A Toxic Love Story (2026)

[bunniefuu]

-[birds singing]

-[telephone line dialing]

[suspenseful music playing]

[woman 1] 911. What's your emergency?

[woman 2 breathing heavily]

Somebody came from behind me

and shoved me against my wall

and started to choke me

[sobs] and were telling me

that I'm going to f*cking get it.

[woman 2 hyperventilating]

I tried to move and he grabbed me.

He had me pinned back

by the hair at the neck.

[music turns ominous]

My husband's ex has been threatening

to r*pe, k*ll my child.

[chimes]

the strange and violent stalking case.

Police say a woman used an online ad

to terrorize another woman.

I got another email from her.

[chimes]

She's been at my work.

She knows what I look like.

[ominous music continues]

[man] How do we combat this woman?

What do we do?

[chimes]

[music fades]

[poignant music playing]

[children chattering indistinctly]

[woman 3] I have two wishes.

First wish is

I wish none of this happened.

And my second wish is

[inhales deeply, sighs]

I wish that everyone

would just tell the truth

about the events of this story.

[poignant music continues]

In 2016, Ian and I had been friends

for almost 20 years.

We worked together at Disneyland.

His mom had moved to another state,

so I became his means of support.

I just remember laughing

and having so much fun

any time I was with him.

He's just that guy.

When the opportunity came

for him to apply to be a deputy

with the U.S. Marshals Service,

Ian was thrilled.

The U.S. Marshals represent

the Department of Justice.

He would transport inmates

from prison to prison,

and he was responsible

for protecting federal judges.

So it was an important job.

Ian was, without a doubt,

a person I'd trust with my entire life.

Most people question

the relationship that Ian and I had,

but our friendship was just a friendship

and not a romantic relationship.

So when he met Angela,

nothing made me happier.

Ian always wanted to be married,

and he wanted to have kids.

And he was really excited

that Angela wanted the same things.

We met at the Starbucks in Anaheim.

We just hit it off.

And so she moved into my condo.

[dog barks]

Daphne, do you want to look at the camera?

Oh! Can you look at the camera?

[Ian] The smile alone

The smile was k*ller.

She was just a sweetheart.

Two, three weeks go by,

I proposed to her.

Because she was everything

I ever wanted in a woman.

[music turns pensive]

[Leslie] So within

a few months of meeting,

Ian and Angela are living together,

married, and expecting twins.

[music fades]

And Ian's thrilled

because he's always wanted to be a dad.

-[birds singing]

-[dogs barking]

During this time, we sit down for dinner,

and Ian tells me

that Angela's been receiving these emails

[chimes]

from someone called "Lilithistruth."

[ominous music playing]

They have this biblical undertone.

The nature of them are super threatening.

We had no clue what Lilith was.

Ian and I both had to google it.

[ominous music continues]

There are legends that Adam had a wife

before Eve who was named Lilith.

She was banished from the Garden of Eden

because she did not want

to submit to Adam.

Lilith was an evil, wicked woman

who committed adultery with Satan

and produced a race of evil creatures.

Lilith transformed into an evil demon,

out for revenge to kidnap and k*ll

newborn children in the night.

Ian was really freaked out.

[Ian] Scared the hell out of me.

I had no idea where that came from.

Angela was really upset.

-[car alarm blaring distantly]

-[dogs barking]

[haunting sting plays]

[Leslie] Sometime later, Angela says

she thinks someone has been lurking

outside of the condo.

She couldn't see who it was,

but she felt really uneasy about it.

[ominous music continues]

[chimes]

-[dogs barking]

-[crossing signal beeping]

[dog whines]

[chimes]

Who is doing this?

-[dogs barking]

-[tires screech]

[car engine revving]

[ominous music continues]

Four months before meeting Angela,

Ian had broken up with his ex, Michelle

and it was anything but simple

of a breakup

because he was still living in the condo

that they owned together.

[Ian] I do not hate Michelle.

I have never hated Michelle.

I just wanted her out of my life.

And, unfortunately,

we were tied together by that condo.

And I did want to resolve it.

We were both thinking

the exact same thing, which is

Holy sh*t.

It's Michelle sending the emails.

[chimes]

-Going to the police seemed necessary.

-[music fades]

[male officer] I have

the report from yesterday.

-I'm wondering what happened today.

-Today I got another email from her.

She's been at my work.

She knows what I look like.

She's described

what I dressed in detail last night.

And I'm either safer in my home,

where at least I know that I'm okay,

or I go to work and risk it.

I don't even know her capabilities.

I've never met her.

So I'm dealing with this unknown.

The gal at the sheriff's office said,

"You need to call them out again,

request an emergency protective order."

So, yeah.

[male officer] You understand that

the Emergency Protective Order,

they're typically for domestic violence.

Somebody got arrested,

and the problem is she's not served yet.

It's a criminal threat, but you can't

do anything until you get her.

Awesome. Well, thank you guys so much.

[male officer] You're welcome.

Hopefully, you can

[Leslie] Ian and Angela were worried

because Anaheim PD don't have

enough probable cause to arrest Michelle.

This is still a very new relationship

between Ian and Angela,

and to be going through

something so abnormal,

it's not natural.

-And I felt for them.

-[Ian] I was scared.

I was definitely scared

because I didn't know what she was up to.

So we went to the police department,

and Angela filed a restraining order.

I offered to serve

the restraining order to Michelle.

[ominous music playing]

I was nervous.

You've been served.

But I was really, really hoping that

that would put an end to it

and everything can quiet down.

-[chimes]

-But nothing stopped.

The emails kept coming.

The threats kept coming.

So Ian and Angela call the police again.

[woman] Anaheim Police

Department dispatch.

[Angela] Hi, um, I have

several reports with you guys

over a temporary restraining order.

It was served upon the person

that I need protection from.

She has continued to send

her crazy, threatening, violent,

I'm-gonna-k*ll-you emails.

She actually did it

right after the cops

went to her house in Ontario, served her.

An hour later,

I got another one, and it's insane,

including really graphic photographs.

I was advised by my attorney

to contact you guys once again

to see if she could get arrested

because this has gone on far too long,

and she's obviously violated

the no-contact order.

[woman] Your name is?

[Angela] Angela,

and the last name's Diaz, D-I-A-Z.

[woman] Okay, I'll get them to call out.

[Ian] Come on in, guys.

My name's Ian. This is Angela.

Um

These emails have pictures

of decapitated people,

aborted fetuses, decapitated fetuses.

You guys are the third group

of officers to come here.

-[male officer] Tonight?

-This last week, just this week.

So, restraining order,

and then this is the proof of service.

Okay.

How long have you known her for?

Uh

Two years we were together, um,

and that ended in August, so

I mean, do I know her now? No.

In the time you've known her,

have you ever seen her be violent

or anything like that?

She took a knife

into that bathroom right there

She's crazy.

and told me that she had

a moment where she wanted to k*ll herself.

And she threatened to burn this

m*therf*cker down with both of them in it.

When A week before she left,

she was very emotional

This is August of last year?

Yeah, August of last year,

a week before she left.

Last week of August,

she told me, in a crying fit of rage,

with her eyes wide open

but tears streaming down her face,

it was freaky,

um, that she wished she could burn

this whole m*therf*cker down

with me, you, and the dog in it.

Or the-- I have a Yorkie.

I haven't seen my friends or anybody.

My mom has to come out here.

Everybody's lives have to be halted

for a minute because she's crazy.

[sighs]

[chimes]

[ominous music playing]

[Leslie] Every single day,

every time I would see

Ian's name pop up on my phone,

I thought, "Oh my God, what now?"

