Missing Wisconsin woman in Slender Man case found at Illinois truck stop
The search for a missing Wisconsin woman who nearly killed her sixth-grade classmate more than a decade ago to please the horror character Slender Man ended Sunday night when police found her sleeping outside an Illinois truck stop.
Morgan Geyser, 23, was located at a truck stop in Posen, Illinois, police reported early Monday. Posen is approximately 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Chicago and roughly 170 miles (274 kilometers) south of Madison, Wisconsin.
The Madison Police Department stated Sunday that Geyser had removed her electronic monitoring device and left her group home on the west side of the capital city. She was last seen around 8 p.m. Saturday with an adult acquaintance, according to the department.
Geyser was found with a 42-year-old man who was charged with criminal trespassing and obstructing identification, said Posen police. He has since been released from custody. Geyser was expected to appear in court in Cook County on Tuesday morning for a hearing about extradition to Wisconsin.
Posen police shared a Facebook statement Monday morning stating officers were dispatched to the truck stop following a report of a male and female loitering behind the building. When officers arrived, they found Geyser and the man sleeping on the sidewalk.
Geyser initially provided officers with a false name and repeatedly refused to reveal her real name, the statement said. She eventually admitted that she didn’t want to disclose her identity because she had "done something really bad" and suggested they could "just Google" her. Officers took her and the man into custody without incident.
Geyser was placed in a group home this year after receiving conditional release from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. She was sent to the psychiatric facility in 2018 after pleading guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide in an agreement with prosecutors to avoid prison. The stabbing occurred in 2014.
Prosecutors had urged the judge not to approve Geyser’s release from the mental health institute, claiming she couldn’t be trusted.
Geyser’s attorney, Tony Cotton, mentioned that he did not know what happened with his client. He informed The Associated Press in an email Monday morning that he had not yet spoken with Geyser and was unaware of the circumstances surrounding her departure.
The Madison Police Department stated Sunday that it was not informed that Geyser was missing until nearly 12 hours after she left the group home. The state Department of Corrections received an alert Saturday night that Geyser’s ankle monitor had malfunctioned. The department contacted the group home where she lived about two hours later and was informed she was not there and had removed the bracelet, according to Madison police.
The Department of Corrections issued an apprehension request just after midnight. The Madison Police Department said it was not aware Geyser was missing until someone from the group home called the next morning. The corrections department did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
State health officials attempted to block her release in March, telling the judge that Geyser didn’t disclose to her therapy team that she had read "Rent Boy," a novel about murder and selling organs on the black market. They also claimed that she had been communicating with a man who collects murder memorabilia and had sent him her own sketch of a decapitated body along with a postcard saying she wanted to be intimate with him.
Cotton, Geyser’s attorney, defended her actions, stating she only reads what staff permits and that Geyser ended communication with the collector last year. Before that, he had visited her three times, Cotton said.
"Morgan is not more dangerous today," Cotton said at the March court hearing.
The judge concluded that Geyser wasn’t trying to hide anything and allowed her release to proceed.
Authorities say Geyser and her friend, Anissa Weier, also 12, lured their classmate, Payton Leutner, to a suburban Milwaukee park after a sleepover. Geyser stabbed Leutner more than a dozen times while Weier encouraged her. Leutner barely survived.
The girls later told investigators that they attacked Leutner to gain the right to be Slender Man’s servants and feared he would harm their families if they didn’t comply.
Slender Man was created online by Eric Knudson in 2009 as a mysterious figure photo-edited into ordinary images of children at play. He evolved into a popular boogeyman, appearing in video games, online stories, and a 2018 movie.
Weier pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide. She was also sent to the psychiatric center and granted release in 2021.
Steve Lyons, a spokesperson for the Leutner family, stated on Sunday that Payton Leutner was safe.
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