Morgan Geyser, the Wisconsin woman who stabbed a classmate in 2014 to please the fictional character Slender Man, has been caught after cutting off her monitoring bracelet and fleeing a group home. The 23-year-old was found in Posen, Illinois, on Sunday evening, authorities said.
Police in Madison, Wisconsin, had issued an alert earlier on Sunday, reporting Geyser last seen with an adult acquaintance on Saturday evening. Posen, a Chicago suburb about 170 miles south of Madison, was the scene of her capture at a truck stop after local police responded to a complaint about loitering and sleeping on a sidewalk.
Geyser initially gave police a false name, according to CBS News, and reportedly said she did not want to identify herself because she had 'done something really bad' and officers could just 'Google her'. She eventually identified herself and was detained. A 42-year-old companion was also booked with obstructing identity.
In 2014, when Geyser and Anissa Weier were 12, they lured classmate Payton Leutner to a park during a sleepover. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier encouraged her, believing they would become servants to Slender Man and protect their families. Leutner survived. Both pleaded guilty to attempted homicide; Geyser was sent to a psychiatric institute in 2018 and transferred to a group home in March.
The state corrections department received an alert on Saturday night that Geyser's ankle bracelet had malfunctioned, but did not contact the group home for two hours, learning she had absconded. Madison police said they were not notified for nearly 12 hours. Geyser's attorney urged her to surrender in a social media video, warning she could be returned to the psychiatric institute.
