A Wisconsin woman who, as a sixth grader, stabbed her classmate in order please the fictional horror character known as Slender Man will be released from a psychiatric hospital to a group home, a Waukesha County judge ruled Thursday.
Morgan Geyser was 12 when she stabbed Payton Leutner 19 times and left her for dead in 2014. She was sentenced in 2018 to 40 years in a psychiatric hospital for the attempted murder. Anissa Weier, who was also 12 at the time, pleaded guilty to being a party to attempted homicide.
On Thursday, Waukesha County Judge Scott Wagner said it was his intent to approve a conditional release plan for Geyser, meaning she will soon be released to a group home. The conditional release plan for Geyser should be modified and distributed by the end of the week. If prosecutors or Geyser’s attorney do not object to the plan within three days it will be adopted.
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After the hearing, Geyser’s attorney Anthony Cotton said Geyser can now “move on to the next phase of her life.”
“I think she’s (Geyser) looking forward to reintegrating into the community in as normal of a fashion as she can with the support of her loved ones,” Cotton said.
Geyser has been at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute since 2018. She filed a petition of release in October.
During a January hearing, Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren granted the petition for conditional release. Bohren decided that Geyser would not pose a significant risk of bodily harm to the defendant or to others.
However, the state petitioned to stop the conditional release. During a March hearing, Bohren denied that petition. That came after prosecutors alleged Geyser was reading a book that has violent themes.
“I’m satisfied that the state has not met its burden by clear and convincing evidence to show that Ms. Geyser is a risk of safety to herself, danger to herself, or danger to others, or danger to property,” Bohren said during the hearing.
Thursday’s decision means Geyser could be placed in a group home on or around Aug. 4. The location of that group home is not public, but Cotton told reporters Thursday it’s not in the Milwaukee or Waukesha area.
“Group homes are places where people are monitored. It’s a structured environment. People have services provided there,” Cotton told WPR. “And there will be 24/7 supervision. So that’s what that’ll look like for Morgan after she’s released.”
Cotton said Wagner would have to approve Geyser’s possible future release from living in a group home to living independently in the community.
“I’m very confident Morgan will do well,” he said.
Weier was sentenced to 25 years in a mental hospital in 2017. She was released from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in 2021.
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