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A Wisconsin woman, who as a child nearly fatally stabbed a classmate to gain the favor of the fictional internet character Slender Man, has been located in Illinois after evading electronic monitoring, police reported.
Morgan Geyser, now 23, was the subject of a search alert issued by Madison police on Sunday. She had been last seen at about 8 p.m. on Saturday with an adult acquaintance, after leaving a group home.
Authorities discovered Geyser at a truck stop in Posen, Illinois, early Monday morning, according to the Posen Police Department. Posen is situated roughly 25 miles south of Chicago and approximately 170 miles from Madison.
Geyser was accompanied by a 42-year-old man who was subsequently charged with criminal trespassing and obstructing identification. He has since been released from custody, the Posen police added.
The Posen Police Department detailed the incident on their Facebook page, revealing that officers responded to a call about a man and woman loitering behind the truck stop. Upon arrival, officers found both individuals asleep on the sidewalk.
Geyser initially gave officers a false name and repeatedly refused to provide her real name, the statement said. She finally told them that she didn’t want to tell them who she was because she had “done something really bad” and suggested they could “just Google” her. Officers took her and the man into custody without incident.
Geyser was placed in a group home this year after being granted conditional release from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. She was sent to the psychiatric institute in 2018 after pleading guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide in a deal with prosecutors to avoid prison. The stabbing happened in 2014.
Prosecutors had urged the judge not to approve the release of Geyser from the mental health institute, saying that she couldn’t be trusted.
The Madison Police Department said Sunday that it was not made aware that Geyser was missing until nearly 12 hours after she left the group home. The state Department of Corrections received an alert Saturday night that Geyser’s ankle monitor had malfunctioned. The department contacted the group home where she lived about two hours later and was told she was not there and had removed the bracelet, Madison police said.
The Department of Corrections issued an apprehension request just after midnight. The Madison Police Department said it did not learn Geyser was missing until someone from the group home called the next morning. The corrections department did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
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.
Cotton, Geyser’s attorney, defended her actions, saying she only reads what staff allows and Geyser cut off communication with the collector last year. Prior to that, he had visited her three times, Cotton said.
“Morgan is not more dangerous today,” Cotton said at the March court hearing.
The judge concluded that Geyser wasn’t trying to hide anything and proceeded with her release.
Authorities say Geyser and her friend, Anissa Weier, also 12, lured their classmate, Payton Leutner, to a suburban Milwaukee park after a sleepover. Geyser stabbed Leutner more than a dozen times while Weier egged her on. Leutner barely survived.
The girls later told investigators that they attacked Leutner to earn the right to be Slender Man’s servants and they feared he’d harm their families if they didn’t follow through.
Slender Man was created online by Eric Knudson 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.
Weier pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide. She was also sent to the psychiatric center and granted release in 2021.
Steve Lyons, a spokesperson for the Leutner family, said in a statement Sunday that Payton Leutner was safe.
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McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire.