‘Toxic Love Story’ is a testament to the true crime Netflix has twisted over the years

Netflix has been busy lately, releasing true crime documentaries that are stranger than fiction. There was Perfect Neighbor, a harrowing account of a botched murder told through police bodycam footage; Mother’s Mind, when a deceitful woman fakes a pregnancy, before taking dangerous measures to make her lie appear true; again The crash, when a careless girl’s car accident leads to the death of two friends. Now he is coming A Toxic Love Story.

From the title alone, you might think you know what you’re in for. But screenwriter Alexandra Lacey cleverly takes the audience through the waves of understanding that the investigators had to go through before discovering the truly shocking truth. Along the way though, there’s plenty of WTF before the final reveal. Unlike the other true crime documentaries mentioned above, no one dies in this one. And yet, this is certainly the strangest of the group.

Getting into more spoilers, we discuss three major revelations, and the clues Lacey dropped along the way to warn serious viewers that all is not what it seems.

A Toxic Love Story it starts with the story of an old girlfriend who is said to be crazy.

This sexual trope has been a recent horror resurgence in Focus Features’ indie hit Infatuation. What if there is a woman who is so obsessed with you that she would rather burn your life than lose you? For the first chapter of A Toxic Love Story, this appears to be an oral narrative.

In 2016, newlyweds Ian Diaz and Angela Connell Diaz seem to have a life worthy of a postcard. Living in Anaheim, California, minutes from Disneyland, they could visit the park whenever they wanted, which was important to Ian, as a certified Disney adult. In addition, Angela was expecting twins. According to Ian’s friend of 20 years, Leslie, this is all he wanted. Then came the emails.

On an account called “Lilithistruth,” Angela began receiving messages that threatened her life, her home, and the lives of her unborn twins. Ian, a deputy US Marshal, contacted the local police department, who only intervened when the threats amounted to attempted sexual assault. Lo and behold, the mysterious Lilith answered a Craigslist ad, suggesting that Angela was aiming for a “rape fantasy” at the Diaz condo. When a stranger arrived, the couple called 911, and police arrested Ian’s ex-girlfriend, Michelle Hadley.

In an interview with police, heard in the documentary, Hadley appears to admit to writing Lilith’s emails. He was arrested and held for 88 days on a million dollar bond. That is, until the police uncover another suspect. There are red flags along the way, but we’ll get to those eventually.

A Toxic Love Story It reveals a cunning woman who traveled a long way for love.

Angela Connell smiles with husband Ian Diaz.
Credit: Netflix

Twenty-eight minutes A Toxic Love Story, the focus shifts from the story of Michelle being a vindictive ex to stepping back and asking, “Who is Lilith?”

Lacey takes her viewers back to 2013, in Huntington Beach, when Ian’s predecessor “Angie” wants to impress her new beau and her circle of friends. However, part of her appeal includes faking a cancer diagnosis by using chemotherapy photos taken from Google and a knitted hat to cover her long hair.

Former friend Mary Bukovskis recounts the scandal with toxicity and vitality, even sharing cell phone video of the strange intervention where friends confront Angie, saying, “You don’t have cancer!” until he literally runs away.

This clever scene comes before the halfway mark A Toxic Love Story. Therefore, in 2016, among the events of the “strange Orange County love triangle” that was in the news, it is not surprising to know that Angela faked her pregnancy.

Like Mother’s Mindthis scam used a sonogram she downloaded online as proof that she was pregnant. From there, Leslie recounts how Ian was thrilled by the revelation, and was even more disturbed when he realized that Angela was Lilith, sending emails and an unknowing rapist to Michelle.

“It seems like I was sleeping with the enemy the whole time,” Ian said in an audio interview with authorities.

In 46 minutes, A Toxic Love Story lays out a deed card, detailing how Angela pleaded guilty to fraud, false imprisonment, and falsely reporting a crime. But although this seems like the case is closed, this is only part of the doc!

