All language subtitles for Betrayal.Secrets.and.Lies.S01E04.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH-CEsubs

I asked Morgan and Rod what does
marriage mean to each of them. Morgan

with this. We will be together forever.

For God has sent Rod to me and he is my
guardian angel.

And Rod concluded with this.

My only hope for my life is that I can
be the man and husband and father that

Morgan and my future children deserve.

She really thought he was the love of
her life. The prince charming.

It's going to be a fun honeymoon.

We were just really excited to start our
life.

But unfortunately, at the start of our
fairy tales, when our nightmare began.

Morgan looked at him to be her
protector. But what you don't know, you

know.

A shocking event happens that changes
everything.

He was no longer my husband. He was
somebody completely different, somebody

ugly, somebody that I didn't know who it
was, a stranger to me.

I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is
Betrayal, a show about the people we

most and the deceptions that change
everything.

Today we meet Morgan, who thought she
had it all, a loving relationship with

high school sweetheart and the promise
of a bright future.

But after a series of tragic events,
that promise turned into peril.

Morgan, what are you hoping people learn
from your story?

My hope is that women learn to speak up.

to see if the things that are going on
in your relationship is healthy or not.

Yeah. Like, I generally started to
believe it was me, that I was the

So I didn't say anything. I stopped
trying to be heard.

My name is Morgan Metzer.

I grew up in Canton, Georgia.

We have an older brother. I'm the
middle. And then Morgan's the baby

We have so many wonderful memories
together.

All girls pretty much dream of finding
their prince charming.

So we always thought about who our
boyfriend would be someday or our

And then when, of course, we met Rod,
she felt like she found her prince.

Rod and I met when I was 14, he was 17,
and we were high school sweethearts.

My first impression of Rod that he gave
off is definitely the big man on campus.

Everywhere he went, everyone knew who he
was.

He was extremely patient, funny, kind
-hearted.

He had ambition.

He was pretty much the whole package, I
guess you could say.

He made me feel like a princess.

Morgan wanted to be protected, and she
looked at him to be her protector.

So he kind of just took on that role.

Rodney's family came from a lot of
money. They were very well to do.

Rod's parents would take a lot of their
kids' friends on trips. And on these

trips, we were spoiled, given a very
lavish lifestyle.

I felt like the luckiest girl in the
world.

After high school, the couple, they're
stronger than ever.

Morgan follows Rodney to Wyoming, where
he's... training to be a mechanic, and

she goes to cosmetology school. And then
they decide to move back to Georgia and

start their careers.

We grew together naturally as a couple.

Everything was still innocent and pure.

I don't ever recall them ever arguing.

They always got along.

From the very beginning, they've always
been very happy.

Rod proposed to me after about six or
seven years being together.

He asked me in front of my family with
my grandmother's wedding ring.

I was 100 % sure I wanted to marry Rod.

Rod and Morgan, the importance of
marriage supersedes our daily

We got married April 18, 2009.

I asked Morgan and Rod individually what
does marriage mean to each of them, and

Rod had this to say. Marriage good.

Rod liked marriage.

The wedding was my dream. Everything I
could have ever imagined.

It was a true fairy tale.

It was one of the most beautiful
weddings I've ever seen.

You may kiss to your heart's content.

The family was so excited.

His brother Kevin's speech was
wonderful.

One day I hope I can share the same love
they have with a woman as great as

Morgan.

And for the first official time, Morgan,
welcome to the family.

I cried.

It felt like royalty becoming
Mithmatzer.

Before we got married, we did own a
house together.

We resided there after the wedding.

It was so much fun getting to call him
my husband.

They were happy. They were always doing
things, and I felt like I had a brother

there, so it was nice.

Rod had no expectations from me.

He really didn't.

He just wanted me to do what I wanted to
do, and I wanted to go hang out with

friends that night. He said, go out, go
have fun. I'll see you later.

We were just overall really excited to
start our life.

But unfortunately, at the start of our
fairy tales, when our nightmare began.

