Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 'Slender Man' Stabber Back Behind Bars

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

Morgan Geyser, 23, is back in Wisconsin after her arrest in Illinois. Geyser is accused of cutting off her GPS monitoring ankle bracelet and leaving a group home in Madison where she had been living following her conditional release from a mental health institution. Now, Wisconsin's Department of Health Services is asking a judge to revoke her conditional release. A hearing is set for December 22. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy looks at what could come next for Geyser in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: You’re 30 seconds away from being debt free with PDS Debt. Get your free assessment and find the best option for you at https://PDSDebt.com/CRIMEFIX Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Mark Weaver https://x.com/MarkRWeaverProducer:Jordan ChaconCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. I don't want to give you my name. Okay, well, then we're going to arrest you. I'll take you an ID. We're going to hold you an ID at the station for fingerprints. After Morgan Geyser's dramatic arrest at a truck stop in Illinois. Give me your name, a day to birth.

You're not wanting for murder, right? Right. The Slender Man Stabber is back in Wisconsin. and in jail. I take a look at what's coming next for her. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Morgan Geiser spent Thanksgiving behind bars, not at a group home or at a mental health facility. Geiser had been booked into the Cook County jail on November 24th after her arrest in Posen, Illinois the night before. It was recorded by bodyworn cameras. no we just got called here for a service call so now you did something wrong because

just come back no record on files and that means you're lying to us about your name okay so now that's obstructing I'm going to give you one more chance before we're going to take you in custody fingerprint you okay so just be honest it's not a big deal you're making it bigger Geyser had cut off her GPS monitoring bracelet and escaped from a group home in Madison, Wisconsin, where she had been living for the last couple of months. The person with Geiser was Chad Mecca, a trans woman who goes by the name Charlie, who she met at church. This is your last opportunity. Okay, let's try this again. I don't know what you're so scared about. Here, what's your last name?

What is it? I didn't break the law. Please let her go. So. You did by lying to the officer. And you got a loiter. The lawyer. The lawyer.

At this moment, which is a class A misconduct that's arrestful offense. Therefore, you can be placed under arrest for that. Both of you because you lied and you lied. And you give me your real name. Man, we got this catch here because you were the loitering in the back of the business. It's not like we... And there's signs posted, there's no loitering. Okay?

I'm sorry. Okay. So it's not a big deal. What is your name? Don't make us... arrest you and do all this extra stuff that we don't need to do i know we got way more serious things to worry about than this but we got called here it ain't like we just walked up and started messing with you at this point we're just going to detain him detain her please let her go then put you then give me your name i did something wrong she did she doesn't know what i did

okay that's fine i ain't let me talk to you again i'll look at what what is what you did that you did I did something really wrong. What? 4-7 and Cicero. What? Did you be wrong? 4-7 and Cicerole by 500 rules. It's not that you can't be that serious.

Now we all know what the something really wrong is. When Morgan Geiser was 12, she and her friend Inissa Weir lured their friend Peyton Lightner to the woods and stabbed her nearly killing her. Peyton was able to drag herself to the road and a man passing by called 911 after years of litigation. Morgan Geyser was determined to be not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. She was supposed to be housed in a mental health institution for 40 years, but she won conditional release earlier this year and was placed in a group home, which led to her escape and dramatic arrest days before Thanksgiving. Hey, Ronnie, take these bags since you got gloves, try to find an ID in her.

She said she doesn't have one. I think she's saying that it's really, really bad. So the only really, really thing bad is you'll never see me again is, I hope she has committed a homicide. But she's the way she's talking, she's saying that that's really, really bad. All right. Homeless couples guidebook. Okay, well, I think that was the start of it. So now Morgan is back in Waukesha, Wisconsin. She's in the jail. Deputies went and picked her up in Cook County the night before Thanksgiving. And the Department of Health Services has asked that her conditional release be revoked. The petition seeking the revocation was filed under seal. But we know from a hearing earlier this year that the Department of Health Services tried to stop Geyser's release, citing a number of issues, including what she was reading.

At a point in time, did you become concerned about information you learned about reading material that Ms. Geyser was using? I did. Why? Because it is related to the index offense, I suppose. In what way? It's violent. specifically is the one of the books that you're referencing called rent boy section leading overruled it is leading but we all are familiar with these various documents

and this will move the hearing along so overwhelmed yes and did you have concerns about the fact that Ms. Geiser had read that book? I did. Why? Because it was a dark novel that revolved around murder and the selling of body parts on the black market along with sexual sadism.

Is that information contained in the material that you put together in exhibit one? It is. Okay. How did Ms. Geiser react when she was informed the treatment team and conditional release team would be monitoring her reading material? She was upset. Did she say why? She didn't feel it was necessary for the team to oversee things that she used as coping skills and a creative outlet.

The Department of Health Services case manager also said there were concerns about the company that Morgan Geiser was keeping specifically. a man who had visited her and written to her expressing that he was sexually aroused by her crime. After the team became aware of him, it was during that meeting that Ms. Geiser asked for a no-contact. We further looked into things to find out if there was such a need for a no-contact and what was the reason. And we found a number of things on his Facebook that pertained to Ms. Geiser that we were concerned about. And before I forget, I apologize for jumping topics here. Ms. Whitaker, I want to ask you one more question about the book Rent Boy that we talked about. Okay.

