A woman who stabbed her friend 19 times a decade ago to impress a shadowy fictional character named Slender Man when she was 12 will be released from a psychiatric center, a Wisconsin judge ruled on Thursday.
The woman, Morgan Geyser, 22, requested early release from her 40-year commitment to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in October. Judge Michael O. Bohren of Waukesha County Circuit Court granted the release on Thursday, concluding after a hearing that she no longer posed a threat to herself or others.
Ms. Geyser, who has been held at the institute since she was 15, will be released on conditions drafted by the state’s Department of Health Services, according to court records.
Ms. Geyser had petitioned to leave the psychiatric center several times since 2022, but then abandoned some of those petitions. A request she filed a year ago was denied by Judge Bohren in April, who said there was a significant risk that Ms. Geyser would harm herself or others.
Ms. Geyser was charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide after she and a classmate, Anissa Weier, lured their friend Payton Leutner, all of whom were 12 at the time, into a wooded area in Waukesha, Wis., on May 31, 2014. Ms. Geyser stabbed Ms. Leutner 19 times with a kitchen knife while Ms. Weier watched and urged her on.
Ms. Leutner managed to crawl out of the area and was found by a cyclist. She survived her injuries after several months of recovery.
Both Ms. Geyser and Ms. Weier were caught on their way to a mansion they believed to belong to Slender Man, a character from the internet often shown as a tall creature in a suit with a blank face. The two later told the authorities that they had carried out the stabbing to appease the fictional character.
Ms. Geyser was sentenced to 40 years in a psychiatric hospital after lawyers and doctors said she was delusional as a result of schizophrenia and psychotic spectrum disorder.
Her accomplice, Ms. Weier, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to 25 years in a psychiatric hospital. She was released in 2021 to live with her father under electronic monitoring. In September 2023, Judge Bohren allowed the removal of her monitoring device.
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