Exploring mastermind behind gruesome kidnapping that led to a global manhunt

A shocking crime investigators say was motivated by greed and cruelty started in Newport Beach, California, and quickly became one of the most surprising cat-and-mouse stories in recent years.

In 2012, a man named Michael S. (his last name withheld) was living in Newport Beach and was one of the most successful medical marijuana dispensary owners in Southern California. According to his roommate, Mary Barnes, Michael wasn't flashy, but to some he was believed to have a considerable amount of money.

Just after midnight on Oct. 2, Michael and Barnes were in their respective bedrooms when two masked men with guns entered their rooms and kidnapped them.

"He slapped a piece of tape on my mouth, pushed a blindfold down over my eyes," Barnes said. "And then he zip-tied my hands, and he zip-tied my ankles together."

The two men put Michael and Barnes in a white van and drove off. While in the van, the suspects demanded that Michael give them $1 million in cash. Michael told them he didn't have that type of money and offered them $100,000.

According to police, Michael was tortured by the men. They beat him, shocked him with a stun gun and burned him with a blowtorch.

"He was gagged, so it was mostly just muffled grunts of pain as they were hitting him," Barnes said. "And it just seemed to go on for a very long time."

The masked men were determined to retrieve the $1 million that Michael insisted he didn't possess, so they drove off the road into the Mojave Desert where the assailants thought the money was buried, according to court docs. They forced both Barnes and Michael out of the car and into a gully.

One of the men then stood on Michael's chest, and they put a black zip tie around the base of his penis, which they cut off. Then they proceeded to pour bleach on his open wounds, all over his entire body, leaving footprints seared into Michael's skin.

The men didn't torture Barnes. They threw a knife near her and told her if she was able to find it, she could try to cut herself loose.

"I immediately -- I sat up, I pushed my blindfold up with my knees," Barnes said. "It was just before sunrise, so there was just enough light that I could see it glinting on the knife. I was able to scooch over to it on my butt. And I have no idea how I did it. It must've just been pure adrenaline, but I cut the zip tie between my feet."

"Wicked Game: Devil in the Desert," the three-part documentary series from ABC News Studios, launches Feb. 4 on Hulu and tells the inside story of the events surrounding Michael S. and Barnes' kidnapping and the following investigation. The series features inside access to case files and evidence, police interviews with the victims, and exclusive interviews with victims, police officers, investigators, and ABC News Contributor Matt Murphy, former homicide prosecutor assigned to Newport Beach, California.

Sgt. Steve Williams, a former senior deputy at the Kern County Sheriff's Office, was driving along the Mojave Desert when he saw Barnes crying for help.

Barnes showed officers where Michael was lying, and they immediately assisted him. Michael survived but suffered numerous injuries. ABC News is withholding Michael's last name to protect his privacy.

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 to find out who was responsible for the brutal kidnapping.

"At the very beginning of the investigation, we basically had nothing," Murphy said. "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?"

The first significant breakthrough in the case occurred when a neighbor of Michael's reported that she was sitting at her desk overlooking the alley near her home the day before the crime. She observed a white truck pull up, which she described as having a dent.

She told the police that she saw three men who looked like construction workers pull up. They placed a ladder against Michael's house. Suspicious of their activity, she wrote down the license plate number.

The license plate number was traced back to a local individual, Kyle Shirakawa Handley, who ran a medical marijuana business.

"Kyle Handley was the key to the future of this investigation," Peters said. "I needed to get to him. I needed to follow him. I needed him to lead us to the next big break."

Police stopped Handley for a vehicle violation in order to have Peters interview him.

"He went immediately white and immediately started sweating and immediately said he wasn't going to talk to me without his lawyer," Peters said.

Peters then obtained a search warrant for Handley's house, his person, and cars to proceed with the search.

The first thing investigators found is the van, which is exactly what the neighbor described it as. Not only did the plate match, but it also had a big dent on the side, as she had described.

"Then we go outside, and there are these trash bags up against his back wall," Peters said. "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."

Police took Handley's van back to their warehouse, where they would investigate it more thoroughly. They found a blue nitrile surgical glove underneath the seat.

Months later, DNA test results came back with an unknown male DNA profile. Further testing linked a man named Ada Hossein Nayeri to the blue surgical glove. Nayeri worked with Handley to legally grow medical marijuana.

Peters and Murphy were elated that they were on the right track, but little did they know the case had become more complicated and would have many more surprises.

Shortly after Murphy initiated a search for Nayeri, the FBI informed him, "he has already boarded a flight to Iran."

"Iran is probably the single most difficult country in the world to extradite from if you are a prosecutor in the United States," Murphy said. "And I'm thinking, 'We're done.'"

But Murphy and the team of investigators pursuing Nayeri would soon find themselves in a grim series of events that includes a prison break, another kidnapping, a wife's betrayal and an elaborate international sting operation.

Watch ABC News Studios' three-part documentary, "Wicked Game: Devil in the Desert," starting Feb. 4 on Hulu.