Morgan Geyser, one of the perpetrators in the 2014 ‘Slender Man’ stabbing, was arrested Sunday evening near Chicago after removing her GPS ankle monitor and leaving a Wisconsin group home.
Officials were alerted Saturday night when the monitoring bracelet reportedly malfunctioned and the group home said Geyser was not on the premises and had removed the device. Madison police say they were not notified of her disappearance until about 12 hours later on Sunday morning. As searches began, Geyser’s attorney, Tony Cotton, issued a public plea urging her to surrender and warning that remaining on the run would be unwise.
Posen, Illinois, police located Geyser Sunday night roughly 165 miles from Madison, in the village of Posen about 20 miles south of Chicago. Officers responding to a call about a man and woman loitering behind a truck stop found the pair asleep on the sidewalk. The woman initially refused to give her name and provided a false one before acknowledging she had “done something really bad” and suggesting officers could look her up online. After she gave her real identity, officers confirmed she was wanted in Wisconsin for escape from the group home where she had been placed. Both Geyser and the unidentified man were taken into custody without incident.
Cotton told reporters it is not yet clear whether Geyser left the home voluntarily or was taken from it. He said he had been concerned about her ability to manage new relationships after release, particularly interactions with older men who might not have her best interests at heart, and described encountering apparently ordinary men behaving inappropriately around her during his representation.
Background: In May 2014, when Geyser and co-defendant Anissa Weier were 12, they lured classmate Payton Leutner into the woods after a Waukesha sleepover. The girls persuaded Leutner to lie down under the pretense of a game; Geyser then stabbed her 19 times while Weier urged her on. The attackers left Leutner for dead and walked toward a nearby forest, believing a fictional figure known as Slender Man lived there. A bicyclist discovered Leutner, who survived 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 received a 25-year commitment and was released in 2021; Geyser was committed for 40 years. Geyser appealed her confinement several times, and in January a judge approved her conditional release after three experts testified about her progress in treatment. Legal and logistical issues delayed her move from the institution for months.
Wisconsin health officials had opposed Geyser’s release, citing reports that she had read material about murder and organ trafficking and had exchanged communications with a man who collects murder memorabilia. Defense attorneys said staff allowed some reading and curtailed communications once concerns were raised. Prosecutors objected to Geyser’s initial placement after Leutner’s mother expressed alarm that the selected group home was only eight miles from her daughter’s residence. A revised placement plan by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services was approved in July. Several earlier placement options fell through over the summer amid 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.
Madison and Posen police have been contacted for further comment.