ABC Audio and "20/20" introduces the new podcast "Devil in the Desert," hosted by ABC News chief national correspondent Matt Gutman, which launched on Tuesday, June 17, 2025. The new audio series unravels the tangled life of Hossein Nayeri, the mastermind behind one of the most brutal crimes in California history. "Devil in the Desert" begins in 2012, when a sheriff's deputy found a woman with her hands bound, wandering in the Mojave Desert. She led authorities to a grisly crime scene where a barbaric attack had taken place on her roommate. This moment marked the beginning of an international manhunt for the suspected mastermind behind the attack: Hossein Nayeri, a charming man who had ties to the emerging medical marijuana industry in California. From Newport Beach to the Czech Republic and even Iran, law enforcement tracked down Nayeri, turning his once-loyal wife into an informant in a sting operation to lure him back to the United States for an arrest. Once he is behind bars, another twist leads prosecutors on a second manhunt for Nayeri. The series is available now on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, and other major podcast platforms as well as right here.

"DEVIL IN THE DESERT" PODCAST

The six-episode series expands upon the ABC News Studios' docuseries "Wicked Game: The Devil in the Desert," which landed in the Hulu Top 15 Today. The podcast dives deeper into Nayeri's motives, featuring exclusive reporting on his previous convictions, extended audio of police tapes and secretly recorded informant calls with his ex-wife, and the audio of the cell phone footage recorded by Nayeri of a prison break executed while he awaited trial. 

The new series continues ABC Audio's content shift to true crime all the time, following the acclaimed launches of "Bad Rap: The Case Against Diddy" and "What Happened to Holly Bobo?" Since launch, both series have regularly charted in Apple Podcast's Top 5 Top Shows, Top Series and Top True Crime lists, with the latter hitting No. 1. For more information, visit ABC Audio. 

About ABC Audio: ABC Audio is America's premier source for radio news, entertainment content, and podcasts. ABC News Radio reaches more Americans than any other commercial broadcaster through its network of more than 1,600 radio stations and digital distributors. ABC Audio offers affiliates on-demand access to original audio, video and social media content, as well as news, entertainment and lifestyle digital text stories. ABC Audio is part of the top-ranked Walt Disney Company podcasting network. The award-winning podcast portfolio includes ABC News' flagship daily news podcast, "Start Here," The Walt Disney Company's top-performing podcast, "20/20," "20/20: The After Show," "The View: Behind the Table" and "The Crime Scene Weekly."

ABC podcasts are available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and other major podcast platforms.