Morgan | Betrayal Weekly

0:00Speaker 1:Hi, everyone, we have some exciting news to share. ABC News Studios has turned Caroline Brega's story from Betrayal season four into a docu series. You'll get to meet the people involved, You'll hear from people who have never spoken before, and you get to see where this story took place. We are so proud and excited to share it with you all. Stream Betrayal, Dirty Secrets now on Hulu or Hulu for Disney Plus. Hi everyone, It's Andrea Gunning. Before we start this episode, I want to let you know that we will be talking explicitly about the realities of domestic violence, so please be mindful with this episode.

0:38Speaker 2:I saw this figure standing in the doorway and he was an all black and had a batman mask and just covered head to toe in black clothing. I kept closing opening my eyes, like am I really seeing this or not.

1:06Speaker 1:I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most and the deceptions that change everything. This week's episode has also been adapted into an episode of our TV show Betrayal, Secrets and Lies. You can stream it on Disney Plus or Hulu. Morgan Metzer grew up in Canton, Georgia, where big stretches of forest hug quaint neighborhoods and the Chattahoochee River carves its way through the town.

1:37Speaker 2:Growing up, I was the youngest. I have an older brother and an older sister. My brother was in baseball and my sister was in fast pitch, so I felt like a lot of my weekends were following him around.

1:49Speaker 1:Morgan kept up with the older kids.

1:51Speaker 2:I was very outspoken in strong world.

1:54Speaker 1:School was challenging for Morgan.

1:57Speaker 2:I struggled a little bit with test taking and I didn't have best grades.

2:01Speaker 1:But her parents taught her there are a lot of things in life that are more important than grades.

2:07Speaker 2:My dad explained, in the real world, it's not the grades in the end. They are more focused on who you are as a person, your values, being truthful, being honest.

2:21Speaker 1:Morgan's school had a back patio where everyone hung out after class. One day, when Morgan was in eighth grade, she and her friends were out on the patio when she saw a guy she hadn't noticed before.

2:34Speaker 2:I just random I saw him one day and we just started talking a little bit. He was in high school and I was in middle school.

2:42Speaker 1:His name was Rodney, and soon she found out everyone on campus knew him. He was sixteen, two years older than her, and Morgan thought that was exciting.

2:54Speaker 2:I thought he was really cute and I liked him.

2:58Speaker 1:The next time she saw him at school, they talked again. The more time Morgan spent with Rodney, the more she liked him.

3:05Speaker 2:We are very close, instantly, very connected. He was very easy going, a study as a stream. Not much could really rock his pote.

3:16Speaker 1:He made friends easily and was kind to everyone he met.

3:20Speaker 2:He was funny. He's what you would call the guy next door that everyone just likes.

3:25Speaker 1:They started hanging out after school. They never got tired of talking to each other and realized that their connection was more than just friendship. Rodney asked Morgan to be his girlfriend.

3:39Speaker 2:She said yes, that was just a typical teenager in love.

3:44Speaker 1:When she told her parents about her new.

3:46Speaker 2:Boyfriend, as you can imagine, my dad and my mom weren't very happy about an eighth grader dating a junior. So my dad made it perfetly clear that we would not be going on date until I was sixteen, and that if you wanted to see me, he would have to come to the house and hang out.

4:03Speaker 1:So that's what they did. After school, Rodney would go over to Morgan's house. They respected her parents' dating rules, and Rodney quickly gained her parents trust.

4:15Speaker 2:Everyone loved him in my family. He grew up with them.

4:20Speaker 1:She grew up with his family too. His parents could afford to go on extravagant vacations. They started inviting Morgan to come with them on their trips.

4:30Speaker 2:His parents left to go to the Bahamas. They loved to go on cruises, so we did all different kinds of trips.

4:39Speaker 1:Once Morgan was in high school, she and Rodney gained a little independence.

4:44Speaker 2:He would pick me up. We would meet up with all of our friends and we'd all go to this one waffle house and just hang out after school.

4:56Speaker 1:Morgan and Rodney always sat next to each other at the waffle house. In fact, they almost never left each other's side.

5:04Speaker 2:Everyone just knew it was always us. We came together as one. If you had vied one, then they knew I was coming, or vice versa.

5:13Speaker 1:They were inseparable and their friends understood why.

5:18Speaker 2:They all thought we were the power couple. Everyone just loved us together.

5:23Speaker 1:Morgan and Rodney started planning for their future after high school.

5:28Speaker 2:All I wanted to do was become a mom and support my house and create a home, and he said that he wanted to be the main proviter. So we kind of had our.

5:36Speaker 1:Plan, but she knew that plan would have to wait until Rodney made enough money to support them both. After graduating high school, she started pursuing her interest in hair and makeup. Morgan decided to go to cosmetology school and become a hairdresser. Rodney wanted to become a car mechanic and began looking at trade schools.

6:00Speaker 2:Rod decided he wanted to go to the school called Wyotech.

6:04Speaker 1:Wyotech is a trade school in Laramie, Wyoming, a small town that sits high in the plains, nestled between two stretches of the Rocky Mountains.

