Alarming 8-hour delay in Morgan Geyser case notification

A troubling series of communication failures led to an eight-hour delay before police learned that Morgan Geyser, one of two people convicted in the notorious 2014 Slender Man stabbing case, had removed an electronic monitoring device and fled from a Wisconsin group home.

Geyser, now 23, disappeared late Saturday evening from the facility where she was living under conditional release. However, the Madison Police Department did not receive notification about the escape until Sunday morning, creating a significant gap in the response time that law enforcement experts say could have compromised efforts to quickly locate the missing individual.

How the delay unfolded

The timeline of events revealed a concerning breakdown in communication between multiple agencies. The sequence of events that night painted a picture of missed opportunities and delayed responses that frustrated investigators and raised questions about existing protocols.

1. Around 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Department of Corrections officials received an automated alert indicating Geyser’s GPS monitoring device was experiencing technical problems. This notification came approximately one hour after Geyser was last observed near Kroncke Drive in the company of an adult acquaintance.
2. At roughly 11:30 p.m., DOC officials made contact with staff at the group home facility. Shortly after this communication, facility personnel confirmed that Geyser was not present at the location and had removed the monitoring equipment from her person.
3. The Department of Corrections issued an apprehension request for Geyser around midnight. Despite this internal action, Madison police did not receive any notification about the situation.
4. Madison police finally learned about Geyser’s disappearance approximately eight hours later, around 8 a.m. Sunday morning, when someone from the group home placed a call to 911.

Expert analysis of the communication failure

Former FBI special agent Jennifer Coffindaffer, who now serves as a law and justice contributor for NewsNation, addressed the problematic delay in her analysis of the situation. She characterized the incident as a major communication breakdown between the Department of Corrections and local police, acknowledging that while such failures should not occur, they do happen with some frequency, particularly when information arrives during overnight hours.

Coffindaffer emphasized that the hours lost following Geyser’s escape could have been crucial for tracking and apprehending the individual. The delay potentially allowed for a much wider search area and complicated efforts to quickly resolve the situation.

Public notification delayed further

Compounding the internal communication problems, local authorities did not alert the public about Geyser’s disappearance until Sunday morning. This meant that community members remained unaware of the situation for an extended period. Police in Posen, Illinois, eventually captured Geyser around 10:30 p.m. local time on Sunday, bringing the ordeal to a close nearly 24 hours after the initial escape.

The original Slender Man case

The incident that brought Geyser into the criminal justice system occurred in 2014 when she and an accomplice, Anissa Weier, were both 12 years old. The pair lured their classmate Payton Leutner to a wooded area in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier encouraged the attack. During police questioning, both girls explained their actions stemmed from an obsession with Slender Man, a fictional horror character that originated on the internet.

Geyser entered a guilty plea to attempted first-degree intentional homicide as part of an agreement with prosecutors that allowed her to avoid traditional prison. Instead, she was sent to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in 2018 for psychiatric treatment. Earlier this year, authorities granted her conditional release and placed her in a supervised group home setting.

Weier, who pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide, also received placement at the psychiatric facility. She obtained release in 2021 and has remained compliant with her conditions.

Victim remains safe

Leutner survived the vicious attack and has moved forward with her life in the years since. Following news of Geyser’s escape and subsequent capture, Leutner’s family issued a statement on Sunday confirming that she was safe and maintaining communication with authorities throughout the situation.

The incident has renewed discussions about monitoring protocols for individuals under conditional release and the importance of seamless communication between various agencies responsible for public safety.

Source: NewsNation and The Associated Press