WAUKESHA, Wis. — Three Department of Corrections (DOC) staff members involved in the response to Morgan Geyser’s escape from her group home have been placed on administrative leave, according to DOC Secretary Jared Hoy.
Geyser, one of the women behind the 2014 Slender Man stabbing, had been living at a group home in Madison after a judge approved her conditional release from Winnebago Mental Health Institute, where she had been held for more than a decade.
Her release to the group home came with the condition that she be monitored by an ankle bracelet — a condition she broke on Nov. 22 when she cut her ankle bracelet and fled to Illinois, where she was later found sleeping outside a truck stop with a 43-year-old friend.
Geyser’s escape raised concerns among some community neighbors, who were worried for their safety and filled with questions over how she was able to make it to Illinois, and whether they should have been informed she was living in their neighborhood during her time in the group home.
Among those concerned were Madison police, who said they were not verbally informed of Geyser’s escape until the next morning, aside from an apprehension request sent to them hours later, which they say was never relayed to them.
Watch: Judge delays Morgan Geyser’s conditional release hearing to next year
An investigation launched Nov. 23 revealed that DOC staff did not respond to the alert triggered when Geyser cut her ankle bracelet until more than two hours later due to a backlog of alarms and calls.
Case log activity shows staff managed an average of 30.5 alarms each between 9 p.m. and midnight.
As DOC continues to review its existing procedures and look for any opportunities to streamline them to reduce potential for error, it says it has already identified and implemented a change in how quickly law enforcement is notified.
Previously, when responding to strap and tamper alerts, staff were required to attempt a system reset before issuing an apprehension request or teletype message (TTY) to law enforcement.
Now, the process to alert law enforcement has been streamlined with the following modifications to the standard operating procedures:
- Issuing an apprehension request along with a TTY immediately upon confirmation of a tamper.
- • Requiring notifications to DHS and/or DCC on-call after entering an apprehension request and TTY.
- o For DHS clients, DHS will still have authority to cancel the apprehension request depending on the nature of the situation.
- • If an alert comes in, but is later determined to be due to a medical emergency requiring a hospital or workplace to cut the device off, staff will still enter the warrant and TTY immediately with consideration for the on-call supervisor to give permission to cancel the apprehension request only upon determination of no violation.
Whether the three staff members placed on administrative leave will face further disciplinary action will depend on the results of the DOC’s ongoing investigation.
Geyser was moved from the Waukesha County Jail to a different facility as she awaits a hearing on her conditional release, according to the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department.
It is still unclear which facility Geyser was relocated to. TMJ4 has reached out to officials for clarification, including her attorney, Tony Cotton, who had previously requested Geyser be returned to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute.
He also filed a motion requesting that her hearing, set for Dec. 22, be delayed. The request was granted, with a judge moving the hearing to Feb. 16, 2026.
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