Morgan Geyser — the Wisconsin woman who, at age 12, nearly stabbed a classmate to death to please the fictional horror character Slender Man — was found in Illinois after cutting off her electronic monitoring device and leaving a Madison-area group home, authorities said.
Madison police issued an alert Sunday after Geyser, now 23, was last seen around 8 p.m. Saturday with an adult acquaintance. She was located early Monday at a truck stop in Posen, Illinois, about 25 miles south of Chicago.
Posen police said Geyser was found with a 42-year-old man who was arrested on charges of criminal trespassing and obstructing identification. He has since been released.
Conditional release had raised concerns
Geyser was moved to the group home earlier this year after a judge granted her conditional release from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. She had been committed there since 2018 after pleading guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide under a deal that allowed her to avoid prison.
Prosecutors had strongly opposed her release, arguing Geyser remained a risk. “She couldn’t be trusted,” they told the court at the time.
Monitoring failure and delayed notification
According to Madison police, authorities weren’t informed she was missing until nearly 12 hours after she left the group home.
The Department of Corrections received an alert Saturday night that Geyser’s ankle monitor had malfunctioned. About two hours later, staff at the group home confirmed she was gone and had removed the device.
The agency issued an apprehension request just after midnight, but Madison police said they didn’t learn of her disappearance until the following morning when the group home called.
The DOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Concerns over her behavior before release
State health officials had attempted to block her release in March, raising concerns about her behavior and reading material.
They told the judge Geyser had read Rent Boy, a novel involving murder and organ trafficking, without discussing it with her therapy team. They also alleged she had communicated with a man who collects murder memorabilia and had sent him a drawing of a decapitated body along with a postcard expressing romantic interest.
Her attorney, Tony Cotton, defended her at the hearing, saying she only consumed material approved by staff and had cut off contact with the collector last year. “Morgan is not more dangerous today,” he said.
The judge ultimately ruled that she was not hiding anything and approved her release.
Slender Man stabbing
Geyser and her friend Anissa Weier were 12 when they lured classmate Payton Leutner to a wooded park in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in 2014 after a sleepover. Geyser stabbed Leutner more than a dozen times while Weier encouraged her. Leutner survived despite severe injuries.
The girls told police they attacked the victim to earn the right to serve Slender Man, an online horror character created in 2009 by Eric Knudson. They also claimed they feared he would harm their families if they didn’t comply.
Weier pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide and was committed to a psychiatric institution. She was granted her release in 2021.
