Woman learns terrifying truth behind NYE masked home invasion

A Georgia woman who was beaten, pistol-whipped, tied up and sexually assaulted early in the morning on New Year's Day in 2021 shared the chilling moment she realized her masked attacker was her ex-husband. 

Morgan Metzer said her suspicions were raised immediately because her assailant appeared to be disguising his voice to sound gravelly, like Batman. 

In new show 'The Batman Intruder' on CBS and Paramount +, Morgan revealed she knew the attacker was her ex-husband Rodney Metzer when he climbed on top of her and strangled her to within an inch of her life. 

She recalled him telling her: 'You're gonna regret this, you've done really wrong now... You're going to be fine but we can't say that about your ex-husband. You're really going to miss him.' 

Hearing the attacker randomly reference her ex-husband led Morgan to believe it was Rodney - who was later convicted of carrying out a warped attempt to win her back by saving her life. 

In new details from the chilling episode, it was revealed that Rodney had previously faked having cancer to move back into Morgan's home, and only left the day before the New Year's attack. 

When police obtained search warrants for Rodney's home and phone, they found zip ties that aligned with those used on Morgan and an incriminating search history including 'how to change the sound of your voice' and 'how to get sympathy from your ex.' 

In an interview with CBS' 48 Hours for the show, Morgan admitted: 'I thought I was going to die.' 

Morgan said when the attack began, she was pistol-whipped in the face after she screamed to try and alert her neighbors. 

After beating her almost to death, Rodney place a pillowcase over her head and carried he routside to her back porch. 

Morgan's attacker told her not to move until she heard two car honks or he'd kill her, and she said she then lay there for over 45 minutes in terror. 

The silence was broken when her ex-husband Rodney showed up, seemingly in an effort to save her as Morgan recalled him saying: 'Oh honey, what happened?' 

Rodney called 911, but as soon as cops showed up they were immediately suspicious of how the victim's ex-husband happened to know she was attacked. 

The couple had recently finalized a bitter divorce, but Morgan said Rodney was insistent on getting back together, despite her repeated rejections. 

They had dated since Morgan was 14 and he was 17, and shared twins together, who were staying with Morgan's sister in Florida over New Year's when the attack took place. 

During the investigation, detectives learned that Rodney had wormed his way back into Morgan's home by faking a pancreatic cancer diagnosis. 

It came just a week after Morgan finalized the divorce, alleging years of emotional and physical abuse, as Rodney called his ex-wife and told her he had the disease. 

'And so I rushed to go see him,' Morgan said, admitting she let him move back in. 'He showed me doctors' notes and whatnot. I needed to be supportive still because it's the father of my children.' 

For a week before New Year's, Rodney pestered her about getting back together, but when she tried to get him to tell his parents he had cancer, Rodney refused. 

'He said, "No, absolutely not. I'm not telling anybody." And that's when I was like, "OK, get out,"' Morgan recalled. 

She told Rodney she was going to her parents' home for New Year's but actually spent it with her friend before she went back home before midnight. 

When police questioned Rodney at the scene of his ex-wife's beating about how he arrived so soon after, he offered a bizarre story about a mystery suspect knocking on his apartment window and saying Morgan's name. 

He said going to her home instead of her parents' home was out of habit, but investigators were immediately doubtful of his story. 

They obtained search warrants, which uncovered a damning search history on Rodney's phone, including 'How to get sympathy from your ex?' and 'How long it take to choke someone unconscious.' 

Another that caught the investigators eyes: 'Cancer letter from hospital.' 

It was found that Rodney had gone as far as to create a fake email account from a doctor to send himself the cancer diagnosis letter that he used to convince Morgan of his illness. 

Rodney's phone also included copies of Morgan's messages and evidence that he had been secretly taking photos of her in the shower. 

They arrested him for lying to police, and he spent a day in jail while they search his home and found more incriminating evidence.

'The investigation revealed a different story,' Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace said when Rodney pleaded guilty in August 2021.

Wallace explained that detectives found a gun in his car and zip-ties in his apartment, both of which matched those used in the attack.

Security camera footage also gave him away. He was caught leaving Lowe's Home Improvement carrying a pack of zip ties, and coming home to his apartment and leaving a few minutes later wearing different clothing.

Only one thing was stolen - Morgan's phone, so he could erase the security cam footage of his arrival, attack and departure. 

'This man is a master manipulator. In the days leading up to this attack he faked a cancer diagnosis in an attempt to gain sympathy from his ex-wife,' Wallace added. 

Even after police found overwhelming evidence, Morgan had been so badly gas-lit that she had moments of doubt.

'There were quite a few times where I convinced myself even after that that maybe it wasn't him. Maybe it was someone else. I can't believe we're doing this to him,' she said.

'There's no way he would have done this to me. He wouldn't hurt me.'

Rodney was charged with a long list of crimes including sexual battery, kidnapping and aggravated family violence battery.

At first, Rodney tried to convince police of his innocence and manipulate them the same way he did to his wife.

'It's sickening to me that this happened to her and it's sickening to me that y'all think I would do this,' he told them during interrogation.

'I'm a very kind, gentle... like I don't have an angry bone in my body.'

Rodney pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 70 years, with 25 to be served in prison and the rest on probation, as part of a plea deal.

As well as the new Paramount+ show, the case has now been dramatized into the Lifetime film Gaslit by my Husband, with One Tree Hill stars Jana Kramer and Austin Nichols playing Morgan and Rodney.