Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Killer's R-Rated Excuse for Strangling New Mom

Episode Date: September 7, 2026

When 23-year-old mother Emily Rogers vanished shortly after sending an ominous text message to a friend, police in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, immediately began searching for answers. Bodycam footage captures detectives confronting her ex-boyfriend, Nicholas Matzen, whose suspicious behavior, changing stories, and bizarre claims raise immediate red flags. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy breaks down the footage and courtroom testimony that ultimately revealed Rogers' tragic fate in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Van DinhGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Emily Rogers was a new mom, her daughter just 15 months old. Going back to Texas with the baby, Zoom. And that was the father of the baby, Nicholas Mattson. He had just gotten out of jail. Where is Emily Nick? Four days later, police found Emily's body. I'll take you inside the moment. Detectives confront Mattson and what they saw on surveillance video.

I'm Anjanette Levy and this is crime fit. Emily Rogers was 23 years old. She loved softball. She was a tomboy who loved to be outside, and she was also a mom. According to a criminal complaint on April 27, 22, she sent a friend an ominous message. It read, I can tell it's going to be an expletive day. Emily had just broken up with her on again, off again boyfriend Nicholas Mattson, when asked if she was okay. Hey, she replied, not exactly. She promised to call back in a minute, but she never did. Four days later, on May 1st, 2022, police went to a house in Milwaukee. It was the home of Nicholas Mattson's mother. Hey, buddy. How are you? How are you? How are you? Sure, if we can. The cops want to talk to Nick Mattson and his mom because Emily's family cannot reach her. How long you guys live here? Over a year? Over a year? You're fired? I'm Officer Berthek-Mawki Police.

I am his mother. I was talking on the phone, and you, and you Nick. How are you guys doing? I'm going to close this door from my cat's front, so my kid eater. Why would you be a gun in your strive cops right here? Yeah. Oh! I didn't know that until my friend told me.

I didn't know that until my front told me. today. No bull-h-h-h-nothing was posted on my page. Until I was over at my niece's house, and she did a posting on her phone, and that's what he called out. Because it went through everybody she worked with, all their friends, and she called within 20 minutes. So, where's the backpacks, Mama? So she has all of her stuff here. She's good to go, she's been eating.

Oh, yeah. We just got here today. Like, I just literally got here at five minutes after. three or four minutes after you guys contacted her. Right. That's why I said, could you call back in about 15 minutes? That's right. That's right.

We have a baby here. Yeah, this is a... My man, we're not trying to take that baby. No, I'm not... I don't have a warrant. Is this little girl? No, I mean... My granddaughter. Emily and me split up.

Her name is... Catherine, Lorraine Rose Natch. You know what I mean? We just moved in. So she was like, hey. You really gotta go, bud. Or she told you to go? Yeah, because she's been with someone for a year, I guess.

So I'm like, all right, damn. And here's the thing. I contacted, before he walked in the door, I was talking to Corey, one of our friends. But before that, I was talking to Emily's mother, and she said she was going to have a warrant out for me for having officers come in and ransacked my house. We're going to talk all about that. We're not interested in ransacking our house.

We're just trying to. Make sure that everyone's safe. I'm glad I had the baby. That's fantastic. Right now I just have to find the mom. Yeah, that's it. That's it. She was supposed to meet up with me Friday.

And so I went to go meet up with her. Let's talk. I want to talk away for your mom if you don't like. Okay. Mom. It just makes it so everything works out smooth. Why don't you? What do you guys enjoy?

The detectives want to separate Nick Mattson and his mom. That's standard procedure. They don't know who knows what. And they don't want what Nick says, contaminating what his mom says and vice versa. All they know is Emily Rogers is missing. But the daughter she shares with Nick Mattson is with him. Yeah. Who is Emily's mother that called you?

Amy, I don't know what her last name. Are they in Texas? Is that where they live? Yeah. Okay. Could Emily be in Texas? Huh? Could Emily be in Texas?

I think her mother knows a lot more than what she's telling me. Okay. You know. Okay. Do you want her mother's number? Somebody has it. And you said she mentioned she said she's going to try to get people to get a search warrant to search the whole house? My house.