Morgan and Rodney's marriage is almost
picture perfect. And then a tragic event

changes everything.

Rod's brother passed away of leukemia.

Kevin's passing was very difficult for
all of us. I can only imagine how it

Rod feel.

It was just him and his brother, you
know, and to see the pain of losing a

sibling, it was difficult.

It affected both of them, but Rod was
just very quiet. He was not sociable. He

was not fun.

This death was a test of how the couple
would weather dark times together.

I was supportive. I tried to help guide
him in different ways, therapy, just

talking, listening, asking what it is
that he needs.

But Rodney started changing into
somebody completely different.

It was like watching a slow, painful
death.

After we lost Kevin, a really good
bounce back, something exciting that

in the family was we got pregnant.

I feel like I got a glimpse of that old
Rod.

He was the latest.

More excited that we were going to name
him Kevin after his brother.

It was just exciting after so much of
the heartache of losing Kevin that

something so wonderful was about to
happen.

At 22 weeks, the couple received
devastating news.

The baby has a congenital heart defect.

They did say he would need multiple
heart surgeries, eventually possibly a

transplant. There was a lot of unknowns.

Nobody wants to hear that their baby is
going to be sick or potentially need all

these treatments and surgeries and be in
pain after they're born.

Right after I'd had Kevin, they let me
hold him for a second. They took him

me pretty much immediately.

He was a week old when he had his first
heart surgery.

I remember dropping to my knees and I
said, God, either take him home

with you or let me bring him home.

And the next day,

is when God decided to answer my prayer,
but decided to take him home with him.

It wrecked her. It wrecked her soul.

Any mother to lose a child is just
unimaginable.

From what Morgan had shared with me and
how Rod brought the loss of baby Kevin,

it was more of he just stayed busy.

He kept himself away, and she grieved by
herself.

I feel like my sister handled it well,
but she was devastated, and she wasn't

herself, nor was Rod.

So, yeah, it was awful.

As

Morgan

continues to grieve the loss of her
child, She gets some amazing news.

I got pregnant after the loss of Kevin
about three months later.

It was just a gift that was sent from
baby Kevin to them to be like, don't be

sad, you know, it's going to be okay.
We've got a baby on the way, you know.

The first ultrasound, Kevin's doctor was
in there and she looked at me and she

goes, of course, you would give me a
high -risk pregnancy after Kevin.

You're having twins.

I handed Rod the ultrasound thing, and
he's like, two? I said, yeah, and he's

excited.

Almost a year to the day of losing baby
Kevin, Morgan gives birth to twins,

Mason and Amelia.

So after the twins were born, Morgan was
a stay -at -home mom.

And that's when I could just tell
that... Rod wasn't happy or he was going

through something, but it was something
that she kind of kept private.

He struggled with sharing my time.
Anything that took me away from taking

of him, he would get irritated. But it
wasn't where people would notice it.

He was just like, honestly, just
miserable and hating life.

He was a mechanic.

Rod was making countless mistakes.

Certain things went wrong.

Soon, Rodney was unemployed, but Morgan
thought that they would be okay

financially.

We had an amazing home that was paid for
outright.

He did have inheritance from a great
aunt, but he eventually told me the

was gone.

I realized that Rod was waiting for his
grandmother to die.

But when his grandmother passed away, he
did not receive anything.

Then they get the notice that they're
going to potentially be losing the

It put a strain on our relationship
because that's, when he ran out of any

options to be able to provide for the
house at all.

She was going to have to be the one to
step up because he obviously couldn't.

So I started my own inferior design
business, Chip Lap and Sugar.

It took off.

After the first year, I was voted the
number one interior designer in Canton,

and I was still able to rock at being a
mom.

We got to work together and run this
business. It was so much fun.

They didn't lose their house.

We had more business than we knew what
to do with.

Eventually, he started working for my
company as a handyman. He would do built

-in bunk beds. He'd make me floating
shelves. He'd hang everything.

He didn't like being the worker.