[chimes]

And then something unbelievable happened.

Michelle responded

to an ad on Craigslist for fantasy r*pe

with photographs of Angela,

inviting the guy to show up at the condo

to r*pe Angela,

saying, "Come to my house,

and even if I scream, don't stop."

[unsettling music playing]

[Rick] I get this message

from Lilithistruth

saying she's interested

in doing a r*pe fantasy.

She sends me her address in Anaheim

and her pictures,

and she says, "Just show up."

"I'll leave the door open for you,

and pin me down and do whatever you want."

I replied, "I was thinking

about a home invasion scenario

where you would be in your bed sleeping."

"I don't want a neighbor

to see a struggle and call the cops."

[telephone line dialing]

[woman] Anaheim Police.

[Angela] Hi, my name is Angela Diaz,

and I have open cases with Anaheim PD

and a served restraining order

on a person named Michelle Hadley.

She has yet again

violated that restraining order.

I've been receiving emails today from her

saying that she has somebody

that's going to come

attack me and r*pe me.

[woman] We'll send someone out

as soon as we can.

-[music fades]

-[female officer] So what's going on?

My name's Ian.

I'm a U.S. Marshal. Sorry, this is Angela.

-Hi.

-Uh

[Ian] This ex-girlfriend

of mine, Michelle,

she's stating that she's going to have

this guy come over.

She's gonna give him the address,

and come over and

uh, r*pe her and beat her, right?

This is what she wrote to this guy.

"Hi there, I've been dying

to have a r*pe fantasy occur,

watched while walking my dog,

follow me to the door,

force me into the condo,

force me not to scream, drag me upstairs

and take me from behind on the bed."

"If you can fulfil this tonight,

please let me know."

"I am 30, tall, gorgeous, and ready.

My address is" This address.

"I have a Yorkie I walk every night,

say 8:00 p.m.? Come find me."

[unsettling music playing]

[Rick] As I'm parking,

I'm feeling excited.

I'm getting a rush of dopamine,

thinking, "I'm gonna go

and get this done."

[music fades]

But once I got to the building,

I noticed the name Ian Diaz.

And it stopped me cold.

I don't want to be

walking into a situation

where the boyfriend

or the husband doesn't know,

and then I get beat up or m*rder*d.

So I left.

[unsettling music resumes]

[female officer] 224?

I'm 97 and I'm at apartment 2.

Uh, the only description that they have

is that it's a male in dark clothing.

So we have the helicopter up above.

Obviously, make sure

your doors are locked and all that,

and if you think the guy is back,

or he's sending you guys emails,

or he knocks on the door,

give us a call back.

-Thanks very much.

-No problem.

-Sorry about this.

-No worries.

[chimes]

[ominous music playing]

Ian is trying to keep it all together,

but I could hear it in his voice

that there was some deep fear there.

[Ian] At what point

does this girl get arrested

for sending this sh*t and hiring guys

off of Craigslist to r*pe her?

I'm just curious.

[Leslie] Why isn't Michelle in custody?

Or at the very least, being questioned?

[Ian] How do we combat this woman?

What do we do?

Am I supposed to continually

just be in my house all the time?

[Leslie] There was a part of me thinking,

"You need to get the hell out

of this condo."

"You gotta move out."

"It's scorched earth."

[music intensifies]

[vibrating]

[Leslie] By this point,

Ian was feeling incredibly stressed out.

He doesn't know how much more

of these emails he can take.

And then all of a sudden, he says,

"Leslie, you're not gonna believe this."

[woman 1 on radio] This is 587,

be advised, we've fixed the location

[woman 2] 911. What's your emergency?

[Angela breathing heavily]

Somebody came from behind me

and shoved me against my wall

and started to choke me

and were telling me

I'm gonna f*cking get it,

and it's time for me to get r*ped.

[Angela hyperventilating]

[woman 2] Okay.

How many individuals were there?

[Angela] Just one, and he was

wearing a black thing over his face.

-[woman 2] Like a black ski mask?

-[Angela] Yes.

[woman 2] Okay. We have somebody

on the way right now, okay, ma'am?

-[Angela] Okay.

-[woman 2] Okay.

-[indistinct police radio chatter]

-[Angela breathing heavily]

[woman 2] Do you see the officers yet?

[Angela] Yeah, I see.

He's actually right here with me.

[woman 2] He's with you?

[Angela] Yes.

[officer 1] Hey, there.

-Can I turn the light on? That all right?

-[Angela] Yes.

Okay.

Is that your makeup

on the wall right there?

-[Angela] Yes.

-Okay.

I just didn't know what was happening,

and then all he said was--

I tried to move. He grabbed me.

He had me pinned back

by the hair at the neck.

And shoved like that, and he told me,

"Now you're gonna get it.

You'll finally get r*ped."

For about a month, my husband's ex

has been threatening to r*pe,

k*ll my child.

-[officer 2] And what's her name, ma'am?

-The girl is Michelle Hadley.

[officer 2] What wall did

he actually put you up against? Here?

First, it was a knock here. Right here.

-And then here was my face.

-Okay.

If I had to bet,

it's from another Craigslist ad

that this guy showed up, probably.

And she's probably responding to him too,

and didn't send it

to you or somebody else,

so who knows where it went.

She didn't give you a warning.

Here's what'll happen, okay?

I have the warrant in my car,

and I'm going to go out there

and grab her.

-[tense music playing]

-[indistinct police radio chatter]

[siren wailing distantly]

[man 1] Just relax.

I just have a couple of questions.

Some things are going on with you and Ian.

[woman] Yes, I know. Yeah.

[man 1] He made a report with us,

and he brought in some e-mails

that came from you.

[woman] One of which probably sounded

a little crazy, and I do know that, yeah.

[man 1] Okay.

"Lilith is truth."

Do you know anything about that?

What that means or anything?

[woman] No.

[indistinct police radio chatter]

-[car doors slamming]

-[dog barking]

[man 2] We hear a car door slamming.

We got a little dog, starts barking.

When I came out,

there's the two detectives,

and I ask them,

"What's going on out here?"

He says, "We're arresting your daughter."

I say, "What for?"

"What evidence could you possibly have?"

[man 1] Everything right now

is looking like

you have some type

of responsibility for it.

And I just-- I'd like to get

more answers from you.

We're going to place you

into custody right now. Okay?

Okay.

-[tense music continues]

-[indistinct police radio chatter]

[dog barking]

[music fades]

[man 1] Why don't you give us

your full and complete name, please.

[woman] Michelle Suzanne Hadley.

-[man 1] And what's your date of birth?

-[Michelle] 12-20-1986.

[man 1] All right, Michelle,

one of the things you have to keep in mind

is you have to be completely truthful

and candid with us today.

So if we find out

that anything you've said is untrue,

then I can use the statements

you give to us today in trial.

Before I start, though,

you kind of see all these emails here?

-There's a lot of them.

-[Michelle] Yeah.

[man 1] "I've been more than patient.

My patience has come to an end."

And then on the email, September 10,

2015, this is a reference towards Lilith.

"Get ready, the truth is coming."

"God's law is above all laws,

including the law of man."

So did you write this?

[Michelle] Yeah, that was me.

[unsettling music playing]

I don't even really understand

where a lot of it came from

or why I wrote it.

I listened to a lot of sermons growing up,

and so it almost was like

some weird brain dump from childhood.

[man] Who's Lilith?

Educate me.

[Michelle] It's almost like

the alternate persona

of, like, a devil character,

like the female side.

[man] The female side of who?

