Morgan Geyser, the American woman whose name became internationally synonymous with the chilling 2014 Slender Man stabbing, is back in custody after a brief escape from a Wisconsin group home. The 23-year-old was located by police on Sunday evening, ending a day-long search that began after she severed her electronic monitoring device and absconded.
The Escape and Apprehension
Authorities confirmed that Geyser was found in Posen, Illinois, approximately 170 miles south of Madison, Wisconsin. According to police reports, she was located at a truck stop. The Madison Police Department had issued a public alert earlier on Sunday, stating that Geyser was last seen on Saturday evening with an adult acquaintance.
The chain of events began when the Wisconsin Department of Corrections received an alert on Saturday night indicating a malfunction with the monitoring bracelet attached to Geyser's ankle. Officials from the group home in Madison where she was residing subsequently confirmed that she had deliberately removed the device and fled the premises.
A Notorious Crime Revisited
This recent incident casts a new spotlight on one of the most disturbing criminal cases of the last decade. In 2014, when Geyser and her friend, Anissa Weier, were just 12 years old, they lured their sixth-grade classmate, Payton Leutner, to a park in Waukesha, Wisconsin, during a sleepover.
In a brutal attack that shocked the world, Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier encouraged her. Miraculously, Leutner survived her near-fatal injuries. The motivation for the assault was even more alarming: both girls told investigators they carried out the stabbing to become servants of the fictional online horror character, Slender Man. They claimed they believed the entity would harm their families if they failed to kill their friend.
Legal Proceedings and Aftermath
The Slender Man figure, an unnaturally tall and thin spectre, was originally created in 2009 by an internet forum user named Eric Knudsen. The character gained traction online as users digitally edited him into mundane photographs, eventually spawning video games and a 2018 film.
Both Geyser and Weier ultimately pled guilty to attempted homicide. Given the profound mental health aspects of the case, Geyser was sentenced in 2018 to be held in a secure psychiatric institute. In a significant step towards rehabilitation, she was transferred to a community-based group home in Madison earlier this year, in March.
Prior to her capture, Geyser's own attorney, Tony Cotton, made a public appeal for her surrender. In a social media video, he urged her to turn herself in, stating, "We worked too hard to secure freedom for her to continue on this path." Geyser is now expected to face the court in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in January 2025 regarding this latest incident.