6:14Speaker 2:He didn't want to go by himself, and they had a cosmetology school there, so we backed up and moved to Wyoming.

6:22Speaker 1:Morgan and Rodney had to get used to a new pace of life.

6:26Speaker 2:It was a big jump. I mean, Georgia's not cold like that, and you go to Laramie, Wyoming and not for be mean about the city, but Applebee's was the place to be. It was definitely a change in culture Forsure.

6:40Speaker 1:Still, they were eager to start this new chapter.

6:45Speaker 2:It was very exciting moving in together for the first time, developing our routine, our habits.

6:52Speaker 1:Rodney started trade school to become a car mechanic, and Morgan started a cosmetology school.

6:58Speaker 2:I would ride my bike every day.

7:01Speaker 1:As she peddled through town. She could look out and see the stretches of mountains just beyond Laramie. She was excited about the life she and Rodney were building. Home was wherever Rodney was.

7:15Speaker 2:We would get up through our morning routine together. We would be in school all day and then we'd meet up. We'd have dinner, and then in the evenings was likely watching a movie.

7:25Speaker 1:Rodney told her about everything he was learning at school.

7:29Speaker 2:He loved it. He loves cars. We loved building cars. He loved everything about it.

7:35Speaker 1:At night, they would talk about their future.

7:37Speaker 2:We just created a dream scenario in our head that you know, we would get married and eventually we would have children.

7:44Speaker 1:And when they each graduated, they moved back to Georgia and got to work making their dream life a reality.

7:52Speaker 2:We bought our first house. I was working at a hair Salon in Roswell, and we developed some really good friend friends that we knew since we were younger. Our friends knew each other, and our friends knew our family.

8:06Speaker 1:They had a tight knit community with deep roots before Morgan knew it. Six years flew by with Rodney and they went from being high school sweethearts to mature adult partners. They knew each other's favorite jokes, deepest fears, and biggest dreams. And then on Christmas Day, Rodney proposed to Morgan with her grandmother's wedding ring.

8:32Speaker 2:I was so excited. I couldn't stop crying.

8:35Speaker 1:She was so happy. A little over a year later, they got married.

8:40Speaker 2:They got married niga zebo at dusk, and the gazebo was covered in high ranges of pionies and lily's and roses, spinkle lights all over the place, and pretty much like a magical Cinderella type of feel.

8:54Speaker 1:That magical feeling continued well after their wedding.

8:58Speaker 2:We were very much a team. His mom, though, was happy wife, happy life. So he just wanted to provide anything he possibly could. He was the main provider financially. He always took care of things around the house to make sure you're a roof over our head, food on our plate, bury in our train, very emotionally there for me.

9:22Speaker 1:But not too long after their wedding, Rodney's family suffered a horrible loss. His brother, Kevin had battled leukemia for years. One night, he passed away in his sleep.

9:34Speaker 2:He was an amazing person. I loved him a lot. It really changed the dynamic and his family so much pain.

9:45Speaker 1:It was hard for Rodney's parents to make time for him as they struggled with Kevin's death. It felt like when Kevin died, so did their happy, tight knit family.

9:56Speaker 2:Rod started feeling abandoned. And that's when I started being rod changed just a tidy bit because he just felt not as important as he used too.

10:07Speaker 1:Rodney's brother, Kevin had always wanted to be an uncle.

10:11Speaker 2:We got pregnant shortly after his brother passed away.

10:14Speaker 1:They had a son and named him Kevin to honor Rodney's brother. But shortly after he was born, Morgan and Rodney were given devastating news their son had a congenital heart defect. At this point in her life, Morgan can tell the story without much emotion, but it's still incredibly painful.

10:36Speaker 2:When he was born. He was immediately shipped to Egilson Atlanta Cardiac Unit for eighteen days he was there, he had his first heart surgery, but he couldn't recover from it. He couldn't get off the vener later and he didn't make it.

10:58Speaker 1:Their firstborn son died before he was a month old. Morgan and Rodney were facing a grief no parent should have to endure. Rodney tried to find the words to comfort Morgan.

11:10Speaker 2:He was like, even if you don't want to go back to work after this, she don't have to. You thought you were a mom and you were going to get to stay home, and I don't want to make you go back to work. So he was very supportive, but there were.

11:21Speaker 1:Times when Rodney couldn't handle the grief. To him, seeing Morgan sad was a reminder of how much they had lost.

11:30Speaker 2:He would help me not to cry because they didn't like steamy cry, and so I didn't. So I didn't feel like I could really grieve all that much.

11:37Speaker 1:They decided to try for kids again.

11:40Speaker 2:We got pregnant twins. My mom says I was the happiest pregnant person she's ever seen. I enjoyed every second of it, the good, the bad, ugly. I loved it.

11:51Speaker 1:When the twins were born, Morgan and Rodney were overjoyed.

11:55Speaker 2:I was just elated to have help with babies. We were in heaven. We were just so happy. It brought some light into our world. After a really hard few years.

12:06Speaker 1:Rodney and Morgan made a good team.

12:09Speaker 2:We were in a dynamic duo. We would tackle every day's task. We delegated, we would support each other emotionally. We would just conquer it together.

12:21Speaker 1:Rodney was working as a car mechanic and Morgan stayed home with the twins. Juggling parenting and work meant the two of them had less quality time together and Rodney had a hard time adjusting.

12:34Speaker 2:I think he struggled a little bit with sharing my time with the twins.

12:39Speaker 1:Rodney started acting spacey at home and at the mechanics where he worked, and one day rad.

12:46Speaker 2:Got fired because he let a car fall off the lift.

12:50Speaker 1:It was a dangerous mistake. Someone could have died. Rodney insisted that it wasn't his fault.

12:58Speaker 2:And it's like, okay, well it was your fault. You put the car on the left, you know. So that kind of brought a strain.

13:06Speaker 1:Rodney needed to find a new way to support their family.

13:10Speaker 2:So he started doing day trading the stock market.

13:13Speaker 1:At first he was successful.

13:16Speaker 2:He neede great money. We owned our house pretty much at right, I could stay home. The twins were sorry in preschool at the time.

13:25Speaker 1:They had dealt with a lot of grief, but they were still able to grow together, and finally they had what they always wanted. Rodney worked full time to support their family, freeing up Morgan to raise their twins. One day, Rodney came to Morgan in a panic and told her someone had stolen money from their shared savings account. Morgan didn't really understand what he meant. The details of their finances had always been Rodney's domain, but when she logged into their shared bank account, you saw that he was right.

14:02Speaker 1:The account was drained.

14:05Speaker 2:I just knew that the money was gone, and I was like, what is going on? This can't possibly be true. I was just blindsided.

14:36Speaker 1:Morgan in her high school sweetheart, Rodney, got married and settled down near their hometown in Georgia. They were living the life they dreamed of since they were teenagers. Rodney worked full time and Morgan stayed home with their twins. But one day Rodney came home in a panic. He told Morgan someone had stolen from their savings account. It was a life changing amount of money. They wouldn't be able to afford to stay in their house, and so they moved into a rental.

15:05Speaker 2:So we no longer had any acts of some money. And so at that time he pretty much told me, He's like, now it's your turn provided for the house.

15:14Speaker 1:Not only was the money gone, but Rodney expected her to fix it. Morgan was shocked. This was never their plan. Rodney had always prided himself on being a provider, and now he was panicking and asking her to fill that role. She had to figure something out to take care of their kids.

15:36Speaker 2:And I couldn't go become a hairdresser and support this lavish lifestyle that we had.

15:43Speaker 1:Then she had an idea.

15:45Speaker 2:All my friends had really said that I was really good into he design, and so I decided to start manunte your design business.

15:54Speaker 1:Morgan named her business Ship Lap and Sugar. It was an immediate success in town on working with local clients, and before long she was working full time and was the primary provider for their family. Within a year, Ship Lap In Sugar was voted Canton's number one interior design business. Rodney was in a new role too. He was staying home with the twins and working for Morgan's Interior Design company part time as a handyman. He helped with the construction side of things, building bunk beds and mounting decor, but soon he started to overstep.

16:31Speaker 2:Sometimes he would try to overtalk me with customers and chime in about how he thought something should be done, and it just didn't make us look like we're on the same page. I didn't really like that, and I was like, this is not your position. I am in charge of running the consultations and speaking to my customers.

16:50Speaker 1:It was frustrating to see Rodney trying to take control and ownership of the business she had built.

16:57Speaker 2:I'm sorry, like you put me in charge or running a hout household and providing for the household. I did this myself. I built this from the bottom up.

17:05Speaker 1:She told Rodney to stay in is lane at work and let her manage the business.

17:11Speaker 2:That's when I think you prod really took a hit because I was providing for the household, and you know, he had to stay home with the kids.

17:20Speaker 1:She and Rodney had always been a team. They met when they were kids and they'd been together for more than fifteen years. For that entire time, Rodney had been the calm, grounded one, but that began to change.

17:36Speaker 2:He was very impatience. He got very angry, very fast. It just turned ugly and nasty, and that's when it all just started spiraling.

17:45Speaker 1:Rodney became argumentative and combative with her.

17:49Speaker 2:Some nights, we'd be up fighting all night long and I wouldn't get a minute of sleep, and then I have to go work twelve hours and there was no break from him because I worked with him too.

18:00Speaker 1:Morgan suggested they go to couple's therapy, but it didn't go well, like he got.

18:05Speaker 2:Kick out one session because he was so aggressive, and she diagnosed him with PTSD and he didn't believe it and he just didn't want help.

18:15Speaker 1:Rodney started lashing out at Morgan.

18:18Speaker 2:He'd start a fight and he would scream and yell at me and follow me around and drive me insane until I finally broke and I would scream, and then he'd turn it around on me and make me look like the crazy person, like I would be the insane one.

18:36Speaker 1:He became verbally abusive.

