A judge on Thursday denied a parole request for a Wisconsin woman who stabbed a middle school friend 19 times a decade ago when they were both 12, in a crime she later said was done to impress a sinister a fictional figure named Slender Man.
In January, Morgan Geyser, 21, sought early release from her 40-year commitment to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Oshkosh, Wis., where she has been held since 2018, petitioning Waukesha Circuit Court Judge Michael O. Boren to consider whether she was a threat to herself or others.
After hearing testimony from three experts and the director of the institute, Judge Boren decided that there was a significant risk that Ms. Geyser would harm herself or others and that she should remain institutionalized.
Ms. Geyser, who appeared in court Wednesday in an orange shirt and pants with handcuffs on her wrists, did not immediately comment. Her attorney, Anthony Cotton, said she will file a new parole petition in six months, the minimum time frame allowed by Wisconsin state law.
On May 31, 2014, Ms. Geyser and her classmate Anissa Wyer, then both 12 years old, lured a friend, Peyton Leutner, also 12, into a wooded area. Ms. Geyser stabbed Ms. Leutner 19 times as Ms. Weier prodded her. Badly injured, Mrs. Leutner crawled out of the woods and was found by a bicyclist. She was taken to hospital where she later recovered from her injuries.
Police found Ms. Geyser and Ms. Weyer hours after the attack near a highway. They said they were on their way to an estate in the Wisconsin Northwoods they believed to be the home of Slender Man, a fictional character usually depicted as a tall, shadowy figure with an expressionless face.
Ms. Weier and Ms. Geyser told authorities that they stabbed Ms. Leutner because they wanted to please Slender Man. They said they believed the Slender Man was real and that by killing Mrs. Leutner they would become his “proxies.”
The attack shook residents of Waukesha, a quiet, orderly suburb of 70,000 west of Milwaukee where the three girls lived with their families and attended high school. The case also raised questions about how parents can prevent their children from exploring the darker corners of the internet, such as the forum where Slender Man was born.
Some of Ms. Leutner’s relatives, who a prosecutor said were “vehemently opposed” to Ms. Geyser’s release, attended the two-day hearing that ended Thursday. None of Mrs. Geyser’s family came.
Psychologists gave testimony that shed light on Ms. Geyser’s traumatic childhood, her psychiatric history after the attack and the difficulty of assessing the health of someone who spent her entire adolescence in a mental institution.
Ms Geyser has told psychologists she was sexually abused by her father, who died in 2023. She said her mother failed to protect her.
One of the psychologists, Deborah Collins, who recommended Ms. Geyser’s parole, said that Ms. Geyser tried to hang herself in October 2021. She also said that Ms. Geyser had stopped taking antipsychotic medication in 2022 and that she claims she hanged herself by faking her mental illness to escape her abusive father.
Citing medical records, Dr. Collins testified that Ms. Geyser told a therapist last year, “How do you think I was able to stab my best friend repeatedly? I didn’t care, I couldn’t care, I never knew how to care.
Dr. Collins and another psychologist who testified described Ms. Geyser as an intelligent and empathetic person who was clearly psychotic at the time of her attack, and said her statements cast doubt on her credibility.
Judge Boren agreed.
“This is a brutal attack on a person,” he said. “It is at hand if you wish. It’s bloody, it’s bloody. This kind of dangerous behavior is what the risk is. Until questions about its credibility are resolved, he added, “that risk is high.”
Ms. Geyser and Ms. Weier were charged with attempted first-degree murder. Under Wisconsin state law, they were charged as adults.
Ms. Geyser pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted first-degree murder as part of a plea deal in which prosecutors agreed to seek no prison time. She was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment in the mental hospital.
Ms. Weier pleaded guilty in 2017 to a lesser charge of attempted second-degree murder. Jurors later found that she was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the stabbing and that she should also receive treatment, not prison. She was committed to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute for 25 years.
She was granted parole in July 2021 and is serving the remainder of her term at her father’s home under electronic monitoring.
Ms Geyser, who began treatment for early-onset schizophrenia while in custody in 2015, abandoned two earlier applications for release in 2022 and 2023 based on a report from a psychologist. She applied for parole last time in January.
Ms. Geyser’s mother, Angie Geyser, did not respond to a request for an interview before the hearing, but she spoke to ABC News’ “20/20” program in 2018.
“I would never have imagined that my daughter was capable of hurting another person,” she said.
Ms. Leutner, who has returned to middle school after months of recovery from the attack, declined an interview request. “I want to be a normal person and I want to heal in peace,” she said in a text message.
Ms. Weier did not respond to messages seeking comment about the prospect of Ms. Geyser’s release, but her grandmother, Melody Weier, said in an interview before the hearing that she hoped Ms. Geyser would remain in hospital “because of the illness. “
She said her granddaughter is struggling to get back to normal life after being released from the mental hospital.
“People judge,” she said. “Not fair.”
