A nationwide manhunt for 23-year-old Morgan Geyser concluded Sunday night when she was taken into custody in Illinois after escaping from a Wisconsin group home. Law enforcement confirmed she had removed her GPS ankle monitor and left the facility on Saturday evening.
Geyser had been placed in supervised residential care after a 2014 incident in which she and another 12-year-old girl stabbed their classmate 19 times in an attempt to satisfy the fictional internet character “Slender Man.” She entered a plea and was committed to a psychiatric institution before being transferred to the group home earlier this year with conditions including monitoring.
According to authorities, the bracelet malfunctioned around 9:30 p.m. Saturday and the department received no formal escape notification until the next morning. Geyser was located approximately 165 miles from the group home after police responded to a report of loitering at a truck stop. At the time of arrest she initially gave a false name and told officers they could “just Google” her identity.
Wisconsin prosecutors say they plan to seek revocation of her conditional release and return her to institutional care due to the escape. Investigation into how the monitoring failed and how so much time elapsed before authorities were notified is ongoing.