here Skateland in 2014, question mark,
Sonia Meza-Leon:because is that actually a thing in 2014 skating, but I thought that that
Sonia Meza-Leon:was all gone after rollerblading.
Brittney Sherman:I mean, definitely in 2014.
Brittney Sherman:I don't know if it's still there.
Brittney Sherman:I spent many a Friday night at skate land and, uh, many, uh, not good memories.
Brittney Sherman:I'll be on
Sonia Meza-Leon:high.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Okay.
Brittney Sherman:It's a picture of me on skates.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Okay.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Well you are a
Brittney Sherman:little clumsy now.
Brittney Sherman:Picture me on skates in middle school with middle
Sonia Meza-Leon:school kids.
Brittney Sherman:Uh, not at the time.
Sonia Meza-Leon:No.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Okay.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Well, okay.
Sonia Meza-Leon:At least you have that going for you, but where you before braces
Sonia Meza-Leon:or after it was before braces.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Oh, good Lord.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So you needed braces, so all of this working against you?
Sonia Meza-Leon:Oh, well, yeah.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So a month later on skates, it
Brittney Sherman:brings back some tough memories.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I have tough memories of skating too, but only because I
Sonia Meza-Leon:would just stand around the corner and wait for somebody to ask me to skate.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I would like dance with my girlfriends.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It was terrible.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I mean, it was kind of pathetic.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And then we would have sock hops at the skating rink, which was really cool.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Sock hops.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Well, yeah, sock hops.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, essentially what they did, it was fan freaking tastic when you're a
Sonia Meza-Leon:teenage girl, because you get locked into this place all night and they
Sonia Meza-Leon:don't let you out until the morning with a bunch of boys that you're, you
Sonia Meza-Leon:know, of course who has sock hops.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It, it was great.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I don't know why that they, well, you know why, because they didn't
Sonia Meza-Leon:want people wearing shoes on the floor, but you didn't skate.
Sonia Meza-Leon:You actually took off your shoes and just had socks on and danced on them.
Sonia Meza-Leon:That actually does sound kind of fun.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yeah, it was because they locked you in.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I mean, I remember going to some walk-ins, those were fun.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Fantastic.
Sonia Meza-Leon:What a great like, oh, I know.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Okay.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So skate land, sorry.
Sonia Meza-Leon:We digress.
Sonia Meza-Leon:We're going to try to move this along because I know that some of our episodes,
Sonia Meza-Leon:um, sometimes bleed into two episodes, this case I'm, we're hoping, I don't
Sonia Meza-Leon:think there's enough information to talk about, but again, All week, Brittany
Sonia Meza-Leon:and I have been looking at this, I'm thinking by this case and talking
Sonia Meza-Leon:about this case and in passing and every time we start to talk about it, a
Sonia Meza-Leon:little we're like, no, no, no, no, no.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Let's hold off because we really want to record this because I do
Sonia Meza-Leon:have a lot of opinions about this.
Brittney Sherman:I do too.
Brittney Sherman:So all right, we'll get back to it.
Brittney Sherman:So they went to skate land to celebrate Morgan's birthday.
Brittney Sherman:Uh, went home.
Brittney Sherman:Your original plan was for Morgan and Anissa to wake up at 2:00
Brittney Sherman:AM and stab Payton to death in the basement of Morgan's home.
Brittney Sherman:But both girls overslept.
Brittney Sherman:And when they did wake up, they decided that they didn't want to
Brittney Sherman:do it then because they didn't want to make a mess in the family home.
Brittney Sherman:And they thought that Peyton would probably scream and wake up the parents.
Brittney Sherman:So they decided to put off the attack at least temporarily.
Sonia Meza-Leon:That's crazy.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Super crazy.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It's so calculated for.
Sonia Meza-Leon:12 year old girls and I get it that they, their motivation was, um,
Sonia Meza-Leon:this fantasy and that they had.
Sonia Meza-Leon:But, you know, I, I'm not sure I thought any plan through
Sonia Meza-Leon:that thoroughly when I was
Brittney Sherman:no, you're you're right, but the become very conflicted.
Brittney Sherman:So they, they sleep through the night.
Brittney Sherman:W uh, I'll jump backwards a little bit later about some of the motivations on
Brittney Sherman:how they get there, but want to just focus on the events as they happen right now.
Brittney Sherman:So it gets through the night, wake up on the morning of May 31st have breakfast,
Brittney Sherman:a fun sleepover for the three girls and Morgan asked permission from her mom.
Brittney Sherman:If the three girls can get.
Brittney Sherman:Play at the park down the street.
Brittney Sherman:So this is a park.
Brittney Sherman:That is, it has a playground, but it's also next to a wooded area.
Brittney Sherman:And as I think I mentioned at the beginning, there's a lot
Brittney Sherman:of that in Waukesha county, city of Oxford, particularly.
Brittney Sherman:So that's not uncommon at all.
Brittney Sherman:It's a lot of fun for kids to go in the woods to play creepy games
Brittney Sherman:with each other and play like light flashlight tag and at night.
Brittney Sherman:So this is super common.
Brittney Sherman:The girls go to the park and on their way out, Morgan sneakily grabs
Brittney Sherman:a kitchen knife and puts it in her
Sonia Meza-Leon:pants.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So this is the morning of the 31st of.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And so, um, I will note because I, you know, I'm sure in 2014 things are a little
Sonia Meza-Leon:more locked down than when I was young.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And, um, I wondered, you know, is it normal for these kids to go to the park?
Sonia Meza-Leon:You know, how close is it?
Sonia Meza-Leon:And from what I understand from an interview with Morgan Geyser's
Sonia Meza-Leon:mother, she said that normally Morgan actually would not be allowed
Sonia Meza-Leon:to go to the park by herself.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And the only reason that she let them go was because they were together.
Sonia Meza-Leon:That was interesting.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So, uh, you know, in the interviews that Morgan's meet with Morgan's mom, she
Sonia Meza-Leon:also says that she had no indication the kids, the girls were at her.
Sonia Meza-Leon:The night before everything was normal, even though they apparently were
Sonia Meza-Leon:planning on killing their friend in the basement and holding off on that.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And then, you know, even the next morning she said things were absolutely
Sonia Meza-Leon:as they were, um, nothing, no.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Cause for alarm, she didn't have any indication that they were planning this.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So it just sort of speaks to what what's normal and, um, you know,
Sonia Meza-Leon:how do you make an assessment, you know, so close to that event.
Brittney Sherman:So the girls get to the park and they play on
Brittney Sherman:the playground for a little while.
Brittney Sherman:And then.
Brittney Sherman:Uh, Nisa and Morgan start to flush out exactly what they're going to do.
Brittney Sherman:So at this point, Morgan has the knife and she started to get cold feet.
Brittney Sherman:She doesn't want to do it.
Brittney Sherman:So she says to a Nissa, I can't do it.
Brittney Sherman:And our Nissa says we have to do it.
Brittney Sherman:So Annisa takes a knife and talks Peyton into going to, into the public bathroom.
Brittney Sherman:Because if Peyton is obviously going to bleed, the blood will drain down into
Brittney Sherman:the sewers and not leave much evidence.
Brittney Sherman:So the three girls go into the bathroom and pain is cornered
Brittney Sherman:in the side of the bathroom.
Brittney Sherman:And she, this is the first time she started to wonder,
Brittney Sherman:this seems a little weird.
Brittney Sherman:I don't know what's going on here, Morgan.
Brittney Sherman:And, uh, Nisa tried to convince Peyton to lay down on the ground.
Brittney Sherman:She doesn't, which is great for so many reasons, because the grounds of
Brittney Sherman:public park bathrooms are disgusting,
Sonia Meza-Leon:kind of like a port-a-potty
Brittney Sherman:yeah.
Brittney Sherman:More or less.
Brittney Sherman:So a Nissa then grabs Peyton and hits her head against the wall
Brittney Sherman:to try and knock her unconscious.
Brittney Sherman:At this
Brittney Sherman:point,
Sonia Meza-Leon:this is a concrete bathroom, by the way, just so everybody's
Sonia Meza-Leon:clear, it's usually like, you know, concrete block, you know, with, uh,
Sonia Meza-Leon:sort of some sort of open, you know, they're, they're not fancy and likely
Sonia Meza-Leon:they aren't completely enclosed either.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yeah.
Sonia Meza-Leon:The doors
Brittney Sherman:probably it's doorway.
Brittney Sherman:It's probably not a door.
Brittney Sherman:Right.
Brittney Sherman:But at this point he felt your Peyton, how do you continue to go along with this?
Brittney Sherman:She has her head hit against the wall.
Brittney Sherman:She doesn't fall unconscious.
