A Wisconsin judge granted an early conditional release Thursday to Morgan Geyser, who was convicted of stabbing her childhood friend more than a decade ago.
Geyser, then 12 years old, along with Anissa Weier, stabbed another girl, Payton Leutner, 19 times to appease the fictional horror character Slender Man back in 2014.
The now-22-year-old was originally committed to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute to a maximum 40 years of state mental health supervision after she was found not guilty by reason of mental disease in 2018.
Geyser was back in court on Thursday, seeking to be released from a state psychiatric hospital after her previous request was denied in April. Geyser’s latest petition for release is the fourth time in the past two years she has asked to be let out of the facility, though she withdrew her first two petitions.
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Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren determined that Geyser had maximized her treatment options at the facility and ordered the state Department of Health Services to set up a plan for supervising and housing her in a group home, subject to his approval at a hearing within 60 days.
Several doctors have examined Geyser to see if she has made enough progress for a conditional release.
Dr. Brooke Lundbohm, who has a long history of working with Geyser and has previously said that Geyser was not yet ready for conditional release, changed course during Thursday’s hearing and testified in support of Geyser’s release.
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“In March of 2024…there were still some ongoing concerns about emotional regulation and anxiety provoked reactions to unknown triggers that were reminiscent of her trauma. Since that time, there is nothing in the record to suggest continued symptoms that once plagued her, like crying spells, anxiety attacks, periods of dissociation,” Lundbohm testified.
“In 2021, there were some ongoing issues related to her report of auditory disturbances that she specifically described as being demons, but there has been nothing of that sort for the last…three years.”
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Prosecutors said Geyser and Weier lured Leutner to a wooded area in Waukesha after a sleepover in May 2014, and then Geyser stabbed Leutner repeatedly, as Weier urged her on.
Leutner was left for dead but survived the attack after she crawled out of the woods and was found by a bicyclist.
“Her current understanding is that she experienced fantasy related to these different fictional characters and within the context of her mental illness, fantasy essentially became blurred with reality, where she had a difficult time determining the difference between essentially what’s fiction versus what’s real,” Lundbohm testified on Geyser’s current understanding of her crime.
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Lundbohm said she supported a conditional release of Geyser to a residence treatment program, adding, “I would not be in support of her petition for conditional release if it was essentially just going into the community without a variety of different support services as well as the ability to effectively monitor her behavior, her relationships.”
During the hearing, it was revealed that in recent months, Geyser has been permitted to go to Starbucks, museums and other excursions from the facility, and Lundbohm testified that she does not believe Geyser has been a risk to herself or others during these outings.
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Lunbohm attributed Geyser’s progress to a “combination of factors,” including maturity and Geyser’s suicide attempt in October 2021. She also confirmed that Geyser is taking anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medications.
“She has continued to take treatment more seriously and become consistently engaged and invested in it,” Lundbohm testified. “Throughout the last…eight, nine, ten months, there has been a noticeable improvement in her understanding of her mental health.”
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Geyser was sent to the psychiatric institute because of mental illness after pleading guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide. Weier was also sent to the psychiatric facility after pleading guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide.
Weier was granted conditional release in September 2021 and was required to receive outpatient psychiatric treatment and subjected to GPS monitoring.
Fox News’ Stepheny Price contributed to this report.
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