18:39Speaker 2:I would end up hiding in the closet because I was like, please just shut up. I'm exhausted in hearing you constantly at my throat. It was horrible.

18:49Speaker 1:Even little things would set him off. The environment in their home shifted. She felt like she was walking on egg sheells.

18:57Speaker 2:I didn't want to irritate him. I didn't want to set them off. We were on tippy toes. It was like skinning out the knife. Guys just didn't want to cause conflict.

19:07Speaker 1:The Rodney she had fallen in love with was steady, loving, kind. This new version of him was angry, impulsive, and cruel.

19:18Speaker 2:His soul just turned black. It was very scary, but it was done little by little, and when things are done little by little, you don't really notice change it.

19:30Speaker 1:Morgan was working hard at building her business, and after a year they moved out of their rental and bought a new home. But the home she had worked so hard to afford was unsafe for her and their twins.

19:42Speaker 2:The kids were just getting older. Rod was more aggressive and just It became unhealthy and very toxic.

19:51Speaker 1:That summer, a friend of Morgan and Rodney's rented a houseboat for their group of friends for the night. It was a big party.

19:58Speaker 2:Everyone was having a great time drinking out in the sun.

20:03Speaker 1:At the end of the evening, Morgan and Rodney went to their.

20:06Speaker 2:Room and we were going to go to sleep, but then he attacked me. It was dark, it was pitch black because there was no windows in there. All I remember it is just getting humbled by him.

20:18Speaker 1:Morgan managed to get away from him and came out of their bedroom into the main area of the boat. A few of their friends were still awake and startled at the sight of her. She was bleeding. Rodney was close on her heels, but when he saw their friends, he quickly came up with the story.

20:36Speaker 2:He was like, I cannot believe you have hacked me. My gosh, you are so drunk.

20:42Speaker 1:Morgan and her friends stared at him, dumbfounded.

20:46Speaker 2:My friends were like, no, that if she attacked you, you'd be able to hold her down. She doesn't need to have marks on her like this and bleeding for you to stop her.

20:59Speaker 1:She called her parents to come pick her up.

21:02Speaker 2:I went to their house and I slept for the entire day, and then rod showed up. He convinced my parents it was me, and then I was the crazy one and that I attacked him and that it was all my fault.

21:18Speaker 1:The more Rodney told the story of Morgan attacking him, the more Morgan began to question her own experience.

21:25Speaker 2:I was embarrassed. I was like, well, maybe it was me, because, like I said, we had all been drinking and hanging out, so it's not like I was completely sober. You question yourself, you know, like, was I wrong? Am I crazy? Did I lose it? Like what happened?

21:43Speaker 1:Morgan's memory felt fuzzy, but Rodney seemed to remember everything in perfect detail. He sat on her parents couch and calmly explained how she attacked him.

21:54Speaker 2:He would just sit there and lay it all out, so, of course, naturally then I was like, oh my gosh, well maybe it was me.

21:59Speaker 1:I'm so Rodney was physically and emotionally abusing Morgan. He always found a way to make her take the blame for his actions.

22:10Speaker 2:He was like, Okay, well I'm going to give you a chance, and you're going to get better. You're not going to do this again. So then I feel like I was being given a chance, like I need to become a better person, so I feel like I was the one on trial.

22:25Speaker 1:They went back to their routines, but now whenever they had an argument, Rodney made Morgan believe she started it.

22:34Speaker 2:He'd like, well, it was your fault. You said this, you did this, And I was like, I don't remember that, but okay, I'm sorry. My mind would play games in me. It's like, no, you're at fault. No, no, he's at fault. It was just a cluster of just so many things running through my head.

22:51Speaker 1:Morgan was losing trust in herself. Rodney was gaslighting her and his plan was working. She was starting to doubt her own way reality.

23:02Speaker 2:There was a time that we were arguing and we were walking up the stairs and he pretended I pushed them down the stairs, and he did it in front of the children and was like, look, mom pushed me down the stairs.

23:14Speaker 1:This time, Morgan did not doubt herself.

23:18Speaker 2:I know I did not do this, Like that was a situation in a scenario where he can never convince me that I did that.

23:24Speaker 1:He was trying to get their kids to stop trusting her.

23:28Speaker 2:I just decided to grab the kids and go to my mom's house.

23:32Speaker 1:She knew something had to change. She tried to encourage Rodney to seek professional help for his behavior.

23:38Speaker 2:I didn't want to give up on them. I was trying to get them help, like I wanted to get help. He wouldn't go see a therapist. He wouldn't do anything.

23:46Speaker 1:His abuse only escalated. As a note to listeners, the next scene involves a threat of suicide.

23:53Speaker 2:One time we were fighting and I grabbed the kids and I went to my parents' house. But as I would leave in the driveway, came out stood in the driveway. He had a gun and he pointed it to his head. I just dropped everything and put my hands in my face because I didn't want to see it happen. I drove away.

24:12Speaker 1:Morgan was focused on surviving his abuse and keeping her kids safe.

