The Slender Man case, one of the most haunting crimes of the internet age, has taken another grim turn.
Morgan Geyser, the Wisconsin woman who nearly killed her sixth-grade classmate in 2014 to appease the fictional horror figure Slender Man, will not contest the state’s effort to revoke her conditional release after she fled a supervised group home last month.
Geyser’s attorney informed Waukesha County Circuit Judge Scott Wagner this week that his client would not fight a sealed petition filed by the state Department of Health Services seeking to strip her of release privileges. The decision clears the way for Geyser, now 23, to be returned to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, where she spent the past seven years.
Wagner had approved a plan in July allowing Geyser to leave the state psychiatric hospital and live in a Madison group home under strict conditions, including GPS monitoring. State officials opposed the move from the start, warning that she could not be trusted outside a secure facility.
Their concerns appeared to be realized on Nov. 22, when authorities say Geyser cut off her GPS monitor and fled Wisconsin with a 43-year-old companion. The pair were arrested the following day at a truck stop outside Chicago, roughly 170 miles south of Madison.
Health officials moved quickly, filing a petition just days later asking the court to revoke her release. Geyser’s lawyer, Tony Cotton, said he reviewed the allegations “in detail” with her and notified prosecutors of her decision not to contest the action. He declined to elaborate further.
If Judge Wagner formally revokes her release, Geyser will return to Winnebago, which is operated by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
The case dates back more than a decade, when Geyser and her friend Anissa Weier lured their classmate, Payton Leutner, into a wooded park in Waukesha. All three girls were just 12 years old.
There, Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier encouraged her. One wound narrowly missed Leutner’s heart. Bleeding and barely alive, the girl managed to crawl from the woods and survived.
Geyser and Weier later told investigators they carried out the attack to please Slender Man, a faceless fictional entity born on the internet. They believed the violence would make them his servants and protect their families from his wrath.
Both girls were found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect and committed to Winnebago — Geyser for up to 40 years, Weier for up to 25. Weier received conditional release in 2021.
The companion who fled with Geyser told WKOW-TV that the two met at church and had been seeing each other daily. According to the account, Geyser panicked and ran after fearing group home staff would separate them.
Morgan Geyser leaves the court after she is sentenced to 40 years of institutional confinement at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. Slenderman 01ofx Wood
Slender Man, the figure at the center of the crime, was created in 2009 as part of an online horror contest. What began as a digital myth evolved into games, films, and folklore — and, in Waukesha, a very real act of violence.
Now, more than 10 years later, the story continues to follow a familiar path: fear, control, and a return to confinement.
For the victim who survived, the reminder is chilling. For the state, the conclusion is blunt. The experiment in freedom is over.