[Michelle] Of, you know,

I guess like a Satan or a devil character.

[man] So Lilith is the anti-Jesus?

-Or the female side?

-[Michelle] Yeah, I guess so, yeah.

It's hard to explain

because it's not really like

anything else I've ever experienced.

You're just like,

"Okay, like, what did I even do?"

Like, I don't even know what happened.

And I thought, "Oh my God,

I really am losing my mind."

[inhales, sighs]

[man] Let's talk about Ian.

How did you first meet him?

[Michelle] In 2013,

I was doing online dating.

[chiming]

I wanted the white picket fence life.

And then I matched

with this U.S. Marshal named Ian.

[pensive music playing]

So I said yes.

I grew up watching

all of the Disney princess shows on TV,

and I really bought into it,

that if you were a nice girl,

you got your prince at the end.

[whimsical music playing]

I quickly learned

that Ian was really into Disneyland.

He told me he went all the time,

like, multiple times a week. [laughs]

As we're walking around,

he's showing off his knowledge

of how things worked behind the scenes.

And it turns out

he worked there for many years.

[children laughing and chattering]

[Michelle] We were

talking about princesses,

and he told me

his favorite princess was Belle.

That was his type,

and that I was like her.

I had never met someone

who was this into Disney as an adult.

But he told me that some

of his best memories with his dad,

who he did not have

a good relationship with,

were at Disneyland.

I'm thinking, "How sweet."

I love when men are vulnerable,

and it was such a magical environment

that I remember also feeling

a little bit swept away in the moment.

So I was super excited

to do a trip to New York City together

a few months later.

It's very romantic around Christmas.

[whimsical music continues]

Ian was super excited

that we were in New York City.

So he was videoing everything.

I wasn't used to people videoing me,

so I remember feeling

a little bit awkward.

Are you?

-[Ian laughs]

-[laughs]

[Ian] Because you're so cute

when you walk through.

When you're looking at everything,

you're so adorable.

[Michelle] Ian was attentive.

He was sweet. He was thoughtful.

[Ian] Do you want to get a cookie?

I started seeing him

as a really good option

for a long-term relationship.

And so we decided to move in together.

[pensive music playing]

Ian actually brought up

the decision to buy.

And he finds these new construction condos

in downtown Anaheim.

The idea was that I would basically

front the money for the down payment,

then he would help out

with the mortgage payment.

I cleared out my entire savings account,

but I was super happy.

It just seemed like

the natural progression, right?

We're getting engaged.

We're going to need

a place to start our family.

We can literally drive to Disneyland

in, you know, ten minutes.

And, oh my God, we can also see

the fireworks from our balcony.

And that was actually the clincher.

-[crowd exclaiming]

-[music turns eerie]

[Michelle] But then,

once we moved into the condo together,

it felt like everything

took a turn for the worse.

And I just have no idea

how things got to a place

where I ended up literally considered

the craziest woman in Orange County.

A woman is behind bars this morning

in connection with a strange

and violent stalking case.

Michelle Hadley is facing

felony stalking charges

after harassing

her ex-boyfriend's pregnant wife.

[woman on TV] 29-year-old Hadley

used a r*pe fantasy online ad

to send people to her ex-boyfriend's home.

The man's new wife,

who was pregnant, by the way,

was actually attacked by one of the men

who responded to the ad.

[man on TV] They say she routed emails

through different computers and servers,

trying to evade police.

Hadley is being held on $1 million bail.

If convicted,

she faces up to life in prison.

-[Mike] I feel helpless.

-[music fades]

We have no idea what to do.

[ominous music playing]

When we raised our daughters,

one thing I always made clear to them

was you treat everybody

with respect and kindness.

So when they're accusing my daughter

of luring the men

to attack a pregnant woman,

the wife of a U.S. Marshal,

of course, I'm in shock.

[man on TV]

One of the most horrific stories

of mayhem and vengeance I've ever covered.

She could be looking

at upwards of life in prison.

[Mike] I've never

been to a jail in my life.

Michelle's mother, Suzanne,

and I are behind a big glass,

and they bring Michelle up,

and Michelle goes into the cage.

[ominous music continues]

Only really bad offenders go in the cage.

This is the saddest day of our life.

Attempted r*pes, sexual as*ault, stalking,

and harassment.

It looks like she could get

a life sentence for all of this.

Our relatives think she did it.

Our friends think she did it.

But my mind is logical,

which equates into numbers.

It means that two and two is always four,

no matter what.

So when things don't make any sense,

that is not a world that I exist well in.

I would never, ever think

she would be capable of this.

So if Michelle didn't do this,

who's Lilith?

That's the question.

Who is Lilith?

[music turns pensive]

[man] It was in the summer of 2013.

I was in a little bar called Out of Bounds

in Huntington Beach.

I noticed a, uh, really, really

cute blonde, uh, walk through the doors.

She was flashy, she was cute,

you know, she walked with swagger.

She was hot.

I must've mentioned at some point

that I was in law enforcement,

and she said, "I am as well."

"I'm an attorney, and I work

with the Department of Justice."

So we had that in common.

And we exchanged numbers.

She introduced herself as Angie.

Her full name was Angela.

Angela was everything a guy would want

in a girlfriend, all across the board.

She was fun, funny,

kind, energetic, vivacious.

Each day that ticked by,

my feelings for her

got stronger and stronger.

A few months later,

she mentioned she wasn't happy

at her apartment in Irvine,

and I said,

"Well, why don't you just move in here?"

"You're here all the time anyway."

I was falling for her, there's no doubt.

[music turns poignant]

One night we were on the couch.

She divulged that she had cervical cancer,

and the cancer had progressed to stage 4.

I said, "Oh my God.

Okay, we're gonna beat this together."

"I want to be supportive.

I'll go to chemo appointments with you."

"No, no, no, you just work.

I know you need to work."

"You have an important job.

I can get there by myself."

Angela wanted to be strong,

and she wanted to do this herself.

I didn't like it, but I had to accept it.

[woman] I met Angela back in 2014.

She was just very warm and friendly,

and I thought, "Oh my God,

she's interested in my kids."

And anybody who wants to know

about my kids, I instantly love.

When Angela told me that she had cancer,

I could feel her pain. It was palpable.

And finding out so newly in knowing her

that she was sick,

I felt very maternal

and very protective towards her.

She was kind of

an injured bird in some ways,

and who doesn't want

to take care of an injured bird?

[poignant music continues]

Angie would come

to my son's Little League practice,

and we'd sit and just chat.

We would talk about her health,

about her dreams.

She was afraid that she was going to die.

And the more time that I spent with Angie,

I noticed that she got thinner,

that she got more pale.

She was throwing up

all the time from the chemo,

and she says, "I feel uncomfortable."

"I don't think that I'm pretty."

"I don't think Jason's gonna be

attracted to me anymore."

So to show support for Angie,

I cut my hair short

and put it on Facebook,

and I posted

a hashtag "Angie Warrior" on it.

[music fades]

There was one

particular doctor appointment

that Angela was going to,

and so I said,

"I'm going. I'm absolutely going."

I took the time off. I drove her there.

-[pensive music playing]

-[indistinct chatter]

[Jason] When we

got into the doctor's office,

she was adamant, "No, no, no."

She would not let me go in.

And I thought it was so weird and awkward,

and then I started looking around.

Something was wrong,

and I couldn't pinpoint what it was.

I asked the receptionist, you know,

"What kind of, uh

you know,

cancer treatment center is this?"

That's when I discovered

that she was there

to have a mole

that she had on her ankle removed.

