Morgan Geyser appears in court in January.Photo:AP Photo/Morry Gash
AP Photo/Morry Gash
A Wisconsin judge has temporarily halted the release of attempted murdererMorgan Geyserfrom a mental hospital pending an upcoming hearing.
The Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Oshkosh, Wisc. — where Geyser has been housed since her2017 convictionin the attempted murder of her classmatePayton Leutner— has asked the court to keep Geyser in custody over concerns about a book that she admitted to reading and contact with a man outside the facility, WISN reports.
“The reading material that she’s so focused on, has themes of sexual sadism and murder and the sale of human organs on the black market," Deputy District Attorney Abbey Nickolie said in court, per WISN. “All of these things that the treatment team at Winnebago had no idea that she was so interested in.”
Geyser’s defense attorney, Tony Cotton, said in court that his client doesn’t have internet access and “is not reading anything that she isn’t permitted to have access to in the institution. There’s no secret reading of anything," WISN reports.
A hearing is scheduled for March 6 to discuss the status of Geyser’s release.
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Geyser, along with her co-defendantAnissa Weier, admitted to luring Leutner into the woods during a sleepover in 2014 to play hide-and-seek. Geyser then stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier urged her on. Both Geyser and Weier told prosecutors they did it to appease the fictional online character “Slenderman.”
As for Weier, she wasreleased in 2021after being housed for nearly four years at the same facility as Geyser.
source: people.com
