The friend accused of helping Morgan Geyser — one of the teens involved in the 2014 Slender Man stabbing — leave a Wisconsin group home says she is the reason Geyser ran.
Geyser, 22, was taken into custody in Illinois on Sunday, Nov. 23, a day after she slipped out of a group home in Madison, Wis., according to the Madison Police Department.
Authorities say Geyser cut off her monitoring bracelet before fleeing and was last seen with “an adult acquaintance.”
Local station WKOW reported that the alleged acquaintance, 34-year-old Charly Mecca, called in and described her side of what happened.
“She ran because of me,” Mecca told the station, explaining that the pair used public transportation to travel to Cook County, Ill.
According to the outlet, Mecca and Geyser had become friends, and Mecca said Geyser was afraid the group home would soon block them from seeing each other.
“It was still my choice at the end of the day,” Mecca told WKOW. “I followed what I thought was right. I stand by it.”
WKOW, WISN and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Geyser’s acquaintance has been charged with criminal trespassing and obstructing identification and has since been released from custody.
Geyser and Anissa Weier were both 12 years old in 2014 when they lured their classmate, Payton Leutner, into the woods during a sleepover. Once there, Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times.
Leutner survived the attack after a passerby found her and called for help.
Geyser and Weier later admitted to the stabbing, telling investigators they believed the fictional internet character Slender Man was real and said they wanted to appease him.
Both were found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.
Geyser was placed in a psychiatric facility, where she remained until a judge approved her transfer to a group home. As part of that conditional release, she was required to wear a monitoring bracelet, according to ABC News.
