Original subtitles

911. What's your emergency?

Somebody came from behind me and shoved me against my wall

and started to choke me…

…and were telling me that I'm going to fucking get it.

I tried to move and he grabbed me.

He had me pinned back by the hair at the neck.

My husband's ex has been threatening to rape, kill my child.

…the strange and violent stalking case.

Police say a woman used an online ad to terrorize another woman.

I got another email from her.

She's been at my work.

She knows what I look like.

How do we combat this woman?

What do we do?

I have two wishes.

First wish is I wish none of this happened.

And my second wish is…

…I wish that everyone would just tell the truth

about the events of this story.

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.

Daphne, do you want to look at the camera?

Oh! Can you look at the camera?

The smile alone… The smile was killer.

She was just a sweetheart.

Two, three weeks go by,

I proposed to her.

Because she was everything I ever wanted in a woman.

So within a few months of meeting,

Ian and Angela are living together,

married, and expecting twins.

And Ian's thrilled because he's always wanted to be a dad.

During this time, we sit down for dinner,

and Ian tells me that Angela's been receiving these emails…

…from someone called "Lilithistruth."

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.

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 kill newborn children in the night.

Ian was really freaked out.

Scared the hell out of me. I had no idea where that came from.

Angela was really upset.

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.

Who is doing this?

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.

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 shit.

It's Michelle sending the emails.

Going to the police seemed necessary.

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.

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.

You're welcome. Hopefully, you can…

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. - 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.

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.

But nothing stopped.

The emails kept coming.

The threats kept coming.

So Ian and Angela call the police again.

Anaheim Police Department dispatch.

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-kill-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.

Your name is?

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

Okay, I'll get them to call out.

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.

- 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 kill herself.

And she threatened to burn this motherfucker 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 motherfucker 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.

Every single day,

every time I would see Ian's name pop up on my phone,

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

And then something unbelievable happened.

Michelle responded to an ad on Craigslist for fantasy rape

with photographs of Angela,

inviting the guy to show up at the condo to rape Angela,

saying, "Come to my house, and even if I scream, don't stop."

I get this message from Lilithistruth

saying she's interested in doing a rape 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."

Anaheim Police.

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 rape me.

We'll send someone out as soon as we can.

So what's going on?

My name's Ian. I'm a U.S. Marshal. Sorry, this is Angela.

- Hi. - Uh…

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, rape her and beat her, right?

This is what she wrote to this guy.

"Hi there, I've been dying to have a rape 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."

As I'm parking, I'm feeling excited.

I'm getting a rush of dopamine,

thinking, "I'm gonna go and get this done."

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 murdered.

So I left.

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.

Ian is trying to keep it all together,

but I could hear it in his voice that there was some deep fear there.

At what point does this girl get arrested

for sending this shit and hiring guys off of Craigslist to rape her?

I'm just curious.

Why isn't Michelle in custody?

Or at the very least, being questioned?

How do we combat this woman?

What do we do?

Am I supposed to continually just be in my house all the time?

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."

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."

This is 587, be advised, we've fixed the location…

911. What's your emergency?

Somebody came from behind me and shoved me against my wall

and started to choke me

and were telling me I'm gonna fucking get it,

and it's time for me to get raped.

Okay. How many individuals were there?

Just one, and he was wearing a black thing over his face.

- Like a black ski mask? - Yes.

Okay. We have somebody on the way right now, okay, ma'am?

- Okay. - Okay.

Do you see the officers yet?

Yeah, I see. He's actually right here with me.

He's with you?

Yes.

Hey, there.

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

Okay.

Is that your makeup on the wall right there?

- 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 raped."

For about a month, my husband's ex has been threatening to rape,

kill my child.

- And what's her name, ma'am? - The girl is Michelle Hadley.

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.

Just relax.

I just have a couple of questions.

Some things are going on with you and Ian.

Yes, I know. Yeah.

He made a report with us,

and he brought in some e-mails that came from you.

One of which probably sounded a little crazy, and I do know that, yeah.

Okay.

"Lilith is truth." Do you know anything about that?

What that means or anything?

No.

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?"

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.

Why don't you give us your full and complete name, please.

Michelle Suzanne Hadley.

- And what's your date of birth? - 12-20-1986.

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. - Yeah.

"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?

Yeah, that was me.

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.

Who's Lilith?

Educate me.

It's almost like the alternate persona

of, like, a devil character, like the female side.

The female side of who?

Of, you know, I guess like a Satan or a devil character.

So Lilith is the anti-Jesus?

- Or the female side? - 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."

Let's talk about Ian.

How did you first meet him?

In 2013, I was doing online dating.

I wanted the white picket fence life.

And then I matched with this U.S. Marshal named Ian.

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.

I quickly learned that Ian was really into Disneyland.

He told me he went all the time,

like, multiple times a week.

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.

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.

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…?

Because you're so cute when you walk through.

When you're looking at everything, you're so adorable.

Ian was attentive.

He was sweet. He was thoughtful.

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.

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.

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.

29-year-old Hadley used a rape 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.

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.

I feel helpless.

We have no idea what to do.

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.

