After eight years in a psychiatric institution, 22-year-old Morgan Geyser will be released after her involvement in the 2014 ‘Slender Man’ attack that shocked Wisconsin. A Waukesha County judge approved her conditional release after a lengthy legal review that included expert testimony on her mental health and prosecutors’ concerns regarding her potential placement near her victim’s family.
Geyser, who was 12 years old at the time of the attack, confessed to the crime and was committed to a mental health facility in 2017. Her release was initially approved but faced delays due to concerns raised by the victim’s family and legal objections. The judge required the Department of Health Services to develop a revised resettlement plan, which was eventually approved, paving the way for Geyser’s conditional release.
The decision follows a comprehensive legal process that considered Geyser’s mental health status and the safety concerns raised by the victim’s mother, who expressed worries about her being placed in a group home approximately 8 miles from their home. Mental health professionals testified in favor of her release, leading to the judge’s initial approval. However, the prosecutors opposed the release based on the potential risk associated with her proximity to her victim’s family.
The ‘Slender Man’ phenomenon, which originated as an online myth in 2009, became a focal point of a real-life tragedy when Geyser and her co-defendant Anissa Weier decided to attack their friend Peyton Leutner as part of a bizarre plan involving the fictional character. Leutner survived the attack, which left her critically injured after being stabbed 19 times during a sleepover in 2014. Geyser and Weier were both 12 at the time of the incident, and they were placed under mental health supervision following their guilty pleas.
In 2017, Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide, arguing that she was not responsible due to her mental illness. She was sentenced in 2018 to a maximum of 40 years of state mental health supervision. Weier also pleaded guilty to being a party to attempted second-degree intentional homicide and was sentenced to 25 years in a mental hospital, later being released in 2021 under specific conditions.