Criminology - Morgan Metzer

Episode Date: November 2, 2025

On New Year's Eve, 2020, Morgan Metzer was at her best friend's house, where she had been planning to celebrate the new year. She was feeling tired and decided to call it an early night. She drove home in Cherokee County, Georgia, got into bed, and quickly fell asleep. In the middle of the night, when she opened her eyes, she saw the shadow of a man standing in her bedroom doorway. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss Morgan Metzer. Morgan was attacked in her home by a masked man dressed all in black. The man spoke to her, but in a disguised voice. All Morgan could think about was her children and living to see them again. Morgan survived, and during the investigation into her attack, the police identified an unlikely suspect.   You can help support the show through Patreon. We'd love to connect with listeners on social media. We are available on the following platforms: Facebook - Facebook Discussion group - Instagram - Threads - X Formerly Twitter - Blue Sky - Twitch - Tik Tok  Criminology is an Emash Digital production hosted by Mike Ferguson and Mike Morford. 

In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency? We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, blood and water. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised.

So everyone and welcome to episode 383 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Morve, how you doing this week, man? I'm doing pretty good. How you doing? I'm doing great. It's getting cool here.

Everybody is back to school, back to work. And I got the house to myself, which is. kind of a good and bad thing. It's good because, you know, I kind of like to do my own thing, but it's bad because I have no one to talk to during the day. And sometimes, you know, that can be strange. I talk to the dogs, but they don't talk back. Well, something tells me a lot of times you're sitting around playing some basketball in your video game system. That is true. I do play my fair share of Xbox. There's no doubt about it. We had no new Patreon this week, but we appreciate everyone who makes the decision to support the show.

For anyone that would like to help support the show, you can do it by going to patreon.com slash criminology and signing up, and that help really goes a long way for the show. So thank you. All right. Let's jump into this episode. Imagine being awoken in your bed in the middle of the night and attacked by a masked man.

Your life flashes before your eyes. You think of your family, but somehow you lived through the ordeal, only to find out later that a person you knew, a person you thought you could trust, was actually your attacker. That's exactly what happened to a woman named Morgan Metzer. It was January 1st, 2021.

Morgan Metzer should have been at her best friend's house, where she had been planning to celebrate New Year's Eve as the clock struck midnight. But she had been feeling tired and just decided to call an early night. She drove to her home in Cherokee, County, Georgia, climbed into bed and drifted off the sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night when she opened her eyes, she saw the shadow of a man standing in the doorway of her bedroom.

She later told CBS News, he's standing there like a soldier, like with his fist clenched and like he was ready to go. Before Morgan even had the time to react, she was being attacked. Morgan said, he ran at me and jumped on top of me, and that's when he started pistol whipping me. Stunned and in pain. Morgan was overpowered by the attacker. He pulled her hands behind her back and tightened zip ties around her wrist.

He had come prepared, with loops already made in the zip ties, which had been looped together and made into handcuffs. All the attacker had to do was pull and her arms were trapped behind her back. Morgan wasn't just thinking about her safety in that moment. She was thinking about her family. She relayed those concerns to CBS saying, What's going to happen to my kids? A million words raced through her mind.

She said it was like having 50,000 tabs opened up at one time in my brain, explaining how it felt to have so many thoughts enter your mind at once. She said, I haven't done a will. I haven't talked to my family about who gets them. As she was attacked, it dawned on her, they're not going to have a mom. Luckily, her children, two eight-year-old twins were in Florida on a visit with her sister. that night. Morgan had no idea who was doing this or why they would have chosen her. It was dark in the bedroom and the man was wearing a mask that completely obscured his face

as well as black pants, a black hoodie and black gloves to prevent leaving any fingerprints or DNA. The intruder hissed from under the mask. You're going to regret this. You've done really wrong now. The man then sexually assaulted Morgan and strangled her to the point. The she was losing consciousness twice. And I think anyone hearing those details, you know, that that is just scary, plain and simple. Number one, to have the kind of sanctity of your home violated, right? We've talked about it before. Home is supposed to be your safe place. And then, you know, secondly, to be restrained, to be sexually violated in the middle of the after just waking up.

I mean, this just, it's absolutely horrible. Yeah, when you're sleeping, that's like your most vulnerable point where you're, you can't protect yourself, you can't react, you can't think, you open your eyes, they're halfway closed,

things are groggy, and then you've got somebody jumping on top of you and doing this terrible stuff to you, it's got to be incredibly frightening. And it's giving me, you know, some golden, killer, exterior rapist vibes, this kind of attack.

