So, she thought everyone deserved at least one friend.”Īs Geyser’s fixation with “Slender Man” grew, it appeared to Payton Leutner that Geyser’s friendship with Weier blossomed, too. But if Payton wasn’t her friend, she wouldn’t have any other friends. “She recognized that Morgan maybe wasn’t the healthiest friendship to have. “Payton was such an empathetic kid,” her mother, Stacie Leutner, told ABC News in a new interview. Geyser even “guilted” Leutner into staying friends, Leutner said. She said she felt bad for her friend and didn’t want her to be alone. Ultimately, however, Leutner stayed friends with Geyser. “That’s when I was really wanting to get out of that friendship.” “I saw the change from fifth to sixth grade when she met Anissa,” she said. Leutner even considered ending her friendship with Geyser, she said. “But she really liked it and thought it was real.” “I told that it scared me and that I didn’t like it,” Leutner said. She even asked her mother, Stacie Leutner, whether “Slender Man” was real and was relieved when she was told that he wasn’t. I was supportive because I thought that’s what she liked.”Įventually, though, the fictional stories Geyser told about “Slender Man,” a tall, faceless creature in a suit that could use tendrils growing from his back, became too frightening, Leutner said. It kind of frightened me a little bit,” Leutner told Muir. Then, “everything went downhill,” she said.Īround the time Geyser became friends with Weier in sixth grade is when Geyser also started talking to Leutner about “Slender Man,” she said. … She was great at drawing and her imagination always kept things fun.” “She was funny, I will give you that,” Leutner said. Leutner said she’d considered Geyser her best friend and thought Geyser was somebody she could trust. While they were friends, Leutner said, Geyser seemed like a happy girl, albeit “a little lonely.” They would have sleepovers together, play outside and draw - “all the things that kids do,” Leutner said. “She was sitting all by herself and I didn’t think anyone should have to sit by themselves,” Leutner told Muir. Leutner said Geyser had struggled to make friends and that in fourth grade she’d befriended Geyser herself. Leutner described herself as hopeful and positive before the attack, and said she’d tried to see the good in people, including Geyser. They had been celebrating Geyser’s birthday the previous night. In 2014, Leutner was a sixth-grader in Waukesha, Wisconsin, when Geyser and Weier attacked her after a slumber party at Geyser’s home. “I feel like it’s time for people to see my side rather than everyone else’s,” she said. She told ABC News that she was ready to reclaim her story. Now 17, Leutner has worked hard over the last five years to heal and rebuild a normal life. Leutner, who was still recovering after the stabbing, appeared alongside her parents on 20/20 but chose not to speak out at that time. Leutner survived an attack that captured headlines worldwide after her assailants, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, claimed they did it to please a fictional character named “Slender Man.” Leutner, Geyser and Weier were all 12 years old at the time.ĪBC News’ 20/20, which has followed Leutner’s case closely since her attack as well as her recovery for years, spoke with her parents exclusively in 2014. They will probably go away and fade eventually.” “I’ve come to accept all of the scars that I have,” Leutner said in an exclusive interview with ABC’s David Muir. But they also mark her strength to survive. Her scars - from the 19 times she was stabbed on testify to that moment of betrayal. Payton Leutner(NEW YORK) - Until now, Payton Leutner had never spoken publicly about what happened to her in the woods at the hands of her best friend and another classmate.