- A Wisconsin family is "nervous" about the release of a 19-year-old who encouraged the stabbing of their daughter, the AP reported.
- Anissa Weier was ordered by a judge to be released from a mental health facility on Friday.
- When she was 12, Weier watched on as a friend repeatedly stabbed their peer. The two claimed they were trying to please the online horror meme Slender Man.
A Wisconsin family said they were "nervous" about the release of a 19-year-old woman who encouraged the stabbing of their child to please the fake online horror character Slender Man when she was 12 years old, the Associated Press reported.
A judge on Friday ruled Anissa Weier could be released from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Oshkosh.
Weier spent four years at the mental health facility after she and her friend, Morgan Geyser, pleaded guilty to attacking and stabbing Payton Leutner when they were all 12 years old, the AP reported.
As Insider previously reported, the two lured Leutner to the woods where Geys stabbed her 19 times, nearly killing her, while Weier encouraged her. At the time, the two tweens told police they wanted to appease the Slender Man — a popular character in online horror stories — because they were afraid he would kill their families.
They said they intended to prove to Slender Man they were worthy by killing Leutner, who was their friend. They planned to live with him in a mansion and become his "proxies," as Insider's Michelle Mark previously reported.
"We're just nervous that she's going to be out," Steve Lyons, a spokesperson for Leutner's family, told the Associated Press in an article published Monday. "We're nervous about the potential of what could happen."
Weier was sentenced to 25 years at the facility, and Geyser was sentenced to 40 years there.
Weier in March this year petitioned for release, claiming she had used all treatment options available to her at the mental health facility. The judge in July ruled she no longer posed a threat to society and approved her release Friday.
Her release date was set for Monday, though it's unclear whether she'd been released, according to the AP.
"I am NOT saying I am done with my treatment. I am saying that I have exhausted all the resources available to me at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute," Weier said, according to court documents. "If I am to become a productive member of society, I need to be a part of society."
As part of her release, Weier will be required to live with her father, be subject to GPS monitoring, will be prohibiting to use social media, will be prohibited from owning or using weapons, and will not be allowed to communicate with Leutner's family, the AP reported.