Yeah, I was getting that same thing. The other thing that really jumped out at me was how prepared this person was, right? You talked about the zip times already looped together. So essentially, all he had to do was pull. This wasn't a crime of opportunity. I mean, to me, it's very obvious that this person, came to Morgan's house with this very specific intent and had done some pre-planning. Even though the intruder spoke to Morgan and asked questions like where she kept valuables like

jewelry and cash, she didn't recognize the voice. And it wasn't even the man's natural voice. He was speaking with very low and raspy tone, trying to make it impossible to pinpoint who he was. But the man certainly knew Morgan. He said things that were personal to her private. private life and even knew that she and her husband had recently divorced. He also seemed to threaten her ex-husband, Rod, met her, telling her, you're going to miss your husband. Despite the divorce from Rod, Morgan still cared for him and begged for his life, saying, no, don't hurt my husband. I love him very much. As Morgan pleaded, the man demanded that she gave him her cell phone password after a few minutes of fumbling with her phone. He was able to use her home security app to remotely unlock her

back door. He led her out of her bedroom, still naked, handcuffed, and with a pillowcase over her head. Her bedroom, which was on the second floor of the home, was connected to a patio deck and had stairs that went all the way down into the backyard. The man led her to the porch deck and pushed her onto her stomach. The intruder had one warning for her. Do not get up. And up until you hear two car honks, or I'll kill you. He then quietly walked away from Morgan. She didn't move a muscle. She told CBS, I just listened to the stream and tried to be as peaceful and calm as I could.

The pillowcase was still over her head, so she couldn't see anything at all. She waited to hear a car honk, signaling that the ordeal was over, but it never came. Instead, she heard footsteps coming towards her. She remained quiet, terrified that the attacker had changed his mind, and rather than driving off and letting her live, he had decided to come back and kill her after all. Morgan listened as the footsteps crossed the yard and grew closer. She could hear someone walking up the stairs to the back deck. She knew they were right next to her when she heard the squeak of the very top step, waiting to be attacked again or to hear that low and gravely voice. Morgan was surprised and incredibly relieved to hear her ex-husband Rod cry out,

Oh, honey, what happened? She was relieved to hear someone there who she trusted and felt safe with. Rod and Morgan had known each other for decades. When they first met, Morgan was only 14 and Rod was 17. She immediately fell for him, actually recalling to CBS, that it was scary how fast it was. When they were dating, Morgan said his nickname for her was Princess, and he treated her like he really thought she was. one. As soon as Morgan graduated high school, the two moved in together.

So more of earlier, you mentioned the Golden State Killer. And I think another thing that kind of reminds me of him in this case is that low raspy voice. But the other thing is, you know, it just reinforces my thought that, you know, this was planned. And this was someone that knew Morgan. And we talked about the personal details that this guy was telling her. And I think the fact that he needed to disguise his voice really says something. Was he concerned that she would recognize his voice if he spoke in, you know, his normal one? Because if you're a stranger, stranger, do you really have to do that?

No, not really. But if you think someone could recognize your voice, then yeah, you've got to disguise it in somewhat. Yeah, there has to be a frightening thought that the person that attacked you may have been disguising their voice because it's someone you know. And, you know, the Golden State Killer did disguise his voice sometimes even though he didn't know the victim. But, you know, maybe that was just so that if he was arrested later and the witness heard him talk. that they wouldn't be able to pinpoint that it was him. So he's just covering his tracks. But there was a very good possibility that this was someone she knew.

And in the days after this attack, I wonder if it crossed her mind, you know, if certain people went through her mind, that it could be them. That has to be really scary. But the other thing that really hit me was kind of a shift, right? Obviously, she went through a terrible ordeal.

She had to be not only scared for her own safety, but obviously she was thinking about what was going to happen to her kids and all that. And then all of a sudden, she hears Rod's voice. And even though they were divorced, she still loved him that had to have been such a relief, knowing that she was now safe. Rod and Morgan got married in 2009 when Morgan was 21. Sadly, less than a year into their marriage, Rod's little brother, Kevin, passed away due to leukemia. He was only 19 years old. The next year, when Morgan and Rod learned that they were having a son, they chose to name him Kevin, after the uncle he would never get to meet. Baby Kevin was born 18 days early.

He was born with a congenital heart defect and lived just 18 days, dying on his original due date. This loss so soon after the death of his brother, deeply affected Rod, the name choice, and seemingly losing Kevin a second time. Surely didn't help. The couple received great news that Morgan was pregnant again and pregnant with twins. The twins, a boy and a girl, both healthy, were born in 2012. While having healthy children after the tragic loss of another was a welcome addition for the couple, it added a lot of stress. to the marriage, as raising children can do. In 2013, after the twins were born, Rod lost his job, which added even more strength to the marriage. The couple tried to stay together through ups and downs,

but their relationship was never the same. And in 2020, Morgan finally filed for divorce. And more of you and I talk about marriages a lot, why they end. And there's a myriad of reasons. I would say two of the big ones are money and the strain from raising kids. I mean, let's face it, kids are wonderful, but it definitely is not an easy thing, especially, you know, when they're young, parenting is hard. And it can really, if you're not careful, put just a tremendous strain on a relationship. Yeah, and I think you add to the mix that they had lost a baby and, you know, that never goes away, that feeling, those emotions, the grief, and sometimes that can put additional

strain on a marriage. You think that it would bring people together sometimes, but sometimes that's not always the case. So I think you've got that in the mix. You've got, as you mentioned, this is, it's not cheap to raise kids. And now he lost his job. So, I think things were sort of snowballing and leading to their relationship eroding. Morgan and Rod's divorce had been final, only a matter of days, and they weren't living together. But in Morgan's greatest time of need, Rod was there for. He immediately called 911 and tried to explain the situation to the dispatcher. He mentioned that the back door was wide open, and someone must have broken in before mentioning that Morgan

have been left lying tied up on the back porch with a hood over her head. You can hear Morgan crying in the background of this 911 call. She sounds absolutely terrified as she begs her ex-husband to stay near her. You can hear Morgan say, please don't leave Rod, and he assured her, I'm going to be right here. There were 40 minutes from the timing of the back door being triggered to unlock and the 911 call made by Rod.

That's how long Morgan had been laying there, alone, handcuffed, and unable to see, wondering if the attacker was still standing there, watching her, waiting for her to make the wrong move. Sergeant Robert Hall, who responded to the 911 call, told CBS, I had seen a lot my career, and I was surprised that somebody would be so harsh. Another officer, Sergeant Dakota Livers, said it was an emotional attack. Morgan had a home security system, and it's what the attacker used to unlock her back door. He also used the app on her phone to delete all of the relevant footage from the window of the attack.

There was a security camera, but investigators couldn't access any of the needed video. It's rare that this happens, but it used to happen all the time with security cameras. They would be broken, the tapes could be stolen, and some of them were fake. Just an attempt to try to deter crime, not record. court it, but it's just as frustrating when it happens today. Investiers were immediately a bit suspicious of Rod. First of all, there's the whole ex-husband, squirr and lover thing that always needs to be ruled out in a crime like this.

The second, more concerning thing, was that he had randomly shown up to his ex-wife's home at 2 o'clock in the morning, just after she had been attacked by a masked intruder who knew everything about her and was disguising his voice. It wasn't just the responding off of, that were feeling weird about Rod. As soon as Morgan was alone with investigators, she voiced her own suspicions about him. She had her at first inkling that it could have been Rod when her attacker seemed to get nicer to her after she begged him not to hurt her husband. Then, when the

attacker helped her get off the bed before he took her out to the back porch, she got a flashback of Rod helping her out of bed when she was pregnant with her twins. She explained to CBS. It was the way he gently held me and got me out of bed. It was so familiar that I was like, this is him. I know it's 100% him. She made an intentional decision to keep pretending she didn't know that the man attacking her in the middle of the night was no stranger. Well, no doubt they're going to look at Rod, right?

That's a given. And I can understand why officers would be suspicious of him. It's like he just happens to show up. It kind of reminded me of the movie screen where Ghostface is trying to get Nev Campbell, I think for the first time, she's able to shut the door on him, but then all of a sudden her boyfriend pops up in the window. I was getting that kind of vibe. But it wasn't just the police, right?

The fact that Morgan was suspicious of Rod and even thought to, I don't know, I was. a hundred percent degree of certainty that it was him. That really tells you something. And there had to be a huge mix of emotions because on one hand, she was relieved when he got there and, you know, she felt safe. On the other hand,

she's got these thoughts going through her head of, hey, this seemed familiar and all of a sudden it's dawning on her that this could be her ex-husband that did this to her. So I can't imagine the roller coaster she was going through with the emotions. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder which emergency. We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020.

