Huge update in horror ‘Slender Man’ stabbing nine years on

In 2014, two teen girls brutally stabbed their friend in a bid to appease a mythical horror creature known as ‘Slender Man’. Now, there is a huge update.

Warning: Graphic

A woman who brutally stabbed her sixth-grade classmate almost to death when she was just 12 years old in a bizarre bid to appease a fictional horror character known as ‘Slender Man’ is set to be released.

Morgan Geyser has spent much of the last decade locked up at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute after she was found not guilty of attempted first-degree homicide by reason of insanity.

Back in May 2014, Geyser and her friend Anissa Weier plotted to kill their classmate Payton Leutner and lured her to nearby woodland in Waukesha, Wisconsin, before brutally stabbing her 19 times.

The two girls stabbed their best friend. Picture: Supplied

Incredibly, the 12-year-old managed to survive the attack by stumbling to a nearby road for help, where she was discovered by a cyclist.

After the two girls were arrested, Geyser disturbingly said the attack was done in a bid to

appease ‘Slender Man’ - a creepy internet fictional character that was said to steal children.

She claimed the stabbing was part of their plan to be Slender Man’s “servants” and they feared if they refused, they would be taken away from their families.

The Slender Man character is believed to have originated in an illustration from 2009 of a tall, thin man with tentacle-like arms and abilities including mind control and teleportation.

The chilling myth of Slender Man went viral on Creepypasta sites, which share horror stories.

After the murders, in August 2017, Weier pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted homicide.

The following month, a jury ruled that she was mentally ill at the time of the attack and found her not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

Morgan Geyser has been released. Picture: AFP

As per her plea agreement, Weier was sentenced to a maximum of 25 years in a psychiatric facility. She was released in 2021.

Now her partner in the crime, Geyser, is 22 years old and will also be released almost a decade on from the horrific crime.

A judge ordered her release last week after a trio of experts testified that she has made considerable progress battling mental illness.

She petitioned Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren, who committed her, for release four times since June 2022.

She withdrew her first two petitions.

Bohren denied her second request in April 2024, finding she still presented a threat to the public.

Geyser filed her latest petition six months later in October 2024.

The judge decided to grant her release after a day-long hearing last week, finding that she had maximised her treatment options at the facility and is no longer a safety risk.

Her pants she wore during the horror attack. Picture: ABC

He ordered the state Department of Health Services to set up a plan to house her in a group home and supervise her for his consideration at a hearing within 60 days.

The judge said that her crime was a “brutal, terrible offence” but added that Geyser has since grown up and to be truly rehabilitated she must exist as part of society.

“She’s done what she’s supposed to do,” Bohren said.

“She appears to have a good attitude.”

Three psychologists who have been working with Geyser since she was committed to the institute testified at the hearing that she’s made impressive progress in just the last six months and should be released.

Dr. Brooke Lundbohm testified that Winnebago staff weaned Geyser off her antipsychotic medications by early 2023 and she’s suffered no symptoms since then.

Slender Man is a fictional horror character. Picture: Supplied

Dr Deborah Collins said Geyser is always at risk of reoffending simply because she almost killed someone but she has worked on her coping skills, improved her emotional control and retreats into fantasy less frequently.

Collins added that Geyser told her that she hates what she did to Leutner and can’t forgive herself.

Dr. Ken Robbins told the judge that she could become dangerous if she remained confined at Winnebago and lost hope.

“The longer she’s there, at this point, the harder it’s going to be to reintegrate,” Robbins said.

Waukesha County Assistant Deputy Attorney Ted Szczupakiewicz argued that Geyser couldn’t be trusted, noting that she claimed during evaluations last year that she faked her delusions about Slender Man and actually attacked Leutner as a way of escaping her abusive father.

He hinted that was a ploy to make the release more likely.

The judge shrugged that off, saying it’s not unusual for mental illness diagnoses to evolve.

The victim in the case, Peyton Leutner, is now 22 years old.

She was hospitalised for 10 days after the brutal attack and in the following months had as many as eight medical appointments per week during her recovery.

Leutner miraculously survived the attack. Picture: ABC

She returned to Horning Middle School for seventh grade in September 2014.

A representative for the Leutner family said that the young girl excelled academically, participated in school music programs and volunteered at an animal shelter as she had before Weier and Geyser’s attack.

She and her family each sought counselling to cope with the trauma of the stabbing.

In October 2019, Leutner spoke publicly for the very first time about the Slender Man stabbing.

“I’ve come to accept all of the scars that I have,” she told the US ABC.

“It’s just a part of me. I don’t think much of them. They will probably go away and fade eventually.”

She told the program that she had befriended one of her attackers, Geyser, because she saw that she was struggling to make friends.

“She was sitting all by herself and I didn’t think anyone should have to sit by themselves,” she said.

Leutner witnessed Geyser befriend Weier and the pair quickly became obsessed with ‘Slender Man’ which she thought was strange.

Leutner's parents after the attack. Picture: ABC

“I thought it was odd. It kind of frightened me a little bit,” Leutner revealed.

“But I went along with it. I was supportive because I thought that’s what she liked.

“I told [Geyser] that it scared me and that I didn’t like it. But she really liked it and thought it was real.”

On the day of the horror attack, Leutner said the girls asked her to go for a walk.

“They just wanted to go on a walk,” she said.

“And I didn’t think much of it. It’s just a walk. It’s in Waukesha. What bad stuff happens in Waukesha, Wisconsin?”

When they were in the woods, they prepared to start what Leutner thought would be a game of hide-and-seek and told Leutner to lay down.

Peyton was stabbed 19 times. Picture: ABC

“Anissa told me to lie on the ground and cover myself in sticks and leaves and stuff to hide, in a sense,” she explained.

“But it was really just a trick to get me down there.”

With a kitchen knife Geyser had brought from her home, Geyser repeatedly stabbed Leutner and left her alone in the woods.

Injured and bleeding, she managed to pull herself out of the woods and into the open where someone could find her.

As she got herself to a nearby road, a cyclist found her and called 911.

At the time of the interview, she told the outlet that she “wouldn’t be the same person” she was today if she didn’t go through the horror ordeal.

-With The New York Post

Originally published as Huge update in horror ‘Slender Man’ stabbing nine years on