A Wisconsin woman who was a child when she stabbed a classmate is expected to be free next month after a judge denied the motion to keep her incarcerated.
A judge ruled that Morgan Geyser can be released. She was 12 years old when she and a friend lured classmate Payton Leutner into the woods and stabbed her 19 times to please a fictional horror character "Slenderman."
Geyser is now 22 and has been in a psychiatric hospital since 2017.
Prosecutors argued she should not be released, saying she’s been reading a horror novel and communicating with someone who collects murder memorabilia.
But experts said she’s made progress battling mental illness and her therapist testified that she's been very open and "had no hidden agenda."
CBS 58 Milwaukee reports, Geyser is expected to be released in the coming weeks and she’ll initially stay in a group home. NBC News reported that Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren said that Geyser will still be placed under "substantial supervision," which he said is "in many ways more strict from the rules and restrictions on the person than they would be when she was in the institution from the standpoint of freedom within the confines of the institution."
Anissa Weier, a classmate and friend who participated in the crime but did not stab Leutner, was released in 2021 after four years at Winnebago Mental Health Institute.