Wicked Wanderings

Ep. 32: The Slenderman Saga: Unraveling the Tragedy of Internet Myth and Adolescent Mental Health

April 10, 2024 Jess and Hannah Season 1 Episode 32
Ep. 32: The Slenderman Saga: Unraveling the Tragedy of Internet Myth and Adolescent Mental Health
Wicked Wanderings
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Wicked Wanderings
Ep. 32: The Slenderman Saga: Unraveling the Tragedy of Internet Myth and Adolescent Mental Health
Apr 10, 2024 Season 1 Episode 32
Jess and Hannah

Send us a Text Message.

Whispers in the night often lead to stories that grip us with fear—yet none so haunting as the tale of three middle school girls caught in the web of the Slenderman legend. As your guides, Jess, Hannah, and our special guest John, we take you through the shadowy intersection where mental illness meets myth, where the ordinary becomes distorted. The yearning for belonging set the stage for a tragedy that would shake the world.

Our journey into the heart of darkness doesn't shy away from the complexities of young minds under enormous strain. The Slender Man Stabbing Incident stands as a stark reminder of how desperately Anissa sought a place in a world that seemed to overlook her and how Morgan's silent battles with her own psyche went unnoticed. We scrutinize the missed opportunities for intervention and the stark realities of adolescent mental health, painting a somber picture of what can happen when cries for help are mistaken for mere whispers.

In the aftermath, the cold blade of reality cuts deep. We examine Bella's brush with death and unravel the controversial threads of legal proceedings against minors. The contrasting fates of Anissa and Morgan in the judicial system and Bella's remarkable resilience highlight a narrative that is as complex as it is chilling. Throughout, we extend our heartfelt thanks to you, our listeners, for your unwavering support and invite you to continue the conversation with us on social media. Join us as we forge ahead, honoring the courage to confront the mysteries that lie in wait.

Source:
Kathleen Hale
Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls
ABC News


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If you'd like to show your support for Wicked Wanderings and join our community of dedicated listeners, you can start contributing for as little as $3 a month. Your support helps us continue to explore the darkest and most intriguing mysteries, bringing you captivating stories from the world of true crime and the unexplained. Click the link to become a valued member of our podcast family.

Don't forget to rate, review, and follow us on your favorite streaming platform.
Wicked Wanderings Website
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We'd love to hear from you! If you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to email us @ wickedwanderingspodcast@gmail.com.

Wicked Wanderings is hosted by Hannah Fitzpatrick and Jess Goonan. It is produced and edited by Rob Fitzpatrick. Music by Sascha Ende. Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Lic.

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Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Send us a Text Message.

Whispers in the night often lead to stories that grip us with fear—yet none so haunting as the tale of three middle school girls caught in the web of the Slenderman legend. As your guides, Jess, Hannah, and our special guest John, we take you through the shadowy intersection where mental illness meets myth, where the ordinary becomes distorted. The yearning for belonging set the stage for a tragedy that would shake the world.

Our journey into the heart of darkness doesn't shy away from the complexities of young minds under enormous strain. The Slender Man Stabbing Incident stands as a stark reminder of how desperately Anissa sought a place in a world that seemed to overlook her and how Morgan's silent battles with her own psyche went unnoticed. We scrutinize the missed opportunities for intervention and the stark realities of adolescent mental health, painting a somber picture of what can happen when cries for help are mistaken for mere whispers.

In the aftermath, the cold blade of reality cuts deep. We examine Bella's brush with death and unravel the controversial threads of legal proceedings against minors. The contrasting fates of Anissa and Morgan in the judicial system and Bella's remarkable resilience highlight a narrative that is as complex as it is chilling. Throughout, we extend our heartfelt thanks to you, our listeners, for your unwavering support and invite you to continue the conversation with us on social media. Join us as we forge ahead, honoring the courage to confront the mysteries that lie in wait.

Source:
Kathleen Hale
Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls
ABC News


***Merch Store***

Support the Show.

If you'd like to show your support for Wicked Wanderings and join our community of dedicated listeners, you can start contributing for as little as $3 a month. Your support helps us continue to explore the darkest and most intriguing mysteries, bringing you captivating stories from the world of true crime and the unexplained. Click the link to become a valued member of our podcast family.