Brittney Sherman:And so now she's getting more concerned, but instead of saying,
Brittney Sherman:I want to go, she continues to play with the girls after they leave
Sonia Meza-Leon:the bathroom.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I'm not surprised because she, you know, if everybody's accurate in
Sonia Meza-Leon:their assessment, that nobody could have, nobody saw any saw any of this
Sonia Meza-Leon:coming Peyton, you know, was probably feeling a little peer pressure.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And, um, you know, she and Morgan were best friends and Lisa was the
Sonia Meza-Leon:new, you know, friend to this group.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And I'm sure there was some, you know, maybe I'd say a little bit of jealousy
Sonia Meza-Leon:or maybe, you know, it's true that threes twos company, three's a crowd and.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Obviously well-known after this, this happened that Anissa and Morgan
Sonia Meza-Leon:had been spending a lot of time together because they would have been
Sonia Meza-Leon:plotting this actually for six months.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So this was an ongoing plan that they had it wasn't, uh, you
Sonia Meza-Leon:know, it didn't happen overnight.
Sonia Meza-Leon:They thought about it and they thought about it a lot.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So if that's the case, then they didn't share any of that with Peyton, but she
Sonia Meza-Leon:was supposed to be Morgan's best friend.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So that's really hard to imagine how she would keep something
Sonia Meza-Leon:like that from her best friend.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So,
Brittney Sherman:well that for a second, because you hit on something amazingly
Brittney Sherman:accurate two's company, three's a crowd, despite what the show will tell us.
Brittney Sherman:Yeah.
Brittney Sherman:Uh, Nisa, uh, Nisa was new to Waukesha and new to the school.
Brittney Sherman:So this was the end of her first full year.
Brittney Sherman:Now I'm making some judgements here, but Anissa to me comes across as an
Brittney Sherman:awkward kind of girl, not one that fits in with the popular crowd.
Brittney Sherman:She's new.
Brittney Sherman:She probably didn't have a lot of friends and she.
Brittney Sherman:Clung to Morgan early on, as he said, it was about six months, they had been, had
Brittney Sherman:been friends and hanging out and a Nisa is actually the one that introduced Morgan
Brittney Sherman:to slender man, because a Nissa was a follower of slender man, before she moved.
Brittney Sherman:And she talked to Morgan about how this is true.
Brittney Sherman:It's a lore.
Brittney Sherman:He's real.
Brittney Sherman:It's a, if we don't follow him, bad, things are gonna happen to us on our
Brittney Sherman:friends and family and Morgan fell so deeply into that belief that she actually
Brittney Sherman:claimed that she remembers seeing a slender man when she was five years old
Brittney Sherman:and now completely became onboard with a Nissa and the belief that they had
Brittney Sherman:to take action for them to become safe.
Brittney Sherman:Additionally, to that, they believe that once they took that action and
Brittney Sherman:Peyton was dead, they would become proxies for slender man, and be able
Brittney Sherman:to live in his castle in Nicola.
Brittney Sherman:Uh, is it state park, national park, Nicola national park in Wisconsin.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So I can, they both believe this.
Sonia Meza-Leon:They both believe this.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So let's put a pin in this moment right here, because this is something
Sonia Meza-Leon:I'm going to bring up later because I, I know that this the entire
Sonia Meza-Leon:defense is based on the fact that these girls believed in the slender
Sonia Meza-Leon:man character, or they say they did.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And that, um, you know, this was driving them.
Sonia Meza-Leon:They didn't have a choice.
Sonia Meza-Leon:They were saving their family.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, because there are some things that are said in the interrogations that
Sonia Meza-Leon:lead me to believe otherwise, or at least question the black and white
Sonia Meza-Leon:of if they really believed it or not.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So pin in that keep going.
Brittney Sherman:I still got the impression that even though Peyton
Brittney Sherman:and Morgan were best friends, I kind of felt that maybe Morgan.
Brittney Sherman:Slipping off to the sides.
Brittney Sherman:And Peyton was kind of maybe merging in a little bit more with the popular
Brittney Sherman:crowd and starting to develop new friends as you usually do when you move
Brittney Sherman:from elementary into middle school.
Brittney Sherman:And I got the opinion that, or the impression, I guess I should say that
Brittney Sherman:Morgan was becoming more of a loner herself and that's where she and her
Brittney Sherman:Nissa gravitated towards each other because they saw each other as two loners
Brittney Sherman:independent work with the cool kids.
Brittney Sherman:Well, Peyton was gradually moving towards the cool kids and that's why
Brittney Sherman:they really found a bond with each other.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Do you think that's why they found the need to, was this, I mean,
Sonia Meza-Leon:the sad part about it, you know, is that we had a victim in this case, Peyton
Sonia Meza-Leon:Lautner, Lightner, Lightner, uh, who, you know, didn't do, didn't do anything wrong.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Certainly didn't do anything to deserve this.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And, um, you know, it's just so strange that they would happenstance to choose
Sonia Meza-Leon:the person that they were close to.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I'm I'm just surprised that they wouldn't choose someone
Sonia Meza-Leon:to murder who they didn't know.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I
Brittney Sherman:crushing that exact same thing also.
Brittney Sherman:Uh, but I actually took it as they felt like they had to make a sacrifice.
Brittney Sherman:And you needed to sacrifice someone that was important to
Brittney Sherman:you to pledge your allegiance.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Just I'm thinking that they were really, they, she
Sonia Meza-Leon:was really important to them.
Brittney Sherman:I think that Peyton was still important to a more.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Okay,
Brittney Sherman:fair enough.
Brittney Sherman:I think that they were drifting apart, but they were still hanging on to
Brittney Sherman:that friendship that they've had for what they considered their entire
Sonia Meza-Leon:life.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Sure.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Got it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And that does happen.
Sonia Meza-Leon:That's a natural progression when you've got from elementary school
Sonia Meza-Leon:to junior high, to high school and schools merge and you lose contact.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And, um, you know, it happened to me, it happens to most people,
Sonia Meza-Leon:so I'm not surprised, but this is one of those pivotal moments.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, especially for someone who may have, um, some mental issues to deal
Sonia Meza-Leon:with, you know, it's, it is a traumatic event when you change schools and when
Sonia Meza-Leon:you, you know, your friends come and go for someone who may not be, um, you
Sonia Meza-Leon:know, a sound mind, this is something that could cause you know, a break.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So all of these things, I think we're culminating.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Plus you've got 12 year old girls who.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Their hormones kicking in, you know, things aren't there, no teenage girl
Sonia Meza-Leon:thinks straight and to have this kind of thing, um, we brought into the
Sonia Meza-Leon:conversation and to be thinking about this and to get obsessed with it, as you
Sonia Meza-Leon:would typically, you know, with, uh, you know, someone of the opposite sex or,
Sonia Meza-Leon:or not, you know, even, um, but usually you've got a lot of things happening in
Sonia Meza-Leon:your body and your mind that you don't understand and why they're happening.
Brittney Sherman:All right.
Brittney Sherman:We're going to jump back to the events of May 31st.
Brittney Sherman:So after the girls leave the bathroom, they decide that they are going to
Brittney Sherman:play hide and seek in the woods.
Brittney Sherman:And like I said, the woods are like the best place to do that.
Brittney Sherman:It's so much fun.
Brittney Sherman:So Peyton going along with it thinking everything's okay.
Brittney Sherman:Even though she just had her head hate against the wall of the bathroom, decides
Brittney Sherman:to go along with playing hide and seek.
Brittney Sherman:So the girls get together.
Brittney Sherman:They say that they're going to, uh, I think, uh, Nisa was supposed
Brittney Sherman:to be the one to like count and the other girls are going to hide.
Brittney Sherman:And as they're walking up there.
Brittney Sherman:And Anissa tells Morgan.
Brittney Sherman:I tried to knock her out.
Brittney Sherman:I couldn't do it.
Brittney Sherman:I can't stab her.
Brittney Sherman:Now.
Brittney Sherman:Remember it.
Brittney Sherman:Nisa has the knife.
Brittney Sherman:It was transferred from Morgan to a Nissa, uh, Nissa pretty much just saying
Brittney Sherman:I can't do it while she's conscious.
Brittney Sherman:So we failed.
Brittney Sherman:We got to move on and Morgan says, well, give me the knife.
Brittney Sherman:I'll do it.
Brittney Sherman:But you have to be the one to tell me when to go.
Brittney Sherman:So they transfer the knife again.
Brittney Sherman:They asked Peyton to lie on the ground.
Brittney Sherman:Again, she won't do it.
Brittney Sherman:So a Nissa pretends like she's going off to count.
Brittney Sherman:So the other girls can go hide.
Brittney Sherman:And she then screams when she's about five feet away.
Brittney Sherman:Do it now go ballistic and Morgan tackles, Peyton and steps her 19 times.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Hmm.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Wow.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And so Morgan sitting on top of her doing
Brittney Sherman:yes, she is straddling her around her legs.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Wow.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So it sounds like we've got 19 wounds.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Uh, two wounds missed major organs, one Mr.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Hart, by less than a millimeter and another one through her
Sonia Meza-Leon:diaphragm, diaphragm cutting into our liver and her stomach.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So that was why she was having issues breathing.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And Peyton would
Brittney Sherman:say that she didn't even feel the pain when this was happening.
Brittney Sherman:She was in such shock as to what was happening.
Brittney Sherman:It didn't even hurt.
Brittney Sherman:She was just so, so surprised that her best friend was doing this to her and her
Brittney Sherman:body went into its own form of protection.
Brittney Sherman:After Morgan finished, and Peyton was still conscious.
Brittney Sherman:Anisa told Peyton don't move and lay flat because you will bleed less that.
Brittney Sherman:The girl, the two girls, uh, then take off and leave the
Sonia Meza-Leon:park.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Well, important thing to remember.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yeah.
Sonia Meza-Leon:They told Peyton that they were going for help.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Oh, that's right.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I forgot about that part of that.
Sonia Meza-Leon:They were going for help.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So, and I'm not sure why they would tell her that other than to keep her there
Sonia Meza-Leon:so she wouldn't get help for herself.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And because they're really, the intention was to kill her.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yes, this wasn't, the intention was not to hurt her.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It was to kill her, to take her life.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So
Brittney Sherman:the girls leave the park with no intention to get help.
Brittney Sherman:And Peyton in an incredibly brave act says, screw this.
Brittney Sherman:They just tried to kill me.
Brittney Sherman:I don't think they're going to get help gets up and stumbles to a roadway,
Brittney Sherman:uh, at the edge of the park where a bicyclist pulls over and sees her, uh,
Brittney Sherman:and then immediately calls for help.
Brittney Sherman:Hmm,
Sonia Meza-Leon:which is surprising to the police, of course, because I think
Sonia Meza-Leon:that even though weird things seem to happen in Wisconsin, whenever someone
Sonia Meza-Leon:calls 9 1, 1, everybody's surprised how could it happen in, uh, in Wisconsin
Sonia Meza-Leon:or Wickersham, Waukesha, Waukesha, even Peyton said that, you know, Hey, I
Sonia Meza-Leon:thought it was fine going to the park.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I thought nothing would happen.
Sonia Meza-Leon:What's going to happen and walk a shop,
Brittney Sherman:small town, false sense of security, because
Brittney Sherman:nothing bad ever happens here.
Brittney Sherman:And watch us not your classic small town that you usually hear these stories about.
Brittney Sherman:It's a decent size, but it's in an, a, this was in an area
Brittney Sherman:where these things don't happen.
Brittney Sherman:And it's still not an area that has a high, violent crime rate by any means.
Brittney Sherman:So I, I get it, but it's also very much, I kind of feel like when I hear stories of
Brittney Sherman:people breaking into homes and violating families, Uh, a big reason that happens
Brittney Sherman:is because the front door was left unlocked or the windows are left open.
Brittney Sherman:So well, there's no justification for that.
Brittney Sherman:It's providing an opening cause there's this false sense of security.
Brittney Sherman:And I think that's kind of what happened here, plus the fact
Brittney Sherman:of their 12 year old girls.
Brittney Sherman:So aren't thinking about the bad things that could possibly have.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I don't know if they ever were that's what's um, you know, the
Sonia Meza-Leon:interesting part of the case, as we'll see a little bit later in the trial and the
Sonia Meza-Leon:way the defense is going to, um, you know, their angle on this case, um, because
Sonia Meza-Leon:a lot of it is, you know, conveying to, you know, the judge that, you know,
Sonia Meza-Leon:were these girls because they were 12 year old responsible for their actions.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, which we'll talk about a little bit later.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So the girls run off, no intention of coming back, they leave they're bleeding.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Friend laying on the ground.
Sonia Meza-Leon:They don't think that she's going to get up.
Sonia Meza-Leon:They think she's probably going to lay there and die.
Sonia Meza-Leon:They are picked up what, five hours later, walking down the highway.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I don't even,
Brittney Sherman:it might've been, uh, but it wasn't that far.
Brittney Sherman:It was, they were picked up along I, 94 only, I think it was like a mile
Brittney Sherman:and a half or so from the crime scene, because the originally planned to
Brittney Sherman:go back to Morgan's house to collect their goods, throw it in a backpack
Brittney Sherman:and then walk up to Nicola national park, which is 200 miles away.
Brittney Sherman:Right.
Brittney Sherman:So it's not a quick little John's these girls clearly had no idea how far it was.
Brittney Sherman:So even though it was five hours, they weren't very far from where it happened.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Got it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Wow.
Sonia Meza-Leon:That's crazy.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Well, I mean, you have to, if you're planning to walk 200
Sonia Meza-Leon:miles, I mean, that would take days and days and days and days.
Brittney Sherman:I think they had any idea that it was actually 200 miles.
Brittney Sherman:Wow.
Brittney Sherman:And by the way, I don't going through 94.
Brittney Sherman:Isn't going to get you to make a way
Sonia Meza-Leon:we'll also, where is the end game for them?
Sonia Meza-Leon:Because there is no mansion, so of whatever they're walking to,
Sonia Meza-Leon:and they're not even going to find any way they could walk all the
Sonia Meza-Leon:way through this national park.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It
Brittney Sherman:wouldn't matter exactly.
Brittney Sherman:But to them, their end game was to get to this mansion to live with slender, man.
Brittney Sherman:They didn't know because they were so steadfast in their belief.
Brittney Sherman:This is real
Sonia Meza-Leon:right.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Exactly.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So they get girls get picked up, they get brought into the station.
Sonia Meza-Leon:They both have blood on them.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, not as much as I would have thought.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And my guess is a lot of this is because even when the bicyclist fines,
Sonia Meza-Leon:um, Peyton and the 9 1, 1 operator asked, you know, is there blood on her?
Sonia Meza-Leon:And they, the guy.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Sort of, you know, like, well, there's blood on her clothes.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It didn't sound to me like ne um, Morgan had really stabbed her.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I'm sure she stabbed her with 19 stabs.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I'm sure some of them were deeper than others, but, um, you know, it didn't
Sonia Meza-Leon:sound like she was bleeding profusely.
Sonia Meza-Leon:She wasn't covered.
Brittney Sherman:That's exactly how I took it.
Brittney Sherman:And one of the detectives who met the ambulance at the hospital essentially
Brittney Sherman:reported it as it was a girl who clearly was in a lot of pain, but was alert and
Brittney Sherman:in better condition than she expected.
Brittney Sherman:Peyton immediately went into emergency surgery.
Brittney Sherman:And the most dangerous stab wound was a millimeter from a key artery
Brittney Sherman:that had that been nixed would have caused her to have a heart attack.
Brittney Sherman:So she was very fortunate that she survived and, uh, while she was in
Brittney Sherman:surgery, of course the girls were picked up and the formal investigation.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So you will probably find an, I suggest you take a look at it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:There's a lot of video.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, they interviewed or interrogated these two girls as is legal in Wisconsin.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, if you're, I think over the age of 10 or something like that.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yeah.
Sonia Meza-Leon:You're allowed to interview children without their parents in the room.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yeah, it's crazy.
Brittney Sherman:It is crazy.
Brittney Sherman:And that makes me rethink about the whole Brendan Dassey situation.
Brittney Sherman:Did that happen to Wisconsin?
Brittney Sherman:That was another, that's another one from Wisconsin.
Brittney Sherman:That was from Manitowoc.
Brittney Sherman:Uh, but I didn't even think about that.
Brittney Sherman:Um, yeah, so I didn't realize that that was legal.
Brittney Sherman:I don't understand how
Sonia Meza-Leon:that's legal.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Well, that was one of the, well, the Brendan Dassey case, I think
Sonia Meza-Leon:that was one of their appeals.
Sonia Meza-Leon:They base their appeal on him being interviewed without his parents.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Exactly what that law would have been effective then are they.
Sonia Meza-Leon:You wouldn't have had that appeal even occurring.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So it must've been a little different at some, maybe that was a while back.
Brittney Sherman:Yeah.
Brittney Sherman:I mean, yeah, maybe.
Brittney Sherman:I mean, that was like 2005 or maybe the reason his appeal was unsuccessful was
Brittney Sherman:because of that, but regardless that's
Sonia Meza-Leon:okay.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yep.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So I, um, I spent a bit of time watching the interrogations.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I thought they were really interesting and.
Sonia Meza-Leon:From the point of view, uh, the psychological point of view, I think
Sonia Meza-Leon:whenever you're looking at child development and the way that the brain
Sonia Meza-Leon:works and what you can expect from a twelve-year-old, um, varies greatly.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I did note a couple of things that I thought were really interesting that were
Sonia Meza-Leon:said, um, that I'm going to read to you.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And I saw, again, these are the interrogations.
Sonia Meza-Leon:They actually, you know, shot video of these.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So it's clear that the girls are speaking, the words are coming out of their mouth.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And, um, they're also, you, you can see how they're conveying this message.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Uh, the first one I'm going to read is something that I thought
Sonia Meza-Leon:really was very interesting.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, and these are from, this is from Morgan.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Uh, the police officer asked Morgan, did you feel bad that you stabbed one of
Sonia Meza-Leon:your best friends and Morgan's response, um, was, and just to be clear, these two
Sonia Meza-Leon:girls and the way that they communicated this information to me, Very strange.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And there were times when they were upset about what they were
Sonia Meza-Leon:saying, but they weren't upset about, well, let me rephrase that.
Sonia Meza-Leon:They were upset about things that were, may have happened around the, the case
Sonia Meza-Leon:or the crime, but not the crime itself.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And, you know, she, Nisa was upset that her parents were scared,
Sonia Meza-Leon:but nobody was scared or nobody was worried about this girl.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, so when Morgan was asked that question, did you feel bad that you
Sonia Meza-Leon:stabbed one of your best friends?
Sonia Meza-Leon:That her answer was?
Sonia Meza-Leon:I thought about it, but then I thought remorse would get me nowhere.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It's easier to live without regret.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Now, if you don't know that these girls have some mental issues, this is when you
Sonia Meza-Leon:start really, really hating these grills.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It almost seems like they're evil, you know, and of course we realize later
Sonia Meza-Leon:that they've got some mental defects and that's part of their defense.
Sonia Meza-Leon:But when you watch a 12 year old girl say something like that, and
Sonia Meza-Leon:it comes out of her mouth, obviously something's wrong, but there's still
Sonia Meza-Leon:a shock to hearing it and seeing someone deliver that kind of message.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, she really did not care.
Brittney Sherman:And I really felt, and I didn't watch, I watched the interrogations
Brittney Sherman:before I knew about what happened at the end of the trial and their sentencing.
Brittney Sherman:So watching Morgan, I felt like I was watching evil incarnate.
Brittney Sherman:This is Damien.
Brittney Sherman:This is someone who has no remorse and.
Brittney Sherman:Really there's no hope for it was scary
Sonia Meza-Leon:watching her.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yeah, definitely.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And that's what really affected me the most.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And there are moments in some of the interviews with Morgan's
Sonia Meza-Leon:mother, where she tells a story of taking Morgan to the movies.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And this is when she realized that Morgan didn't have the ability to have remorse.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, they took her to see Bambi and when the mom dies, you know, sorry
Sonia Meza-Leon:to blow it for anybody, he goes, see Bambi, but boiler, the mother dies.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Uh, she, she, she felt nothing.
Sonia Meza-Leon:You know, she's there told her mom get out of there and why
Sonia Meza-Leon:is he still standing there?
Sonia Meza-Leon:He should be running.
Sonia Meza-Leon:You know?
Sonia Meza-Leon:So that was just, you know, again, the mom's first indication that there was
Sonia Meza-Leon:something not quite right about with her ability to be able to, um, You know,
Sonia Meza-Leon:and have empathy as a normal child.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And this was when she was probably
Brittney Sherman:five, probably so, and I think there was a, really a dichotomy
Brittney Sherman:between the two interrogations of Morgan and Annisa Morgan came across.
Brittney Sherman:Uh, well, she was cold.
Brittney Sherman:I think she came across as still emotive.
Brittney Sherman:And at one point getting very angry and frustrated because the
Brittney Sherman:detective kept asking her the same questions over and over.
Brittney Sherman:And her response became, I already told you, what else do you want me to say?
Brittney Sherman:And he said, I need you to make sure our, I need to make sure that
Brittney Sherman:I'm getting all the information.
Brittney Sherman:Right.
Brittney Sherman:Well, nothing has changed.
Brittney Sherman:I already told you.
Brittney Sherman:And she also started to Pintu.
Brittney Sherman:Pin some of the blame onto a Nissa and essentially say
Brittney Sherman:that this was a niece's idea.
Brittney Sherman:Had a Nissa did not been around.
Brittney Sherman:She probably wouldn't have done this now in the other interrogation
Brittney Sherman:room, uh, Nisa showed no emotion.
Brittney Sherman:She was totally flat.
Sonia Meza-Leon:She showed a motion motion once when her, they, when she
Sonia Meza-Leon:said, you know, how are my parents?
Sonia Meza-Leon:And then she was, she was worried about them.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And then what are they scared?
Sonia Meza-Leon:And then she started to cry, you know?
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yes.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Lisa was the toughest one for me.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, but I'm gonna read one more for Morgan.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Okay.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Go for it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I thought that I've got one for my niece.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I thought it was really kooky.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So Morgan, again, then asked the police officer, is she dead?
Sonia Meza-Leon:And she's referring to Peyton, which they also called Bella.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Uh, the police officer's response was, I don't know, she was
Sonia Meza-Leon:taken to the hospital and then.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Morgan.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I watched this interrogation.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It's the most fascinating piece of it's a flash.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It's not that many frames, but when he says, I don't know,
Sonia Meza-Leon:she was taken to the hospital.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Morgan is leaning her chin and she's kind of sitting backwards on a chair.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And when he responds and says that she almost does a double-take
Sonia Meza-Leon:like, she kind of goes, whoa, you know, she didn't catch that.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yeah.
Sonia Meza-Leon:You have to take a look at it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I'm going to spawn surprise.
Sonia Meza-Leon:She's like, huh?
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yeah.
Sonia Meza-Leon:What?
Sonia Meza-Leon:And then she says, huh?
Sonia Meza-Leon:I was just wondering.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yup.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And it's kinda like she said, I was just wondering so weird.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I have a niece who's seven or eight and highly intelligent and sometimes.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I can't grasp why she says things, but she says things that are very adult that
Sonia Meza-Leon:I'm like, wow, you know, it's crazy not comparing my knees to this at all, but,
Sonia Meza-Leon:um, it's shocking to hear a person who at a young age respond in a way like
Sonia Meza-Leon:this and then dismiss her own reaction.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Like she's trying to cover up or trying to, you know, nevermind.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I wasn't really serious.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Or, you know, I was just wondering it's so, you know, again, when you
Sonia Meza-Leon:realize that she's got some real mental issues, it doesn't dismiss this, the
Sonia Meza-Leon:impression that you get that she's calculated in a way that is shocking.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And I think that's what you mean when you're like evil in Carney, right?
Sonia Meza-Leon:Because you've got a person who appears to have a Berry good.
Sonia Meza-Leon:They feel, they appear.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Board almost doesn't appear like she's taking this seriously at all.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And then getting frustrated with the interrogators because of the police
Sonia Meza-Leon:officers, like they're bothering her, like they're wasting her time.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It's so strange.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And in the interview with Morgan's mother, she says herself, that's not my daughter.
Sonia Meza-Leon:She doesn't talk like that.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And, and even that was really strange.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, so, you know, Let's take a look at the video.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It's a split second that it happens, but she's sitting there.
Sonia Meza-Leon:She hears his response.
Sonia Meza-Leon:She like looks over at him startled and she's like, okay.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I was just wondering, um, almost like trying to come in and throw him
Sonia Meza-Leon:off the, off the trail of Irv her response, because you can clearly
Sonia Meza-Leon:see it in the video, but it's quick.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Okay.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I'll have to, I'll have to rewatch it to look at it.
Brittney Sherman:So then in the other room where Annisa is being
Brittney Sherman:interrogated, uh, at one point she says the detective, can I ask you a question?
Brittney Sherman:And the detective said, and it's really quite obvious on her face.
Brittney Sherman:The question she's expecting to hear, which is, is Peyton.
Brittney Sherman:Okay?
Brittney Sherman:Is Peyton alive?
Brittney Sherman:Did she die?
Brittney Sherman:Instead of Nisa says, how far did I walk?
Brittney Sherman:Because I'm not very athletic.
Brittney Sherman:So I'm just wondering.
Brittney Sherman:The detective is totally taken out of the moment.
Brittney Sherman:Like, why do you care about this?