I confronted Angela.

She said, "That's part of it."

"I need to get the cancerous mole

removed as well."

That came across

as really, really weird to me.

[music fades]

[Mary] Angela was very upset

because she was losing her hair.

She had her hat on, of course,

and we'd be talking,

and I'd see her go like that.

At first, I thought she was concerned

because she didn't

want us to see she was balding.

[pensive music resumes]

But I'm realizing

she's pushing her hair up.

I didn't want to call her out on that

and be the as*h*le,

but I just had a strong inkling

that she was lying.

I'm thinking,

"This b*tch has more hair than I do."

[pensive music continues]

Angela had text messaged me

her first-person perspective

from sitting in the chair

receiving her chemotherapy.

And I thought,

"Angela's not in this picture."

"Is this real?"

I did this online search.

I had to go through pages

upon pages upon pages.

I decided to call UCI where she said

that she was receiving her chemotherapy.

"Hi, my name's Mary."

"My friend Angie there,

I'm supposed to be picking her up

to take her home."

"She's there getting chemo."

"I have no idea how to find her,

and I can't get a hold of her right now."

"Can you help me?"

They said, "I am so sorry,

but as far as we know,

she's not a patient here."

She specifically was going there.

She'd sent me pictures

from getting chemo there.

[Jason] As I was just about to quit,

that very last page,

I found that exact photograph.

[music crescendos]

[music fades]

Oh my God, what?

It was taken by a guy that was

going through a battle with cancer.

[sighs] Oh, my heart sunk, you know,

all the way to the bottom of my feet.

Then I thought, "How do I get this person

out of my house?"

When I talked to Jason,

he asked me if I would come over

and help pack her sh*t.

[tense music playing]

I realized the journal that I got her,

it had notes scribbled on it

for her medical treatment,

but also it had, like, hearts

and scribbling about Jason.

How bad he would feel when she died,

and she wanted him to go on with his life.

She knew she wasn't dying, so why do that?

Did she want somebody to find it?

Is she that deranged

that she truly believed it?

We found in the bottom drawer,

there was medical tubing and gauze.

So she could make it look like

something was sticking out of a port.

I'm thinking, "f*ck you."

"I don't know what's going on.

You're lying to everybody."

"I don't know what your game is,

but I'm on to you."

[music crescendos, fades]

It was time for a confrontation.

[Jason] I invited everybody in our circle

that she had lied to,

manipulated, to my house.

[Angela] Hi. Life's good.

[Jason] Come on in. Have a seat.

-Welcome.

-Hi!

[Angela] Why is everybody here?

Please have a seat.

[Angela] What are you doing?

Okay. Here's what's going on.

Everybody in this room,

you owe a big, huge apology to.

-[Angela] For what?

-[Jason] Okay, for two things.

One, everybody in this room

is about to know two things.

You're not an attorney.

Yes, I actually am.

I got my law degree. I did.

-[Jason] Okay, and this

-[laughter]

I laughed.

It's like, okay, that's total bullshit.

[Jason] Angela, you don't have cancer.

-Yes, I do.

-[Mary] No, you don't.

How do-- Would you like to speak

with my parents and everybody?

What are you talking about?

[Mary] Let's see your port.

-[Jason] Angela, just sit down.

-Yeah. What Why

-[Jason] Let's talk about some things.

-What are you guys talking about?

[Jason] Would you please just sit down?

-You know

-That's fine.

Again, there's overwhelming proof

that you don't have cancer.

So everybody in this room

has been deceived,

and like I said,

I'm more heartbroken than anything else.

[Mary] I believed you,

and I welcomed you into my home,

and you lied to me.

-You lied to my children.

-I did not lie to you or your children.

-[Mary] Show me your port.

-[Jason] You're the ones that came to me.

[woman] It's in her f*cking arm.

[Mary] Show me your

-Let's see. Show me your port.

-It hurts.

-It f*cking hurts.

-[Mary] Show me your port.

-It really f*cking hurts.

-[Mary] Show me your port.

[Jason] This picture said

"battle juice," right?

[Mary] Unwrap it.

[Jason] Portraying yourself as sitting

in the chair receiving chemotherapy.

Okay. Let's just go.

[Mary] Unwrap-- See?

There's nothing to show.

-You're a f*cking liar.

-[tense chatter]

-[Mary] She's a liar.

-Sorry, but--

-I'm taking her with me.

-[Mary] Unwrap it.

-Then unwrap it.

-I am taking her with me. Right now.

[tense music playing]

[Mary] Show your port!

Show your port, liar!

Show your port!

You're probably even fired!

You probably don't even have a job!

[Jason] After Angela left,

I needed an absolute cutting of that tie.

There's so much deception

and so much dishonesty.

What is this woman capable of?

[music turns ominous]

-[lock clicks]

-[cell door opens]

[Mike] We went and saw Michelle

every time we could in jail.

We're up to 80 days now,

and she's given up hope.

We just want her out of that jail cell.

We lost 70% of our family business

at that point.

[blows raspberry]

Straight into the hole.

Who wants to do business with

the family whose daughter

solicits r*pe fantasies

to attack a pregnant woman?

[music fades]

[portentous music playing]

[Leslie] Ian and Angela had been together

for eight months at this point.

Michelle was finally out of their lives,

and there are twins on the way.

Ian was excited and looking forward

to this new chapter in his life.

[music fades]

But then I am sleeping late at night

[cell phone vibrating]

I get a call somewhere around 2:00 a.m.,

which is never a good feeling.

The first words out of Ian's mouth are

"The twins are not real."

[music turns ominous]

I had to kind of re-- like

get my thoughts together,

and I just said, "What? Wait, what?"

And he said,

"The sonogram of the twins

was fake."

I'm thinking, "What the f*ck?"

You know, Ian confronted Angela.

And Angela was

obstinate in her reply.

"How could you say that?"

"Of course they're real.

What are you talking about?"

But then she left immediately.

[pensive music playing]

Ian and I started to find pregnancy tests

in Ziploc bags with blue markers.

I'm thinking, "Oh, my God."

I thought, "Who is this person?"

Ian and I started to doubt

everything that Angela said

for that entire eight months

of being in Ian's life.

So we told the police everything.

[man] This is, to put it lightly,

a monster of a case.

And our job is to figure it out,

um, to find out who's doing what,

and we appreciate you coming in here

and making a statement.

-[Ian] No problem at all.

-[man] So let's talk about Angela.

You stated that your relationship

with Angela started January 2nd?

[Ian] We met at the Starbucks in Anaheim.

We just hit it off.

She was just a sweetheart.

Everything I ever wanted in a woman.

Everything.

Ian brought everything

that we had found in the condo.

-[man] You have pregnancy tests.

-[Ian] I do.

This was found after she left.

This is the one

that I was shown for the twins.

It's obviously been peed on.

And then I found these two

with a different kind of line in it.

-And then I found three different pens.

-[Leslie] All of these in the same box.

[Ian] And if you can tell

from the side here,

this one's been altered and opened up,

they all have.

-[man] So she drew the line in it.

-[Ian] She drew the line.

[Leslie] Ian explained to the police

the sonogram was fake.

[Ian] This just about

k*lled me, all right.

If you google "fake sonograms,"

that one comes up

at, like, number ten on Google Images.

With other people's names on it.

[music turns ominous]

Ian was disturbed by the whole thing

and sort of at a loss for what to do next.

He was not in a great place.

-[telephone line ringing]

-And he was calling Angela.

[Ian] Hey. I knew you

weren't gonna answer, and that's fine.

