Morgan Geyser, one of the perpetrators of the 2014 “Slender Man” stabbing, was taken into custody near Chicago on Sunday after cutting off her GPS ankle monitor and leaving a Wisconsin group home.
Officials were notified Saturday night that her GPS monitoring bracelet was malfunctioning and learned from the group home that she was not there and had removed the device. Madison police said they were not made aware of her disappearance until nearly 12 hours later, on Sunday morning. As authorities began searching, Geyser’s attorney, Tony Cotton, posted a video urging her to turn herself in, saying, “Do not continue to remain on the run like this. It is not in your best interest to handle this matter that way.”
Posen, Ill., police said Geyser was located Sunday night about 165 miles from Madison, in the village of Posen roughly 20 miles south of Chicago. Officers responding to a report of a man and woman loitering behind a truck stop found the pair sleeping on the sidewalk. The woman repeatedly refused to give her name and initially provided a fake one. She then told officers she had “done something really bad” and suggested they could “just Google” her name. After she gave her true identity, officers confirmed she was wanted out of Wisconsin for escape after walking away from a group home where she had been placed. Geyser and the unidentified man were taken into custody without incident.
Cotton told NPR it is unclear whether Geyser left the group home voluntarily or whether an abduction occurred. He said his chief concern upon her release had been her ability to navigate new relationships, especially with older men who might not have her best interests in mind, and recounted seeing “seemingly normal men” act inappropriately around her during his years representing her.
Background: In May 2014, when all three were 12, Geyser and Anissa Weier lured classmate Payton Leutner into the woods after a sleepover in Waukesha, Wis. The girls convinced Leutner to lie down under the pretense of playing hide-and-seek; Geyser then stabbed her 19 times while Weier encouraged her. The attackers left Leutner for dead and began walking toward a forest where they believed the fictional Slender Man lived. A bicyclist discovered Leutner, who survived after emergency surgery; one wound missed a major artery by less than a millimeter.
Both girls were tried as adults, found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect in 2017, and committed to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. Weier was committed for 25 years and Geyser for 40. Weier was released in 2021. Geyser appealed her confinement multiple times and in January a judge approved her conditional release after three experts testified about her progress in mental health treatment. Legal and logistical delays postponed her moving out for many months.
Wisconsin health officials opposed Geyser’s release, alleging she had read material about murder and organ trafficking and had communicated with a man who collects murder memorabilia; defense attorneys said staff allowed her reading and knew about and had curtailed the communications once concerns arose. Prosecutors objected to Geyser’s initial placement after Leutner’s mother expressed alarm that the chosen group home was only eight miles from where her daughter lived. A revised plan by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services was approved in July. Several potential group-home placements had fallen through over the summer for reasons including public backlash. Cotton said in October that Geyser had been placed in a court-sealed, undisclosed group home; she disappeared less than a month later.
NPR has reached out to Madison and Posen police for further comment.