Photo: Posen Police Department/Madison Police Department
The transgender person who was arrested alongside 'Slender Man' stabber Morgan Geyser said the younger escapee "ran because of me."
Chad 'Charly' Mecca, 43, was found Sunday (November 23) with Geyser at a truck stop in Posen, Illinois, more than 150 miles away from the care home where the 23-year-old escaped from one day prior. Mecca, who was referred to by police as "he" but identifies as transgender and was called "she" by Geyser, was issued a citation for criminal trespassing and obstructing identification and has since been released from custody, taking full responsibility for the escapee during an interview with WKOW.
“She ran because of me,” Mecca said, adding that Geyser fled the group home because they were taking away her visitation.
“She sobbed, she’s like, ‘They’ll take away our visitation. Charly, please… you’re my best friend,'” Mecca said of a phone call with Geyser over the weekend.
“She already made it clear if I didn’t go, whether or not she was still going, and she was not going back to jail. And I know what that means,” Mecca added.
“The end of the day, I followed what I thought was right. I stand by it,” Mecca said.
Geyser, one of the "Slender Man stabbers" who hacked and ambushed a classmate when she was 12 years old, was captured after cutting off her ankle monitor and escaping from the Wisconsin group home where she was living, the Madison Police Department confirmed on the city's official website Sunday night.
"On 11/23/2025 at approximately 10:34pm, The Madison Police Department received confirmation that Morgan Geyser was taken into custody in the state of Illinois. There is no longer a need to search for Morgan Geyser at this time,," the department said.
Geyser was reported to have led police on a manhunt after escaping Saturday (November 22) night.
"Officers are searching for a woman who cut off her Department of Corrections monitoring bracelet and left a group home Saturday night," the department said. "Morgan Geyser was last seen in the area of Kroncke Dr. around 8 p.m. with an adult acquaintance. Her whereabouts are unknown as of Sunday morning. The Madison Police Department was notified of her disappearance Sunday morning. A recent image of Geyser, captured on security video from this past month, is attached below. If you see her, please call 911."
Geyser and her friend, Anissa Weier, lured a fellow student into a Waukesha, Wisconsin, park and stabbed her 19 times during the incident in 2014, which they said they carried out in an effort to impress "Slender Man," a supernatural character who was the subject of internet forums, video games and later a 2018 horror movie. The victim miraculously survived by crawling her way to safety until making contact with a passing bicyclist.
Geyser, then 15, pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder as part of a plea deal that led to her being placed in a mental institution rather than serving jail time. Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Michael Bohren ordered Geyser be released from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute and sent to a group home after three psychologists testified that she was prepared for supervised release, which would include her wearing a Department of Corrections monitoring bracelet.