I just wanted to leave a message.

You lied about something

very, very severe.

And I think you can understand that.

I think anybody else would too.

I just hope

you're taking care of yourself. Bye.

[telephone line ringing]

It's Ian.

Just trying to give you a call

to see if you were available to talk.

The fact that I even

want to talk to you at this point

probably means I really do love you.

So give me a call.

Love you.

After Angela left, I was starting

to uncover all sorts of wacky stuff.

-[man] She lied about her job?

-[Ian] Yes.

She admitted

that she did not have the job.

It felt like an immense responsibility

to be sure that the police knew

that there was some doubt

now applied to Angela's filings with them

about Michelle's threats

of violence and r*pe.

Because what's really happening?

[dramatic music playing]

Holy sh*t.

Did any of these emails

actually come from Michelle?

Is it possible

that Angela sent all of these emails

to herself?

Holy f*ck.

What really happened in the garage?

Was she attacked in the garage?

Here is Michelle in jail.

And who the hell knows

if that's the right person in jail?

Is Angela the victim

or the perpetrator?

[pensive music playing]

[Ian] Have you talked to Angela at all?

[man] No.

[Ian] Have you tried?

[man] No.

[Leslie] We told the police,

"Please look into this."

"Figure out what's missing.

Go talk to Angela."

-[telephone line ringing]

-[children chattering]

[Cunha] Hey, it's Detective Cunha.

[Angela] Yeah.

[Cunha] Just a couple of questions.

Do you know Jason Rayburn at all?

[tense, pensive music playing]

[Angela] It's a person I dated

a while ago.

[Cunha] Okay.

[Angela] Obviously, much before Ian.

[Cunha] Okay. And then,

did you ever get sick?

Did you ever get sick to the point

where there's talk about you had cancer?

[Angela] There was talk about it.

I went to have

skin cancer biopsies removed,

and I was super stressed out.

[Cunha] Okay, so no chemotherapy

or anything like that?

[Angela] No, absolutely not.

A mindfuck?

[unsettling music playing]

Sorry, but I don't know

if anything that I know about her is true.

[pensive music playing]

[Ian] I can't believe this is happening.

[sighs]

I feel like a f*cking idiot.

[Cunha] Who do you think's responsible?

I think Angela did it all.

[music turns ominous]

When I look at these crazy emails,

and the religious stuff and whatever,

the Lilith stuff,

and the Craigslist and the r*pist,

that could have been Angela.

I leave the house, bam.

All of a sudden, she's attacked.

I tried to move. He grabbed me.

He had me pinned back

by the hair at the neck.

[Ian] She's behind all this.

It seems like I've been sleeping

with the enemy the entire time.

Team 12's Kevin Kennedy joins us

from the Live Alert Center

with a plot twist.

Kev?

[lively news theme playing]

Michelle Hadley spent four months in jail

for a crime she didn't commit.

Police say she was framed

by a vindictive woman

who was willing to take

extraordinary actions to ruin her life.

I started to question

what her motive was.

At some point,

I just remember Angela asking me

about Ian's relationship with Michelle.

She seemed pretty curious

about how that ended.

[ominous music playing]

At one point, Angela looks over at me,

and she's crying.

And she said, "I just feel like

Michelle is always gonna be in our life."

"We're never going to be able to move on

because she will always be a part of it."

[woman on TV] The judge

used the words "evil, calculated,"

and said what Angela Diaz did

was unlike anything he had seen

in all his years on the bench.

This was a distorted triangle

of relationships

that twisted fantasies

aren't even made up of.

[somber music playing]

[Michelle] They told me I'm free to go

and the charges

have been completely dropped.

-[auspicious music playing]

-[camera shutters clicking]

Freedom was so sweet at that point

because, oh man, I mean,

you don't appreciate it

until you've lost it.

I'm walking down the courthouse steps,

and the media is waiting for me outside.

It's this big moment for me

because they all want to hear

what I have to say.

Obviously, this has been

a huge nightmare for me,

probably the most traumatic

experience of my life.

And I'm glad it's finally over,

and I finally get to move on with my life.

Here's a bizarre

Orange County love triangle.

This is a big story.

[man on TV]

It had all the makings of Law and Order.

A jealous wife,

romantic rivals, blackmail.

I think the media

gleefully grabbed ahold of this narrative

of the crazy woman,

the jealous woman.

And if they couldn't paint me as that,

then they were

just gonna paint Angela as that.

They didn't want to talk about the man.

Nobody wanted to talk about that.

I wanted someone to listen to me.

I wanted to tell someone

what actually happened.

Because there was a lot more to tell.

[music turns dramatic]

[man] I was working

at the Department of Justice

as a criminal investigator

and digital forensic examiner,

investigating cases involving

Department of Justice employees.

My name is Ian. I'm a U.S. Marshal.

Sorry, this is Angela.

[man] Angela Connell had pleaded guilty

to charges relating to framing

Ian Diaz's ex-girlfriend, Michelle Hadley.

Ian Diaz was

a Deputy United States Marshal

and a Department of Justice employee.

I mean, we had an obligation

to go back to look at the case again.

So we reached out

to Anaheim Police Department

[tense, pensive music playing]

and they provided us

with their case file.

One of the first things I did

was listen to the interview with Ian Diaz.

[music stops]

[man] This is, to put it lightly,

a monster of a case.

Our job is to find out who's doing what,

and that's why

we pulled you in here to talk to you.

We appreciate you coming in

and making a statement.

[Ian] Right, tell me some good news

because my heart is up.

-[man] Okay.

-[Ian] What is going on?

[Jason] My general impression

of Ian and his responses

is that he's a bit anxious.

[pensive music playing]

In addition to those recordings,

there were a few things

in the body camera footage

that jumped out to me.

There is a scene

where Ian leaves the living room

while Angela is talking to the police.

[officer 1] The specifics of that.

-Like, exactly when it?

-[officer 1] Time? Date?

Oh, no, she doesn't say,

like, on December 16th.

Ian is clearly listening

to what Angela is saying

and provides her information

from the side.

No, she doesn't do that.

[Ian] She says, "I'm coming over tonight."

She always says that.

She always says that threat of, like,

"I'm coming over tonight.

I'm coming over."

It sounds to me

as if Ian is trying to coach Angela.

[officer 2] The last email was at 5:30?

-5:33.

-[officer 2] 5:33.

[Ian] No, there was one just now.

-That's why we called them.

-Oh! Oh, yeah.

-Sorry.

-[Ian] Yeah, no, there was one

[Angela] I was like,

"What? Why are you here?"

[pensive music continues]

It certainly makes me think

that Ian is involved.

In addition, one of the things I noticed

was Ian has tremendous animus

toward Michelle.

You guys have been here a whole boatload.

-[female officer] Regarding the same girl?

-Regarding the same b*tch.

This ex-girlfriend of mine

has it out for this woman

because she f*cking hates her

and hates the fact

that I'm not with her anymore.

I mean, his desire to have her locked up

struck me as rather odd.

[Ian] She needs to be in f*cking cuffs

and in a padded room.

[pensive music continues]

[Jason] And so we meet with Michelle

to interview her and get a sense

of what she would be like as a witness.

[music fades]

[Michelle] I thought, "Okay,

this is my chance to tell my story."

There are a lot of misconceptions

about what happened to me.

And until you really understand it

through my eyes,

you don't know anything about my story

and why what happened to me happened.

[man] I need to get a bit more detailed

into your relationship with Ian.

[Michelle] Sure.

[man] Anything strange happen,

that you might have said, "What the heck?"