Don't forget to rate, review, and follow us on your favorite streaming platform.
Wicked Wanderings Website
Linktree
Instagram
Hannah's Bookstagram
Jess's Bookstagram

We'd love to hear from you! If you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to email us @ wickedwanderingspodcast@gmail.com.

Wicked Wanderings is hosted by Hannah Fitzpatrick and Jess Goonan. It is produced and edited by Rob Fitzpatrick. Music by Sascha Ende. Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Lic.

Hannah:

speaking of grandma. Yesterday, john, I had the most weird experience, so you know how when they say your ear buzzes for no reason, it's usually because someone's trying to contact you.

John:

Only yesterday like the frequency.

Hannah:

Yeah, yeah, but it never comes through only yesterday, for 24 hours every so often, even at work, I got this high-pitched ringing noise in my right ear. That's called tinnitus, tinnitus.

Jess:

No, that's in the hand yeah, I was gonna say I get 10 disability for it, my bubble.

Hannah:

I thought it was my grandmother.

Jess:

I'm sorry the ringing is tinnitus, the, the vibration. I don't know what that is that was a high pitch.

John:

Yeah, yeah, that's tinnitus. I get that every so often.

Jess:

It's ringing in your ears.

John:

I don't agree. I think she's trying to contact you.

Hannah:

Thank you.

John:

It's the wrong frequency. Thank you, Jonathan Wow she was never great at the cell phone thing.

Jess:

I'm raining on your parade, I'm sorry.

Hannah:

Okay, welcome to Wicked Wanderings, where we explore the mysterious and the macabre. Hi, I'm Jess.

Jess:

And I'm Hannah.

Hannah:

Join us as we delve into true crime, paranormal encounters and all things spooky.

Jess:

So grab your flashlight and get ready to wander into the darkness with us. This is Wicked Wanderings.

Hannah:

Hi Jessica, hi Hannah.

Jess:

Hi John.

John:

Hey.

Jess:

How's it's it going?

Hannah:

good john's here again, yay with champagne yes, cheers, cheers, not to spitting up baby bitches that was said with love.

John:

That wasn't derogatory, hi, rob.

Hannah:

Oh, thank you hi rob hi, and if we're gonna do that, hi. Kenzie kenzie's in my lab. She has ducky pajamas on. She's adorable. She's very resentful about getting these pjs on she shouldn't, because she's adorable.

Hannah:

I know she is she just got groomed yesterday. Okay, our story takes place in 2014 w, with three middle school girls who should have been worrying about what nail polish to wear or who they had a crush on. Instead, fears of the unknown, creatures of the imagination and mental illness are at the forefront of their story. This is the story of how Slenderman slothfully stole their story. The story.

Hannah:

Did you like my alliteration Slenderman slothfully stole their story. The story, did you like my alliteration? Slenderman slothfully stole their story. I mean, come on, mr Porter would be so proud.

Jess:

He's not giving me that validation. Who's Mr Porter? No, comment. That's like a Wicked Wanderings.

John:

After Dark episode.

Jess:

Oh, that's a good idea.

Hannah:

Yeah, I never thought of doing that, even though I feel like all of ours, should be after dark.

Jess:

Yes, Also I hate this case, but I'm excited to hear about it.

Hannah:

You hate it.

Jess:

Why? I just think the girls are just so stupid.

Hannah:

Do you know much about the case? Yes, Okay, I kind of I feel like well we'll see.

Jess:

See, what do you know about slender man? He's fake, made up and like. People are scared of him as a online scary thing, like that woman with the boogie eyes. Woman with the boogie eyes yes, have you not seen it?

Hannah:

and she's like is that the one that was sneaking on to like youtube videos and shit? Yeah, people to kill themselves, yeah I remember that, john, do you know anything about slenderman?

John:

I only know a little bit about him. I mean, some of the images are pretty creepy they are absolutely all right.

Hannah:

So let's dive in. Morgan had signs of mental illness at a very young age, but nothing was done to help her. Her father had a schizophrenia diagnosis, so it should have been something they looked out for.

Jess:

A short backstory on morgan's father, matt but she's also too young to be diagnosed, just so you know, at 14. Sorry, keep going, no it.

