Michelle Hadley spent 88 days in jail for crimes she didn’t commit — and now, nearly a decade later, she’s telling her story on her own terms.
Hadley is the subject of Netflix’s July 2026 documentary A Toxic Love Story, which unpacks how her ex-boyfriend Ian Diaz and his new wife, Angela Connell (previously Angela Diaz), orchestrated an elaborate scheme to frame her for stalking and attempted rape in 2016. Following the film’s release, Hadley has opened up about the “red flags” she missed in her whirlwind romance with Ian — and how her reality has changed since the ordeal.
Here’s everything to know about Hadley and the case that turned her life upside down.
Inside Michelle Hadley’s Relationship With Ian Diaz
Hadley and Diaz met online in 2013 and quickly became serious. Their romance moved so fast that the pair bought a condo together, with Hadley paying the $15,000 down payment on the $500,000 mortgage.
Looking back, Hadley now sees the speed of their relationship as the first major warning sign.
“I’m much older, much wiser, and there were a few things that I realized. One is how quickly the relationship progressed,” she told USA Today in a July 23, 2026, interview. “This is something I tell everyone now when people ask me for my advice. I say, ‘Always slow down the early stages of dating because people like Ian thrive on speed, because speed doesn’t give you enough time to think and to assess and to evaluate and even check in with yourself.’”
Hadley described Diaz’s approach as “love bombing” — and said his treatment of women in general should have been another red flag.
“The other thing is you should really be evaluating if the person sitting across from you, especially if you’re a woman dating a man, has a level of respect for the opposite sex,” she said. “Pay really close attention to how they talk about women in general.”
She recalled that Diaz spoke about women — including his female friends and even his own mother — “in a derogatory way” and would “objectify women.” One friendship in particular, with a woman named Leslie who appears in A Toxic Love Story, stood out in retrospect.
“He would come back from the time he spent with Leslie and do nothing but say negative things about her. I never had any jealousy about their relationship because, for me, I was seeing the flip side of it, which I don’t think she ever saw, to be honest,” Hadley said. “In retrospect, I look back, and I realized what a huge red flag that was. Because here’s someone who was supposedly his closest friend, and yet he was turning around and saying negative things about her behind her back.”
She noted Diaz did the same with his mother. “He would say negative things about her. A lot of it centered around appearance and looks,” she added.
How Michelle Hadley Was Framed
Hadley and Diaz split in August 2015. Just months later, in February 2016, Diaz married Connell.
By May 2016, the newlyweds told police they were receiving threatening messages from an anonymous email account called “Lilithistruth” — and they pointed the finger at Hadley. The couple called 911 on June 13, 2016, insisting Hadley was behind the harassment.
Eleven days later, on June 24, 2016, Connell called 911 again with a far more alarming claim: a man had come to the couple’s home and attempted to rape her in the garage. When police arrived, they found Connell with her shirt torn and red marks across her body.
Hadley was arrested that same month and charged with felony counts of attempted forcible rape and stalking. She would spend 88 days in jail.
But the story the Diazes told police didn’t hold up. Investigators eventually determined that Ian and Angela had fabricated the entire plot to pressure Hadley into surrendering her share of the condo. Digital forensics revealed the “Lilithistruth” accounts were created by Angela herself. The couple had also set up multiple online accounts in Hadley’s name and posted “rape fantasy” ads on Craigslist, resulting in several men arriving at their home in what investigators later called elaborate “hoax sexual assault” setups. Device logs and IP addresses further contradicted the Diazes’ version of events.
All charges against Hadley were dropped in January 2017, and she was released from custody.
What Happened to Ian Diaz and Angela Connell?
Connell was arrested in January 2017, the same month Hadley walked free. She pleaded guilty to 10 felony counts in October 2017 and was sentenced to five years in prison. She has since been released.
Diaz’s arrest took considerably longer. He wasn’t taken into custody until May 2021, when he was hit with federal charges of cyberstalking, conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and perjury. He was found guilty on all counts and is currently serving a sentence of 10 years and one month.
Diaz and Connell have since divorced.
Michelle Hadley’s Lawsuit Against Anaheim
In 2018, Hadley sued the city of Anaheim and four police officers, alleging they mishandled the investigation and accused her of horrific crimes based on emails that had clearly been doctored.
She accepted an undisclosed settlement from the city in April 2021, the same year Diaz was finally arrested.
Where Is Michelle Hadley Now?
At the time she was being framed, Hadley was working toward her MBA at Chapman University. She has since returned to school and focused her energy on her career and personal life.
Hadley is now a single mother — and in a stunning twist of timing, she gave birth to her daughter on the same day Ian was convicted.
“Raising this beautiful little girl is my fairy tale ending,” she said in A Toxic Love Story.
Though Hadley has largely kept her life private in the years since her ordeal, she chose to participate in the Netflix documentary to share her story in her own words — offering both a warning and a measure of closure after a case that stole nearly three months of her freedom and years of her life.
A Toxic Love Story is streaming now on Netflix.
This story was compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists.
