Mysteries & Scandals (2018–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - Death by Social Media - full transcript

- Why did two 12-year-old girls

plot to kill for
a mythical online creature?

- And Anissa thinks to herself

"Oh, dear God, this is really
happening."

- Would the infatuation
lead to violence?

- Slender Man crossed that
very dangerous threshold

from fantasy to reality.

- And what prompted
a 24-year-old

to post his darkest delusions

before acting them out?

- As we watched his videos,



it made it so much more
disturbing.

- Did he think it would
make him a star?

- Fame has become a holy grail.

- But the chase for fame
can lead to violence.

Even murder.

- They discover a massacre.

- And going viral
guarantees notoriety.

- One of the surefire ways
to get more likes

is to commit a crime.

- Online, you can live
an alternate life

that nobody knows about.

- I'm Soledad O'Brien.

This is "Mysteries and Scandals:

Death by Social Media."



Fame is the
ultimate drug of choice,

and some people are so
desperate for celebrity

they'll do anything to get it.

Social media has made fame
attainable for almost anyone

including those
who find notoriety

by committing horrible crimes.

- Cleveland police are
scrambling to find

a man who they say shot
someone point-blank

while live-streaming it
on Facebook.

- In the social media culture,

there's not really
a big distinction

between getting success
for good deeds

and getting success
for bad deeds.

And so there is
a whole new area of crime

known as performance crime

where people actually
undertake crimes

in order to post them
on social media.

- On his Facebook page,
which has been taken offline,

Stevens claims to have killed
up to 15 people.

- He posted a video manifesto
about the killing spree

before live-streaming
the suspected murder.

A horrifying new reality--

murder streamed live
on social media.

- The lure of fame is hard
to escape

and for people whose mental
health is vulnerable,

it can be impossible
to distinguish

between getting attention
for something of value

and just plain notoriety.

- The need to be famous
sort of short-circuits

any long-term vision
here--thinking,

but it really speaks to how
the world has so incentivized

viral fame that I think people
are willing to overlook

jail time for their moment
in the sun.

- When people are troubled,

they can bypass talking
to people in their lives

and instead just go and get
more and more involved

in the narrative in their heads

without anybody stopping them

because there isn't anybody
there.

- We've always had people
doing crimes

and wanting attention for it,

but it's grown exponentially
through the internet.

- Now with social media,

everybody can create a legacy.

- Just after midnight
on June 8, 2017,

police in a rural area
of Pennsylvania

received a frantic 911 call
about an active shooter

in a local supermarket.

- My first involvement
was getting

that phone call at 2:00
in the morning,

and I went out to the

Pennsylvania State Police
barracks in Tunkhannock

and talked to the chief
investigating officers,

ascertained what had happened,

tried to determine
if there's a suspect

who was on the loose.

- It was very early
in the morning,

and I had a text message
from my editor

saying that there's been
an incident

over in Wyoming County,

"We need you to go out there."

- I was one of several reporters

that got a call early
in the morning

and was told that--that this
was going to be our day.

And we didn't really know
a whole lot at that point

other than several people
were dead.

- The three people merely
doing their jobs overnight

at that Weis market
when police say a coworker

barricaded the exits
and started shooting.

- Initially it was
the local Tunkhannock police

that got there.

And the officers got inside,

not really knowing
what to expect.

They discovered...
a massacre.

- There was crime tape
everywhere.

State troopers walking around.

You know, otherwise you
wouldn't really know

anything so violent had
happened from the outside.

The real violence of it was
on the inside.

- Four people were dead
inside the supermarket--

Three workers on the night shift

gunned down by a fourth employee

brandishing
two pistol-grip shotguns

who then turned one
of the guns on himself

and committed suicide.

The killer's name
was Randy Stair.

The 24-year-old left
behind a disturbing legacy.

- At least seven state police
vehicles

were parked outside the home
on Ransom Road

where Randy Stair lived.

Troopers are carrying
out a search warrant

to learn more about Stair.

- I began to assist
the state police

with search warrants to get
information about his phone.

We soon learned
that he had extensive amount

of information online,
on social media.

So we had to get all
the search warrants approved,

working with Facebook
and Twitter

and those types
of social media companies.

As the investigation went on,
it became increasingly clear

that he was a lone actor.

- What's up, humans?

Pretty much my entire video
collection is on

that MediaFire page.

And it's not worthless stuff.

It's all my stuff.

It was my life.

Download while you can.

- Shortly before he committed
the murders,

he used his twitter account
with the name Andrew Blaze

which is the persona
that he preferred to be called

to tweet out more
than a hundred gigabytes

of journal entries,
audio files, and videos.

- I remember speaking
to a state trooper,

who I have
a good relationship with,

on the scene very early
on that morning,

and he said, "These days

"that's the first thing
we check.

"Once the scene is secure,

we see what people's digital
footprint looks like."

And... and it was there
for them.

It was laid out.

It was very complicated
and violent and disturbing.

- Just hours before the
supermarket killings,

Randy Stair posted a link
to a massive trove of videos

documenting the disintegration
of his mental state

in gut-wrenching detail.

What dark secrets would these
videos reveal?

Why were three people murdered
in cold blood?

- I think that Randy did this
because he wanted notoriety.

- The last thing Randy Stair did

before gunning
down three coworkers

in a midnight rampage
was to post hours

of disturbing videos
on social media.

For the 24-year-old,

it was a twisted bid for fame.

- The immediate reaction
in the community

is one of utter shock
and disbelief.

This is a small town,

and this sort of thing
doesn't happen here.

- It's quintessential
small town Pennsylvania.

Truly, everyone knows
each other,

and there's a real close-knit
sense of community there.

- If burglary were to happen
in this area,

that would be news,

but for a triple murder
and then a suicide?

It's unheard of.

- What made the killings
even harder to process

was the seeming lack of motive.

None of the early reports
indicated

that Randy Stair had any
grudge against the victims

or the supermarket.

- It would have
made more sense...

if Randy Stair was a
disgruntled employee.

If someone inside the Weis
Markets had wronged him

in some definitive way.

- The key to figuring out
this tragedy

lay buried somewhere
within the staggering amount

of digital evidence
that Randy left behind

just before the massacre.

- As we watched his videos

and read what he wrote

and found out what
a tormented person he was,

it made it so much
more disturbing

and so much more sad for the
people who lost their lives

because it really did seem
so random

that these people were the
people who unfortunately

were in his way that day.

- The twisted online legacy
also helped investigators

learn much more about
who Randy Stair really was.

- So, I'll take you
through every single room

you know, just show you
where I lived my whole life.

You know, just take you inside,

- I think he lived
a very isolated life.

We know that he was 24,

living with his parents,

working overnights

at the Weis Markets
in Tunkhannock.

- When he worked, the store
was not open.

It was closed, and he would work

as the crew would
get the supermarket ready

for the next day of business.

- I think whenever he wasn't
at the Weis Markets

he was in his room

probably working
on some of these videos.

- Randy's video career started

when he was about ten years old.

- Elementary school I just loved

having the video camera
out, just recording anything.

Like fourth and fifth grade,
I started making my own

like little pretend movies.

Throughout middle school

I just kept doing that,
even just by myself.

You know, at the time,
it was just parody anything

that's popular
and just have fun with it

and you might get some views
out of it, which I did.

I did a parody.

I got 11,000 views,

and it blew my mind.

And I couldn't believe
how popular it got so quick.

- Within a few years,
Randy began creating

elaborate animated videos
for the internet.

He spent nearly all his waking
hours filming, editing

and recording voices
for his movies.

- Randy wanted everything
to be absolutely perfect.

So if it wasn't,
it was worth throwing out

and never to be shown
to the public

or be released.

- Yo, I'm perfectionist.

This is just how it's gonna be.

- Randy poured his obsessive
attention to detail

into his passion project
called "Ember's Ghost Squad."

The main character was inspired

by an animated TV series
with a large online following.

- Skater Landau became a fan
of Randy's online videos.

- I contacted Randy asking
for a job as a voice actress.

He was like, "Yeah, sure, we
can find a spot for you,"

and I didn't even know that

that would spark
a good friendship.

- To his online friends,

Randy Stair presented
a pretty normal picture.

- I never got a sense

that Randy was ever going to
hurt himself or hurt others.

He seemed like
a very nice person

and never showed any hostility.

- When it comes to Randy, I
think he used social media

in place of human-to-human
connection.

He created a world
where he felt comfortable.

And he reached out to people
who thought like him,

who maybe could relate to him.

- Online you can either
go online as yourself,

or you can be completely
anonymous.

You can live an alternate life

that nobody knows about.

- I think that social media
provides you

a platform to have community

even when you are uncomfortable

having a community face to face.

So I think it was his world.

It was his only connection
to anyone outside

of the walls of his bedroom

where he did most
of his creations.

I think it allowed him to be
someone who he wasn't.

- He would never leave
unless someone asked him

to come out and do something.

He was never talking to anyone
in real life.

He was very disconnected
from reality.

- Around the time
Randy turned 20,

his mental state took
a much darker turn

which he documented
in a secret video diary.

- So college was wrapping up
for my first year

and that's really when I first
started to feel down.

A bad thing after another
kept happening

and happening and happening.

I lost some family members

I lost some friends.

I lost my car.

I lost so much
within a four-month span

that my mind couldn't even
handle what was going on.

- Randy had a severe mental
health illness.

And the videos that he created
just shows a downward spiral.

At first maybe he was
expressing his interest

in cartoons

and the cartoon characters
that he created.

This became something much more
ominous as time went on.

- There was an episode called,
"Unleash the Candy"

where Randy's character was
with a character named Froggy,

and they went trick-or-treating.

And the minute the guy
opens the door

and Froggy's like,
"Trick-or-treat."

- Trick-or-treat.

- Randy's character

shoots the guy in the head.

- If you were to watch it
without context

it would be dark and disturbing,

but with benefit
of hindsight now,

it's utterly chilling.

- Somehow it became an obsession

that literally possessed him
to the point

that he thought that the world
he had created was real,

and he thought that that's

where he was going to go
after he died.

- This isn't who I am.
I'm not this here.

I'm that.
I'm not this.

You know, I can't
emphasize that enough.

- In Randy's own words,

he did this because
he truly wanted to live

in his cartoon world.

He thought
when he killed himself

that he'd be going
to this cartoon world.

- In the early months of 2017,

Randy Stair made the fateful
decision to commit suicide,

but with a tragic twist.

- Okay, so here's the deal...

Got a 1983 quarter right here.

If it's heads,

I'll do it here.

If it's tails,

supermarket.

Let's go.

- The coin flip would determine

would Randy kill just himself

or would he murder innocent
victims first.

- Land behind the camera.

That is a tails, folks.

Which means there's gonna be
a loss of human life

besides my own.

- As the days ticked down,

one constant in Randy's life
was making videos

he believed would bring him
fame after death.

Was there any way
to stop Randy Stair

from carrying out his
fatal plan?

- He recognized
that he would have

a very limited time

to barricade
the supermarket exits.

- In the weeks leading up
to June 8, 2017,

24-year-old Randy Stair led
a double life.

He continued
to post animated material

to numerous
social media accounts

as he had for years.

At the same time,
he secretly documented

his every action
and thought in a series

of disturbing videos
and journal entries.

- A few days ago,
I got my baby. Check it out.

You know, short barrel,
pretty much sawed off.

It is gonna be my ticket
out of here.

Just under five months,
that'll be in my mouth.

Gone.

Just like that.

Dead.

- Randy didn't post any
of these videos

until moments
before his killing spree,

depriving anyone
in his online community

the chance to raise a red flag.

- Counting down the days and
like I can't tell anybody.

You know,
it's the saddest thing.

People don't know this
is the last five months

they have to talk with me.

And I can't post that gun
on social media either

'cause then it's gonna cause
concern from...

just about anybody.

- I think one thing that the
Randy Stair case demonstrates

is that someone can build
an entire world for themselves

without anyone ever knowing.

- Portions of the following
video were filmed

by Randy Stair
in the supermarket

just weeks before
he put his deadly plan

into place.

- Randy came to work
at 11 p.m. on June 7th.

It was the third shift,
the night shift.

- According to his videos
that he left behind,

he recognized that he would
have a very limited timeframe.

He would wait until people
were on break

before he would start to
barricade the five exits

that the supermarket had.

- Was in his uniform,
in a Weis Market shirt

that he'd usually be
wearing to work.

He began to blockade the doors

to the store.

He went outside to get his guns.

Came back into the store

and then began to shoot.

- I don't have an exact sense

on exactly how long
the shooting took,

but it's believed that it only
lasted for a few minutes.

I'm sure that anybody
who was in there,

it was an eternity.

- A total of 59 shots were
discharged

and an additional
48 live rounds were recovered

within and throughout the store.

- Amazingly,
one of Randy's coworkers

managed to escape
and alerted the police,

but it was too late

for the three victims
who died in the attack.

- A night of mourning
for a devastated community

after a senseless shooting
claimed three innocent lives.

Now outside the Weis here
on Route 29,

mourners left behind flowers
and candles for the victims,

63-year-old Terry Sterling
of South Montrose,

25-year-old Victoria Brong
of Factoryville,

and 47-year-old Brian Hayes
of Springville.

- The first time I heard
the name Randy Stair

was that morning

from a Pennsylvania
State Trooper

telling us what they knew
at that point

as it was unfolding.

My understanding
was they were trying

to figure out a motivation

and the relationship between
the people who were killed

and Randy Stair.

- As the tight-knit community
in Tunkhannock

began the healing process,

many focused on why this
terrible event happened

and how to prevent it
from happening again.

Investigators hoped some
answers might be found

in the material Randy had
posted online.

- We knew very early on
that there was vigorous effort

by the state troopers to try
and pin down his motivation.

- Randy's disturbing video files

contain many surprising
revelations

including the fact that Randy
identified as transgender.

- I've just--I've always
been a girl.

I just--that's one of the
biggest things

I wish I could have told you
from day one.

- He felt he was a woman
inside that wanted to get out,

and by doing this
and committing suicide

he was going to join
"Ember's Ghost Squad"

as who he really was,
Andrew Blaze,

who is a female persona.

- I think that, for
investigators especially,

was something that jumped out

that provided some kind
of an explanation.

- It wasn't until these videos
and writings came out

after his suicide that
it really became knowledge

among a wider group of people.

Kept it secret.

- I think what Randy identified
as doesn't matter

in this situation at all,

and people should stop focusing
on that kind of stuff.

Honestly, this tragedy
was just horrible.

- I think that Randy did this

because he was desperately
mentally ill,

and I think he did it because
he wanted notoriety.

- I feel like Randy wanted
to get "Ember's Ghost Squad"

in the newspapers

so everyone would see this.

- This could be headlines,
you know.

"Man shoots up place
over cartoon."

- He wanted notoriety for this.

and fortunately, because he
had such a digital footprint,

I believe he accomplished that.

- The red flags were there,

but it's a question
of whether or not

anybody was picking
them up in the right way.

Randy said that this isn't
something

that you really can stop.

This is something
you can only endure.

- It's the truth.

You can't prevent
mass shootings,

no matter how hard you try.

- Which...

It's a scary thought but--and
you hope that it's not true,

but... moving forward,
you know, who knows?

- After spending much of his
life on social media,

Randy Stair's mental illness

and obsession
with a digital cartoon world

drove him to commit
terrible deeds.

In the same way Randy Stair
found community

and escaped reality online,

two 12-year-old girls
became immersed

in an online fantasy world.

Their worship
of an imaginary creature

triggered unspeakable violence.

- And Anissa thinks to herself,

"Oh, dear God, this is really
happening."

- Studies show that kids
who use social media

are more likely to value fame,

and what happens
when the desire for fame

crosses the line into violence?

- It was in these woods
of a Milwaukee suburb

that a young girl
was found fighting

for her life Saturday,

the victim
of a disturbing attack.

- On May 31, 2014,

a passing cyclist found
12-year-old Payton Leutner

on the side of the road,

bleeding badly
from numerous stab wounds.

Payton managed to tell police
that she'd been attacked

by two friends, Anissa Weier
and Morgan Geyser.

Local law enforcement quickly
began their investigation.

- I didn't expect that.

As a law enforcement officer,

if you respond to an accident

you expect the worst,
and you expect the worst

so when you see the worst,
it doesn't surprise you.

This point in time,
it was confusing to me

because I expected,
you know, gang members

or young males or young adults

involved in a violent situation,

not a 12-year-old girl.

I knew that we only
had a golden hour

to get her to a trauma center

being that she was stabbed
multiple times with a knife.

Then we started looking
for our two stabbing suspects.

- My son came downstairs
and he said,

"Mommy, the police are
at our house."

I assumed he meant they
were, like, outside,

there for the neighbors,
and he's like,

"No, no, no,
they're in our house."

And, "What--what? How--how?"

And there's several officers,

and one of them
had a big riot shield.

They just asked
if Morgan was home.

I said, "No,"

that she was at the park
with her friends,

but they wouldn't tell me
what had happened.

They just told me that--that
her friend was hurt,

and she said that Morgan did it.

And I mean instantly I just--
I couldn't even fathom

how that could have happened.

- While I was responding
to an area

where the two suspects
later located,

I could see two silhouettes
inside the tree-line.

I assumed
that it was young males

that were involved,

and then the persons
started complying

with my directions
and my orders,

and they started walking
back towards me.

I could see that it wasn't
a young male,

that it appeared to be a girl.

I could observe blood
on her clothing

and I asked her at that point

where all the blood
was coming from.

And she stated that she had

just stabbed her 12-year-old
best friend to death.

- They said they had
found Morgan

and she was
at the police station

and that they just needed
to, um--they needed to ask her

some questions to sort
of clear up what had happened.

- We decided to just drive
to the police station

and, I mean, we thought we
were going to pick her up.

That's how, like,
clueless we were

about everything
that had happened.

We thought that we were just
going to go and pick her up

and go home,
and that would be that.

And finally they came out
and they told us

that Morgan tried
to kill her friend,

and that she did it
for Slender Man.

And that they had been
planning it they said.

And, I mean...

And basically
that she was being charged

with attempted homicide.

- Prosecutors say the girls

had planned the attack
for months.

According to court documents,

the two plotted
to kill their friend

to please Slender Man,

a demon-like fictional character

on the horror site Creepypasta.

- Slender Man is an urban legend

born and raised on the internet.

In 2009, there was
an online contest

asking people to submit
fake supernatural photos

that were so good they could
pass for the real thing.

One person submitted
two black and white photos

with a tall, thin figure
stalking children.

He called it "Slender Man."

- One of this things that's
so compelling to young people

is this veracity,

is, "It's real, I saw it."

- I had no idea
who Slender Man was at all.

And as we started to look
into this

and I started to educate myself,

I found that my children
and every child that I knew

knew who Slender Man was.

I found that some of the
children are afraid of him

because he's faceless,

and then I find that some of
the kids actually embrace that.

- They are many incarnations
for the Slender Man legend,

but in most of them,
he's a tall, menacing figure.

He wears a black suit.

He has
a white, feature-less face,

tentacles that come out
from his back,

and they can kill you.

For most people,
this is a scary story.

For two 12-year-old girls
in the suburbs of Milwaukee,

Slender Man crossed
that very dangerous threshold

from fantasy into reality.

- They were actually
embracing it,

and they were fixated with it.

- Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier

were two 12-year-old
girls growing up

in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

In many respects, they were
two typical 12-year-old girls.

- But both of these girls

lived relatively
difficult lives.

They were outcasts at school.

This is a town where you
should be good at sports

or want to be a cheerleader.

These were not those girls.

- They weren't the only kids
who knew about Slender Man,

but the difference was that

they gradually started
to believe he was real.

- And so their friendship
and Slender Man

together allowed them to
create a world that was...

better than the daily lives
that each one of them had.

- What is also happening
in a young girl's mind

to want to do something
like this?

And when we really think
about it,

in some way it's sort
of where myth and legend

meet how many young people
have often behaved

in the face of fandom
and celebrity-dom,

even in traditional circles,

in that, at some level,
they wanted to perhaps impress

or appease something
that they viewed

as more powerful than them.

- As that fantasy turned
into reality,

Morgan and Anissa decided
they wanted

to become proxies
of Slender Man.

To them, they believed that
becoming Slender Man's proxy

meant that they would prove
themselves worthy of him,

and according to
the criminal complaint,

Morgan and Anissa believed
that the only way to do that

was to kill someone.

- How was this possible

that two young girls could be
capable of such violence?

What caused Morgan and Anissa
to cross the line

between harmless online
fantasy and deadly reality?

- News reports coming out
of Wisconsin

in the spring of 2014

caused parents and teachers
everywhere to ask

how a myth created
on the internet

could compel two young girls
to try to kill

one of their closest friends.

- This was a bizarre
and truly gruesome crime.

It defied everything
we thought we understood

about girlhood and innocence

in the internet era.

- According to what the girls
told police,

Morgan and Anissa had been
talking about how to do it,

when to do it,

and what they would do afterward

for a very long time.

- The account you're about
to hear of what happened

in Waukesha, Wisconsin is drawn
directly from police interviews

with Morgan Geyser
and Anissa Weier.

On May 30, 2014,

Morgan invited Anissa
and Payton Leutner

to spend the night
to celebrate her birthday.

- Payton Leutner was
Morgan Geyser's friend.

They had been friends
since early elementary school.

Everybody called Payton
"Bella."

It was Morgan's
12th birthday party,

and the girls met up
at Morgan's house

after school for a sleepover.

They fool around
on their computers,

and they go to bed.

In every way, it seemed like

a completely normal
12-year-old sleepover.

Then the next morning,

Morgan's mom gives them

strawberries and donuts
for breakfast,

and then Morgan says,

"Can we go out to the park
and play?"

And this park is really,
really close to their house.

- But before they leave,

Morgan went
into her parents' kitchen...

And she took a knife.

- So they walk outside.

They walk toward the woods.

Bella's walking ahead.

At a certain point,

Morgan lifts up her jacket

and shows Anissa
that she's taken a steak knife

from the kitchen.

And Anissa thinks to herself,

"Oh, dear God, this was really
happening."

- This was where everything
that Morgan and Anissa

had been talking
about for months

with respect to Slender Man
came to a head.

And so Anissa takes
a few steps back,

and she says, "Now."

And that's when Morgan starts
stabbing Bella.

Morgan stabs her 19 times.

She pierces her pancreas,
her stomach, her liver,

and she misses
a major artery near her heart

by just a millimeter.

- Bella is screaming,

"I trusted you."

And then she gets up
and tries to walk,

and the girls sort
of pick her up

and lead her deeper
into the woods.

She's too close to the road

and they don't want her
to be found.

- And then Morgan and Anissa
leave her there to die.

And they flee
for Slender Man's mansion.

Miraculously, Bella manages
to crawl to a nearby road,

blood soaking
through her clothes.

And a cyclist comes by,
and he sees her.

And he calls 911.

- She's rushed to the hospital
where she has surgery

and she's treated
for her wounds.

Now meanwhile there's a
massive police hunt going on

for Morgan and Anissa.

Bella knew who stabbed her.

According
to the criminal complaint

and their interviews
with the police,

there was no question

about who had committed
this crime.

The police just had
to find the two girls.

- Information came across
the radio that...

there was stabbing suspects
located by a passerby.

- As local police
swarmed the scene,

Morgan and Anissa
were separated.

Paul Renkas was the first
officer to reach Morgan.

- I put her into the squad car,

and she started singing.

And I thought it was a bit odd
that she was singing.

