“A Toxic Love Story” Filmmaker Says ‘Things We’ll Never Know’ About the Twisted Plot to Frame Michelle Hadley (Exclusive)

Christina Coulter, KC BakerThu, July 23, 2026 at 9:16 PM UTC

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Michelle HadleyCredit: Ricky Rhodes -

Michelle Hadley spent 88 days in jail after authorities accused her of stalking her ex-fiancé’s new wife Angela Connell; it was later determined that Connell and Ian Diaz had framed her

Netflix’s A Toxic Love Story premieres July 23 and features previously unseen police bodycam footage from the case

Director Alexandra Lacey and producer Emma Supple tell PEOPLE some parts of the plot to frame Hadley may never be fully understood

Michelle Hadley spent 88 days behind bars before investigators determined she had been framed for a cyberstalking campaign — and now, previously unseen police bodycam footage offers a rare glimpse inside the bizarre scheme that led to her being wrongly jailed.

Speaking exclusively to PEOPLE ahead of the July 23 premiere of Netflix’s A Toxic Love Story, director Alexandra Lacey and producer Emma Supple say the new documentary incorporates the footage, offering audiences a perspective on the case they haven’t seen before.

“There is police body camera footage, much of it, which has never before been seen,” Lacey tells PEOPLE, though the creators acknowledge some questions surrounding the case may never be answered.

A Toxic Love Story examines one of Southern California’s strangest criminal cases.

Hadley and U.S. Marshal Ian Diaz were engaged to be married after meeting in 2013, but ended their relationship two years later.

Diaz went on to marry Angela Connell in early 2016, and months afterward, Connell reported receiving threatening emails she blamed on Hadley. She also accused Hadley of posting Craigslist “rape fantasy” ads that sent men to the couple’s condominium.

Angela Connell and Ian DiazCredit: Orange County District Attorney's Office

The allegations led to Hadley’s July 14, 2016, arrest on multiple felony charges. She spent 88 days in Orange County Women’s Central Jail before investigators determined she had been framed in a scheme masterminded by Connell and Diaz.

Connell later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison. Diaz was convicted in 2023 on federal charges stemming from the conspiracy and is serving a 10-year prison sentence.

Lacey says the previously unseen bodycam footage became “a crucial piece of the puzzle” while making the documentary.

For more on Michelle Hadley and the twisted plot that led to her wrongful imprisonment, subscribe now to PEOPLE, or pick up this week’s issue, on newsstands now.

“It was a crucial piece of the puzzle for us to try to understand a bit more of the detail and to give the audience the ability to be there and see the story unfolding with this couple who are feeling like they’re being stalked,” she says.

Supple says much of the alleged scheme unfolded behind closed doors, making the recordings especially valuable to the filmmakers.

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“What you see with that bodycam footage is obviously the scheme being enacted in real time,” she says. “One thing that we were aware of is that much of this takes place behind closed doors, and there’s so much that we don’t know and we’ll never know, but that footage does give you a window into what was going on inside the condo that we’ve never seen before. And we do think it sheds new light.”

While researching the documentary, the filmmakers also spent months getting to know Hadley before filming began.

“We spent many, many months talking to Michelle and building an understanding of her story before we picked up a camera,” Supple says. “We never want to go into an interview not having spent time with people and getting to know them and earning their trust.”

Michelle Hadley mugshotCredit: Orange County District Attorney's Office

Those conversations, she says, ultimately allowed Hadley to discuss aspects of her relationship with Diaz, what she experienced during that relationship and the events leading up to the cyberstalking scheme in greater depth than she had before.

“I don’t think she’d ever really spoken at length about [it],” Supple says. “It was a difficult area for her to speak about, but it was so important to really understanding what happened.”

Lacey says she first became interested in the case years before all of its twists became public because she believed there was more to the story than early headlines suggested.

Angela Diaz in ‘A Toxic Love Story’; Angela Diaz’s booking photo.Credit: Courtesy of Netflix; Maricopa County Sheriff's Office

“Even then, I had a feeling that there was more to the story than what had been reported at that point,” she says, noting that it was that perspective that shaped the documentary from the beginning.

“The news media often can sometimes reduce these kinds of psychological crime stories — well, any kind of crime story — into narratives of heroes and villains,” Lacey says. “It’s always far more complicated than that.”

Rather than presenting the story in simple terms, Lacey says she wanted audiences to reach their own conclusions.

“All you can do is lay out the best information that you have available to you and let them decide,” she says. “I think those are the documentaries that I enjoy watching.”

A Toxic Love Story premiered Wednesday, July 22, on Netflix.

If you suspect domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

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