Some love stories end with a wedding; viewers now know Ian Diaz and Angela Connell through Netflix’s A Toxic Love Story, where their romance comes with a cyberstalking scheme, a federal investigation, and a marriage that could not survive the plot twist. The married couple allegedly framed Diaz’s ex-fiancée, Michelle Hadley, as a dangerous stalker amid a dispute over a jointly owned condominium. The elaborate scheme eventually collapsed, exonerating Hadley and unraveling the couple’s relationship.

After watching the true-crime documentary, viewers were left wondering what happened to Ian Diaz and Angella Connell after the federal investigation and final convictions between 2021 and 2023.

Ian Diaz is currently serving a 10-year federal prison sentence, while Angela Connell has completed parole and rebuilt her life in Arizona. According to court documents and Federal Bureau of Prisons records, Diaz remains incarcerated at FMC Fort Worth, with a projected release date of January 31, 2031. He declined to participate in Netflix’s A Toxic Love Story.

Connell, meanwhile, has taken a unique path after her release from California state prison in July 2020. After completing parole in July 2021, she relocated to Phoenix, reverted to her maiden name, earned a master’s degree in Psychology and Justice Studies, and began working in community counseling and transformative justice.

She now serves as Director of Peer Counseling for Exhale Pro-Voice, a textline-based reproductive justice and emotional support organization. According to the official website, Connell also works with nonprofits and government re-entry programs supporting former inmates. Although it has been a few years since the convictions, Netflix's A Toxic Love Story has brought attention to their lives now, even Michelle Hadley's.

Is 'A Toxic Love Story' Based on a True Story? The Real Case Behind the Netflix Documentary

Given that A Toxic Love Story chronicles a real-life case of people like Ian Diaz and Angela Connell, who did not help in making the documentary, viewers naturally tend to wonder how Netflix managed to assemble so much footage.

Netflix did not need Ian Diaz or Angela Connell to tell their story. Director Alexandra Lacey instead built A Toxic Love Story from a mountain of public records, police archives, federal case files, and private videos collected over more than a decade. California Public Records Act requests unlocked body-camera footage, interrogation tapes, and the raw aftermath of staged incidents.

The documentary also draws on the evidence provided by the DOJ Office of the Inspector General, including recorded calls, digital trails, Craigslist records, and IP-address investigations, alongside private footage supplied by former friends and people from Angela Connell’s past. Michelle Hadley contributed personal archives, messages, photographs, and extensive interviews, while carefully constructed dramatizations filled the gaps where cameras were never present. That remarkable patchwork ultimately explains how A Toxic Love Story turns a real-life case into such an unnervingly complete account of Ian Diaz and Angela Connell’s toxic relationship.

Netflix’s ‘A Toxic Love Story’: All You Need to Know About the Twisted True Crime Documentary

What do you think of the lives that Ian Diaz and Angela Connell are living? Let us know in the comments!