In Madison, Wisconsin, a woman previously involved in a near-fatal attack on a classmate to appease the mythical figure Slender Man has been ordered back to a state psychiatric facility. This decision follows her escape from a supervised group home last month.
Waukesha County Circuit Judge K. Scott Wagner approved the state Department of Health Services’ request to rescind Morgan Geyser’s conditional release. Geyser, now 23, conveyed through her lawyer, Tony Cotton, that she would not oppose this decision. The judge finalized this during a brief court session.
Tony Cotton did not immediately respond to inquiries for comment via email.
Back in 2014, Geyser, along with her friend Anissa Weier, lured their peer, Payton Leutner, to a park in Waukesha. There, Geyser inflicted 19 stab wounds on Leutner, with Weier encouraging the act. Leutner barely survived, thanks to a passing cyclist who found her. At the time, all three girls were just 12 years old.
Upon interrogation, Geyser and Weier confessed to the attack, hoping to gain the favor of Slender Man, believing such an act would make them his followers and spare their families from harm. Both were subsequently committed to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, with Geyser receiving a 40-year commitment and Weier a 25-year term.
Weier was granted a conditional release in 2021. Despite concerns from state health officials about Geyser’s reliability, Judge Wagner approved her conditional release last September.
Geyser was placed in a Madison group home. Authorities say that on Nov. 22 she cut off her GPS monitor and fled the state with a 43-year-old companion. Police arrested both of them the next day at a truck stop outside Chicago, about 170 miles (274 kilometers) south of Madison.
Geyser’s companion told WKOW-TV that the two of them became friends at church and had been seeing each other daily for the last month. Geyser decided to escape because she was afraid the group home would no longer allow them to see each other, the companion said.
Slender Man was created online by Eric Knudsen in 2009 as a mysterious figure photo-edited into everyday images of children at play. He grew into a popular boogeyman, appearing in video games, online stories and a 2018 movie.
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