Woman committed to mental institution in Slender Man attack again requests release

WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — One of two Wisconsin women accused of stabbing a classmate nearly to death almost a decade ago to please internet horror character Slender Man is again asking a judge to release her from a mental institution.

Morgan Geyser, now 21, petitioned Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren on Jan. 16 to order a new round of medical tests and grant her conditional release from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute if the results are favorable, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The judge has set a scheduling conference on the request for Monday.

Geyser’s attorney, Tony Cotton, who has represented her since 2014, told the Journal Sentinel on Friday that Geyser “has made great strides” while under treatment.

Geyser filed a similar request for conditional release in 2022 but withdrew the petition two months after filing it.

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 urged her on.

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 Winnebago Mental Health 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.