In my opinion, I felt like, to me,
Rodney would find ways to sabotage the

project. I would see something like the
stupid curtain rods not having the right

measurements, even though that was your
one job.

I would tell him to do something, and he
would do it incorrectly.

He would convince me that I told him to
do it that way, and it would be my

fault.

He had a hard time deciphering if what
he was saying was true or not.

Looking back on it now, he definitely
was gaslighting me.

Once Rod saw that I was able to become
successful for our family and I had the

drive, he still wanted the control.

The way he spoke to me did change.

He wanted to degrade me. He wanted to
make sure I knew who was in charge.

He would antagonize me.

And as soon as I would lose my cool is
when he would go quiet.

And he'd start recording me and say,
look at how crazy you're being.

Gaslighting was Rodney's M .O.

They can beat you down. I felt like a
horrible mom. I felt like a horrible

provider. Overall, I didn't look forward
to getting up every morning.

A lot was on her plate, but she wanted
to protect her kid, make sure that they

didn't know that something was going on
with mom.

One day, Rod and I were having a
disagreement.

We were going up the stairs.

The kids were listening.

And all of a sudden, he's falling down
the stairs.

And as soon as when he hit the bottom
stairs, the kids were down there, and

like, Mom, push me down the stairs.

I felt as though Rod faked falling down
the stairs to show the kids, Mommy did

hurt Daddy, to paint me ugly in their
eyes.

Morgan could endure anything that Rodney
was throwing at her, but then he

started manipulating the kids against
her, and she realized she had to face

reality of her relationship.

I just, like, all right, that's it, I'm
done.

Eleven years into their marriage, Morgan
files for divorce.

When he found out I filed for divorce,
Rod wasn't accepting of it. He would sit

outside my parents' house, calling me
like crazy.

I mean, he really thought he was going
to get me back.

But I wasn't going, I wasn't budging.

This is the only man that she's been
with, and no matter how the relationship

was going, it was still hard.

But I think she knew that she deserved
to be treated better, you know what I

mean? So I was proud of her for sticking
up for her and her kid.

In December of 2020, the divorce was
finalized.

He moved out, got an apartment, and they
shared custody of the two kids.

I knew in my heart I had done the right
thing, but I loved

my husband.

He was my best friend.

That year, the day after Christmas, I
took the kids to see my sister in

for them to stay for a few weeks.

The kids wanted to come see me and stay
at my home outside of Disney World.

When I got back, I was over at Nicole's
house, and Rod had sent me an email,

something along the lines of, I think
you should know this, and he attached

document from the doctor's diagnosis.

I think I dropped my phone and I was
like, oh, my God.

The father of my children has pancreatic
cancer.

I mean, he was telling me it was stage
four and he was going to die.

She was distraught.

It was, oh, my God, my children's
father.

My emotions were all over the place.

I remember just dropping everything and
left Nicole's house and went to his

apartment.

He said he was extremely scared. He
didn't want to tell his parents. He

comfortable being alone.

And I said, okay, you can come and stay
at the house.

Even though they were divorced, Morgan
still loved Rodney, and she wanted to be

supportive. So she let him stay with her
for a few days.

On the day of New Year's Eve, my parents
came over and approached Rod and said

that we do need to call your parents.

and tell them about your diagnosis.

He left very angry.

New Year's Eve, I mean, we talked for a
little bit. I was telling her about what

the kids and I were going to be doing. I
just knew that she was going to

Nicole's house, so it was nothing
unusual.

I did get text messages from Rod.

He wanted to hang out, but I told him.

I'm going to be staying at my parents'
house tonight.

So that was never my intention.

I didn't want to see him.

It was my hopes that he would leave me
alone knowing that I was with my

When Morgan came over to my house, she
was a lot more quiet than usual.

But then I realized that at the time it
was my husband and I and then it was our

other friends.

So I understood it.

And then she went home.

That night, all I wanted to do was just
crawl up next to my dog and go to sleep

and wake up the next morning ready to
start my fresh new year as a newly

divorcee.

The next time Morgan opens her eyes, she
sees an image no one wants to see.