Brittney Sherman:And
Sonia Meza-Leon:it just shows you what she doesn't care about.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I think that's the reality of it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And that's, I think the downfall of an ISA, because, and I don't know what
Sonia Meza-Leon:her diagnosis was, you know, both of these folks, you know, had some issues,
Sonia Meza-Leon:but, um, you know, I think it, to me, it felt more like Morgan had some
Sonia Meza-Leon:more severe issues than an ISA did.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yes, definitely.
Brittney Sherman:Well, we'll talk about their diagnosis diagnoses shortly.
Brittney Sherman:Uh, the one thing that I found to be the most striking difference between
Brittney Sherman:Morgan and Anissa is that Anessa was willing to accept full responsibility.
Brittney Sherman:She would say, yes, I did this.
Brittney Sherman:I am guilty of doing it.
Brittney Sherman:I have no problem saying it.
Brittney Sherman:Yeah.
Brittney Sherman:Morgan did it too.
Brittney Sherman:It was me and Morgan was trying to shift a lot of blame off of her.
Brittney Sherman:And she was very defensive and trying to pin more of it onto a Nissa.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Hm.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Well, I mean, in some ways Morgan's right, because none of it would've
Sonia Meza-Leon:happened if it wasn't for Nissa, but at the end of the day, I think everyone
Sonia Meza-Leon:agrees that Morgan actually stabbed her.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So there's no way around it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I do find it really strange that to me, when they say a Nissa
Sonia Meza-Leon:says, you know, go crazy, go ballistic or go bezerk or whatever.
Sonia Meza-Leon:She said, that sounds like something someone would say out of frustration,
Sonia Meza-Leon:like, just get it over already.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Like I'm tired of this, you know, I don't want to do it, just do it over it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Like guts go, you know, that's what I felt like that that really meant.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And not that she was like ordering her to do something.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It was just like, just fricking do, just get it over with
Sonia Meza-Leon:just tired of waiting around.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yeah.
Sonia Meza-Leon:We've been planning this for six months.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It's just go.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I have one more thing that, yeah, I want to mention that ENISA
Sonia Meza-Leon:says, and I, this is where I get a little caught up in motivation.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, and the, the angle that they were driven by this fantasy of slender, man,
Sonia Meza-Leon:obviously everyone who's looking at this case thinks of these, both of these
Sonia Meza-Leon:girls really believe that the slender man character was going to hurt them.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And that's why they decided to hurt Peyton.
Sonia Meza-Leon:But one of the things that Annisa said that threw me off in, in this,
Sonia Meza-Leon:when speaking about funds spent slender, man, um, you know, the police
Sonia Meza-Leon:officer asked her, you know, what is slender man, who was slender, man.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And Aneesa's response was there's this website, creepy pasta Wiki,
Sonia Meza-Leon:it's full of like horror stories that are meant to purposely scare you.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So she
Brittney Sherman:knew.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So this is where like, kind of I'm like, Hmm.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Well, if you're describing what Slenderman is, and you're saying to
Sonia Meza-Leon:the police officer that the basis of this website and this information
Sonia Meza-Leon:is to actually purposely scare you.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I feel like in saying that she had some understanding that it wasn't real,
Brittney Sherman:I would agree.
Brittney Sherman:Uh,
Sonia Meza-Leon:okay.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So we're going to
Brittney Sherman:quickly, I'm going to quickly gloss over
Brittney Sherman:what ultimately happened next.
Brittney Sherman:So the girls are sentenced to, or excuse me, not sentence are
Brittney Sherman:placed into a hold a prison hold for almost two and a half years.
Brittney Sherman:And Morgan's mom would describe it as almost solitary confinement.
Brittney Sherman:They were allowed to have visitors, but they only had one hour of
Brittney Sherman:outside daylight time a week.
Brittney Sherman:So the girls really were in pretty terrible circumstances and quarters
Brittney Sherman:while they were waiting to go to court.
Brittney Sherman:So they finally went to court in, uh, early 2017, or was
Brittney Sherman:it some early 17 or late 16?
Sonia Meza-Leon:They were in jail or in holding for three years.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And that would have been
Brittney Sherman:17.
Brittney Sherman:So they go to court, uh, Nisa was the first one to go and she,
Brittney Sherman:uh, right openly said guilty.
Brittney Sherman:She admitted her guilt and pleaded guilty right away.
Brittney Sherman:Now most of the time that's an open and shut case and it goes immediately
Brittney Sherman:to the sentencing portion of it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Now there's something in between here that happens.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Okay.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Go for it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:There's a decision to try these two girls as adults.
Sonia Meza-Leon:That's key.
Sonia Meza-Leon:This is really important.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And this was the most devastating blow to the defense.
Sonia Meza-Leon:When the judge said, no, we're going to try them as.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And I have to say, I agree with his decision because the thought of these
Sonia Meza-Leon:girls spending, if this was 2017, that would've made them 16, 7, 15, 15.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So that means in three years when they were 18, they would have gotten out.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So if they were treated as juveniles now, and the parents of course were adamant
Sonia Meza-Leon:that this is the right thing to do.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And, you know, there were children and you shouldn't held them
Sonia Meza-Leon:accountable for their actions.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And this is where I slightly, it slightly agree.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And I see the point of view of Peyton's parents.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And I think that this is probably the most important part and why the judge
Sonia Meza-Leon:said number one, that they were going to be tried as adults, because certainly
Sonia Meza-Leon:that he didn't want them out at 18 years of age, because I don't think that he
Sonia Meza-Leon:thought that they were ready for that.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I don't think that they would be much better by 18 and most important.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And I think this is where I really appeal to the victim's side of this cases.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Would Taylor have been safe if those two got out when they were
Sonia Meza-Leon:18, would Taylor have been safe?
Sonia Meza-Leon:I don't think so.
Sonia Meza-Leon:This gets into, or if I was Taylor, I'd say I'm not going to be saying.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yeah.
Brittney Sherman:Oh, certainly.
Brittney Sherman:I think, uh, I would believe that, uh, Taylor, Peyton,
Sonia Meza-Leon:Peyton, sorry.
Brittney Sherman:You know what?
Brittney Sherman:I kept doing that too.
Brittney Sherman:I kept on, I dunno why I kept on thinking it was Taylor.
Brittney Sherman:Uh, so yeah, I would believe that Peyton would not feel that she would be safe.
Brittney Sherman:I want to have an honest conversation about mental health once we finish
Brittney Sherman:getting through the details.
Brittney Sherman:Okay.
Brittney Sherman:So they are, uh, tried in adult.
Brittney Sherman:Anisa pleased guilty.
Brittney Sherman:Instead of going immediately to the sentencing phase, the court
Brittney Sherman:orders her to me evaluated by two psychologists, and then she has
Brittney Sherman:her own psychologist evaluate her.
Brittney Sherman:And the findings of all three psychologists is that a Nissa
Brittney Sherman:suffers from a very rare condition and probably going to butcher this.
Brittney Sherman:But I pride myself on getting medical terms, right.
Brittney Sherman:Yeah, you do gets Octa piece gets outta B.
Brittney Sherman:I don't know how to skitzo to feed thoughts or, or showing schizotypal
Brittney Sherman:I know that's pronounced right.
Brittney Sherman:Schizotypal behavior,
Sonia Meza-Leon:right?
Sonia Meza-Leon:Friends, fans out there.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Look it up.
Sonia Meza-Leon:How to pronounce Scrabble word for me,
Brittney Sherman:but essentially what that, it's a, it's a theoretical diagnosis
Brittney Sherman:and it's a spectrum that essentially has all sorts of things that kind of feed
Brittney Sherman:into it that can lead to that diagnosis.
Brittney Sherman:And one of the things is a delusion and it was very clear to the psychologist
Brittney Sherman:that despite what we just talked about, uh, Nisa was delusional and
Brittney Sherman:believed Slenderman to be true.
Brittney Sherman:And the threats that she concocted in her head to be true.
Brittney Sherman:Also one of the things that are on this schizotypal spectrum is almost like a
Brittney Sherman:transference of a mental health condition from one person to the other while
Brittney Sherman:you're spending so much time with them.
Brittney Sherman:What?
Brittney Sherman:Yes, I know I had never heard of that RACI.
Brittney Sherman:Do you
Sonia Meza-Leon:mean you can catch a mental
Brittney Sherman:condition?
Brittney Sherman:That's what the argument and that's kind of what I understand this diagnosis to be
Sonia Meza-Leon:boy, this really changes.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Where I'm, you know, my future employment, I'll be a lot more careful.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Holy cow.
Sonia Meza-Leon:We're at risk.
Brittney Sherman:So ultimately she is found not guilty by a mental defect
Brittney Sherman:or mental disease or defect as opposed to guilty of second degree murder as
Brittney Sherman:she originally pleaded guilty to and
Sonia Meza-Leon:considered second degree attempted murder.
