Slender Man stabber who nearly killed classmate when she was 12 is too dangerous to be released from mental hospital, psychologists tell court
The Slender Man stinger who almost killed a classmate when she was 12 years old is too dangerous to be released from a mental hospital, a court has heard.
Morgan Geyser, now 21, has requested to leave the Winnebago Mental Health Institute on parole, 10 years after she was ordered to spend 40 years there following the 2014 stabbing of Payton Leutner, who was also 12 at the time.
But on Wednesday, two psychologists said that would be a bad idea, with one branding the killer’s behavior “harsh”.
“It is my opinion with a reasonable degree of professional certainty that she currently poses a significant risk of bodily harm to herself or others if she is paroled,” said Dr. Deborah Collins.
Another psychologist, Dr. Brooke Lundbohm told the court: ‘It would be quite remarkable. It would also be very hard,’ of Geyser’s claims that she previously faked psychotic symptoms
Geyster appeared in court Thursday in handcuffs, with his head partially shaved and a haunted expression on his face. She wore a tweed dress and black tights.
Morgan Geyser is pictured in a Milwaukee court Thursday after two experts warned she was too dangerous to be released
Geyser pictured in 2014 in her mugshot after the notoriously brutal attack
Payton Leutner was nearly killed in 2014 at just 12 years old after Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier stabbed her in a Milwaukee forest — then claimed a supernatural figure called Slender Man had told them to do it
Geyser was ordered to spend 40 years there after the gruesome attack she and her friend Anissa Weier carried out on Payton Leutner. The pair lured Leutner to a wooded area in a Milwaukee suburb in 2014, where they stabbed her 19 times.
They then caused a sensation after claiming that a supernatural figure called Slender Man had asked them to do so.
Collins added that she had to estimate when she thought Geyser might be released from the hospital, which would be in six to 12 months.
“I know she’s not ready now,” Collins said.
“We have trouble being able to reliably rely on her own self-assessment,” Lundbohm added.
“If the person is not able to have insight into their mental health state, the potential warning signs, the triggers that can cause relapse, having insight into the kinds of treatment that might be beneficial — that raises a lot of concerns,” Lundbohm testified. .
Psychologist Dr. Deborah Collins told the court Geyser was still too dangerous to be released
Weier seen in her 2014 mugshot after she and Geyser stabbed Payton Leutner 19 times
Anissa Weier, 19, was released from Winnebago Mental Health Institute in 2019 after a judge ruled she is no longer a threat to anyone
Weier was previously granted conditional release from a psychiatric institution in 2021.
On Thursday, Geyser was seen walking into the courtroom with a scared look on her face as she donned a green plaid dress.
Her attorney Anthony Cotton is expected to resume cross-examination and introduce a third doctor, Dr. Kenneth Robbins, to talk about her desired release.
Judge Michael Bohren will then decide whether to consider Geyeser’s release, which would see her move from the psychiatric facility to her home.
If she is sent home, she will be monitored electronically and visited regularly by state agents and mental health professionals.
Relatives of Leutner were present at the hearing but did not speak.
After the brutal stabbing, Weier and Geyser admitted that they intended to kill Leutner because they wanted to join the cult of ‘Slender Man’ after reading about him online.
The girls left Leutner for dead, but she survived by crawling out of the woods to a trail, where a passing bicyclist found her.
Both Geyser and Weier told detectives they felt they had to kill Leutner to become Slender Man’s ‘proxies’ or servants, and that the character would kill their families if they didn’t follow through.
In response to the horrific crime, Eric Knudsen, who created Slender Man in 2009, said he was ‘deeply saddened’ to hear about it.
“I am deeply saddened by the tragedy in Wisconsin and my heart goes out to the families of those affected by this horrific act,” Knudsen said.
Geyser, who is schizophrenic, admitted to manipulating Weier into believing in the Slender Man.
Weier sentenced to 25 years in a mental institution after being found not guilty of second-degree murder by reason of insanity.
In 2020, Geyser, then 18, pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder, and in 2017 she was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Her attorney at the time, Matthew Pinix, appealed the decision, arguing that Geyser should have been charged with second-degree murder, which would have placed the case in juvenile court instead of adult court.
Leutner spoke out about the horrific 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.
The girls claimed they carried out the attack to become servants of fictional horror character Slender Man (pictured in artwork above)
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 her we were going to get help, but we really weren’t. We had to run and let her — pass away,’ Weier told detectives.
Geyser, after describing the crime in a separate interview, became concerned about how much she had revealed.
In a clip from her interrogation, she admitted: ‘I might as well just say, we tried to kill her. Will I regret giving you this information later?’
Both Geyser and Weier apologized for their actions during their sentencing hearings, but the judge ruled that neither was mentally fit to be released.