Slender Man case: woman who stabbed classmate to be released from psychiatric hospital
Waukesha county circuit Judge Scott Wagner agreed on Thursday to the conditional release of Morgan Geyser from Winnebago mental health institute, a psychiatric hospital where she has spent the last seven years.
In 2014, Geyser and Anissa Weier lured their friend Payton Leutner to join a game of hide-and-seek in heavily wooded Davids Park near Waukesha, Wisconsin. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times, nearly killing her, while Weier egged her on. All three girls were 12 years old at the time.
Geyser and Weier later told investigators they had committed the crime to appease Slender Man, a thin, unnaturally tall humanoid character that originated as a creepypasta internet meme created by a Something Awful forum user, Eric Knudsen, in 2009.
Five hours after the attack, Weier and Geyser were arrested in a nearby furniture store, still in possession of the knife used in the stabbing, and told police they were going to meet Slender Man at Slender Mansion in a forest 200 miles away.
Geyser later disclosed lifelong visual and auditory hallucinations that included figures she interpreted as ghosts, colors melting down walls, and imaginary friends. Her mother described her as being 'floridly psychotic' and she was later diagnosed with early onset childhood schizophrenia.
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. She was later committed to a psychiatric hospital for 40 years.
Weier pleaded guilty to being a party to attempted second-degree intentional homicide with a dangerous weapon. Like Geyser, she 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.
The case drew widespread attention, in part because the character Slender Man had been photo-edited into everyday images of children at play, creating a disturbing juxtaposition of childhood innocence and the transition to a more complex, adult understanding of reality.
Subsequent efforts to secure Geyer's release from the psychiatric home have taken several turns. Earlier this year, a judge ruled she could be released after three experts testified she has made progress and argued that she did not present a future risk.
But in March, Payton Leutner, the mother of the victim, said the group home that Geyser was to be released to was eight miles away from where she lives. Wisconsin health officials were ordered to come up with a new plan.
State health officials also argued that she didn't volunteer to her therapy team that she had read Rent Boy, a novel about murder and selling organs on the black market, and alleged she had communicated with a man who collects murder memorabilia.
'The state has real concerns these things are, frankly, just red flags at this point,' said Abbey Nickolie, the Waukesha county prosecutor, at the hearing. But Geyser's attorney Tony Cotton described the state's request to keep her in hospital as a 'hit job' and said his client was 'not more dangerous today'.
But Thursday, the plan to release Geyser, which has not been made public, was approved. Geyser's attorney, who did not respond to requests for comment, told the court that his client needs to be involved in the community and needs to 'move on with her life', reported TMJ-TV Milwaukee.
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