A Wisconsin woman who stabbed a classmate 19 times to appease the fictional “Slender Man” has escaped from her group home and fled across state lines, exposing dangerous gaps in our mental health supervision system that put innocent communities at risk.
Story Snapshot
Morgan Geyser escaped from a Wisconsin group home and was captured in Illinois after a 12-hour delay in notification.
Her accomplice friend was charged with obstruction for giving a false identity to the police during the arrest.
An ankle monitor malfunction went undetected for hours, highlighting failures in the system for tracking dangerous individuals.
Geyser will return to the psychiatric hospital after being released earlier this year following a 7-year commitment.
System Failures Enable Dangerous Escape
Morgan Geyser’s escape from a Madison, Wisconsin, group home on Saturday evening revealed alarming deficiencies in monitoring protocols for violent offenders. The Wisconsin Department of Corrections received an ankle monitor malfunction alert Saturday night but waited two hours before contacting the facility. Madison Police weren’t notified until nearly 12 hours after her disappearance, creating a dangerous window where a convicted attempted murderer roamed freely across state lines.
CHARGED: The friend of the woman who stabbed a classmate to please the fictional character Slender Man has been charged with obstruction.
Posen police arrested Geyser and her 42-year-old companion Sunday night at a Thorntons truck stop after receiving reports of loitering. Officers found the pair sleeping on sidewalks after traveling 170 miles from Madison to the Chicago suburbs. Geyser initially provided false identification, telling officers she had “done something really bad” and suggesting they “just Google” her. Her friend was charged with obstruction for giving the police a false identity during the arrest.
Lenient Release Program Backfires Spectacularly
Geyser had been living in the group home following her release earlier this year from Winnebago Mental Health Institute, where she spent seven years after her 2014 conviction. Three experts testified she had made progress battling mental illness, leading to her placement in a less restrictive environment. This premature release decision has now backfired, with Geyser expected to return to the psychiatric facility following her extradition hearing in Cook County.
Brutal 2014 Attack Shocked Nation
The original crime that landed Geyser in psychiatric care horrified America when details emerged. Geyser and accomplice Anissa Weier, all age 12, lured classmate Payton Leutner to a Waukesha park following a sleepover. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier encouraged the attack, believing they needed to become servants of the fictional internet character “Slender Man.” Leutner barely survived the brutal assault, while the attackers fled toward Interstate 94 before arrest.
Public Safety Concerns Mount
This incident raises serious questions about Wisconsin’s approach to violent offenders and mental health supervision. Geyser received a 40-year psychiatric commitment in 2018 after pleading guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide. The monitoring system’s failure to immediately detect and respond to her escape puts communities at risk and undermines confidence in rehabilitation programs. Citizens deserve better protection from individuals with histories of extreme violence, regardless of claimed mental health progress.
