Before we get into the details of this case, please let me warn you; David Parker Ray was a sadistic mother fucker who committed many heinous crimes against women, so please be aware.
Ray was born on 6th November 1939 in New Mexico. He and his younger sister lived with their mother’s extremely strict parents on a run-down ranch due to their father being a raging alcoholic. Occasionally, their father would visit but was aggressive towards his children. He would also bring his son sadomasochistic pornography.
At school, Ray was shy around girls and, as a result, was bullied, turning to drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism. Around the age of 14, he began having extreme fantasies of raping, torturing and murdering women, going as far as to draw pictures of them. Once his sister discovered these drawings, she refused to have anything to do with him. Later, Ray stated, ‘I’ve been rapin’ bitches ever since I was old enough to jerk off and tie little girls' hands behind their back’.
After high school, Ray joined the United States Army before being honourably discharged. Until his arrest, he worked at the New Mexico Parks Department in Truth or Consequences as a maintenance man for the rest of his life.
Ray was married and divorced four times and had children, including a daughter, Glenda Jean, known as Jesse. Eventually, he met 37-year-old Cindy Hendy, a woman who had left her children behind in Washington to avoid charges of grand theft and drug use. It didn’t take long before Hendy and Ray became lovers and partners in crime.
At this point, Ray was grotesquely indulging in his fantasies; he was kidnapping women, drugging them with sodium pentothal and phenobarbital and keeping them in his ‘Toy Box’. The Toy Box was an awful contraption, a soundproofed cargo trailer with over $100,000 worth of ‘equipment’, including sex toys, torture implements, and drugs for keeping the victims sedated. There was a terrible box Ray had created to place over the victim’s head. A homemade electrical device had been made to shock his victims painfully. Detailed diagrams were stuck on the wall, showing the various ways he would torture them, and a sign stated, ‘Satan’s Den’. A ‘guide’ was also found entitled ‘Psychological and Physical Procedures Initial Handling of the Captive Personal Fetish’.
Once the initial drugs had worn off, the victims would find themselves naked and strapped to a gynaecologist's table. Above them was a mirror so they could see what Ray was doing to them. Then, once they had fully regained consciousness, an audio tape that Ray had recorded would be played. I will put a copy of the transcript at the end of the article if you want to read it.
The women would be tortured and raped, not just by Ray but by his friends and Hendy. He would go as far as to restrain his victims and encourage his dogs to have sex with them.
In 1986, his daughter Jesse informed the FBI that Ray was kidnapping and torturing women before selling them over the Mexican border. This was never investigated, and bizarrely, Jesse began helping her father lure women back to The Toybox.
It’s estimated that Ray took 4-5 women a year, often keeping them for weeks at a time. The exact number isn’t known, but it's believed that he raped, tortured and murdered anywhere between 60-100 women. According to Hendy, those he killed were dismembered and unceremoniously dumped either in ravines or Elephant Butte Lake, but the bodies were sadly never found (and he was never prosecuted for murder). Those who survived were left at the side of the road, hurt and with no accurate recollection of what had happened.
On 19th March 1999, 22-year-old sex worker Cynthia Vigil was taken from an Albuquerque parking lot by Ray and Hendy, with Ray claiming to be an undercover police officer. On 22nd March, while Ray was at work, Cynthia noticed Hendy had left some keys on a nearby table: keys to unlock the chains Cynthia had been wrapped in. Hendy realised Cynthia was trying to escape, and a fight ensued; Hendy broke a lamp over Cynthia’s head, but Cynthia still managed to unlock some of her chains and stabbed Hendy in the neck. Cynthia ran desperately down the street, wearing nothing but chains and an iron slave collar. Despite being in obvious distress, not one driver stopped to help the young woman. She eventually found help at the home of Darleene Breech and her husband. Darlene said ‘She came straight in wearing nothing except the chains around her neck and was crying. She was bloody, very bloody, and was a very terrified girl’. Cynthia was screaming, ‘Don’t let them get me!’.
The police were alerted, and it didn’t take them long to search the trailer and house. Ray and Hendy had been caught.
Angelica Montano came forward shortly afterwards with a very similar story. She told police that she had been raped and tortured by the couple before convincing them to release her. They threw her out along the highway, and an off-duty law enforcement officer found her. Disgustingly, the officer refused to believe Angelica and dumped her at a bus stop. Once home, she also alerted the police, but they never took the allegations any further.
Hundreds of videotapes had been found in the trailer, depicting the rape and torture of numerous women. One victim, Kelli Garrett, was identified due to a tattoo on her ankle. When police got in touch, Kelli told officers that she’d had a fight with her husband and ended up at the Blu Water Saloon with Ray’s daughter, Jesse. Jesse drugged Kelli’s drink and offered to take her home; she took her to her father’s house instead. Ray committed various atrocities upon Kelli before taking her back to her house. He told her husband that he had found her drunk and incoherent on the beach. Kelli tried to explain to her husband that she was concerned and had no recollection of what had happened over the past few days. Her husband refused to believe her, accused her of cheating and filed for divorce. There seems to be a bit of a running theme of men not believing women...
While officers were interviewing potential victims, the FBI sent 100 officers to examine Ray’s property and the surrounding areas, but no identifiable human remains were found.
A judge ruled that David Parker Ray would have separate trials for his crimes against Cynthia, Angelica and Kelli. The judge also ruled that much of the evidence found in the trailer could not be used in Angelica and Kelli’s trials, including the harrowing audio tape.
Kelli’s trial resulted in a mistrial after two jurors refused to believe her; however, Ray was found guilty on all 12 counts after a retrial.
In Cynthia’s trial, Ray agreed to a plea bargain so his daughter, Jesse, would be treated with leniency. In 2001, Ray was sentenced to 224 years in prison.
Jesse was charged with kidnapping and criminal sexual penetration; she received 30 months in prison plus five years probation.
In 1999, Dennis Roy Yancy admitted to being an accomplice of Ray and pleaded guilty to murdering 22-year-old Marie Parker in 1997 on Ray’s orders. He was sentenced to 30 years and served 11 years before being paroled. However, three months later, he violated his parole and was sent back to prison.
In 2000, Cindy Hendy received a sentence of 36 years, being granted parole in 2019.
Cynthia Vigil created Street Safe New Mexico, a harm reduction charity that works with sex workers and vulnerable homeless people.
On 28th May 2002, Ray was taken to the Lea County Correctional Facility to be questioned by police about the murders of his victims, but he died of a heart attack before they could speak to him. He was 62 years old.
And that is the story of David Parker Ray. I am furious with the amount of times the police could have helped victims, could have stopped Ray, and they chose not to believe these women. I also think that Ray’s premature death denied many victims their day in court and gave him a chance to escape any real punishment. I hope in the future, more of his victims can be found and the deceased finally laid to rest. Thanks for reading. Please take care of yourselves, and I will see you next time.
Hi! I spend a lot of time writing for the website and I basically exist on caffeine and anxiety - if anybody would like to encourage this habit, please feel free to buy me a coffee!
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