Slender Man attack as child seeks release from psychiatric institute

By The Associated Press

FILE - Morgan Geyser enters a Waukesha County courtroom for a status hearing, Sept. 29, 2017, in Waukesha, Wis. Geyser, one of two Wisconsin women accused of stabbing a classmate nearly to death almost a decade ago to please horror character Slender Man, again asked a judge on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024, to release her from a mental institution. The judge has set a scheduling conference on the request for Monday, Jan. 29. (Michael Sears/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP, Pool, File)

WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge had a hearing scheduled for Monday in the case of a woman who wants to be released from a mental institution that she was committed to after she pleaded guilty to repeatedly stabbing a sixth-grade classmate in order to please the horror character Slender Man.

This marks the second time that Morgan Geyser, now 21, has asked a judge to release her from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. She made a similar request for conditional release in 2022 but withdrew the petition two months after filing it.

Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren set a scheduling conference for Monday on Geyser’s request to be released, which she submitted on Jan. 16. Geyser asked the judge to order a new round of medical tests and grant her conditional release if the results are favorable.

Geyser and Anissa Weier were 12 years old in 2014 when they lured sixth-grade classmate Payton Leutner to a Waukesha park after a sleepover. Geyser stabbed Leutner repeatedly while Weier egged her on. Leutner suffered 19 stab wounds and barely survived, according to medical staff who treated her.

The girls left Leutner for dead but she crawled onto a bike path and was found by a passerby. Police captured Geyser and Weier later that day as they were walking on Interstate 94 in Waukesha. They told investigators that they stabbed Leutner to earn the right to become Slender Man’s servants and protect their families from him.

Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide in a deal with prosecutors and a judge sent her to the psychiatric institute after determining she had a mental illness.

Weier pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide and was also sent to the psychiatric facility after a jury found she was suffering from a mental illness at the time of the attack.

Weier was granted a conditional release in 2021 to live with her father and was ordered to wear a GPS monitor.