More than five years after Payton Leutner was stabbed 19 times by two classmates at age 12, the Wisconsin teen is breaking her silence about the life-changing attack, saying she sleeps with a pair of broken scissors beneath her pillow, “just in case.”
Speaking about the May 31, 2014, stabbing with ABC anchor David Muir on 20/20, Payton tells Muir she still bears the scars from that day, but says her subsequent recovery shaped her into the person she is today.
Friday’s two-hour 20/20 special — airing Friday on ABC at 9 p.m. ET — delves into the shocking actions of Morgan Geyser, her friend who, along with Anissa Weier, who said they were prompted to try to kill their friend by “Slenderman,” a fictional character in online horror stories. The assailants lured
Payton into the woods in Waukesha after a sleepover and attacked her.
Because she is proud of her recovery from the attack, Payton says that if she could say anything to Geyser, she would “initially thank” her.
“I would say [to Geyser], ‘Just because of what she did, I have the life I have now. I really, really like it and I have a plan. I didn’t have a plan when I was 12, and now, I do because of everything that I went through,’” Payton explains.
“I wouldn’t think that someone who went through what I did would ever say that,” Payton continues. “But that’s truly how I feel. Without the whole situation, I wouldn’t be who I am.”
After the stabbing, the girls, also 12 at the time, left Payton to die, but she managed to crawl to a bike path where a passerby found her and called 911.
Both Weier and Geyser told investigators they felt compelled to kill Payton in an effort to become Slenderman’s servants. In 2017, Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree homicide as part of a plea deal and was sentenced to 40 years in a mental health facility. That same year, Weier pleaded guilty to
attempted second-degree homicide and was sentenced to 25 years in a mental health facility.
The attempted murder of Payton and the investigation around it became the subject of the HBO documentary Beware the Slenderman. A subsequent feature film about the case was made, starring Joey King.
Payton, now 17, tells Muir about her physical scars, saying that they are now “just a part of me. I don’t think much of them. They will probably go away and fade eventually.”
Payton tells Muir in the special she befriended Geyser after seeing the girl sitting alone at lunch, describing her as funny and “a little lonely.”
She says she considered Geyser her best friend. “She had a lot of jokes to tell,” Payton recalls. “She was great at drawing and her imagination always kept things fun.”
Then, “everything went downhill,” she says. In sixth grade, Geyser and Weier stuck up a friendship that led to an eventual obsession with Slenderman.
“I thought it was odd. It kind of frightened me a little bit,” Payton says. “But I went along with it. I was supportive because I thought that’s what she liked.”
In time, Payton started considering ending her friendship with Geyser. “I saw the change from fifth to sixth grade when she met Anissa,” she says. “That’s when I was really wanting to get out of that friendship.”
She didn’t, and advises other teens who find themselves in similar situations to follow their instincts.
“Get out before something bad happens to you,” Payton says. “Even if you’re guilted into it, if you’ve been friends with them for years. If you feel something is bad, you need to get out while you still can.”
Friday’s episode of 20/20, entitled “The Wicked,” also features interviews with Payton’s parents.
Payton, a high school senior who’ll head off to college next September, told Muir she finally opened up about the attack publicly because she has remained silent long enough.
“I feel like it’s time for people to see my side rather than everyone else’s,” she said.
