A nationwide manhunt ensued for the ‘Slender Man’ stabber, Morgan Geyser, who nearly killed a classmate in 2014 at 12 years old. She went missing from her group home in Illinois after cutting off an electronic monitoring device. Madison police issued an alert early Sunday claiming she was last seen with an adult acquaintance on Saturday, November 22, 2025, around 8 p.m.

Capturing ‘Slender Man’

Geyser was found early Monday at a truck stop in Posen, Illinois, with a 42-year-old man. She managed to travel 170 miles south of Madison, and the details of her escape are unknown. The man she was with was charged with criminal trespassing and obstructing identification, but has since been released from police custody.

According to the Posen Police Department, which posted a statement on its Facebook page Monday morning, officers were dispatched to the truck stop after reports of a male and a female loitering. The officers found the two sleeping on a sidewalk when they arrived.

At first, Geyser gave the officers a fake name and refused to tell them who she was. In the end, she explained she did not want them to know who she was because she had “done something really bad” and instructed them to Google her. She and the man were taken into custody without incident.

The ‘Slender Man’ Stabbing

On May 31, 2014, Geyser and her friend, Anissa Weier, were 12 years old when they lured their classmate, Payton Leutner, to a Milwaukee park during their sleepover. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19  times while Weier cheered her on. Leutner survived, but barely. Her family says that she is safe, even now during the unexpected escape. 

After the brutal stabbing, the girls told investigators that they feared Slender Man, a fictional supernatural character. They attacked their classmate to become his servants and were concerned that if they did not follow through, he would harm their families. Weier pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide and was sent to a separate psychiatric facility. She was released into her father’s custody in 2021.

Geyser’s Spontaneous Escape

Earlier this year, Geyser was released from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute and placed in a group home. In 2018, she made a deal with the prosecution and pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide and was sent to the psychiatric institute. Prosecutors pleaded with the judge not to approve her conditional release, insisting she could not be trusted. Evidently, they were correct. 

The Department of Corrections issued an apprehension request to law enforcement shortly after midnight Sunday morning. However, the Madison Police Department was not made aware of Geyser’s escape until someone from the group home called them the next morning. 

Geyser’s attorney, Tony Cotton, sent an email to The Associated Press on Monday morning explaining he did not know what happened with his client. He has yet to speak with Geyser and is unable to comment on the details or motivation for her escape.

Authorities were not made aware she was missing until 12 hours after she cut off her bracelet and left the group home. The state Department of Corrections received an alert Saturday evening that there was a malfunction with Geyser’s ankle monitor. Two hours later, they contacted the group home and were informed she had left. 

Release Earlier This Year

Geyser was released in March 2025, and state health officials attempted to block it, informing the judge that she did not offer up information that she read “Rent Boy,” a novel about murdering people and selling their organs on the black market. They also alleged that she was communicating with an older man who collects murder memorabilia. Geyser was in possession of a sketch of a decapitated body he had sent her, and there is a postcard saying she wanted to be intimate with him.

Geyser’s attorney defended his client’s actions, claiming Geyser cut off communication with that man after realizing the relationship was inappropriate, and that she only reads what the institute’s staff allows her to. “Morgan is not more dangerous today,” Cotton said at the court hearing in March. The presiding judge found Geyser not to be a threat and not to be hiding anything, so he continued with her release.