Slender Man stabbing defendant Morgan Geyser is expected to be extradited to Wisconsin after she was arrested in Illinois for fleeing her Madison group home.
From there, state health officials may choose to file a motion to revoke her conditional release. Geyser had been out of a state mental health institute since mid-September under an order by a Waukesha County judge allowing for her to live in a group home with electronic monitoring. She cut off the monitoring bracelet Nov. 22 and escaped, Madison police said.
“We are certainly hopeful that they do proceed with that,” Waukesha County District Attorney Lesli Boese said at a news conference Nov. 24. ” We fully support it.”
Geyser’s expected return to Wisconsin comes as questions continue to swirl over a 12-hour period between her escape and when police and the public were notified.
Geyser and co-defendant Anissa Weier were charged in 2014 with the attempted homicide of their friend Payton Leutner, whom Geyser stabbed 19 times in Waukesha. All three girls were 12 years old at the time. Geyser is now 23.
Geyser and Weier said they believed they were doing the bidding of the fictional online character Slender Man. They were found not guilty by reason of mental defect or disease in 2017 and sentenced to mental confinement, Weier for 25 years, and Geyser for 40 years.
Geyser’s sentence means that she has been in the custody of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. The agency has filed a warrant for her extradition to Waukesha, Boese said. The health agency told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Nov. 24 it could not share more details on the case.
Officials with Gov. Tony Evers’ office did not respond to questions.
Separately, Dane County prosecutors now will decide whether to charge her with escaping and disconnecting her monitor, since those alleged crimes took place in Madison. Dane County District Attorney’s office said charges had not yet been referred to its office from Madison police. Escaping custody is a felony in the state.
Geyser cut off her state Department of Corrections monitoring bracelet Nov. 22 and left a group home in Madison, according to the Madison Police Department. She was taken into custody in Illinois around 10:34 p.m. Nov. 23 along with a man, police said.
Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren ruled in January that he saw no risk to the public or to her and ordered a plan to be made for her conditional release from Winnebago Mental Health Institute.
In March, in response to an 11th-hour challenge by state health officials, Bohren reaffirmed her release to a group home with electronic monitoring. The state officials were concerned about violent material in a book she was reading and artwork with dark themes she apparently sent to an older man who had visited her at Winnebago facility. The plan for her release was approved by Waukesha County Circuit Judge Scott Wagner.
Geyser was released to the group home after a final plan was signed Sept. 17.
Geyser was found at a truck stop with a man
Police in Illinois say Morgan Geyser initially refused to give her name to officers when she was captured on the night of Nov. 23.
The Posen Police Department, located south of downtown Chicago near the Indiana border, said officers were called to Thornton’s Truck Stop for a report of a man and woman loitering behind the building.
Officers found both Morgan Geyser and the man she was with sleeping on the sidewalk. Geyser repeatedly refused to provide her real name and initially gave a false one, police say.
After officers continued to try to identify her, Geyser told officers she didn’t want to tell them who she was because she had “done something really bad.”
Geyser also suggested officers could “just Google” her name.
Police confirmed it was Geyser and took her into custody. The man she was with, whose name has not been released, was also taken into custody. Neither resisted arrest, police said.
Posen police told Chicago media that Geyser was with a 42-year-old man with whom she is alleged to be in a relationship. The man was charged with criminal trespassing and obstructing identification and has been released from custody.
Anthony Cotton, Geyser’s attorney, said Geyser had been in contact with a man on several occasions before Saturday’s escape. He said he didn’t know if the man was the same one who was arrested in Illinois with Geyser.
Waukesha County prosecutors had little information about the man arrested with Geyser, other than that the man likely did not live in the group home. Boese referred to him as “a person that was outside the placement location.”
“There’s a certain notoriety here that is of concern, that there are people that sought her out,” Waukesha County Assistant District Attorney Abbey Nickolie said.
Questions around notification timeline
Geyser was last seen in the area of Kroncke Drive around 8 p.m. on Nov. 22 with an adult acquaintance.
Madison police said they were notified of her disappearance Sunday morning, Nov. 23 and “immediately alerted the public.”
Madison police said the department was alerted just before 8 a.m. The department posted on its website about 45 minutes later, and on Facebook at around 10 a.m.
It remains unclear why 12 hours passed between when she was last seen and when police and the public were notified.
Additionally, Boese said the Leutner family was unaware of Geyser’s escape until someone from the DA’s office contacted them. Boese said she’s already reached out to state legislators to try to improve that notification process.
Molly Beck contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Morgan Geyser to be extradited to Wisconsin after escape to Illinois
Reporting by Hope Karnopp, Anna Kleiber, Sophie Carson, Chris Ramirez and Laura Schulte, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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