Netflix has been on a streak lately, releasing outrageous true crime documentaries that are stranger than fiction. There's been The Perfect Neighbor, a grim recounting of a manipulative murder told through police bodycam footage; Maternal Instinct, in which a con woman faked a pregnancy, before going to fatal lengths to make her lie seem true; and The Crash, wherein a reckless teen girl's vehicular menace led to the death of two friends. Now comes A Toxic Love Story.
By the title alone, you might think you know what you're in for. But documentarian Alexandra Lacey shrewdly takes audiences through the waves of understanding that investigators had to wade through before finding a truly shocking truth. Along the way though, there's plenty of WTF before the final reveal. Unlike the other true crime docs mentioned above, no one dies in this one. And yet, this is surely the most bizarre of the bunch.
Diving into increasing spoilers, we're discussing three big reveals, and the clues Lacey dropped along the way to warn keen viewers all is not what it seems.
A Toxic Love Story begins with the tale of an allegedly crazy ex-girlfriend.
Michelle Hadley shares her side in "A Toxic Love Story."
Credit: Netflix
This sexist trope has been a horror element that's most recently resurfaced in Focus Features' indie hit Obsession. What if there was a woman so obsessed with you that she'd rather burn your whole life down than lose you? For the first chapter of A Toxic Love Story, this seems to be the narrative unfurling.
In 2016, newlyweds Ian Diaz and Angela Connell Diaz seemed to have a postcard-worthy life. Living in Anaheim, California, minutes from Disneyland, they could visit the park anytime they wanted, which was important to Ian, as a confirmed Disney adult. Plus, Angela was expecting twins. According to Ian's friend of 20 years, Leslie, this was all he wanted. Then came the emails.
From an account called "Lilithistruth," Angela began getting messages that threatened her life, her home, and the lives of her unborn twins. Ian, a U.S. deputy marshal, reached out to the local police department, who only intervened when the threats escalated to an attempted sexual assault. See, the mysterious Lilith replied to a Craigslist ad, which suggested Angela was up for a "rape fantasy" in the Diaz condo. When a stranger showed up, the couple called 911, and the police arrested Ian's ex-girlfriend, Michelle Hadley.
In an interview with police, which is heard in the documentary, Hadley seems to admit to writing the Lilith emails. She's arrested and held for 88 days on a million-dollar bond. That is, until the police uncover another suspect. There are some red flags along the way, but we'll get to those at the end.
A Toxic Love Story reveals a con woman who went to extreme lengths for love.
Angela Connell smiles with husband Ian Diaz.
Credit: Netflix
Twenty-eight minutes into A Toxic Love Story, the focus shifts from the narrative that Michelle was a vengeful ex to pull back and ask, "Who is Lilith?"
Lacey transports her viewers back to 2013, Huntington Beach, where a pre-Ian "Angie" is desperate to impress her new beau and his circle of friends. However, part of her appeal to be liked includes faking a cancer diagnosis by employing photos of chemo treatments snatched from Google and a knit cap to cover her long hair.
Former friend Mary Bukovskis recounts this fraud with venom and vigor, even sharing cellphone video of a bizarre intervention in which the friends confront Angie, saying, "You don't have cancer!" until she literally runs away.
This audacious scene hits before even the halfway mark of A Toxic Love Story. So, in 2016, amid the "bizarre Orange County love triangle" events that were all over the news, it's somehow less shocking to learn that Angela faked her pregnancy.
Like in Maternal Instinct, this fraud used a sonogram she pulled from online as proof she was pregnant. From there, Leslie recounts how Ian was floored by the revelation, and even more disturbed when he realized Angela was Lilith, sending the emails and unwitting rapist upon herself to frame Michelle.
"It seems like I've been sleeping with the enemy the entire time," Ian says in an audio interview with the authorities.
At the 46-minute mark, A Toxic Love Story puts up a title card, detailing how Angela pled guilty to fraud, false imprisonment, and falsely reporting a crime. But while this seems like case closed, this is only the halfway point of the doc!
A Toxic Love Story is about an abusive boyfriend with a twisted scheme.
