The case involves two girls (both 12 years old) who lure another girl (also age 12) into a wooded area of a local park, where they proceed to attack her, inflicting a total of 19 stab wounds. After the victim was apparently left for dead, she was discovered by a good Samaritan riding by on his bicycle, at which time paramedics were summoned. It was discovered during the investigation that the crime was allegedly motivated by the fictional internet character, Slenderman.
I found an article on the CNN site that I wanted to share. It really made me think a lot about our current technology driven culture and how the argument regarding responsible internet practices vs. parental responsibility just gets more complex all the time. If anyone has any thoughts on this case, please feel free to share.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/03/tech/web/stabbing-who-slenderman/index.html

If I'm not mistaken, I believe 20/20 is doing a profile of this case that is scheduled to air tonight. I definitely plan to watch.

Lots of kids play Slenderman and don't murder anyone. I don't think the problem is necessarily technology. I've read about that case before, and I think at least one of those girls has serious mental issues. Maybe even a possible future sociopath.

Yeah, I can't recall the complete details right now, or where I read it, but one of the girl's home life seemed to be out of the ordinary. It's not that there was abuse or neglect, but her parents lifestyle seemed to revolve quite a bit around death culture. I suppose that could have played a part in her being unusually interested in the slender man and could make her more susceptible to believing he was real.

Ah, found it. Twas the good old daily mail again:

Online, the girl's dad goes by DeadBoy420 (so no big suprise he is a fan of stoner rock and death metal). His email addys are ILoveEvil and ILoveEvil666.

His daughter drew a picture of Slenderman in crayon on a napkin. He thought it was cool and shared it on his instagram, so the parents were aware of Slenderman and their daughter's internet activities. He's also shared a pic of his four skull brass knuckles and the birthday card he gave his wife which was a skull and cross bones.

The family were fans of skulls and posted pictures of them online. Morgan is wearing a skull shirt in one of the pictures in the news article and in another she's wearing a hoodie with a skull on the hood and the ribcage bones on the jacket part. They even have skull stuffed "animals" decorating their bookshelves. They have drinking glasses decorated with skulls.

They also seem to have a collection of Edward Gorey books. I noticed a copy of The Headless Bust on the book case and I'm pretty sure I see The Gashlycrumb Tinies (I'll post the front and back covers of that book at the bottom of this post.) From what I can figure out, they are children's books featuring dark humor with a bit of silly violence and some unusual and even morbid illustrations.

Now I'm a big fan of halloween, scary movies, dark humor, cemeteries, etc. But imo, this family took their interest to an unnatural level, especially by including their young daughter in it. I'll post some pics below. More are at the linked article.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/06/03/article-2647489-1E6F8F3300000578-459_634x501.jpg

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/06/03/article-2647489-1E6F8F0800000578-975_634x632.jpg

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/06/03/article-2647489-1E6F8F3800000578-387_634x533.jpg

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/06/03/article-2647489-1E6F6F3A00000578-498_634x417.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61eucI0G9AL.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/616CK2D6oZL.jpg


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2647489/Father-girl-12-stabbed-school-friend-19-times-prove-Slender-Man-myth-real-proudly-shared-sketch-horror-creature-DEADBOY-Instagram-filled-skulls.html

So what do you think about that character on the cover of The Gashlycrumb Tinies? Looks like Slenderman's skeletal brother to me.

Those parents surrounded their child in images and stories of death and led their daughter into the direction where she ended up, imo. Although I believe they did it out of ignorance and lack of foresight rather than anything criminal.

Also, I know that Slender Man is an internet-created myth and has kind of grown and changed over time (just like an old-fashioned folk story). But as far as I know, there is nothing in the Slender Man story about killing people to become a proxy for him.

I hate to be cynical about a 12 year-old girl, but I feel like this girl wanted to kill someone and used the Slender Man story as an excuse. Or maybe to convince the other girl to participate.

OMG 88keys, you took the words right out of my mouth! After we watched that 20/20 last night, my mom turned to me and asked what I thought. I told her that to be honest, if it weren't for the fact that those girls started trotting out that Slenderman story the minute they were arrested, it really sounded like some clever defense that an attorney came up with. You know: a Twinkie made me do it....Zoloft made me do it....Slenderman made me do it. Regardless of whether or not the Slenderman story was designed with the intent to avoid accountability, it appears to be reaching that end all the same. It appears one of the defendants has already been declared unfit to stand trial.

I think you guys are right about them just wanting to kill someone and then they used this as an excuse.

I read up more on the girl who was found incompetent to stand trial, by two doctors, and it's Morgan, the one who's family was into all the morbid stuff.

I'd like to know how and why they determined that. And what criteria makes her incompetent. I'm thinking that since the victim lived, they're just using a fake incompetency declaration to try to eventually get this into juvenile court or send her to an inpatient mental facility for a short stint where she'll be magically "cured" of whatever "ails" her, or something similar where she won't be facing an attempted first degree intentional homicide charge in the adult system.

These girls planned the murder for 5 months, they used codewords when talking about it because they were worried that they would go to prison if their plan was discovered, and they aborted their first attempt which was to kill her in bed during a sleepover for Morgan's birthday. They later decided to take her to the woods under the guise of playing hide and seek and discussed killing her in the bathroom at the park because the blood would go down the floor drain.

That doesn't sound "incompetent", imo. That's a lot of complicated planning, they both understood that they would go to jail for it, and they changed the murder location from the original site, a house, to a public bathroom in a park, then just ended up stabbing her in the woods. That totally blows their "slenderman made me do it" defense, because they said going off to his mansion in the woods was why they chose that location. If slendy made them do it so they could walk off to his mansion in the woods, they wouldn't have had the original plan to kill her at home.

