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Morgan Geyser went missing from Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, with an adult acquaintance at around 8 p.m. Saturday
Alex CroftMonday 24 November 2025 09:03 GMT
CloseSlender Man stabbing: Morgan Geyser missing
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One of the two people convicted in the 2014 Slender Man stabbing has been found and taken into custody after she went missing over the weekend, police have confirmed to The Independent.
Morgan Geyser, who was granted conditional release earlier this year, cut off her monitoring bracelet and fled a group home in Sun Prairie, a suburb of Madison, Wisconsin, police said. She was seen with an adult acquaintance around 8 p.m. Saturday.
She was later found with another person at a truck stop in Posen, Illinois, more than 170 miles from the home, police said. The Madison Police Department said they received notice at 10:34 p.m. Sunday that authorities in Illinois had detained Geyser.
open image in galleryMorgan Geyser and Anissa Weier were both arrested after the attempted murder of their friend Payton Leutner (Waukesha Police Department)Geyser, now 23, was placed in the group home to continue treatment for a psychotic spectrum disorder. Along with co-defendant Anissa Weier, she was charged with attempted homicide in the 2014 stabbing attack of their friend, Payton Leutner.
In 2014, when Geyser and Weier were both 12 years old, they lured Leutner, also 12, into a wooded area in Waukesha, not far from Milwaukee, and stabbed her 19 times. The girls said they carried out the stabbing to appease the fictional character Slender Man.
Meanwhile, residents in Sun Prairie expressed concerns about Geyser’s placement in the group home.
"I felt like this was done without resident knowledge, when, obviously, Sun Prairie did get the knowledge," one resident, who did not want to be named, told WKOW.
"I think everyone deserves a chance to get into society and live their life. But we also deserve the knowledge of, hey, maybe take a second look. You know, when you lock your doors at night," said another resident.
open image in galleryMorgan Geyser appears in a Waukesha County courtroom Jan. 9, 2025, in Waukesha, Wis. (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)Neighbours also noted that she had gone missing at 8 p.m. on Saturday, and Madison police were not notified until the following Sunday morning.
"It's mostly anger that we weren't told. And it feels like Meadowood neighborhood a lot of times gets a bad rap, but it's a great neighborhood," another said.
During the attack, the Geyser and Weier forced Leutner to lie down on the ground. Using a kitchen knife she brought from home, Geyser repeatedly stabbed Leutner while Weier egged her on.
Leutner barely survived the attack, according to medical staff who treated her at the time.
Geyser and Weier were arrested later that day as they walked on Interstate 94. They told investigators that they attacked Leutner to earn the right to be Slender Man’s servants and feared he would hurt their families if they didn’t follow through.
They had planned to walk to Slender Man’s mansion in northern Wisconsin following the attack, they said at the time.
open image in galleryDuring the attack, the Geyser and Weier forced Leutner to lie down on the ground. Using a kitchen knife she brought from home, Geyser repeatedly stabbed Leutner while Weier egged her on (Madison Police Department)Both of the girls were found not guilty by reason of mental defect or disease in 2017 and sentenced to mental confinement.
The case drew widespread attention because it fixated on the Slender Man character, created online in 2009 by Eric Knudson as a mysterious specter edited into everyday images of children at play.
Slender Man is typically depicted as a slim, spidery figure in a black suit with a featureless white face.
Weier received a 25-year sentence but was granted conditional release in 2021 under a 25-year commitment order. She was freed from electronic monitoring in 2023.
Meanwhile, Geyser was sentenced to 40 years of mental confinement. She lived in a psychiatric hospital in Oshkosh for seven years and was placed in a group home this year after three experts testified that she had made progress battling her mental illness.
Under the conditions of her release, she was to remain under state supervision with a GPS monitor.
