MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Three experts have testified against a Wisconsin woman who nearly stabbed her sixth-grade classmate to death when she was 12 to please the online horror character “Slender Man.” A judge then ordered him released from a psychiatric hospital on Thursday. She has made considerable progress in her fight against mental illness.
Morgan Geyser spent nearly seven years at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. She has petitioned her offender, Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bolen, for release four times since June 2022, but withdrew the first two petitions. Bolen denied her second request in April, determining that she still posed a threat to the public.
Geyser, now 22, filed her latest petition in October. After a daylong hearing Thursday, Bolen decided to allow her release, determining that she has made the most of her treatment options at the facility and is no longer a safety risk. It was decided. He ordered the state Department of Health to develop a plan to place her in a group home and oversee a hearing within 60 days.
The judge described her crime as a “brutal and horrific crime” but said Ms Geyser had since grown up and needed to be a viable member of society to be truly rehabilitated.
“She did what she had to do,” Bolen said. “She seems to have a good attitude.”
When Geyser Weir and Anissa Weir were 12 years old in 2014, they lured classmate Peyton Leutner to Waukesha Park after a sleepover. Ms. Geyser stabbed Ms. Leutner 19 times, while Mr. Weier provoked her. Leutner barely survived.
The girls later told investigators that they attacked Leutner to gain the right to become Slender Man's servants, fearing that if they did not comply, he would harm their families.
Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide and was sent to a psychiatric hospital for mental illness in 2018.
Weir pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide. She was also sent to a psychiatric center, but was granted release in 2021 to live with her father and was ordered to wear a GPS monitor.
Three psychologists who have worked with Geyser since she was admitted to the institute said at Thursday's hearing that she has made remarkable progress in the past six months and should be released. I testified.
Dr. Brooke Lundbohm testified that Winnebago staff stopped Geyser from taking her antipsychotic medication by early 2023, and she has not had any symptoms since.
Dr. Deborah Collins said Mr. Geyser was always at risk of reoffending because he almost killed someone, but as he worked on his coping skills, he improved his emotional control and retreated into daydreams less frequently. he said. Collins added that Geyser told her he hated her for what she had done to Leutner and could not forgive him.
Dr. Ken Robbins told the judge that she could be in danger if she remains confined in the Winnebago and loses hope.
“At this point, the longer she's there, the harder it will be to reintegrate,” Robbins said.
Waukesha County Assistant District Attorney Ted Szczupakiewicz has argued that Geyser cannot be trusted, saying that Geyser lied about his delusions about Slender Man during an examination last year and that Leutner was used to escape his abusive father. He pointed out that he claimed to have actually attacked. He hinted that this was a ploy to increase his chances of release.
The judge dismissed that, saying it's not unusual for mental illness diagnoses to evolve.