Blood and water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Faced with questions from police, Rod had no real answer as to why he went to Morgan's in the middle of the night, especially after she said she wouldn't be sleeping there that night anyway. He could only offer that it was just a habit. When they pressed him on it, he actually told a pretty bizarre story about hearing Morgan's name and someone knocking on his window that night. He claimed that he called Morgan to try to tell her about this, but she wouldn't answer, so he decided to go check on her. Instead of pretending to be clueless, Rod claimed to either have had

some odd kind of premonition that Morgan was in danger, or he was saying that the attacker first went to his apartment, simply knocked and said Morgan's name, and then went to her house to break in an attacker. Investigators obviously weren't just going to take Rod at his word. They asked him to show them his cell phone call log to prove that he had tried to contact Morgan before heading to her house. He handed them his cell phone and volunteered to let them look through it. It's not clear how exactly they were able to get into the hidden folder in his photos,

maybe a password was needed, but there were nude photos of Morgan that investigators immediately knew she had no idea he had taken and that he definitely shouldn't have. have. Detectas were able to arrest him on invasion of privacy charges for those photos, which they did so that they could preserve all the evidence on his phone and get more search warrants. Sergeant Dakota Lavers jumped straight to the point with it during the interrogation, saying to Rod, you didn't have that permission. You all don't have that relationship. She's fucking baffled that you have that. That's stalkerish. Some more, if we've got to talk about some of this stuff, man. You know, the story that Rod told.

is pretty far-fetched. You know, he's hearing someone at his window saying Morgan's name. And that's what kind of prompts him or spurs him to try to get a hold of her and then ultimately go to her house. That's one thing. And then the second thing is, you know, these photos. He's got a hidden folder with nude photos of Morgan that. She didn't pose for and had no idea were taken.

And I think the detective calling it stalkerish is perfectly apt. Yeah, and this whole story about someone knocking at his window saying Morgan's name and then he decides to go over there. That just sounds like one of the stories we talk about all the time that these people come up with when they commit these crimes that are just unbelievable. almost laughable if it wasn't so serious. It's it's like they put thought into the crime that they're going to do, but they don't even think up a proper answers for the questions that they know will be coming their way. Why did you show up at our house at 2 in the morning?

You'd think you would have a better story made up before going there, assuming he's the one that did this. But, you know, to me, it just shows you how bad people are at coming up, with something right then and there, right? Improv, if you want to call it that. Most people, that is not their forte, you know, coming up with some lie that is totally believable kind of in the spur of the moment. Now, you would think if you were going to commit a heinous crime, that would be part of the planning, thinking about what you were going to say to the cops if it ever got to that point. But

so often it seems like that's just an afterthought to these people. Morgan relayed one other detail to police. She didn't know if it was true or if it had anything to do with her attack. But just days before the attack, Rod told Morgan that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He had a letter from a doctor and medical notes to prove it. Investigators were interested in this claim and they wanted to know more about it. Two days after Morgan was attacked, so not too long after he showed her all that paperwork from the doctor, proving he had pancreatic cancer, Rod denied having any health issue other than type 1 diabetes. When detectives asked him if they were mistaken about him having cancer, he got uncomfortable and stopped cooperating.

At that point in the interview, Rod said, I don't know if I should talk to you guys anymore. I'm starting to get a really bad feeling about what angle you guys are coming from. Yes, feelings are pretty perceptive because they were coming at him from the angle of your stories are outlandish and they're not adding up and they're changing and we don't believe you. So he was wise to know that they were looking at him from an angle he didn't like. Well, I don't think they were hiding it, you know, I think they were giving. off the clues, if not just outrightly coming out and saying it. This don't make sense.

We don't believe you. At one point during his interrogation, Rod tried to act like he was the one in a troll telling Sergeant Levers, I've already learned something about you. You keep scratching yourself and you get agitated by what I say. When Sergeant Levers disagreed, Rod just answered, hmm, police also asked Rod if he had ever changed his voice to hide his identity. And Rod admitted that he might have looked up how to change your voice. But he said it was only because his voice wasn't manly enough.

And as we talked about so often, I'm fascinated by what people say to police, you know, as they're confronted with things. And one of the big details is search history. You know, that comes up in a lot of cases. You know, what's your internet search history? And it can be pretty damning to, you know, that comes up in a lot of cases. and it can be pretty damning to some people. But it's also very interesting to hear people explain why they've searched for, you know,

whatever the detectives or the authorities are bringing up to them. In this case, you know, my voice just wasn't manly enough. So I was searching how to disguise it or change it. I don't know how some of these detectives keep from just laughing out loud at some of these answers. I really don't. Yeah, the stories are so outlandish, but I guess he had to say something. Why else would he be looking that up? And, you know,

just one lie leads to another. And that's what it seems happens in a lot of these cases. Police received a search warrant to search rods apart. And they found a bag of zip ties. In the back was a portion of zip tie. That portion of zip tie was found to be a match to the portion. To the portion of zip tie used to secure Morgan by her attacker. When investigators brought up the zip ties used in the attack, Rod claimed that he didn't have any zip ties. Sergeant Tom Harris was extremely quick to remind him that they had been collected as evidence.

Harris said, I know you don't. We have them now. Once again, Rod oddly tried to flip the script on investigators acting like he was the one with power in the room. saying, this is just starting to get squirrely, and he refused to talk to them after that. After two days in jail, Rod spoke to his mother, Kathy, on the phone. The call was recorded like all calls are in correctional facilities. He was playing up being the victim hard, trying to blame Morgan for the fact that he ended up behind bars.

He said to his mom, why is she doing this to me? She knows it wasn't me. Detective still had to figure out how Rod could have broken into the house in the first place. before he had Morgan's phone and access to the app for security system. It wasn't hard to figure out. A sensor in one of the basement windows had been tampered with and moved to where when the window was open, no connection would be broken,

so the sensor wouldn't be triggered. This must have been something he did sometime before the attack when he was in the house. In some out-of-the-box thinking, Sergeant Haw opened the Lose app on his cell phone and scanned the barcode on the bag of zip ties, found in Rod's apartment, it took him right to the exact product. There were only two Lowe's locations in all of Cherokee County,

so this made it easy for investigators to track down security footage from the time the zip ties were purchased. Rod, who is pretty much the only one in the store, not wearing some kind of mask due to those 2020 COVID-19 precautions, is seen holding the bag of long zip ties. He purchased them just 36 hours before Morgan was attacked. It was extremely damning evidence. And this is another thing, Morph, that comes up in so many cases, Lowe's, Home Depot, Walmart, authorities tracked down security footage of someone at one of these big box stores, buying something, sometimes a lot of different things that, you know,

really make them look guilty. And this one, I think, is even more damning than most because they have the zip ties found in Rod's apartment. They matched the zip ties that were found on Morgan. This isn't, you know, you bought a shovel and some bleach, but the police don't know exactly what you did with it. This is some really clear cut evidence, right, that he was involved. in this attack.

The thing I find odd here is he chose not to wear a mask, so it was easy to identify him. And this is in a time where if you went into a store, almost everybody had masks. Some stores wouldn't even let you in unless you were wearing a mask. So he really stood out on that video surveillance. It was easy to pick him out without a mask on. Yeah, I mean, we all remember COVID time.

That was a time where, where you were expecting to see people wearing masks. It was pretty odd when people weren't wearing them. So, you know, it's making me question this guy's intelligence. He's buying these zip ties. He had to have been buying them for a reason. He knew he was going to do something with them. But he essentially went out of his way to not wear a mask

I'm starting to think, you know, this, he was not the, the sharpest tool in the shed. Yeah, that definitely seems like the case. Although maybe someone could argue that, hey, he had nothing to hide. That's why he went in there with his face uncovered, but still doesn't explain why he's buying zip ties, that link to the zip ties used on Morgan. The timing of Rod's lie about having cancer and his purchase of the zip ties is important. Rodney had purchased the zip ties at Lowe's before telling Morgan that he had cancer. It seems that he was hoping that telling Morgan he had cancer would make her want to take him back.

And if that didn't work, he was ready with a plan B, in which he would come to her rescue after she was attacked, and that she would want him to be with her. Investigators also believe it's possible that Rodney intended to kill Morgan and then take his own life. But for whatever reason, once he was actually attacking her, he couldn't go through with the plan. so he switched to the idea that would be the one to find her, and she would be so grateful for the rescue, that she would want him back. Some of the things found in the search of Rodney's apartment were damning as well.

When coupled with what had happened to Morgan, he had purchased a book called Seven Ways to Be Her Hero. Rod's computer was also a treasure trope for investigators. He actually searched how to change your voice, how long to choke somebody unconscious and how to crack an iPhone password. Rod also searched for how long before you starve to death, which, let's be honest, has some pretty terrifying implications about what he considered trying to do to Morgan. It seems like before attacking Morgan, Rod's first plan was to try to lure her back by making her feel bad for him.

He had also searched how to get sympathy from your ass. which is what probably gave him the idea about a fake cancer diagnosis. Morgan was the only person he told about the supposed diagnosis because she was the only one he wanted to feel sorry for him. And she did. Just like when she was being attacked, her thoughts immediately went to her children and how the situation would affect them.

When Rod had told Morgan about the cancer, she said, you're the father of my children. I'm here for you. He was so emotional about the whole thing that Morgan let him stay over and sleep on the couch for a few nights. But he just wouldn't accept that things weren't romantic between them anymore. She would support him, but they couldn't be a couple.

Morgan told CBS, he kept begging me to get back together with him, just constantly haggling me. On December 31st, Morgan finally decided she couldn't take it anymore. Maybe it was a new year, new me goal, or to leave the past in last year kind of thing. But she told Rod that she couldn't be the only one surprised. reporting him through this very difficult time in that he had to at least tell his parents what was going on. When he refused, Morgan put her foot down and actually asked him to leave her house. He left, but he continued to try to convince her via text messages. Eventually, she told him she was going to her parents' house and turning off her phone. This is another thing that stood out to

investigators as suspicious. If Rod thought Morgan was going to be at her parents' house that night, why did he go to her home at two in the morning? He hadn't gone to her parents' house or called them first to know that she wasn't there. And also, the first thing he did was walk around to the back porch. He wasn't calling out for Morgan. She would have known it was Rod before he made it to that top step. Fresh air, longer days, a chance to reset.

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One video that wasn't deleted was from earlier in the night on New Year's Eve before Morgan got home from her friend's house. Rod had stopped by and left a check for $56,000 on the front porch. He also texted Morgan a photo of it so that she knew it was there. Detectives found that he had nowhere near enough money in his account to cover the check. Investigators believe he was just trying to make sure that Morgan would go home that night to get the check rather than risk it getting stolen off the porch. Detectives also obtained the security footage from the apartment complex where Rod lived and found that he wasn't even in his unit when he supposedly heard someone knocking on the window saying Morgan's name and causing him to go to her home to try to warn her.

Instead, he seemed returning to the building at 1.20 a.m., rushing up to his apartment. He was in the apartment for less than four minutes. At 124, he was going back out the door of the building. He had changed his clothes and shoes and was carrying a plastic bag. That plastic bag wasn't found in any of the searches. Investigators believed that it had the mask he wore that night, which was also never found. So more if, you know, when you take everything that we've talked about, as it relates to Rob.

You have to think that the authorities, the police, the prosecutors, they have to feel pretty good about building a case against this guy. I mean, at the very least, you'd have to say it looks terrible for him. Yeah, there was a plethora of things, searches on his computer, zip ties, footage of him buying the zip ties. a lot of things that don't look good for him. And then you've got these weird stories about the reason he went there is because he heard someone knocking his windows saying Morgan's name, which caused him to go to her house. A lot of stuff just doesn't add up.

And it seems like it's really piling up, making him look guilty. Police finally felt that they had all the pieces they needed to make a case. And Rodney was charged with 10 counts related to the attack on Morgan, including home invasion, kidnapping, aggravated assault, and sexual battery. Rod faced 14 charges in total. Three counts of invasion of privacy, for those photos on his cell phone, battery, family violence, sexual battery, aggravated battery, home invasion, kidnapping, two counts of aggravated assault, false imprisonment, first degree burglary, armed robbery, and possession of a

firearm during the commission of a crime. Facing a wide array of evidence against him, Rod decided to plead guilty and take a deal. Rather than risk facing a jury at trial, Rodney Metzer was sentenced to 25 years in prison, followed by 45 years of probation, a total of 70 years to be held accountable for what he did to Morgan. And I said 14 charges, but as I read them out,

I mean, they threw, everything but the kitchen sink in there. Not rightfully so, because he did do all of that stuff. But I think Morph, they were, they were out to, to get him, you know, for the max sentence they could.

And I don't blame him one bit. Yeah, what he did to Morgan is terrible. And, you know, here's someone that's supposed to care about her and protect her, even if they're not together anymore. I thought, you know, she's the mother of their child. children, and here he's the one terrorizing her. So I think that adds a whole other disturbing

level to the, to the crimes. And I think 25 years, you know, that, that's a healthy sentence. You can make the argument that it should be even more, but, you know, I'm not upset with that sentence at all. What did jump out at me, though, is the 45 years of probation. I don't think I've ever heard of that length of probation. Yeah, that's, that's pretty long. It's almost twice the regular prison sentence. So, you know, he would be, you know, up there in age by the time he would be totally free of these, these charges. So what does that mean, right? For 45 years, once he would get out, because let's face it, he's probably not going to do the whole 25. He's probably going to get out before that. But for 45 years, if he did anything wrong, he would have to go back.

