Judge sets April hearing on release request from woman involved in Slender Man attack as a child

WAUKESHA, Wis. — A Wisconsin judge will hold a hearing in April to determine whether the second of two women who nearly stabbed their sixth-grade classmate to death in 2014 to please online horror character Slender Man should be released from a psychiatric hospital.

Morgan Geyser, 21, asked Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren on Jan. 16 to grant her conditional release from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. Geyser made a similar request for conditional release in 2022 but withdrew the petition two months after filing it.

Bohren held a brief hearing on the request Monday. He appointed three psychiatric experts — one on behalf of Geyser, one on behalf of prosecutors and the third as a court appointee — to examine her and produce reports on her current mental condition by March 1. He set a hearing for April 10-11 to consider the reports and possibly rule on the release request.

Geyser appeared via video from Winnebago. She softly replied “yes, sir” when Bohren asked her if she was able to see and hear the proceedings, and “no, sir” when he asked if she had any questions.

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 egged her on. Leutner suffered 19 stab wounds and barely survived, according to medical staff who treated her.

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 psychiatric 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.