Morgan Geyser, one of two teenagers convicted in the 2014 “Slender Man” stabbing, was arrested near Chicago on Sunday after cutting off an ankle GPS monitor and leaving a Wisconsin group home.
Officials say the alarm was raised Saturday night when the monitoring bracelet malfunctioned and staff at the group home reported she was missing and the device removed. Madison police were not notified until roughly 12 hours later, authorities said. In the interim, Geyser’s attorney, Tony Cotton, posted a video urging her to surrender, saying, “Do not continue to remain on the run like this. It is not in your best interest to handle this matter that way.”
Posen, Illinois, police said officers responded Sunday to a report of a man and woman loitering behind a truck stop and found them sleeping on the sidewalk. The woman repeatedly refused to give her name and initially provided a false one. After repeated attempts to identify her, she told officers she had “done something really bad” and suggested they could “just Google” her name. Once she gave her true identity, officers confirmed she was Morgan Geyser, who was wanted by Wisconsin authorities for escape after walking away from the group home. Geyser and the male companion were taken into custody without incident.
Geyser, 23, had moved into the Madison-area group home this fall after being released from the psychiatric facility where she had been held for about seven years. In May 2014, when she and a friend were 12, they lured classmate Payton Leutner into the woods after a sleepover. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while the other girl encouraged her. Leutner survived, crawling out of the woods and undergoing emergency surgery; a doctor later said a wound had missed a major artery by less than a millimeter.
Both defendants were tried as adults and in 2017 were found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect; each was committed to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. Geyser was given a 40-year commitment and Anissa Weier 25 years; Weier was released in 2021. Geyser sought release multiple times, and a judge approved her conditional release after a January hearing where three experts testified about her progress in treatment.
Her transition from the hospital to community placement was delayed for months amid legal and logistical disputes. Wisconsin health officials opposed the initial release plan, citing concerns that Geyser had not disclosed reading certain materials and had been communicating with a man who collects murder memorabilia. Cotton said staff had been aware and that Geyser stopped communicating when she learned the man was selling items she sent. Prosecutors later objected to the original group home placement after Leutner’s mother complained that it was only eight miles from her daughter’s home. A revised plan was approved in July, but several prospective placements later fell through amid logistical problems and community backlash.
Cotton said it was unclear whether Geyser left the group home voluntarily or was abducted. He has previously warned that his biggest fear after her release was her ability to navigate new relationships, particularly with older men he said might not have her best interests in mind, writing that during his 12 years representing Geyser he saw “seemingly normal men” behave inappropriately toward her.
Leutner has said the attack inspired her to pursue a medical career; she has spoken publicly about lingering trauma and once said she slept with broken scissors under her pillow “just in case.” NPR contacted Madison and Posen police for comment but had not heard back by publication.