A kidnapping survivor has shared the terrifying moment he was snatched from his bed, had his penis cut off with a zip-tie, and was left for dead in the Mojave Desert.
Michael, the owner of a successful marijuana dispensary, and his housemate Mary Barnes were abducted from their Newport Beach home in October 2012. They were blindfolded and gagged and their ankles and wrists were bound with zip-ties.
The kidnappers used a stun gun on the male victim before they were placed in a van and driven more than 140 miles into the California desert. One of the kidnappers told Barnes that if she cooperated she wouldn’t get hurt.
The two men beat and tortured Michael using a blowtorch and a taser and severed his penis before dousing him with bleach. During the sadistic act, the kidnappers laughed.
Before fleeing, they threw one of the knives into the desert, which Barnes found and was able to free herself with. She staggered to the road and flagged down a car. It was a deputy with the Kern County Sheriff’s Department.
Barefoot and traumatized, she urgently told the deputy her friend needed help and took them to the exact location where he was.
The male victim was lying on his side bloodied with his arms and legs bound. His pants had been pulled down and he was in and out of consciousness.
As the deputy got closer, he made the horrifying discovery, and called for backup.
ABC News Studios’ is set to air the riveting new true-crime series ‘Wicked Game: The Devil in the Desert,’ that begins streaming Tuesday, only on Hulu.
Mary Barnes, who survived the abduction and saved her housemate, speaks of the horrific crime during an interview in the upcoming new true-crime series on ABC News Studios’
The abductors drove their captors more than a hundred miles in the Mojave desert
It was later revealed that the gruesome act was all part of a twisted plot in pursuit of a buried treasure of $1 million in cash in the Mojave Desert. Authorities believed the mastermind was Hossein Nayeri.
The three-part series highlights the years-long investigation that spanned sting operations, an international search, a prison break that Nayeri captured on cellphone – and a courtroom showdown between lead Orange County prosecutor Matt Murphy and Nayeri.
More than a decade after the heinous crime, Barnes spoke about the horror she endured along with the male victim, who spoke only on audio, in an exclusive clip shared with DailyMail.com.
‘I went to bed around 10.30pm. The house was quiet,’ she recalled.
‘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,’ Michael said.
‘The next thing I remember is being sound asleep with my face in the pillow and feeling something cold and metallic press against the back of my neck and it was the barrel of a pistol,’ Barnes said.
The male victim recalled, ‘I wake up to a noise and there is somebody there with a shotgun.’
Barnes added, ‘my first thought was, oh no something really bad is going to happen.’
The docuseries showcases rare evidence stills, bodycam and dashcam videos of gripping key moments, recorded police interviews with the victims and suspects, and features new interviews with the lead prosecutor, deputy counsel and lead detective on the case.
Mary Barnes barefoot and traumatized with the zip-ties hanging from her ankles and wrists staggered to the road where she flagged down a Kern County deputy to get help for her friend who had been mutilated and left for dead
The male victim had gone into shock during the savage attack and was in and out of consciousness before deputies and EMT arrived at the scene. He miraculously survived
Hossein Nayeri is seated in court during this August 2019 trial
Cortney Shegerian testified against her former husband Hossein Nayeri
Michael, who was only 28 at the time, owned a successful marijuana dispensary, during the early days of medical marijuana.
Matt Murphy, a senior deputy district attorney, who worked on the case told DailyMail.com that the kidnappers never found the stash of money in the desert and compared it to ‘Ali Baba’s treasure.’
One of the kidnappers, later identified as Kyle Handley, was a pot dealer in Fountain Valley, who occasionally did business with Handley, even accompanying him on different trips but months before the crime fell off the radar, The Los Angeles Times previously reported.
During the trial, Michael – who miraculously survived but never recovered his body part – testified against the men who mutilated, disfigured, and tried to kill him.
Barnes also testified along with Nayeri’s former wife Cortney Shegerian, who was the key to the prosecution.
Shegerian went into detail about how she purchased four burner phones – and helped set one of them up, using meat in an attempt to poison the male victim’s parent’s dog, as per the news outlet.
She also testified that she had witnessed Nayeri using a blowtorch weeks before the abduction, and claimed that he had surveillance on the male victim.