I saw a male figure standing in a lit
-up doorway, dressed in black,

but I went to go, like, really, like,
adjust my eyes is when he attacks.

I screamed the loudest I have ever
screamed.

I thought it was over for me.

When the attacker attacked me, I was hit
in the face countless times

with the butt of a gun.

I was strangled. I was sexually
assaulted.

I had the gun pointed at my forehead.

I was fighting for my life.

He had a voice disguiser. It sounded
like Batman.

I still hear his voice in my head.

He said, you've messed with the wrong
people.

I couldn't help but think, okay, this is
it. I'm done.

Still to this day, I get disappointed in
myself when I say that I finally just

let go.

And I stopped.

All of a sudden, I had a sense of peace
that just went all

over. And at that moment, he stopped
strangling me.

That's when he proceeded to zip tie my
hands behind my back.

He put a pillowcase over my head.

I was bleeding. I could feel the blood
just going down my face.

He started asking where's my phone.

And I said, I don't know, it's somewhere
in the bed.

And he found it, and he's like, what's
the passcode? And I told him the

passcode.

And then all of a sudden, Morgan's
attacker takes her to the back porch.

And says, don't move until you hear a
car honk its horn two or three times.

That never happens.

Morgan is struggling to stay awake.

And finally, she hears footsteps. She
doesn't know who it is.

And then, she hears Rodney's voice.

That was like, hello?

And he goes, what happened? What
happened? What happened?

And I told him what happened.

He took me inside. He called the cops.

We're right here.

OK?

We're right here.

Cherokee County 911.

Somebody broke in over here.

OK, the person that broke in, are they
still there? Did you come home to them?

We don't know.

I showed up, and I don't know.

She said, did someone broke into your
house?

Yes, not my house, my ex -wife's house.

She was on the back porch, and the back
door was wide open. She was tied up with

a hood over her head.

You're saying she was tied up with a
hood over her head?

Yes.

When you got off the phone with them,
she's like, you know, it's fine.

I, you know, walked the house.

Nobody's here or anything like that.

But I was still scared.

I'm Dakota Livers.

At the time of this case, I was a
detective in the Criminal Investigations

Division, specifically assigned in the
Special Victims Unit.

When I initially arrived, Rodney Metzer
was sitting in the driveway. As I walked

past him, he said, are you the guy that
we've been waiting on? I said, yes, sir,

I am. And he looked me dead in the eyes
and he said, do your job.

I was like, okay.

First investigative step that I wanted
to do was get a scene size up. We were

able to find out that their children
were actually in Florida, which was a

relief.

Morgan was in a shocked state. She was
obviously beaten. She had bruising

her eye. She looked disheveled, as would
somebody that had just went through an

incident like this.

There were no signs of forced entry into
the house.

When Morgan detailed how the attacker
had used her phone, we began looking at

the alarm system. We were able to look
through the records. It showed Rodney

arriving, which is about the time the
911 call was made when Morgan was found.

But videos prior to that had been
deleted or weren't there.

The last video was Morgan going inside.

Morgan detailed how the attacker made
claims of your ex -husband is going to

miss you or, you know, he's next.

The attacker had to know Morgan had an
ex -husband.

It's leading us to believe this is
somebody close to Morgan that did this.

I set up two chairs on the front porch
for Rodney and I to have a discussion.

They asked him how he came to be at...
Morgan's house.

And his explanation was incredible.

While brushing his teeth,

some mysterious person tapped on his
window three times, and all that he

make out that they said was Morgan.

He believed that Morgan was in danger.

He took it upon himself to drive from
his apartment to her house. His story

began to unfold as he was telling it
because it did not line up with things

Morgan had already told him, such as
there was no reason for him to come to

house looking for Morgan because Morgan
told him she was going to stay the night

at her parents' house, which is not that
house.

You knew she was here, which is why you
came straight here and not to her

parents' house.

The entire time, we were all open
-minded that there might be another

suspect.