24:17Speaker 2:I was just trying to get by minute per minute.

24:21Speaker 1:It was devastating. She still had so much love for this person, but he was not the man she married. Eventually, Morgan told her parents that she needed to leave her marriage.

24:35Speaker 2:I went to them and was like, I can't do this anymore. They were on my side. My dad was like, Okay, call the attorney. We're going to get the divorce. We're done. I get it. I understand.

24:45Speaker 1:Hearing her parents affirm her decision to leave shifted something within Morgan.

24:50Speaker 2:I don't know what it was, but a light just came on and I was like, I'm ton I don't have to do this. I could get out.

25:00Speaker 1:After eleven years of marriage and nearly twenty years together, Morgan filed for divorce.

25:07Speaker 2:My divorce was like a month long.

25:10Speaker 1:The proceedings were extremely fast.

25:13Speaker 2:He gave me the house, he gave me everything. He didn't fight it, and I think it's because he thought he could win me back. Behind the scenes, he was like, give me another chance. I was just constantly begging me and begging me.

25:25Speaker 1:But Morgan was done giving Rodney chances to change. Their divorce was finalized in December of twenty twenty, and she knew she had made the right decision.

25:34Speaker 2:I was feeling free. I just felt great. I didn't have the urge to want to go back. I just felt like the weight of the world was off my shoulders.

25:46Speaker 1:It was a positive change for her kids too.

25:49Speaker 2:And my kids were like, Mom, it's so much happier around here. I was like, yes, I know, I did the right thing. I was just so elated that the house was calm and quiet.

26:00Speaker 1:It Rodney was the only one not adjusting well.

26:05Speaker 2:Rob is still asking me to get back together with them. Let me give another chance.

26:11Speaker 1:Morgan tried her best to ignore him, but he was trying everything to make her feel bad.

26:16Speaker 2:It was a few days before his birthday. He's like, well, no one's going to take me out for my birthday. Can you please go out and make my birthday? So that I said, okay, I'll go to dinner for your birthday.

26:25Speaker 1:The dinner was uncomfortable. The entire time, Rodney was begging her to take him back. She tried to set boundaries between them again. Then a few days before Christmas, Morgan was at her friend's house when she got an email from Rodney. He was writing to let her know that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He attached a doctor's note to his email. The cancer had already progressed to stage four by the time they found it. It was a terminal diagnosis. Morgan was stunned. She rushed over to Rodney's house right away, and I was.

27:02Speaker 2:Like, I am so sorry. I'm here for you, your father, my children. I'm always gonna love you.

27:07Speaker 1:She spent the day at his apartment, trying to support him as he wrapped his mind around the diagnosis. When the day he came to an end, Rodney told her he was scared to be alone. That night, she told him he could come to her house and sleep on the sofa if he needed.

27:22Speaker 2:To, and the following morning, I said, Okay, you know, I think it's time we call your parents. He's like, I don't want my parents to know. And I was like, rod you got in credit cancer.

27:33Speaker 1:Morgan wanted to support him, but she was frustrated that Rodney only wanted support from her and nobody else. Even though she still cared for Rodney, they were divorced.

27:44Speaker 2:Now. I was feeling like, you know, this isn't really on me, Like this isn't my responsibility anymore.

27:53Speaker 1:It was a tough decision, but she knew she couldn't be Rodney's only support system for her sake and for his, so she called his parents, told them about his diagnosis, and then told him it was time for him to go back home.

28:09Speaker 2:I was like, that's it. You're not putting all of this on me. I didn't feel responsible for him anymore.

28:18Speaker 1:Morgan tried to take a step back.

28:20Speaker 2:And he was still messaging me. He's like, let me take you out for New Year's Eve. Let me let's do the New Year's Eve together. And I was like, no, I'm not doing it. I don't want to do it.

28:29Speaker 1:So she made up an excuse. She told him she was spending the night at her parents' house so he wouldn't try to come over. Her kids were out of town, so Morgan decided to go to a friend's New Year's Eve party.

28:42Speaker 2:I was there for a little bit and I was like, you know what, I don't really want to be here. I'm tired. This is my first New Year by myself. I don't like drinking. I just wanted it to be relaxing, and I didn't have my kids. I was like, I just want to go home.

28:57Speaker 1:Her kids were at her sister's house in Florida for the week, and Morgan had the house to herself. She went home, changed into her pajamas, and put on a movie.

29:06Speaker 2:I fell asleep on the sofa that night. I woke up. I think it was just about a minute before midnight, and it was a firework I heard in the neighborhood and it woke me up. And so I was like, oh gosh, okay, it was just for a second. And then I'd been down and I kissed my dog and I was like having a year.

29:25Speaker 1:She pulled herself off the couch, went to her room, and went back to bed. As a note for listeners, Morgan is about to describe an instance of graphic violence.

29:35Speaker 2:It was like thirty minutes later or something like that, I woke up again. There's always been a creek by my door when you walk by it.

29:45Speaker 1:She heard the floorboard creak and her eyes snapped open.

