Woman in 2014 Slender Man stabbing taken into custody in Illinois after fleeing group home

One of the two women who stabbed a classmate nearly to death in 2014 to please the online horror character Slender Man was taken into custody in Illinois late Sunday night, Madison, Wisconsin, police reported.

Morgan Geyser went missing sometime Saturday night after leaving a group home and cutting off her Department of Corrections monitoring bracelet.

Geyser was last seen in the area of Kroncke Drive around 8 p.m. with an adult acquaintance, Madison police spokesperson officer Stephanie Fryer said in a statement Sunday morning. Madison police said they weren't notified of her disappearance until Sunday morning and asked that anyone who sees Geyser call 911.

Madison police said she was taken into custody in Illinois an update to their report about 10:30 p.m. Sunday. No details were provided on how and where she was found, what she had been doing after leaving the group home, or why she went AWOL.

The Associated Press reported that Geyser was found at a truck stop in Posen, Illinois, citing confirmation by the Posen Police Department. Posen is about 25 miles south of Chicago. The community is about 170 miles south of Madison.

Geyser’s attorney, Tony Cotton, earlier Sunday said that he did not know what happened with his client and urged Geyser to turn herself in, AP said.

Geyser was convicted, along with her friend Anissa Weier, in 2018 of stabbing classmate Payton Leutner in 2014.

In a timeline posted to the Madison police website Sunday evening, police said, the state Department of Corrections was alerted that Geyser's GPS bracelet was malfunctioning about 9:30 p.m. Saturday. The DOC made contact with the group home about two hours later and issued an "apprehension request" for Geyser around midnight, but that was never relayed to police. Police did not learn of her disappearance until someone from the group home called to report her missing, shortly before 8 a.m. Sunday. 

Geyser, 23, was placed in the group home this year after being granted conditional release from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, where she had been sent in 2018 after pleading guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide.

In July, a Waukesha County Circuit Judge signed off on Geyser’s release with plans to send her to a facility in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. She was later rejected from that facility due to the “publicity surrounding the placement,” according to a letter from Geyser’s attorney Anthony Cotton.

“It’s in her best interest for her to turn herself in immediately and not continue with this course of action,” Cotton said in an Instagram video post in which he addressed Geyser directly at times. “We don’t know any of the facts about what happened or who might have assisted her.”

Authorities say Geyser and her friend, Weier, were 12 years old when they lured their classmate, 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 attempted second-degree intentional homicide. She was also sent to the psychiatric center and was granted release in 2021.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.