Kyle Handley, one of four people charged with kidnapping a California marijuana dispensary owner, torturing him with a blowtorch and cutting off his penis during a robbery because they thought he was burying piles of cash in the desert
Ryan Kevorkian was sentenced to 12 years and four months and his former wife Naomi Kevorkian was sentenced to three years of informal probation
Shegerian, who is now a lawyer, met Nayeri when she was 16 and he was 23. She claimed Nayeri was one of the only people he ‘trusted.’ She initially lied to police but later cooperated to avoid prosecution.
She later told prosecutors that the relationship with Nayeri was ‘twisted’ and ’emotionally abusive.’
But, her cooperation led police to arrest him after he returned to California from Iran to see her, and was immediately arrested when he walked off the plane.
Orange County Senior Deputy Attorney Matt Murphy told the news outlet: ‘She’s a hero.’
In 2016, while awaiting his trial, Nayeri escaped from the California prison through the prison’s vent system. He conspired with two other inmates. They were all captured after a massive manhunt ensued and they were captured after a week on the run.
In 2019, Nayeri was found guilty by a jury trial and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Handley, 38, was convicted by a jury of kidnapping, aggravated mayhem and torture and sentenced in 2018 to life without parole.
Nayeri and two inmates broke out of the Orange County Central Men’s Jail before he was captured a week later. In the photo, he smiles and does a thumbs up before the daring escape
Former Orange County Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy appears in the new ABC News Studio true crime series talking in detail about the case
ABC News Studios’ premieres ‘Wicked Game: Devil in the Desert,’ a new three-part true crime series streaming only on Hulu that begins February 4
Ryan Kevorkian, 42, was sentenced to 12 years and four months in prison after pleading guilty to kidnapping, burglary and assault and given credit for time served, Orange County Register previously reported.
Kevorkian’s wife Naomi Josette Rhodus, 41, was arrested in 2013 as an accessory to the crime, and in 2022 sentenced to three years of informal probation, as per the LA Times.
Nayeri, now 46, emigrated to the US from Iran and moved to Fresno, California when he was 13. He met his two accomplices, Handley and Kevorkian, when the trio went to Clovus West High School.
He was a star wrestler. He joined the marines before he was ‘generally discharged,’ and was facing a criminal charge for a drunk driving crash that killed his friend, but fled to Iran, Murphy told DailyMail.com.
Murphy, a former prosecutor, who has been involved in the Rodney Alcala, the Dating Game Killer, and the Golden Gate Killer investigation described Nayeri’s case as something ‘unique’ in his experience as a DA for 26 years.
The way this was planned if we had done a search and gotten everyone of their devices all of their devices would have been totally clean because all the communication about the conspiracy were on burner cell phones and all the data downloads were on a burner laptop computer. Never seen that before.’
They take all these elaborate steps. Hossein did not want his wife to know who all the players were, he said in part, so part of it was a man who was thriving on controlling everyone else, everyone is very limited on the information they have, but also very clever.
After the brazen jail escape, deputies escort Nayeri back to the Central Men’s jail in Santa Ana, California on January 31, 2016
Murphy described this crime as a ‘wagon wheel conspiracy’ he said, where you’ve got one person in the middle and different spokes going out.
A lot of times the spokes have no idea who the other spokes are but they are all playing a role organized by the center person.
‘When Michael was first interviewed he ‘legitimacy had no idea who would want to hurt him.’ He described him as a legitimate businessman who did everything right and did not even smoke marijuana.
But, also spoke about the dark side and the elaborate scheme that took place.
‘The marijuana world started with happy hippy guys that is how it started in California, but now it is a bunch of ruthless murdering criminals every bit as vicious and gnarly as drug dealers in any other realm of the drug world and this is a perfect example.’
‘You have guys like Michael who don’t even smoke marijuana. A legitimate businessman who did everything right,’ he said.
He spoke of the inhumane act the victim endured.
‘As far as wanton acts of sadistic cruelty I’ve never seen a case like this,’ he said.
‘He (Hossein Nayeri) didn’t get what he wanted and a man was sexually mutilated for life. It was absolutely horrific.’