29:48Speaker 2:It was just loud, and I saw this figure standing in the doorway. He was an all black and had a batman mask and just covered head to toe and clothing.

30:01Speaker 1:The light in the living room was on behind the intruder. He was silhouetted in the doorway. She didn't have a clear view of him.

30:08Speaker 2:I kept closing and opening my eyes, like am I really seeing this or not. The moment that I think he realized my eyes were opened is when he pounced at me. I remember letting out this blood curling scream, a scream that you never thought would possibly be able to come out of your body.

30:27Speaker 1:The intruder used zip ties to restrain her. The whole time. He had a gun in her face and he used it to hit her. The attack felt like it lasted forever.

30:38Speaker 2:When you're strangled, it is the worst feeling in the entire world. I mean, it's so personal. You're looking up at this person and you can't breathe. I got to the point where I literally felt like my body was shutting down. When I was done, I was thinking in my head he was going to take my kids.

30:59Speaker 1:He put it pillowcase over her head and he sexually assaulted her. Then the intruder began to speak. It sounded like he was using a voice changer. The altered voice was deep and gravelly. It sounded just like Batman.

31:16Speaker 2:That was definitely the scariest thing, the Batman voice sound. That is what still haunts my dreams. Hey would just make all these comments of like you've messed with the wrong person. You're gonna pay for this.

31:32Speaker 1:The intruder demanded that she share her phone password. Scared for her life, she told him. Morgan's mind was racing trying to figure out who was behind the mask.

31:44Speaker 2:I'm thinking in my head, like I do not have enemies like this. What is going on. Then he makes a comment, if you're really going to miss your husband.

31:52Speaker 1:She had to make a split second decision of how to respond. Something in her knew what the intruder wanted to hear, and I was.

32:01Speaker 2:Like, oh no, please, don't hurt my husband. I love him very much. And I think that's what saved me, because the mood in the entire room changed. It wasn't as heavy, it wasn't as dark, it wasn't as deep. His whole persona changed.

32:23Speaker 1:Just seconds ago, the intruder's violence had been life threatening, but now his focus shifted from Morgan to her valuables and what he could steal.

32:33Speaker 2:Like he was a burglar more so than they're the murder me. He's like, where's your jewelry? And he started ripping out stuff from my drawers and things like that.

32:40Speaker 1:Then the intruder lifted Morgan off of the bed.

32:43Speaker 2:He kept that pillow case over my head and then took me outside in the back patio, laid me on my outside sofa, and he was like, don't move until you hear three car hons.

32:56Speaker 1:She complied and listened as the intruder's foots faded away.

33:06Speaker 2:I heard the car leave, but I didn't hear any three car hogs.

33:10Speaker 1:There was still a pillowcase over her head. She didn't know for sure if the intruder had left or if anyone else was watching her.

33:18Speaker 2:I don't know if there's more than one person. I couldn't see anything, and I was trying to keep myself awake because I can feel the blood running down my faith.

33:29Speaker 1:Morgan was severely injured. She focused all of her energy on coaching herself through the pain. She needed to survive this, not only for herself, before her children.

33:41Speaker 2:And I was like, you can have a concussion. Try to stay awake. Try to stay awake. At the same time, I'm thinking in my head, okay, where are your keith at. You're going to run to the car, like I was planning things out in my head.

33:53Speaker 1:She laid on the back patio for forty minutes waiting, but then she heard something.

34:00Speaker 2:We had river rocks in our backyard, and I heard someone stepping on them. And then I heard footsteps going up the back deck stairs, and I was like, somebody else is here.

34:31Speaker 1:Morgan was asleep at her house on New Year's Eve when an intruder broke into her home. He was wearing a batman mask, black clothing, and disguising his voice with a voice changer. He violently attacked her before leaving her on the back porch, her head covered with a pillowcase. He told her not to move until she heard three hanks of a car's horn, but the sounds never came, so she stayed there for forty minutes until she heard footsteps approaching.

35:00Speaker 2:And I was like, somebody else is here.

35:03Speaker 1:She wasn't sure if this was help or the start of a second attack.

35:08Speaker 2:And then I heard footsteps going up the back deckstairs.

35:11Speaker 1:The pillowcase was slifted off her head, and Morgan looked up to see who had arrived. It was Rodney.

35:20Speaker 2:He looked very surprised.

35:23Speaker 1:Morgan was also surprised. How did Rodney know she needed help?

35:28Speaker 2:He said, well, why right? Someone can tapping out my window and saying you better go check on your wife or something like that.

35:37Speaker 1:Then Rodney began to tend to Morgan.

35:40Speaker 2:I'm still naked and my hands are tied and I was crying, and he took me inside, took me by the fireplace. He was consulting, but also like trying to act like he was staying in the day. He's like, I'm going to check the house out, make sure everything's good, and make sure everyone's gone.

36:00Speaker 1:He walked around the house, opening closet doors, but he.

36:03Speaker 2:Still has under my handcuffs or got me my clothes that I needed.

36:07Speaker 1:Then Rodney called the police. Morgan listened, still handcuffed as he told the nine one one dispatcher.