John:

Oh, I didn't know that.

Jess:

That's interesting he usually presents late teens, early 20s.

Hannah:

I have things to say on that. I agree with what you said, but I have things. So Matt, her father, he had Mormon parents, so his parents thought this was a test from God that explains everything, end episode.

Hannah:

Just kidding. At seven Matt woke to see his unborn sister above his bed and she said goodbye. He told his parents. They told him to go back to bed. A few days later, a doctor confirmed the unborn baby's death. When matt met angie morgan's mom, he had another sense that they just made a baby and, sure enough, a positive pregnancy test history seems. How is that? Schizophrenia? Sorry, I, I don't know. Okay, these were just stories that were in the book that I read, so I don't know. I thought something else was going on there with him yeah, that's not.

John:

I mean, that's nothing to do with schizophrenia I mean maybe you could tie it into something, but that's um, that's a kind of advanced like clairvoyancy like there's something like I can see events that will happen in the very new future yeah um, I'm trying to remember I was just watching the movie rose red so and they had all the different versions of uh clairvoyance oh wait, was that the stephen king book? Yeah yeah, I only like the beginnings. I like the old house.

Hannah:

I don't want things blown up yeah, I haven't seen that yet because I want to read the book first, but I heard it's really good, it's very long, yeah, so it was the same girl that was in halloween town, right?

John:

yeah, yeah, yeah, it was uh annie.

Jess:

They call yeah I also have theories about this that we can talk about. Yeah, I just my own personal opinion. Something else was going on.

Hannah:

Also, like in part of the book, the dad talks about how he can't look into mirrors and so his rear view mirror in the car, like he'll see someone in the back seat oh my god, where's fear? He knows, no one's there, but it's like I see them. I see someone there, like, so it's. I think there is something else going on, but anyways, I digress we could totally get into that I have stories about this, but anyway, you could. You could tell them if you want to.

Jess:

Well, sorry, I can wait or I can go. So I obviously you know that I believe in people that have abilities. Yeah, absolutely, and so I've worked with a couple of kids that have been very young, under the age of like 12, that are suspected with schizophrenia.

John:

Mm-hmm.

Jess:

And I think outside of the box and think that maybe it's not schizophrenia at all yeah.

Jess:

I think trauma has stuff to do with it. Maybe it's not schizophrenia at all. I think trauma has stuff to do with it. But I also feel like maybe there are abilities that people might have instead of like hearing voices and stuff. Yeah, so I actually reached out to Cindy Kaza. Do you know who she is? No, she's been on a couple TV shows on the Discovery Plus and she's been on Hozier Files and she took over for amy on dead files. And because I I've watched this tv show called psychic kids or something where mediums have come and kind of mentored younger kids with abilities and I've seen on that show they said that they were struggling with their mental health and misdiagnosed as schizophrenia, when in fact they did have abilities and so the older mediums came on and helped them hone in on those. But anyway, sorry to steal your episode no, no, you're not stealing at all.

Hannah:

I, as I was reading this book which, by the way, I was reading Slender man by Kathleen Hale, which actually has been very interesting and very well written, but there's some. There was something else going on with her dad, but she was just trying to give a backstory and maybe why Morgan is the way that she was, or is. So, as I was saying, like history seems repeating itself with Morgan. At three years old, she ran into parents' bedroom and said her room was haunted, she was getting bit hugged in her hair, pulled by ghosts. The response was to go back to bed. Morgan made a friend named Bella, and Bella became a safe person for Morgan. Morgan told her about the voices she would hear, and Bella would say she heard them too. She didn't really hear them, but she was trying to make her friend more comfortable.

Jess:

Oh, so this was a real friend. I was assuming it was an imaginary friend or a ghost friend.

Hannah:

And Morgan had friends that no one else could see, that Bella would interact with with as well, just to make morgan more comfortable. Just bella seemed to be that type of person that was just a friend.

Hannah:

Yeah, yeah, she just tried to be there for morgan. And the other person I'm going to talk about is anisa, and she was a girl from a broken home. She was a child that never dealt with her emotions in a healthy way. She craved to belong somewhere and be accepted by people. Minecraft, which was a game of choice for anisa, and, and while playing it, an ad popped up for creepypastacom.