Brittney Sherman:I'm sorry.
Brittney Sherman:Yes.
Brittney Sherman:And considering that she was not the one to carry out the act, the maximum sentence
Brittney Sherman:that she could be, it could be handed down to her was 25 years in treatment in
Brittney Sherman:a psychological or psychiatric hospital.
Brittney Sherman:No, Morgan becomes a little more complicated because Morgan has family
Brittney Sherman:lineage, particularly her father.
Brittney Sherman:And I'm not sure if it's before that.
Brittney Sherman:Of schizophrenia and schizophrenia can be, uh, handed or passed down
Brittney Sherman:so much so that her mother said that they were never sure about having kids
Brittney Sherman:and they weren't ready for Morgan.
Brittney Sherman:When she got pregnant schizophrenia typically presents itself in people in
Brittney Sherman:their upper twenties, early thirties.
Brittney Sherman:So later on in life, it
Sonia Meza-Leon:goes on through the rest
Brittney Sherman:of their life and then goes on through the rest
Brittney Sherman:of their life to varying degrees.
Brittney Sherman:And schizophrenia is also something that is on a spectrum.
Brittney Sherman:Some people, uh, the most common, what you hear is that people will
Brittney Sherman:say that they hear voices and people telling them to do things.
Brittney Sherman:The example that Morgan's father used is he was cognitively aware
Brittney Sherman:that the things that he felt were happening weren't happening, but
Brittney Sherman:he couldn't do anything about it.
Brittney Sherman:Right?
Brittney Sherman:Like he would, he used the description of, he would be drawing.
Brittney Sherman:And feel that a ghost was behind him in the car.
Brittney Sherman:Now his cognitive brain knew there was no ghost and it wasn't
Brittney Sherman:a threat, but the disease still convinced him there's a ghost.
Brittney Sherman:So ultimately the disease would win those battles between the cognitive
Brittney Sherman:brain and the diseased brain.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So this is something that since I don't have schizophrenia,
Sonia Meza-Leon:I have a really hard time, you know, understanding, um, I understand
Sonia Meza-Leon:how it works, but the feeling of it, it's hard for me to connect to.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I don't know if I've ever felt that sensation.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, where, I mean, God, I don't know.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I don't know if I've ever felt that sensation.
Sonia Meza-Leon:In my life.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So it's hard for me to understand that, but I appreciate that there
Sonia Meza-Leon:are things about the human brain that drives people to think certain things
Sonia Meza-Leon:or works against itself, per se.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And, um, that's the piece of this that I thought was really, um,
Sonia Meza-Leon:I mean, I, I have to be honest, I think this case is really sad.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It's sad for a lot of reasons.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It's sad because you've got 12 year old girls who have some mental issues.
Sonia Meza-Leon:A lot of people will say, Hey, you know, they shouldn't have
Sonia Meza-Leon:been looking at the internet.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It was the internet, it was the internet.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I don't think so.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, I think that there are things about the internet that definitely need to be
Sonia Meza-Leon:monitored, especially with young children.
Sonia Meza-Leon:But, um, I don't think the internet causes problem.
Sonia Meza-Leon:The other thing that I think is interesting about this is that.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And sad, really sad when you watch the beware of Slenderman documentary,
Sonia Meza-Leon:the HBO documentary, which I thought was a really great, um, as it, in
Sonia Meza-Leon:the way that it told the story.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And even this, the filmmaker says, you know, this isn't a, who done it,
Sonia Meza-Leon:this isn't about who did it, or how, or why it's all black and white.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It's about the psychology of this and trying to understand how children
Sonia Meza-Leon:develop and how to help these situations.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And is there anything we can do to avoid it in the future?
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, but it really broke my heart when I was watching that documentary.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And I saw the reaction of Morgan's dad who is on camera and.
Sonia Meza-Leon:You know, this poor guy, tiering, if he's got schizophrenia himself, I'm sure
Sonia Meza-Leon:this event in and of itself probably caused some kind of break for him.
Sonia Meza-Leon:You know, it was probably hard.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It was dramatic, dramatic, traumatic, um, you know, and immediately
Sonia Meza-Leon:he started blaming himself when he was talking about this.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, he was crying.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It was so, so, so sad.
Sonia Meza-Leon:His heart was broken and this was a, the broken heart of a man
Sonia Meza-Leon:who has his own mental issues.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So that breaking heart is different than you and I, that understands
Sonia Meza-Leon:how to control this kind of thing.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, and it was really, really sad.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I, I felt for everybody involved, you know, I also felt for a niece's parents.
Sonia Meza-Leon:You know, the dad was trying so hard to keep it together.
Sonia Meza-Leon:The mom was there.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, you know, they have a son, they were trying to keep things normal,
Sonia Meza-Leon:but they've got a 12 year old in juvenile detention or in juvenile
Sonia Meza-Leon:jail for year over year, over year.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And these people have to just deal with it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:They have to go see her.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I talked to her on the phone, they have to make this somewhat normal.
Sonia Meza-Leon:What do you do?
Sonia Meza-Leon:You know?
Sonia Meza-Leon:And they can't give up on her, you know, she's actually, or he's
Sonia Meza-Leon:act they're actually all she has.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So it was just really heartbreaking, um, in a lot of ways, I especially,
Sonia Meza-Leon:again, felt really bad for the dad of Morgan's dad, because I felt like he
Sonia Meza-Leon:really took this burden upon himself.
Sonia Meza-Leon:When he communicated about it, he felt like that it was his fault.
Sonia Meza-Leon:You know, they said that, oh, it's a possibility.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I don't know what the percentages that this kind of thing could be carried
Sonia Meza-Leon:down and, and, you know, in lineage.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, but, uh, no matter what the percentage is, he I'm sure blamed himself.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And when he talked about him himself, having schizophrenia and
Sonia Meza-Leon:his wife even says that he, um, you know, was high functioning.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So she didn't think that any, he was.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Outwardly strange, but he himself says I was seeing things all the time.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I just got used to them.
Sonia Meza-Leon:He was seeing hallucinations, you know, he imagined walking around
Sonia Meza-Leon:with all of this disturbance and distraction and your eyeline.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Cause you're seeing like your peripheral point of your peripheral vision.
Sonia Meza-Leon:You're probably seeing all kinds of crazy stuff.
Sonia Meza-Leon:He just got used to it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:But then that's why I think he felt the worst about the situation, because
Sonia Meza-Leon:I think he took it upon himself.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, the responsibility anyway, that this is something that he could
Sonia Meza-Leon:have stopped and he could have kept this from happening to his daughter.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And that was the biggest heartbreak was that he couldn't do anything about it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And he could have, he somehow participated in, um, this situation for her.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It was really, really sad.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It's a good documentary.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So I would definitely take a look.
Brittney Sherman:So Morgan he's officially diagnosed with schizophrenia,
Brittney Sherman:but not until she's been in jail or juvenile detention for almost three
Brittney Sherman:years, because when she goes to trial.
Brittney Sherman:She immediately pleads for, uh, not guilty by meat, by reason of mental
Brittney Sherman:disease or defect, because she now has a diagnosed condition of schizophrenia.
Brittney Sherman:Despite the fact that it doesn't come on until later in life, obviously it
Brittney Sherman:affected her tragically very early.
Brittney Sherman:And I think when you watch the, the splinter man documentary, or you
Brittney Sherman:can watch, uh, the 20, 20 special, or you can look on YouTube, there
Brittney Sherman:are lots of videos of the trial.
Brittney Sherman:I think it's visibly tragic how you can view the, the way the toll that
Brittney Sherman:her disease has taken on her in the time that she's been in jail.
Brittney Sherman:Oh yeah.
Brittney Sherman:She is.
Brittney Sherman:She, she looks like a completely different person and she looks completely
Brittney Sherman:disheveled and all out of sorts.
Brittney Sherman:And a Nisa is actually quite the opposite.
Brittney Sherman:She's very well put together and a very cognizant coherent
Brittney Sherman:of the, uh, of her surroundings.
Brittney Sherman:Uh, Morgan was sentenced to 40 years in a state psychiatric hospital
Brittney Sherman:in both of their sentencings.
Brittney Sherman:The girls both expressed great remorse for what they did.
Brittney Sherman:Morgan's mom still to this day feels that Morgan is not a threat
Brittney Sherman:because she is adjusting very well.
Brittney Sherman:And she's responding well to the medication.
Brittney Sherman:And both girls are eligible to petition for reevaluation in 2020.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Wow.
