Emily Rogers' Ex Strangled Her, Smuggled Body In Rug: Complaint

MILWAUKEE, WI — Emily Rogers was strangled to death by her former boyfriend after she tried to break up with him, according to a criminal complaint obtained Wednesday by Patch.

The body of the 23-year-old Milwaukee woman was found last week in a St. Francis industrial park, the complaint said, and her ex, Nicholas C. Matzen, is one of multiple people arrested in connection with her death. Matzen is charged with first-degree reckless homicide and hiding a corpse.

Police confirmed Rogers’ disappearance when an officer went April 30 to conduct a welfare check at the home Rogers and Matzen had shared in the 2500 block of West Becher Street, the complaint said. Matzen, 35, had been in custody for several days but was released April 27, and Rogers had told a friend that once Matzen was out she planned to break up with him, according to the complaint. As time passed and Rogers’ friend didn’t hear from her, she reported Rogers missing, the complaint said.

Conversations with people who knew Matzen revealed he had admitted to breaking Rogers’ neck bone, had carried her body out of their house wrapped in a rug, and had rolled her corpse down a slope behind an industrial park in the 1300 block of East Waterford Avenue in St. Francis, the complaint said. It was there her body was found days later, under a discarded Christmas tree and next to a retention pond, according to the complaint.

Matzen told one person with whom police spoke that when Rogers told him she was leaving April 27, he “lost it” and strangled her, the complaint said. A doctor determined Rogers' cause of death to be asphyxiation, according to the complaint.

When detectives falsely told Matzen there was footage of him carrying a body out of the house, he told them it was a 400-pound sex doll, the complaint said.

Matzen’s bond was set Wednesday at $500,000, according to court records. He is next due in court May 19 for a preliminary hearing. Matzen faces up to 60 years for the homicide charge as well as up to 12 years and six months and $25,000 in fines for the charge of hiding a corpse, according to the complaint.

A GoFundMe initially created to aid in the search for Rogers had collected nearly $5,000 as of Wednesday evening and will now pay to bring her remains to Texas, where it appears she had family connections, and to support the young child she had with Matzen.

“Our sweet, loving Emily is no longer with us,” a message on the GoFundMe said. “Rest in peace to the most beautiful soul we have ever had the honor of knowing.”

In a Facebook message April 27, Rogers told a person that Matzen had shown up where she was and that, “I literally had to force him to leave,” the complaint said. “What happened?” the person asked, to which Rogers replied, “I’ll call you in a minute.” Five minutes later, she added an addendum to the message: “If I can.”