The Slender Man Stabber’s application to leave a psychiatric hospital was denied after she failed to convince a judge that she was no longer dangerous.
Morgan Geyser, now 21, was 12 years old when she brutally stabbed her friend Payton Leutner, also 12, nearly 20 times in 2014 in an unhinged plot to appease the online horror character.
She had requested to leave the Winnebago Mental Health Institute on parole, arguing that she had previously faked symptoms of psychosis and was no longer a threat to society.
Despite testimony from two psychiatrists arguing in her favor, Judge Michael Bohren ruled there was “clear and convincing evidence” that Geyser should remain in custody.
Morgan Geyser is pictured in a Milwaukee courtroom Thursday, where two experts warned she was too dangerous to release. A judge agreed and she remains in custody
Geyser’s accomplice Anissa Weier, 19, (pictured) was released from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in 2021 after a judge ruled she is no longer a threat to anyone
Payton Leutner was almost killed in 2014 at the age of 12, after Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier stabbed her in a Milwaukee forest and then claimed that a supernatural figure called the Slender Man told them to do so
Geyser appeared in court Thursday in handcuffs, wearing a new look with a partially shaved head and a ghostly expression on her face.
In 2014, she was ordered to spend 40 years in a psychiatric hospital after the insane attack on Leutner.
She and her friend Anissa Weier lured Leutner during a sleepover to a wooded area in suburban Milwaukee, where Geyser stabbed her 19 times as Weier egged her on.
Geyser stabbed her in the arms, legs and torso, hitting major arteries and severing her diaphragm. The two attackers then told Leutner to lie down while they received help, leaving her for dead before Leutner was found by a cyclist.
They claimed they were motivated by the supernatural figure ‘Slender Man’, leading to a moral panic over possible copycat attacks as the character swept the internet.
Both Geyser and Weier told detectives that they felt they had to kill Leutner to become Slender Man’s “proxies” or servants, and that the character would kill their families if they didn’t follow through.
Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and was initially diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorder.
The girls claimed they carried out the attack to become servants of the fictional horror character Slender Man (pictured in artwork above)
Geiser pictured in 2014 in her mugshot after the notoriously brutal attack
Weier seen in her 2014 mugshot after she and Geyser stabbed Payton Leutner 19 times
However, she has been off antipsychotic medications since 2022 and her doctors claimed she recovered without new symptoms in her request for parole, reports Fox8Live.
Dr. Ken Robbins, who advised her to move to a supervised group home, testified that she has “improved quite dramatically.”
“The kinds of things that I think Morgan needs — help with socialization, help with education, help with becoming independent — are things that Winnebago can no longer provide in an effective way,” he said.
Dr. Kayla Pope, medical director of the Winnebago Hospital where Geyser has been staying since 2018, also advocated for her release.
“She has actively participated in therapy, medication management and all treatments available,” Pope said. “At this time she can safely return to the community. I don’t know if there’s much more that can be done to make her safer.”
However, other psychiatrists opposed her release, as they felt she still posed a threat to society.
“I believe with a reasonable degree of professional certainty that she currently faces a significant risk of physical harm to herself or others if released on parole,” said Dr. Deborah Collins.
Another psychologist, Dr Brooke Lundbohm, told the court: ‘That would be quite remarkable. That would also be very insensitive,” according to Geyser’s claim that she had previously faked symptoms of psychosis.
Both Geyser and Weier told detectives that they felt they had to kill Leutner to become Slender Man’s “proxies” or servants, and that the character would kill their families if they didn’t follow through. (photo: Geyser in court on Wednesday)
Psychologist Dr Deborah Collins told the court Geyser was still too dangerous to release
Collins added that if she had to estimate when she thought Geyser could be released from the hospital, it would be within six to 12 months.
“I know she’s not ready right now,” Collins said.
“We have problems with being able to reliably rely on her own self-assessment,” Lundbohm added.
“If the person doesn’t have an understanding of his or her mental health condition, the potential warning signs, the triggers that could cause decline, don’t have an understanding of the type of treatment that might be helpful — that raises a lot of concerns,” Lundbohm testified. .
Judge Bohren said he was still troubled by Geyser’s changing stories about the attack. He claimed he faked her psychosis and said the stabbing was part of a plan to escape her allegedly abusive father, who is now dead.
‘Her credibility is at stake. She has changed her position,” Bohren said. “Until that credibility issue is resolved, the risk is high,” he added.
After the hearing, Geyser’s attorney Tony Cotton argued that she had not changed her story and that the stabbing was due to a trauma-related mental disorder rather than schizophrenia.
“Time will tell that she is a healthy and stable individual who should be released into the community. Time has shown that,” he said.
Geyser admitted that he manipulated Weier into believing in Slender Man.
Weier was previously granted parole from a mental institution in 2021.
Since then she has lived with her father, under surveillance with a GPS monitor.
Geyser seen at a previous court appearance in September 2017. She has been in some form of custody since her arrest in 2014
Reacting to the brutal crime, Eric Knudsen, who created Slender Man in 2009, said he was “deeply saddened” when he heard about it.
“I am deeply saddened by the tragedy in Wisconsin and my heart goes out to the families of those affected by this terrible act,” Knudsen said.
Leutner first spoke about the horrific ordeal, which left her traumatized for months and covered with 25 scars, for the first time last fall in a docuseries called Inside The Verdict: Slender Man.
She described how Geyser told her during the attack, “Don’t be afraid. I’m just a little cat.’
The girls then fled the woods, leaving Leutner for dead.
They later told investigators they believed Leutner would not survive.
“So we told her we were going to get help, but we really didn’t. We wanted to run away and let her die,” Weier told investigators.
After Geyser detailed the crime in a separate interview, she worried about how much she had revealed.
In an excerpt from her interrogation, she confessed: “I might as well say it: we tried to kill her. Will I regret giving you this information later?’
Both Geyser and Weier apologized for their actions during their sentencing hearings, but the judge determined that neither was mentally fit to be released.