Man convicted of murder in 2014 attacked fellow patients at MHI

Buchanan County Sheriff’s officials arrested Cody Metzker-Madsen, now 28, on June 24 for malicious wounding causing serious injury.

According to court records, Metzker-Madsen was housed at the Independence Mental Health Institute on June 18 when he attacked his roommate in Ward R around 11:10 a.m.

According to court documents, the victim suffered facial and rib fractures, a brain hemorrhage and bruising to his face.

Court records indicate that the victim is a 67-year-old man who suffers from severe chronic schizoaffective disorder.

Metzker-Madsen was sentenced to prison by the court after killing 5-year-old Dominic Elkins in August 2013. At the time, Metzker-Madsen was 17 years old.

Both Metzker-Madsen – who had a history of mental health issues and had been placed in hospitals and private homes – and Dominic were foster children living in a home in Logan, Iowa, when Metzker-Madsen beat the younger child and drowned him in a ravine, pushing his head into the water and hitting him with a brick in the process.

Metzker-Madsen initially told the foster family that Dominic had run away. Later, when the body was discovered, he changed his story and said Dominic had fallen from a tree into the ravine and then a “cloaked man” had tripped the boy and drowned him.

Metzker-Madsen added: “He doesn’t drown easily. He’s a fighter. I know that.”

He later told a forensic psychologist that he and Dominic had been playing “Roman mythology” and that he believed he was fighting in a battle against a goblin commander and did not realize that he was actually attacking Dominic, court records show.

Metzker-Madsen made the same statement in 2014 in a trial before a single judge.

The judge found him not guilty by reason of insanity, concluding that he was irrational and in a psychotic state and did not understand the nature or consequences of his actions during the murder.

“It is not clear whether he is even now aware of the consequences of his actions,” the judge wrote in her 2014 ruling.

As a result of the decision, Metzker-Madsen was sent for psychiatric treatment until it was deemed that he no longer posed a danger to himself or others.

Since then, every two years, a judge has reviewed Metzker-Madsen’s progress and ordered that he remain in an institution.