Shocking new text messages obtained exclusively show the barrage of abuse that drove an Army veteran to suicide.
The messages were sent to 37-year-old Kevin Metzger by the mother of his daughter, Mandie Reusch.
In a shocking series of text messages, the woman accused of driving her Army veteran boyfriend to suicide, told him that he would never see his daughter again and sent him a video of her giving oral sex to her new man.
Mandie Reusch, 35, was arraigned just outside Pittsburgh Tuesday on charges of aiding suicide and harassment involving the death of her estranged boyfriend and father of her daughter, Kevin Metzger, 37, in June 2021.
In messages sent via WhatsApp, Reusch tells Metzger that she’s moving in with her new boyfriend, bragging about his sexual prowess.
The volley of messages began at 2.49am on May 5, 2021 – just over a month before Metzger took his own life.
She tells the father of her child that their daughter will refer to her new boyfriend as ‘dad’ from now on.
‘You won’t see her for Father’s Day or any holiday,’ Reusch writes while also complaining that Metzger owes her money.
‘My kids will be literally better off with any role model other than you… if you show up here again we have a gun and I will call the police.
‘From now on we are [her new boyfriend’s surname] and you do not exist. [He] is her dad now. Not you. Don’t ever ask about her again. She isn’t your daughter. You’ll never hear about her again either.’
In another message, the suspect says that she ‘hopes’ for their daughter’s sake that he ‘kills himself.’
‘She will call [him] “dad” because he’s a way better dad than you. Kill yourself. I mean it… I actually want you to kill yourself because I think you are the worst person on this planet.’
In various messages, Reusch accuses Metzger of ruining Mother’s Day for her. Seemingly because of this, she is willing to withhold parental access.
‘Who knows how big she’ll be when you see her again. Or if she will even remember you’, she wrote.
In one exchange, Reusch says that Metzger killed their dog, Zoe.
She says that she is shredding a book of photos of the pet, that the dog actually hated him and that she and her new boyfriend were going to have sex on top of the book.
‘That dog f***ing hated you and ran away every chance she could. Just like I ran away to suck anyone else’s d**k but yours because you’re literally the worst person I’ve ever met in my life,’ she wrote.
After saying that he killed their dog, Reusch once again says he will get shot if he attempts to come near to her.
On multiple occasions, Reusch refers to Metzger as a ‘woman beater’ and ‘abusive.’
Throughout the barrage of text messages, Metzger never responds.
Reusch’s attorney has rejected comparisons between the allegations facing his client and the 2014 case of Conrad Roy, then 18, and Michelle Carter, then 17. In 2017, Carter was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter after it emerged that she sent Roy text messages encouraging him to commit suicide.
He ended his life via carbon monoxide poisoning. Carter was released from prison in 2020.
DiLucente said that prosecutors are comparing the two cases.
‘[Carter] was actually telling him reinforcing him to do it, planning it, the methods and the means, you don’t have any of that here, what you have is an emotional relationship between two persons involving their child,’ the attorney said.
The lawyer said that the messages sent by Reusch to Metzger could be considered ‘immoral.’
‘I do not see it fitting a criminal charge such as aiding a suicide. There was no coercion, duress, there was no methods and means,’ he said.
‘There’s always two sides to a story and our side of the story will be told in the course of this case,’ DiLucente added.
‘The preliminary hearings are going to be long. And I think there’s going to be a wealth of information discerned,’ the lawyer concluded.
Reusch, of Greensburg, is due back in court for another pre-trial hearing on June 27. Prosecutors have been investigating Metzger’s death for two years.
Officials said his suicide note that began with the words ‘maybe she was right’ as well as postings on his Facebook page detailed the ‘trail of torment and solicitation’ that he was allegedly put through by Reusch.
In a press release, prosecutors also called the messages she sent Metzger ‘heinous and graphic.’
In court documents, Reusch is referred to as Metzger’s ‘on-again/off-again’ girlfriend. The pair previously lived together in Irwin, Pennsylvania.
‘This is the next level or most extreme amount of bullying I’ve seen, read about, heard about, where somebody is constantly telling someone to end their life,’ Limani said.
‘You’re talking about the three of the biggest triggers you can have when making someone feel awful,’ he added.