Yeah. This is my house. For what? Oh, that's some silly nonsense. Some silly, silly, silly nonsense. To make sure Nikki and the baby. he's not here. Okay, Nikki walked in, and

I explained to him what was going on, and you guys called, and is there a problem? No, and that's what I said. It would have been a problem, had we not had you cooperating, but since you cooperated, it was fine. Yes, exactly. Look,

there. You're good? How long have they been had, how long have Emily and him been together? My niece, Amanda, passed away two years ago, two and a half years ago. And she came up from Texas with her friend, and her friend was dating, my niece that passed away, was dating her son. Okay. So they met at the funeral home. Oh, okay. Okay, and then... About two years ago, you're saying. That's my phone. Okay. Can I grab it? Yes. You know, the cops are here.

They know Nikki safe, they know the baby safe. We do not know where Emily is, and nobody knows where Emily's been since Wednesday. Emily was supposed to pick up the baby from Nikki on Friday, and she never showed. So, Nikki has did absolutely nothing wrong, Nate. Okay? But I've got a hospital of cops here. They've got me in my bad room with... uh so i give you a call back later yeah i'm not sure what time i love you

the house and thank you okay bye-bye so i'm gonna do this to brother from there so two things to squash number one like you said where you said you don't know where emily is i'm bringing in a form um i'll let you read it go over and see what you want to do with it and then number two is so whoever emily's mom is down in texas um So she can't have anybody write up a warrant under any false accusations. This is a consent to search form. We're not looking for little items. All we're looking for is Emily.

And that way we can make. She's not here. We're out of here. So if you want, you read the directions, I'll go over with you. If you want to sign it, all we do is we're going to look like under the bed, in a closet, that kind of stuff. And be like, she's out here. We're good to go. I have one closet.

Good. That's fine. I have one closet. I have a basement that's totally locked. I haven't been down there. If you walk down there, you're going to walk right into Spider-Rudson. Okay, well, we'll probably still check it all out, but yeah. It's not a problem, but you'll have to have flashlights because I'll just don't work.

That's one thing to equip us with. They give us that, at least, at least, you know. I'm just letting you know. Right. Just letting you know. I hear you. I have no idea where Emily is. I know.

But I have a feeling that her mother and her friend are all setting my son up. Nick Mattson's mom may end up regretting that statement. While the detective talks with Mattson's mom, other detectives are talking with Nick Mattson in the living room. What else? Well, I got sent here because we were missing. I'm only my other catholic. So far we have Catholic. So that's good.

That's good. And you guys found me. Oh, am I? What, no one's concerned about me? No one's concerned about my? Nobody called you in missing. Okay. Because I haven't been missing.

Emily knows that I have her. As soon as her... Her parents... Who? Who? Who? No one. Do you have a phone?

I don't. You have a phone? I don't have a phone at all. You can check all my stuff. I have no phone. Since Friday, I haven't had the phone. When did you last see Emily? Wednesday?

Wednesday. What's the first time? I'm not sure what time she left the house at, but somewhere between like 9 and 10.30, maybe, I don't know, 10 a.m. Yeah, because I got there around 8 something. I got dropped off at the house by MSDF staff. Right in front. Like I said, every, the last phone conversations that I've had with Emily are all on MSDF's recordings. that's the last time.

Every last conversation that I had with Emily on personal call has been them. That's it. I tried to reach out to her on Facebook multiple times. I had her phone because I didn't have her phone. It's broke. If you look on my page, she tells everybody on my page, her page. If you're trying to get a hold of Nick, contact her because my phone broke. So Nick is then taken to the police station for more questioning.

But right away, Detective. noticed something strange and they ask him about it. So, so detective Tom's, he said something about your, to scratch on your face. How'd that happen? That happened at Henry's and Thursday when I went over there about 10-ish, 10 to 1030 I showed over there at Henry's house. This was Thursday night. Thursday night.

His dog chomping all of this, his girlfriend and her two friends will tell you she was nipped, The dog was nipping at me, bit my lip a little bit. Did you go there with anybody else? No, just me. 27th in Greenfield. So did you drive or walk there? Walked. So you go over visit Henry and some other people.

Yeah. The dog's going up on you on the couch, scratching. Yeah, and then jumping all over the place. And then you're like, I'm going to come back when I was like, I was a man. I was like, man, because I've been bit by dogs too many times. And the dog nipping at towards my face jumping on me, jumping off. Like I said, once he scratched my face, I grabbed him and I put him to the ground. I was like, look, man, y'all got to please put your dog up.

