Slenderman stabbing defendant denied release from mental health facility

WAUKESHA, Wis. (CN) — A young woman who as a preteen attempted to kill her friend at the behest of an online horror meme was denied her bid to be released from a Wisconsin mental health facility on Thursday.

Morgan Geyser, 21, asked to be released from the Winnebago Mental Health Institution, where she has been confined since 2018 after being convicted not guilty by reason of insanity for the 2014 near-fatal stabbing of her friend Payton Leutner. The crime sparked sensational global headlines and the HBO documentary “Beware the Slenderman.”

Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Michael Bohren — the same judge who presided over the case’s original high-profile trial and sentenced both Geyser and co-defendant Anissa Weier — ultimately decided Thursday that Geyser still presents too much risk to be released into an inpatient treatment center or group home.

Citing the clear-and-convincing evidence standard and weighing Geyser’s liberty interest against the public’s safety interest, Bohren said that the hands-on brutality of the crime, the unknowns regarding Geyser’s support system and living arrangements pending release, and issues of credibility surrounding Geyser's self-reported mental status meant that “the scales tip in favor of the public.”

Geyser appeared in court for both days of her release hearing. Unlike on Wednesday, when she wore shackles and orange jail garb, she was unshackled and in street clothes on Thursday. After Bohren issued his decision, which remanded her back to the Winnebago facility, she was quietly escorted out of the courtroom.

Geyser and Weier stabbed Leutner in the woods near Geyser’s home in Waukesha on the morning of May 31, 2014, after the three friends, then all 12 years old, had a sleepover together.

The girls said they were compelled to try to commit the murder to appease and protect their families from Slenderman — a faceless fictional boogeyman that circulated on social media and horror forums in 2009. The character’s mythology includes kidnapping children and stalking darkened woods with his paranormal psychological powers.

Leutner survived with 19 stab wounds requiring several surgeries and a weeklong hospitalization. Geyser and Weier said they were walking to Slenderman’s mansion in the Wisconsin Northwoods about 300 miles away when they were apprehended by sheriff’s deputies hours after the attack.

Geyser, considered the ringleader of the attack she planned with Weier months ahead of time, was sentenced to 40 years’ initial confinement at the Winnebago facility. Her appeals to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals and Wisconsin Supreme Court failed.

Geyser claimed in her proposed release plan that her mental condition is on a positive trajectory following years of treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety and other conditions in part brought on by childhood sexual abuse by her now-deceased schizophrenic father.

The now-21-year-old withdrew two previous petitions for release after court-appointed doctors examined her and weighed against her release. Under state law, she can petition for release every six months.

During both days of her release hearing, Geyser’s lawyers, Anthony Cotton and Bradley Novreske, highlighted the positives of their client’s recovery, including no recurrence of psychotic symptoms since she stopped taking anti-psychotic medication more than a year ago.

During testimony, however, two psychologists who examined Geyser did not support her release from custody in response to questioning from attorneys for the state. Their opposition largely focused on evidence of the defendant’s continued mental instability and the fact that she recently — and, in their opinion, spuriously — claimed she faked her previous schizophrenia diagnosis, which was removed last year.

Both doctors, Deborah Collins and Brooke Lindbohm, said Geyser’s lack of credibility made hers a difficult case.

They both agreed, however, that there was no evidence that Geyser was malingering or faked symptoms to avoid responsibility for her crime. They noted that overall, her treatment has gone well since a serious suicide attempt in October 2021.

Another doctor, Kenneth Robbins, testified for the defense in support of Geyser’s release on Thursday. He said Geyser “has improved quite dramatically” and that the socialization and independence she needs to continue her recovery “are things Winnebago can no longer provide in an effective way.”

Robbins said he does not believe it would have been possible for Geyser to fake her now-receded psychosis symptoms. He does not know of any doctor at Winnebago who believes she did, he added.

Also testifying Thursday was Dr. Kayla Pope, the medical director at the Winnebago facility. In her testimony, she agreed with Robbins that there is nothing more Winnebago can do to make Geyser more safe to herself and others.

In his closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney Ted Szczupakiewicz noted that Leutner — not Geyser — was the victim in the violent case. He added that the Leutner’s family is vehemently opposed to Geyser’s release.

Szczupakiewicz also said “it’s not clear Morgan was a victim of her father,” since the only evidence of her sexual abuse is her own reporting of it.

The state’s attorney gave more weight to Collins’ and Linbohm’s medical opinions, but he pointed out that they agreed on Geyser’s progress.

“Both recognize the improvement Morgan has made and admit that release will happen,"he said. "She’s just not there yet."

In the end, Bohren was concerned by the shift in focus of Geyser’s crime and motivations from Slenderman to her father, as well as by questions surrounding defendant’s true mental state and diagnoses.

“The credibility of the reporter is exceptionally important,” the judge said — especially since doctors largely rely on self-reporting to understand the inner lives of patients like Geyser.

Weier, now 22, was given 25 years’ confinement at the same facility as Geyser, but she successfully petitioned for release into her father’s custody in 2021. Two years later, upon the recommendation of the state Department of Corrections, Bohren removed her from 24/7 GPS monitoring — though she is still under some state supervision and has restrictions on her movement.

Follow @cnsjkelly

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