Morgan Geyser, the woman who as a 12-year-old stabbed a classmate to please the fictional character Slender Man, has been caught after cutting off her monitoring bracelet and fleeing a group home in Wisconsin. The 23-year-old was found at a truck stop in Posen, Illinois, on Sunday evening, authorities said.
Police in Madison, Wisconsin, had issued an alert earlier on Sunday after Geyser was last seen with an adult acquaintance on Saturday evening. Posen, a Chicago suburb, is about 170 miles south of Madison. Geyser allegedly gave police a false name at first, reportedly saying she had “done something really bad” and that officers could “just Google her”.
Geyser eventually identified herself and was detained. A 42-year-old companion was also booked with obstructing identity after giving a false name. In 2014, Geyser and friend Anissa Weier lured classmate Payton Leutner to a park in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times. Leutner survived. The girls said they committed the attack to become servants of Slender Man, an internet horror character.
Both pleaded guilty to attempted homicide. Geyser was sent to a psychiatric institute in 2018 and transferred to a group home in March. State corrections officials received an alert on Saturday night that Geyser’s ankle monitor had malfunctioned, but two hours passed before they contacted the group home and learned she had absconded. Madison police said they were not notified for nearly 12 hours.
Geyser’s attorney, Tony Cotton, had urged her to surrender in a social media video on Sunday. Geyser now faces being returned to the psychiatric institute after a court hearing, according to a friend who was with her.
