A woman who lost months of her life in jail for crimes she did not commit is speaking out about the chilling scheme she says was orchestrated by her former fiancé and his new wife.
Michelle Hadley, now 39, was taken into custody in July 2016 after being accused of cyberstalking and threatening her ex, Ian Diaz, and his wife, Angela Connell. The allegations were so serious that Hadley spent 88 days behind bars and was facing the possibility of life in prison.
Investigators later uncovered a stunning twist: Angela had allegedly authored the threatening messages herself and had even impersonated a victim in a Craigslist “rape fantasy” advertisement.
Prosecutors dropped the case against Hadley, and Angela was sentenced to prison in January 2017.
Still, federal investigators remained unconvinced that Angela had acted alone. After a years-long probe, they concluded Ian had also played a role in the plot.
Ian was arrested in 2021 and later convicted of stalking, perjury and obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The case is revisited in Netflix’s new documentary, A Toxic Love Story, which debuted on July 23 and lays out the disturbing campaign that upended Hadley’s life.
But while the film explores the shocking frame-up, several important details from the case did not make it into the documentary.
Michelle Hadley, now 39, was arrested in July 2016 for allegedly cyberstalking and threatening her ex Ian Diaz and his wife Angela Connell
Ian and Angela made several calls to law enforcement in Anaheim, California beginning in May 2016, claiming Hadley was sending Angela threatening messages from an account titled LilithIsTruth
Hadley opened up about her false imprisonment in a Netflix documentary ‘A Toxic Love Story’
The documentary details how Ian and Angela made several calls to law enforcement in Anaheim, California, beginning in May 2016, claiming Hadley was sending Angela threatening messages from an account titled LilithIsTruth.
The disturbing messages included: ‘You must be gone,’ ‘You have not heeded my warnings’ and ‘Watch your back.’
They soon became even more menacing with messages like: ‘Ian does not love you’ and saying Angela had ‘stolen my treasured home,’ apparently referring to the condo Hadley had bought with Ian while they were together.
As the messages continued, the couple obtained a restraining order against Hadley.
Yet the Diazes claimed they continued to receive messages – this time accompanied by pictures of dead fetuses, reading things like: ‘Drop the restraining order or you will continue to suffer’ and: ‘We will steal your child and watch as it dies’.
Another read: ‘You will die tonight while someone rapes you.’
Then in June 2016, the case took a dramatic turn when Ian claimed that Hadley had posed as Angela to respond to a post on Craigslist asking for a woman to help act out a rape fantasy.
The post had said: ‘I am looking for women who have fantasies about being raped or forced to perform.
‘I’ve done this before with a couple of ex-girlfriends and found it very intense and exciting’.
The man who posted it, who is identified in the film as ‘Rick’, says that he got a message from someone with the username, ‘Lilithistruth’, inviting him over.
Angela Diaz had claimed she had been physically threatened in her garage
Angela was ultimately arrested in January 2017, and pleaded guilty to charges including fraud, false imprisonment and falsely reporting a crime
The response he got read: ‘I’ve been dying to have a rape fantasy occur while walking my dog, following me home, dragging me upstairs to the bed.
‘I am 30, tall, gorgeous and ready,’ followed by Angela’s full address.
The message went on: ‘Even if I scream, don’t stop.’
Angela later claimed she was physically threatened in her garage.
In the police bodycam footage from when detectives visited the condo, Angela pointed to a black mark on the wall and said it was a makeup stain from when a figure with a black ski mask over his face grabbed her.
Crying, she told the officers: ‘I just didn’t know what was happening. He grabbed me, he had me pinned by the hair at the neck. He told me, now you’re gonna get it, you’re finally going to get raped.’
Angela and Ian both blamed Hadley, who was finally arrested by the police on felony stalking charges that could have sent her to prison for life if convicted.
The new true crime documentary features bodycam footage from a police visit to Ian and Angela’s home after they complained about Hadley. Photo courtesy of Netflix
But while she was in prison, law enforcement began to suspect something more was going on – and that Angela may have sent the threatening emails to herself and lied about the attempted rape.