I asked what song
she was singing.

She gave me some type of song
which I've never heard of.

Asked her where she was going.

She said that she was going
to the forest.

I said, "Where in the forest
are you going?"

And she said she was going
to stay with Slender Man.

And she said Slender Man
was going to take care of her.

In the state
of Wisconsin currently,

if you commit a crime at 17

you can be charged as an adult.

Anything below that

takes a matter
of a court proceeding

to be waived into adult court.

I've seen it as low as 14.

I've never seen it as low as 12.

- I remember saying,
"Nothing bad,

she's only 12."

And he said,
"That doesn't matter.

"In the state of Wisconsin
somebody as young as ten

could be charged as an adult."

That came as a shock to me.

- So Morgan and Anissa
are both charged

with attempted first-degree
intentional homicide.

- Both girls enter pleas
of not guilty

by reason of mental disease
or defect.

- They're both being tried
as adults,

and they each face
up to 45 years in prison.

- The idea of these
two young girls spending

most of their lives in prison
is hard to imagine,

and yet they're alleged to have
done something truly awful.

Was an internet obsession
to blame

or would a startling diagnosis
change the outcome

of this story?

- You can't hold somebody
responsible

for the rest of their life

for something they
did when they were 12.

- In May 2014,

two 12-year-old girls
faced charges

for attacking their best friend
and leaving her to die.

Even more troubling was
what the girls told police--

that they acted on behalf
of Slender Man,

an evil fantasy creature
who captured the imagination

of many teenagers
as his legend spread

across social media sites.

- It's quite clear that there
was a break with reality

and that they were trying
to render

themselves more important.

And that's something
that children in adolescence

do struggle with.

"Am I important?"

They're interacting with
something that is a celebrity,

and even though Slender Man
is a fictional,

sort of strange urban
internet legend,

he was a celebrity to them.

- For Morgan Geyser
and Anissa Weier,

things were
much more complicated.

A court-appointed
psychiatrist testified

in a pre-trial hearing
that Morgan suffered

from Early Onset Schizophrenia.

- Typically we identify cases
of schizophrenia

at the age of 18 and older.

When the symptoms
of schizophrenia

are identified prior
to the age of 18,

it's termed
"Early Onset Schizophrenia."

- I asked Morgan, "Why didn't
you ever tell me about this?"

And she says, "Because you
would have done something."

- Yeah.
- Like, well, yeah.

Of course I would have
done something.

- I can only imagine some
of the anguish

that these parents
are going through

and sort of second guessing
themselves.

One of the things parents
must always be mindful of

is that if you notice
your children

withdrawing from anything
they typically like,

start paying attention
because changes in behavior

for us in mental health

are the real canaries
in the coal mine.

- On August 21, 2017,

Anissa Weier pleaded guilty
to a reduced charge

of attempted
second-degree homicide

in a deal with prosecutors.

On September 15, 2017,

a jury found that 15-year-old
Anissa was suffering

from a mental disorder

that required treatment,
not prison time.

Three months later she was
sentenced to the

maximum term. 25 years in a
mental hospital.

Morgan Geyser also cut a deal.

She pleaded guilty
to the original charge

of first-degree
attempted homicide

with the understanding
that she would avoid a trial

and remain in a mental
hospital for treatment.

- I think that there's this idea

that if you show some compassion

for Morgan and Anissa
that you are in turn

not being supportive
of the victim.

I mean, we loved Bella.

She ate dinner at my table.

I hugged her good night
when she had sleepovers.

We loved Bella.
We still do.

- Bella's parents and Bella
have been heroic

in her recovery and in their
public facing this, and...

She went through something
really traumatic

that will define her
for the rest of her life.

- As Bella continues to heal,

Morgan and Anissa will have
to come

to terms with their actions,

but can they find the community

they searched for online?

These stories serve
as a cautionary tale.

Social media can become
a deadly tool

for vulnerable people who
seek notoriety at any cost,

but the fact is social media
is often inescapable

and so is the desire for fame.

For more on "Mysteries
and Scandals"