How Did a Wicked Killer Turn an Old Semi-Trailer into a Torture Dungeon?

Satan is a harsh taskmaster — David Parker Ray

Who Was David Parker Ray Before His Toy Box?

David Parker Ray was born on November 6, 1939, in Belen, New Mexico. His father, Cecil, married his mother Nettie in the mid-30s, and they were married for 16 years and had two children. After 16 years of marriage, Cecil, who was known to be a moody and brutal man, divorced Nettie and took custody of the children. He didn’t want to raise the children; he didn’t want her to have possession of them. Cecil promptly dropped them off at his parent’s house in Elephant Butte to be raised by the same parents frow which he couldn’t wait to get away. Other students in school bullied ray because he was so shy around girls. He turned to drugs and alcohol as a means to cope with his insecurities. He served in the Army and received an Honorable Discharge, and he was married and divorced four times throughout his life.

Who Was His Last Victim?

March 19, 1999, 22-year old Cynthia Virgil was working the streets in a parking lot around Albuquerque. A approached her claiming he was an undercover police officer and told her she was under arrest for solicitation. The ‘police officer’ handcuffed her and placed her in the back of his car. The man was not a police officer, he was David Parker Ray, and he took her to his’ Toy Box,’ which was a semi-trailer he had turned into a soundproof torture chamber.

Once in the trailer, he chained Cynthia to the gynecology table in the center of the enclosure. Ray and his girlfriend, his accomplice, set about raping and torturing his prisoner for three days. They used whips, medical instruments, sexual instruments, and electric shock to torture Cynthia endlessly. But he took it a step further when he would torture her psychologically, which was done when he played a cassette tape-recorded, giving them explicit details on what she could expect to be forced to endure. The tape explained to her she was to refer to him only as ‘master,’ and to the woman with him was only to be called ‘mistress.’ She was never permitted to speak unless spoken to first. Then he laid everything out in even more detail. (Read tape excerpts here.)

Cynthia later told authorities she didn’t feel that she was his first victim. It seemed like he knew exactly what he was doing when he told her she would never see her family again and that he would kill her like he had killed the others. After three days, Ray went to work and his accomplice, Cindy Hendy, left the keys to the restraints on a table near Cynthia when she left the room.

Cynthia jumped at the opportunity to get free and was able to get her hands loose. Hendy came back and tried to stop her, but Cynthia thrust an icepick in her neck when she got close. She then ran out of the trailer completely naked, except for the slave collar and padlocked chains. She made it to a mobile home, where the owner took her inside and promptly called the police. Ray and Hendy were arrested immediately.

A Brief Tour of The Toy Box

After their arrest, law enforcement obtained a warrant and began to search the house and trailer, and they were appalled by the disturbing things they found there. The ‘Toy Box’ held the gynecology table in the middle of the room. They found a mirror mounted to the ceiling above the table so the victims had a plain view of every horror they would have to endure. Various whips, chains, straps, clamps, pulleys, leg spreader bars, saws, surgical blades, and sex toys were all over the floor. There was some wooden contraption the suspects used to bend the victims over and immobilize them while they were raped repeatedly. The walls were filled with a detailed depiction that showed various techniques and methods for inflicting maximum pain on any individual. Authorities also found a videotape from 1996 showing a terrified yet still unidentified woman being tortured and raped by Ray and Hendy.

As a result of all the publicity, another witness came to authorities with a similar story. Angelica Montano, who happened to be an acquaintance of Ray’s and had visited his house looking to borrow cake mix when he drugged her before raping and torturing her. When he finished with her, he dumped her off on the side of the highway in the desert. That’s where police found her, but they never followed up on her claims.

Authorities later discovered that the drugs Ray used to subdue his victims were drugs like sodium pentothal and phenobarbital which were known to induce amnesia. With this memory loss, the victims would not have the ability to remember the precise details regarding what had happened to them.

With all this information, the detectives presented it all to Hendy, who quickly started telling them everything she knew of the kidnappings, rapes, tortures, and murders. That’s when they discovered he had two other accomplices as well. They were Dennis Roy Yancy, a friend, and Glenda’ Jesse’ Ray, his very own daughter. Yancy admitted to them that he participated in the murder of a woman named Marie Parker. Marie was abducted, drugged, and tortured for days by Ray and ‘Jesse’ before Yancy strangled her to death in 1997.

How Did the Abduction of Kelli Garrett Go Down?

When authorities released the details regarding the woman in the video, police were able to identify her as Kelli Garrett, who happened to be a former friend of Jesse’s. According to reports, on July 24, 1996, Kellie got into a fight with her then-husband, so she went out that night with Jesse to play some pool. Jesse drugged her beer at some point. Jesse and her father placed a dog collar around her neck, leading her to the trailer by a leash. Ray would rape her for two days, keeping her drugged up the entire time. After he finished, he slit her throat and dumped her on the side of the road so she could die.

Despite his best efforts to the contrary, Kelli survived the whole ordeal, but when she tried to tell her husband and the police what she could about what happened to her, they did not believe her. Her husband thought she’d fabricated the whole story because she was cheating on him, and he ended up filing for a divorce that same year. Even though her memories from that time had been limited due to the drugs, she did know the ‘Toy Box Killer had raped her.’

There’s a Trial and a Conviction, What’s the Outcome?

Because of the drugs used and the socioeconomic status of the women involved, the jury had a hard time accepting their testimony. Ray was able to beat two of the charges filed against him. Still, he was ultimately convicted on many other offenses committed when he abducted and sexually tortured these three women. In the end, he was sentenced to 224 years in prison. Ironically he was never convicted of murder. Ray would die of a heart attack on May 28, 2002, three short years into his sentence.

Jesse Ray only received a sentence of nine years, and Hendy received 36 before she was paroled.

Could There Possibly Be More Victims Out There?

While conducting their investigation of the trailer, detectives found evidence of several more killings. Included in this evidence were some hand-written diaries where Ray detailed the murder of a minimum of 50 women. Despite all this, they were unable to build cases for them. Hendy and Yancy identified some areas where they believed Ray had disposed of the bodies, but absolutely no human remains were found in those locations.

The FBI believes that a serial killer who went through Ray’s efforts to create his ‘Toy Box’ would likely have many victims. The vast amount of unidentified personal effects, also known as ‘trophies’ found inside his trailer, point to a body count of over 60. One FBI spokesman said that in 2011 they were still getting good leads, and as long as they continue to get those leads and as long as there is exposure on this case, they will continue to investigate it.

What do you think? Do you think he has a multitude of victims out there just waiting for someone to identify them? Or do you believe he was just a vicious rapist who liked to brag, and he didn’t kill anybody? Let us know; we’d love to hear what you have to say.