MILWAUKEE (AP) – A 12-year-old southeastern Wisconsin girl stabbed 19 times in the legs, arms and torso last month is making steady physical and emotional progress, and she recently enjoyed a movie date with her father, her family said Tuesday.
The girl can walk but her movement is limited by breathing problems, said family spokesman Steve Lyons. He did not provide a long-term prognosis at the family’s request, but voiced optimism that she will make a full recovery.
Court documents indicate that two 12-year-old classmates stabbed the girl in a plan to curry favor with Slender Man, a character in horror stories they had read online. The girls told investigators they believed Slender Man had a mansion in a Wisconsin forest and they planned to live with him after earning his approval by killing their classmate.
They lured her to a wooded Waukesha park on May 31. One told investigators she told the victim to lie down and be quiet after the stabbing so she wouldn’t lose blood as quickly, but the suspect said she actually wanted the girl to be silent so she would die without drawing attention to them.
Once the attackers left, the victim crawled to a road, where a bicyclist found her. Doctors later told police the girl narrowly escaped death because the knife came within a millimeter of piercing a major artery near her heart. She was released from a hospital about two weeks ago.