The Slender Man Stabber had her petition to leave a mental hospital rejected after she failed to convince a judge she was no longer dangerous.
Morgan Geyser, now 21, was 12 years old when she brutally stabbed her friend Payton Leutner, also 12, almost 20 times in 2014 in an unhinged plot to appease the online horror character.
She had requested to leave Winnebago Mental Health Institute on conditional release, arguing that she had previously faked psychosis symptoms and was no longer a threat to society.
Despite testimony from two psychiatrists who argued 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 court Thursday, where two experts warned she was too dangerous to release. A judge agreed, and she will remain in custody
Geyser’s accomplice Anissa Weier, 19, (pictured) was released from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in 2021 after a judge ruled that she is no longer a threat to anyone
Payton Leutner was almost killed in 2014 aged just 12, after Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier stabbed her a Milwaukee wood – then claimed that a supernatural figure called the Slender Man had told them to do so
Geyser appeared in court Thursday handcuffed, and was sporting a new look with a partially shaved head and a haunted expression on her face.
In 2014, she was ordered to spend 40 years in psychiatric hospital following the crazed attack on Leutner.
She and her friend Anissa Weier lured Leutner to a wooded area in a Milwaukee suburb during a sleepover, where Geyser stabbed her 19 times while Weier egged her on.
Geyser stabbed her across her arms, legs and torso, hitting major arteries and severing her diaphragm. The two attackers then told Leutner to lay down while they got help, leaving her for dead before Leutner was found by a cyclist.
They claimed they were motivated by the supernatural figure ‘Slender Man’, sparking a moral panic over potential copycat attacks as the character swept the internet.
Both Geyser and Weier told detectives 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 for the fictional horror character Slender Man (Depicted in artwork, above)
Geyser 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 was recovering without any new symptoms in her request for conditional release, reports Fox8Live.
Dr. Ken Robbins, who recommended she moved to a supervised group home, testified that she has ‘improved quite dramatically.
‘The kinds of things Morgan needs in my view — help with socialization, help with education, help with becoming independent — are things Winnebago can no longer provide in an effective way,’ he said.
Dr. Kayla Pope, medical director at the Winnebago hospital where Geyser has been since 2018, also argued for her release.
‘She has actively participated in therapy, medication management and all the treatments that are available,’ Pope said. ‘At this point she is safe to return to the community. I don’t know that much more could be done to make her safer.’
However, other psychiatrists argued against her release, feeling she still poses a threat to society.
‘It’s my opinion to a reasonable degree of professional certainty that she currently presents a significant risk of bodily harm to herself or others if conditionally released,’ Dr. Deborah Collins said.
Another psychologist, Dr. Brooke Lundbohm told the court: ‘That would be rather remarkable. That would be very callous as well,’ of Geyser’s claims that she’d previously faked psychosis symptoms.
Both Geyser and Weier told detectives 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. (pictured: Geyser in court on Wednesday)
Psychologist Dr. Deborah Collins told the court that 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 in six to 12 months.
‘I know she’s not ready now,’ Collins said.
‘We have issues with being able to reliably trust her own self appraisal,’ Lundbohm added.
‘If the person is not able to have insight into their mental health condition, the potential warning signs, the triggers that could cause decline, have insight into the kinds of treatment that may be beneficial – it raises a lot of concerns,’ Lundbohm testified.
Judge Bohren said he remained troubled by Geyser’s changing stories over the attack, claiming to have faked her psychosis and saying the stabbing came as part of a plan to escape her allegedly abusive father, who is now deceased.
‘Her credibility is at issue. She’s changed her position,’ Bohren said. ‘Until that credibility is resolved, the risk is high,’ he added.
Following the hearing, Geyser’s attorney Tony Cotton argued she had not changed her story, and the stabbing was due to a trauma related mental disorder instead of schizophrenia.
‘Time will show she is a healthy and stable person who needs to be released to the community. Time has shown that,’ he said.
Geyser admitted to manipulating Weier into believing in Slender Man.
Weier was previously granted conditional release from a mental institution in 2021.
She has been living with her father ever since, wearing a GPS monitor under supervision.
Geyser seen at a previous court appearance in September 2017. She has remained in some form of custody since her arrest in 2014
In response to the vicious crime, Eric Knudsen, who created Slender Man in 2009, said that he was ‘deeply saddened’ to hear 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 spoke out about the horrifying ordeal, which left her traumatized for months and covered in 25 scars, for the first time in a docu-series called Inside The Verdict: Slender Man last fall.
She described how during the attack Geyser told her: ‘Don’t be afraid. I’m only a little kitty cat.’
The girls then fled the woods, leaving Leutner for dead.
They later told detectives that they believed Leutner would not survive.
‘So, we told her we we’re gonna get help, but we really weren’t. We were going to run and let her – pass away,’ Weier told detectives.
Geyser, after describing the crime in a separate interview, became worried about how much she had revealed.
In a clip from her interrogation, she confessed: ‘I might as well just say it, we were trying 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 were mentally fit to be released.