What happened to Ian in A Toxic Love Story?
Netflix's A Toxic Love Story landed on July 22, 2026, shot straight into the streamer's Top 10 movies, and left viewers googling one name on repeat: Ian Diaz. The documentary, directed by Alexandra Lacey, revisits one of Southern California's most bizarre criminal cases — and Ian sits at the center of it. Here's who he is, what he did, and where he is now.
Who Ian Diaz is
Ian Diaz was a Deputy U.S. Marshal who met Michelle Hadley on a dating app in 2013. They got engaged and bought a condo near Disneyland in Anaheim in 2015 — Michelle emptied her savings for the $14,400 down payment. The relationship fell apart, and by 2016 Ian had married Angela Connell.
Then Michelle's life collapsed.
The framing plot
In 2016, Ian and Angela orchestrated a scheme to make it look like Michelle was stalking and terrorizing them. It included:
- The "Lilithistruth" emails — violent, threatening messages sent to Angela, designed to look like they came from Michelle.
- The Craigslist ads — fake rape-fantasy postings soliciting strangers to attack Angela at the Anaheim condo.
- A fake pregnancy — Angela claimed to be pregnant with twins, raising the stakes of the supposed threats. She never was.
Michelle was arrested in July 2016 and spent 88 days in jail before investigators traced the IP address behind the emails — to Ian and Angela's own home. Prosecutors later argued the motive ran through that condo: with Michelle behind bars, Ian moved forward with its sale, and she never saw a dime of her down payment.
Where Ian is now
Federal prison. Ian was convicted in 2023 of conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and perjury, and sentenced to 10 years and one month. His direct appeal was denied in 2025, and a separate motion to vacate the sentence — filed in February 2025, citing ineffective assistance of counsel — is still pending.
He also declined to appear in the documentary that made him famous.
"We did write him a letter, and he declined to take part," the producers told The Tab in 2026.
One more twist surfaced after the film 's release: TMZ reported on July 30, 2026 that Ian had quietly remarried an old girlfriend named Amy in 2020, before his sentencing, and has children with her.
What about Angela and Michelle?
Angela pleaded guilty in 2017 to charges including false imprisonment, forgery, and falsely reporting crimes, and served a five-year sentence. She's since left California, and Ian had their marriage annulled. Michelle Hadley was fully exonerated; she's now an advocate for domestic violence survivors and is raising her daughter.
Ian is scheduled to remain in federal custody into the 2030s. The condo, meanwhile, sold years ago.