Slender Man Stabber had her request to leave a psychiatric hospital rejected after she failed to convince a judge she was no longer dangerous.
Morgan Geyser, now 21, was 12 when she brutally stabbed her friend Payton Leutner, also 12, nearly 20 times in 2014 in a deranged plot to appease the online horror character.
He had requested to leave the Winnebago Mental Health Institute on parole, arguing that he had previously feigned symptoms of psychosis and was no longer a threat to society.
Despite testimony from two psychiatrists who argued on his behalf, Judge Michael Bohren ruled that there was “clear and convincing evidence” that Geyser should remain in custody.
Morgan Geyser is pictured in a Milwaukee courtroom Thursday, where two experts warned it was too dangerous to release her. A judge agreed and she will remain in custody.
Geyser’s accomplice, 19-year-old Anissa Weier, (pictured) was released from Winnebago Mental Health Institute in 2021 after a judge ruled she is no longer a threat to anyone.
Payton Leutner almost died in 2014, when she was just 12 years old, after Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier stabbed her with a Milwaukee stick and then claimed that a supernatural figure called Slender Man told them to do it.
Geyser appeared in court Thursday handcuffed and sporting a new look with a partially shaved head and a distraught expression on her face.
In 2014, after the crazed attack on Leutner, he was ordered to spend 40 years in a psychiatric hospital.
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 in the arms, legs and torso, hitting major arteries and severing her diaphragm. The two attackers then told Leutner to get off her while they sought help from her, leaving her for dead before a bicyclist found Leutner.
They claimed they were motivated by the supernatural figure ‘Slender Man’, sparking a moral panic over possible copycat attacks as the character took the internet by storm.
Both Geyser and Weier told detectives that they felt they had to kill Leutner to become Slender Man’s ‘representatives’ or servants, and that the character would kill their families if they did not comply.
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 of the fictional horror character Slender Man (depicted in the artwork, above).
Geyser photographed 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, he has been off antipsychotic medication since 2022 and his doctors claimed he was recovering without any new symptoms in his parole application, it reports. Fox8Live.
Dr. Ken Robbins, who recommended she move to a supervised group home, testified that “she has improved dramatically.”
“In my opinion, the kinds of things Morgan needs — help with socialization, help with education, help becoming independent — are things that Winnebago can no longer effectively provide,” he said.
Dr. Kayla Pope, medical director of the Winnebago hospital where Geyser has been held since 2018, also advocated for his release.
“She has been actively involved in therapy, medication management and all available treatments,” Pope said. ‘At this point she is confident about returning to the community. I don’t know if much more could be done to make her safer.”
However, other psychiatrists opposed his release, considering that he still represents a threat to society.
“It is my opinion, to a reasonable degree of professional certainty, that she currently presents a significant risk of bodily harm to herself or others if released on parole,” said Dr. Deborah Collins.
Another psychologist, Dr Brooke Lundbohm, told the court: ‘That would be quite remarkable. That would also be very insensitive,” regarding Geyser’s claims that she had previously faked symptoms of psychosis.
Both Geyser and Weier told detectives that they felt they had to kill Leutner to become Slender Man’s ‘representatives’ or servants, and that the character would kill their families if they did not comply. (pictured: Geyser in court on Wednesday)
Psychologist Dr Deborah Collins told the court Geyser was still too dangerous to release.
Collins added that if he had to estimate when he thought Geyser could be released from the hospital, it would be between six and 12 months.
“I know she’s not ready right now,” Collins said.
“We have trouble being able to reliably trust her own assessment of herself,” Lundbohm added.
“If the person is not able to understand their mental health status, the possible warning signs, the triggers that could cause deterioration, and the types of treatment that may be beneficial, that raises a lot of concerns,” Lundbohm testified. .
Judge Bohren said he remained concerned about Geyser’s changing stories about the attack, claiming to have faked his psychosis and saying the stabbing occurred as part of a plan to escape his allegedly abusive father, who is now deceased.
‘Your credibility is at stake. He has changed his position,” Bohren stated. “Until that credibility is resolved, the risk is high,” he added.
After the hearing, Geyser’s attorney, Tony Cotton, argued that she had not changed her story and that the stabbing was due to a trauma-related mental disorder rather than schizophrenia.
‘Time will show that he is a healthy and stable person who needs to be delivered to the community. Time has shown it,” she stated.
Geyser admitted to manipulating Weier into believing in Slender Man.
Weier was previously granted parole from a mental institution in 2021.
Since then he has lived with his father and wears a GPS monitor under supervision.
Geyser was seen at a previous court appearance in September 2017. She has remained in some form of custody since her arrest in 2014.
Responding to the cruel crime, Eric Knudsen, who created Slender Man in 2009, said he was “deeply saddened” to learn.
“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 about the ordeal, which left her traumatized for months and covered in 25 scars, for the first time in a docuseries called Inside The Verdict: Slender Man last fall.
She described how during the attack Geyser told her: ‘Don’t be afraid. I’m just a little kitten.
The girls then fled the woods, leaving Leutner for dead.
They later told detectives they believed Leutner would not survive.
“So we told him we were going to get help, but in reality we didn’t. We were going to run and let her die,” Weier told detectives.
Geyser, after describing the crime in a separate interview, became concerned about how much he had revealed.
In a fragment of his interrogation, he confessed: “It’s better to 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 sentencing hearings, but the judge determined that neither was mentally fit to be released.