The case involving two Wisconsin women convicted of brutally stabbing their sixth-grade classmate over a decade ago to appease horror character Slender Man has continued to unravel after one of the perpetrators escaped from a group home last weekend.
In 2014, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, both 12 at the time, were charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide after prosecutors revealed the pair executed a planned attack to try to kill their middle school classmate, Payton Leutner.
The brutal attack played out the morning of May 31, 2014, after Leutner and Weier slept over at Geyser’s home to celebrate her birthday. When the three girls awoke, Geyser and Weier lured Leutner into a suburban park, where Geyser stabbed the girl 19 times as Weier egged her on.
Leutner barely survived the attack.
The pair later admitted to investigators that they carried out the attack in order to become one of Slender Man’s servants and because they were afraid he would hurt their families if they did not kill Leutner.
“Internet mythology, like Slender Man, can contribute to distorted perceptions of reality, as it did in this case,” Dr. Carole Lieberman, a forensic psychiatrist, told Fox News Digital. “Children and early adolescents are particularly susceptible to such characters.”
Geyser subsequently pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide and was ordered to spend 40 years in a psychiatric institute in 2018, after being diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Her co-defendant, Weier, also pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide, and was initially sent to a psychiatric center until she was granted release in 2021. She lives with her father and wears a GPS monitor.
However, earlier this year, a Wisconsin judge determined Geyser was mentally fit to be released from the center and ordered her to live in a group home, located in nearby Madison, following multiple failed attempts by Geyser’s legal team to secure her freedom.
The decision came after three doctors involved in Geyser’s treatment testified that she had made significant progress and should be released, pointing to reports that she had suffered no symptoms after being weaned off her antipsychotic medication and that she had improved her coping skills, according to The Associated Press.
Dr. Ken Robbins testified that Geyser could actually become more dangerous if she remained confined to the center, saying that it is possible for her to become defeated with her treatment and lose hope.
“The longer she’s there, at this point, the harder it’s going to be to re-integrate,” Robbins said.
The decision came after significant protest from the prosecution, as Waukesha County Assistant District Attorney Ted Szczupakiewicz argued Geyser previously claimed that she faked her delusions regarding Slender Man and actually attempted to kill Leutner to escape her abusive father.
“Geyser was especially vulnerable to Slender Man because she was [abused] by her father,” Lieberman said. “In her schizophrenic state, with altered perceptions of reality, she saw Slender Man, who was tall with lots of long hands, as an embodiment of her father, because that’s what a father would have looked like to a little child being abused. She may well have believed that if she killed Payton, and gave her to Slender Man as an offering, her real life father would stop abusing her.”
Prosecutors also pointed to a previous incident in which Geyser failed to reveal to her treatment team that she was reading a novel about black-market organ sales and murder. Additionally, prosecutors alleged that Geyser was corresponding with a man who is a murder memorabilia collector and previously sent him a sketch of a decapitated body along with a postcard revealing she wanted to be intimate with him.
However, the judge ultimately determined that it is not uncommon for mental illness diagnoses to evolve and released Geyser into a group home.
“Geyser should never have been released from the psychiatric hospital she was in,” Lieberman told Fox News Digital. “There were many signs that her schizophrenia had not yet been sufficiently treated.”
Lieberman went on to point to the apparent warning signs that Geyser had not been fully rehabilitated.
“These were all signs – and there were undoubtedly more – that she was still wrestling with who she was and needed more treatment,” Lieberman said.
Less than one year after her release to a group home, Geyser removed her GPS monitoring device and snuck out of the Wisconsin group home, the Madison Police Department said.
According to authorities, Geyser was last seen alongside a male companion at approximately 8 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 22. Her escape prompted a multi-state manhunt, with authorities releasing recent photos of her in an attempt to track her down.
One day later, authorities in Posen, Illinois – located roughly 25 miles south of Chicago – received a report regarding a male and female loitering behind a truck stop.
BODYCAM SHOWS ‘SLENDER MAN’ STABBER CAPTURED BY POLICE AFTER ESCAPING GROUP HOME
Body camera video obtained by Fox News Digital shows officers approaching the two individuals and attempting to identify them.
However, a defiant Geyser initially refused to reveal her identity, telling them, “I don’t want to give you my name.”
The officers attempted to reason with Geyser, with one deputy asking, “You’re not wanted for murder, right?”
Following multiple attempts to identify her, Geyser admitted she didn’t want to tell officers her name because she had “done something really bad” and suggested the officers “just Google” her.
She then provided authorities with a fake name.
After a short back-and-forth, Geyser could be seen writing her name down on a piece of paper, which ultimately led to authorities taking her into custody. As she was being handcuffed, Geyser could be heard making an emotional plea to the officers to say goodbye to her companion, insisting that the individual did not know who she was and that she “will never see her again.”
Additional video shows Geyser sitting in the back of a police cruiser and remaining silent for the duration of the ride.
As the pair were escorted to the vehicles, an officer could be heard saying, “I hope she didn’t commit a homicide. The way she’s talking, she’s saying it’s really, really bad.” Authorities also discovered a book titled “Homeless Couples Guidebook” among Geyser’s belongings as she was being arrested.
The male subject located with Geyser was also taken into custody and was identified as 43-year-old Chad Mecca, according to the Posen Police Department. Mecca was subsequently released from custody after being charged with criminal trespassing and providing false information to police, FOX6 reported.
According to Posen police, the pair took a Greyhound bus from Wisconsin to Chicago before walking to Posen.
“She ran because of me,” Mecca told WKOW after calling the station. Mecca reportedly added that the pair had met at church and had seen each other on a daily basis for the past month.
In a Tuesday court hearing, Geyser agreed not to contest her transfer from an Illinois jail to Wisconsin, the Associated Press reported. Authorities in Wisconsin now have a 30-day deadline to pick her up from the Cook County Jail.
Geyser’s attorney did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
As a result of her escape, authorities could decide to revoke her conditional release and press new charges, according to the AP.
However, the incident has left Lieberman wondering about the impact on Geyser’s victim, Leutner.
“Leutner was undoubtedly re-traumatized by this ill-conceived and flawed plan to release Geyser,” Lieberman told Fox News Digital.
“At one of the hearings, the hospital was originally planning to send Geyser to a group home that was very close to where Leutner lived, which would have been extremely dangerous. The news of Geyser’s escape re-traumatized Leutner by reminding her of how out of control Geyser is and by terrifying her that Geyser would try to finish her off.”
