Shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day 2021, Morgan Metzer woke to a masked intruder in her Canton, Georgia, bedroom. The attacker pistol-whipped and strangled her nearly unconscious twice, sexually assaulted her, bound her wrists with pre-looped black zip ties, demanded valuables and her phone passcode, and forced her outside naked, warning her not to move until she heard two car honks.
About 40 minutes later Morgan heard someone on the back porch and recognized the voice of her ex-husband, Rod Metzer. He called 911 and stayed at the scene until deputies arrived; at first he was hailed as her rescuer. Morgan immediately suspected him — she remembered the assailant saying “you’re going to miss your husband,” and the way he lifted her felt familiar. The couple had divorced days earlier after a long marriage that Morgan says included physical, sexual and psychological abuse.
Investigators quickly grew suspicious. Separated from Rod for interviews, Morgan told deputies she believed he had been the attacker. Deputies found a hidden phone folder on Rod’s device containing numerous nude photos of Morgan taken without her consent and arrested him for invasion of privacy.
Physical and digital evidence soon accumulated. Home security footage for the relevant window had been deleted after the attacker took Morgan’s phone, but investigators found that a basement window alarm sensor had been removed so the window could be opened without triggering the system. Surveillance showed Rod on Morgan’s front porch earlier that evening and later leaving his apartment in a disheveled rush. Video from a Lowe’s captured him buying the same type of black zip ties found on Morgan about 36 hours before the attack; he paid with a debit card. Investigators recovered a bag of black zip ties and a cut tail piece in his apartment; forensic testing linked the cut to one of the ties used to bind Morgan.
Searches on Rod’s devices included queries such as “how to change your voice,” “how long to choke somebody unconscious,” “how to crack an iPhone password,” “how to get sympathy from your ex,” and “cancer diagnosis letters.” Prosecutors said he fabricated a pancreatic cancer diagnosis — creating fake emails and documents — to persuade Morgan to let him stay on her couch the week before the attack and to try to reconcile. He also sent her a photograph of a check for roughly $56,000 left under her porch; the check was never recovered and would have bounced.
Rod initially told police he had heard someone calling Morgan’s name outside and drove the 12 minutes to check on her. Investigators found inconsistencies: building cameras showed no departure after the alleged knock, and he was recorded leaving his apartment soon after the attack wearing different clothes and carrying an unexplained plastic bag. Forensics tied the use of Morgan’s phone during the assault to erasures of cloud video and remote unlocking of doors, consistent with the assailant briefly taking her phone.
Prosecutors described the combination of surveillance, receipts, forensic matches and internet searches as overwhelming. Rod was charged with multiple counts, including home invasion, kidnapping, aggravated assault and sexual battery. On August 4, 2021, he pleaded guilty to 14 counts related to the attack and the illicit photos. He agreed to serve 25 years of a 70-year sentence and faces an additional 45 years of probation; the sentence bars him from contacting Morgan or their children.
At sentencing Morgan read a lengthy victim impact statement detailing years of abuse, manipulation and the terror of the New Year’s attack. Since then she has sought therapy, focused on raising her twin children, and worked to raise awareness about narcissism, gaslighting and domestic abuse so others might recognize warning signs earlier. Friends and advocates say she is finding strength and resilience, while prosecutors point to the case as an example of how thorough forensic and digital investigation can expose staged crimes.