Morgan Geyser, the now-adult Wisconsin woman who infamously stabbed her classmate nearly to death in 2014, has been apprehended. Prior to her arrest, she’d fled a group home in Madison. The crash has caused a focus on events that took place nearly a decade ago. At the time, Geyser and her friend Anissa Weier horrifically stabbed their sixth-grade classmate, Payton Leutner. The assault left Leutner with 19 stab wounds. According to prosecutors, the attackers’ actions were spurred by their need to impress the made-up fright figure Slender Man.
While living in the group home, Geyser had to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet. She was able to shut the device down in a hurry and get off the facility. This brave decision led officials to send out a missing person alert on her location. Law enforcement officials found Geyser on Sunday night in Posen, Illinois, about 170 miles south of Madison. Charging documents state that she first gave police a fake name before eventually revealing her identity, resulting in her arrest.
Once captured, Geyser will most likely appear at a court hearing via video. This hearing would send her right back to the psychiatric institute. Her attorney, Tony Cotton, shared a dramatic video on social media calling on her to turn herself in. He warned that, unless something changed, she was in very grave danger before she was discovered. Geyser had previously pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide related to the 2014 attack.
Geyser’s escape has made national headlines, raising fears. People are realizing that these safety protocols hardly exist at private, for-profit group homes for those with severe mental health challenges. OPM’s new plans leave many critics wondering whether the proposed monitoring measures will be enough to ensure an incident like this one doesn’t happen again.