MILWAUKEE — The condition of the Waukesha, Wis., girl stabbed 19 times in a crime receiving worldwide attention has been upgraded to fair, a spokeswoman for Waukesha Memorial Hospital said Wednesday. She had been in critical but stable condition.
And police released the recording of the 911 call placed Saturday by Greg Steinberg, the bicyclist who came upon the girl at the edge of a wooded area near David’s Park on Waukesha’s south side.
Steinberg can be heard telling the operator that a 12-year-old female “appears to have been stabbed.”
“She’s having trouble breathing,” he says in a steady voice. “She says she has been stabbed multiple times.” During the five-minute recording, a faint female voice can be heard in the background.
The victim does not respond when asked by Steinberg, “Who did this to you?”
“I don’t know if she wants to be talked to,” he tells the 911 operator.
Steinberg has issued a statement in response to requests for interviews.
“Our family wishes to offer its thoughts and prayers to the victim, her family, and to the entire community, which is profoundly shocked and saddened by the recent event,” it said.
Steinberg said he would not be offering any additional comment.
Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier have been charged with first-degree attempted homicide in the case and are being held on $500,000 bail in a secure detention facility in West Bend.
The name of the victim has not been made public. All three girls are classmates at Horning Middle School in Waukesha. On Wednesday, the school posted three links on its website: a letter from principal Mark Wegner on how the school and district responded to the incident, and two tip sheets for talking to children about traumatic events —one from the Mayo Clinic, one from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Wegner said that the staff did not discuss the incident during school on Monday because they “could not confirm that students from Horning were involved until the police department made the information public” that afternoon. Some parents and students had criticized the school’s failure to address the situation immediately, saying students came to class Monday with information they had picked up from friends and social media, and wanted some answers.
The suspects had been plotting to kill their friend for months, according to a criminal complaint. Weier told police they were trying to impress Slender Man, a character they thought was real after discovering him on a website called Creepypasta. The complaint detailed the girls’ obsession with the paranormal figure, known for his ability to sprout tendrils from his fingers and back, and prey on children.
Weier said Geyser told her they should become “proxies” of Slender Man and kill their friend to prove themselves worthy of him, according to the complaint. Weier said she was surprised by Geyser’s suggestion, but also excited to prove skeptics wrong and show that Slender Man really did exist.
London’s Daily Mail on Wednesday quoted the elder brother of Anissa Weier as saying his sister “loved CreepyPasta, she loved the Slender Man stories, just anything a bit creepy.”
What mystified William Weier, according to the story, was “why it changed from dream to reality.”
“I know she understood what she was doing because she is very intelligent,” he said to MailOnline, adding, “But she is only a little girl so I don’t think she understood the ramifications of what she was doing.”
Joseph Smith, an attorney for the Waukesha Public Defender’s office, has been assigned to represent Anissa Weier. Smith has not yet addressed the case publicly.
Morgan Geyser’s attorney, Anthony Cotton, said Tuesday that he plans to seek mental health evaluation for his client as soon as possible.
“I believe she has those needs,” he said.
Both girls are scheduled to appear in court on June 11.
