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Court approves release plan for Morgan Geyser
Morgan Geyser, one of two people convicted in the Slender Man stabbing that took place more than a decade ago, appeared in court on Thursday for a motion hearing on her conditional release plan.
WAUKESHA, Wis. - Morgan Geyser, one of two people convicted in the Slender Man stabbing that took place more than a decade ago, appeared in court on Thursday, July 31 for a motion hearing on her conditional release plan.
What we know:
During the hearing, a Waukesha County judge said he plans to approve placing Morgan Geyser in a group home in Sun Prairie. Geyser will have to wear a GPS monitor.
The decision comes after Geyser's lawyer felt a placement in Manitowoc would not be suitable for her. The lawyer representing Geyser argues Sun Prairie has more resources and treatment options for Geyser.
The date of her release has not been set. Geyser's lawyer hopes it will happen sometime in the first week of August.
"Morgan's got to be placed in a facility that's suitable for her – and this is a suitable facility. She's going to be safe," said Geyser's attorney, Anthony Cotton. "She is going to be closely monitored, closely supervised as she transitions back into the community."
Morgan Geyser
Conditional release plan
The backstory:
Waukesha County Circuit Judge Scott Wagner on July 17 signed off on the conditional plan to release Morgan Geyser, now 22, from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, a psychiatric hospital where she has spent the last seven years. Another judge had ruled in January she could be released after three experts testified she had made progress battling mental illness.
In April, prosecutors objected to Geyser’s original conditional release plan after the mother of the victim, Payton Leutner, expressed concern that Geyser’s group home was located eight miles away from Leutner. The judge then ordered the Department of Health Services to draft a new plan, which was approved July 17.
2014 Slender Man stabbing
Dig deeper:
Geyser and her friend, Anissa Weier, lured Leutner to a Waukesha park after a sleepover in 2014. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier egged her on. All three girls were 12 years old at the time.
Geyser and Weier fled after the attack but were arrested as they were walking on Interstate 94. They told investigators they attacked Leutner to earn the right to be Slender Man’s servants and feared he would hurt their families if they didn’t follow through. They had planned to walk to Slender Man’s mansion in northern Wisconsin after the attack, they said.
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Leutner barely survived. Geyser ultimately pleaded guilty to being a party to attempted first-degree intentional homicide in 2017 but claimed she wasn’t responsible because she was mentally ill. The following year, Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren had committed her to a psychiatric hospital for 40 years.
Slender Man stabbing: Morgan Geyser's conditional release plan reviewed
Morgan Geyser, one of two people convicted in the Slender Man stabbing that took place more than a decade ago, appeared in court on Monday, April 28.
More case details
What we know:
State health officials argued in March that Geyser couldn’t be trusted after learning that she hadn’t told her therapists that she had read a novel about murder and black market organ sales. They also alleged she had been communicating with a man who collects murder memorabilia and sent him her own sketch of a decapitated body and a postcard saying she wants to be intimate with him.
Cotton countered that Geyser only read what the facility allowed, and staff knew she had been communicating with the collector. He added that she stopped talking to the man in 2024 after she discovered he was selling things she sent him. Bohren concluded that Geyser wasn’t trying to hide anything and ordered state health officials to continue developing a release plan.
Wagner took over Geyser’s release request after Bohren retired this past April.
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Weier pleaded guilty to being a party to attempted second-degree intentional homicide with a dangerous weapon in 2017, but like Geyser claimed she was mentally ill and not responsible for her actions. She was committed to 25 years in a mental hospital but was granted release in 2021 after agreeing to live with her father and to wear a GPS monitor.
The case has drawn widespread attention in part because of the girls’ fascination with the Slender Man character. Slender Man was created online by Eric Knudson in 2009 as a mysterious specter photo-edited into everyday images of children at play. He’s typically depicted as a slim, spidery figure in a black suit with a featureless white face. He has grown into a popular boogeyman and has appeared in video games, online stories and a 2018 movie.
The Source: The information in this report was produced by FOX6 News and the Associated Press.