He said

maybe a new love interest

had done this to Morgan. However, all
the evidence at this point was pointing

towards Rodney Metzer.

Rodney actually ended up giving us
consent to look through his phone.

that time, we found pictures of text
messages on another phone, and the other

phone happened to be Morgan's phone.

He also had pictures of her sleeping.

Detective Livers pulled me aside and he
asked me if I had given Rodney

permission to take a picture of my
phone, and I told him no.

He had unlawfully gotten into Morgan's
phone. That's a crime here in Georgia,

and they were able to arrest him that
night for that crime.

But we still had our work ahead of

us to confirm or dispel if Rodney was
our lead suspect.

or if there was some rando that did
this.

Arresting Rodney gave us time to do
further investigating into him, into his

story.

Starting the next day, I was tasked with
obtaining search warrants for Rodney's

vehicle. He had a Volkswagen for his
cell phone.

and for Rodney's apartment.

In the Volkswagen was a handwritten
letter without that signature, but it

outlining the person having cancer and
begging the recipient of that letter to

come back to him.

After we finished our search of Rodney's
vehicle, myself and a number of other

detectives went to that apartment, did a
very thorough search, and recovered

quite a few things of interest.

We seized his laptop computer.

We seized his wireless router.

And probably the strongest piece of
evidence that we seized was a collection

new and one -cut, large industrial -size
zip tie.

There was a stem from a zip tie that was
missing the head.

So we examined the zip ties that were
used to bind Morgan's hands together and

there happened to be an extra head on
one of the stems.

One of our evidence technicians did
what's called a fracture match

You look under magnification and you're
able to see all the jagged cuts and you

can actually move those together and you
can confirm or...

conclude whether they were once one
piece or they're not even related.

It was a perfect match.

We scanned the barcode of those zip
ties, and we were able to see that this

a brand sold exclusively by Lowe's Home
Improvement.

Sergeant Harris found surveillance
footage of Rodney.

Buying just those zip ties and walking
out of Lowe's.

And this was in the height of COVID. He
was the only one in there not wearing a

mask. So you could clearly identify that
it was Rodney.

As the evidence against Rodney is piling
up, detectives uncover something

chilling inside Rodney's search history.

In the search of his laptop, I found
numerous search phrases and

topics that he had been looking up in
the days and weeks before this home

invasion.

Among those search phrases were things
like how to disguise your voice,

He was researching letters that would be
mailed out that have to do with cancer

care.

He had made searches for how long to
strangle someone before they go

unconscious.

There was a book of seven ways to be her
hero found at his apartment that gave

us the motive of why this attack was
done.

and why Rodney did this, it was all to
win her back.

To show her, you need me at that house,
we, without a doubt, believed

Rodney was the one that conducted the
attack.

After we gathered all this evidence, we
brought Rodney back to the Criminal

Investigations Division headquarters to
conduct a follow -up interview.

Sergeant Harris actually second -chaired
with me in that interview. I let Rodney

know, hey, listen, we're still
investigating this incident involving

We had yet to tell him anything about
what we have done, what we have found.

We asked Rodney about any particular
diagnoses he might have, specifically

cancer.

I can see you're different.

I'm ready to learn something about you.
You keep scratching yourself and you get

agitated about what I said.

I'm 100 % fine. I was concerned that you
had cancer, but that was a

given, I guess.

His pancreatic cancer diagnosis, he
ultimately told us, was fake.

That helped him achieve some sympathy
from Morgan.

And in the days following, he was able
to manipulate his way into her house,

where he eventually would spend the
night and sleep on the sofa.

I asked Rodney about some of his
Internet search history, specifically

disguising his voice, because Morgan
described the attacker as how Christian

Bale sounded in the movie The Dark
Knight.

Has there been a time recently where you
were interested in how you can change

the sound of your voice?

It was funny to hear him say that he
feels like he

doesn't have a masculine enough voice. I
thought that was amazing.

By the time we revealed that we had his
zip ties, his whole demeanor changed,

partially because he was surprised that
he had forgotten to get rid of the zip

ties, but also because the zip ties were
such a...

critical piece of evidence, and he knew
that he was in trouble.