[Michelle] Yeah, I guess

I kind of have to back up.

-[inhales, exhales]

-[poignant music playing]

We came to realize

there was much more to Michelle's story

than we had previously known.

[exhales]

[Michelle] Early in the relationship,

I'm on a break at work,

and Ian calls me to talk to me.

And I'm right outside my work building.

And he tells me, "Hey,

I have this fantasy that I want to watch

you have sex with another man."

[music turns unsettling]

Oh, my heart immediately dropped

because I thought [groans]

"Here it is."

We're not compatible in this area.

Obviously, people have

different fantasies.

That's normal.

A lot of people are into different things.

If I were actually to describe

myself to people,

I would have put "wholesome"

right at the top of the list.

Like, I was that

little all-American girl who

I had never done any drugs.

I had waited until I was 21

to drink alcohol.

I was so wholesome. [laughs]

Like, almost sickeningly wholesome.

[laughs] But I thought he was too.

I was not expecting any of this.

[somber music playing]

He would bring it up

over and over and over again,

multiple times a week.

I would say, "I don't like this at all."

"This is making me

fell really uncomfortable."

"I don't want to do it,

and I've told you."

[man] How come at that point you say,

"This isn't working for me"?

[Michelle] Well, I did a couple times.

I would cry, tell him I was done with it.

I couldn't take it anymore.

But then he would backpedal.

He would be like,

"No, I was-- it was just talk." You know?

But then he starts sending me

links to profiles on Craigslist

of men he wants to do this with.

[unsettling music playing]

I hadn't dated a lot before this.

So I thought,

maybe this is just

what women had to do in relationships.

Like, maybe this was normal.

And I told him, like, "Okay,

if I do it this once,

I don't ever want to hear about it again."

And I just remember feeling like

-[exhales raggedly]

-[music fades]

like a beautiful part of me had died.

Because it was

[inhales, exhales]

just this part of myself that

[inhales]

had existed outside of

all of this ugliness in the world.

[poignant music playing]

And he just f*cking k*lled it.

[sniffles]

[man] When did this

this act actually happen?

February 14th.

[man] Now, after that happened

in February 14th, you stayed?

[Michelle] I stayed with him, yeah.

I thought that

if I let him scratch this itch,

that we could move past this.

-[man ] Um, did you guys get engaged too?

-[Michelle] Yeah.

I thought if we got engaged,

then maybe the relationship was gonna be

on the right track after this.

[Jason] Hearing Michelle's story

about his pressuring her

from very early on in their relationship

to have sex with another man,

that's clearly a red flag.

But what happened after they got engaged

was particularly helpful

for purposes of our investigation.

[pensive music playing]

[man] When did you move

into the apartment complex

over at South Anaheim?

It was about two months

after we got engaged that

Ian actually brought up

the decision to buy together.

That's when everything went south.

Ian starts asking me

to change things about myself.

It starts off with smaller things,

like he wants me to get fake nails.

Then he wants me to get

a belly button piercing

because he thinks it would be hot.

He starts asking me

to dress in certain ways,

so he'll pick out outfits for me,

and, uh, tell me

when he wants me to wear them.

You know, I was

really young at this point,

and I didn't have

a very well-developed sense of self yet.

So when Ian came in

and started to take over,

it was really easy to just step in line.

[music turns unsettling]

Most of my days,

I would just drive to work,

to school,

back home,

back to work,

back to school.

And anytime I would drive

outside of that area,

he would notice.

And I'd get a phone call from him,

and he's like, "Where are you right now?"

It was like he

he was everywhere.

-[cell phone ringing]

-[messages chiming]

The texts were incessant,

constantly calling me.

But then things started to escalate.

[ominous music playing]

He actually installed security cameras,

but not outside the condo.

He actually installed them inside,

facing the kitchen,

where I would cook.

I just felt like

he always knew exactly where I was

and what I was doing.

The condo was initially

this, like, beautiful dream,

but after a month, it felt like a cage.

It was like I couldn't stay,

but I couldn't leave.

It was-- I don't know how--

Does that make sense?

Where it's like this weird limbo

where you're just stuck.

[unsettling music playing]

It was almost a daily rollercoaster ride.

One minute, he'd be taking me

to Lawry's Steakhouse

and doing this really fancy dinner

and telling me how beautiful I was.

And then the next minute,

he'd be flirting with another girl

and screaming in my face.

-[music fades]

-[engine starts, revs]

One time,

we get into his car,

and he gets very angry at me.

He takes off.

[engine revving]

He's driving really, really fast,

and we get on the freeway.

All of a sudden,

out of nowhere,

he just slams the brakes on hard.

And he tells me, "Get out of the car."

And as I'm about to open the door,

he reaches over me and slams it closed.

And he says,

"What's wrong with you? Are you crazy?"

[tense music playing]

I'm shaking at this point.

He takes the ring off my finger,

and basically tells me

that I'm not getting it back

until I can learn how to behave myself.

[man] Did you ever report any of that

to the Anaheim Police Department?

-[Michelle] No, I did not.

-[man] Okay. Can I ask why?

[Michelle] Well, I've done

a lot of research online

about a*usive relationships with cops,

and I'll be honest,

I thought they might try to protect him.

[poignant music playing]

[Jason] It was heart-wrenching

to hear this story,

how he had manipulated and controlled her.

She didn't want to come forward

because she was afraid.

I think at this point,

I was starting to suspect

Ian Diaz abused his position

as a Deputy United States Marshal.

And so the testimony of Michelle

became significant in our investigation.

[Michelle] I knew I needed to leave.

And so there was one day where I could

hear Ian talking to his friend Leslie.

[tense music playing]

This was my chance to get out

[car engine starts]

because I knew he wouldn't do anything

while she was there.

As I drive away,

my hands are literally shaking

on the wheel,

and I'm crying,

hoping to God he doesn't follow me.

At that point, my bank account is drained

because it's all gone into the condo.

My parents' house

was the only place I knew to go.

[music turns poignant]

And I felt like [inhales sharply]

[exhales]

"I'm here."

[chiming]

[music turns ominous]

But I'm realizing it's not over,

and he has actually no intention

of letting it be over.

[chiming]

He starts sending messages

that made it seem

like he knew where I was.

He's calling me a b*tch.

He's calling me the C-word.

He's telling me

that I'm gonna regret this.

[man] What's his endgame?

What's the reason why?

[Michelle] I think his endgame was

to figure out a way to keep the condo

and destroy my life at the same time.

My parents are getting notifications

that they've had

background checks done on them.

It feels like it's escalating

to a really scary place,

especially as Ian

always had his g*n with him.

I just felt he was constantly there,

watching me.

-[unsettling music playing]

-[dogs barking]

At this point, I don't really feel

like anywhere is completely safe.

I have never felt fear like that before,

like I was a hunted animal.

I think Ian's f*cking crazy at this point.

I think he's a psychopath.

The next step for him

is to try and come and k*ll me.

I get to a point

where I really am losing my mind.

I just couldn't take it anymore.

[unsettling music continues]

So I wrote a couple

very angry emails to Ian.

And I'm really scared

of what he's going to do.

I leave my phone, my laptop,

all of my devices that I think

he could potentially track me on.

I get into my car.

I'm basically like,

"Get me the f*ck out of here."

[ominous music playing]

But as I'm driving,

I feel myself slipping away.

Like my brain just detaching.

I ended up having an almost out-of-body

experience for, like, 24 hours.

And then when I come back out of the fog,

I am in the middle of nowhere.

I have no idea where I am.

And I have been picked up

by this Native American family

who found me wandering around.

