While we all thought the Slender Man stabbing was a one-of-a-kind incident, it appears a similar crime has happened again, as an Indiana pre-teen reportedly claimed that a fictional clown instructed her to kill her stepmother.
The 12-year-old allegedly stabbed the victim to death and was inspired to do so by a character called “Laughing Jack.” According to the NY Daily News, the character befriends children then cuts them open and replaces their organs with candy.
According to court documents, the suspect “heard voices and had an ‘alter ego’ months before the stabbing and begged her father for help” before killing her stepmother, Maria Torres, in July and burning the house down. CBS Chicago reports the girl suffered from multiple personality disorder.
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With many outlets painting a picture of how the system failed the 12-year-old, WSBT-TV reports that she is still being deprived of mental health resources. Though three doctors say she is unfit for trial, she has been denied treatment by 16 psychiatric facilities and has only been placed into state hospital placement through the Indiana Division of Mental Health as a last resort.
The girl’s public defender, Holly Curtis, said: “We’ve had our hands tied because at this point in time, there’s no other facility that can or will take her. We are running out of options — this is our last option.”
The 12-year-old was held at the Juvenile Detention Center in Goshen for 117 days, and extra staff had to be put on board to treat her. According to documents, she “continues to beg detention staff for help.”
“The risk level for her is beyond anything I think anybody can imagine,” Curtis also told the station. “For her not to be able to get the help she’s crying out for is probably one of the biggest travesties I’ve seen so far with the systems and with a state agency not willing to step up and do their job.”