SAN DIEGO—Friends say Mel Gibson disappeared late Monday night after taking a drive through southern California. Tuesday evening, a video purportedly appeared on YouTube showing Mel Gibson, bound and kneeling in front of an ISIS banner and wearing an orange tunic. The video was quickly removed from YouTube as it purportedly showed ISIS heavily mutilating the Mad Max 2: Road Warrior actor’s face.
Police say they have electronic evidence that Gibson’s phone traveled into Mexico shortly after the abduction. Chief Jeff Gorlin of the San Diego police told reporters at an impromptu press conference, “Thanks to the NSA, we have strong evidence that Mel Gibson was taken to the hideout of a previously unknown ISIS sleeper cell somewhere on the Baja peninsula. We believe ISIS hired the infamous Zetas drug cartel to carry out the abduction and defeat our border security, but that’s all I can say right now.”
In Australia and the US, fans of Mel Gibson flooded the streets to hold public vigils and prayers. Pastor Ann Haliday of the Church of Christ in Salem, Utah, told reporters as her congregation gathered outside the local movie theater, “The Passion of the Christ is the only good movie America’s had in a century of moviemaking. God is watching over Mel Gibson, and we are praying for him.”