Jess:

Yeah, I've heard of creamy pasta Creepy Not creamy.

Hannah:

Both. Creamy pasta is probably for Empress of East Fettuccine Alfredo Yum. Which essentially was a site for youth to post horror stories. I'd never heard of it. No.

John:

No, yeah, I know about it, yeah I've heard about it, I didn't know anything.

Hannah:

I was like, oh, this is interesting. So anisa got sucked into this world where she met slender man, and I'm going to read to you a description of slender man which I thought was very interesting and here wanders is where hannah quotes, and I quote the slender man is a being male in appearance who looks like a man with extremely long, slender arms and legs.

Hannah:

He also appears to have four to eight long black tentacles that protrude from his back, though different photographs and enthusiasts disagree on this fact, and therefore it is theorized he can contract these tentacles at will. He is described as wearing a black suit, strikingly similar to the visage of the notorious men in black and, as the name suggests, appears very thin and able to stretch his limbs and torso to inhuman lengths in order to induce fear and ensnare his prey. Once his arms are outstretched, his victims are put into something of hypnotized state where they are utterly helpless to stop themselves from walking into them. It is often thought as well that he enjoys stalking people, who become overly paranoid about his existence, purposely giving them glimpses of himself in order to further frighten them. Do you believe that?

Jess:

he's real. No Okay, I just wanted to make sure Bigfoot's real. I don't think so.

Hannah:

With Anissa's parents' divorce, she spent some time with her dad, few days with her mom and then back to dad. She was living out of a travel bag making sure she had everything for school.

Jess:

To top it all off, she changed schools and ended up at the same school with morgan and bella so this is a kid with a lot of instability and unsettled and not having like anywhere to be grounded right and then later on in the story it talks about how her dad went to like go pick up her half siblings.

Hannah:

Like she never really felt like noticed and she always felt like she had to make everyone else comfortable, so like no one was looking out for her at least, that's how the book makes it feel.

Hannah:

Morgan and anisa were living in the same condo complex and had the same bus stop. They shared their love of horror and urban legends. Bella did not fit into this mix. She saw anisa as a mean person who said bad words. One time anisa threw a bag at bella and said hold it, bitch, what the fuck. Yeah, so bella didn't really fit in to morgan and anisa's relationship because morgan and anisa would email late at night back and forth. One time it was over girls they did not like and they discussed killing them.

Jess:

At 14? 13?.

Hannah:

Middle school. They were like 12.

Jess:

12?.

Hannah:

Yeah, morgan and Anissa would email. I already said that. Soon enough, anissa showed Morgan creepypastacom. Morgan started to explore and found slenderman. She had seen him before. This was the creature she called it, who had been haunting her since she was young. Oh shit, yeah. So she bonded over this guy. Creepypastacom became a bonding agent to morgan and anisa. It was their morning ritual on the bus to talk about the stories they read and which ones they liked and disliked. Morgan tried getting Bella involved to keep their friendship alive, but Bella wanted nothing to do with it. Morgan felt her drifting away and so she asked Bella if she really heard the voices and saw her friends that no one else could see. Bella, hoping this would knock some sense into her, said no, I don't. Morgan was heartbroken. Anissa and Morgan began seeing Slender man in the woods on their way to school and talk about running to Slender Mansion, which is where he lived In the land of make-believe.

Hannah:

Yeah, pretty much Imagination. The interviews later on, morgan and anisa both said it was the other's idea to become proxies, which is what they called them to slenderman, meaning they would work for him doing his bidding so that they would not be killed by him or he would not kill their families.

Hannah:

So basically they did what he wanted, so they he wouldn't bother anyone else and this is like something they really believed so it seems, from what I read, morgan really believed it, but I think that was part of her mental disability and Anissa was just so happy to belong and be involved in something that she just went along with it. Perfect storm, yeah, morgan said that she had to kill someone she loved and besides her family, that was Bella. So they started planning. Oh my God, morgan was becoming obsessed and taking books out of the library about crime, crime. She took a mallet from her house and brought it to school.