Ian Diaz and his wife Angela captured on bodycam footage in "A Toxic Love Story."
Credit: Netflix
While the case was closed for Anaheim PD, Ian's work with the U.S. marshals meant the Department of Justice was going to take their own look at the findings. Enter DOJ special agent Jason Higley, who looked at the bodycam footage of Ian and Angela, and suspected there was more than one fake at play.
Michelle, the only one in this supposed love triangle who did participate in the doc, reveals the full side of her story in this final chapter. She was young and naive when Ian caught her eye. They dated for two years, and bought that Anaheim condo together. Well, she paid the down payment and he "helped with the mortgage payments." But once they moved in together, Michelle says Ian became frightfully controlling.
He dictated how she dressed. He installed security cameras in their home, seemingly to track her every move. And even when they were apart, he seemed to know where she was. But the "biggest red flag," according to Higley, was that Ian manipulated Michelle into having sex with another man so he could watch. Though this doc touches on cuckolding and rape fantasy, the participants take efforts to not kink-shame. The issue here is not desire, but consent.
In interviews both with the DOJ and with Lacey's crew, Michelle recounts how "the condo felt like a cage," so she fled. As she recovered from complex PTSD from Ian's abusive control, she admits she wrote the first two Lilith letters. "I don't really understand where it can from or why I wrote it," she tells Lacey. "I listened to a lot of sermons growing up."
Higley uncovered that the later Lilith letters and the emails to the Craigslist hook-up tied back to Ian and his laptop. It seems Ian used Michelle's initial letters, which evoked the first wife of Adam who was thrown out for not being submissive, as a damning tool to ruin his ex and secure the condo for good.
What are the red flags and clues A Toxic Love Story dropped to telegraph its big reveals?
Ian Diaz smiles.
Credit: Netflix
The first clue is subtle and early on. When the doc cuts to Ian's recounting of the story, it's through previously recorded interviews with the authorities. He's not a talking head, sharing his side of what happened from a current perspective.
On the same note, Angela is only shown through bodycam footage, and later the cellphone video from her cancer intervention. In a love triangle story where no one died, why would neither be sharing their side?
Next comes a red flag from Leslie, who definitely doesn't see it that way, as she still believes Ian is innocent, even after all his convictions. She says, "Within a few months of meeting, Ian and Angela are living together, married, and expecting twins."
Ian moved very fast, not just with Angela, but also in moving on from his two-year relationship with Michelle. According to A Toxic Love Story, Michelle left him in August of 2015. He met Angela on Jan. 2, 2016. And by June 13, 2016, they were living together, married, "pregnant," and trying to frame Michelle for the attempted rape of Angela.
The next clue, as Higley will point out in the final chapter, is that when the cops came after the alleged rape attempt, Ian shows them the Craiglist ad that Lilith must have responded to. How did he know which one it was right away? "The odds of that are just impossible," Higley said.
The final clue in this first chapter that all is not what it seems is Michelle's interview. The doc plays part of her initial police interrogation. The officer says, "Did you write this?" And she says, "Yeah, that was me." Then, in a modern-day interview with the documentary crew, Michelle muses on where the Lilith imagery came from.
Typically, when true crime docs have footage of a confession, they show a lot of that footage. But A Toxic Love Story used just moments. The omission might strike some as odd. And of course, once Michelle shares her whole story, we realize why the doc moved right along.
In the end, A Toxic Love Story manages to tell not one true crime tale, but three in one. The initial narrative recounts how Michelle was maligned as "the craziest woman in Orange County." The second reveals the villainy of con woman Angela Connell, who went from lying about having cancer, to lying about a pregnancy, to helping her husband frame a woman she'd never even met. The third is about a corrupt U.S. marshal who saw himself as a criminal mastermind, but was exposed by his own hubris.
It's not as gnarly as Don't F*** with Cats, or as heartbreaking as Abducted in Plain Sight. But when it comes to most WTFs per runtime, you'd be hard-pressed to beat A Toxic Love Story.
A Toxic Love Story is now streaming on Netflix.
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