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U.S. NEWS Saturday 23 december 2017

Girl gets 25 years in mental hospital in Slender Man case

By SCOTT BAUER out of the woods to a path
Associated Press where a passing bicyclist
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — One found her.
of two Wisconsin girls who Both Weier and Geyser told
tried to kill a classmate to detectives they felt they
win favor with a fictional had to kill Leutner to be-
horror character named come Slender Man’s “prox-
Slender Man has been ies,” or servants, and pro-
sentenced to 25 years in a tect their families from him.
mental hospital, the maxi- All three girls were 12 years
mum punishment possible. old at the time.
Anissa Weier, 16, plead- Weier apologized in brief
ed guilty in August to be- comments before her sen-
ing a party to attempted tencing.
second-degree intentional “I do hold myself account-
homicide, but she claimed able for this and that I will
she wasn’t responsible for do whatever I have to do
her actions because she to make sure I don’t get
was mentally ill. In Septem- any sort of delusion or what-
ber, a jury agreed. ever again,” Weier told the
Waukesha County Circuit judge, as she sat next to
Judge Michael Bohren on her attorney. “I want ev-
Thursday sentenced Weier erybody involved to know
to 25 years in a psychiatric I deeply regret everything
institution, retroactive to that happened that day. Anissa Weier, one of two Wisconsin girls who tried to kill a classmate to win favor with a fictional
the date of the crime. That I know that nothing I say horror character named Slender Man, is led into the Waukesha County Court for her sentencing
means she would be institu- is going to make this right hearing, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017, in Waukesha, Wis. She was sentenced to 25 years in a mental
tionalized until age 37. and nothing I say is going hospital, the maximum punishment possible.
Weier and Morgan Geyser to fix what I broke.” Leutner (Michael Sears/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP)
lured Payton Leutner into family spokesman Steve Ly- it also keeps both Payton, her daughter still fears for and physical and emotion-
a wooded park in Wauke- ons said they were pleased her family and the commu- her life. For months, Pay- al scars it left for the rest of
sha, a Milwaukee suburb, with the sentence. “They nity safe.” Leutner’s moth- ton slept with scissors under her life,” her mother wrote.
in 2014. Geyser stabbed believe that justice was er, Stacie Leutner, sent the her pillow for protection, In her letter, Leutner did
Leutner 19 times while Wei- served,” Lyons said. “The judge a letter this week in and she still keeps her bed- not ask the judge to sen-
er urged her on, accord- sentence today allows for which she wrote that the room windows closed and tence Weier to a specific
ing to investigators. Leutner some additional closure for trauma of the attack “has locked. “She will struggle length of time in the mental
survived after she crawled Payton and her family and defined our lives” and that with the events of that day hospital.q
Video: Train crew not using electronic devices before crash

By PHUONG LE while traveling more than Board. event data recorder as well engineer may have been
Associated Press double the posted 30 mph The video recording “end- as inward- and outward- distracted for an extended
SEATTLE (AP) — Video from (48 kph) speed limit. But au- ed as the locomotive was facing train cameras. They period. The engineer, who
the cab of the Amtrak train thorities did not provide a tilting and the crew was have said their full inves- was among the injured, has
that hurtled off the tracks transcript of what he said, bracing for impact” south tigation could take more not been identified and in-
in Washington state, kill- saying only in a summary of Seattle on Monday, the than a year. vestigators have said they
ing three people and injur- that “about six seconds safety board said. NTSB board member Bella planned to speak with him
ing dozens, shows that the prior to the derailment, the The train was carrying Dinh-Zarr said earlier this soon.
engineer did not appear engineer made a com- 85 passengers and crew week that the locomotive’s None of the critical train
to be using a cellphone or ment regarding an over members as it made its in- emergency brake went off speed-control technology
any other personal elec- speed condition.” augural run along a fast, automatically and was not that could have prevented
tronic device just before The video also showed that new 15-mile (24-kilometer) manually activated by the a derailment was active on
the derailment, federal in- the engineer did not place bypass route. Officials have engineer. the section of track where
vestigators said Friday. the train’s brake handle in said previously that another Rail-safety experts have the derailment happened
The video and audio cap- the emergency-braking person was inside the loco- said the engineer should before the train set off on its
tured from a camera fac- mode as the locomotive motive’s cab being trained have activated the brake maiden voyage Monday.
ing inside the cab also re- was recorded traveling 78 by the engineer. about a minute before the Work to install the GPS-
vealed that the engineer mph (126 kph), according Federal investigators trying train reached the curve based technology known
was heard commenting to the preliminary details of to determine the cause of posted for 30 mph (48 kph), as positive train control is
about the train’s speed just an investigation by the Na- the wreck have gathered and that not doing do not expected to be com-
before the train crashed tional Transportation Safety data from the locomotive’s strongly suggested that the pleted until next spring.q