By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2026-07-21 15:26:18 | Updated at 2026-08-09 07:23:03
2 weeks ago
It's the twisted story of a vindictive US Marshal and the fantasist wife who helped him carry out an extraordinary revenge plot against his ex-girlfriend.
The tale of Michelle Hadley, her ex-boyfriend Ian Diaz and his wife Angela scandalized their wealthy Los Angeles suburb when it first became public in 2016.
As detailed in a new Netflix documentary, Hadley spent 88 days behind bars, facing serious charges, after police were duped into believing she had orchestrated a campaign of cyberstalking, death threats, and even a Craigslist 'rape fantasy' attack on her ex-boyfriend's new wife.
But two law enforcement investigations would later uncover a more shocking truth: the entire plot had been fabricated by her veteran US Marshal ex-boyfriend and the woman he had married weeks after their breakup.
Investigators would also learn Ian had manipulated his new wife into helping him carry out the elaborate plot.
Angela Diaz, 41, was eventually imprisoned for five years and Ian, now 47, for 10 years for his role in the scheme.
According to true-crime documentary A Toxic Love Story, which premieres on July 22, investigators concluded the revenge plot stemmed from Ian's obsession with controlling the woman who dared to leave him.
Meanwhile, Angela had her own history of deception, having once faked a cancer diagnosis when she was with a previous boyfriend.
Michelle Hadley wrongfully spent 88 days behind bars in 2016 before police realized disturbing cyberstalking claims against her were bogus. Courtesy of Netflix
As detailed in a new Netflix documentary, Hadley's ex-boyfriend Ian and his new wife Angela Diaz (pictured) were behind the fake account posing as her to send themselves 'harassing and threatening messages'
The convoluted story began in 2013 when Hadley began dating Ian, who she fell in love with through their shared love of Disneyland.
In 2015 they bought a condo together in Anaheim, California, because they could see the fireworks from the theme park from their balcony.
But in an interview for the documentary, Hadley claims that Ian turned from a 'wholesome boy' into a 'sex-obsessed fiend' who allegedly wanted her to sleep with another man to fulfill his fantasy.
Hadley, who described herself as straight-laced and naive, reluctantly agreed to it to get it out of Ian's system, she said.
In tears she tells the documentary: 'I remember feeling like a beautiful part of me had died because, this part of myself that had existed outside of all this ugliness in the world and he just f***ing killed it.'
According to Hadley, Ian's behavior continued to get worse and he would tell Hadley to dress in certain ways - even picking outfits for her to wear.
If she veered off her usual route going to work, she claimed Ian would call and demand to know where she was.
For months Hadley went along with it, even when Ian installed security cameras inside of their condo to monitor her.
Hadley began dating Ian in 2013 and the pair bought a condo together in Anaheim, California. Facebook photo
Hadley spent 88 days in jail and was falsely accused of kidnapping, false imprisonment and falsely reporting a crime to a police officer amongst others, all of which she denied
After Hadley finally broke up with Ian, he barraged her with texts and threats.
'His endgame was a way to keep the condo and destroy my life at the same time,' Hadley said.
Ian's burning anger at Hadley would, according to police, lead to an extraordinary campaign of revenge against her.
But it was Hadley who'd fall under investigation by the Anaheim police department first.
Four months after the breakup, Ian was living in the condo on his own and met his new girlfriend, Angela, at a Starbucks in Anaheim.
After a whirlwind three week romance, Ian proposed because she was 'everything I ever wanted in a woman,' he later told police.
Angela moved into Ian's condo and soon claimed she was pregnant with twins - a story investigators would later discover was yet another fabrication.
But in May 2016 their life appeared to take a dark turn: Angela claimed she began getting disturbing emails from someone calling themselves 'Lilithistruth'.
The new true crime documentary - which premieres on Netflix on July 22, features bodycam footage from a police visit to Ian and Angela's home after they complained about Hadley. Photo courtesy of Netflix
Ten years on, Hadley appears on the documentary and shares how her decision to dump Ian ultimately led to an extraordinary campaign of revenge against her. Photo courtesy of Netflix
The name Lilith appeared to refer to the feminine figure in mythology who was said to have been Adam's first wife before Eve and committed adultery with Satan.
The messages said things like: 'You must be gone', 'You have not heeded my warnings' and 'Watch your back'.
Soon the messages became more menacing with messages like: 'Ian does not love you' and saying Angela had 'stolen my treasured home', apparently referring to the condo.
Ian and Angela called the police multiple times to their house and obtained a restraining order against Hadley, but the messages continued.
Accompanied by pictures of dead fetuses, they read 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.
After their scheme unraveled, Ian was arrested in May 2021 and was convicted and sentenced to 10 years and a month in 2023 for conspiracy to commit cyberstalking, cyberstalking, perjury and obstruction of justice. Photo courtesy of Netflix
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.'
As police later discovered, it was actually Ian responding to Rick and inviting him to his house to potentially 'rape' his own wife. The goal was to frame Hadley as a cyberstalker when she was innocent.
On the agreed night, Rick drove to Ian and Angela's house but got scared off when he saw Ian's name on the doorbell.
Ian and Angela also tried reporting this episode to Anaheim police, but it still wasn't enough to get Hadley arrested.
What finally forced the hand of the cops was when Angela pretended she was physically threatened in her garage, one of the most outrageous lies of the whole plot.
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 crocodile tears, 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.
During her interview with police, Hadley admitted to sending Ian two emails under the name 'Lilithistruth' in the past.
But that was it and Ian took the name and the tone as inspiration for his own twisted campaign of revenge against her.
While Hadley was still in jail, Ian suddenly turned on Angela for reasons the documentary does not explain.
Angela Diaz also feigned to police that she had been physically threatened in her garage
A mark on the wall where Diaz said she was attacked (pictured) later emerged to be a makeup stain
Late one night Ian called a close friend of his, who is only identified in the documentary as 'Leslie', to reveal that Angela was lying about being pregnant with twins.
The ultrasound image she had shown him was fake, Ian told her.
Ian and Leslie went to police and told them they had found bags of fake pregnancy tests with the lines drawn in blue pen to make it look like Angela was expecting.
Speaking in the documentary, Leslie said she began to ask herself, 'What's really happening? Holy s**t. Did any of these emails actually come from Michelle? Is it possible Angela sent all of these emails to herself?'
In truth, that's what Ian wanted her and the police to believe, the documentary makes clear.
In a bald-faced lie, Ian told the police he had been 'sleeping with the enemy the entire time,' referring to his wife.
Angela was charged with 10 felony counts, pleaded guilty and was jailed for five years in 2017.
In 2017, Diaz was charged with 10 felony counts, pleaded guilty and sentenced to five years
At her sentencing, prosecutors said that even though she pleaded guilty, Angela showed 'no remorse, compassion, or empathy for the victim.'
That wasn't a surprise to Angela's ex-boyfriend Jason Rayburn, who met her in 2013, three years before she began seeing Ian.
He tells the film that a few months after they began dating, Angela claimed she had stage four cervical cancer, a lie he believed completely.
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 culled from Google images.
Her 'cancer' was actually a con, according to Rayburn.
He confronted Angela who denied she was a liar but for Rayburn, there was no doubt she was a fantasist.
'There's so much deception and dishonesty,' he tells the documentary.
Three years before Angela would help pull off an even more elaborate scam on Hadley, Rayburn was already asking himself: 'What is this woman capable of?'
It took until 2021 for Ian to be arrested on federal charges of cyberstalking, conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and perjury.
Jason Higley, a Department of Justice Special Agent who investigated the case, said that Hadley telling him about how controlling Ian had been during their relationship became the spark for him to take another look at the case.
During the investigation, police would discover Angela had a history of deception of her own - previously faking a cancer diagnosis to her ex-boyfriend Jason Rayburn (pictured together). Photo couresty of Netflix
He reviewed the police bodycam footage from the multiple visits to the Diaz home and concluded that Ian had been coaching Angela about what to say.
Higley noted Ian's 'tremendous animus' towards Hadley, and with the help of a digital forensics team, was able to piece together damning evidence from Ian's laptop.
Files on Ian's work computer showed there were fragments of the Lilithistruth emails in draft form.
Other evidence showed that Ian was the one exchanging messages with Rick, the man who posted on Craigslist about the 'rape fantasy.'
Ian was arrested in May 2021 and was convicted and sentenced to 10 years and a month in 2023 for conspiracy to commit cyberstalking, cyberstalking, perjury, and obstruction of justice. He was also dismissed from his job by the US Marshals service.
According to Higley, Ian's plotting all came down to an obsession with power and control.
'As much as the condo is part of this, and he didn't want to lose his home, to me it boils down to Ian wanting to control someone, wanting to control Michelle,' Higley says in the documentary.
'She got away and that made him angry so he designed this scheme to frame his ex-girlfriend. Angela was a perfect partner, she craved empathy. Angela loved to portray herself as a victim and Ian exploited that.'
Ian, who is now divorced from Angela, sold the condo in 2016 and never gave Hadley back her deposit.
But Hadley, who has since had a baby with her new partner, feels she is the one who came out on top.
She tells the film: 'Ian got everything he wanted - but it cost him his freedom.'
