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By Associated Press
November 24, 2025 — 4.55pm
Madison, Wisconsin: It was the crime that gripped the world – two 12-year-olds turning on their friend after a sleepover, stabbing her multiple times in the woods to please an internet bogeyman. Now, 11 years later, one of them is back in custody after cutting off an ankle monitor bracelet and disappearing for 24 hours.
Police in the United States say Morgan Geyser, now aged 23, cut off her ankle monitoring device and left a group home in Wisconsin at the weekend, where she had been placed on her release from a psychiatric facility. She was found and taken back into custody late on Sunday night (Monday AEDT), in neighbouring Illinois.
Morgan Geyser is on the run after removing her ankle monitoring bracelet.Credit: Madison Police Department
Geyser admitted to nearly killing her classmate, Payton Leutner, in a wooded part of a park near Milwaukee in 2014, in a frenzied attack aimed at pleasing the online horror character Slender Man – a tall, gangly faceless creature with a demon-like appearance.
Geyser and another 12-year-old, Anissa Weier, told police at the time they had lured Leutner to the park after a sleepover and had tried to kill her to earn the right to be Slender Man’s servants – they feared the character would harm their families if they didn’t follow through with the crime. Geyser was reportedly obsessed with the character, while Leutner was terrified of him.
Geyser stabbed her friend 19 times while Weier egged her on. Leutner barely survived, only doing so after she crawled to a nearby road where she was found by a passing cyclist. Geyser and Weier were arrested walking along a highway later that day, and were reportedly intending to walk to a Wisconsin national park, where they thought Slender Man lived.
Slender Man was created online by Eric Knudsen in 2009 as a mysterious figure photo-edited into everyday images of children at play. He grew into a popular bogeyman, appearing in video games, online stories and a 2018 movie.
Morgan Geyser (left) and Anissa Weier, aged 12 in 2014, when they tried to kill their classmate.
The crime itself triggered widespread debate about the online world and its influence on children, and prompted a number of books and documentaries.
Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide in 2018 and was sent to a psychiatric facility as part of a plea deal to avoid prison. Weier pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide and was also sent to the psychiatric centre and granted release in 2021.
Earlier on Sunday, Madison police issued an alert for Geyser, directing people to call emergency services if they saw her, adding that she had cut off a Department of Corrections monitoring bracelet.
She was last seen about 8pm on Saturday, with an adult acquaintance, before being found in Illinois the next night.
The internet character Slender Man inspired the stabbing.
Before she was found, Geyser’s lawyer, Tony Cotton, said he did not know what had happened with his client and urged Geyser to turn herself in. He said it was unclear how she had managed to break out of the home, and who had helped her to do so.
“It’s in her best interest for her to turn herself in immediately and not continue with this course of action,” Cotton said in an Instagram video post where he addressed Geyser directly at times.
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