Slender Man stabber set for release after decade in mental facility

WAUKESHA, Wis. (CN) — A Waukesha County judge on Thursday approved the conditional release plan of a young woman convicted of stabbing her best friend 19 times in 2014 at the behest of the fictional character Slender Man.

Morgan Geyser, 23, has been incarcerated at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute for the last decade for her part in the premeditated stabbing of her friend, Payton Leutner. The attack drew global attention.

Geyser testified that at 12 years old, the murderous “Creepypasta” horror character instructed her and co-defendant Anissa Weier to kill her best friend. The girls took a walk in the woods during a sleepover, when Leutner was attacked and left bleeding in the woods. She barely survived.

Geyser and Weier pleaded guilty in 2018 to avoid a trial. They were sentenced to 40 years and 25 years, respectively, of confinement in a mental health institution. Weier was released to her father’s custody in 2017.

On Thursday, Judge Scott Wagner approved the plan with no objection from the state or Geyser. The brief and unceremonious hearing marks the end of a decadelong saga that continues to turn heads.

The details are confidential to protect Geyser’s safety and privacy. She will be placed in a group home with tight restrictions, including GPS monitoring, medication management and a period of house arrest. Minor modifications were made on Thursday to require court approval of any changes to her physical placement or GPS requirements.

“I think this is the end,” Geyser’s attorney Anthony Cotton said. “I am confident that she will do well; of course, the ball is in Morgan’s court now. She has matured incredibly throughout this process.”

Cotton said Geyser no longer believes in Slender Man’s existence, and that the crime was a result of mental health problems that have since been treated.

“I think she is going to be an author, write books and read a lot,” Cotton said of Geyser’s future. “I could see her furthering her education, whether online in the group home or in the distant future.”

Judge Michael Bohren presided over the original proceedings in 2014 and over every hearing until his retirement this year. Before leaving the bench, he granted Geyser’s fourth bid for conditional release in January and instructed the state to draw up a plan to balance public safety with Geyser’s reintegration into society.

The state delayed Geyser’s release three times since that ruling.

District attorneys appeared in court twice empty handed, with little explanation for why they didn’t have a release plan.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services — the agency tasked with creating a release plan that includes GPS monitoring, house arrest, a group home placement and a therapy schedule — last month asked for another 30-day extension to complete its work.

In March, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services petitioned to revoke Geyser’s release three days before it was supposed to present the completed plan. Bohren reaffirmed the release order, but the department did not have a plan to present.

In April, Assistant District Attorney Ted Szczupakiewicz told the court at the start of the review hearing the group home where Geyser planned to move was 8 miles from her victim’s home.

Szczupakiewicz said he learned a week prior that the two locations were in the same county but decided not to share the information with the court or the defense. “I felt this was the best way to handle it,” he said.

Bohren scolded the state for springing the information on the parties.

“This is what some may refer to as a high-profile case, which would mean that the T’s are crossed and the I’s are dotted to be sure all rights are protected,” Bohren said in April, appearing agitated. “Not a subterfuge of trickery or an ambush with new issues being raised at the last minute.”

The health services department will tweak the plan by the end of the week and the parties will have three days to make objections before the final approval order is entered.

Leutner has not appeared at any release hearings.

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