Sonia Meza-Leon:If they petition and they pass some sort of test, because I think the
Sonia Meza-Leon:criteria is to get out early, all of their symptoms have to be gone.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So the way that the, the for Morgan, the way it works is she sent us to
Sonia Meza-Leon:a maximum of 40 years to live an indeterminate sentence involving at
Sonia Meza-Leon:least three years locked confinement.
Sonia Meza-Leon:In addition to involuntary treatment in a state psychiatric Institute until complete
Sonia Meza-Leon:resolution of symptoms or until age 53.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So think about this in a couple.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I mean, she, most of the videos that I saw where she was a bit older and
Sonia Meza-Leon:she was going through the trial and the sentencing, she definitely looked
Sonia Meza-Leon:like this had taken its toll on her.
Sonia Meza-Leon:You're right.
Sonia Meza-Leon:For sure.
Sonia Meza-Leon:No, not to mention just generally when you have mental issues and, and,
Sonia Meza-Leon:and defects, it wears on you, you know, the struggle of trying to keep.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Some kind of normal state is really hard for these folks.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So it's a lot of work.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I think that people who don't have those issues take it for granted.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, and the struggle is real for them.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I, I don't know.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I mean, like I said, it would, time will tell for Morgan.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I think that medication was probably really helpful for her.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, and you know, I don't know what her understanding is of
Sonia Meza-Leon:her crimes in her sentencing.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I think she apologized to Peyton and her family and she was really sad.
Sonia Meza-Leon:She was crying, you know, she said, I'm so sorry.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, but a lot of the other videos I saw with Morgan in the, in the
Sonia Meza-Leon:trial, and of course this is who knows what kind of meditation,
Sonia Meza-Leon:meditation medication she was on.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, but she seemed very out of it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:She seemed like she was.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Like she was looking around the room in the courtroom.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Like she was seeing things that the nobody else was.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I,
Brittney Sherman:yes.
Brittney Sherman:I totally know exactly
Sonia Meza-Leon:what you're talking about.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Like looking off into space and kind of like, I don't
Brittney Sherman:think she was medicated at that point
Sonia Meza-Leon:really, because I wouldn't seem like they would
Sonia Meza-Leon:have started that immediately, but
Brittney Sherman:she wasn't diagnosed until it went to trial almost three
Brittney Sherman:years after she was originally
Sonia Meza-Leon:arrested.
Sonia Meza-Leon:She still looks like that.
Sonia Meza-Leon:She still looked like that when she's
Brittney Sherman:older, but at 15, she looks at like that three
Brittney Sherman:years after she's essentially been in jail before she was diagnosed.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So it took him three years when she
Sonia Meza-Leon:was in jail to diagnose her.
Brittney Sherman:I think so.
Brittney Sherman:I don't think that she was diagnosed until really the trial phase.
Sonia Meza-Leon:That's crazy.
Sonia Meza-Leon:What were they doing with her in there?
Sonia Meza-Leon:Well, I
Brittney Sherman:think the belief was that she was just a
Sonia Meza-Leon:criminal think, look at the videos where.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Young, she's 12 to whatever, 14 walking around in the courtroom.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And, um, I think it's apparent that she's got some problems she's,
Sonia Meza-Leon:you know, definitely she's looking off again, you know, I mean, it's,
Sonia Meza-Leon:she's like, doesn't end this haze.
Sonia Meza-Leon:She's not lucid.
Brittney Sherman:And it's also, if she was diagnosed earlier, She wasn't
Brittney Sherman:understood was not under the proper care.
Brittney Sherman:So whatever her, the water treatment was would have been the treatment based
Brittney Sherman:on the prison, not under the direct care of a doctor who treats this all.
Brittney Sherman:Oh,
Sonia Meza-Leon:I thought that she went into a mental institution immediately
Sonia Meza-Leon:in a new state in juvenile jail.
Brittney Sherman:No, both girls stayed in juvenile jail.
Brittney Sherman:She's yeah.
Brittney Sherman:They were not, they were not moved to the state facility, the hospital
Brittney Sherman:until after they were Sutton.
Brittney Sherman:Oh,
Sonia Meza-Leon:right.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yeah, because Morgan's mom says that she goes in there.
Sonia Meza-Leon:There's no, there's no window.
Sonia Meza-Leon:She's in there by herself.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And so her, the mom says, well, thank goodness.
Sonia Meza-Leon:She doesn't actually mind because she's got friends in there.
Sonia Meza-Leon:She.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I don't know if we talked about this, but Morgan had a lot of sort
Sonia Meza-Leon:of fantasy friends that she talked about and that she said were with her.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And so I think a lot of the time she spent in solitary confinement, she actually
Sonia Meza-Leon:thought she had people in there with her.
Sonia Meza-Leon:She probably,
Brittney Sherman:we did.
Brittney Sherman:And Morgan, I think displayed that she was highly suggestible or early on in
Sonia Meza-Leon:life.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Well, if you fit, I mean, I, and I agree with you.
Sonia Meza-Leon:The thing is that that in and of itself is a great, makes a great case for
Sonia Meza-Leon:how a Nisa contributed to her problem.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Because a Nissa, if a Nissa hadn't introduced her, this
Sonia Meza-Leon:wouldn't have happened.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It may have happened later, but it probably wouldn't have happened
Sonia Meza-Leon:in this way, but it probably would have been something else.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And
Brittney Sherman:Annisa even admits that if she never told Morgan
Brittney Sherman:about slender, man, chances are, this never would have happened.
Brittney Sherman:Yeah.
Brittney Sherman:And I think a Nissa accepts that responsibility.
Sonia Meza-Leon:This is me and my movie had going, Ooh, this is like a really
Sonia Meza-Leon:interesting story because I could, if I was, if I was writing a screenplay about
Sonia Meza-Leon:this, I would continue this as one, the Nissa gets out when she's 35, she starts
Sonia Meza-Leon:writing to Morgan in, you know, her, her rehabilitative state Morgan gets
Sonia Meza-Leon:out at 53 and Nissa has waited for her.
Sonia Meza-Leon:They have been fighting all along to go and continue this, you know, try
Sonia Meza-Leon:to try to kill Taylor, try to kill Payton, but I could see them play.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And so if I was, you know, S you know, screenwriter, I'm writing now a script
Sonia Meza-Leon:about how Annisa has gotten now, when she's 35, she started writing to Morgan.
Sonia Meza-Leon:They've been plotting all of these years until Morgan gets out when she's 53 and
Sonia Meza-Leon:then together, they go track down Payton.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And it's like this Bridget Fonda, fricking Jennifer, Jason Leigh, like,
Sonia Meza-Leon:you know, crazy horror movie where they go and they find her at her house.
Sonia Meza-Leon:You know when she's, she's gotta be 53
Brittney Sherman:too, right?
Brittney Sherman:Yeah.
Brittney Sherman:They're all the same age.
Brittney Sherman:They're all the
Sonia Meza-Leon:same age.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Right.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So they go track her down and you know, and they're like, oh, we're going to
Sonia Meza-Leon:finally get you paid and opinions.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Like, God, dang it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Why didn't anybody listen to me and put you guys away for life.
Sonia Meza-Leon:You know, that's the kind of screen on my end that I think is entertaining.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And of course, you know, it's so far fetched, but at the same time,
Sonia Meza-Leon:if I was painting and I had gone through all this trauma and this
Sonia Meza-Leon:had happened to me and I w you know, there was a little teeny piece of me.
Sonia Meza-Leon:That's like, good Lord.
Sonia Meza-Leon:When these people get out.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Oh yeah.
Sonia Meza-Leon:35 and 53.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Where are they?
Sonia Meza-Leon:Can they find me?
Sonia Meza-Leon:I'm still scared.
Sonia Meza-Leon:What the heck?
Sonia Meza-Leon:Where
Brittney Sherman:am I going to be?
Brittney Sherman:So I'm gonna, I'm gonna raise your story a little bit.
Brittney Sherman:Cause I didn't really even think about that.
Brittney Sherman:I mean in order to tie it in back to slender, man.
Brittney Sherman:And if we're going to take these girls at their words, in their
Brittney Sherman:true belief of slender, man, I
Sonia Meza-Leon:think technically it never stops.
Sonia Meza-Leon:They keep believing, even though they pretend like they don't the point.
Brittney Sherman:That's exactly where I'm going.
Brittney Sherman:They're still consumed by the idea of slender.
Brittney Sherman:Yeah.
Brittney Sherman:So,
Sonia Meza-Leon:well, he's got a captive audience, literally because
Sonia Meza-Leon:they are in freaking jail detention and you know, it's like people are still
Sonia Meza-Leon:writing stories and articles about it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Well, these are the people like, I mean, I could see Morgan in her head, like a
Sonia Meza-Leon:slender man's next to me, you know, myself for like 40 years, you know, calculating
Sonia Meza-Leon:and figuring this out with me, uh, Nisa, you know, I'm in jail slender, man,
Sonia Meza-Leon:slender, man, Slenderman, Slenderman.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I mean, what are these girls thinking about?
