It's a convoluted story and, it turns out, a "diabolical" one. A California woman arrested over the summer and charged with posting "rape fantasy" ads on Craigslist that invited men to violate her ex-fiance's new wife has been cleared. It turns out the wife was allegedly behind the twisted caper, and now she's in jail, the Los Angeles Times reports. Michelle Hadley, 30, "is an innocent victim of a diabolical scheme," Orange Country DA Tony Rackauckas said Monday. The case made national headlines after Hadley was accused of posting ads urging men to rape Angela Maria Diaz, the pregnant wife of her ex, and ignore Diaz's screams and protests. Last June, Diaz called 911 tearfully telling cops that a man tried to rape her in her garage. Cops busted Hadley, who spent 88 days in jail, but now say Diaz, 31, was behind it all.
The break in the case came when authorities were able to determine the IP addresses associated with the ads led to Diaz's and her father's homes; Diaz allegedly used software that made the emails look as if they were sent by Hadley. The Daily Beast reports the emails contained links to images of aborted fetuses and headless humans; one email allegedly read, "I am his treasure princess, you are nothing." Another member of the DA's office calls Diaz a "serial con artist" who allegedly faked being pregnant and having cervical cancer. Authorities don't believe Diaz's husband—an unnamed US marshal who married Diaz in February after meeting her via online dating the month prior, per KTLA—was in on the plot. Now Hadley, who once faced life in prison, says she'll go back to her MBA studies. Diaz faces up to 12 years, 8 months in prison and 11 years in county jail if convicted. (This woman was cleared in a zookeeper love triangle.)