By January the 3rd, we had conducted
enough investigation that I was able to

take additional charges on Rodney for
what happened to Morgan.

And among those charges were home
invasion in the first degree, aggravated

assault by strangulation, kidnapping,
armed robbery, and burglary.

My name is Rachel Ash. I'm the Deputy
Chief Assistant District Attorney for

Blue Ridge Judicial Circuit.

During our initial interactions with
Morgan, she was struggling with the idea

that this could be this person who she
had loved since they were teenagers.

He was no longer my husband. He was
somebody completely different, somebody

ugly, somebody that I didn't know who it
was, a stranger to me.

What she had gone through was so
violent.

She was afraid he was going to come back
and he was going to kill her.

When I found out that Rod was the one
that did this, I was in a state of

All I know is I'm looking at her kids
and I'm like, oh my gosh, like, thank

they were with me.

Once I got the kids home, I sat them
down and I said, guys, daddy did

very bad.

And he's going to be in trouble for a
large portion of your life.

Rodney Metzer was indicted on 14
separate charges.

The sheriff's office investigation was
so strong that this was the case that

leading to a plea. He would not have had
any chance at trial.

Ultimately, Rodney Metzer pled guilty to
all of the counts in the indictment.

He was sentenced for a total period of
70 years with the first 25 years of

being in custody.

As part of his sentence, he's ordered to
have no contact of any kind with Morgan

or his children.

I don't know if what he got was fair or
not.

Sometimes I think 25 years, okay, that's
more than enough time. But the day is

going to come where he's going to get
out.

I feel like that's why I sometimes wish
the sentencing was longer, because I

don't want to come to that day.

But I know it's going to happen.

At the sentencing hearing, you were able
to give a victim impact statement.

Can you tell me a little bit about that
experience and why you decided to do

that? I wanted to have the last word.

I didn't want him to think he broke me
because I hadn't been heard for so many

years, and finally he had to sit there
and listen to me. So I felt like I

finally found my voice again by walking
up there and speaking.

Rod, I hope you make your mental life a
priority during this time of isolation.

Thank you for the gift of my children,
and my heart aches for the fact you'll

missing out on first dates.

Homecomings, proms, the hormonal changes
into adults, graduations, Christmas

morning, driver's licenses, college
acceptance letters, first apartments,

jobs, proposals, weddings, and the
potential birth of our grandkids and so

others.

But what disheartens me more is not only
are we missing these milestones, but

I'll have to look into Amelia and
Mason's eyes as each of these milestones

place.

and see the want and the desire for
their father to have been there.

Our kids know what happened that night
you attacked me.

We didn't ask for this, Rod.

Why didn't you let me help you when I
begged and pleaded to be better for our

family? It's time to let you go and lay
you down to rest.

Goodbye, Rod.

Once I stepped off the podium, I felt
empowered that some weight was lifted

my shoulders.

I get it.

I really do.

All the way up until a few years after
the incident, I still believed some of

the things that Rod had told me, the
kind of person I was.

I had to, like, reprogram my brain.

She grew up with him, and I think it's
hard because what she had known of was

normal for 20 years of her life was
really manipulation and gaslighting at

finest. It's a lot of trauma.

I feel the trauma.

There's stages you have to go through.
It took me a few years to get to the

point that I realized I needed a little
bit extra help to cope with the

situation.

Morgan went to counseling. She went to
therapy.

She went to a PDSV rehab facility for
six weeks or so.

She did everything and continues to do
everything she can to be the most

healthiest version of herself.

Morgan has grown and evolved by being
more self -aware and not having to find

protector and realizing that she can be
her own protector and that she doesn't

need anybody.

There's so many different aspects.

I hope people can learn from my story.

Mental health awareness, narcissistic
abuse and signs.

And my biggest one is, as women, we need
to learn to speak to each other and not

sugarcoat everything.

Because had maybe I spoke up a little
bit more, I may have gotten the help

earlier.