A series of menacing emails, stunning accusations and a jaw-dropping twist are all part of a years-long legal saga involving a California woman who spent months in jail before police learned she had been framed.
The saga surrounding Michelle Hadley is the subject of the new Netflix true crime documentary “A Toxic Love Story,” which begins streaming on July 23. Hadley appears in the film to share her ordeal.
The Anaheim resident went from spending nearly three months in jail to being vindicated after investigators found she was framed in a scheme perpetrated in 2016 after she ended a two-year relationship with a U.S. marshal.
In a 2017 interview on TODAY, she called the situation “horrifying.”
“It is really like your worst nightmare coming true,” she said.
Here’s what to know about the case and how Hadley is doing now.
A Breakup Followed by Threatening Emails
A 2017 news release by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office details Hadley’s ordeal and its shocking turn.
In 2013, Hadley began dating Ian Diaz, a U.S. marshal she had met on a dating website.
The two purchased a condominium together after a whirlwind romance, but the relationship soured in August 2015, resulting in Hadley moving out.
Diaz then got married to his wife, Angela Diaz, in February 2016 after meeting her on the same dating website. In May 2016, Angela said she was pregnant with twins, per the news release.
On June 1, 2016, Ian and Angela Diaz made a stunning accusation to the Anaheim Police Department: someone with the online handle “LilithisTruth” had been sending Angela emails threatening to have her raped and attaching graphic images of dead and decapitated bodies and aborted fetuses. The couple said the anonymous emailer was Hadley.
Angela and Ian Diaz.Courtesy of Netflix
Angela Diaz also claimed that Hadley was impersonating her online and soliciting men on Craigslist to come to Diaz’s home to engage in a “rape fantasy” with her.
Angela Diaz called 911 on June 24, 2016, and reported that a man tried to rape her in the garage of the condo. She greeted police with a ripped shirt and redness on her neck and breast area.
Hadley said on TODAY in 2017 that she had never met Diaz before the accusations and “had no idea who she was, and out of the blue, I’m getting a restraining order from her.”
What Happened to Michelle Hadley?
Hadley, who was a 29-year-old graduate student at the time, was arrested by police on June 24, 2016, and was bailed out the following day, according to the 2017 news release by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Angela Diaz claimed that the emails and rape solicitation fantasies stopped when Hadley was in custody, but resumed after she made bail. On July 13, Anaheim police intercepted a 17-year-old boy outside Diaz’s home who admitted to thinking the Craigslist ad for a “rape fantasy” was real.
A day later, an arrest warrant for Hadley was issued, charging her with felony stalking with a restraining order, stalking, criminal threats, attempted rape, assault with the intent to commit rape during a residential burglary, violating a protective order, and a crime-bail-crime enhancement. The charges carried a potential life sentence in prison, and she was held in jail on $1 million bail while proclaiming her innocence.
Michelle Hadley.Courtesy of Netflix
“I got the sense that (police) did not want to hear my side of the story,” Hadley said on TODAY in 2017.
At the time, police based their charges against Hadley on the fact that religious tones used in the emails were similar to emails Hadley had sent Ian Diaz after their breakup in 2015, plus the fact that real men were showing up to Diaz’s condo due to the Craigslist ad. In addition, the emails contained Hadley’s verified email address and other personal facts, and the police also had the report from Angela Diaz’s 911 call claiming she was attacked.
“We believe our actions were appropriate based on the evidence that was known to us at the time,” the Anaheim Police Department said in a statement to TODAY in 2017.
Hadley communicated to third parties at the time that she believed she was being set up.
A Stunning Twist and Shocking Arrest
An investigation by the Anaheim Police Department led to an eye-opening revelation: Angela Diaz had been the one sending the emails to herself in order to frame Hadley.
In January 2017, Angela Diaz was charged with two counts of kidnapping, two counts of false imprisonment, perjury, two counts of forgery, two counts of possession of forged instrument, grand theft, one misdemeanor count of filing a false report with an agency and 21 misdemeanor counts of filing a false police report, according to a news release by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Hadley was exonerated of all her charges after spending 88 days in jail. She was released on Oct. 7, 2016.