One of the most horrific stories

of mayhem and vengeance I've ever covered.

She could be looking at upwards of life in prison.

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.

Only really bad offenders go in the cage.

This is the saddest day of our life.

Attempted rapes, sexual assault, 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?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

But I'm realizing she's pushing her hair up.

I didn't want to call her out on that and be the asshole,

but I just had a strong inkling that she was lying.

I'm thinking, "This bitch has more hair than I do."

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.

As I was just about to quit,

that very last page,

I found that exact photograph.

Oh my God, what?

It was taken by a guy that was going through a battle with cancer.

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 shit.

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, "Fuck 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."

It was time for a confrontation.

I invited everybody in our circle

that she had lied to, manipulated, to my house.

Hi. Life's good.

Come on in. Have a seat.

- Welcome. - Hi!

Why is everybody here?

Please have a seat.

What are you doing?

Okay. Here's what's going on.

Everybody in this room, you owe a big, huge apology to.

- For what? - 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.

Okay, and this…

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

Angela, you don't have cancer.

- Yes, I do. - No, you don't.

How do-- Would you like to speak with my parents and everybody?

What are you talking about?

Let's see your port.

- Angela, just sit down. - Yeah. What… Why…

- Let's talk about some things. - What are you guys talking about?

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.

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.

- Show me your port. - You're the ones that came to me.

It's in her fucking arm.

Show me your…

- Let's see. Show me your port. - It hurts.

- It fucking hurts. - Show me your port.

- It really fucking hurts. - Show me your port.

This picture said "battle juice," right?

Unwrap it.

Portraying yourself as sitting in the chair receiving chemotherapy.

Okay. Let's just go.

Unwrap-- See? There's nothing to show.

You're a fucking liar.

- She's a liar. - Sorry, but--

- I'm taking her with me. - Unwrap it.

- Then unwrap it. - I am taking her with me. Right now.

Show your port!

Show your port, liar!

Show your port!

You're probably even fired!

You probably don't even have a job!

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?

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.

Straight into the hole.

Who wants to do business with…

the family whose daughter solicits rape fantasies

to attack… a pregnant woman?

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.

But then I am sleeping late at night…

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."

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 fuck?"

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.

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.

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.

- No problem at all. - So let's talk about Angela.

You stated that your relationship with Angela started January 2nd?

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.

- You have pregnancy tests. - 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. - All of these in the same box.

And if you can tell from the side here,

this one's been altered and opened up, they all have.

- So she drew the line in it. - She drew the line.

Ian explained to the police the sonogram was fake.

This just about killed 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.

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.

And he was calling Angela.

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.

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.

- She lied about her job? - 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 rape.

Because what's really happening?

Holy shit.

Did any of these emails

actually come from Michelle?

Is it possible that Angela sent all of these emails

to herself?

Holy… fuck.

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?

Have you talked to Angela at all?

No.

Have you tried?

No.

We told the police,

"Please look into this."

"Figure out what's missing. Go talk to Angela."

Hey, it's Detective Cunha.

Yeah.

Just a couple of questions.

Do you know Jason Rayburn at all?

It's a person I dated a while ago.

Okay.

Obviously, much before Ian.

Okay. And then,

did you ever get sick?

Did you ever get sick to the point where there's talk about you had cancer?

There was talk about it.

I went to have skin cancer biopsies removed,

and I was super stressed out.

Okay, so no chemotherapy or anything like that?

No, absolutely not.

A mindfuck?

Sorry, but I don't know if anything that I know about her is true.

I can't believe this is happening.

I feel like a fucking idiot.

Who do you think's responsible?

I think Angela did it all.

When I look at these crazy emails,

and the religious stuff and whatever, the Lilith stuff,

and the Craigslist and the rapist,

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.

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?

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.

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."

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.

They told me I'm free to go

and the charges have been completely dropped.

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.

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.

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.

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…

…and they provided us with their case file.

One of the first things I did was listen to the interview with Ian Diaz.

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.

Right, tell me some good news because my heart is up.

- Okay. - What is going on?

My general impression of Ian and his responses

is that he's a bit anxious.

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.

The specifics of that.

- Like, exactly when it…? - 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.

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.

The last email was at 5:30?

- 5:33. - 5:33.

No, there was one just now.

- That's why we called them. - Oh! Oh, yeah.

- Sorry. - Yeah, no, there was one…

I was like, "What? Why are you here?"

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.

- Regarding the same girl? - Regarding the same bitch.

This ex-girlfriend of mine has it out for this woman

because she fucking 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.

She needs to be in fucking cuffs and in a padded room.

And so we meet with Michelle

to interview her and get a sense of what she would be like as a witness.

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.

I need to get a bit more detailed into your relationship with Ian.

Sure.

Anything strange happen, that you might have said, "What the heck?"

Yeah, I guess I kind of have to back up.

We came to realize there was much more to Michelle's story

than we had previously known.

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."

Oh, my heart immediately dropped

because I thought…

…"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.

Like, almost sickeningly wholesome.

But I thought he was too.

I was not expecting any of this.

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."

How come at that point you say, "This isn't working for me"?

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.

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…

…like a beautiful part of me had died.

Because it was…

just this part of myself that…

…had existed outside of all of this ugliness in the world.

And he just fucking killed it.

When did this… this act actually happen?

February 14th.

Now, after that happened in February 14th, you stayed?

I stayed with him, yeah.

I thought that if I let him scratch this itch,

that we could move past this.

- Um, did you guys get engaged too? - Yeah.

I thought if we got engaged,

then maybe the relationship was gonna be on the right track after this.

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.

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.

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.

The texts were incessant, constantly calling me.

But then things started to escalate.

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.

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.

One time,

we get into his car,

and he gets very angry at me.

He takes off.

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?"

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.

Did you ever report any of that to the Anaheim Police Department?

- No, I did not. - Okay. Can I ask why?

Well, I've done a lot of research online

about abusive relationships with cops,

and I'll be honest, I thought they might try to protect him.

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.

I knew I needed to leave.

And so there was one day where I could hear Ian talking to his friend Leslie.

This was my chance to get out…

…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.

And I felt like…

"I'm here."

But I'm realizing it's not over,

and he has actually no intention of letting it be over.

He starts sending messages

that made it seem like he knew where I was.

He's calling me a bitch.

He's calling me the C-word.

He's telling me that I'm gonna regret this.

What's his endgame? What's the reason why?

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 gun with him.

I just felt he was constantly there, watching me.

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 fucking crazy at this point.

I think he's a psychopath.

The next step for him is to try and come and kill me.

I get to a point where I really am losing my mind.

I just couldn't take it anymore.

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 fuck out of here."

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.

So later,

after all this supposed cyberstalking,

when they arrested me,

they read through these two emails that I sent.

"Get ready, the truth is coming."

"God's law is above all laws, including the law of man."

So did you write this?

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.

But I was framed for all this horrible cyberstalking.

Michelle's story does sound crazy,

that she had, effectively, a nervous breakdown.

I thought he'd think I was crazy.

But he didn't.

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.

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.

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 rapist 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 rape her and beat her, right?

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.

So it took a little bit of sleuthing to find Rick,

but we finally tracked him down.

Firefighters in Southern California

are battling a wildfire that's threatening…

I want to be anonymous because I don't want to be known

for my sexual fantasies.

Saturday, Los Angeles fire officials…

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.

A rape fantasy, it's actually a very popular fantasy, I would say.

So I placed an ad on the Craigslist, and it said,

"I am looking for women who have fantasies about being raped 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.

The first is that Ian is able to identify

and communicate… with Rick on Craigslist.

I'm trying to act like a girl, and I ask him, "What's your number…"

When our digital forensics team looked on his computer,

there was no evidence of Ian going to 40 or 50 different rape 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.

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 rape ad using the Lilithistruth email.

This is compelling evidence Ian Diaz was running the scheme.

So when I got this message,

I replied, "I can, but I need you to voice verify."

And now it's Angela Diaz, pretending to be Lilith,

who actually voice verifies.

Hi, Rick, this is Lili.

I just wanted to confirm tonight at 8 o'clock.

I'll see you then.

I heard it was a woman,

so I said, "Well, okay, I'm going to go down there and get this done."

Something else that jumped out to me.

While Angie is calling Anaheim Police Department

and reporting that Michelle Hadley is sending a rapist,

Ian is actively encouraging him to come to the house.

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 rapist 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.

I can't believe this is happening.

I feel like a fucking idiot.

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.

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.

This is Ian pretending to be Michelle

pretending to be Angela catfishing someone to the condo.

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.

- 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…

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."

But to the Anaheim Police Department,

there was nothing they could do.

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.

Okay.

And then it slowly ratchets its way up

with grotesque pictures.

These emails have pictures of decapitated people,

aborted fetuses, decapitated fetuses.

But the Anaheim Police Department

are not really acting when the threat level is low.

It's a misdemeanor, unfortunately.

So Ian and Angela have to increase the threat level.

Now we're responding to ads for rape fantasies.

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 rape me.

Police arrive on scene because, according to the call they've received,

there's someone there to commit a rape.

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.

This is playacting.

By wearing his badge,

and then by putting it on the table…

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."

Had I not emailed him today,

she would have been raped 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.

At what point does this girl get arrested for sending this shit

and hiring guys off Craigslist to rape her?

I'm just curious.

With an imminent threat of rape,

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 rapist.

587…

And then comes the final act.

911. What's your emergency?

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 raped."

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.

Looking at this timeline of events,

we can understand how Ian was able to persuade

the Anaheim Police Department to arrest Michelle Hadley.

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.

There it was in black and white.

It was time to arrest Ian Diaz.

You might remember this story with a twisted plot out of Orange County.

I almost didn't believe it.

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."

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 fucking did it."

"You did it."

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

But we can try and answer the question of "Why did Ian do this?"

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.

In my view,

Angela Connell was a perfect partner

because she craved empathy.

Angela loved portraying herself as a victim,

and Ian exploited that.

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.

Ian and Angela cast me as Lilith.

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.

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.

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? - Yeah.

Yeah.

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

I miss you.

Aw, I love you too. So sweet.

Kisses. Mwah!

I miss you.

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.