Morgan Metzer’s harrowing experience of being zip-tied, choked, and assaulted by a masked intruder, who was later revealed to be her ex-husband, was dramatized in a Lifetime movie starring Jana Kramer. The ex-husband’s suspicious behavior immediately after the attack raised eyebrows.
MORGAN Metzer can still hear the voice of the bedroom attacker she feared was going to kill her.
What she didn’t know at the time, was the person who bound and beat her was estranged – and deranged – ex-husband Rodney.
Brave Morgan lived to tell the tale of New Year’s Eve 2020, which is the subject of a new Lifetime film Gaslit by my Husband released this Sunday, with One Tree Hill star Jana Kramer playing the role of the single mom from Georgia.
It’s a shocking story of deception, violence, and gaslighting which resulted in Rodney receiving a 70-year jail sentence, reduced to 25 years inside following a guilty plea at trial.
“I didn’t sleep for months afterward,” Morgan told The U.S. Sun during an emotional interview. “I was too scared.”
The couple, who were childhood sweethearts, had been married 10 years – and had already suffered their fair share of pain.
One of their children died of a congenital heart defect just weeks after being born in 2011 and Rodney, a financial trader, had lost a large portion of inheritance money received following the death of a relative a few years earlier.
BITTER FALL-OUT
They eventually had twins together, but the marriage was beset with problems, and at the start of December 2020, a divorce was pushed through.
“He got stalkerish, real fast,” she recalled.
Morgan says her now estranged husband would make “weird” comments and continually ask her out on dates.
Rodney thought there was a chance of winning her back, even if Morgan wasn’t interested in the slightest.
The couple drove to Florida together before Christmas to drop their children off with some family, to “show them we were a united front.”
But upon returning, disturbed Rodney began to spin a sickening web of lies.
He called Morgan to drop the bombshell news of a pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
WARPED DECEPTION
There was one problem, however. Morgan didn’t know it at the time, but it was all made up.
“He even forged the documents,” she said. “It was his last straw to try and get me back.”
Morgan told her parents, who probed Rodney about the illness, yet she had no choice but to show some sympathy following such a serious, alleged diagnosis.
On the night before New Year’s Eve, she allowed him to sleep on her sofa. But the very next morning, he was given his marching orders.
Morgan wanted to welcome in 2021 with fresh hope for the future. Instead, she was dragged into a violent nightmare.
She had gone to bed early, only to be awoken by fireworks just before midnight.
Morgan kissed her dog, wished him a happy New Year, and fell asleep.
About 30 minutes later, there was a creak of her door. Someone was standing in the doorway.
WORST NIGHTMARE
A masked intruder, using a voice distortion tool that “sounded like something out of Batman” was in her bedroom.
“A downstairs lamp was on so there was light coming from behind him. I screamed so loud, it’s a scream that I don’t think I can ever do again. It was so painful. Soon enough, he was on top of me,” she said.
The intruder started to beat her with a pistol, every crunching blow leaving Morgan in a state of utter disbelief as the terror coursed through her body.
Was it Rodney? Her mind went backward and forwards. Yet she felt certain of something.
“At that point, I knew I was going to die,” she admitted.
The punches were raining in for half an hour before he started to strangle her.
Morgan says rushes of adrenaline nullified the pain of the punches, but “the strangling was the worst feeling in the world.”
She could only see the assailant’s eyes – “he was wearing a mask which made him look like Batman, it even had the ears which angled up a bit” – but then, all of a sudden, the attack stopped.
TWISTED NARRATIVE
He left the scene with a parting comment about how Morgan was going to miss her family and her husband.
“That’s when I went, ‘Wow, it’s him,'” she said. “Why would somebody randomly say you’re going to miss your husband?”
Morgan was dragged outside half-naked in the freezing midnight air before the attacker fled the scene. He had stolen her phone so any incriminating security camera footage could be deleted.
She made a valiant attempt to stay awake, knowing the multiple blows to the head had possibly caused serious damage.
At around 1:40 am, someone approached the house.
It was Rodney. His place was only 15 minutes away and he claimed someone had told him about a break-in at his ex-wife’s house.
“I had told him that night that I was going to be at my parents’ house. So why would he come to the house?” she said.
Morgan instantly smelled a rat and accused him of the attack. His denial was instant, yet his reaction was revealing as the panic set in while waiting for the cops to arrive.
The first few months, I didn’t sleep at all, period. I would sit in the corner of my son’s room and just stare at that doorway.
Morgan Metzer
Upon arrival, the officers called in detectives who instantly got to work and, in a matter of hours, Rodney was arrested.
“No one had ever believed he was a bad person, it was a relief,” she said. “He would always blame stuff on me too, to make me think like I was in the wrong. That was the gaslighting.”
CRUSHING AFTERMATH
Morgan was an emotional wreck, bawling her eyes out as the father of her children was taken away.
“Finally everyone could see his true colors,” she recalled of the moment Rodney’s violent nature was exposed.
She recalled incidents during days out with friends, where she was attacked, only for him to try and turn the tables and convince Morgan it was her who was the problem.
The truth, however, came out once legal proceedings began.
He was hit with eight felony charges – including invasion of privacy.
Store security video was discovered by investigators that showed him buying the same zip ties that bound his ex-wife’s hands behind her back.
Rodney pled guilty to all charges including kidnapping and aggravated assault, yet even though Morgan’s hell is behind her, the nightmare remains.
She sat her children down and explained how “Dad had done something bad.”
“The first few months, I didn’t sleep at all, period. I would sit in the corner of my son’s room and just stare at that doorway,” Morgan admitted.
“Doorways scare me now. If there’s someone that stands in the middle of a doorway it triggers me so bad.”
She’s continually working with a therapist, but needed to have her kids near her in the immediate aftermath of her horror experience to help her deal with the situation.
“I probably kept them home from school probably way more than I should have,” she added.
Morgan says working on the film and helping with the storytelling has been cathartic, and together with Kramer, who has been a strong advocate for domestic abuse against women in the past, they want to help others embroiled in similarly shocking situations.
A book is also on the horizon.
“I want to raise awareness for people who are suffering silently,” she concluded. ” I want women to learn to speak in a circle together of people they trust. I didn’t realize how toxic my situation was, and how much lighter life could be.”
via: The Sun