And it turns out I was in Arizona.

And they called

um, paramedics and the police,

and they take me to a hospital.

The doctor comes in to, um

see me and he says, "You know,

this sounds like a dissociative episode."

And he tells me I have complex PTSD

from what I just went through with Ian.

[somber music playing]

So later,

after all this supposed cyberstalking,

when they arrested me,

they read through

these two emails that I sent.

[Cunha] "Get ready, the truth is coming."

"God's law is above all laws,

including the law of man."

So did you write this?

[Michelle] Yeah, that was me.

I'm not really sure how to explain to him.

I don't even really understand

where a lot of it came from

or why I wrote it.

I only ever sent these two emails.

[chimes]

But I was framed

for all this horrible cyberstalking.

-[dogs barking]

-[tires screech]

[car engine revs]

Michelle's story does sound crazy,

that she had, effectively,

a nervous breakdown.

[Michelle] I thought

he'd think I was crazy.

[laughs nervously]

But he didn't. [sobs]

[poignant music playing]

He believed me.

Just-- I felt so much relief.

And for the very first time,

I felt like I had

flipped the script on Ian.

And suddenly,

I was actually the one coming after him.

[tense music playing]

We realized the two religious emails

that she sent Ian are important.

Because we suspected Ian seizes on those

to create the Lilith account

and to create

this other religious language.

He mimics her when he writes these.

And this is evidence that points to Ian,

not Angela.

At this point, we were starting to suspect

that Angela might have

only been a passenger.

And that this was Ian's scheme.

[ominous tone plays]

[suspenseful music playing]

It's important that

we find additional evidence

to support this new theory

that we had

a Deputy United States Marshal, Ian Diaz,

who framed his ex-girlfriend,

Michelle Hadley,

for a crime she did not commit.

We first looked at the night

where Ian and Angela are reporting threats

that Lilith is sending

a r*pist to the condo from Craigslist.

It is one of the most significant events

during this scheme.

She's stating that she's going to

have this guy come over.

She'll give him the address, and come over

and r*pe her and beat her, right?

[Jason] So it was important for us

to find the man on Craigslist, Rick,

because not only was he lured

to the condo under false pretenses,

he may give us information we didn't have

about what happened that night.

[suspenseful music continues]

So it took a little bit of sleuthing

to find Rick,

but we finally tracked him down.

[music fades]

[woman on radio]

Firefighters in Southern California

are battling a wildfire

that's threatening

[Rick] I want to be anonymous

because I don't want to be known

for my sexual fantasies.

[woman] Saturday,

Los Angeles fire officials

[Rick] Because I am a single parent

and I didn't want to date at that point,

I was on the Craigslist meeting people

for casual encounters.

[woman continues indistinctly on radio]

[Rick] A r*pe fantasy, it's actually

a very popular fantasy, I would say.

[pensive music playing]

So I placed an ad on the Craigslist,

and it said,

"I am looking for women who have fantasies

about being r*ped or forced to perform."

I get this message from Lilithistruth.

Her reply stood out

because she seemed very eager,

almost desperate, to get this done.

I thought it was a bit odd,

so I figured

I'll get her on the phone to voice verify,

just to make sure that this is real.

When I view the body cam footage,

there were a few things that struck me

about what was happening that night.

[pensive music continues]

The first is that Ian is able to identify

and communicate with Rick on Craigslist.

[Ian] I'm trying to act like a girl,

and I ask him, "What's your number"

[Jason] When our digital forensics team

looked on his computer,

there was no evidence of Ian going

to 40 or 50 different r*pe fantasy posts

to find Rick.

He hits the first pitch,

and he gets Rick directly.

The odds of that are just impossible.

This is like a million to one shot.

And then in his laptop backups,

we found Ian using

his personal email account

to jump right in

to this conversation thread

that Rick was having with Lilith

without missing a beat.

Such that Rick thinks

he's communicating with the same person.

[pensive music continues]

Ian asks,

"Are you headed to my place

in Anaheim tonight?"

Now, that certainly begs the question,

how did he know that Rick was coming

to the condo in Anaheim that night?

The only conclusion

is that Ian himself had responded

to the Craigslist fantasy r*pe ad

using the Lilithistruth email.

This is compelling evidence

Ian Diaz was running the scheme.

[Rick] So when I got this message,

I replied, "I can,

but I need you to voice verify."

[Jason] And now it's Angela Diaz,

pretending to be Lilith,

who actually voice verifies.

[Angela] Hi, Rick, this is Lili.

I just wanted to confirm

tonight at 8 o'clock.

I'll see you then.

[Rick] I heard it was a woman,

so I said, "Well, okay, I'm going to

go down there and get this done."

[pensive music continues]

[Jason] Something else

that jumped out to me.

While Angie is calling

Anaheim Police Department

and reporting that

Michelle Hadley is sending a r*pist,

Ian is actively encouraging him

to come to the house.

[pensive music continues]

[Ian] My idea was, yes,

I had her go out there

and open the gate a bit so it'd be open.

I was hoping he'd come up.

I wasn't gonna rough him up or something.

I was just gonna say, "Just have a seat."

'Cause I knew you were coming,

and I was just gonna detain him.

Anyone who's worried that

a potential r*pist is coming to your house

doesn't encourage them

to come to the house,

and then unlock the door,

and then unlock the gate.

But in this case,

it's clear Ian and Angela are doing it

to bring Rick to the condo

because they wanted

to frame Michelle Hadley.

In his police interview,

Ian laid this all at Angela's doorstep.

[Ian] I can't believe

this is happening. [sighs]

I feel like a f*cking idiot.

[Cunah] Who do you think's responsible?

I think Angela did it all.

Ian wants to suggest that all of this

happened right under his nose.

[Ian] It seems like I've been sleeping

with the enemy the entire time.

But it's clear watching

the body cam footage,

looking at the digital evidence

and upon interviewing Rick,

that this wasn't the case.

[music stops]

This is Ian pretending to be Michelle

pretending to be Angela

catfishing someone to the condo.

[unsettling music playing]

This is a very complicated case.

This could be confusing to a jury.

Who's impersonating whom,

pretending to be whom?

You know, I need to clear my head

to reflect on how the case

should be presented.

And I'm thinking, "Did Michelle Hadley

pose a real threat to Ian and Angela?"

Of course not.

But how did they persuade the Anaheim

Police Department to lock her up?

So we needed to prove to a jury

that Ian had misused his position

and manipulated

the Anaheim Police Department.

-[officer 1] Hello.

-Hi. Come on in. How are you?

Reviewing the body camera footage

over and over,

we began to figure out how that happened.

The pattern of the scheme

begins with what would be

an otherwise innocuous impersonation

of Michelle Hadley.

I got another email from her,

and I haven't opened and checked it

because I was like

[officer 1] Okay.

Communications to Angela

that are somewhat threatening

The last one we got from her

was late last night, and she said,

"You won't have a husband.

Your children won't have a father."

"I hope your punishment is swift."

"I love keeping you waiting

for what is next. Enjoy work tomorrow."

"I'm sure it will be a painfully

enjoyable experience. Michelle."

[Jason] But to the

Anaheim Police Department,

there was nothing they could do.

[officer 2] Okay, it's a criminal threat,

but you can't do anything

until she gets served.

So, restraining order,

and this is the proof of service.

[officer 1] Okay.

And then it slowly ratchets its way up

with grotesque pictures.

These emails have pictures

of decapitated people,

aborted fetuses, decapitated fetuses.

[Jason] But the Anaheim Police Department

are not really acting

when the threat level is low.

[female officer]

It's a misdemeanor, unfortunately.

So Ian and Angela

have to increase the threat level.

Now we're responding

to ads for r*pe fantasies.

[woman on phone]

Anaheim Police, Dispatcher Scott.

Hi, my name is Angela Diaz,

and I have open cases with Anaheim PD

on a person named Michelle Hadley.

I've been receiving emails today from her

that she has somebody that's going to come

attack me and r*pe me.

[Jason] Police arrive on scene because,

according to the call they've received,

there's someone there to commit a r*pe.

Ian can see that they're police officers,

and he is standing there

with his firearm out

to persuade the Anaheim Police Department

that the threat is so severe

that he has to be prepared

to use lethal force

to stop his wife from being attacked.

Just asking to get shot.

-Yeah.

-I would have shot him.

[Jason] This is playacting.

[tense, pensive music playing]

By wearing his badge,

and then by putting it on the table

[Ian] So

My name's Ian.

I'm a U.S. Marshal. Sorry, this is Angela.

Ian is trying to show to them, like,

"I'm one of you,

and you should credit what I say."

[Ian] Had I not emailed him today,

she would have been r*ped

outside in the courtyard.

Now, trying to persuade them that,

"I've never seen anything like this."

That Michelle Hadley needs to be

in a padded room in cuffs.

She's chilling at her apartment right now,

just pulling all the strings,

manipulating everybody.

And then Ian's effort to manipulate

the Anaheim Police Department

is starting to get traction.

[Ian] At what point does this girl

get arrested for sending this sh*t

and hiring guys

off Craigslist to r*pe her?

-I'm just curious.

-[music intensifies]

[Jason] With an imminent threat of r*pe,

the time that

Anaheim Police Department has to think

continues to get reduced and reduced.

This dragnet ensues, right?

Anaheim Police Department

is racing around the neighborhood.

They put a helicopter in the air.

They're trying to find

this alleged r*pist.

[woman 1 on radio] 587

-[Jason] And then comes the final act.

-[music turns dramatic]

[woman 2 on phone]

911. What's your emergency?

[Angela] Somebody came from behind me

and shoved me against my wall

and started to choke me.

Ian is ratcheting up the level of threat,

the danger that

this Michelle Hadley poses.

I tried to move. He grabbed me.

He had me pinned back

by the hair at the neck.

He told me,

"Now you're finally going to get r*ped."

And he ultimately forces them

into acting quickly.

Okay, here's what's gonna happen, okay?

I have the warrant in my car.

And I'm gonna go out there and grab her.

[Jason] Looking at

this timeline of events,

we can understand

how Ian was able to persuade

the Anaheim Police Department

to arrest Michelle Hadley.

[music fades]

[pensive music playing]

Although Ian does

everything he can to cover his tracks,

in digital forensics,

there's always another place

to go looking for conclusive evidence.

As I got deeper and deeper into

Ian's DOJ Marshall Service-issued devices,

it turns out what he had on his computer

was very significant to us.

When you create a Word document,

it's creating temp files

in the background.

So if you lose power

or you forget to hit save,

you can then recover it.

And on Ian's DOJ laptop,

we found fragments

of a Lilithistruth email.

This was evidence that Ian Diaz

is Lilith.

[dramatic music playing]

There it was in black and white.

[unsettling music playing]

It was time to arrest Ian Diaz.

You might remember this story

with a twisted plot out of Orange County.

[somber music playing]

I almost didn't believe it. [laughs]

I immediately went on

to the DOJ's website,

and they actually had a press release

that said that he had been arrested.

So I was like, "Oh my God, it's real."

[woman on TV] The case dates back to 2016.

Ian Diaz and his then-wife, Angela Diaz,

created a twisted plot

against Michelle Hadley.

I knew that there was no chance

that he was going to plead

any other way than not guilty.

He would do everything within his power

um, to prove his innocence.

The ex-boyfriend whom prosecutors

say framed her is convicted.

Guilty on all counts.

And I just remember, you know,

I'm standing at the sink

and I'm looking in the mirror,

and I just remember

looking at myself and thinking,

"You f*cking did it."

"You did it."

[sighs]

[somber music playing]

I could not believe it.

I couldn't believe

that this was happening.

I've never felt that sad.

I felt like it was a nightmare.

I needed to wake up.

I just wanted to wake up.

And

And I couldn't. It was real.

[poignant music playing]

One of the things I noticed

when I first came into the case

was this person named Leslie.

And I realized very early on,

"Okay, here's someone

who is very much in Ian Diaz's corner."

[Leslie] I wouldn't doubt

that people think that I'm blinded

by my friendship with Ian,

and that somehow

I'm missing some deep, dark side of him.

I can't say definitively

that upon interviewing her,

I came away firmly believing that this was

a woman who was in love with him.

But later, as we kind of--

Additional evidence came forward,

that's the conclusion I came to.

[Leslie] I love him with all my heart.

He is like a part of my family.

And I will love him forever,

but I am not in love with Ian.

So there's your side,

my side, and the truth.

But there is no evidence

that anyone could show me

that would make me doubt Ian's innocence.

Because I see

that Angela is a serial imposter,

and she pled guilty to charges.

And an innocent person

does not plead guilty.

[music crescendos, fades]

I think we will never know

exactly what happened in the condo.

Only Ian Diaz and Angela Connell know.

And they're not reliable witnesses.

[unsettling music playing]

But we can try and answer

the question of "Why did Ian do this?"

[exhales]

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.

He wanted to control Michelle,

and she got away,

and that made him angry.

So he designed a scheme

to frame his ex-girlfriend.

[music intensifies]

In my view,

Angela Connell was a perfect partner

because she craved empathy.

Angela loved portraying herself

as a victim,

and Ian exploited that.

[dramatic music playing]

[music turns poignant]

[Michelle] Ian got everything he wanted,

but it actually cost him his freedom.

I often look back and wonder

how Ian turned into the person

who wanted control and power over me.

Ian had told me at one point

that he grew up

in a really toxic environment.

And I thought, "Could this possibly

explain his behavior towards me?"

It felt like he actually had

two totally different personalities,

and you never knew

which one you were gonna get.

Were you gonna get this,

like, sex-obsessed fiend,

or were you gonna get the wholesome boy?

And I thought that this personality,

the wholesome one,

was who he really was.

But sadly, the damage had been done.

[poignant music continues]

-[music fades]

-[waves susurrating]

Ian and Angela cast me as Lilith.

[poignant music resumes]

She basically escaped the Garden of Eden,

disobeyed everyone,

Adam, God, the whole group.

She's the quintessential

uh, revolutionary.

In retrospect, I'm not mad that

they picked a character for me

who is a disobedient female

who stands up to male authority figures.

It kind of fits. [laughs]

I just didn't know it then.

But now I'm on this

other side of that journey.

I started to rebuild my life.

You know, I'm getting back into school.

I'm going back to work.

And I start dating again.

Eventually,

I find out I'm pregnant.

I gave birth to my daughter

on the same day Ian was convicted.

[gasps] Look at that. How cool is that?

How cool is that, huh?

That's like what the--

They do with the movies.

-I hope you did fun things today, huh?

-[girl] Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I miss you, baby. I love you.

I miss you.

Aw, I love you too. So sweet.

Kisses. Mwah! [blows kiss]

[laughs]

I miss you.

[poignant music continues]

[Michelle] Raising this beautiful

little girl is my fairy-tale ending.

I think it is happily ever after.

I'm not a princess,

but I get to be the hero in my own story.

[dramatic music playing]

[music fades]