MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The search for a missing Wisconsin woman who almost killed her sixth-grade classmate more than a decade ago to please horror character Slender Man ended Sunday night when police discovered her sleeping outside an Illinois truck stop.
Morgan Geyser, 23, was found at a truck stop in Posen, Illinois, police said early Monday. Posen is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Chicago and about 170 miles (274 kilometers) south of Madison.
The Madison Police Department said Sunday that Geyser had cut off her electronic monitoring device and left her group home on the capital city's west side. She was last seen around 8 p.m. Saturday with an adult acquaintance, the department said.
Geyser was found with a 42-year-old man who was charged with criminal trespassing and obstructing identification, Posen police said. He has since been released from custody. Geyser was expected to appear in court in Cook County on Tuesday morning for a hearing on extradition to Wisconsin.
Geyser’s attorney, Tony Cotton, had said that he did not know what happened with his client. He told The Associated Press in an email Monday morning that he had not yet spoken with Geyser and did not know what the circumstances of her departure were.
Sleeping on the sidewalk
Posen police posted a Facebook statement Monday morning saying officers were dispatched to the truck stop for a report of a male and female loitering behind the building. When officers arrived, they found Geyser and the man sleeping on the sidewalk.
Geyser initially gave officers a false name and repeatedly refused to provide her real name, the statement said. She finally told them that she didn't want to tell them who she was because she had “done something really bad” and suggested they could “just Google” her. Officers took her and the man into custody without incident.
State opposed Geyser release
Geyser pleaded guilty in 2017 to being a party to attempted first-degree intentional homicide in connection with the 2014 attack on her classmate, Payton Leutner. Geyser claimed, though, that she wasn't responsible because she was mentally ill. Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren ordered her committed to a psychiatric hospital for 40 years and she was sent to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute.
Wisconsin law allows people who are committed in criminal cases to petition for release every six months. Geyser petitioned four times before Bohren finally signed off in January. Prosecutors urged the judge not to approve the release, saying that she couldn’t be trusted.
The state Department of Health Services, which runs the mental health institution and is responsible for Geyser, tried to block Bohren's decision in March. Agency officials told the judge that Geyser didn’t tell her therapy team that she had read “Rent Boy,” a novel about murder and selling organs on the black market. They also alleged that she had been communicating with a man who collects murder memorabilia and sent him her own sketch of a decapitated body as well as a postcard saying she wants to be intimate with him.
Cotton, Geyser’s attorney, defended her actions, saying she only read what staff allowed and Geyser cut off communication with the collector last year. Prior to that, he had visited her three times, Cotton said.
“Morgan is not more dangerous today,” Cotton said at the March court hearing.
The judge concluded that Geyser wasn’t trying to hide anything. She was ultimately released after a final plan was signed in September and placed in the Madison group home.
Police say state never notified them of Geyser's disappearance
The Madison Police Department said Sunday that it was not made aware that Geyser was missing until nearly 12 hours after she left the group home. The state Department of Corrections received an alert Saturday night that Geyser's ankle monitor had malfunctioned. The department contacted the group home where she lived about two hours later and was told she was not there and had removed the bracelet, Madison police said.
The Department of Corrections issued an apprehension request just after midnight. The Madison Police Department said it did not learn Geyser was missing until someone from the group home called the next morning.
The state Department of Health Services, which contracts with Corrections to care for convicts undergoing mental health treatment in state facilities such as Winnebago, said in an email responding to the police department's comments that the apprehension request is an arrest warrant. Once a warrant is issued, all law enforcement in the state is on official notice that the individual must be apprehended, according to the health department.
Attack designed to curry favor with Slender Man
Authorities say Geyser and her friend, Anissa Weier, also 12, lured Leutner to a suburban Milwaukee park after a sleepover. Geyser stabbed Leutner more than a dozen times while Weier egged her on. Leutner barely survived.
The girls later told investigators that they attacked Leutner to earn the right to be Slender Man’s servants and they feared he’d harm their families if they didn’t follow through.
Slender Man was created online by Eric Knudson in 2009 as a mysterious figure photo-edited into everyday images of children at play. He grew into a popular boogeyman, appearing in video games, online stories and a 2018 movie.
Weier pleaded guilty to being a party to attempted second-degree intentional homicide but not guilty by reason of mental disease, similar to Geyser's plea. She was also sent to the psychiatric center and granted release in 2021.
Steve Lyons, a spokesperson for the Leutner family, said in a statement Sunday that Payton Leutner was safe. Waukesha County District Attorney Lesli Boese said during a news conference Monday that no one notified the family that Geyser was on the loose until the victim-witness coordinator from her office contacted them on Sunday morning.
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McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writer Scott Bauer in Madison contributed to this report.