Hannah:

A student saw it and reported her and she got suspended for a day for bringing a weapon to school. Her father was told she was seeing, seen talking to herself, but he ignored it. And her mom, even her mom even heard her talking to someone in the bathroom, but no one was there. She asked morgan who she was talking to and she said boldmore, but her mom thought she was looking for attention, especially with the suspension. My question is you know your husband has schizophrenia, so why aren't we ruling that out? And and I know you brought up just about the ages but like, how are you not thinking like maybe there's something going on with our daughter?

Jess:

Well, especially schizophrenia is something that runs in families. So it would definitely be brought up if she were to be evaluated, even though they couldn't officially diagnose her and the agency I work for actually does a consultation group of of early psychosis how to identify it. So I think it's it's discussed when they're younger, especially if they have family history, but it's not officially diagnosed till later I just feel, if I you know, your little ones sometimes have imaginary friends.

Hannah:

You know, that's how kids grow in a lot of ways. But if your 12-year-old is talking to Voldemort in the bathroom like, how are you not? Like oh there's something wrong here.

John:

Yeah, did you have an imaginary friend, hannah? Nope.

Hannah:

I didn't either, me, neither Did you Jess. No, rob did you.

John:

I did not.

Jess:

Yeah, also.

Hannah:

I did not. Also, with that being said, I have discovered recently that people with PTSD can also have hallucinations auditory and visual.

Jess:

I can believe that. Yeah, that makes sense.

John:

Welcome to Jess's therapy corner.

Hannah:

While home during suspension. She searched the Internet for the following and here is hannah quoting, and I quote, how to cover up a murder on youtube. Oh, oh, oh, yeah, oh, it gets worse. What makes your conscience feel guilty about killing someone or homicides on answerscom? Oh my god, can you get arrested for killing someone in self-defense?

Jess:

all you have to do is watch, like forensic files or something. Why do you have to search it?

John:

yeah, if you're pre-thinking self-defense for a murder, I don't know that just seems really wrong.

Jess:

Let's remember middle school their prefrontal cortex is not yet developed, and that's something that they talk about in the book.

Hannah:

Like you are not old enough, you know, so there was talk about how the teacher should have known the school should have said something.

Jess:

As one who works in the school, we are understaffed, we are underpaid, we are overloaded and undertrained not that this is an excuse, yeah but it breeds ground for like negligence in a way it does it does absolutely.

Hannah:

But if, if the family is being told about her behavior, nothing's being done, there's not much else the school could do. Also true a story about morgan in school was one time she had a scab and she picked it off and used her blood to draw and a student told on her you, do you did. No, I'm just kidding the teacher told her to clean it up. What are your thoughts?

John:

um, that's a hazmat situation, that's so true yeah no, no, literally. I mean it seems kind of funny, but no, like that's blood in a classroom is a hazmat situation, that's.

Hannah:

That's not clean it up apparently you haven't worked in many classrooms, john, because that's not the worst of it blood porn pathogens but like I hear what you're saying, you're like you're totally right.

Hannah:

The day came and they decided they would do it during morgan's birthday party sleepover what they went to school like normal. When they got home they went to their houses and retrieved what they thought was important. They provided the list of items they brought and it was not what they needed to survive, like they did not, because they were gonna do the murder and then they were gonna walk to slender mansion, which was supposed to be like miles into like the state forest. So they the items they brought, like they obviously didn't know yeah pretty much Water.

Hannah:

Once Bella joined for the birthday party, they went to a roller skate park and then later went to the house for gifts. One of the gifts that Bella got from Morgan was gummy bear print duct tape, which Anissa was happy about, because they forgot to pack the duct tape they would use on Bella later. That night they all slept in the same room and Morgan and Anissa said they would wake up and do the crime at 2 am, but Morgan, who was in charge of the alarm, turned it off and decided to give Bella one more morning. The next day came and Morgan grabbed a kitchen knife and the girls went to the park.

Hannah:

It is not surprising that the events leading up to the crime were strange and awkward, because it's 12 year old girls, right? They wanted to kill Bella in the park bathroom, so they told Bella to come and see the graffiti on the walls. Once they got there, they got her in a stall and on the floor. Their plan was to kill her proper on the toilet. So the blood drained into the toilet and it looked like she was someone was using the bathroom. So it was not suspicious to the toilet and it looked like she was. Someone was using the bathroom so it was not suspicious. Bella, by this point, is like what the fuck is going on, because they literally pushed her to the floor. They chickened out at first and left bella in the stall to reconvene their plan. So they literally left her in the stall and they were like can I talk to you? And they left the stall with bella on the bathroom. I would be getting the fuck out of there right, like what the hell's going on.

