'Slender Man' attacker found by police after cutting off ankle tag and fleeing home
Morgan Geyser stabbed her friend Payton Leutner in 2014, which she claimed she did to "earn the right to be Slender Man's servants"
A woman who knifed her friend 19 times when she was 12-years-old in an attack dubbed the 'Slender Man' stabbing has been found after she 'cut off' her ankle tag.
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Morgan Geyser fled from the group home she was living at in Madison, Wisconsin, sparking an urgent search from police.
The 23-year-old's tag began to malfunction at around 9.30pm on Saturday night and staff at the facility confirmed she was not present.
Geyser was later found with another person at a truck stop in Posen, Illinois, more than 170 miles from the home, on Sunday evening, police confirmed.
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Geyser had initially been placed in the group home to continue treatment for a psychotic spectrum disorder following her sentencing.
Along with co-defendant Anissa Weier, she was charged with attempted homicide in the 2014 stabbing attack of their friend, Payton Leutner.
Geyser and Weier were both 12 years old when they lured their victim, also 12, into a wooded area in Waukesha, not far from Milwaukee, and stabbed her 19 times.
The girls said they carried out the stabbing to appease the fictional character Slender Man.
Leutner "barely survived" the attack after she was repeatedly stabbed by Geyser while Weier watched on and encouraged.
The pair later told investigators that they attacked Leutner to earn the right to be Slender Man's servants and feared he would hurt their families if they didn't follow through.
Both of the girls were found not guilty by reason of mental defect or disease in 2017 and sentenced to mental confinement.
Geyser was sentenced to 40 years of mental confinement and lived in a psychiatric hospital in Oshkosh for seven years before being placed in a group home this year when three experts testified that she had made progress battling her mental illness.
Weier received a 25-year sentence but was granted conditional release in 2021 under a 25-year commitment order. She was freed from electronic monitoring in 2023.