36:15Speaker 2:He's gone now and it's no big deal. We don't need the sirens of the lights or the big old or deal or anything like that. And I'm sitting there like what.

36:23Speaker 1:The police made their way to the house at a leisurely pace. Based on Rodney's account, they didn't think it was that serious of a situation.

36:33Speaker 2:The policeman walks in the front door and he stops in his fracks and back right back out outside and calling her back up.

36:40Speaker 1:Rodney sounded calm on the phone, but one look at Morgan told a different story. She had been physically assaulted. She was bleeding from a head wound, her face was swelling and starting to turn purple.

36:55Speaker 2:I mean, I can't even see out of like one eye. The cop was kind of like, what do you mean? This is not this big of a deal.

37:03Speaker 1:The police took Rodney aside for questioning. In the meantime, they searched the house. Occasionally someone came over to talk to Morgan, but all of their words faded into one loud hum.

37:18Speaker 2:I just felt like I was medicated or something. It was all a blur. My brain was just going, you know, a thousand miles a minute, and I couldn't even keep up with what detectives were saying.

37:31Speaker 1:But then one of the detectives said something that cut through the noise. He told her they were arresting Rodney. Morgan's head was spinning. She remembered the look on Rodney's face when he first saw her injuries. He had looked surprised, but they had been together since they were teenagers, and Morgan knew Rodney's expressions.

37:54Speaker 2:Intimately, it was a genuine shock. But I think it was a genuine shock of like, oh, Lee wrap, what did I do to have.

38:05Speaker 1:Her thoughts were racing. Could Rodney really have done this?

38:10Speaker 2:Maybe it said, Maybe it wasn't. I don't know. I didn't know if he'd hired anybody else.

38:15Speaker 1:Morgan was taken to the hospital. Luckily, her kids were still out of town, staying with her sister. Rodney was the prime suspect, but authorities needed solid proof if they were going to charge him with the crime, so they got a warrant to search Rodney's apartment. That's when the picture began to come together. Detectives found a book in Rodney's apartment, Seven Ways to Be Her Hero, a self help book for men, and Rodney's search history told a disturbing story.

38:49Speaker 2:They took his computer and they found searches of how to strangle somebody and writing a suicide letter.

38:58Speaker 1:He also searched for how to change the sound of your voice, how to get sympathy from your ex, and how long to choke someone unconscious. Then they found physical evidence, zip ties that looked just like the ones used to restrain Morgan.

39:15Speaker 2:And they took the zip ties to forensics to see if it was a match.

39:21Speaker 1:Forensics came back quickly it was a match. The evidence was overwhelming. Rodney was the intruder.

39:29Speaker 2:I just dropped to the ground and just started crying. Finally someone saw that it wasn't my fault.

39:39Speaker 1:For years, Rodney had been gaslighting Morgan, telling her she was to blame for his violence. Now it was finally over.

39:49Speaker 2:I was just throwing back like, Oh my gosh, I can't believe he was honestly just stupid to look it all up online.

39:57Speaker 1:In the weeks before the attack, Rodney told me he had terminal cancer, but in their investigation, police discovered a forged doctor's note proof that Rodney's story was a lie.

40:11Speaker 2:It was just so mind boggling. I guess I never really truly thought he would go that far.

40:18Speaker 1:Rodney had been desperate to regain control of Morgan's life and to get her back. He started by trying to gain her sympathy. When he first told Morgan about his cancer, she was distraught, but even though she was worried for him, she still didn't want to get back together with him.

40:36Speaker 2:That is when I think he finally made a decision. Okay, he's going to go through with what his end game was.

40:43Speaker 1:Morgan had let Rodney sleep on her couch. He said he was scared about his terminal diagnosis, but in reality, he had ulterior motives.

40:54Speaker 2:During that time I was sleeping, he went downstairs in the basement and took a window sensor off the window, so he was a planning as next est.

41:05Speaker 1:With the window sensor removed, Rodney had an easy way to enter Morgan's house without activating the alarm system. On the night of the attack, he'd asked for Morgan's phone password and gone through her phone. Police discovered he'd been deleting security footage. Rodney Metzer was charged with fourteen counts related to the attack, including kidnapping, home invasion, armed robbery, aggravated assault, and sexual battery. But one question remained, why would Rodney do this to her? Why take it this far?

41:44Speaker 1:Morgan thinks it's because he wanted to create a villain so that he could be the hero.

41:50Speaker 2:Because he wanted to gain back that guy next door type of vibe everyone like the penny of the perfect person.

41:59Speaker 1:The assistant district attorney who prosecuted a case believes Rodney's motivations were even more sinister. In a press release about Morgan's case, she gave this quote, which we've had read by a voice actor. This man is a master manipulator.

42:16Speaker 3:In the days leading up to the attack, he faked a cancer diagnosis in an attempt to gain sympathy from his ex wife. When that didn't work, he created a convoluted plan that the investigators in this case and our office, truly believe involved a plot to kill her and then himself. When he couldn't go through with that plan, he instead devised a new plan to rescue her.