A Toxic Love Story it’s about an abusive boyfriend with a twisted scheme.

Ian Diaz and his wife Angela shot body cam footage in “A Toxic Love Story.”
Credit: Netflix

While the case was closed to the Anaheim PD, Ian’s work with the US marshals meant that the Department of Justice would independently review the findings. Enter DOJ special agent Jason Higley, who viewed Ian and Angela’s body camera footage, and suspected more than one fake.

Michelle, who is the only one in this love triangle who is said to be involved with the doctor, reveals the full side of her story in this final chapter. She was young and naive when Ian took her. They dated for two years, and bought that Anaheim condo together. However, he paid the bills and “helped with the mortgage.” But once they moved in together, Michelle says Ian became alarmingly controlling.

He told her how she dresses. He installed security cameras in their home, seemingly tracking his every move. And even when they were apart, he seemed to know where he was. But the “big red flag,” according to Higley, is that Ian tricked Michelle into sleeping with another man to watch. Although this document touches on the concept of cuckolding and rape, the participants take an effort not to shame. The issue here is not desire, but permission.

In interviews with both the DOJ and Lacey’s staff, Michelle recounted that “the condo felt like a cage,” so she ran away. Recovering from PTSD complicated by Ian’s abuse, she admits to writing Lilith’s first two books. “I don’t really understand where it came from or why I wrote it,” he told Lacey. “I listened to a lot of sermons when I was growing up.”

Higley discovered that Lilith’s recent letters and emails in a Craigslist hook-up linked Ian to his laptop. It seems that Ian used Michelle’s first letters, which evoke Adam’s first wife who was fired for insubordination, as a sinister tool to destroy his ex and protect the condo for good.

What are the red flags and indicators A Toxic Love Story telegraph its big revelations?

Ian Diaz smiles.
Credit: Netflix

The first step is simple and easy. Where the documentary cuts from Ian’s retelling of the story, it is from previously recorded conversations with authorities. He is not a talker, who shares his side of what is happening from a current perspective.

At the same time, Angela is shown only through body camera footage, and later cell phone video from her cancer intervention. In the case of a love triangle where no one died, why wouldn’t they share their side?

Next comes a red flag from Leslie, who doesn’t see it that way, as she still believes Ian is innocent, even after all his crimes. He says, “Within a few months of meeting, Ian and Angela are living together, married, and expecting twins.”

Ian moved on too quickly, not only for Angela, but also to move forward in his two-year relationship with Michelle. In accordance with A Toxic Love Story, Michelle left him in August 2015. He met Angela on Jan. 2, 2016. And on 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 reveal in the final chapter, is that when the police arrive after the alleged rape, Ian shows them a Craiglist ad that Lilith must answer. How did he know which one it was right away? “The odds of that are impossible,” Higley said.

The final clue in this first chapter that all is not what it seems is Michelle’s interview. The doctor plays part of his first police interrogation. The policeman says, “Did you write this?” And he says, “Yeah, that was me.” Then, in a contemporary interview with the documentary crew, Michelle wonders where the image of Lilith came from.

Usually, when true crime documentaries have footage of confessions, they show a lot of that footage. But A Toxic Love Story use only a few times. The omission may strike some as strange. And then, once Michelle shares her whole story, we can see why the doctor moved on.

At the end, A Toxic Love Story he cannot tell one true crime story, but three in one. The first narrative recounts how Michelle was vilified as “the craziest woman in Orange County.” The second reveals the brutality of con artist Angela Connell, who went from lying about having cancer, to lying about being pregnant, to helping her husband hook up a woman he’s never met. The third is about a corrupt US marshal who saw himself as a criminal mastermind, but was exposed by his own brilliance.

It’s not as gnarly Do not mix with cats, or sad as He was kidnapped in Plain Sight. But when it comes to a lot of WTFs at work, you’ll be hard-pressed to beat them A Toxic Love Story.

A Toxic Love Story now streaming on Netflix.