So maybe a little safety net there. And that's a frightening proposition too, because Morgan's still relatively young in 25 years, whatever the length of time he does at prison sentence, is she going to be looking over her shoulder once he's out and worrying that he wants to come back and complete the job he set out to do? Or maybe he holds her responsible for being in prison and he wants revenge. So I'm wondering if she's already thinking ahead to to that day years down the road. Well, I think that's an excellent point and probably something we don't talk about enough, right? There's the, the trauma from the event, from the crime. And that's going to stay with a person, you know, most likely for the rest of their life. But then there's a bunch of other things that kind of

come with it. You know, how long of a prison stent does a person do? You know, every time they come up for parole, what's that like for a victim? And like you said, just the thought of, you know, could this person hit the street? And, you know, that has to be terrifying. Morgan was left to explain to their children why Rod was suddenly gone from their lives. She told the Law and Crime Network that she said to the kids, Daddy hurt Mommy, but he still loves you guys very much.

As they've grown up and started using the Internet, they've learned more about what really happened between their parents. Morgan never contacted Rod after the attack. She didn't let the children have any contact with him either, telling them they could reach out to him when they turned 18 if they wanted to. Rod's mom wanted to visit him in prison, but he refused to see her. The victim impact statement Morgan gave him court was the last time she spoke to Ra. The statement read in part, the last four years,

being married to you was like living with a monster that constantly tried to break me down and fence me in. She was clear that her victim impact statement would be the last Rod ever heard from her, saying that it would be my last words to whom I thought was the love of my life. Morgan didn't even realize that she was being abused. While it was happening, happening. Rod was a senior in high school when Morgan was a freshman, and he was pretty much her first real boyfriend. She had no real frame of reference for what a good relationship was like behind closed doors. She explained to CBS that during their marriage, a lot of times he was very aggressive and wouldn't take the word no. But it's only now looking back on it that she says, I guess he did

sexually abuse me. Morgan spent a lot of time with the twins. locked in a closet when Rod went into one of his rages. Rod inherited all the stocks and his wealth. He didn't work for it or study for it. Day trading seemed like a great option for him, but it rapidly went downhill. He would blame Morgan for his failings in the stock market. If he lost money, he didn't make a bad trade.

It was because Morgan had been distracting him. He was angry about work often, throwing things, hitting walls, and yelling. Parenthood is difficult for anyone. But here they were with twins, and Rod had no patience for being a father. He was on edge all the time, and Morgan was walking on eggshells, beginning to doubt her own reality. Rod seemed to have built up a resentment for Morgan and her success, because it came just when everything he had came crashing down. She started an interior design business called shiplap and sugar, and it took off so quickly, she had to ask her best friend to be her business partner because it was too much for her to do on her own.

Oh, Morph, if I had a dollar for every time my wife said the term ship lap, you know, these interior design or house flipping shows or whatever it is my wife watches on HGTV, a lot of them are big into this ship lap or they were. Maybe that's out of vogue now, but I have heard the word shiplap so many times on these TV shows. it's not even funny. I don't even know what shiplap is, so you're a step ahead of me. Well, I don't either. I just heard the term. The first time Rod hit Morgan. She called her dad and had him pick her up,

but Rod told everyone that she was the aggressive one and that he had been trying to restrain her. And unfortunately, during that struggle, she did get some bruises. Morgan told CBS that he said to her, you were just out of control. You couldn't keep. your temper. You were just wailing all over the place. But what she remembers is Rod beating her after an argument while they were on a Labor Day vacation with friends. The incident actually caused

some of her friends to stop talking to her because they thought she was lying. Their reactions made her doubt herself heavily. If Rod said that she had been out of control and her friends were on his side, did she need to reevaluate her behavior? Did she cause her own injuries and then blame her loving husband? Morgan even relayed to CBS how Rod once threw himself down the stairs and told their young twins, look, mommy pushed me downstairs. Can you believe that? And I think if you looked up the term gaslighting in the dictionary, this would be it, right?