I was like, please, y'all, please put the dog up. The detectives are not convinced by the dog story, but they keep pressing. And they ask him about a video they have showing him carrying something incredibly suspicious. It happens if we saw something on a camera that showed you carrying something out of the house, like something large wrapped up that's my sex toy that's that's that's that's my doll that I have what dog I have I have um um one of those dolls you can set up and we we have sex with it me and her you and Emily yeah it's a full size yeah it's a big doll yeah like inflatable or like no

It's like one that you can move, arms, all that. Why would that be wrapped up the... Because it's heavy, it's hard to carry. It's like 400 pounds. Can you carry it by yourself? Absolutely now. That on video, the sex toy that we see you carrying out of the house, if that's what you say it is, where do that go?

Where could we find that? To prove that you're telling us the truth about that's what came out of the back of the house. Where do we find it? No clue. See what I mean? See where this is going? I mean Where is that sex toy?

We'd be more than having My partner drive right over there right now to go get this sex toy To make your, to prove your story Which I have a feeling you're going to tell us That it just got tossed in some dumpster, right? I mean, I'm just asking. This is a legitimate question

We're trying to, we see this You know, and we're trying to figure this out Where did it go? I need an attorney. You guys are Trying to make it seem like I'm suspect or something on something man I need an attorney. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. No, Nick, you killed her, Nick. That's why. Otherwise, you'd keep talking to us and you'd want to know. You would tell me where that toy was if you didn't do that to her. You would cooperate and you'd tell us because you'd be the first person that would want to know where she's at. I do want to know.

And you would tell us where this is to prove your story. And you're going to live with that the rest of your life. For the rest of your life, you're going to live. I never take Emily from Katie. You would. You did. It happens. It did. Happens in life all the time in the United States and the Milwaukee.

People get emotional and people f***le-so. So when you get the f***les to come around and be a man about it and give some closure to your daughter, we're here to listen to you. And the questioning ends there for the day. But the next day, Nick changes his mind and he agrees to talk again. This time, detectives have new information and they tell him what they found in the house. So we went over to the house on Vichet. And we used some police science.

And we use this stuff called Blue Star. Blue Star is a chemical that sees blood, right? I can see blood that's been wiped up. So we put Blue Star. I had a search warrant to do it all over your house over on Beach. Yeah. So we get a bunch of blood evidence out of the house. There's blood evidence from a bedroom dragged around.

So we'll get blood out of there. And then it leads us to Felix. So we got Felix. How's that lead you to Felix? Because we got Felix from a car that had the same blood in the trunk. What? Yeah. No.

So Felix now is for... He's like I'm telling it. So then what happens is Andre, he comes down here and he says, tells us everything, right? He doesn't have any he tells it all. He's holding back a little bit, but he says that he has a conversation with you. And he says, you're just a strut. And he said that he told him you did something horrible, that you,

you did something really, really bad. And that's your hurt, Emily. That's what he said, because you told him. And the one thing that isn't consistent. is the information we're getting from you, man. We can validate the things that they're saying. Okay. We can substantiate.

We can prove the information you're telling us is truthful and accurate. Okay. We can't prove anything you're saying is truthful and accurate. If I'm saying, that's impossible. Impossible. Because we're getting physical evidence to support what they're saying, man. What physical evidence? There's no blood in that.

When I had left that house, house. There was no blood in that house. Because it was cleaned up. By who? But not all of it was cleaned up. There was some splatter that was missed. All right. If there's some sort of splatter or something, that's crazy, crazy. So help us find out of one, man. That's all we're asking. I've been trying.

I've been trying. I've been truthful and I've been trying the whole time. And honestly, man, I don't think you have been. I have a good, clean conscience. my job is to get out and help you guys. As soon as my BOP hold, I'm going to be right there next to you guys, shoulder, shoulder, looking for her. Do you think any of her family's going to allow that? It doesn't matter if they allow it or not.

I'm still going to be there searching for my... She is still the mother of my child at the end of the day. A few days later, he's then brought back for more questioning, and the detectives ask him about the breakup. This is how he explains it. Family lets me know, like, hey, I've been seeing someone for a year. I just wanted to get everything very situated. You know, I did a good job at helping her do that. But I knew it was coming because of the in and out.