Sonia Meza-Leon:Okay.
Brittney Sherman:So of course all hypothetical.
Brittney Sherman:We hope none of this happened, but we're writing a movie
Sonia Meza-Leon:filmmaker's point of
Brittney Sherman:view.
Brittney Sherman:So we're talking about a screenplay.
Brittney Sherman:Yeah.
Brittney Sherman:We're talking we're actively live.
Brittney Sherman:In the moment running are
Sonia Meza-Leon:going to be huge, by the way folks, the girls get
Brittney Sherman:out.
Brittney Sherman:Uh, they track down Peyton, they succeed, they go through
Brittney Sherman:with it and the murder Peyton.
Brittney Sherman:And now in my mind, the go into a forest, like situation thick Pan's labyrinth.
Brittney Sherman:I know it's so good.
Brittney Sherman:And so God, they ultimately go into like, they go down into the forest.
Brittney Sherman:I don't know.
Brittney Sherman:They go downstairs or maybe they just go through the forest and they find
Brittney Sherman:slender man's castle and he is seated and he is seated there on a throne and
Brittney Sherman:he dubs them or Knights them official proxies what they've always wanted.
Brittney Sherman:They're entirely.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So are you saying that their fantasy for them
Sonia Meza-Leon:becomes real and then they go off?
Sonia Meza-Leon:Is this an alternate alternative universe or alternate universe?
Brittney Sherman:So I think you can go one way or another.
Brittney Sherman:It could be an alternate universe or could
Sonia Meza-Leon:be, I mean, if you want the biggest bang for
Sonia Meza-Leon:your buck, the point of it is that you prove this Letterman's real.
Brittney Sherman:That's where I originally was no scares.
Brittney Sherman:The bejesus out of people is to prove that he's real.
Brittney Sherman:The alternate is that this is all happening in their heads.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yeah.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Well, I think it could be both because I think that's the same
Sonia Meza-Leon:with Pan's labyrinth, which is a fantastic million people.
Sonia Meza-Leon:If you haven't seen a lot of beautiful, but, um, that it's,
Sonia Meza-Leon:it's all about perception.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Like for the girls, they could go off into their mansion and
Sonia Meza-Leon:wouldn't, you know, funder men.
Sonia Meza-Leon:But the reality of it is is they just go off and just sit
Sonia Meza-Leon:down in the weather and die.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I mean, there's not much differentiation between those two
Sonia Meza-Leon:when you're talking about like this, this lapse of reality, right.
Sonia Meza-Leon:The contact, you know, it's just, um, I mean, and we're not saying that this
Sonia Meza-Leon:is a great story, but we're saying this is a great, it's a great story.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It's not a great situation because there's an actual events and
Sonia Meza-Leon:they're actual people tied to it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:But if you were going to write a screenplay about something,
Sonia Meza-Leon:this will be really interesting.
Sonia Meza-Leon:There's a lot of avenues to cover.
Sonia Meza-Leon:No one wants
Brittney Sherman:this as public.
Brittney Sherman:This is officially copyrighted by us.
Brittney Sherman:So if anyone else tries to make this.
Brittney Sherman:We get the royalties.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I think there's a fan Eli rock.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Where are you, buddy?
Sonia Meza-Leon:You need to make this movie.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Oh,
Brittney Sherman:I would like to see it go to, uh, uh, what's the name?
Brittney Sherman:What's the name of the company they're doing?
Brittney Sherman:Yes.
Brittney Sherman:I would love to see this house.
Brittney Sherman:I would love that because they take more of a psychological, uh, take on things
Brittney Sherman:and Eli Roth is more just the violence.
Sonia Meza-Leon:All right.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Well, that's all I have for this case.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Um, you know, again, all due respect to the fam all of the families,
Sonia Meza-Leon:and I hope they can heal from this.
Sonia Meza-Leon:You know, my take my final take on this is again, I, um, I appreciate
Sonia Meza-Leon:the mental issues and trying to get folks help and rehabilitation, and
Sonia Meza-Leon:I'm glad that, um, At least Morgan is in a place that can help her.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It sounds to me like a niece is still in jail, juvenile jail.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Is that correct?
Sonia Meza-Leon:I don't know.
Sonia Meza-Leon:A niece is in the hospital with her.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Great it with her, no
Brittney Sherman:contact.
Brittney Sherman:They're both in,
Sonia Meza-Leon:they're both in the hospital because I I've always
Sonia Meza-Leon:found that really strange that people seem to think that folks who have
Sonia Meza-Leon:mental problems should be in jail.
Sonia Meza-Leon:It doesn't make any sense.
Sonia Meza-Leon:That's not the place where they get help.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I mean, a great case for that Charles Manson.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And I know everybody hates Charles Manson, but if you think about Charles Manson
Sonia Meza-Leon:and the way that he conveyed his message while he was a lot more aggressive, he was
Sonia Meza-Leon:still very confident in his communication.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And he believed when he believes so strongly that nothing else mattered.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And that's honestly the way Morgan kind of reacted to this.
Sonia Meza-Leon:She's a 12 year old grille.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Sweet, nice.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Then you got crazy Charlie Manson over here, but at the end of the day, both had
Sonia Meza-Leon:mental issues, both needed help, you know, and Charlie went to jail and never got.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And I think that's probably one of the biggest problems we have in this country
Sonia Meza-Leon:is the way that we approach, you know, rehabilitation in jail in general, you
Sonia Meza-Leon:know, the con always the conversation.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Is it punishment or is it rehabilitation?
Sonia Meza-Leon:Are you really just sticking someone in a hole and just saying, bye,
Sonia Meza-Leon:you're never coming out again.
Sonia Meza-Leon:We don't want to hear from you, but if we're really talking about taking people
Sonia Meza-Leon:and putting them in a situation where they can improve their lives and come
Sonia Meza-Leon:out as, you know, productive citizens, that's a different approach altogether,
Sonia Meza-Leon:you know, mental, mental illnesses, illnesses come in a variety of shades and
Sonia Meza-Leon:colors and, um, and extremities, honestly.
Sonia Meza-Leon:I mean, you know, like you said, it's a spectrum.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Some people can have no issues, um, but it doesn't take much, or a traumatic
Sonia Meza-Leon:event could really push them over the.
Sonia Meza-Leon:So to
Brittney Sherman:finish this, I'm going to go a little afterschool special,
Brittney Sherman:but I think it is still very important.
Brittney Sherman:If anyone is out there listening and having issues, whether it's,
Brittney Sherman:uh, schizophrenia like issues, whether you're dealing with anxiety
Brittney Sherman:or depression, please get help.
Brittney Sherman:It makes a difference.
Brittney Sherman:Medication is okay.
Brittney Sherman:And, uh, it's, it's a problem and a stigma that we have in this country,
Brittney Sherman:but I don't think it's one that we should, because I think it affects
Brittney Sherman:more people than people realize.
Brittney Sherman:And it's important that it's treated properly and that stigma is broken down.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Absolutely I a hundred percent agree with Brittany.
Sonia Meza-Leon:There's nothing wrong with reaching out and getting help.
Sonia Meza-Leon:There's nothing wrong with talking to people.
Sonia Meza-Leon:If you think that they need help, there are ways to do it.
Sonia Meza-Leon:That's not intrusive.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Be a human, be nice to your people and ask them how they are.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And maybe they'll tell you the truth and tell you that they need some help.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And please help.
Brittney Sherman:All right.
Brittney Sherman:I think that's, we're going to where we are going to wrap it up for this
Brittney Sherman:episode of the slender man stabbings.
Brittney Sherman:Thank you everybody for listening.
Brittney Sherman:Uh, I got a little surprise at Sony doesn't even know about, but I, uh, am
Brittney Sherman:going to say that for the first person that tweets us at Scarlet podcast and
Brittney Sherman:uses the hashtag slender, you are going to get a brand new Scarlet t-shirt I'm
Sonia Meza-Leon:excited.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Awesome.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Yes, we, again, you know, thanks to all of our folks out there, who've
Sonia Meza-Leon:really helped us, you know, build our brand, you know, logos music,
Sonia Meza-Leon:thanks to all of you guys out there.
Sonia Meza-Leon:And, you know, we're hoping that you're going to like our, uh, our
Sonia Meza-Leon:promotional material as much as we do.
Sonia Meza-Leon:All right.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Have a good one.
Sonia Meza-Leon:Thanks guys.