Sadistic kidnappers who cut off a man's penis and abandoned him in the desert revealed why they did it.
Michael S, whose last name has been withheld to protect his identity, was the owner of a successful marijuana dispenser business in California, but his life was turned upside down after being kidnapped.
At the time of the kidnapping back in 2012, a then 28-year-old Michael was at his home with housemate, Mary Barnes, when their property was broken into.
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Michael was taken before being beaten and tortured with a blowtorch and a taser during the journey to the Mojave Desert.
The kidnappers even zip-tied the base of his penis before severing it and dousing him in bleach, during which they allegedly laughed.
The horrific crime is the subject of ABC News documentary Wicked Game: Devil in the Desert, which premiered yesterday (February 4).
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You may be wondering why the kidnappers targeted Michael in particular during this horrific attack.
Well, they believed Michael had hidden $1 million dollars in the desert and tortured him severely.
They hoped Michael would reveal its location, but he repeatedly insisted he did not have any kind of money - even as he was subjected to horrendous pain.
Once the kidnappers had gone, Mary was able to locate a knife and cut herself free and find the nearest car, and the driver just so happened to be a police officer.
Officers from the Kern County Sheriff's Department located Michael, who was covered in blood and going in and out of consciousness.
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Ryan Peters, a now retired Newport Beach Police Department detective, and Matt Murphy, then a homicide prosecutor with the district attorney's office, worked on the case and took steps to find the perpetrators.
He told ABC News: “At the very beginning of the investigation, we basically had nothing.
“We have this absolutely horrific crime, and they interview Michael, who's like, 'Guys, I pay my bills. I have no enemies. I'm nice to people. I've never slept with anybody's wife.' My detectives are looking for any possible angle, like, who did this?"
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Kyle Shirakawa Handley was soon indentified as a person of interest, with Peters adding: "We slowly, methodically, kind of start going through these things. And what we're finding is that they're white towels with bleach all over them. We test these towels for blood and they're coming back positive."
Through DNA testing of other items inside the van, police found out a man named Hossein Nayeri was connected and was actually the ringleader with the kidnapping.
Nayeri and Handley were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, while their accomplice Ryan Kevorkian was sentenced to 12 years.
Topics: Crime, California
Callum Jones