Wicked Game: Devil in the Desert is coming up today on Hulu with the harrowing story of a 2012 violent abduction, and a case of mutilation and torture in the Mojave Desert region in a case related to marijuana trading.
One of the key moments of the documentary is the featured prison break and escape by the prime convict in the case, Hossein Nayeri, along with two other inmates, Jonathan Tieu and Bac Duong, who are believed to be associated with Vietnamese-American street gangs.
What followed was a manhunt for the three dangerous convicts who escaped the Orange County Men's Central Jail's maximum-security unit by climbing through the plumbing pipes.
Wicked Game: Devil in the Desert: All about the escape of the three men from Orange County Men's Central Jail
On January 22, 2016, the three inmates of the Orange County Men's Central Jail in Santa Ana, California, escaped by cutting steel bars, climbing through the plumbing pipes, and then stealing a utility van and a taxi in Los Angeles, taking the driver hostage, and driving to San Jose.
According to CNN, the men tied towels and bed sheets together to form a makeshift rope to help themselves down the roof and reach the street four stories below. They then threatened a taxicab driver outside a Target store in Rosemead and stole the vehicle after taking the driver hostage.
The escaped prisoners hid at the Flamingo Inn Motel in Rosemead for at least one night before stealing a utility van and driving it along with the taxicab to San Jose, where they stayed at The Alameda Motel.
One of the inmates, Bac Duong, went along back with the hostage driver to Southern California and surrendered to police in Santa Ana on January 29. Hossein Nayeri and Jonathan Tieu, the other two inmates, were arrested on January 30 in San Francisco, outside a McDonald's restaurant near Golden Gate Park.
All the three inmates were deemed dangerous. Tieu was accused of murder, Nayeri of torture and kidnapping, and Duong faced charges of attempted murder.
All three of them were last seen inside the jail dormitory at 5 AM the previous day and had escaped by the time the next head count was done around 9 PM on January 22, 2016.
Following their escape, a 15-minute video was released by an attorney for Adam Hossein Nayeri, which the inmates had recorded while breaking out of prison.
One of the suspects, Hossein Nayeri, is the prime convict in the case explored by Hulu's Wicked Game: Devil in the Desert
Hossein Nayeri was the mastermind behind the abduction of a woman and the torture of another man, which is explored in Hulu's Wicked Game: Devil in the Desert.
When a woman was found zip-tied but alive on the side of the road in the Mojave Desert in 2012, authorities discovered that it was something more sinister than just a case of kidnapping.
This kicked off a long investigation that spanned sting operations, an international search, and also a prison break, leading to a courtroom showdown between the lead prosecutor on the case and the man behind the crimes, Hossein Nayeri.
Wicked Game: Devil in the Desert is a gripping three-part docuseries told through the story of the people who lived through the harrowing case. The docuseries also brings to viewers rare evidence stills, body cam, and dash cam videos, as well as recorded police interviews with the victims, suspects, lead prosecutor, deputy counsel, and the lead detective on the case.
Catch Wicked Game: Devil in the Desert coming to Hulu today.