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A Toxic Love Story brings a startling case back into the zeitgeist.
UPDATE: A Toxic Love Story was originally scheduled to begin streaming on Netflix on Wednesday, July 22, but is now premiering on Thursday, July 23. If you wish to avoid spoilers, stop reading here.
The new Netflix true-crime documentary introduces viewers to Deputy U.S. Marshal Ian Diaz and Angela Connell, who months after meeting in 2016, struck up a relationship, tied the knot, and moved in together in Ian’s condo in Anaheim, California. Plus, Angela was even expecting twins. However, in May 2016, Angela begins receiving threats over email from someone called “Lilithistruth.”
Ian and Angela are quick to point fingers at Michelle Hadley, Ian’s ex-fiancée who he had broken up with four months before meeting Angela, and with whom he shared the condo with. But as the new doc reveals, the truth is much more complicated and alarming.
Curious about the true story behind A Toxic Love Story on Netflix? Who are Ian Diaz, Angela Connell, and Michelle Hadley? Continue reading to learn more.
A Toxic Love Story on Netflix True Story: Who is Michelle Hadley?
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According to the doc, the name of the suspicious sender, “Lilithistruth,” was inspired by “legends that before Eve, Adam had a wife named Lilith” who “committed adultery with Satan and produced a race of evil creatures.” This aligned with the emails Angela was receiving, which had a “biblical undertone” and were “super threatening.” The messages include telling Angela that Ian “does not love” her and that she has “stolen [their] life” and their “treasured home.” Eventually, Michelle was served with a restraining order. However, things only get worse for Angela and Ian.
In June 2016, someone responds to a Craig’s List ad for a “rape fantasy”—specifically, “a home invasion scenario where you’re in bed sleeping”—using pictures of Angela and her information, including her address. However, when the man who put up the ad arrived at Angela and Ian’s condo, he saw Ian’s name on the keypad and fled the scene.
On June 24, 2016, Angela was allegedly choked from behind in her own home by a man wearing a black ski mask. Eventually, Michelle was arrested, and ultimately spent 88 days in jail… before her name was cleared.
A Toxic Love Story on Netflix: Who is Angela Connell?
As the doc progresses, more secrets emerge about Angela. Two people from her past—her ex-boyfriend Jason Rayburn and Mary Bukovskis, a former friend of hers—speak out about their experiences with Angela, who deceived them in more ways than one.
Jason said that when he met Angela in the summer of 2013, she told him that she was an attorney, which turned out to be untrue. Eventually, Angela reveals to him that she had stage 4 cervical cancer. Mary, who said that Angela took an interest in her kids, showed her support for Angela by cutting her hair short in solidarity as she went through treatments. However, she caught on Angela playing with her hat, and realized that she was pushing her hair up under it to conceal it. Jason accompanied Angela to an appointment at the treatment center, but Angela refused to let him go in the room with her.
He learned that in reality, Angela was there to get a mole removed from her ankle. Angela had sent him first-person POV pictures of her receiving chemo, but Jason realized that her face was never in the pictures. He then found the exact picture that she sent him online. He decided to host an intervention for Angela at his home to confront her. After Mary, who was in attendance, asked Angela to show them her chemo port, she dodged doing so.
Angela’s lies continued with Ian, who discovered that the sonogram of the twins she was allegedly expecting was fake. Ian and his friend Leslie found ziplock bags with pregnancy tests and blue markers, which she used to deceive him into thinking she had a positive test.
On Jan. 6, 2017, Angela was arrested and pled guilty to all charges, including fraud, false imprisonment and falsely reporting a crime. She received a five-year-long prison sentence and moved away from California, and declined to take part in the doc. Ian annulled his marriage to Angela in April of that year, and the charges against Michelle were dropped. She was released from prison. But as Michelle tells viewers in the doc, “
They didn’t want to talk about the man involved”…
A Toxic Love Story on Netflix: Who is Ian Diaz?
Leslie, Ian’s friend who we meet at the start of the doc, turns out to be quite the unreliable narrator. Ian’s role as a Deputy U.S. Marshal—which involves him transporting inmates from prison to prison and protecting federal judges—proves to be his downfall, as Department of Justice Special Agent Jason Higley takes another look into Ian’s case because he works for the DOJ. As Higley explains to viewers in the documentary, Ian appears to be coaching Angela in the bodycam footage taken after police were called to their home.
We also learn more about Ian from Michelle, who shared that early on in their relationship, had called her during her break at work and said that his fantasy was to watch her have sex with another man, and even started sending her profiles of people on Craig’s List who he wanted them to do this with. After they got engaged, Michelle noticed that Ian started asking her to change things about herself, like getting fake nails and picking out her outfits. He also picked up on when she drove outside of her typical work route, and had installed cameras inside of their condo.
As Michelle recalled, Ian once angrily made her get out of the car when they were driving one night, and proceeded to take the ring off her finger, and tell her that she will not get it back until she can learn how to behave herself. After Michelle had enough, she snuck out while Ian was talking to Leslie, and drove away to her parents’ house. Ian started sending her text messages indicating that he knew where she was, calling her “the C-word” and telling her that she will regret this. Her parents got dragged in as well, after they started getting notified that background checks had been done on them. Michelle wrote a couple of very angry emails to Ian, which Higley and the DOJ “suspected Ian seized on” in order to “mimic” Michelle while crafting emails as “Lilithistruth.”
The DOJ tracked down Rick, the man who listed the Craig’s List “rape fantasy” ad. While watching the bodycam footage back, Higley saw that Ian hit Rick’s listing immediately when searching for it online, which would be nearly impossible. Higley determined that Ian used his position as a Deputy U.S. Marshal to “play-act” and convince the Anaheim Police Department that he was credible. The DOJ also found fragments of an email sent by “Lilithistruth” on Ian’s DOJ laptop.
On May 13, 2021, Ian was arrested, and was ultimately found guilty on all counts against him, which according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General, included one count of conspiracy to commit cyberstalking, one count of cyberstalking, one count of perjury, and one count of obstructing a federal proceeding. He was sentenced to 121 months and three years of supervised release, a which he is currently serving in Texas. He also was dismissed by the US Marshals Service in 2023, the year that he was convicted.
As for Michelle, she never got her down payment on the condo back. Ian had sold it in 2016, while Michelle was in prison. After being exonerated of all charges, Michelle “successfully sued the Anaheim Police Department and was awarded significant damages in 2021,” per the documentary. Coincidentally, Michelle gave birth to her daughter on the same day that Ian was convicted.
“My life has been filled by strange, often symbolic, and sometimes beautiful coincidences like this,” she shared in a statement to NBC News at the time. “My daughter represents my rainbow after a very long storm, and my heart has never felt so full.”
A Toxic Love Story hits Netflix on Thursday, July 23.
