Police in suburban Posen released more details Monday morning after a new twist in the 2014 “Slender Man” stabbing case, with one of the attackers found sleeping outside an Illinois truck stop after escaping a Madison, Wisconsin group home 24 hours earlier.
The update comes 12 years after Morgan Geyser, now 23, admitted to luring a classmate into the woods in Waukesha and nearly stabbing her to death to please the online horror character “Slender Man.”
Sunday morning, police in Madison issued an alert for Geyser, who had cut off her electronic monitoring device and left the group home she had been placed in. According to police, Geyser was last seen about 8 p.m. Saturday night with an adult acquaintance, and that her bracelet had stopped malfunctioning about 9:30 a.m.
Early Monday morning, police in Posen, about 25 miles south of Chicago, confirmed she had been taken into custody.
An update later Monday morning from Posen police said Geyser was found after officers were dispatched to a Thornton’s Truck Stop, at 14840 Western Ave., for reports of a man and woman loitering behind the building.
When officers arrived, they found both people sleeping on the sidewalk. The woman had repeatedly refused to provide her real name, police said, initially giving a false one.
After continued attempts to identify her, she finally stated that she didn’t want to tell officers who she was because she had “done something really bad,” and suggested that officers could “just Google” her name.
Once she provided her true identity, officers confirmed she was Morgan Geyser, who was wanted out of Wisconsin after walking away from a group home Saturday night.
Geyser was one of two juveniles involved infamous 2014 “Slender Man” stabbing case, and was convicted after pleading guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide. She was sent to a psychiatric institute in 2018, but was granted conditional release earlier this year and placed into a group home.
According to police, Geyser and the man with her were taken into custody without incident. Posen police told NBC 5’s Lisa Chavarria the man was charged with criminal trespass and obstructing identification for giving a false name. The man was later released.
According to court records, Geyser appeared in court Monday in Markham. She was ordered to be detained in Cook County Jail, with an extradition hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
Geyser’s attorney, Tony Cotton, posted an Instagram video Sunday saying he did not know what happened with his client, and had urged Geyser to turn herself in. In a statement sent to NBC Chicago Monday, Cotton said his “biggest fear” regarding Geyser’s release was “her ability to navigate new relationships, particularly with older men.”
“Right now we do not know the circumstances behind Morgan’s departure from the group home – namely whether she left voluntarily or whether something more nefarious took place such as an abduction,” Cotton’s statement said. We are glad that Morgan was found safely and returned to custody.”
“As I have said before, the biggest fear I had for Morgan upon her release from the mental hospital was her ability to navigate new relationships, particularly with older men who might not have her best interests in mind,” the statement went on to say. “I witnessed first hand during the 12 years that I represented Morgan how there were seemingly normal men who would find their way into her orbit and act in ways that were highly inappropriate.”
What happened in the Slender Man stabbing case?
In 2014, Geyser, along with classmate Anissa Weier, lured then-12-year-old Payton Leutner to a wooded area near Waukesha, a suburb of Milwaukee, after a sleepover. While there, Geyser stabbed Leutner more than a dozen times while Weier egged her on.
Leutner, who was left for dead, was discovered by a passing bicyclist and taken to a hospital. She barely survived.
The girls later told investigators that they attacked Leutner to earn the right to be the fictional character Slender Man’s servants and they feared he’d harm their families if they didn’t follow through. According to prosecutors, the girls plotted the stabbing for months, and they told investigators they believed Slender Man had a mansion in a forest, and they planned to live with him after the attack.
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.
Geyser was found not guilty by mental disease or defect and was committed to a mental health institution. Geyser was released this year to live in a group home.
Weier pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide. She was also sent to the psychiatric center and granted release in 2021.
The family of Geyser’s victim, Leutner, released the following statement Sunday night:
“Payton and her family are safe and are working closely with local law enforcement to ensure their continued safety. The family would like to thank all of the law enforcement entities involved in the efforts to apprehend Morgan,” the statement said. “The Leutner family also wish to thank the outpouring of support from family, friends, and well-wishers who have contacted them during this difficult time.”
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