A Wisconsin woman who repeatedly stabbed a friend to impress a fictional character known as Slender Man and fled a group home last month will not contest the state’s efforts to keep her at a psychiatric facility where she had been previously held, her lawyer said on Wednesday.
The woman, Morgan Geyser, 23, stabbed her friend more than a dozen times in 2014 to gain favor with the villainous fictional character that had become an internet meme. She was sentenced to 40 years in a psychiatric facility in 2018, but she was granted a conditional release from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute earlier this year. Then, last month, she cut off a Department of Corrections monitoring bracelet and left the group home. Ms. Geyser was taken into custody a day later.
Anthony Cotton, Ms. Geyser’s lawyer, said that given her escape from the group home, “there really wasn’t a scenario where we felt that she would win that hearing so we decided to not contest it.”
Mr. Cotton said that his client would return to the facility and continue to get treatment, adding that she “can petition for release from that hospital when we feel she’s ready.”
The decision not to contest the state’s attempt to revoke her release privileges has no impact on the 40-year commitment order, Mr. Cotton said, and Ms. Geyser “can always petition to be released from the mental hospital back to the community.”
“If in six months she thinks she’s better, we can petition for release,” he said.
The district attorney’s office in Waukesha County, Wis., said on Wednesday that its statement following Ms. Geyser’s late November escape remained the same. At the time, Lesli Boese, the district attorney, said that Ms. Geyser’s actions “only reinforce our position that a conditional release is not appropriate at this time.”
The stabbing made headlines when details of the assault first emerged. Ms. Geyser was charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide after she and a classmate, Anissa Weier, lured their friend Payton Leutner, all of whom were 12 at the time, into a wooded area in Waukesha, Wis., in 2014. Ms. Geyser stabbed Ms. Leutner 19 times with a kitchen knife while Ms. Weier watched and urged her on.
Ms. Leutner managed to crawl out of the area and was found by a cyclist. She survived her injuries after several months of recovery.
Both Ms. Geyser and Ms. Weier later told the authorities that they had carried out the stabbing to appease the fictional character of Slender Man.
Ms. Geyser was sentenced to 40 years in a psychiatric hospital after lawyers and doctors said she was delusional as a result of schizophrenia and psychotic spectrum disorder.
Her accomplice, Ms. Weier, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to 25 years in a psychiatric hospital. She was released in 2021 to live with her father and remain under electronic monitoring. In September 2023, Judge Michael O. Bohren, of Waukesha County Circuit Court, allowed the removal of her monitoring device.
Mr. Cotton, Ms. Geyser’s lawyer, said that his client “made a bad decision when she was struggling mentally and now the consequence is pretty extreme,” noting that now she “loses her freedom and goes back to an institution.”
Aimee Ortiz covers breaking news and other topics.
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