Warning: This article contains content that may be disturbing to some readers.
A survivor of a kidnapping has come forward to share the terrifying experience when she and her roommate were abducted and subjected to torture.
Michael, who owned a thriving marijuana dispensary in California, was forcibly taken from his home and left for dead in the Mojave Desert.
In October 2012, when he was 28 years old, Michael and his housemate, Mary Barnes, were kidnapped from their Newport Beach residence. The two were blindfolded, gagged, and suffered a harrowing ordeal.
Their captors used zip-ties to bind their wrists and ankles before forcing them into a van for a more than 140-mile journey into the desert.
While the kidnappers assured Mary that she would remain unharmed if she complied, Michael endured severe beatings and was tortured with a blowtorch and a taser during the two-and-a-half-hour drive.
The torture escalated when the kidnappers severed his penis and poured bleach over him, all while allegedly laughing before fleeing with the severed organ.
After the kidnappers left, Mary discovered a discarded knife, which she used to free herself and signal for help.
Fortuitously, she was aided by a deputy from the Kern County Sheriff’s Department, who then found Michael, who was bleeding profusely and drifting in and out of consciousness.
Mary is now sharing her story in ABC News Studios’ true-crime series, “Wicked Game: The Devil in the Desert,” available for streaming on Hulu.
Investigations revealed that the kidnappers devised an elaborate plan to find $1 million they believed Michael had hidden in the desert.
Authorities identified Hossein Nayeri as the plot’s ringleader, who then fled to Iran. His accomplices included Kyle Handley, a cannabis cultivator from Fountain Valley who had business dealings with the victim, and Ryan Kevorkian, as reported by NBC Los Angeles.
The three-part series examines the extensive investigation, which involved sting operations, bodycam and dashboard footage, an international manhunt, and recorded police interviews with victims and suspects, leading to a dramatic courtroom confrontation.
The docuseries also discloses Nayeri’s attempt to escape from Men’s Central Jail in Santa Ana, an escape he recorded on a contraband cellphone while awaiting trial.
Cortney Shegerian, Nayeri’s ex-wife, played a crucial role in the investigation, assisting police in apprehending him as he disembarked from a plane in California. She also testified in court about Nayeri’s surveillance activities on the victim.
For the first time, some audio excerpts from the victims have been released, capturing their accounts of the events to law enforcement.
In the recordings, shared exclusively with DailyMail.com, Michael recounts: “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,” he continues.
Mary also describes being awaken by a ‘cold and metallic’ object pressed against her neck.
Despite his horrific ordeal, Michael survived and provided testimony against the assailants who nearly took his life.
Nayeri and Handley received life sentences without the possibility of parole. Kevorkian was sentenced to 12 years and four months, while his wife was charged as an accessory and received three years of informal probation.