it came from angela diaz, ian s wife of three months. who had recently announced she was pregnant. angela came into the picture not long after ian and michelle had actually broken up. reporter: reporter kate briquelet covered this story for the daily beast. she spent hours digging through the curious emails michelle sent ian during the condo dispute. one minute she s very polite and thanking him for reminders on her car insurance. the next minute, you know, she s saying that he s satan and the anti-christ. reporter: even after they signed the agreement on the condo the emails kept coming. ian got this one on may 22. you told me i was your first love, but you did not treat me like the precious, perfect treasure i am. you have sinned against god, and i want my power back because it belongs to us, the daughters of god. then, something new and strange started happening. angela began receiving emails, too.
welcome back. michelle hadley had been released from jail, but if she hadn t sent tse ominous e mails filled with details on kidnapping, rape and theft, who did? could the answers be in the e-mails themselves? now with the conclusion of our story, here s dennis murphy. with every thump of her heart, michelle felt she was losing a little part of herself. out of jail but not out of open jer d jeopardy. free to go to a coffee shop, but not allowed to take off the tracking device. i was so embarrassed to be wearing it. but everything was about to change. after a thorough search of michelle s digital devices, investigators cop colluded the damning e-mails did not come from them.
the police department, reports that another person had shown up and had actually tried to rape her. reporter: police officers responded to angela s 9-1-1 call. reporter: what do they encounter? they encounter a very distraught angela diaz who says that another person has shown up, and and reporter: and she s got abrasions, look here, right? correct, on her neck. and her shirt is torn. reporter: this is way beyond internet misdemeanor mischief, this is a criminal act in your city oh, mo most definitely a criminal act. reporter: who was inviting men to rape angela? police believed there was no question it was michelle hadley. that s what led them to arrest michelle outside her parents home. angela reported that during the night michelle spent in jail. she received no threatening emails. but then michelle made bail. she was out. and almost immediately the emails start again. reporter: so is there kind of a feel here, look, we warned you about this activity.
prosecutors were still doing everything they could to link those emails to michelle. we have a verskille detective that was working on the case and he was in constant communications with the district attorney s office and trying to piece it together, to help prove a case and solidify it for court. reporter: problem was it just it wasn t coming together. these electronic messages were coming from from a different place. and we couldn t verify that it was coming from michelle hadley s device. reporter: it was a blow to the prosecution s case, but there was more evidence than just ip addresses. there was the bad blood between michelle and ian, the restraining orders, those harrowing attempted rapes of ian s new wife, angela. and that fire and brimstone language of the threatening emails, so distinctive and seemingly in michelle s voice. reporter: so that language of religious retribution made it appear to be michelle. reporter: you stand before god on this thing and
reporter: that you re gut talking, right? my gut s pretty good. reporter: michelle s parents hired defense attorney michael guisti to defend their daughter. guisti felt an instant connection to the hadleys. i looked at michelle s family and to a large extent i saw my family. i saw i saw a working class family who fiercely defended their child. she was a young, ambitious mba stenwho wanothing but bright-eyed and optimistic. reporter: and who was facing life in prison. for no reason. no reason. reporter: so this is, kind of, the case you go to law school for. this is the reason you become a lawyer. michelle s mom and dad showed him the e-mails they