This Feels Criminal: A True Crime Podcast (Formerly Killer Queens)

A Toxic Love Story: Who Is Lilith?- Part 1

August 4, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

A woman’s voice, panicked and breathless, calls 911 from her garage. She says she has just been choked, pinned by her hair, and told she is finally going to be raped. Months later, a different woman sits in a jail cell, and nearly everyone—from the Orange County DA to her own mother—believes she is responsible. The story, covered by local media as a bizarre love triangle between jealous women, seems to have a clear villain. But as the hosts of This Feels Criminal walk through the documentary A Toxic Love Story, they keep circling back to a question that the sensational headlines ignored: what about the man in the middle?

A Whirlwind Romance and a Pattern of Control

The story begins at a Starbucks in Anaheim, where Ian Diaz, a career deputy U.S. marshal, meets Angela Connell. Their relationship moves with startling speed. Within two to three weeks, Ian proposes. Within a month, they are married. By May, Angela tells Ian she is pregnant—with twins. Ian describes her as “everything I ever wanted in a woman,” and his longtime friend Leslie, who has known him for nearly 20 years, says she would trust him with her life.

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What you'll learn

1 Main Outline
2 (02:24) **Introducing the Case: A Toxic Love Story** - The hosts set up the episode as the first of a two-part series covering a bizarre Orange County love triangle featured on Netflix, involving a deputy U.S. marshal, his new wife, and his ex-girlfriend.
3 (03:22) **Meet Ian Diaz and His Friend Leslie** - Ian is introduced as a career deputy U.S. marshal, and his longtime friend Leslie is presented as a key storyteller who has known him for nearly 20 years and would "trust him with her life."
4 (04:15) **The Whirlwind Romance: Ian Meets Angela** - Ian meets Angela Connell at a Starbucks, and within two to three weeks he proposes; within a month, they are married; by May, Angela claims she is pregnant with twins.
5 (06:20) **Coercive Control and the Honeymoon Phase** - The hosts explain the concept of coercive control, coined by sociologist Evan Stark, and how rapid relationship escalation is listed by domestic violence organizations as a possible early warning sign.
6 (12:28) **The Lilith Emails Begin** - Angela starts receiving disturbing, religiously worded threatening emails from someone using the name "Lilith is truth," and Ian immediately blames his ex-girlfriend Michelle Hadley.
7 (14:19) **The Craigslist Rape Fantasy Ad** - A Craigslist ad is posted using Angela's real name, photos, and home address, soliciting a rape fantasy and instructing a man to follow her home from her nightly dog walk.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

When Angela Diaz tells police she's being stalked, terrorized, and targeted through a series of increasingly disturbing messages, the evidence seems to point in one direction.

Michelle Hadley.

Ian Diaz's ex-girlfriend.

But as investigators build their case, one question keeps getting harder to answer: Who is Lilith?

In Part 1, we trace the bizarre campaign of emails, fake identities, and escalating threats that convinced police they had found the person responsible. Along the way, we ask a bigger question:

How much of an investigation is driven by evidence... and how much is driven by the story everyone already believes?

Part 2 is available now for members of the TTTTY Committee on Patreon, or drops Thursday wherever you listen.

Want access to our first 45 episodes? Grab em here! We've made them available for free to anyone who signs up! Remember, these episodes were recorded when we had no idea what we were doing, so just keep that in mind. The audio isn't the quality we would want to put out now, but the cases are on point! Visit killerqueens.link/og to download and binge all the archived episodes today!

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