Beware the Slenderman Page #4

been talking to each other

and they wouldn't

have been relying so heavily

on information

from the Internet.

Bill and I separated

in the summer of 2012.

It was my decision.

I asked for a divorce.

But when a situation

got really bad,

he was willing to still

be there and stuff.

She's not allowed to see

her brother or sister.

She's not allowed to see any aunts

or uncles, or cousins or anything,

so I wanted to have

as many people

as she could have

as often as possible.

I try to bring her mentally

out of the environment

and try to bring her

some sunshine in her day.

But then when I leave,

I kind of feel...

I feel happy

that I was able to see her

and... make her smile

for a few minutes in a day.

But on the other hand,

I'm still kind of sad

that I'm leaving

without my daughter, and...

The drive home is

sometimes heart-breaking...

but... I know

that I'll be coming up

and seeing her

in a couple days anyways,

and I'll just repeat

the performance and...

and hopefully, someday,

this might be my last trip

and... and...

And then

she'll be home for good.

But that might be a while off.

You have a prepaid call from...

Anissa...

An inmate at...

Washington County Jail.

This call will be recorded

and subject to

monitoring at any time.

You may begin speaking now.

Hello, Anissa.

So, how was your day?

Yeah?

Define "pretty good."

Do you know who's sitting here?

- Yep, Tyler's sitting here.

- Hi!

How are you?

I've been...

pretty good despite the cold.

Hi, Ani!

What's up?

Anissa! Anissa.

We can all tell

you're a little spun up.

Are you excited

to be talking to everybody?

Yeah?

Hey, hey hey! Anissa!

Dial it back a notch.

So, besides what

you've already like mentioned,

what's up with you?

Okay.

Yeah.

Just don't smile too much.

One minute remaining.

All right, we've got one minute,

so you have a good night.

Love you too.

All right?

And I will see you tomorrow.

So... all right. Thank you

for using IC solutions.

Goodbye.

And there you have it.

I don't know where

the whole Slenderman thing...

started because Anissa never

talked about anything like that.

Nobody ever talked

about Slenderman.

Unless she was, like,

constantly Internet surfing,

she never really showed me

anything that was bad...

or anything scary.

She... she is

easily frightened, though.

Maybe she did it because

she wanted to be noticed.

Because, honestly, at her school

I didn't know that

she didn't have many friends.

She told me that she had lots of

friends, lots of guys liked her,

and a bunch of...

and she was accepted,

and she was having

a great time at school.

But... she was

constantly picked on,

and she never really fit in.

She was a follower.

All rise.

- Okay, thank you.

- Please be seated.

I think some kids are just...

big believers.

They can't help but believe

everything they hear.

Do you swear to tell the

truth, the whole truth,

and nothing but the truth,

so help you God?

- Yes, I do.

- In this case

were you assigned to interview

the victim, Payton Leutner?

Yes, I was.

At some point, your discussion

got into the area

of a birthday party

that was planned for Morgan?

Payton said that

the birthday party

had been planned

for several weeks,

and it was for May 30th,

and that they had planned

to go do Skateland

and sleep over

at Morgan's house.

They were being

normal little girls.

They were running

up and down the stairs,

holding hands and giggling.

There was no...

indication that anything

was... was off

or that we had anything to...

to be worried about.

After Skateland,

they came back to Morgan's house

and they went into the basement.

And we... we woke up

in the morning,

and we had donuts and

strawberries for breakfast,

and everything was very normal.

The girls were laughing and...

having a good time.

And they asked if they

could go to the park,

and I didn't think

anything of it.

I said, "Yeah, of course

you can go to the park."

And, you know,

Morgan said goodbye

and told me she loved me.

After playing on the playground

equipment for a while,

they went into the bathroom,

all three of them.

She didn't want to go to sleep,

so she didn't sit there

with her eyes closed,

and at some point, Anissa

hit the front of her head

and caused the back

of her head to...

slam against the wall.

Basically.

And Morgan said, "I thought we agreed

that you were going to do this."

Did Payton tell you anything

about what Payton

was thinking about that?

I don't think she understood

what was going on.

Thank you!

- Hey, that's what I wanted.

- Ooh.

It's a super-fancy

touch screen one.

I want that one.

It's already charged...

and there's already

some books on it for you.

Wow.

Can we put it together?

Mm-hmm. What do you think?

Pretty cool? Yeah?

I had the conversation

with Morgan...

the birds and the bees

conversation.

I explained about the changes that

you go through during puberty,

and I explained

about getting your period.

And I finish, and she looks

at me, and she goes,

"Mommy, I don't think

I believe you."

"That doesn't really happen."

Thank you!

You're welcome!

Morgan did believe in Santa,

the Tooth Fairy,

and the Easter Bunny,

and actually believed

in Santa until she was 11.

And I guess I just thought,

"What parent tells their

child that Santa's not real?

Who's... who's in a hurry

for their child to grow up?"

There are a lot

of strange things

in the world

that we just can't explain.

So we just make up things

to try to help explain them.

To believe in something...

I don't know,

the Loch Ness Monster

or the boogeyman...

isn't... that hard

to believe that people

actually do believe it.

You can't say for sure

that it is real or not.

And I do believe

that they did believe

that it was real.

What is it about certain kinds

of storybooks

that make kids more or less likely

to believe that they're real?

What is it about aspects

of the Internet that affects

whether kids think things

on it are real or not real?

I think the concept of what's real

has always been pretty messy.

Technology is creating

these new situations

in which it's becoming

even messier.

These two girls, maybe they

were both strong believers,

but then the fact

that they were both together

was creating an even

stronger context for belief.

That's kind of how Santa Claus

works or is perceived to work.

Sort of like

"The Believers' Club."

There's this big fear that if I stop

believing I won't get the presents.

What is the benefit

of being a believer?

Feeling like you're special,

you're a part of something,

that you can become

a part of just by believing.

That's a lot easier

than a lot of other clubs,

you know,

especially at that age.

But all you need to do for the

Slenderman club is just believe.

If there's one thing the cult

of Slenderman is about,

it's about making

it all believable,

especially by remaining

unverifiable.

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