In 2014, twelve-year-olds Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser stabbed their friend Payton Leutner nineteen times in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Their motive: proving their loyalty to Slender Man, a fictional monster born on an internet creepypasta forum.

In 1993, the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode ‘Ship in a Bottle’ asked what happens when a holodeck simulation becomes self-aware and Professor Moriarty walks out of the program.

In the Season 1 finale of The Prime Detective, we connect those two moments and finally find the word for what we’ve been tracking all along.

Credits:

This episode of “The Prime Detective” was produced and hosted by Grayson Thagard.

Music for “The Prime Detective” is composed by Ben Wise: https://benwise.bandcamp.com/

Website and publishing support thanks to David Moody, Producer: “Let’s Talk About Treks” The Podcast.

Original artwork for “The Prime Detective” by Julie Hendrickson.

Buy me a coffee: buymeacoffee.com/theprimedetective

Special thanks:
Izaak Brown: Trek 365
Open Pike Night
Crusher Convo
Captain Goodwill: Trekkin Up North
Battlestage Theatrica
My Figure Universe – Boosting the Signal podcast

OK Boomer: What are creepypasta?