Wisconsin ‘Slender Man’ Stabbing Reemerges into the Public Eye 

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The Wisconsin “Slender Man” stabbing case is once again in the headlines after the person who stabbed another girl in 2014 attempted to escape from their group home situation.

Morgan Geyser is taken into custody. Geyser appears in a screenshot of body camera footage alongside a police officer.
Morgan Geyser in police body cam footage. Photo: Posen Police Department

Key Takeaways: 

  • In 2014, Morgan Geyser was influenced by the ‘Slender Man’ legend and stabbed their friend in a wooded area of Davids Park in Waukesha, WI. 
  • The Madison Police Department announced on Nov. 22, 2025, that Geyser escaped their group home after removing a tracking monitoring bracelet. 
  • A day later, Geyser was found with a friend in Posen, IL, at a truck stop and taken into custody by the Posen Police Department. 

On Nov. 23, two people were loitering around a random truck stop in Posen, IL, in what may have seemed at first like a simple runaway situation. 

However, what officers didn’t know at the time was that they were dealing with someone allegedly wanted in a nationwide manhunt. 

Background

Flashback to a spring day in May 2014, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weir went with their friend Payton Leutner into the woods. 

Anyone who saw the three of them might have just assumed these were three girls playing around.  

However, Leutner was being led deep into the woods with a plan in mind to stab their friend 19 times. 

Leutner, who was left for dead and barely able to talk, stumbled toward a path and was discovered by a cyclist, according to The New York Times. 

In that same article, it’s reported that Geyser was influenced by the internet lore of “Slender Man,” which has inspired horror stories, video games, a film and countless YouTube videos. 

Believing this character was real, the two planned this attack to become disciples of the internet-born monster. 

In a timeline published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the two defendants were tried as adults because Judge Michael Bohren rejected the argument that the girls believed they were operating under a “kill or be killed” mentality. 

The same Milwaukee Journal Sentinel timeline says that in June 2015, it was revealed that Geyser’s family had a history of schizophrenia, which they were diagnosed with having early on set after the murder attempt. 

Finally, in 2018, Geyser was committed for 40 years in a mental health institute alongside adults who have committed crimes, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Geyser was 15 at the time of this decision. 

What’s Happening Now

Since then, Geyser was granted release from Winnebago Mental Health Facility in July 2025. They were moved to a group home and out of the institute. 

However, on Nov. 22, 2025, the “Slender Man” stabber removed their monitoring bracelet and left the group home, prompting a search, according to the Madison Police Department. 

According to the Posen Police Department’s Facebook, the authorities found Geyser, accompanied by Chad Mecca, at a truck stop in Posen, IL, on Nov. 23, 2025. 

In body camera footage, an officer says they received a dispatch call about the two loitering at the back of the truck stop. 

In an officer’s body camera footage, Geyser and Mecca first give the officers fake names and question why they are being stopped before pleading to be allowed to go on their way. 

“I just don’t want my identity out there,” Mecca told police. “It’s just personal preference.” 

The officer responded by saying, “You can have that personal preference, but we’re going to have that preference of taking you in and fingerprinting you.” 

After some coercion, Geyser gives up her real name by writing it down on one of the officer’s notepads.  

Mecca was separated and placed in cuffs, while Geyser claimed that their friend didn’t know their real name or past crimes.  

@abc7newsbayarea

“Just Google me” “Slender Man” attacker Morgan Geyser was captured Sunday night nearly 200 miles from her Wisconsin group home after she allegedly cut off her Department of Corrections monitoring bracelet and fled, authorities said. In 2014, Geyser stabbed a friend of hers 19 times to appease the fictional character “Slender Man.” When captured, she told officers who asked for her identity to “just Google” her, according to Illinois police. Read more at the link above #caught #murder #slenderman morgangeyserr #abc7news

♬ original sound – ABC7 News – ABC7 News

Geyser begs the officer to allow them to say goodbye to Mecca because they “will never see her again.” 

The officer says to Geyser that they will, but she refutes that because they “did something bad.” 

Geyser makes the officer promise to allow her to say goodbye to one another, and the officer verbally agrees. 

Officers rummaged through their personal belongings and found a notebook. 

One officer reads from the notebook, “Homeless couples’ guide to survival.” Another officer finds cannabis in their possession. 

According to Chicago’s WGN9, the two met at church and planned to get as far away as possible, with potential plans to head to Nashville. 

Geyser is now in the Waukesha County Jail, and her attorney, Tony Cotton, has written a letter to Judge Scott Wagner.  

In that letter, Cotton asked for Geyser to move to a mental health facility and out of the correctional facility, according to WISN 12.