Hannah:

But she also knew like, okay, morgan has issues and I know this, maybe this is part of that. They would now try to bring her unconscious. So anisa punched her in the face, which was more of a push, and it didn't work. So of course, now bella is pissed and morgan tells her to just go play outside. So bella did. I feel like they've watched too many movies. Yeah, their next plan is when they talk about that, because, well, I'll get into that. Their next plan is to take a walk on what is called big ben road and it is a dead end with just woods at the end of it. They decided play, go ahead, go ahead I just have a question.

Hannah:

Okay, I'm bella, yep, and I've been thrown to the floor in a public bathroom and now I've been hit or kind of pushed in the face and I'm still hanging out with these girls, yeah, and, but it describes it in the book as so kathleen hale, who did the story, she, she did a lot of interviews and it seems that, like, yes, she's a 12 year old girl, but she also knew that morgan and anisa were troubled. They were troubled and she right, exactly, she tried being that person that was including them, I get it.

Hannah:

Um, it also talks about bella's, like how she knew something was off with Morgan, because something I don't get into is that you know she would have Morgan over and like things would happen Like a fire started in the closet and they tried to cover it up and it was really Morgan's fault and the mom woke up and she was like why do I smell like burning? And Morgan's, like we didn't do it, and like stuff like that, where Morgan Bellalla's mom was like there's something off with this child, like she was worried about her own kid, right, but bella's just trying to be a good human.

Hannah:

She was trying to be inclusive of her and yeah, so it's more than just like okay, fuck you, I'm leaving it's like okay, I've been this girl's friend forever. Yeah, they decided to play hide and go seek, but of course this isn't just any hide and go seek.

Hannah:

Morgan got bella to the ground and started stabbing her. She stabbed her more than 17 times and anisa did not understand why she was still alive. Because in anisa's mind I'm like, oh my gosh, this kid should be already dead. But that's where, like that movie, tv, video game, yeah, it comes in. We're like, oh my gosh, she should be dead already. But she wasn't.

Hannah:

Bella was crying and trying to get to safety, saying she hated them and obviously wondering why they did it, why it happened. Morgan said she had to do it because someone from creepypasta was stalking her. Bella did not believe her, which made morgan more angry. Bella went to the ground and Morgan tried helping her because she was still her best friend. So she started like she had a leg wound, so she tried taking like a leaf and like covering her wound. The girls told Bella that they would go get help and they left, which of course they weren't going to get help. They were running to slender mansion.

Hannah:

Bella had somehow managed to get to the edge of the woods where she was found by a biker. She said help me, I've been stabbed, and the biker called 9-1-1. At this point bella is in the hospital. Police are trying to get answers and she has to go into surgery. Morgan and anisa think she is dead and they start their journey to slender mansion. They decide to summon slender man by carving a symbol with the same knife. They stabbed bella putting their foreheads on the bark, and morgan recited some poem. They claim they kept seeing his black tendrils in the corners of their eyes, so they kept walking.

Hannah:

They basically did some type of ritual in the woods woods and summonings never go well, in my opinion they walk nearly 10 miles and crossed a major highway. A woman called the police on them and gave their descriptions, which was matching the two missing girls. The girls were found in a ditch and the police instructed them to come up. They looked like normal kids, scared and alone. Their parents were notified and they were brought to the precinct.

Hannah:

Interesting fact that in wisconsin it is legal for police to interrogate children without first offering their phone call oh, wow and it is also legal to interrogate them without a parent or advocate, unless they specifically ask for an attorney oh, that's not okay knows how to do that yeah so both girls were read their mir Miranda rights and they signed the paper.

Jess:

Oh my. God Without adult like well signed it. Do they really understand their Miranda rights?

Hannah:

Exactly no.

Jess:

Like they're 12, 13 years old.

