Attorney Tony Cotton is asking a Waukesha County judge to move Morgan Geyser to Winnebago Mental Health Institute rather than keep her in jail. In a letter filed Monday, Cotton argued that because Geyser faces no new charges and was previously found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, she should be housed in a clinical setting, not a correctional facility.
Geyser, 23, was returned to the Waukesha County Jail on Nov. 26 after waiving extradition from Illinois. She had been found there days after leaving a Madison group home on Nov. 22 and removing her GPS monitor.
She is scheduled for a Dec. 22 hearing on whether her conditional release in the Slender Man case will be revoked. Geyser is serving a 40-year commitment to the state Department of Health Services after being found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect for the 2014 stabbing of classmate Payton Leutner. Geyser and co-defendant Anissa Weier, both 12 at the time, carried out the attack in an attempt to appease the fictional character Slender Man.
Geyser was granted conditional release earlier this year. Former Judge Michael O. Bohren approved her release from Winnebago Mental Health Institute in January. His successor, Judge K. Scott Wagner, later approved her placement in a Madison group home after other proposed placements—including one within eight miles of Leutner’s home—were rejected.
Weier was committed for 25 years and granted conditional release in 2021. Her GPS monitoring requirement was lifted in 2023.
Geyser left the group home on the night of Nov. 22. Staff last saw her around 8:15 p.m. At 9:30 p.m., corrections officials received an alert that her ankle monitor was malfunctioning. By 11:35 p.m., group home staff confirmed she had removed it and was gone. An apprehension request was issued around midnight, but it was not forwarded to Madison police. The group home did not call 911 until 7:46 a.m. the next morning, and officers were dispatched 12 minutes later.
Geyser was found late Sunday at a truck stop in Posen, Illinois. Police responding to a report of loitering discovered her and a companion, 42-year-old Chad Mecca, sleeping on the sidewalk. Officers said Geyser initially gave a false name and later admitted she had withheld her identity because she had “done something really bad,” telling officers they could “just Google” her.
Mecca has been charged in Illinois with trespassing and obstruction but has not been accused of helping Geyser flee. The Dane County District Attorney’s Office will decide whether Geyser will face charges related to her escape.
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