'Slender Man' stabbing assailant Morgan Geyser's release allowed to continue
Morgan Geyser, one of the two then 12-year-olds who said they attacked a friend to please the fictional character "Slender Man," will be released from a psychiatric hospital, the judge said, following a hearing on a new petition to revoke her release.
Geyser, now 22 years old, will be released from Winnebago Mental Health Institute, Judge Michael Bohren ruled on Thursday.
A new hearing in which a proposal for plans on Geyser's release will be laid out has been set for the end of this month on March 21.
In January, several psychologists who've worked closely with Geyser testified to Geyser's preparedness for supervised release.
But last week, prosecutors raised concerns, alleging Geyser had "violent" communication with a man outside the facility and read a book in the facility with "themes of sexual sadism and murder."
The three doctors who evaluated Geyser earlier this year testified on Thursday that Geyser is well enough to be released and said the new allegations brought by Winnebago and the state do not change their opinion.
In 2014, Anissa Weier and Geyser lured their friend Payton Leutner, also 12, to the woods in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier watched.
Geyser and Weier left Leutner alone in the woods. Injured and bleeding, Leutner pulled herself to safety. She was rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries but survived.
"If the knife had gone the width of a human hair further, she wouldn't have lived," Dr. John Kelemen, who operated on Leutner that day, told ABC News in 2014.
Geyser pleaded guilty to first-degree attempted intentional homicide and was sent to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in 2018.
Weier pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted intentional homicide and was also sent to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. She was released in 2021 at the age of 19.
