WAUKESHA, Wis. — In a new legal development, Wisconsin authorities have petitioned a state court to cancel the conditional release of Morgan Geyser. Geyser, who in 2014 attempted to kill a classmate to appease the fictional character Slender Man, recently escaped from a group home.

On Wednesday, a Waukesha County Circuit Court judge decided to seal the petition submitted by the Department of Corrections. This petition was filed late Tuesday with the goal of revoking Geyser’s conditional release. Earlier this year, a Waukesha County judge had permitted Geyser’s transfer from a state mental hospital to a group home setting.

Authorities reported that Geyser removed her GPS monitoring device on Saturday evening and fled the Madison, Wisconsin group home with a 43-year-old companion. She was located by police near Chicago on Sunday night, approximately 170 miles (274 kilometers) from Madison.

Geyser chose not to contest her return to Wisconsin during a court session in Chicago on Tuesday. According to online records, she was taken back to Wisconsin and was in custody at the Waukesha County jail as of late Wednesday.

Attempts to reach Geyser’s attorney, Tony Cotton, for a comment regarding the state’s motion to revoke her release were unsuccessful as he did not respond to an email inquiry on Wednesday.

The judge set a motion hearing for Dec. 22.

If Geyser’s conditional release is revoked, she could be sent back to the mental institution where she spent most of the past eight years. She also could face new charges in connection with her escape.

Geyser’s companion has been charged with trespassing and obstruction, but The Associated Press isn’t naming the companion because the person hasn’t been charged with aiding Geyser’s escape. The AP’s attempts to contact that person have been unsuccessful.

The companion did call WKOW-TV on Monday, however, saying the two became friends at church and had seen each other daily for the past month. Geyser decided to flee because she was afraid her group home would no longer allow them to see each other, the person said.

“She ran because of me,” the friend told the television station.

Geyser and her companion took a bus overnight into Illinois, the friend said.

Geyser and her friend, Anissa Weier, lured one of their classmates, Payton Leutner, to a Waukesha park in 2014. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times, narrowly missing her heart, while Weier cheered her on. All three girls were 12 years old at the time. Leutner barely survived.

Geyser and Weier later told investigators they attacked Leutner in hopes of impressing Slender Man and becoming his servants. They said they were afraid Slender Man would hurt their families if they didn’t carry out the attack.

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.

Both Geyser and Weier were ultimately committed to a state mental institution — Geyser for 40 years and Weier for 25. Wisconsin law allows people committed to state institutions to petition for release. Weier earned conditional release in 2021. Geyser, now 23, won conditional release in September after four requests and was placed in the group home.

State health officials tried to block her release in March, telling the judge that Geyser didn’t volunteer to her therapy team that she had read “Rent Boy,” a novel about murder and selling organs on the black market. They also alleged that she has been communicating with a man who collects murder memorabilia, and has sent him her own sketch of a decapitated body and a postcard saying she wants to be intimate with him.

The judge concluded that Geyser wasn’t trying to hide anything and proceeded with her release, which was finalized in September.

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Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin.