Girl makes third request for release

A Wisconsin woman accused of stabbing her classmate to please horror character Slender Man more than a decade ago again asked a judge Friday to be released from a psychiatric hospital.

Morgan Geyser, now 22, filed a petition with Waukesha County District Judge Michael Bohren for her release from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. The petition marks the third time in the last two years that she has asked Bohren to release her from the facility.

She withdrew her first petition two months after it was filed in 2022. Bohren rejected her second petition last April, saying she remained a risk to the public.

The one-page petition contains no arguments for Geyser’s release. Instead, it cites state law that requires drillers to appoint at least one expert to investigate them within 20 days and issue a report within 30 days of their appointment. The petition also asks the judge to schedule a hearing. It is noted that state law requires him to hold a hearing within 30 days of receiving the auditor’s report.

Geyser’s attorney, Anthony Cotton, did not immediately respond to email and phone messages Friday morning.

Geyser and Anissa Weier were 12 years old in 2014 when they lured Payton Leutner to a Waukesha park after a sleepover. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier egged her on. Leutner barely survived.

The girls later told investigators that they wanted to earn the right to be servants of the fictional Slender Man and that they feared he would harm their families if they did not carry out the attack.

Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree premeditated murder and was committed to a mental institution for mental illness. Weier pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree premeditated murder and was also committed to a psychiatric hospital. In 2021, she was granted release to live with her father and ordered to wear a GPS monitor.