Authorities in Illinois apprehended Morgan Geyser, the individual convicted in the 2014 stabbing of a classmate allegedly to appease the online figure known as Slender Man. Geyser had fled a group home in Wisconsin where she was residing.
Law enforcement officials reported that Geyser, 23, absconded from the Madison, Wisconsin, facility Saturday night after removing her electronic monitoring device. She remained at large until her capture on Sunday.
Police located Geyser at a truck stop in Posen, Illinois. According to officials, Geyser directed them to “just Google” her name, stating she had “done something really bad.”
Geyser was 12 years old at the time of the stabbing. In 2018, she was sentenced to a 40-year term in a mental health facility and granted conditional release in July.
Geyser was discovered with a male companion at the truck stop, situated just outside of Chicago, approximately 170 miles south of Madison, following reports of loitering individuals.
“Upon arrival, officers found both subjects asleep on the sidewalk,” Posen police stated. “The woman repeatedly refused to provide her real name, initially offering a false one.”
“After continued attempts to identify her, she finally stated that she didn’t want to tell officers who she was because she had ‘done something really bad,’ and suggested that officers could ‘just Google’ her name.”
She and her companion were detained after police determined she was wanted in Wisconsin. CBS News, a US partner of the BBC, reported that the 42-year-old companion was charged with trespassing and obstructing identification before being released.
The “Slender Man stabbing” garnered significant attention, shocking the state of Wisconsin and the nation.
Geyser and her friend Anissa Weier, also 12 years old at the time, lured a classmate to a park after a sleepover. Geyser proceeded to stab the classmate multiple times while Weier allegedly encouraged the act.
The victim, identified as 12-year-old Payton Leutner, survived the attack after being discovered by a cyclist.
Both Geyser and Weier were tried as adults. Geyser pleaded guilty to first-degree intentional homicide and received a 40-year sentence. A judge granted her supervised release to the group home in July.
Weier, charged with attempted murder, was sentenced to 25 years in a psychiatric hospital but was released in 2021.
Geyser and Weier claimed to have been inspired by Slender Man, a figure they encountered in online “creepypasta” stories designed to shock and scare readers.
Slender Man is depicted as a tall, thin, shadowy figure often appearing in internet photographs, drawings, and articles. Some depictions include tentacles, while most portray him in dark attire with a pale face.
According to an attorney for Geyser, the girls believed Slender Man would harm their families if they did not kill their friend. Authorities reported that the girls intended to live with Slender Man following the attack.
Slender Man originated online in 2009.
The character was created by a Florida resident for a submission call from the comedy website SomethingAwful, and was initially depicted in the background of a crowd of people.
Following the stabbing incident, SomethingAwful published an article urging people not to commit violence in the name of Slender Man.
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