Hannah:

I mean, I probably did just because I'm a nerd, but the girls were interrogated, anissa talked willingly, eager to talk about summer plans, but morgan not so much. She was seen engaging in stereotypy, which apparently is a characteristic behavior of schizophrenia. I know in autism it could be a sign of them trying to regulate themselves, so maybe that's what she was trying to do. Can you explain what that is?

Hannah:

yeah, I don't understand oh, stereotypy good, good point. Thank you, jessica. So stereotypy is it could be anything that kind of like a repetitive movement over and like the rocking back and forth, oh yeah, for her it was like the constant moving of her hands and the police officer and to him.

Hannah:

it's just because they have no training, which is something I am so big on for for police and paramedics and all them to have training on individuals with mental disabilities, like for me. I see it and I'm like okay, they're trying to regulate themselves, they're stressed out. But to a police officer like oh, they're resisting arrest or they're amping up crazy type thing.

Hannah:

So, yeah, she was just doing repetitive movements, constantly back and forth. The girls told their stories in separate interrogation rooms. Morgan got frustrated because she knew the detective was asking the same questions over and over but in different ways, which we know that cops do. She asked if he was doing it to see if her story changed and he said he was just trying to get the story right. He asked after the bathroom incident that they had at the park, did you do? And in frustration for telling the same details over and over, she said, quote stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab interesting, because she was just pissed yeah pissed off, so they were both charged in adult court with first degree attempted intentional homicide.

Hannah:

An Anissa pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was found by a jury to be not guilty but mental disease or defect. Morgan pleaded guilty to the first degree charges and in 2018, as part of her plea agreement, Morgan was convicted but found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. Anissa was sentenced up to 25 years in a mental institution. However, she was released in 2021 with the conditions of no contact with Bella until 2039 and an ankle monitor. Morgan was sentenced to up to 40 years in a mental institution. Wow, as of 2020, her sentence was upheld.

John:

Wow, so she's still there Good.

Hannah:

So Bella survived Bella survived, bella survived, bella survived, bella survived.

Jess:

That's good. I was confusing this with another story of where two girls actually killed another girl.

Hannah:

It was, I think, two surgeries, she had to say, and the doctor said that if the stab she had to her heart was like a hair closer, she would have been dead. Wow, but yeah, she had about 19 stab wounds. Oh my god across her body.

Jess:

I have so many feelings about this I do too, girl, I'm glad you do. It's obvious these girls weren't mentally. I don't want to not necessarily competent, but okay, yeah, like they had their share of issues. Yeah, and I imagine easily swayed by absolutely public social media sensations such as slenderman and yeah, you know the in thing I think what you said the perfect storm was just such right wording.

Hannah:

Because, for morgan, these things were real to her, oh, I'm sure. And anisa, even though she didn't always feel like it was real, it was real enough because the relationship was a connection for her yeah, and I also wonder if anisa was really aware of what morgan was experiencing.

Jess:

Yeah, if that would have played out differently. Yeah, like had she known that she sees, you know things.

Hannah:

When I read the ABC News article after the book to find out that she had been released, she basically said like I don't think the mental institution can do anything more for me, I realized what I did and I just want to get on with my life.

Jess:

So yeah, that's why you know middle school, high school is just a little blip on the line. That is your life and things get better in some cases.

Hannah:

That breaks my heart for all of them. I know, I know, I totally agree. It was a really sad story. But thank you, wonders, for coming on this journey with us. Thank you, hannah.

John:

Thank you, Hannah. Oh, you're welcome and watch out for the Slender man.

Hannah:

Yeah, all right guys. Bye, bye, wanderers.

John:

Bye.

Hannah:

Thanks for listening. Today, wicked Wanderings is hosted by Hannah Fitzpatrick and me, jess Go Gunan, and it's produced by Rob Fitzpatrick. Music by Sasha End. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to leave us a rating and review.

Jess:

And be sure to follow us on all our socials.

Hannah:

You can find the links down in the show notes and if you're looking for some Wicked Cozy t-shirts or hoodies, head over to our merch store.

Jess:

Thank you for being a part of the Wicked Wanderings community.

Hannah:

We appreciate each and every one of you Stay curious, keep exploring and always remember to keep on wandering.

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