Wisconsin woman in 2014 Slender Man stabbing is found a day after walking away from group home

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The search for a missing Wisconsin woman who almost killed her sixth-grade classmate more than a decade ago to please horror character Slender Man ended Sunday night when police discovered her sleeping outside an Illinois truck stop.

Morgan Geyser, 23, was found at a truck stop in Posen, Illinois, police said early Monday. Posen is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Chicago and about 170 miles (274 kilometers) south of Madison, Wisconsin.

The Madison Police Department said Sunday that Geyser had cut off her electronic monitoring device and left her group home on the capital city’s west side. She was last seen around 8 p.m. Saturday with an adult acquaintance, the department said.

Geyser was found with a 42-year-old man who was charged with criminal trespassing and obstructing identification, Posen police said. He has since been released from custody. Geyser was expected to appear in court in Cook County on Tuesday morning for a hearing on extradition to Wisconsin.

Posen police posted a Facebook statement Monday morning saying officers were dispatched to the truck stop for 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 gave officers a false name and repeatedly refused to provide her real name, the statement said. She finally told them that she didn’t want to tell them who she was 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 being granted conditional release from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. She was sent to the psychiatric institute in 2018 after pleading guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide in a deal with prosecutors to avoid prison. The stabbing happened in 2014.

Prosecutors had urged the judge not to approve the release of Geyser from the mental health institute, saying that she couldn’t be trusted.

Geyser’s attorney, Tony Cotton, had said that he did not know what happened with his client. He told The Associated Press in an email Monday morning that he had not yet spoken with Geyser and did not know what the circumstances of her departure were.

The Madison Police Department said Sunday that it was not made aware 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 told she was not there and had removed the bracelet, Madison police said.

The Department of Corrections issued an apprehension request just after midnight. The Madison Police Department said it did not learn 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 tried to block her release in March, telling the judge that Geyser didn’t volunteer to her therapy team that she had read “Rent Boy,” a novel about murder and selling organs on the black market. They also alleged that she has been communicating with a man who collects murder memorabilia, and has sent him her own sketch of a decapitated body and a postcard saying she wants to be intimate with him.

Cotton, Geyser’s attorney, defended her actions, saying she only reads what staff allows and Geyser cut off communication with the collector last year. Prior to 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 proceeded with her release.

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 egged her on. Leutner barely survived.

The girls later told investigators that they attacked Leutner to earn the right to be Slender Man’s servants and they feared he’d harm their families if they didn’t follow through.

Slender Man was created online by Eric Knudson 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.

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, said in a statement Sunday that Payton Leutner was safe.

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McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire.