Nationwide Manhunt Ends as Morgan Geyser, Convicted in “Slender Man” Stabbing, is Captured
The nationwide manhunt for Morgan Geyser, the Wisconsin woman convicted in the 2014 “Slender Man” stabbing, has finally come to an end as authorities announced her capture on Sunday night.
Madison Police Department confirmed that Geyser was taken into custody in Illinois at approximately 10:34 p.m., bringing an intense search to a close.
Geyser had escaped after cutting off her Department of Corrections monitoring bracelet and fleeing from a Madison group home on Saturday night, according to police reports.
Her escape was made public by Madison police in a social media post on Sunday, stating that she was last seen in the area of Kroncke Dr. around 8 p.m. with an adult acquaintance, and her whereabouts were unknown at that time.
In 2017, Geyser had pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the violent stabbing of Payton Leutner, but claimed she was not responsible due to her mental illness. She had attempted to kill Leutner to please the horror character Slender Man and was eventually found not guilty by reason of mental defect.
Geyser and her friend, Anissa Weier, had lured Leutner into a wooded park during a sleepover in May 2014, where Geyser, encouraged by Weier, had stabbed Leutner 19 times. Miraculously, Leutner survived the attack.
Following the incident, Geyser has been in custody at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute for the past seven years, initially receiving a 40-year sentence in the psychiatric hospital with the possibility of requesting conditional release every six months.
Authorities revealed that Geyser was staying at a group home in Madison before her escape, and her capture has brought relief to the ongoing search efforts.
With Geyser now in custody, the community can find some closure in the case that shocked the nation and shed light on the complexities of mental illness and its impact on criminal behavior.
Source: New York Post
