In the summer of 2016, Michelle Hadley was living what she thought was a clean break from a failed engagement. She had moved out of the Anaheim condo she shared with Ian Diaz, sent a few angry emails, and tried to move on. What she did not know was that Diaz and his new wife, Angela Connell, were building a case to put her in prison.
The Setup
Prosecutors initially believed Hadley, then 29, was behind a campaign of terror against Connell. Threatening emails arrived from an account called "Lilithistruth." Someone had posted Connell's photos on Craigslist and answered rape fantasy ads in her name. Then Connell told police a masked intruder had attacked her in the garage, shoving her against a wall and choking her.
Hadley was arrested that night. She spent 88 days in Orange County jail facing 10 felony counts, including attempted rape, on $1 million bail. She told investigators she was innocent. Nobody listened.
The Unraveling
The truth emerged in pieces. Detectives discovered Connell had sent the emails to herself using VPNs and proxy servers. She had fabricated the pregnancy she claimed to be carrying. She had faked cancer in the past and lied about being a lawyer. Orange County Deputy District Attorney called her "a serial con artist."
But the deeper betrayal came from Diaz. As a U.S. Marshal, he had access to tools and credibility that made the frame job possible. DOJ investigators found fragments of the "Lilithistruth" emails on his government laptop. He had helped Connell craft the scheme, prosecutors said, in part to keep the condo he and Hadley had bought together.
The Aftermath
Connell pleaded guilty in October 2017 to 10 felony charges including kidnapping, false imprisonment, and perjury. She received five years in prison and showed no remorse at sentencing, according to District Attorney .
Diaz fought the charges at trial but a federal jury convicted him in March 2023 of conspiracy to commit cyberstalking, cyberstalking, perjury, and obstruction. He is now serving a 10-year sentence at FMC Fort Worth in Texas, with a release date of January 31, 2031.
Hadley, now 39, sued the city of Anaheim and settled for an undisclosed amount in 2021. She returned to her MBA studies at Chapman University, went back to work, started dating again, and gave birth to her daughter on the exact day Diaz was convicted. "Ian got everything he wanted," she says in the Netflix documentary A Toxic Love Story. "But it actually cost him his freedom."
Connell has moved away from California and declined to participate in the documentary, which is now streaming on Netflix.