Rod is gaslighting Morgan. And it seems that he was so good at. he had Morgan, you know, doubting herself at points, which may not be all that uncommon. You know, could she actually be the one to blame? These are the type of thoughts that were running through her head. And this really gives us a disturbing look into Rod's mind. You know, here we already know what he did in the attack. Somehow rationalizing that, hey, if I attack her and then be her hero, she'll take me back,

is strange enough and mind-emoggling enough. But here he's, in this instance, he's throwing him down the stairs to blame Morgan and make the kids take his side. It's just very disturbing actions on his part and thought process. And I think we can see what's really below the surface with him. Well, add on top of that,

he was able to get, you know, their friends on his side after he beat more. Morgan. And, you know, I, this guy's probably a narcissist. He's very manipulative. This is how these guys operate. And, you know, it's, it's scary. Yeah, lots of control, manipulation and just, all around doesn't sound like a good guy. Luckily, investigators saw early on through Rod's act. Rod had immediately rub responding officers the wrong way, saying, hey man, are you the guy that we've been waiting on? He asked Sergeant Livers as he arrived, adding, do your fucking job. This obviously surprises Sergeant who's used to people being grateful for help in situations like that. It seemed

as if Rod was trying to be tough in front of Morgan. Morgan told CBS that after the court proceedings, I walked off that stand with a thousand pounds off of my shoulders. It felt so good. Morgan said that giving a victim impact statement felt empowering, especially because because she got the last word. Morgan wants to use her own story to help people, saying, I'm trying to raise awareness for narcissism and gaslighting. I want to help women realize

they're in a situation before it gets too bad. District Attorney Shannon Wall said in a press release, this is a classic example of how the most dangerous time for a domestic violence victim is when she decides to leave an abusive relationship. And we have heard that, you know, so many times more because I think it's absolutely true. You know, the time spent in a violent relationship is very scary. But when you make that decision that you're going to leave, that's the scariest time. Because you're taking the control away from the abuser.

which is what they thrive on. And when they think or they know they're about to lose that control, that's when a lot of these people can do really, really bad things. Yeah, people like Rodney Menser are a ticking time bomb and that bomb explodes when, in this instance, the divorce is final.

Right then is when this plan goes into motion. It's like the last resort. officially left me and I've got to take drastic measures. And thankfully, Morgan survived this terrible ordeal and is here to tell her story. Yeah, because unfortunately, so many women, especially, don't survive situations like this. And, you know, it's heartbreaking, but it's also very, very scary. If anyone listening needs help, the National Domestic Vival violence hotline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Just call 1-800-799-safe-7233 or visit the hotline.org for a chat option and for more

resources. So as we wrap this case up more, you know, again, I think what you have in a guy like Rod Metzer, he's absolutely a narcissist. I'm sure there's a lot of other labels that that you could slap on him. him, he was very controlling. He was abusive. And I do think that at that point where he realized, he was never going to get that control over Morgan back. He decided to put his plan into motion. You know, it was a terrible plan, obviously, and it was a terrible crime that he committed against her. but there was some pre-planning there.

Although the way he went about it was sloppy. His answers to questions, you know, they were horrible. They were just not believable. And I think police saw through them very, very quickly. And then obviously, once they started to get some of the evidence, tying him, you know, to the crime, that pretty much cinched it. But, you know, I do want to go back to the very beginning, you know, right after the crime,

I think it's telling that first responders had a bad feeling about this guy. And we talked about it. Morgan, from the get-go, thought there was a chance that it could be him. What's so scary is that although Morgan saw bad things in him that made her eventually want to leave him and get a divorce. She probably never imagined this kind of scenario where he would do something this outlandish. So it probably was, you know, she probably realized I did the right thing by getting away

from this guy. Yeah, I have a feeling she knew that already, but this probably just further cemented it in her mind. I guess I just don't, I don't understand how Rod, Matt's, thought this, this plan was ever going to work. I really don't. Yeah, we talk about that so many times in cases like this, you know, they set out with a plan, premeditated, planning stuff in advance, yet they don't have simple answers already set up.

They sort of spin one lie that's at ridiculous and then try and expand on that line. It becomes even more ridiculous to the point that you're on the plan. police radar almost instantly. Yeah, but at the end of the day, right? That's a good thing. We don't want these criminals to be quick on their feet to be able to come up with things easily. We want them caught. But, you know, it is something to point out a lot of people are really terrible at it. But that's it for our episode on Morgan Metzer. If you love the show, but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, leave us a review, leave a rating. also keep telling your friends.

The word of mouth about the podcast goes a long way. If you want to find us on social media, search for Criminology Podcast on your favorite platforms. And you can also check out Criminology Podcast.com to get news, information, and listen to old episodes. And if you want to join a discussion about the show, head over to Facebook and you look for Criminology podcast discussion and fans. So that's it for another episode of Criminology. but Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then for Mike and Morph. We'll talk to you next week.

Take care, everyone.