Early Life and Background

2001

• November 10, 2001 Anissa E. Weier is born.

2002

• May 16, 2002 Morgan Geyser is born in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Childhood to Early Adolescence

• Morgan experiences early symptoms later associated with early onset schizophrenia.
• She reports hallucinations involving fictional or imagined figures.
• Around age 11 Morgan becomes obsessed with the online horror character Slender Man.
• She forms a close friendship with Anissa Weier at school. Both share an intense fixation on Slender Man content.

Build Up to the Crime

2013

• Morgan and Anissa begin discussing Slender Man as a real entity.
• Both girls express fear that Slender Man will harm them or their families unless they perform a murder to prove loyalty.
• They talk about becoming Slender Man’s “proxies” and believe this requires killing someone.

Early 2014

• Morgan and Anissa decide that their friend Payton Leutner, known as Bella, will be the target.

The Attack on Payton Leutner

May 30, 2014

• Morgan invites Payton to a birthday sleepover.
• During the sleepover the girls play normally, but Morgan and Anissa have already decided Payton will be killed the following morning.

May 31, 2014

Morning at the Park

• 9:45 a.m. Morgan, Anissa, and Payton walk to David’s Park.
• They lure Payton into a wooded area known as the thicket.

The Stabbing

• Anissa encourages Payton to lie down.
• Morgan stabs her nineteen times with a five inch kitchen knife.
• Wounds include:
• Two near major arteries
• One that penetrates her diaphragm
• One that nearly hits her heart
• Morgan and Anissa tell Payton to stay still and bleed out, then leave the woods.

Survival and Rescue

• Payton crawls out of the woods and reaches a walking path.
• A passing cyclist Greg Steinberg sees her and calls 911. Source
• She undergoes emergency surgery and survives.

Immediate Aftermath

May 31, 2014 Afternoon

• Police locate Morgan and Anissa walking along Interstate 94.
• Both admit the crime and describe Slender Man as their motive.
• They state they were walking to Slender Man’s mansion in the Nicolet National Forest.

Community Fundraiser: Hearts for Healing

June 3, 2015

• A community organized fundraiser called Hearts for Healing is launched to support Payton Leutner during her long term recovery. The effort focuses on medical expenses, trauma care, and ongoing support needs following the nineteen stab wounds she survived in May 2014. Local residents, schools, and volunteer groups participate, and the campaign becomes the primary public community support initiative for Payton and her family during the first year after the attack. Source

June 6, 2014: Survivor Heads Home

• After a week in the hospital, Payton Leutner returned home. Thousands of supporters from around the world sent her messages and donated to a fund set up to help with medical bills. “We did ask how she found the strength to crawl out of the woods,” her family wrote in a statement. “Her response was simple: ‘I wanted to live.'”

August 1,2014

• Judge declared Geyser incompetent to stand trial after two doctors testified on her mental state, saying she believes she talks to imaginary beings. Her next court date is Nov. 12.

September 15, 2014

• Anissa Weier’s attorney argued Weier was also mentally incompetent. A court-ordered psychologist is evaluating her before an Oct. 22 hearing.

Sept. 26, 2014: Survivor, Family Speak for First Time

• Payton Leutner and her parents open up about recovering from the ordeal. Her parents return for the first time to the spot where their daughter was stabbed. “I hugged her and said you’re going to be OK,” Payton Leutner’s mother Stacie Leutner told “20/20.” “She’s an amazing child,” she said. “She is definitely our hero,” her father Josef Leutner added.

Legal Proceedings

June 2014 to 2016

• Both girls are charged as adults because of Wisconsin law.
• Extensive psychiatric evaluations begin.

June 2015: History of schizophrenia revealed

• Geyser’s family history of schizophrenia is revealed at a court hearing, in which an expert witness reveals that Geyser’s father had suffered from a similar mental illness as an adolescent and was hospitalized at least four times when he was 14 or 15.

January 2016

• A civil judge approves sending Geyser to a state mental hospital where she gets her first treatment for schizophrenia, including medication that her lawyer says quells the voices from imaginary friends like Slender Man.

July 2016: Charged as adults

• Weier and Geyser are charged as adults, affirming a trial judge’s ruling in 2015 that the two girls had failed to show “by a preponderance of evidence” that they should be transferred from adult court to juvenile court. The girls’ lawyers have repeatedly said their client’s cases should take place in juvenile court.

August 2016

• Anissa Weier pleads guilty to attempted second degree intentional homicide.
• A jury later finds her not guilty due to mental disease or defect.

October 2016

• Morgan Geyser pleads guilty to attempted first degree intentional homicide.
• She is found not guilty due to mental disease or defect.
• Psychiatric experts testify she has early onset schizophrenia.