Do you, were you able to ascertain how Ms. Geyser got the book to read in Winnebago? I was under the understanding that she had got it from the library, but then it later came out that it was sent to her. How? Be a mail. Somebody, I'm not sure. Okay. Let's get real. Credit card debt is not an accident. Every call, every fee, every high interest trap, it's a system designed to keep Americans stuck. Banks, profit, creditors win, and real

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Again, PDSdebt.com slash crime fix. And that man was apparently selling Morgan Geyser's art on Facebook, calling it the Sunderman package. We found that there were letters and drawings that she had sent him a postcard. And he was selling them. he was selling the items. Were you able to see the drawings that he was purporting were from Ms. Geyser? Yes.

Were they concerning to you? Yes. Why? They were very dark in nature. I would describe it as a horror type picture. Excuse me? Horror. All right.

I want to show you what's been marked as State's Exhibit 1. Yep, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Do you recognize that? I do. What is it? It is a drawing that Morgan has done.

Where did you get it? Off of Jeffrey Pagel's Facebook page. Was that one of the items for sale? Yes. How would you? Was it being, was Ms. Geyser's name linked to that piece of art in the sale information? It was. Does that look like a fair and accurate copy of the item that you found for sale in this case?

It does. But Morgan Geyser's lawyer pointed out at the time that it had been a wide. since Morgan had had contact with that man. What we do know is that Pagel is posting things for sale on the internet. Yes. And Pagel is apparently fixated on true crime type things. Yes. But Morgan herself hasn't had any physical contact with Pagel in over 18 months.

Not that I'm aware. And has never seen him in the community as far as we know. Correct. And has herself asked for a no contact order. Yes. And as part of a treatment release when you're planning something, someone's release, a person gets rules, right? It's sort of like being on probation.

They have a list of rules that they have to abide by. Correct. And certainly on those rules, oftentimes, there will be no contacts with certain individuals. I mean, one obvious no contact would be the victim of the crime and the family members, right? Yep. And then, so it seems like Ms. Geiser is aware of that. So when she uses the phrase no contact, it's in the context of, I'd like there to be a rule that makes it clear not to have contact, right? Correct. Morgan Geyser's attorney told a Milwaukee TV station that he wasn't concerned that she would be violent when he heard that she had escaped. He was more concerned about a negative influence that may have caused her to do so. Okay, so to discuss the very latest developments with Morgan Geyser's case, I want to bring in Mark Weaver. He works as a special prosecutor in the state of Ohio, sometimes a judge, also has a background in juvenile justice. So Mark, as we kind of predicted, the

Department of Health Services has filed a petition to revoke Morgan Geiser's conditional release. So, you know, this document is sealed, but we can only imagine what is in there along with her escape. There may be additional material in there. What do you think? I think we're going to find out a lot more if and when this gets unsealed. We can take heart that this ended so quickly. She could have caused injury or de-injured or somebody else. She could have caused injury or danger to herself.

She was certainly on that path being with a very strange, potentially dangerous person. So at least she was not out of custody very long. She was not. I mean, they did not make it very far at all, maybe a little more than 100 miles. They're picked up at this truck stop in Posen, Illinois. I mean, they're literally sleeping on the sidewalk. They ran out of money. It just, it seems like the worst plan ever to cut off your GPS monitor, skip town, you run out of money, and then you're sleeping on the sidewalk at a gas station at a Thorntons in Illinois.

And, of course, the cops come and they're like, what's going on? You know, the whole back and forth about, I'm not going to give you my real name. and then the trans woman that Morgan is with, this Chad slash Charlie, is like trying to say it's all his or her fault. What do you say about that? I mean, this person has also told other media outlets, she did this because of me, you know, because they wouldn't let her see me at the group home, this type of thing. Yeah, we learned a lot from watching that footage. First of all, we learned some pretty good police work. These officers were not called out for a heinous crime or for something particularly dangerous.

They were called out to see what was going on with these two apparent vagrants. And they were persistent. They asked appropriate questions. They followed up and ran her name when she gave a fake name. And eventually she had to own up for who she is. The fact that she looked at that creepy man who's pretending to be a woman and called that man a she says that this woman continues to be mentally ill. She also is hanging with a man who has a crack pipe and so perhaps that was part of what she was involved with as well. She has new criminal charge potential now for

lying to the police, for escaping from custody. But all of this should be enough for everyone to agree. She's not ready to be in a less restrictive setting. Her attorney, Tony Cotton, you know, back when this happened, back when she was trying to get released, you know, and the Department of Health Services, they didn't want her released in the first place. Back in March, they went to the court and they said, look, we don't think she's a good candidate for this. We think that the judge needs to halt this release. They introduced a number of reasons why.