“It is often said that true life is stranger than fiction. The facts of this case make that statement spot on,” the district attorney’s office said in the news release. “When a person who has committed a crime gets arrested and charged, that’s a bad day! But when someone who is innocent gets arrested and charged with some crime, that’s not just a bad day — it’s a nightmare!”
Diaz was accused of pretending to be Hadley and sending the threatening emails and rape fantasy solicitations to herself. The investigation found that the emails originated from the condominium Diaz shared with her husband, plus her cell phone and her father’s home in Arizona.
The investigation also uncovered unrelated fraudulent activity by Diaz, including faking cervical cancer, pretending to be an attorney, forging doctor’s notes, faking a pregnancy and impersonating another one of her husband’s ex-girlfriends over email, according to the news release.
Angela Diaz was sentenced to five years in state prison in California in October 2017 after pleading guilty to felony kidnapping, false imprisonment by menace, fraud or deceit, forgery, perjury, grand theft and misdemeanors for falsely reporting a crime, according to a news release by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
“It is unfathomable why Ms. Diaz would concoct such a diabolical scheme to hurt an innocent person,” District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said in a statement in the 2017 news release. “Even while pleading guilty, Diaz showed no remorse, compassion, or empathy for the victim.”
Five Years Later, Another Arrest in the Case
The guilty plea from Angela Diaz was not the end of the story.
At the time that local police departments were investigating Angela Diaz in 2017, the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (DOJ-OIG) Cyber Investigations Office opened an investigation against Ian Diaz, who was a U.S. marshal.
Federal investigators found that Ian Diaz collaborated with his wife on the email hoax and the calls to law enforcement to frame Hadley, according to a 2023 news release by the DOJ-OIG. The investigation also found that Ian Diaz took steps to conceal their actions, including using falsely registered email accounts, virtual private networks and encrypted messaging services.
More than five years after the attempt to frame Hadley, Ian Diaz was arrested in 2021 on multiple charges. In March 2023, he was convicted by a jury of one count of conspiracy to commit cyberstalking, one count of cyberstalking, one count of perjury and one count of obstructing a federal proceeding.
In June 2023, Ian Diaz was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison and three years of supervised release for his role in the hoax, according to a news release by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General.
The mystery of why Ian Diaz took part in the frame attempt on Hadley is examined in the Neftlix documentary but remains unclear.
During his federal trial, prosecutors said he did it as part of a twisted plot to force Hadley to walk away from the condo they bought together, according to NBC News.
“To me, it’s about the condo, because otherwise, what threat am I? I was out of the picture,” Hadley said on TODAY in 2017.
Neither Ian nor Angela Diaz participated in the Netflix documentary.
Where Is Michelle Hadley Now?
Hadley filed a civil lawsuit against the Anaheim Police Department and four of its officers in 2018, alleging that they rushed to charge her.
“The Anaheim Police Department and its officers abdicated their duties to adhere to investigative norms, instead conspiring to do the bidding of a corrupt federal marshal,” the lawsuit said, according to NBC News. “They appear to have willingly become Ian Diaz’s weapon in his tortious campaign to ruin the life of his ex-girlfriend, plaintiff Michelle Hadley.”
Hadley made similar claims in her 2017 interview on TODAY.
“I believe that the police had enough information available to them before they arrested me the first time to know it wasn’t me doing it,” she said.
Michelle Hadley spoke out in “A Toxic Love Story.”Courtesy of Netflix
Hadley accepted a settlement from the city of Anaheim for an undisclosed amount in April 2021, according to Courthouse News.
Attorneys for the city of Anaheim said in court documents that the officers had probable cause to believe Hadley was behind the attacks at first, per Courthouse News.
After the winding legal saga culminated with Ian Diaz’s conviction by a federal jury in 2023, Hadley shared a statement with NBC News.
“I am so grateful to the (Justice Department Office of Inspector General) for the work they put into this case and to the jury for a conviction that has brought so much peace to my family and restored some of the faith we lost in the justice system as a result of Diaz’s crimes against me,” she said.
On the same day Ian Diaz was convicted in 2023, Hadley gave birth to a baby girl.
“My life has been filled by strange, often symbolic, and sometimes beautiful coincidences like this,” Hadley told NBC News. “My daughter represents my rainbow after a very long storm, and my heart has never felt so full.”