September 12, 2017

• Lead investigator detective Thomas Casey testified about notebooks found in Morgan Geyser’s school locker. The notebooks contained references to Slender Man. Source
• The evidence was presented during the case of Anissa Weier, 15, in Waukesha County Court, in Waukesha. Weier, when she was 12, and friend Morgan Geyser, carried out a plan to kill their sixth-grade classmate after a sleepover party. The victim survived and Weier and Geyser were charged as adults with attempted first-degree intentional homicide. Weier agreed to plead guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide, and stands trial only on whether she should be held criminally responsible. Both girls plead not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

Sentencing

December 2017

• Morgan Geyser: Sentenced to up to 40 years in a psychiatric institution under Wisconsin Statute 971.17.
• Anissa Weier: Sentenced to 25 years in a mental health facility with credit for time served.

Institutionalization and Treatment

2018 to 2021

• Morgan remains at Winnebago Mental Health Institute.
• She undergoes antipsychotic treatment.
• She shows intermittent hallucinations according to court reviews.

February 2018: Morgan Geyser sentenced

• Geyser is committed to 40 years of mental health treatment and monitoring and ordered to remain at a mental health institute.

2021

July 2021: Weier conditional release

• Anissa Weier is granted conditional release with electronic monitoring.

September 2021: Anissa Weier released

• Weier is released from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute on Sept. 13 and will serve out the rest of her commitment in the community. She will be monitored with a GPS tracking device and will be supervised with case managers until she’s 37 years old.

Petitions for Release

2022 to 2024

• Morgan petitions for conditional release several times.
• Courts deny these requests citing continued risk and incomplete stabilization.

September 2023: Anissa Weier freed from GPS monitor

• Weier was subsequently freed from electronic monitoring in 2023.

April 2024: Morgan Geyser denied release

• Bohren denied the petition for conditional release of Geyser.
• She will remain at the mental institution where she has been committed since 2018 for treatment.

Conditional Release to Group Home

January 9, 2025

• A judge rules Morgan may be eligible for conditional release based on psychiatric testimony. Source

July 17, 2025

• The court approves a sealed conditional release plan.
• Known elements include supervised group home placement, ongoing therapy, and GPS monitoring.

Escape from Group Home and DOC Timeline Source

November 22, 2025 (Saturday)

• 8:15 p.m. – Morgan is last seen at the group home with an adult acquaintance.
• 9:30 p.m. – Wisconsin Department of Corrections receives an alert that the GPS monitor is malfunctioning.
• 11:30 p.m. – DOC contacts the group home. Staff confirms Morgan is not present.
• 11:35 p.m. – Staff informs DOC that Morgan removed her GPS bracelet.
• Around midnight – DOC issues an apprehension request.
• This request is not relayed to the Madison Police Department.

November 23, 2025 (Sunday)

• 7:46 a.m. – Group home staff calls 911 to report Morgan missing.
• 7:58 a.m. – Madison Police are assigned to the call and respond to Kroncke Drive.
• This is the first time the Madison Police Department becomes aware that she is missing.
• Later that day – Morgan is located out of state in Posen, Illinois.
• She is found with a 42 year old man who is charged with trespassing and obstructing identification.
• Morgan is taken back into custody.

Statement from the Leutner Family

November 2025

• The family of Payton Leutner confirms they were notified of Morgan’s escape.
• They state Payton and the family are safe and working with law enforcement.
• They thank every agency involved in locating Morgan.
• They acknowledge the support of family, friends, and the public. 
  Statement issued by spokesperson Steve Lyons.

Travel, Planning, and Relationship Details from Police Interview – Source

• In a post arrest police interview, Geyser states that she met Chad Mecca a couple of months earlier at Good Shepherd Church.
• She tells investigators that the group home did not allow Mecca to visit her, so he would sneak in through her window to see her.
• Geyser admits to police that she cut off her ankle monitor with scissors.
• She says that she and Mecca had discussed traveling to Nashville, Tennessee, and leaving Wisconsin together.
• When asked how they ended up in Posen, Illinois, Geyser says they took a Greyhound bus from Wisconsin to Chicago, walked to the south side of the city, then took another bus to Posen.
• She explains that they ran out of money and stopped at a gas station in Posen, where police later located them.

Posen, Illinois Arrest Reports

• Posen police first encounter Geyser and Mecca during a welfare check after the pair are found sleeping behind the Thorntons Gas Station at 14840 Western Avenue in Posen, Illinois.
• According to arrest reports, both initially give officers false names. When officers are unable to find any records under those names, they ask again for accurate identification.
• Geyser tells officers that if she gives her real information, she will never be able to communicate with her friend again. She then tells them they can search her real name online and reportedly states that they can “Google her name, Morgan Geyser” to see who she is.
• Mecca eventually tells officers that his identification is in his backpack and confirms his true identity.
• Police determine that Geyser is wanted on a nationwide extradition warrant after cutting off her ankle monitor and fleeing her Wisconsin group home.
• Mecca is arrested and charged with criminal trespass and obstructing identification. He is released on a citation and a notice to appear in court.
• Geyser is processed on the extradition warrant and is expected to appear before a judge on Tuesday morning.

Notification to Wisconsin Authorities

• Later on November 23, 2025, authorities in Wisconsin are notified that Geyser has been located and detained in Posen, Illinois.
• Madison Police report receiving notice that evening that she is in custody on the extradition warrant.

