Woman Who Stabbed Childhood Friend to Impress ‘Slender Man’ Won’t Be Released

A judge on Thursday denied a request for the conditional release of a Wisconsin woman who stabbed a middle-school friend 19 times a decade ago, when they were both 12, in a crime that she later said was carried out to impress a sinister fictional figure named Slender Man.

In January, Morgan Geyser, 21, requested early release from her 40-year commitment to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Oshkosh, Wis., where she has been held since 2018, petitioning Judge Michael O. Bohren of Waukesha County Circuit Court to consider whether she represented a threat to herself or others.

After hearing testimony from three experts and the director of the institute, Judge Bohren decided that there was significant risk that Ms. Geyser would harm herself or others, and that she should remain institutionalized.

Ms. Geyser, who appeared in court on Wednesday in an orange shirt and pants, her wrists in shackles, had no immediate comment. Her lawyer, Anthony Cotton, said he would file another petition for conditional release in six months, the minimum time frame allowed under Wisconsin state law.

On May 31, 2014, Ms. Geyser and a classmate, Anissa Weier, then both 12, lured a friend, Payton Leutner, also 12, into a wooded area. Ms. Geyser stabbed Ms. Leutner 19 times as Ms. Weier urged her on. Severely wounded, Ms. Leutner crawled out of the woods and was found by a cyclist. She was taken to a hospital, where she later recovered from her injuries.

The police found Ms. Geyser and Ms. Weier hours after the attack near a highway. They said they were on their way to a mansion in Wisconsin’s Northwoods that they believed was the home of Slender Man, a fictional character generally depicted as a tall, shadowy figure with a blank face.