. >> waukesha, wisconsin is a suburb of milwaukee. a pretty safe environment. >> morgan geyser, anissa weier, and payton leitner finding friendship in elementary and middle school. my colleague, 2020 co-anchor david muir, has been covering this story from the start and spoke exclusively to payton in 2019. >> go back to 12 year old payton. how would you describe her? >> hopeful. positive. an animal lover. i saw the good in people. >> morgan and anissa bonded as fellow outcasts. >> looking back, anissa was never really invited to a lot of birthday parties or anything. and i don't think she really made friends that easy. >> morgan didn't do a lot of bullying, especially in the sixth grade by the other students. >> their interests. >> were similar with regards to what they like to read. they were into horror stories. the supernatural. >> the trio celebrating morgan's 12th birthday in may of 2014 with roller skating and a slumber party. unbeknownst to payton, a sinister plot was afoot. >> i wanted to give her at least one more morning. >>