Doctor Says Girl is Competent For Trial in “Slender Man” Stabbing

A state doctor says the mental condition of one of two Wisconsin girls accused of repeatedly stabbing a classmate to please the fictional horror character Slender Man has improved, and that the 12-year-old is fit to stand trial.

Judge Michael Bohren summarized the doctor's report during a brief hearing Wednesday. But he didn't act on the report after defense attorney Anthony Cotton said he hadn't had a chance to discuss it with his client.

Bohren had ordered the girl to undergo mental health treatment in August, after a psychologist testified the child claimed to see and hear things others could not, including unicorns, Slender Man and Voldemort, an antagonist in the Harry Potter series.

Court documents say the two girls attacked the victim following a May sleepover, stabbing her 19 times during a walk in a park.

The victim survived, but doctors said she nearly died because one wound was so close to her heart. The girl later told her mother that she knew she had to get out of the woods if she wanted to live. A bicyclist found her after she crawled from the woods to a sidewalk.

"I could see that she was covered," her mother said during a recent interview, "her arms, and her legs and her abdomen were covered in stab wounds."

The alleged attackers were charged as adults with attempted first-degree intentional homicide. They were found about five hours after the attack walking along a road toward a national forest, where they believed Slender Man lived in a mansion.