I also think Morgan looks mentally sound in her recent instagram pics, and they've purposely made her look like a deranged lunatic in her courtroom pics, with her hair in a tangled mess and looking like one of Charlie Manson's girls.

I'm afraid these kids are going to get away with nearly murdering that little girl.

Hmm, after reading this additional information, it does seem like Slenderman has turned into the "strawman" and that these girls just wanted to kill someone. Morgan's parents' obsession with death culture may have contributed to the murder, but there are probably plenty who are part of that culture and would never think to hurt or kill other people. We don't want to believe kids could do this to other kids and will always look for a reason to blame it on then the kids being little sociopaths right from the start and nothing that could be done differently would change it.

You make some excellent points TracyLynn, and I too find myself wondering what was at the heart of this suspect's competency ruling. I'm certainly no expert, but I always thought the issues of being fit to stand trial and possibly being not guilty by reason of mental illness were two separate things. I find myself wondering if maybe the “experts" involved are confusing those issues because the age of the defendants.

You make some excellent points TracyLynn, and I too find myself wondering what was at the heart of this suspect's competency ruling. I'm certainly no expert, but I always thought the issues of being fit to stand trial and possibly being not guilty by reason of mental illness were two separate things. I find myself wondering if maybe the “experts" involved are confusing those issues because the age of the defendants.

Hopefully someone who knows more about this will join in the discussion. I think being found incompetent to stand trial can mean she has a mental issue. I've seen them use that, get the person treatment, then they are determined to be competent and the trial goes forward.

But I also think I've seen it used when they determine that the defendant is incapable of understanding the proceedings or is unable to assist their attorneys in their defense for whatever reason.

Does anyone know the facts on this subject that could help me out?

If the court determines that a defendant's mental condition makes him unable to understand the proceedings, or that he is unable to help in his defense, he is found incompetent.

It's in place to protect people (as everyone is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law) So, if you are unable to understand the proceedings and can not help in your own defense, it protects those people from unjust verdicts or unfair p

Many defendants with such mental illnesses as schizophrenia, bipolar, personality disorders are found fit to stand trial.

So, its usually quite severe if they are found incompetent.

Even if she wanted to be the proxy of Slender man, it doesn't explain the attempted murder. A lot of kids have imaginations, fantasy lives or even kids with mental illness but the difference is they don't kill or try to kill. I got so mad when the 20/20 reporter was asking kids if they heard of slenderman as if its some epidemic. Stories like slender man have been around forever. The parents being into weird things isn't to blame either. A lot of kids have parents like that but don't kill or want to kill. Clearly, there is something wrong with her.

Thanks for that info LilMissKryssy. :)

I don't have TV so haven't seen the 20/20 report where they're asking kids about Slenderman.

It's sorta reminding me of the satanic panic of the 80s and 90s that we frequently discuss here. Back then everybody freaked out if you listened to heavy metal or collected knives. All of a sudden you were at risk of being in a satanic cult.

I wonder what people are saying about this case on other message boards. I've only seen it discussed here and in the news articles. Those commenters are all treating it like the Slenderman thing really was the motivating factor, but I've come to believe what the posters upthread suggested. They just wanted to commit murder and would have done so even if the Slenderman myth had never been created.

Welcome TracyLynnS :)

Yes it is like the 80/90s satanic panic! So many UM episodes gave the cult theory and in all probability very few, if any, had anything to do with a satanic cult.

It also reminds me of Columbine. The media harped on the fact that the boys listened to Marilyn Manson and he was practically branded in the media as an accomplice. It's so ridiculous to think if someone turns on a Marilyn Manson song that then they will in turn want to commit mass murder. These boys clearly had something seriously wrong (especially Dylan). Dylan from many accounts exhibited extremely narcissistic traits since childhood and later (early teens) anti social behavior. It's not like they turned on Manson one day and decided "wow, I think I want to commit mass murder now." I think they just listened to Manson because its dark music and they liked dark things that went along with their anger and hatred. However, music doesn't make one kill.

Its the same thing with Slenderman. I'm guessing this girl has some sort of a personality disorder. Although they wont officially diagnose her until the age of 18 with a personality disorder but symptoms and behaviors do and can manifest in childhood especially going into the teen years. She clearly had an obsession with dark things most likely because she had dark thoughts and fantasies. She wanted to be "slenderman's proxy" (if that's true) because he's evil and hurts people. It's the same thing to me. She was drawn to him because SHE already had evil thoughts and fantasies. So, even if it the slenderman story is true, it still doesn't explain why she did what she did.

I'm guessing her age was a factor (however small) in the incompetent finding as well. Even Andrea Yates stood trial and was extremely mentally ill and pretty delusional. However, as long as it was determined she understood the proceedings and could help her lawyer in her defense (her defense was not guilty by reason of insanity ) then she was competent to stand trial. It was up to a jury to decide if she wasn't guilty by insanity.

I think her age of 12 helped her get an incompetent to stand trial finding. Some 12 years old might truly not understand the proceedings or be able to help in there own defense. Yes, there have been younger defendants found fit to stand trial but if she showed a disconnect from reality/surroundings or some severe mental illness, the that combined with her age might have gotten her that finding.

I'm not a fan personally of locking up a 12 year old for 60 years. Im not saying she should just walk out at 21 or 25 but I think there has to be some sort of middle ground. Maybe she can be rehabilitated as an adult. I mean, maybe she cant but the whole lock up her and throw away the key at 12 mentality isn't for me.