MADISON, Wis. — Morgan Geyser, the Wisconsin woman who nearly killed a classmate in a 2014 “Slender Man” stabbing, was apprehended late Sunday at an Illinois truck stop in Posen after she removed a monitoring bracelet and left a Madison group home the night before, police said. The arrest brought to a close the brief but harrowing “Morgan Geyser missing” scare that lasted almost 24 hours, Nov. 24, 2025.
The Morgan Geyser missing scare: How news unfolded
The first reports that Morgan Geyser was missing came on Sunday, when the Associated Press reported that she had removed an electronic monitoring bracelet and left from a home where she’d been placed after a conditional release. Later, Madison police said she had left the home on Kroncke Drive with an adult acquaintance around 8 p.m. Saturday and was found with the individual at a Thornton’s truck stop in Posen, ABC News reported.
Debra A. Goyser’s bracelet emitted a malfunction alert to authorities around 9:30 p.m. Saturday, but officials did not realize she was missing until about 2 hours later, according to a detailed timeline from the Milwaukee outlet WTMJ. The Department of Corrections posted an apprehension request around midnight, but Madison police said they were not notified that she was missing until the group home called 911 at 7:46 a.m. Sunday, as “Morgan Geyser missing” posts spread through social media.
Neighbors on the sleepy Madison cul-de-sac said they didn’t realize Geyser was so close by and wondered why they weren’t informed. In a statement released to local station WISN, the family of victim Payton Leutner said they are safe, working with law enforcement, and appreciative of the outpouring of support as they monitored the rolling news about Morgan Geyser’s disappearance.
Geyser, now in her early 20s, was found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect for stabbing Leutner 19 times in May 2014 — an attack she and friend Anissa Weier said was a plot to please the internet horror figure Slender Man. She spent roughly seven years at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute before a judge signed off on a conditional release requiring her to be placed in a group home with treatment for mental health and electronic monitoring, an AP report about her release said.
That order brought to an end a series of legal hearings, stretching over several years, in which state psychologists and prosecutors pointed to violent reading material and distressing communications, even as experts testified that she no longer posed a threat. A story in the Guardian from July 2025 noted that those red flags prompted protests from Leutner’s family and local authorities, but didn’t prevent a court from eventually ruling that her supervised release into the community was allowed.
The Madison and Cook County prosecutors have not indicated whether Geyser, who was found after she went missing, would face new charges as a result of the escape or be returned to inpatient care with increased supervision. But the whipsaw shift from “Morgan Geyser is missing” alerts to “no longer need to search” notices underscores just how uncertain her path back into society still is.