Current Status (Late 2025)

• Morgan Geyser: Remains under state custody following her apprehension in Illinois after cutting off her GPS bracelet and leaving the group home. Future hearings are expected to address whether her conditional release will be revoked and whether she will be returned to a secure psychiatric facility full time. Geyser is processed on the extradition warrant and is expected to appear before a judge on Tuesday morning.
• Anissa Weier: Continues to live in the community on supervised conditional release, without GPS monitoring, under the original 25 year commitment order running from 2014.

Watch the body-cam footage of the Posen Police Department officers stopping Morgan Geyser and Chad Mecca behind a truck stop in Posen, Illinois, after Geyser escaped her Wisconsin group home. This video captures the moment Posen police locate Morgan Geyser and Chad Mecca sleeping outside a truck stop in Posen, IL after Geyser escaped her group home in Wisconsin. She initially refused to identify herself and said ‘just Google me’.”

Initial 911 Call and Medical Response

May 31, 2014

• Waukesha Police receive a 911 call for a girl “who had been stabbed” in the woods near Big Bend Road and Rivera Drive.
• Specialist Greg R. Steinberg responds and locates Payton Leutner crawling out of the woods, bleeding heavily. She identifies her attacker as “Morgan.”
• Payton is transported to Waukesha Memorial Hospital for emergency surgery.
• Hospital staff report multiple life threatening injuries including stab wounds to her liver, pancreas, diaphragm, and abdomen.

Detective response at hospital

• Officers interview Payton in the trauma unit. She states Morgan stabbed her and left her in the woods.
• Surgeons inform detectives that nineteen stab wounds were identified with organ damage documented in the operative summary.

Crime Scene Inspection

May 31, 2014

• Detectives respond to the wooded area where Payton said she had been stabbed.
• Multiple blood pools and disturbed brush indicate a struggle inside the thicket. The location matches Payton’s account.
• Investigators observe a path consistent with the direction she crawled to reach the road.

Search for Suspects

May 31, 2014, midday to afternoon

• Officers locate Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier walking near Interstate 94 after reports of two girls matching their description.
• Both are detained and transported for separate interviews.

Recorded Interviews and Key Statements

Interview: Anissa Weier – (Criminal Complaint, pages 3–5)

• Weier tells detectives she and Morgan planned the killing for months to become “proxies” for Slender Man.
• She explains that they believed Slender Man lived in a mansion in the Nicolet National Forest and killing Payton would prove their loyalty.
• Weier states Morgan said “We have to kill P. L.” to satisfy Slender Man.
• She confirms Morgan stabbed Payton multiple times while Payton screamed.
• She admits they did not help Payton after the stabbing and instead left to meet Slender Man.

Interview: Morgan Geyser – Criminal Complaint, pages 5–6

• Morgan tells Detective Ferrier she stabbed Payton after Weier “pushed the knife into my hand.”
• Morgan says she continued stabbing because she believed Slender Man would kill her family if she did not follow through.
• Morgan states she heard voices and remembered hearing Payton scream.
• She describes the stabbing as “necessary” and admits she knew Payton was badly injured.

Evidence Collection

May 31–June 1, 2014

• Detective Platta and Deputy Faith investigate Weier’s home.
• Weier’s father reports that a knife with a five inch blade is missing from the kitchen.
• Officers locate a matching five inch knife inside Weier’s backpack, which Morgan carried after the stabbing.
• Police photograph the wooded crime scene, blood trails, and Payton’s discarded clothing.

Establishing Probable Cause

June 2, 2014

The Waukesha County District Attorney’s Office completes its review of:

• Officer Steinberg’s reports documenting Payton’s identification of Morgan.
• Detective Trussoni’s interviews with Weier showing motive, planning, and intent.
• Detective Ferrier’s interview with Morgan confirming her role in the stabbing and motive.
• Medical records and surgeon statements documenting nineteen stab wounds and organ damage consistent with attempted homicide.
• Physical evidence including the five inch knife recovered from the backpack.

Filing of Charges

June 2, 2014

• The State of Wisconsin formally files the Criminal Complaint charging:
• Morgan E. Geyser
• Anissa E. Weier
• with Attempted First Degree Intentional Homicide, party to a crime, with use of a dangerous weapon.
• The complaint states the offense carries a potential sentence of sixty years imprisonment, with an additional five years for use of a weapon.

Post Filing Investigative Actions

June 2014

• Follow up interviews are conducted with Payton’s family and medical providers.
• Detectives collect digital evidence, including notebooks and online search histories involving Slender Man content.
• Law enforcement documents multiple months of planning referenced in both girls’ interviews.

Conclusion of the Initial Investigation

The criminal investigation phase concludes with:

• Full documentation of the crime scene
• Video recorded interviews with both offenders
• Forensic verification of the weapon
• Medical confirmation of life threatening injuries
• Established motive supported by both girls’ statements
• Independent corroboration from digital and physical evidence

This evidence leads directly to the decision to prosecute both girls as adults.