(NewsNation) — Thursday marks the second day of a hearing in the case of Morgan Geyser, a woman seeking to be released from a psychiatric center nearly a decade after she and another woman were convicted of stabbing their classmate in an attempt to please the fictional character Slender Man.
Geyser and another woman, Anissa Weier, were 12 years old when they lured another sixth-grade student to a park in Wisconsin. The Associated Press reports that Geyster stabbed the girl multiple times while Weier encouraged her — then both left the victim for dead. While she ultimately lived, medical staff who treated the victim said she barely survived.
Geyser and Weier would go on to tell investigators that they thought the stabbing would earn them the right to become the servants of Slender Man, a supernatural internet, movie and video game character.
The girls told police they stabbed the girl because they believed doing so would protect their families from Slender Man.
A judge sent Geyser to a psychiatric institute for 40 years after she pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide in 2018. She began treatment for early-onset schizophrenia while in custody in 2015, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Weier, meanwhile, was granted a conditional release from a psychiatric facility to live with her father in 2021.
On Wednesday, two psychologists testified that Geyster is not ready to leave the center, although one said that she might be in a better position for release in six to twelve months.
NewsNation digital reporter Katie Smith and The Associated Press contributed to this article.
