Slender Man attacker won’t contest state’s effort to revoke release privileges after escape

A Wisconsin woman who almost killed her sixth-grade classmate to please horror villain Slender Man and then fled a group home won’t fight the state’s attempt to revoke her release privileges.

Waukesha County Circuit Judge Scott Wagner signed off on a plan in July to release 23-year-old Morgan Geyser from a state psychiatric hospital where she had spent the last seven years and place her in a Madison group home on GPS monitoring.

The state Department of Health Services opposed her release, arguing that Geyser couldn’t be trusted. Authorities say she cut her GPS monitor off on Nov. 22 and fled the state with a 43-year-old companion. Police arrested them the next day at a truck stop outside Chicago, about 170 miles (274 kilometers) south of Madison.

State health officials filed a sealed petition with Wagner on Nov. 25 asking him to revoke Geyser’s release privileges. Geyser’s attorney, Tony Cotton, sent a letter to the judge on Tuesday saying that he had discussed “the allegations in detail” with her and she has decided to to contest the petition and he had notified prosecutors. He did not elaborate further and declined to comment when reached via email on Wednesday.

The decision clears the way for Wagner to send Geyser back to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. The state Department of Health Services runs the institute.

Geyser and her friend, Anissa Weier, lured one of their classmates, Payton Leutner, to a Waukesha park in 2014. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times, narrowly missing her heart, while Weier cheered her on. Leutner barely survived the attack. All three girls were 12 years old at the time.

Geyser and Weier later told investigators they attacked Leutner in hopes of impressing Slender Man. They wanted to earn the right to be his servants and ensure that Slender Man didn’t hurt their families, the girls said. Both of them were ultimately committed to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute — Geyser for 40 years and Weier for 25 years. Weier earned conditional release in 2021.

Geyser’s companion called WKOW-TV the day after police found them in Illinois. The person said the two became friends at church and seen each other daily for the past month. Geyser decided to flee because she was afraid the group would no longer allow them to see each other, the person said.

Slender Man was created online by Eric Knudsen in 2009 as a mysterious figure photo-edited into everyday images of children at play. He grew into a popular boogeyman, appearing in video games, online stories and a 2018 movie.