Key Takeaways:
- Morgan Geyser, one of the perpetrators of the 2014 "Slender Man stabbing," was taken into custody near Chicago after cutting off her ankle monitor and leaving her Wisconsin group home.
- Geyser was found 165 miles away in Posen, Illinois, after a report of a man and woman loitering behind a truck stop.
- Geyser’s attorney, Tony Cotton, expressed concern that she may have been taken advantage of by an older man, citing her history of being manipulated by individuals with ill intentions.
- Geyser’s release from a psychiatric facility was approved in January, but she was unable to move out for over six months due to legal and logistical challenges.
- The case has raised concerns about the treatment and rehabilitation of individuals with mental health issues, particularly in high-profile cases.
Introduction to the Case
Morgan Geyser, one of the perpetrators of the 2014 "Slender Man stabbing," was taken into custody near Chicago on Sunday, a day after cutting off her ankle monitor and leaving her Wisconsin group home. Geyser was reported missing on Saturday night after correction officials were notified that her GPS monitoring bracelet was malfunctioning. They contacted the group home and learned that she was not at the home and that she had removed her GPS bracelet. Madison police said they were not made aware of her disappearance until nearly 12 hours later, on Sunday morning.
The Search and Arrest
As the search unfolded, Geyser’s attorney, Tony Cotton, posted a video to Instagram urging her to turn herself in. "Do not continue to remain on the run like this," he said. "It is not in your best interest to handle this matter that way." Geyser was found Sunday night across state lines, some 165 miles away in Posen, Illinois, about 20 miles south of Chicago. The Posen Police Department said officers responded to a report of a man and woman loitering behind a truck stop and found the two sleeping on the sidewalk. The woman repeatedly refused to provide her name and initially gave them a fake one. After continued attempts to identify her, she finally stated that she didn’t want to tell officers who she was because she had "done something really bad" and suggested that officers could "just Google" her name.
Geyser’s Background and Release
Geyser, now 23, moved into the group home in Madison this fall, after she was released from the psychiatric facility where she had spent the last seven years. A judge approved her release over a decade after she and a friend lured their classmate into the Wisconsin woods, stabbed her more than a dozen times, and left her for dead to appease the fictional supernatural villain Slender Man. Posen police say Geyser and the male, whom they did not name, were taken into custody without incident on Sunday. Cotton, her attorney, told NPR in an emailed statement on Monday that it is not clear whether she left the group home voluntarily or "whether something more nefarious took place such as abduction."
The Slender Man Stabbing Case
A refresher on Geyser’s case, Geyser — along with her friend Anissa Weier — lured their classmate Payton Leutner to a wooded area in Waukesha, Wisconsin, after a sleepover in May 2014, when all three were 12 years old. The girls got Leutner to lie down under the guise of playing hide and seek, then Geyser stabbed her 19 times — in the arms, legs, and torso — while Weier egged her on. The two then told Leutner they would look for help but instead began a planned trek towards a forest in northern Wisconsin where they believed Slender Man lived in a mansion. Police found and apprehended them hours later on the side of the freeway, and they were charged with attempted murder the next day. Geyser and Weier told detectives that they had orchestrated the attack to appease the fictional character.
The Aftermath and Release
Meanwhile, Leutner managed to crawl out of the woods and was taken to a hospital for emergency surgery after being discovered by a passing bicyclist. One of the doctors who treated her later said that one of the stab wounds had missed a major artery by less than a millimeter. The perpetrators, who were both tried as adults, were found guilty by reason of mental disease or defect in 2017 and committed to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute — Weier for 25 years, and Geyser for 40. Weir was released in 2021, while Geyser appealed for release four times in the last two years, most recently in October 2024. A judge approved Geyser’s conditional release after a hearing in January, during which three experts testified about the progress she had made in mental health treatment. However, she was unable to move out for more than half a year after that due to legal and logistical challenges.
Concerns and Controversies
Officials with Wisconsin’s health department opposed Geyser’s release, alleging that Geyser didn’t tell her therapy team that she had read a book about murder and selling organs on the black market, and that she had been communicating with a man who collects murder memorabilia. Cotton responded that Geyser only read what facility staff allowed and that staff were aware of her communications with the collector, which she stopped after learning he was selling things that she sent him. Then, prosecutors objected to the release plan after Leutner’s mother expressed concern that the chosen group home was only eight miles away from where her daughter was living. Leutner told ABC News in 2020 that she still slept with a pair of broken scissors under the pillow next to her "just in case," though she didn’t fear the idea of Geyser being released one day. A judge approved the Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ revised plan in July, but by the end of the summer, potential placements at three different group homes had fallen through for various reasons, including public backlash.