Tony Cotton at that time said, you know, she's a rule follower. This is a hit job. Now he's saying basically this bodes well for her, that she, you know, didn't fight. extradition it's showing that she's willing to take responsibility i mean i don't know is this all pr because i mean i've reached out to him i haven't heard back yet i i don't know like he does he just need to take the l or what i mean i don't know if i'm seeing the judge saying okay yeah she made a little bit itty-bitty mistake here. She cut off her GPS monitoring bracelet and skipped town, literally cross state lines. I mean, do you see a judge saying, yeah, she can go back to the group home?

I sure hope not. I've been a prosecutor since 2001 and have sat as both an acting judge and a magistrate for more than a dozen years on a part-time basis. So I've interacted with hundreds of defense lawyers, and many of them are really good, and they're responsible with the things they say. lawyer said in one interview that 10 out of 10 with the odds that she was appropriate to be released into a less restrictive setting 10 out of 10 he said that after he knew that she had escaped that's just not responsible rhetoric for an officer of the court defense lawyers often have bad facts they have to work with and I feel some empathy for them I'm not I've not been a criminal defense

lawyer I've always been either a prosecutor or an acting judge or a magistrate but they have to work with the facts they have. But when I sat on the bench, we're adding over cases, a defense lawyer who was honest about the bad facts that his client presented often had more credibility for me than somebody who says things like, you know, 10 out of 10, she was ready to leave, and this is not that big a deal. It's really a good sign that she's getting better. None of that is true. Charlie slash Chad, you know, Mecca, the trans woman that she was on the run with, said that basically she took off because of him, that, you know, the group home would not let him come in to see her. He didn't like the way that Morgan was being treated there, that type of thing.

I mean, group homes have rules. I mean, this is not, like, this is not her apartment. I mean, she has to abide by the rules. And apparently this person was apparently sneaking into the group home somehow through a window to go see her. I'm sure that didn't go over very well when the group home found out about that. I mean, is it possible the group home was like, yeah, we're not letting this person just come in here and hang out with you, Morgan.

I'm assuming they have rules, visitors have to be approved, that type of thing. I mean, there's a lot. We still don't know about what exactly was going on at the group home. Yeah, a well-run group home will have rules, we'll have security, will hold the people who live there accountable for their behavior. People who are able to control themselves and make better decisions can be placed in a setting like a group home. Let's remember, this is a young woman.

who tried to murder one of her close friends because of a creepy, fictional internet meme. And the notion that some creepy man on the outside is now interested in her reminds me of, you know, at least one of the murderers I've prosecuted has a fan club and a Wikipedia page and still gets letters from women. So it's kind of a trope. It's a well-known thing that some odd women will write to male criminals in prison and imagine them. in a romantic relationship with the male killer. This is a twist. This is an older, odd man who mistakenly thinks he's a woman trying to interact with this young mentally ill woman

who tried to commit a murder in the name of Slender Man. The whole thing is bizarre and it's very troubling. And it's just more evidence that she needs to be back in a more controlled setting. Well, and make no mistake about it. I mean, Morgan Geiser is still mentally ill. I mean, people, I don't, I think people need to totally realize that. It didn't just go away. She was found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. That didn't just go away because she underwent some treatment for a number of years at the, you know, mental health facility at Winnebago. She's still mentally ill. So she's still not suitable to be living on her own in the community. She committed a heinous crime. And so

Do you see her just be, like, being sent back to Winnebago? Well, I'm not sure. I will say this. As you mentioned, I've got a background of juvenile justice. I did a master's thesis in juvenile probation, served as a juvenile probation intern, assisting with a caseload of juveniles. And certainly as a prosecutor, I've dealt with a lot of mental illness and people claiming mental illness. Over the last few decades, there's been a pernicious trend towards, well, they're not criminally responsible because they're mentally ill.

so let's just let them go somewhere till they get better and then they get let out missing in that whole equation is the safety of the public and that's got to be a factor so if this young woman is not criminally responsible because she was mentally ill I understand that that goes back centuries of Anglo-American law but she's supposed to be in an institution for 40 years now maybe at 35 years in you go okay she's much better but after just a few years of her being put into a more relaxed setting, I think, is a pernicious trend that should be reversed. The petition to revoke her conditional release, you know, this is a very public case.

It's a high-profile case. Of course, there might be information about her mental health, and there are specifics that are protected under HIPAA. I don't know. But so much of this has been litigated in court, in public. Why are we sealing that? Why is the Department of Health Services asking for that to be sealed? And why is the judge agreeing to that?

Well, in juvenile cases, those records tend not to be public. And everyone understands why, because a child should be able to be rehabilitated. She's now an adult. These criminal actions she took by escaping and then lying to police, giving a phony name, being with a crazy man who's got a crack pipe. These are all adult crimes. and as a result, adult cases are not supposed to be sealed. There's no good reason for it.

A skeptic might say that the request for sealing is to cover up some of the mistakes that were made for how this young woman was allowed to escape. Interesting. Well, we will keep an eye on it. Mark Weaver, thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Now, the Waukesha County DA has said that she would support the petition to revoke Morgan Geyser's release. The hearing is set for December 22nd. So stay tuned. That's it for this edition of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.