They soon learned that Angela had previously lied to an ex-boyfriend, Jason Rayburn, about being diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.
Rayburn describes in the documentary how Angela insisted on going to her chemotherapy ‘appointments’ alone until one day Rayburn insisted on accompanying her, and was shocked to find it was for removing a mole.
Then Rayburn, a California highway patrol officer, got another shock: he claimed an image that Angela had sent him supposedly of her hospital room during chemotherapy was pulled from Google images.
That is when he said he realized her cancer was a lie.
She had also allegedly lied to him about being pregnant with twins, showing him a fake sonogram and doctored pregnancy tests.
Angela was ultimately arrested in January 2017, and pleaded guilty to charges including fraud, false imprisonment and falsely reporting a crime.
She was then sentenced to five years in prison, and by April 2017, Ian had his and Angela’s marriage annulled.
Hadley was released from prison after 88 days and was cleared of all charges
Still, Department of Justice Special Agent Jason Higley said he continued to have suspicions.
He then reviewed body camera footage from Angela and Ian’s 911 calls and became convinced that Ian was coaching Angela on what to say.
As he then continued to investigate, Higley said he discovered fragments of a LilithIsTruth email on Ian’s computer that proved he had written at least one of the messages.
It is now believed Ian sought revenge on Hadley, who had paid the down payment on their condo.
After they split, Ian remained at the home and later moved Angela in.
But Higley suggested in the documentary that Ian wanting to keep the condo was only part of Ian’s motive for framing his ex.
‘To me, it boils down to Ian wanting to control someone. He wanted to control Michelle and she got away and that made him angry,’ he claimed.
‘In my view, Angela Connell was a perfect partner because she craved empathy. Angela loved portraying herself as a victim, and Ian exploited that.’
The former US Marshal was then arrested in May 2021, and was later found guilty of stalking, perjury and obstruction of justice and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
He was later dismissed from the US Marshals Service in 2023.
Ian was arrested in May 2021, and was later found guilty of stalking, perjury and obstruction of justice and was sentenced to 10 years in prison
But some key details about the case were noticeably left out of the documentary – including Angela’s larger web of lies detailed in divorce filings, court records and witness statements.
During her criminal case, Angela had also been accused of fabricating major parts of her personal history, including aspects of her education, employment and background, the US Sun reports.
Prosecutors also alleged Angela regularly created false narratives involving pregnancies, illnesses and personal crises which she used to gain sympathy, financial support and gifts.
The documentary also failed to mention how Ian allegedly pressured Michelle into leaving her job as a marketing support manager for a risk services company in Orange County and instead accept a position at Disneyland Resort – even though it would pay $20,000 less.
The career move made Hadley feel more vulnerable in her relationship, she told Buzzfeed News in 2019, saying she believed her then-boyfriend wanted her working at Disneyland because his former colleagues could keep an eye on her.
Hadley said she has now found her happy ending with her young daughter
Hadley went on to sue the Anaheim Police Department, noting that she had argued from the beginning that she had been framed as she denied sending the threatening messages and posts.
She sought more than $25,000 in damages, accusing investigators of overlooking evidence that could have cleared her name and failing to properly investigate whether she had been framed.
Police officials denied any wrongdoing and argued officers had probable cause for the arrest based on the information available at the time.
Still, the city settled the suit with Hadley in 2021 with no admission of liability.
Yet sources told TMZ this week Hadley settled for around $1.8 million.
Two years later, the former inmate gave birth to a daughter on the same day Ian was convicted.
‘Raising this beautiful little girl is my fairytale ending,’ she told the documentary. ‘I think it is “happily ever after.”‘
Meanwhile, Angela was released from prison in 2020 and completed her parole in 2021. She has since founded a nonprofit and now claims that she was ‘wrongfully convicted.’
But Ian remains behind bars to this day as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied his conviction appeal last year.
He is now due to be released on January 31, 2031.
