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Neighbors recall tween girl stabbers as ‘friendly, normal’

Neighbors of the two 12-year-old girls charged with attempting to stab a classmate to death in the woods of Wisconsin say they were baffled by the bloody incident – especially given their nice, normal upbringings.

Emily Edwards, 15, baby-sat one of the girls for two years and said she never saw warning signs, the Associated Press reports. The 12-year-old she looked after wouldn’t even tease her younger brother, she said.

“She was completely normal, nothing off about her. She was very social, friendly, outgoing,” Edwards told the AP, “which is what makes this whole thing so weird.”

The site in Waukesha, Wis., where a bicyclist found the 12-year-old girl who was stabbed 19 timesAP

Edwards believed the girl had a loving family and called the devoted parents “such nice people.”

Another neighbor, 44-year-old Paul Plotkin, was close to the father of one of the girls and swears they were nothing but normal parents.

“Anyone who knows them knows these are good people, a normal middle-class family,” he said. “It just goes to show, no matter how hard you try to instill good morals, good values, things can still go wrong.”

The horror meme Slender Man that inspired the girls to stab their friend

The two alleged stabbers, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, live in the same apartment complex in Waukesha, Wis. Retiree Carolyn Nelson, 71, lives three doors down from one of the families and said they’re a friendly, outgoing clan.

“They’re very nice. I can’t say anything bad about them,” she said. “I just feel sorry for the parents. I just don’t know how they can handle this. It’s just unbelievable.”

Morgan and Anissa are being tried as adults for allegedly luring a friend into the woods and stabbing her 19 times, prosecutors said. They carried out the attempted murder in the name of horror meme Slender Man, a fictional character spawned from the Internet. One of the victim’s wounds was only a millimeter away from a major artery near the heart, according to the AP.

Attorney Anthony Cotton, who represents Morgan, is trying to get the case transferred to juvenile court, where she would have better access to mental health treatment.

“She’s 12, and she has mental health issues,” Cotton said. “There’s no question that she needs to go to the hospital.”