Talking Dateline: Simply Diabolical

**Keith Morrison** (0:05)
Hello there, and welcome to Talking Dateline. I'm Keith Morrison. I'm here with Dennis Murphy and producer Michelle Madigan. Today, we'll talk about Dennis' episode called Simply Diabolical. It's about a young woman named Michelle Hadley, not to be confused with Michelle Madigan.
And it was a cyber-stalking saga involving her ex-fiance. If you haven't seen the episode yet, you can stream it now on Peacock or Listen, wherever you get your podcasts, then come right back here. And later, we have two extra clips to play for you from the material that we assemble. And as always, we'll answer some of your questions on social media.
So let's talk Dateline. Normally, we would do a story, follow a murder case as it went through the courts, but this was not like that.

**Dennis Murphy** (0:54)
The whiplash here, Keith, is that the prime victim becomes the prime suspect by the end of the show. It is so complicated. And Michelle, I was worried all along that we were going to throw the viewers because you have to take them by the hand and say, this is complicated. Listen to what's going on. But you're right, Keith, it's not a conventional Dateline yarn.

**Keith Morrison** (1:15)
How did you find the story and how would you describe what it was all about?

**Michelle Madigan** (1:19)
I think I found the story because a press release went out, and they said there was going to be a court hearing and a press conference about a woman who had been recently exonerated. And it was in Orange County, which is my home turf. And I wasn't sure what it was about, but I said, I'm going, I want to figure this out. So I remember standing outside the courthouse and watching Michelle step down, walk out the courthouse steps, and just this smile and this...
And I just remember listening to her and being like, I've got to get an interview with her.

**Dennis Murphy** (1:54)
Michelle, I remember... What I remember about Michelle Hadley in our story is that she was self-described. She talks about herself as being this goody two-shoes kid that minds all this, you know, keeps your hands at 10 and two when you're driving, cross at the green, not in between. And she was also bitten by all of the Walt Disney Princess stories.
And she believed that if she was a good girl, someday her prince would come, literally. She thought that she would be rewarded for her good behavior. She thinks she meets her prince charming, but it turns out this guy has waltzed in from a different fairy tale altogether, and he is the big bad wolf. And he takes her off on just a nightmare journey of cyberstalking and vengeance. And with the end result that she ended up facing potentially a life in prison because of this character that she meets on a date.

**Keith Morrison** (2:43)
What that must have been like for her is just hard to imagine. But to be in jail, awaiting trial on a very serious charge for something you didn't do and somebody else is conning you, I mean, my goodness.

**Dennis Murphy** (2:56)
What a feeling. We've all been in and out of the county jails and prisons doing stories. And for me, the horror is when we go in with our crew, and you go through the first set of gates, and they close the door, and you hear the thump. And then they open up the next set of gates, and you're inside.

**Keith Morrison** (3:12)
What can you tell me about the early relationship that Ian developed with Michelle?

**Dennis Murphy** (3:18)
Things moved pretty quickly because my recollection is within just weeks, they were talking about moving in together, and in fact did. And maybe the worst thing that happened to Michelle Hadley was that she agreed to buy a condo with this new boyfriend who she barely knew. And that became the source of all the trouble, I think, from then on, because she paid the entire down payment on this thing. Well, they unwound as a couple, and the mortgage kept in place, and they had this thing between them, this condo, they didn't know what to do with it. He didn't want to leave. He was there with all his stuff, not only with all his stuff, but pretty soon, he was in there with a new female partner. He was there with the woman called Angela.
And I look back, Michelle, and I think if they hadn't agreed to buy that condo together, maybe this might have had a different outcome. There was all the legal problems, and there were counter suits and such, and it was just a mess.