How long were you left up for? Only a half and a half. But I just did 18 months before that, you know what I mean? So I know. she's 23. I'm 35. We have a totally different agenda in life as

I'm trying to settle down or she still wants to go out. I can't go out. I understand that. You know, I've been telling her we could go out more it's just to what places. It's harder to find places

that don't serve alcohol. that are real nice, you know what I mean? Everywhere else serves alcohol, there's young kids, you gotta worry about getting into fights and all that. And that's all stuff that I always vent to dur and told her about, look man, we go, oh, this could happen, this could happen, this could happen, I could run into someone who doesn't like me, this could happen. You know what I mean?

Let's chill at the house, chill with friends, have friends over, we always go down to the salmon wasses, down Union Grove, or we go chill with friends. It's better than going out. We went out maybe a couple weekends ago to Matt Plan. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? But over the course of the interview,

the detectives are not satisfied with Nick Mattson's answers, and they go over the timeline, the sex doll, his friends, but eventually they run out of patience. And I don't want to be with you. There is no way. No way, no apology. No, you haven't, you've been in prison,

boy? You've been in prison, but don't say you've been watching her. For a week and a half. Okay. Since I got out for my 18 months, every single day. And where is that only? Every single day.

She's been there for most of it. She's been going out with friends. Did that upset you? No, it doesn't accept. Why? I have to accept that I cannot go out to the place that she wants to go out. I've been told her that look right I trust Michaela I trust Kara I trust her friends that she has up here

to watch over her when she goes out mm-hmm but now she doesn't want to be with you at all so what is that what is that Nicholas that doesn't mean that I still can't trust her put put your put yourself I put myself 25 years from out okay and something happens. God forbid something happens. You would need that closure, wouldn't you? Everybody needs that place to go when they lose somebody. Everybody needs that, whatever that is,

whether it be an urn full of ashes, spot in the ground, or a place in the wall. They need a place to go. Myself personally, I have nothing. Emily's mom needs a place to go. need a place to go in a couple of years when she goes to her first day of kindergarten and her mom's not going to be there.

And neither is her dad. So this is what I'm saying. If you have not found Emily, how are we just all assuming she's gone? That's what I want to know. That's because what I'm... Well, the thing is... I've been telling people from the beginning is

her people are coming up here. She's going to come out. knows I'm in custody that is reliable no more. She's in the system. Emily's going to come and get her daughter. Where does she go and hide? I don't, I've told you the people that would hide her. I give you everybody's information. If you look, you have her Facebook, you have her phone. I know you do because we've already discussed this. That is going to show you where and who would hide here. What happened?

Then give us the scene. Then tell us what happened. I have nothing further to say to you guys, man. Nothing. Where is Emily, Nick? I need to turn to hear. Where is Emily? Because you guys are not listening.

We're listening. Nothing but listening. You're not helping the situation. You over here, you think this is funny. I never once thought anything about this was funny. Not one big. rewind these tapes, they're going to see the way you are reacting and making this seem like it's a... Making it seem like this is some sort of fucking reaction show when it is not.

Nothing's funny about a 16-year-old with a dead mom and a dad in jail. Nothing's funny about that. This ain't fun for me either. I've got to see my daughter, man. I have a feeling she's not going to want to see you. Good luck with that one. Yeah, is it made a situation. It's unfortunate.

You are denying her closure. Not only her, but her grandma to. He's got to put the cuffs on you. Emily can't come home, man. During the trial, Mattson took the stand in his own defense. The judge later called his testimony, holy, incredible, and said he showed no remorse. The jury also heard from two of Mattson's friends. They testified that they helped him.

dump Emily's body in a creek and covered it with a Christmas tree. The medical examiner testified that Emily died from ligature strangulation and that Mattson used a cord or rope, not his hands, to strangle her. In March of 2025, a jury took just more than two hours to find Nicholas Mattson guilty of first-degree reckless homicide and hiding a corpse. A judge sentenced Mattson to 40 years in prison for the homicide, and he received an additional five years for hiding Emily's body. He is appealing his conviction, and he's right now in a Wisconsin state prison. And that's it. For this episode of Crime Fix, I'm Ann Janette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.