Morgan Metzer describes how she discovered that the intruder was her mentally disturbed ex-husband

US News

From Richard Pollina

A mother of two who was beaten, tied up, raped and nearly strangled to death by a masked intruder has detailed how she came to the horrifying realisation that it was a sinister plan by her ex-husband-turned-stalker to try and win her back.

Morgan Metzer was awakened in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2021 by a masked man standing in the bedroom doorway of her Canton, Georgia, home using a voice-distortion device that made him sound like “something out of Batman,” she told The Sun.

Her twins were on vacation with the family and she was alone in the house when the nightmare began.

“I screamed so loudly, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to scream that again. It was so painful,” she recalled. “Soon after, he was on top of me.”

The masked man began to brutally beat her with the butt of a gun. He then tied up the mother of two children with cable ties and sexually abused her.

About half an hour after the attack began, the attacker began to strangle her. Metzer described the feeling of being forcibly deprived of oxygen as “the worst feeling in the world.”

“At that point, I knew I was going to die,” she told the outlet.

“He wore a mask that made him look like Batman, even his ears were pointed up a little,” she recalled what she believed were her last moments on earth.

But suddenly the attack stopped and the suspect dragged her half-naked onto her deck.

As the attacker fled the scene, he made one final haunting comment about how much she would miss her children and husband – which immediately made her suspicious.

“That’s when I thought, ‘Wow, it’s him,'” she told the outlet. “Why would someone just say they’re going to miss their husband?”

Although his identity was kept secret and she was dazed by the beating, Metzer had the feeling from the beginning that the attacker was her ex-husband, Rodney Metzer.

Left tied up, nearly naked, and with a pillowcase over her head, outside in the winter air, she tried with all her might to stay awake, fearful that if she fell asleep she would die from the head trauma she had sustained.

But at around 1:40 a.m. someone rushed to the house to help – her ex-husband.

He lived about 15 minutes away from her house and explained to her that a stranger had shown up at his apartment and told him that his ex-wife’s house had been broken into.

Metzer seemed devastated by what had happened, but he didn’t let it happen.

While they were waiting for the police, she began to accuse him of the attack – which he vehemently denied in his panic.

The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the home around 2 a.m. and within hours became suspicious as to how Rodney had gotten there so quickly.

Police quickly discovered that while his ex-wife was still handcuffed outside, Rodney had returned to his apartment, changed his clothes and returned to the crime scene to play the hero.

According to an August 2021 press release from the District Attorney’s Office for the Blue Ridge Judicial Circuit in Canton, Georgia, investigators also found a handgun in the defendant’s vehicle and zip ties in his apartment that ultimately matched the zip ties used to bind his ex-wife.

Rodney was arrested just hours after the heinous attack on his ex-wife.

“No one ever believed he was a bad person, so that was a relief,” she told the outlet. “He also always blamed me so I thought I was wrong. That was gaslighting.”

Investigators later found surveillance video showing Rodney leaving a Lowe’s store with a pack of zip ties that matched the ones he used on his ex-wife.

He also searched his cell phone and laptop for terms such as “How long does it take to starve to death?” or “How long does it take to strangle a person until they lose consciousness?”

After his arrest, it turned out that Rodney had hatched this insane plan to win back his old flame.

The two had been a couple since high school; they met when she was 14 and he was a senior.

They married in 2010 – a year later they lost their first child due to a congenital heart defect.

A year after the tragedy, the couple had twins.

On the outside, the couple seemed to be in love, but in reality, Rodney had been manipulating his wife for years.

“He tried to convince me that I had pushed him down the stairs. I didn’t do that. He made me feel like I was the aggressive and toxic one in the family,” she said.

They divorced in December 2020 but remained friends for the sake of their children.

“This man is a master manipulator,” said Assistant District Attorney Rachel Ashe.

“In the days leading up to this attack, he faked a cancer diagnosis to gain the sympathy of his ex-wife.”

Just days before the attack, Morgan and Rodney drove to Florida together to drop off their twins with family for the Christmas holidays and to “show them that we are one,” she told The Sun newspaper.

When they returned home, Rodney told her that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

“He even forged the documents,” said Metzer. “That was his last attempt to get me back.”

After that plan failed, Metzer developed a “convoluted plan” that investigators believe involved first killing his ex-wife and then committing suicide, Ashe said.

“When he couldn’t implement that plan, he came up with a new plan to save her instead,” Ashe said.

“Fortunately, Sheriff’s Office investigators saw through this plot and quickly arrested the defendant.”

Rodney pleaded guilty on August 4, 2021 to 14 counts, including kidnapping, burglary and sexual abuse.

As part of a plea deal, he was sentenced to 70 years in prison, of which he will serve 25 years in prison and the remainder on probation.