I don’t know if it has ever come up in this blog before, but I am actually a bit weirdly obsessed with serial killer documentaries and other true crimes. Netflix is always suggesting juicy new titles to the mix to keep me subscribing, and I am a satisfied customer. One of my more recent binge watches was the second season of “Worst Roommate Ever…” (Disappointed Netflix, a season should be more than 4 episodes long?!) The first episode features Rachael and Janie, a pair of best friends who become entangled in a very strange and strained platonic defacto kind of arrangement. I don’t want to spoil the ending for any of you who hasn’t watched that one yet, but it did get me thinking about stories I have heard about people who didn’t know their best friend was actually their enemy…
And what a better time of year to share such terrifying tales than Halloween?!
Have you ever heard of the expression “keep your friends close and your enemies closer?” It can feel like sage advice…. But it could also be a costly mistake not to realise when your friend is your enemy. As was the case with Cheyenne Rose Antoine, 21, who took a selfie with her best friend Brittney Gargol , 18 on a night out and posted it to social media, before an argument that resulted in her removing the belt she was wearing that night and using it to strangle Britney to death. She tried to evade police by later posting on social media showing concern for her friend’s whereabouts and claimed to have gone home that evening with a random guy. However, another of her friends, took a big risk in admitting to police that she had made a drunken confession to them. Eventually caught and convicted via the strangulation marks on Britney’s lifeless body, identifying the murder weapon and cause of death, Cheyenne was sentenced to 7 years in prison for manslaughter 2018. Meaning she will be eligible for release in 2025 or 2026. I don’t know which is more frightening! Be careful who you befriend.
Dark as that is, it would appear that Cheyenne had acted out of anger, but hadn’t actively planned to murder her friend. Payton Leutner, 12, however, couldn’t say the same, in that her 2 friends Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser, both 12 planned and plotted the death of their friend for 6 months before their attack. In 2014 , influenced by fictional supernatural character Slender Man, and experiencing feelings of jealousy common among friend groups of 3, Morgan and Anissa lured their friend Payton into woods and stabbed her 19 times. They believed Slender man would kill their families if they did not kill Payton. To become a proxy of Slender man they had to kill someone and Payton was easily available.
Initially they planned her death to take place at Morgan’s birthday sleepover, however, both chickened out. Wearing headphones so as not to wake Payton, Morgan set an alarm on her iPad to wake her at midnight. The plan was for Morgan to wake Anissa so the girls could duct tape Payton’s mouth and stab her in the neck before fleeing. But they were both too tired to go through with the plan that time.
In the morning they decided to try again at a local park public bathroom, so the blood would flow down a drain in the floor. Anissa weakly tried to knock poor Payton unconscious with a punch, having heard that it is easier to kill a person who is not conscious so you didn’t have to look them in the eyes. It didn’t work, and despite the punch in the bathroom, Payton agreed to go on a walk with the girls into thick woods to play hide and seek. Between the 2 perpetrators, it was agreed Morgan would stab Payton on Anissa’s command. After a few rounds of hide and seek, Anissa then said to go ballistic, go crazy. Morgan took this as her command, and ruthlessly stabbed Payton 19 times. Anissa told Payton to lay on the ground to lose blood slower, and lied about getting help for the girl. Not convinced, Payton managed to walk her way out of the woods before collapsing from lack of energy and blood loss. In a stroke of luck, a cyclist happened to take a chained off path that they had never taken before and came across Payton injured and bleeding. He called emergency services and she was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery. Reaching her just before surgery, Payton’s mother was able to speak to Payton where she was informed Morgan had stabbed her daughter. Thankfully, Payton survived the surgery and was told, Morgan had missed an artery in her heart by a width of a hair and had she gone that much deeper Payton would have bled out and died of a heart attack in 2 minutes.
Scarily, they were both found not guilty on the grounds of mental defect and sentenced to mental health institutions. Anissa was sentenced 25 years to life and Morgan was diagnosed with schizophrenia, a condition her dad also suffered, which altered her ability to tell reality from fiction, and sentenced to 40 years to life.
Frightening as it is that your friendships might actually be foe, what is even scarier is the ages of the young ladies involved in these stories. So keep in mind, the next time you have a falling out with a friend, if they aren’t speaking to you or in your life anymore, it could be much much worse! What is even worse is that it doesn’t end there either. Tune back in next Halloween for part 2 of this spooky special!
Happy Halloween Homies! If you are looking for some best friend costumes ideas, don’t forget to check out my previous post on this!
❤ Love,
Your Best Friend ForNever
xx
