Warning: This article contains content which some readers may find distressing.
A kidnapping survivor has spoken out about the horrifying moment she and her housemate was abducted and tortured.
Michael was the owner of a successful marijuana dispensary in California before he was snatched from his couch and left for dead in the Mojave Desert.
The then 28-year-old and his housemate, Mary Barnes, were taken from their Newport Beach home more than a decade ago in October 2012, during which the pair were blindfolded, gagged and endured a traumatizing ordeal.
Zip-ties were used to bound their ankles and wrists as they were bundled into a van which drove more than 140 miles into the desert.
While the kidnappers told the woman that she wouldn’t get hurt if she cooperated, Michael was beaten and tortured with a blowtorch and a taser during the two-and-a-half hour journey to the desert.
The kidnappers took their torture even further when they severed his penis and doused him in bleach, during which they allegedly laughed, and fled with the victim’s penis.
When the kidnappers had gone, Mary found a knife that they had discarded and used it to free herself and flag down a car.
As luck would have it, it was a deputy officer with the Kern County Sheriff’s Department who helped the woman and located Michael who was covered in blood and going in and out of consciousness.
Mary is now speaking out about the heinous crime in an ABC News Studios’ true-crime series, Wicked Game: The Devil in the Desert, that is available to stream on Hulu.The investigation later revealed the kidnappers had conjured up a twisted plot to locate $1 million in the desert which they believed Michael had buried somewhere in the vast landscape.
The authorities tracked down Hossein Nayeri as the mastermind behind the scheme, who then fled to Iran, as well as his two high school buddies, Kyle Handley, a cannabis grower from Fountain Valley who had actually done business with the victim, and Ryan Kevorkian, reports NBC Los Angeles.
The three-part series journeys through the lengthy investigation which covers sting operations, bodycam and dashboard footage, an international search and recorded police interviews with both the victims and suspects and an intense courtroom showdown between the accused and the prosecution.
The docuseries also reveals the moment Nayeri attempted to escape the Men’s Central Jail in Santa Ana and filmed his brazen efforts on a contraband cellphone while awaiting trial.
His ex-wife, Cortney Shegerian, proved key to the prosecution as she helped police arrest him as he boarded off a plane as it landed in California and later testified in court how Nayeri had set up surveillance on the victim.
Meanwhile, some audio clips from the victims are shown for the first time as they recalled what happened to them to police.
Hossein Nayeri was arrested thanks to his wife cooperating with police (YouTube/ABC News)
Hossein Nayeri was arrested thanks to his wife cooperating with police (YouTube/ABC News)
In the clips, which have been shared exclusively to DailyMail.com, Michael says: “I left the shop at 11.30pm so I was in bed by 12am, 12.15am I passed out on the little couch futon thing.
“I wake up to a noise and there is somebody there with a shotgun.”
Mary also said she was asleep before she was awoken by ‘something cold and metallic’ press against her neck.
Michael miraculously survived his ordeal and managed to testify against the men who maimed and almost killed him.
Both Nayeri and Handley were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole while Kevorkian was sentenced to 12 years and four months – and his wife was arrested as an accessory to the crime and sentenced to three years of informal probation.
