In 2014, two 12-year-old ladies lured their greatest pal into the woods earlier than stabbing her greater than a dozen occasions—and leaving her for lifeless—in an try to satiate the web horror meme Slender Man. Now, after spending the previous three and a half years confined to a state facility, one of many attackers has will likely be let loose.

A Wisconsin decide ordered the release of Anissa Weier, now 19, on Thursday after ruling that she didn’t pose a menace to herself or others. Originally, Weier was sentenced to a 25-year keep at Wisconsin’s Winnebago Mental Health Institute again in 2017, after a jury agreed that she was mentally ailing through the preliminary assault. Weier’s attorneys argued on the time that Weier earnestly believed that Slenderman would kill her household if she didn’t stab her classmate.

While the opposite assailant, Morgan Geyser, is still committed to a separate psychological well being facility for the utmost 40-year sentence, Weier started petitioning for her launch in March of this 12 months. Wisconsin’s state legal guidelines dictate that conditional launch might be granted in instances the place the convicted occasion wouldn’t pose a “significant risk of bodily harm to their well-being or to others,” in the event that they’re let again on the road.

In a letter despatched to the courts again in March, Weier argued that was the case. “I hate my actions May 31, 2014, but through countless hours of therapy, I no longer hate myself for them,” she wrote. “I have exhausted all the resources available to me at the Winnebago Mental Health Institution. If I am to become a productive member of society, I need to be part of society.”

Evidently, the county circuit judge overseeing her case, Michael Bohren, agreed. After reviewing her letter and the experiences of three medical professionals that advocated for her early go away, Bohren stated that the court docket couldn’t discover “clear and convincing evidence” that the teenager poses a big menace to others or herself. But that doesn’t imply she’ll be going free instantly—Bohren’s order gave state officers 60 days to jot down up a conditional launch plan for Weier, throughout which she’ll want to remain institutionalized till one other listening to on September 10. And even after she’s really let loose, Weier may even be assigned Department of Health Services case managers to control her till she’s 37 years outdated—the full span of her dedication.

Even with additional monitoring, there’s doubtlessly going to be folks uneasy with Weier’s early launch. The sufferer of the assault, then-12-year-old Payton Leutner, barely survived her stab wounds, and state prosecutors have argued that an assault like this might occur once more since Weier remains to be inclined to “dangerous influences.”

“What assurance do we have that she will not do this again, either for a thrill or to please a new friend—and because of her situation real, appropriate, friends will be hard to come by,” prosecutors wrote. “Instead she seems to attract people with myriad psychological issues of their own. At this time, she simply cannot safely be released.”