42:44Speaker 1:In the weeks following the attack, Morgan's sister agreed to take care of her kids while she focused on recovering. She checked herself into an impatient rehab for PTSD recovery, but even with professional help, she found her self struggling to return to the life she had before.

43:03Speaker 2:I didn't want to be left alone in the house. But I didn't want to leave my house because I worked very hard to pay for that house. At that time, I was too afraid to work because I didn't want to go to random people's houses.

43:14Speaker 1:I was scared nights for the hardest. She didn't feel safe letting her guard down in her own home.

43:21Speaker 2:There was a month that I would sleep in my son's room and just sit in the corner of the room and stare at the door. I just wouldn't sleep. I couldn't find comfort in it, but I refused to let him beat me.

43:34Speaker 1:Meanwhile, the state built their case against Rodney and prepared for trial.

43:39Speaker 2:I was just talking to the DA constantly, just constant questions. They came to get server at my house, they went through his phone. It was just reliving that moment every second for like eight months.

43:58Speaker 1:Rodney pled guilty to for team counts related to the attack. On August fourth, twenty twenty one, Rodney was sentenced to twenty five years in prison and forty five years of probation. Morgan wanted to go to his sentencing hearing. She prepared a victim impact statement. What she read in the.

44:17Speaker 2:Courtroom and my last statement to him, I said, do you know, rod the pain you've given me is turned into so much power. I walked off that stand feeling like weight was lifted off my shoulders. I just felt like I could breathe a little bit more. I feel like some things that were at peace.

44:38Speaker 1:In that same press release about the case, the prosecutor wrote a line that stood out to our team. Here's what she wrote.

44:47Speaker 3: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.

44:56Speaker 1:Morgan had to find a way to explain to her kids why the couldn't see their father anymore.

45:02Speaker 2:I told them, do you guys know when you get in trouble, there's a consequence for your actions. And they said yes, and I said, well, that did something very bad and he has to have a punish net and he's going to be away for twenty to twenty five years.

45:19Speaker 1:She did everything she could to process her trauma and heal for herself and for her kids. It took months, but slowly.

45:27Speaker 2:I felt like I was more myself, letting the kids go to school, more Okay, we're getting back into a routine.

45:33Speaker 1:Rodney was a defining figure in Morgan's life since she was fourteen years old. Without him around, even the smallest things felt new.

45:43Speaker 2:I was trapped by him for so long that I was getting to know my real self too. I had to reintroduce myself. I feel like I had to relearn how to walk and talk again, like do they Eventually I started learning to get up every day and learn who the new me was going to be.

46:06Speaker 1:In her victim impact statement, she told Rodney she would turn the pain he inflicted into power, and she did that power.

46:16Speaker 2:It's gotten me through figuring out how to provide for my children, how to figure out how to do daily life today.

46:24Speaker 1:Morgan's interior design business is thriving. She reclaimed the house where she was attacked and turned it into a loving home, and as for her twins, she's proud of the people they're becoming. We end every weekly episode with the same question, why do you want to share your story?

46:43Speaker 2:I'm very lucky. Unfortunately a lot of women in my situation don't get out alive. And I just want women to know that it's important to speak to each other and to be open and to talk about things. I never said anything out loud. I never really went to a lot of my friends because I wanted to paint this beautiful picture of my family and nothing was wrong. And we as women are each other's big guest supporterers, and if we say what's going on, maybe would have been able to get help earlier.

47:25Speaker 1:On the next episode of Betrayal.

47:26Speaker 4:Weekly, suddenly the knock is on my door. I open the door. These two men in street clothes are claiming to be us Marshals. My whole body is hot. I feel like my stomach is dropped and they show me a picture. Yeah, that is my fiance.

47:55Speaker 1:If you'd like to share your story on Betrayal, please email Betrayal Pod at gmail dot com that is Betrayalpod at gmail dot com. Please note that we are not a mental health organization. If you are in crisis or currently experiencing domestic violence, we encourage you to seek local help or dial nine to one one. Please contact organizations that offer immediate support. In our show notes, we've included a list of US based resources. You can follow us on Instagram at betrayal Pod, or find me at It's Andrea Gunning. To access our newsletter and additional content, and to connect with the Betrayal community, join our substack at Betrayal dot substack dot com. We're grateful for your support.

48:44Speaker 1:One way to show support is by subscribing to our show on Apple Podcasts and don't forget to rate and review Betrayal. Five star reviews go a long way. Big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass and Entertainment Group, in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, posted and produced by me Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Olivia Hewitt. Our story editor is Monique Lebord. Also produced by Ben Fetterman.

49:17Speaker 1:Our associate producer is Leah Jablo. Production management by Kristin Melcurie, Booking support by Curry Richmond. Voice acting by Teresa Christine Brabson. Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Crincheck. Audio editing by Tanner Robbins, with additional editing and mixing by Matt Delbecchio. A Trayals theme composed by Oliver Baines. Music library provided by my Music and For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts,