Con-Artists, Catfishes & A Crazed Couple

Emily and Shane are diving into the case behind Netflix’s new documentary “A Toxic Love Story”. What key details did they leave out of this movie? Is there more to the victim’s story than we initially thought?

Plus, we’re providing updates on the new Netflix docuseries about the Idaho Murders. What information did this series shed a light on? What details of this case still stand out to us the most?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hi, guys, welcome to an episode I legally Brunette. I'll
be your host today Emily Simpson with Shane. Oh you
wait for me to say with before you come in
on your part. All right, I'm super excited because we
are actually recording this episode from the Bahamas. We are
here on vacation with the kids, but we are at
the Bahamar Resort and the Bahamas, and they have a

(00:24):
beautiful podcast studio. It's called the Studio at Bahamar. So
we are using their studio today. So a big thank
you to Bahamar for inviting us into their studio to
record our episode from here. It's absolutely stunning. This is
way nicer than what we have at home. And so
I was telling Shane, I feel like we need to
go home, and like I think we need to mimic

(00:45):
the studio. Oh, we just come here every week, or
we could just come here every week. That's a good
idea too. All right, So first of all, before we
get into it, we are going to talk about a
Toxic Love Story, which was a new documentary that came
out on Netflix, and so many of you, which I
absolutely love, have reached out to me on Instagram and
said please you guys have to talk about a toxic
love story. So we are going to get into that.

(01:06):
But before we get into that, I just want to
talk a little bit about the Idaho murders. It's called
A College Nightmare, and it's a new three part documentary
series which chronicles the murders of the four University of
Idaho's students. It just recently came out on Netflix. You know,
at first, I didn't know if I was going to
watch it or not, because we've already done an episode,
We've already talked about Brian. I thought, what else information

(01:28):
is out there? You know, we talked about Brian Coberger.
We just talked about him last week about how he
wants to withdraw his guilty plea. So I thought, I
don't know, do I really want to sit and watch
three parts about something that we I feel like we've
you know kind of I did.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
I couldn't.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
I couldn't help myself. I did watch it. I actually
thought it was done very well and I found it
extremely informative. And I yeah, it's directed by sky Borgman.
She also did Unknown Number the High School Catfish. You
remember that case, and she does, yes, but she does
it in a way where this is the first time

(02:06):
that I've ever seen they pulled all the police bodycam footage,
and then she does interviews with not only the family
of the four victims, but also with you know, their friends,
and you know, they put it all together. I think
it was very well done. I learned some things that
I did not know previously. It's called The Idaho Murders

(02:26):
College Nightmare. The series aims to honor the lives of
Kaylee Gunsolves, Madison Mogan, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin while
examining how the case shook the small college town of Moscow, Idaho.
This is a quote from the director Sky Borgman, and
she said, making this series became deeply personal to me
because I felt a responsibility to keep Kaylee, Madison, Xana,

(02:51):
and Ethan at the center of every decision we made.
At a time when so much attention has been focused
on the case itself, I felt it was really important
to create something that brings the focus back to who
they were, the lives they lived, and the love that
still surrounds them. And you know, I think that's it's
so that's why I really enjoyed this series. You know,

(03:11):
it got into obviously the you know, the legality of
Brian Coburger and everything, but also I felt like I
had a better understanding of the four victims and who
they were, who their friends were, what their daily life
was like. But you know, I took away some questions
from it. First of all, we all know, based upon
past history and episodes we've done before, that there was

(03:32):
a dog in the home. His name's Murphy. And when
the police arrive at the house. It's very interesting because
you get a visual of what the house looked like
when they arrived. And one of the other things that
still kind of blows my mind. Again, we could beat
this with a dead horse, but you know that the
two surviving roommates that were down in the bottom level,
they didn't call police until I believe it was like

(03:54):
eight hours later. They include the nine one one calls,
And first of all, there was an eight hour delay
between when this the murders happened in the house in
the middle and when it was eventually reported. You can
if you know anything about this case. That's been the
biggest debate. There's so many people out there. You can
look at Reddit, you can look at what people post.
People constantly question why they waited eight hours because they

(04:15):
were scared. They did see a man in the house
with the ski mask on, they did hear noises, they so,
but they waited until I believe noon the next day
to actually make the call. Now they play the nine
one one call. And this is what's confusing to me,
because when they play the nine one one call, they
make it as if they're calling and I believe it

(04:35):
was a neighbor that actually came over and checked out
the house and made the nine one one call. But
when they talk to the dispatcher, they make it as
if it's like, like Xana's not waking up, And so
I believe the dispatcher takes it as like we're talking
about college students that probably drink too much the night
before and she's passed out and she's not waking up.
She needs medical attention, and that's the way it's kind

(04:57):
of transcribed over to the medics and the police. I
believe when they come on scene, they're thinking they're walking
into a situation in which they probably have, you know,
an alcohol poisoning or like an overdose of some type,
and they're talking about one female that's like not waking up.
Xanna is the one who fought back. You know, he
originally goes up to the top floor and he he

(05:17):
kills Maddie and Kaylee first. And I believe the prosecution
has always had the theory and I think a lot
of people have also theorized that one of those girls
was the intended victim and he did not expect to
find them sleeping in the bed together, so then he
had to kill both of them. Then he makes his
way out of that bedroom, and they also believe that

(05:38):
a possibility is that he didn't expect to find Xana
in the hallway, so then he has to Then he
has a fight with her. She fights back.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
She's done a lot of unexpected encounterings. Yeah, and my
thought wasn't to kill them.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
Well thought, but you didn't kill someone else first the
other way. Yeah, well, but you didn't murder someone first
before you then encountered someone else that you weren't expect
to encounter. Then he ends up having this fight with Xana,
and we know she has a lot of defensive wounds.
I believe she had close to fifty defensive wounds, so
we know she put up a struggle with him. She

(06:12):
goes into the bedroom where Ethan, her boyfriend is asleep.
That's another one of my questions. I don't understand how
he has this fight with Xanna in the hallway, which
then moves into the bedroom and her boyfriend is in
the bed, but he doesn't end up. To me, it
doesn't ever seem like he's fighting both of them at
the same time.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Right, Maybe some of this will come out.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Anyway, Back to my dog, Murphy the dog. They actually
explain the in this new documentary that they find the dog,
the dog's unharmed, and the police call an animal shelter
to come and get the dog. I was bothered by that.
It really bothered me that they called an animal shelter
because I feel like, if you take the dog away
and he ends up in an animal shelter, he can

(06:53):
just get lost out there in an animal shelter. I
don't understand why he wasn't given to someone else or
a family member or something. I don't know. But anyway,
so now Murphy the dog is living with Jack, who.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
Was not an issue. Well, I was probably take them
to some authorities that can watch over animals, I know.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
But I just know how a dog could get lost
in the system of an animal shelter and I just
felt terrible. But anyway, Murphy the dog ends up back
with Jack, who is the ex boyfriend. Also, Jack shows
up in this documentary because he's it's his ex girlfriend.
So he's at the house and he's asking the police
what's going on, and he's saying, I'm the ex boyfriend,

(07:39):
and they immediately when they hear he's the ex boyfriend.
This is after now they've realized that. Now when the
police have now realize that there are four people dead
in this house. When he's out there talking to the
police saying I'm the ex boyfriend, they immediately detain him
and they put it in the police car and you
can hear them. They're on like you know, they're on

(08:00):
their body camp footage and they're like, this is the
ex boyfriend. We've got it, like we're gonna.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
You know, African I mean ex boyfriend right right.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
So anyway, they put him in the car. He's asking
a lot of questions. They do show video of him
being taken I don't know, downtown right to the police station.
I think he's cleared pretty quickly. He has an alibi.
He was with friends that night. A lot of friends
you know, testify to like he's you know with.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Them, So last time I say, I'm the ex boyfriend. Right.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
But anyway, he now has Murphy the dog, and Murphy
has his own Instagram. He's he was a good ex boyfriend.
His name's Jack. He has Murphy. Murphy's fine. Another takeaway.
And I've said this a million times, but I cannot
get it out of my mind. I still cannot figure
out how Brian Coburger killed four people in that house
within an eight minute timeframe. It just blows my mind.

(08:47):
Other than maybe.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
Many minutes would make you feel more comfortable.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
I think he needs like fifteen minutes. Eight just seems
so quick. I just other than he was just running
on pure adrenaline, and that he didn't expect to run
into the other three people, and that I.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Don't think it takes as long as you think it
takes you. There's a documentary called well, there's an incident
in Sandy Sidro that took place. It was a mass
shooting and it resulted in twenty two deaths. He went
into a McDonald's and shot in the parking lot too,
twenty two deaths. In seventy seven minutes. Actually, no, I

(09:21):
tata twenty two deaths, and the whole incident from the
time the shooter was taken down by snipers with seventy
seven minutes. Probably the whole incident to kill twenty two
people and injure to another twenty with gunshots was a
matter of like ten minutes. I mean, how long do
you want it to take?

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Well, he has a knife. That's why I'm saying it's
a killer.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
It's not like he's like.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Nobody's never killed in doing it, nobody's never killed before.
So I'm just saying eight minutes seems like such a
small time frame for him to slip in the house,
go upstairs, kill Maddie, kill Kayley, come back downstairs, run
into Xana, kill her up in the bedroom, kill Ethan.
Why is Ethan not fighting him while he's fighting Dana.

(10:05):
I don't understand that part.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
I'll try another analogy. Okay, And you watch shows and
all that in the romance, Yeah, and the sacks he
has makes it like hours long? Yeah, it's like five seven,
isn't it in real life?

Speaker 1 (10:18):
I don't This is a strange analogy, but it wanted.
I don't know. This has always been on my mind.
I don't know anyway one more thing that I took
away from it, and I might have more things, but
at the end, I believe it's the chief of police.
They interview him throughout, he's involved in the investigation. At
the very end, he says that he and some of

(10:38):
the other officers that responded and were involved in the case,
they were so affected by what they saw that day
that they've all had to have therapy. And I thought
that was really interesting. That's not something that we normally
talk about. It's not we don't normally think about how
even the.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
Police officers might be a little traumatized to what they
see and experience on certain an occasion.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yeah, but I won. I thought it was really I
thought it was great that here's this you know, chief
of police or whatever his official title was. He's ahead
of this investigation. He's a strong, you know, strapping manly man.
But he admits that they were so affected by these
college murders that by walking into this crime scene and
going through what they had to and the investigation, that

(11:22):
they needed therapy. And that he admitted that and and
talked about it. And I think that was a really
you know, we don't ever think about that. We talk
about all these cases, and we talk about murders, and
we talk about how it affected the families or the friends,
and but we don't really talk about or think about
the first responders and what it is that they see
and what they come up on. And I do you
think about it?

Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yes? Oh, well think about how you don't talk about him?

Speaker 1 (11:42):
All right?

Speaker 2 (11:45):
Okay, anyway, I'm glad you're smiling, and I gave.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
You Okay, but here, no, I give you. I give
you nasty looks when you're not looking. One more thing
we talked about Brian Coberger because if you guys remember
back on July twenty, twenty twenty six, he announced, remember
he wrote that affid David and said that he was
looking to take back his guilty plea. He said, my
actual innocence is my truth, and the plea hinged on

(12:11):
by false promises and blatant disinformation, must be withdrawn. Look,
here's where I'm out with Brian Coburger, because after watching that,
I'm even more convinced that it was him and he
acted alone.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
I mean, you had some doubts earlier.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
Well, there are people that have doubts a lot of
people say he couldn't have done it alone.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
And you know, I was too quick.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
That's what I say that eight minutes. You know. Anyway, here,
take back his guilty plea. Let's go to trial, Brian Coberger.

Speaker 2 (12:37):
Put him on the stand.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
Put him on the stand. I want him grow well,
he'll never testify on his own, behalf. I don't know.
He's such a narcissist. He might you're right, but you
know what, Let's take him to trial. Let's go to trial.
Let's put all the forensic evidence out there. Let's put
all the digital his digital footprint where you know. I
also read this was not in the documentary, but I
read there was someone out there that was involved in
the forensics and they came to the conclusion based upon

(13:01):
I don't know, longitude, latitudes, way beyond the scope of
my my forensic knowledge, but they said that they place
him in the house on multiple occasions prior to him
committing that crime. So there is the theory out there
that he had been stalking one of the girls, probably
Madison or Kayley, and that he had entered the house
before that he knew the layout of the house, and

(13:22):
that's why also maybe he could do it within eight
minutes because he didn't know where to go. It wasn't
fumbling around inside the home.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
System, I know.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
But I do remember reading about the forensics. They were
talking about whatever data there is, big words, and I
remember that and that's what it said. But anyway, again,
let him withdraw his guilty. Please, let's put him on
the stand. He wouldn't testify, but let's put all the evidence.
Let's get all the evidence out there. Let's figure out
the motive. Let's try him.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
Let's crack and tell the story and give a plea
deal or something.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
No, but I want him. I want him to get
the death penalty, So put him. So let's put him
on trial.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
Okay, let's do it. Do you every think sometimes they
should like the same thing should happen to them, Like
let's put him in a room, let's have someone hunt
him down.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
Yeah, hi, yeah, I think about that a lot with
these cases. Remember, like I mean even you know, remember
the scream murders where that was that young girl that
was house sitting and they turned the lights off in
the house and attack her and staff.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
Or like the husband's that push the wives off the cliffs. Oh,
we're going to yeah, we should go hiking with husbands
and push them off the cliffs.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
Oh yeah, and just be like, look at the view.
Take a picture, look at the view. All right, let's
move on to a toxic love story. This was very interesting.
I actually had to do some further research after I
watched the Netflix documentary because I didn't feel like it
gave me very much information. But we are in a

(14:48):
quiet California suburb and newlywed begins receiving messages from someone
who seems to want her dead, and all the digital
evidence points unmistakably to one woman, her husband's e What
follows is a calculated, deeply personal campaign of terror so
elaborate it's hard to believe a real person could have
orchestrated it. As investigators close in on their suspect, something

(15:12):
just feels slightly off. All right, So this is a
toxic love story. It was on Netflix. I would have
to say, just to be honest about this, I don't
feel like Netflix did a great job of giving any
background information or facts that you need to actually understand. No,
I think there is a a reveal. There is a

(15:32):
shocking reveal where the person you think is doing it
or whatever. Yeah, and we're going to get into that.
But I think in order for Netflix to maintain that
integrity of the shock that they want the viewer to,
you know, to feel, they had to leave out pertinent
facts because if you had these facts, you could have
felt like at the end that yeah, and I feel

(15:55):
like I feel like Netflix focused so much on just
having this shocking reveal, they left out a lot of
the information that you would need in order to understand
actually what's going on. But let's get into it. So
we're in twenty thirteen, and this is the relationship that
begins between Michelle Hadley and Ian Diaz. He's a deputy
US Marshall. That's interesting, and they meet on a dating

(16:18):
app in August of twenty thirteen. Ian tells Michelle he
loves her by the second date. Wow, this actually takes
place in Anaheim, California. By the waycha, he's well, I mean,
according to him.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
He probably one of the second day he loves them.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
He's love bombing, right.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
Maybe it's his first second.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
Date, his first second date. Yeah, oh that makes sense,
it's his first second maybe.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
Well, he loves her. He's like, you're gonna go out
with me again? I love you.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
Yeah, let me give you another information about him. You
can tell me what you decipher from that. He is
one of those Disneyland adults. He loves Disney and with
no kids, no kids, but loves Disney and loves to
go to Disney all the time.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
What does he do there?

Speaker 1 (16:56):
He just walks around.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
Out in Fantasyland or where is he? Mostly?

Speaker 1 (17:00):
I don't knowbody loves Disney.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
Oh oh, okay, you murders can love Disney too.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
He's not a murderer. Oh sorry, nobody murders anybody in
this is a true well you can have crime that
is a crime.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
We're going to give a teaser at the beginning for.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
I did Well. It's stalking and cyber crimes, all right. So,
December twenty fourteen, And proposes to Michelle during a Christmas
trip to New York City. Then the couple buys a

(17:37):
four hundred and sixty eight thousand dollars condo in downtown Anaheim, which,
by the way, he wants to buy it because it's
located so close to Disneyland. He can see the they
can see the fireworks at night from their balcony. Michelle
puts down roughly fourteen thousand dollars of her own savings
and that's for the down payment. I believe because I
had to go and watch There was a dateline episode

(17:58):
on this as well. So if if you actually want
facts and information about this case that makes sense, you
have to do your own research. She cannot rely on Netflix,
so I went outside of Netflix watched the Dateline one.
Also read a lot of articles and figured out that
they bought this condo together in Anaheim and that she
put the down payment down.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
Okay, now this is their forever home or is this
like their getaway to go to Disneyland.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
No, this is like they're living there together, very young couple.
You know they bought this condo.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
Michelle later alleges that Ian became controlling. He was monitoring
her location, installing cameras and pressuring her into a sexual
scenario involving another mantall cameras I don't know. She says
she eventually gave into the sexual fantasy on Valentine's Day
of twenty fourteen, an incident that she compared to rape.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
So that's awful.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
Yeah, So I think this is what I think about Michelle.
I think she was a very sweet, naive young girl.
I think Ian was semi good looking. He's a US Marshal,
and he love bombed her, and I don't think she
had a lot of experience, so.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
She probably thought this is love. He loves me. So
this is my husband.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
Right, Well, they're not married yet, but this.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
Is my husband. Yes, I will marry you.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
Right, they move in together, they get this condo together,
all right. Michelle also says Ian pressured her to take
a lower paying marketing job at Disneyland, which she believed
was so his former coworkers could keep tabs on her. Oh. Yeah,
he used to work at Disneyland before he became a
US Marshal. Okay, so his obsession with Disney is a
bit questionable. Odd. Well, then we get to August judgments here, August,

(19:34):
what you judge everyone? What are you talking about? Yes?

Speaker 2 (19:37):
You do? Well, if the murder I do, then I
call it my murderer. You call him crooks, crooked murders.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
All right, So we get to August of twenty fifteen,
Michelle and Ian split up. She moves out of their
shared condo, but remains on the hook for half of
the mortgage.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
So two years later they split up.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
Yeah, she she finally realizes like this controlling behavior is
not normal and she needs to get a away from him.
Following the breakup, Michelle sends and to emotionally charge, religiously
worded emails, messages that would later be used against her.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
So I don't know if what kind of cont I
don't know if I had it away from No.

Speaker 1 (20:16):
They she she was religious, and I know she sent
two emails that had some religious undertones like God will
judge you or something like that. I don't have the
exact wording, but they were religious in nature and religious tone,
and she did send two of them. They both end
up this is by late twenty fifteen. They both end
up hiring real estate attorneys to mediate the condo dispute.

(20:37):
They agreed. None of this was in the Netflix documentary.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
By the way, what any of this matter? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (20:42):
It does? Okay, all right, So you have to understand,
because you can't in the Netflix. You don't really understand
why he has such a like animosity towards her and
why he wants to do all these things that he's
doing to her. You don't understand it. You're like, well,
what is like, she's an ex, she left, she doesn't
to be with him.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
Okay, but before you get why couldn't it just be
he's crazy and he's like psycho and attached to her,
right like he's a.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
Because he's not. He moved on and he has a
new wife. He gets married very quickly after they break up,
all right, So both of them end up hiring real
estate attorneys to mediate the condo dispute, and they agree.
They come to a mediation agreement that starting in June
of twenty sixteen, Ian alone would be responsible. This is important.
You have to understand I'm following all that Ian alone
would be responsible for the mortgage and he would be

(21:29):
forced to sell or if he can't cover the mortgage himself,
he has to sell the condo and split the proceeds
with Michelle.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
Okay, so she still has an interest in the condo,
but he's supposed to be financially responsible for it going forward.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
Right, But he only has like a certain amount of time.
I think he has like six months or something in
order to get everything in order to get his own loan.
And if he can't do that, then they have to
sell the condo and split it very quickly after they
break up. So now we get to February of twenty sixteen,
Ian marries Angela Connell after meeting her on a dating

(22:04):
site roughly one month earlier.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
Disney dating site.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
And I don't know if it's dating.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
I don't patrol dating site.

Speaker 1 (22:13):
Angela moves into the Anaheim condo and soon claims to
be pregnant with twins.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
You got here pregnant with twins? All right? Like he
has moved on. He did move on.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
Yeah, he meets this girl and the months later they
get married. She moves into the condo. So now she's
living in the condo that he bought with the X. Right,
so she wants to stay in the condo. She claims
she's pregnant with twins. So that's where we're at now.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
With him as the father.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
I assume he believes he's the father.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
Oh, it's lot of crazy people out there. Okay, So
all right.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
All right, so you got the players, all right? So
Ian married Angela. Angela claims to be pregnant with twins.
They're living in the condo that he bought with Michelle, right, Okay.
Angela begins receiving threatening emails from a sender named lilis Truth.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
Now lilis her last name is Truth.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
No, it's a made up name. Lilis's Truth. So anyway,
I don't know Jane Doe. No, not like Jane Doe.
Jingdo would be Jane Doe. Liliths Truth is the name
of the account that these emails are coming from, and
a Lilith, which I didn't know because.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
Me. Yeah, no, they explain it.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
Lilith is. Do you know the name Lilith?

Speaker 2 (23:24):
Oh? I just know this email account. No.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
Well, the name Lilith, I guess has some type of
religious undertone to it. In Jewish folklore and medieval text,
Lilith is described as Adam's first wife. Did you know
Adam had a first wife?

Speaker 2 (23:37):
Are you talking Adam and Eve? Yes, keep going.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
Adam's first wife who was created from the same dust
of the earth, but she left Eden after refusing to
be subservient. So her name is Lilith, So it's a
religious undertone of this.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
Lilith Truth is the last So.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Angela and Ian accuse Michelle Hadley, his ex girlfriend, of
sending these emails.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
Michelle, on the other hand, begins noticing suspicious account activity.
Google and Microsoft notices for accounts that she did not create. Okay,
So on June twenty first, that's your birthday. June twenty first,
at twenty.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
Sixteen, on day of the year, first day of summer.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
Yeah, that's Shane's birthday if anybody wanted to know. Yeah,
his birthday was on Father's Day this year. And just
fun fact, I went to in.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
Fact, Emily left me on my birthday and Father's Day.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
I went to Idaho to do a horse drive the
day before his birthday. And I have never heard the
end of it since then. So here's the first police report.
Anne and Angela go to the Anaheim Police Department and.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
Report Angela's number two, right, Yes, Angela's.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
Wife number two, and she's claiming to be pregnant with twins.
And they only knew each other for a month and
they got married, okay, And they're living in the condo
that Michelle paid the down payment, and Michelle is now gone,
right Okay. They go to the Anaheim Police Department and
report that Michelle Hadley is harassing, threatening, and cyberstalking Angela.
Angela tells the police that Michelle has been sending violent,

(25:05):
threatening emails, including threats to her and her unborn children.
You know, they show some of these emails and the
wording A lot of it has all these religious undertones,
talking about Lilith and God will punish you. And then
I guess she also puts photos of like dead babies
and aborted fetuses, all kinds of things. So it's like,
it's not just its So.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
How do we only because they're claiming it came from
girlfriend number one?

Speaker 1 (25:32):
They're claiming it came from her.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
There's nothing in there that says.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
It no, Okay, well no no.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
And it's only because of the emails that they say
it came from her. There's no other evidence there. Why
wouldn't they just label it her name? Is there gonna?

Speaker 1 (25:44):
Maybe that was maybe it was too obvious. I don't
know they I don't know, all right. So then in
June twenty sixteen, we get to the point where men
are showing up at the condo. So also there was
a fake Craigslist, Like, I didn't know you could do
this on Craig's List?

Speaker 2 (26:00):
Did you didn't know you can go on Craigslist and
make Oh wait, what is it?

Speaker 1 (26:03):
You didn't even let me finish?

Speaker 2 (26:05):
What is it?

Speaker 1 (26:06):
First of all, finish they create there is a a
fake Craigslist posting talking about wanting a rape fantasy. So
it's soliciting someone to come to Angela's condo and to
like play out like a rape fantasy.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
Right, And you didn't know someone could post that thing.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
I didn't know you could post something like that on Craigslist.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
We probably can't probably get taken down.

Speaker 1 (26:28):
Well, I'm just saying I look at Craigslist, but I.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
Just look at like we didn't we do a case
once where there was like that where they claim they
they they recruited a victim to come and act like
he was going to be the the assailant. Yeah that
was and then they they he was really an innocent victim.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah that was the That was the out pair, the
Brazilian pair, right.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
Kind of this utilized Craigslist, Right, So.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
They're using Craigslist and there's a rape fantasy ad posted
on Craigslist, which is.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
Something I bet Craig never thought would be used.

Speaker 1 (26:59):
Probably not Craig out there, just like what is going on?
This gives Angela claims of harassment that pressures police and
prosecutors to act. So Angela calls the police, right, and
then the police show up and she's saying that a
man showed up at her house for this fake rape
fantasy situation with her that she had nothing to do with.
And they showed up at her condo because the ad

(27:20):
obviously put the address of her condo in pictures of
her in it, saying that she was like she was
the one that was posting it wanting this type of fantasy.
And so someone, she claims, calls the police and claims
that someone showed up to like execute this fantasy.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
The person that sees this ad and thinks, oh, yeah,
I'll go and phil phillis fantasy. I mean that's a little.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Well, they interview the guy because there is a guy
that actually showed up.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
Well, and that guy probably that might not be the
first place he showed up too. He might search regularly.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
Yeah, there were I mean, this this rape fantasy on
Craigslist was posted more than once because I believe that
there was someone who actually did show up, and then
I believe that. Then then when she calls the police,
she she claims that she was attacked by someone in
her garage, and she says they grabbed the back of
her neck.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
And you know, don't these guys even for one thing.
I mean, because anyone could do it. It could be a joke, right,
you could do it as a sick joke. Yeah, and
cause harm to someone. I mean, wouldn't they want to
think to vet it and said just like okay and
then just go to the house and start.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
Well, No, the guy that they interview actually did vet it.
He said he didn't. He wanted to make sure it
was like a legitimate.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
Like fantasy, like I just pretend to rape I don't
really want to.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yeah, so he actually called and I believe he spoke
to her, and yeah, so they interview him. But then
they also report that she was actually physically attacked by
someone because of these postings, and that she was grabbed
by the back of the neck and she was like
smashed up against the wall and there was like makeup
on the wall and she was all, you know, frazzled looking,

(28:50):
and they called the police, and Ane's all like, aren't
you going to arrest Michelle? She's the one doing this?

Speaker 2 (28:56):
Uh huh.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
So Angela calls nine one one and claims a massive
intruder broke into the garage and attempted to rape her.
This false police report is the final move that leads
directly to Michelle's arrest. So here's the thing. They're so
adamant that it's Michelle behind this, and that now it's
escalated from threatening emails to now this rape situation where

(29:18):
Angela's physically bend allegedly physically harmed by someone and attacked
in her garage, and they're demanding that action be taken
against Michelle because they're like, she's the ex it's obvious
that it's her, she's sending threatening emails, et cetera. So
they arrest Michelle. Based on Angela and Ann's reports, Anaheim
Police arrest Michelle Hadley. She was twenty nine years old

(29:41):
at the time, and she is charged with cyberstalking and
other crimes. She maintains her innocence throughout, but is held
in jail. This is the part I didn't understand where
I had to get the information from dateline. She's twenty
nine years old, Yeah, she has no prior history of crime.
She's in jail for like, I don't know, like eighty
days or something.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
WHOA, this is really yes without bail.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
Right, And they did not explain this and the Netflix documentary,
I was so confused. I was like, why is this
girl not getting bailed out? Well, finally, in the Dateline episode,
they interview her parents and her bond was set in
a million dollars, which is high. What do you have
to come up with for bail?

Speaker 2 (30:19):
You have to come up with if you can get
a bail bomb, right, So.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
Basically they interview her dad and her mom are both
in the date Line one, and the dad says to her,
I can get you out on bail, like I can
come up with the one hundred thousand dollars, but we
can either use the one hundred thousand dollars to get
you out on bail or use it for a good
defense attorney. And so he said, but that's it, Like,
this is all I can come up with, So you

(30:43):
have to decide it's our budget. That's our budget. This
is all I can come up with.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
Well, maybe that's all they could come up with them.

Speaker 1 (30:48):
No, and I agree, And so she said, and I
give her props for this because she's just like a
young looks like a young, innocent, sweet girl and she's
in prison. She says, no, I want you to spend
the money on a defense attorney. And so she stays
in prison. And they did not explain that in Netflix,
because I did not understand why she spent so much
time in prison. Now I get it. So then they begin,

(31:13):
so he hires I forget the attorney's name, but he
hires a really good defense attorney who immediately starts like
doing all the forensics right on all the emails and
the cyber stocking and the Craigslist ads and all these
type of things. So investigators, also including a Department of
Justice cyber team, start tracing the origin of the emails

(31:35):
and the Craigslist posts. Digital forensics revealed that the communications
were routed from devices and accounts that were tied back
to the Anaheim condo. A critical piece of evidence, which
was investigators find fragments of a Lilis lilith Is Truth
email on Ian Diaz's DOJ issued laptop, and the email

(31:56):
revealed someone was posting as Michelle and catfishing a man
to the condo. Here's where it gets crazy. This is
the part I don't understand.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
So it's just so far they've narrowed down, yeah, that
it doesn't seem to be coming from yeah, the first.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
Wife, but according to the dateline that I watched, I
don't even know if it was the police that determined
that it was her defense attorney that was working diligently
on her behalf and hired forensics to come up with
information that showed that she was not behind this digital footprint.
I believe it was her defense attorney that presented it

(32:30):
to the prosecutors, and then based upon that information, then
they started doing their own investigation and they started.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
To realize that would have been my thought. The first
place to look at is like the IP addresses and
all that such a track at least, where is it
coming from?

Speaker 1 (32:45):
Well, I well, I do know that they used like inhibitors.
I don't know, like the tech, but they were using
some type of things that inhibited you being able to
see where it was coming from. Like he was using
a lot of digital.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
Yeah, he was tracing it like the origins of the
emails and stuff.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
No, I'm saying the guy Ian Diaz, who was the
original perpetrator of this crime, was like.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
Kind of like firewalls or some type of layers. Yes,
so it wasn't it wouldn't be as traceable, right, Oh, Okay,
So I think it was sophisticated. So I think that's
why they just in the beginning. Also because all of
these emails had this religious undertone, and they asked, Michelle,
you know when they're they're say, did you send these
first two emails? Because remember we talked about how her

(33:35):
original emails to him when she was mad at which
did come from her, had the same religious undertone, so
he was smart to continue carried on that. And so
they believed it was coming from her because they thought
that because it all had the same religious undertone, that
it was her continuing with that.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
And so that was kind of the evidence they had.
And then she didn't post bail, and I'm sure they
kind of.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
Dropped all the evidence was this email looks like this email.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
Yes, that's why I'm telling you. I was so confused
why this woman who had no prior history of any
type of criminal behavior the same fund, right, So I
was like, why is this girl spending eighty something days
in jail. That's when I figured out that it came
down to the parents can only afford defense or to

(34:23):
pay for her bond. She chose to stay in prison.
And then it was her defense attorney that was doing
the forensics and the digging that came up with the
information that showed that it was coming from the condo.
He presented that to the prosecution. That's when they were
tipped off that they needed to start digging deeper and
figure out that it wasn't just that it wasn't her,

(34:44):
that it was actually coming from Ian and it was
coming from Angela. Then they prosecute Angela. Only they don't
even realize in the beginning that he had anything to.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
Do with it. He's living apartment for free, He's just.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
Watching fireworks on his balcony. He got rid of Michelle.
Angela is the one that gets prosecuted for this. And
here's my question I do not understand. Was first of all,
she's faking the pregnancy. She's not really pregnant with twins?

Speaker 2 (35:08):
Oh what Yes? Does she have a prosthetic? Yes? That
was that was maternal and these This is really concerning.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
I know, okay, I have so many questions. In the
Netflix documentary, they do this whole backstory on Angela Diaz,
and first of all, they don't even like lead up
to it. I was confused. First we're talking about Ian
and he likes Disneyland and Michelle, and then the next
thing you know, they switch over to Angela and then
they start giving this whole backstory about how she used

(35:39):
to date this guy previously and they were in a
relationship together and they're interviewing him and they're talking about
how she had this huge elaborate scheme where she was
faking cancer.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
What so she faked find these people? Where do they
come from?

Speaker 1 (35:53):
I guess they're on dating apps, Craigslist and dating apps.
This is why we can't ever get divorced, because then
I'll have to end up on some dating app.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
No, a reason to not get divorced because you love me?

Speaker 1 (36:02):
Oh right, I'm sorry, Yes, you're right, I love you
to do anyway. So they do this whole backstory of
her faking cancer and it come Actually is so intriguing
to me, this cancer backstory because they interviewed this friend
that she had that was close to her at the time,
who figured out she didn't have cancer. And they interview her.

(36:23):
She's like a spitfire. She's funny because she's like, just like,
I knew she was lying. And so they they plan
this whole intervention where they tell her like she's coming
over for a party to like celebrate a party, coming.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
Over to say, yeah, congratulations, you're in remission.

Speaker 1 (36:39):
You don't have cancer. No, they like have an intervention
to like confront her about lying. So there's all these
people in this room. It's like her boyfriend and this
friend and all these other friends. And she walks in
and they're like, you're a liar. You don't really have cancer.
And she's like oh. And she also claims to be
an attorney and he's like, and you're not an attorney either.

(37:01):
And the friend is like, show me your port. I
guess a port is where if you get chemo. I
think that's where they put the where they put the
drugs or the infusion or something in Yeah, And so
she keeps yelling at her, show me your report, show
me your port. She chases her out of the house
and she's like, show me your port anyway. So they
do this backstory on Netflix, basically, I think, just to

(37:22):
show like what a scam artist this girl is. Right, Yeah,
my question again, I can and I can't figure this out.
She was lying about being pregnant. They arrest her for
being the They finally figure out she's the one that's
responsible for sending the emails to herself and creating this
whole Craigslist rate fantasy for herself. Right, They arrest her

(37:44):
for that, she goes on trial. Not one time does
she ever give up Ian. I don't understand that because
they don't figure out until way later after they've arrested
her and she goes on trial and I think she
got like five years in prison or something.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
Oh, he's gonna be the father of her two fake.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
Children, right, so she ever, she never implicates him.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
He's only you would throw me under the bus so fast.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
Absolutely, I'd be like, you're on her. I did not
act alone.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
I've been waiting for this day. You're on lock him up.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
My other question is did Ian know that she was
faking the pregnancy or was Ian and Angela together scamming
Michelle so they could get rid of Michelle and get
her in prison so that they could keep the condo
and he thought she was really pregnant, or was Angela

(38:47):
scamming him while she was scamming Michelle at the same.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
Time she was scamming the scammer like.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
She was scamming the scammer, because it looked to me
like when he finds out she's not pregnant, like he's
legitimately confused that she's not pregnant. So anyway, I don't.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
Know, well any are any of these people trustworthy? No?

Speaker 1 (39:05):
But it's just I was like, did Ian not did
he really believe that she was pregnant? Or does he?
Was he scammed while he was scamming Michelle? She was
scamming him anyway?

Speaker 2 (39:16):
Is this lady still around Angela Diaz?

Speaker 1 (39:18):
Yeah, she would be out of prison now. I think
she's like laying low some shore. She probably changed her name, yeah,
but he she would change her name. You think she's
on a dating app with the name Angela Diaz probably, Well,
you couldn't find her you have dating app on I don't.

Speaker 2 (39:31):
Think she's really like hiding anywhere. Does all this crap
out in the open?

Speaker 1 (39:36):
No, she's laying low. After this Netflix documentary, you think
she could just be out there openly dating.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
She might be more popular.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
So, after eighty eight days in jail, Michelle Hadley is
finally released. She has lost nearly three months of her
life to a crime she did not commit orchestrated by
her ex fiance's new wife, then Orange County District Attorney
Tony Raca rack Aucus. Tony Rackaucus formerly smissus all charges
against Michelle Hadley and publicly declares that she is fully exonerated.

(40:06):
Angela Connell pleads guilty to ten felony counts, including fraud,
false imprisonment, and filing a false police report. Angela is
sentenced to five years in state prison for her role
in the scheme. See this is what I'm talking about.
When she's going to when she's arrested, and I mean
she takes a I don't she's sentenced to five years.

(40:27):
She pleads guilty to all these felonies. I don't think
she implicates Ian at all during this. So that's what
I'm confused about, Like she didn't throw him under the bus.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
Well, it's not confusion, it's just you have a question.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
Why didn't she Yeah, I'm just saying, you're going to prison,
and you obviously didn't orchestrate all this on your own.
The two of you were working together to, you know,
so you could keep the condo in Anaheim.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
I'm sure he's duped her into thinking, like, you know,
you'll get out, don't worry, don't you know, don't implicate me.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
So then in February of twenty seventeen, this is when
the case, this case gets national attention because NBC's Dateline
airs an episode titled Diabolical, It covers the case, bringing
it to a wide national audience for the first time.
Michelle Hadley files a federal civil lawsuit against the City
of Anaheim for city employees and Angela Diaz and I
and Diaz, alleging wrongful arrest and civil rights violations. I

(41:19):
don't know what the outcome of that is, but I
would think I think she gets some type of settlement
from the city.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
I'm sure to some degree.

Speaker 1 (41:26):
How do you spend seriously, how do you spend eighty
eight days in jail? And the like you were making
fun of earlier, were you're talking about the funt But
that's really it. So the only evidence they got against
her is that this is any.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
And she appears to have a good attorney because he
did well, it's surprising that he couldn't get her out.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
Well, he could eventually, but he had to do all
that he had to do all that fun I.

Speaker 2 (41:47):
Meant, like lower the bail or something of that effect,
like procedurally not talking about that guilty.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
Well he did, But I'm saying probably first of all,
her parents she's in jail. First of all, her parents
have to come up with a one hundred thousand dollars.

Speaker 2 (41:59):
I know, I know.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
Yeah, I'm just saying there's a timeline.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
That would just be my question. Maybe he thought, you know,
resources are limited, funds are limited. I'm going to focus
on the trial, right right, So all right.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
So Angelas serves her sentence and she's released from prison.
She relocated to Arizona and notably later works. Now she
works in counseling and re entry programming.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
She's a marriage therapist.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
It's also remember also when we did the episode on Candy.
Remember Candy is the one that murdered her friend and
the well, I don't know if it was murdered. She
got off, the jury got her off on self defense.
Then she became like a family therapist, remember.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
No, But yeah, that's it seems to be.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
A trend where it's like these people commit crimes and
then they end up being like a therapist after the fact,
Like would you go to therapy?

Speaker 2 (42:43):
That's like I I, you know, in prison for embezzlement.
Now I'm a CPA.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
Right, It's like, wait, what I mean she works in counseling.
You're talking about someone that faked cancer, faked being an attorney, faked.

Speaker 2 (42:56):
Craigs being a nice person.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
All right, So the City of Anaheim settles Michelle's civil
lawsuit for one point eight million, approved by the Anaheim
City Council. The financial settlement is confirmed in court filings
in April of twenty twenty one. Yeah, that's like, oh,
I'm sorry, we messed up.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
We put it. They're always settled, that's the thing. If there's
something there, they always settle because it's the city is
not their money they signing on.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
Here you go the taxpayer.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
Yeah yeah, but it's not feeling. It pulls up business. Yeah,
and the CEO and the board and everyone felt it.
One point eight million dollars. You better believe they're going
to implement policies and make sure this doesn't happen again. Yeah,
but this day is like, eah, all right, just give
a DRK.

Speaker 1 (43:33):
But again, I mean, eighty eight days in prison based
upon like you were just saying, the evidence is like,
it's just like, oh, well, you must have sent these.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
Emails science as you call it, because you send some.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
Emails earlier that were religious, and now there's some other
emails that are religious, so it must have.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
Been you imagine if they put her name of the email,
then would have been. It's definitely you, right, it says
so right here?

Speaker 1 (43:52):
All right, So after Angela goes well, Ian isn't caught
until later.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
Oh okay, we're going to get to you.

Speaker 1 (43:58):
Yeah. And this is why the net Flix documentary doesn't
really give you the facts that you need, because I
know that the big shocking this is why it was
I think popular, is because the whole time you're watching,
you really don't think that he's involved. Do you feel
like Angela because they do the whole background on her, like,
you know, with the cancer scam, right and pretending to
be an attorney and everyone confronting her, so you're like, okay,

(44:22):
this girl is a con artist, right. She reminded me
of the maternal instinct girl, where you're just creating lie
after lie after lie after lie to stay in a
relationship and to convince everyone. So you really feel like
Angela is the culprit through the whole thing, and you
don't know that Ian is also involved. And you also
find out he doesn't know that she's pregnant, like he
doesn't know what she's faked.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
During this twe before they bring up Ian and being
prosecuted and all that, did you think he was involved.
Were you questioning, like, why isn't he or did you think, oh, okay,
I will.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
Tell you I would not have thought that he was involved.
I think they did a very good job of making
it like Angela's the psychopath. However, they interviewed a friend
of his, this girl. I don't know how this girl
went to work the next day after this Netflix documentary aired,
because she was a good friend of Ian for many,
many years, and they interview her, and you can tell

(45:13):
that she's like completely in love with Ian, even though
she keeps claiming in the interview that she's not in
love with Ian. But at the end of her interview,
she says, she says out loud, She says this out loud.
She says, I don't care how much evidence you present
to me, I will never believe that he's guilty. He
will always be innocent in my mind. Like she says

(45:34):
something to that effect, and I just sat there and thought, girl, well.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
Did that explain why girl should implicate him?

Speaker 1 (45:41):
No, this is a different girl. Though, This is a
different girl. This is not Angela Diaz.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
All right. Sometimes they get really frustrated with these people,
which is really confusing. And I start to Really, you're
wondering about the crime i'mdering. How do they pay their bills?
How do they have a job? How do they get
their groceries? I struggle getting groceries and cooking and making
food and putting the kids to bed and doing all
those things, and cleaning and doing laundry, and worrying about you,
getting upset about this and that. And then these people,
how do they live there? Like faking a pregnancy, can't

(46:09):
take cancer somehow managing date to squander fourteen thousand dollars
to someone to get a house, and he lives in
the house, and then she she leaves, and then he's
still in the house. How do they do it? And
then he finds another woman that won't blame him for anything.
And I can't get you to go get me a

(46:29):
diet coke from downstairs and bring it to me. I'm
launching a show.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
I'm sorry about your life.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
That's what I think of. So, yeah, I get lost
in all these names. These people are crazy, yes, so
I'm not talking about it. And I would like a
documentary on how to live like a murder? How do
they live? You mean, like a day in the life
of a murder or someone like, you know, a scammer,
Like how do they live? How do they do that?
I don't know how they do that?

Speaker 1 (46:50):
I know, but they get caught eventually, and then.

Speaker 2 (46:51):
Somebody people have like big homes and stuff like the
ones in Utah where she was like a fake therapist
or whatever, and old brack or whatever. And then they
have like big houses and all this stuff. And then
and haven't forbid, the kids listen to them, right, albeit abuse,
they're abusing them, but they get these kids to do everything.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
Okay, But but.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
What baffles you is why didn't she implicate him? Baffles
me as how did he sleep at night and do
everything just fine? Like what is he for breakfast? How
does he handle it? I don't know, because you're not
a criminal.

Speaker 1 (47:24):
But they all eventually get caught and they end up
in prisons. Is that where you want to go?

Speaker 2 (47:28):
Yeah? But he probably had a less stress a more
stress free life leading up to his conviction and maybe
possibly today than I do.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
Okay, but you're not going to prison.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
I know that's the thing. And I'm more stressed than him.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
Well you need to be less stressed.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
Because I'm just telling you how I feel when I
never told you that before. When I hear all this stuff,
it boggles my mind. I don't know how they do it.
And then and then like these crooks get all these attorneys.
I'm like, how do they afford all this stuff? And
then he's quick to go find another woman.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
It took him a month, I know, cause he's on
a dating app. He's like, on, I don't know, I
don't even know what dating apps are. If you would
like to get on a dating app, I'm sure you
could find someone that would you would take the fall
for me, yes, and she would probably fake a pregnancy.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
Fake email. My wife is that religious undertones?

Speaker 1 (48:26):
All right? So let's just talk about So Ian eventually
is caught, but it is way later, So how is
he finally caught? Initially, investigators assumed.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
That Angela way later.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
It's like, I think, yeah, years later, it's twenty twenty
three is when he finally gets convicted. So this started
back in twenty sixteen. So initially, investigators assumed that Angela
had routed the threatening emails and Craigslist ads through approximately
eight different fake accounts, using virtual private networks and third
party proxy servers to mask her IP address. However, investigating

(49:02):
that means no. But I'm just hoping that people out
there do. I don't know how. I mean, I understand
that it was it was complex, like.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
They had a call, you understand.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
I understand it was complex. They had a very complex
system and you know, in the works however, very sophisticated. However,
Investigator's cyber team ultimately traced the digital trail of these
communications back to the Anaheim condo, which is the home
Ian and Angela shared. All Right, So the most damning
evidence against Ian was that a lot of this or

(49:32):
this Lilith is truth. These emails they found. Pieces of
it were discovered on Ian Diaz's DOJ issued government laptop,
which means that he was sending.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
So he worked for the Department of Justice.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
No, the Department of Justice was investigating him because he
was a US marshal, right.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
Yes, and so he had a laptop issue issued.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
Why do people use their work email and laptop? I
knew you were going to commit crimes. I don't get it.
I don't even want to use it to email my
friend to say hi. I don't get it.

Speaker 1 (50:05):
Well, I think he thought he was like had some
type of immunity. No, not immunity. Well, I think he
thought he had some type of I don't know this
complicated like blocking system that because they only could find
fragments of it. He thought he was like.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
He thought he was better than them. Yeah, I figured
it out.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
He thought he had it figured out right.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
Well good, But why wouldn't he just go to best
bud Is by his own blacktop for like two hundred bucks?

Speaker 1 (50:27):
He why would he frame his ex girlfriend so that
he could stay in a four hundred thousand dollars condo
because he can't pay the mortgage on his own and
he wants to keep the full down payment. Okay, I
mean he's going to an elaborate scheme just so he
can keep a condo so he doesn't have to.

Speaker 2 (50:44):
Sell it with someone that's going through an elaborate scheme
to fake pregnancy with him.

Speaker 1 (50:49):
Right, this is weird, right, I know? All right? So
they were found fragments on his DOJ issued laptop.

Speaker 2 (50:58):
Do you think they have good times together, like go
out like before all this happened, Like they actually go
to movies and laugh and that fun. You think there's
constantly on the computer scamming.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
No, I think they like scam and send like fake
emails and then they sit back and they like go
to dinner, and they're like, oh, that was a good one.
We really got them, And I think I think that's
what they do.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
Yeah. The fragments that were on his laptop showed Ian
posing as Michelle, posing as Angela, catfishing a man to
the condo, and this three layer impersonation on a government
computer directly implicated Ian, not just Angela, in orchestrating the scheme.
Ian and Angela had created fake email accounts registered under

(51:38):
false identities to send the threatening messages. Forensic analysis linked
these accounts back to the couple. According to the federal indictment,
the scheme ran approximately from May twenty sixteen through September
of twenty sixteen, the same window during which Michelle was
arrested and jailed. The indictment confirmed Ian was an active
co conspirator, not a passive by standard. They also went

(52:01):
back and they had a bodycam footage of the police
when they came, you know, because they were always calling
the police saying, oh, we got these threatening emails again.
Oh this guy came to the house and attacked me. Yeah,
so they pulled up the bodycam footage and they were
analyzing his behavior on the bodycam footage, and then they
noticed that he was acting strange. He was looking at
the laptop. He was saying things that he probably shouldn't

(52:22):
have known, you know what I mean. So that now
that they were on to him, they were analyzing like
what he was saying in his behavior. Right after pleading
not guilty, Ian Diaz went on trial in federal court
and a jury convicted him on all four counts. It
was conspiracy to commit cyberstalking, cyberstalking, perjury, and obstruction of

(52:44):
a federal proceeding. On June thirtieth of twenty twenty three,
I dis was sentenced to ten years and one month
in federal prison plus three years of supervised release. He
is sent to FMC and Fort Worth with a projected
release date of January thirty first, two thousand and thirty one.
So he is currently in prison for his part in

(53:05):
this elaborate scheme.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
When was he sentenced in twenty three?

Speaker 1 (53:09):
In twenty twenty three, oh wow.

Speaker 2 (53:11):
So he was walking free for eight almost eight years.

Speaker 1 (53:13):
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirms all four of
his convictions on appeal, and the United States Supreme Court
denies his petition for review, leaving his sentence fully intent.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
The victim in all this, Michelle, Yeah, she really as
unfortunate as it was that she had to go through
what she did. Yeah, she really got out lucky. I
mean she could have been dead, she could have been hurt,
she could have been ruined for some more traumatic experience.
It could have been ongoing for a long time. So
I mean as unfortunate as it was that she had

(53:46):
to prove her innocence, you know, over what was it
eight months or something.

Speaker 1 (53:50):
Well, I will tell you, I give credit. She had
a good defense attorney and they interview him. And you
know how I always say, if I ever get if
I ever get in any kind of trouble, I'm gonna
call Brian Friedman or at because you know, I'm out there,
I'm out there scamming all the time. This guy, I
can't remember his name. I googled him when I was
watching it. That guy that he was a good attorney.

(54:10):
He he did his he earned his paycheck. And I'm
glad her parents decided on the spending the one hundred
thousand hours.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
You're looking at me like, so, don't you dare create
any emails with underlying religious tones and send it to
me because you're gonna get an attorney to find it.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
Well, I know what attorney, I know what attorney to
go to. I don't remember, but I here it. All all
I have to do is pull up the documentary. He
was a great attorney. He did he he represented her.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
Well, I'm glad he did.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
All right. Let's Michelle Hadley? Where is she now?

Speaker 2 (54:41):
So?

Speaker 1 (54:41):
Michelle earned her master's degree and relocated to New York City.
She's worked in marketing for six years and has since
moved again. She is raising her young daughter and has
become a public advocate for survivors of false accusations and.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
Stalking getting That's a Party Conversation.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
She has published two books, The Courage to Heal and
Courage to Love. Ian is still currently incarcerated in Fort
Worth and he's His projected release date is January thirty,
first of twenty thirty one. He's not writing books because
he is still actively trying to overturn his convictions. And
Angela Connell was released from prison in twenty twenty and

(55:18):
lives in Arizona and is working in counseling.

Speaker 2 (55:21):
When we talked about it, Courage to Heal.

Speaker 1 (55:25):
Michelle Hadley's books is Courage to Heal and The Courage
to Love, So those are her two books. I felt
sorry for her. She was just a young naive girl
that ended up start.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
She really made the most of it.

Speaker 1 (55:36):
She had great one she had great parents, so she
had a good support system and she had a great
defense attorney. So that really that's how she ended up.
She because you're right, if they didn't investigate further and
she didn't have a good defense attorney that really did
all the forensics and really went to the prosecution and said,
you be.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
Talking about it different, different topic with her right twenty
years now, she's getting out of jail.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
Right, all right, guys, that is a toxic love story.
Like I said before, it's on Netflix. But if you
really want to get the real information on this, make
sure you watch the podcast. Make sure we'll listen to
the podcast, and make sure you watch the dateline episode.
It's called diabolical. They called it diabolical because I believe
when the pros when the DA exonerated Michelle and he

(56:15):
gave a press conference, he said this was a diabolical
one of the fun Yeah that was you're right, you know, yeah,
so it's stuck right And anyway, thank you so much
for listening to Legally Brunette. We appreciate it. As always,
please follow legally Brunette wherever you listen to podcasts and
be sure to tell your friends and family. And if
you have any recommendations of cases that you would like

(56:37):
for us to talk about, please find me on Instagram
and send me a message. Also, I love I get
so much, so many dms now about the podcast and
just feedback, lots of feedback, lots of questions, lots of feedback,
lots of recommendation. Yeah, good feedback, great feedback, a lot
of dms about the Scott Peterson cases because we did
the part one in part two and so you know,

(56:59):
I appreciate you guys listening and giving me your thoughts
and recommendations. So thank you so much for listening. We
appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
Thank you,