Toy Box KillerIn the quiet American city of Truth or Consequences, located is Sierra County in the state of New Mexico, a shocking series of crimes were perpetrated by a group of people led by David Parker Ray, the Toy Box Killer, a self-confessed Dungeon Master who had psychopathic sexual fantasies of imprisoning, raping and torturing women.
Over a period of almost forty years, Ray would kidnap several women each year, holding them prisoner in his cargo trailer that he re-purposed as a home-made torture chamber, complete with chains, whips, spreader bars and electric shock machines. When one such victim escaped this nightmare, detective uncovered many more shocking and sadistic crimes.
On March 22, 1999, a woman was driving through the New Mexico desert near the Sierra Caballo Mountains, when she was confronted by a young woman screaming. The driver locked her car doors and sped away. She hadn’t realized it, but she had just witnessed the escape of a kidnapping victim. When a second car encountered the same woman, the male driver swerved to avoid her and also drove away.
The young woman eventually came across a column of small homes and trailers along the road, all of which she foudn were locked. Then she noticed a well-kept mobile home, whose door was open. She run towards it and went inside, slamming the door shut, then begged the surprised homeowner watching television to help her.
The woman called police and clothed the terrified and naked younger woman with a robe. When two officers arrived, the young woman rushed over and cried hysterically, “I’m alive! I’m alive!”. She was dazed, with blood streaming from a head wound, and was wearing not a stitch of clothing. More alarming, however, was the metal collar padlocked around her neck, with a long chain dangling behind.
She tried to calmly explain how she had been kidnapped by a man, along with a woman, and held prisoner by them in a nearby trailer. She told how the couple had tortured her for three days with a bizarre collection of sexual and medical instruments. Then, somehow, she had managed to escape and looked for help.
The young woman was Cynthia Vigil, twenty-two-years-old, from Albuquerque, was shocked to learn she was roughly 150 miles away from home in Elephant Butte. She went on to describe how the male abductor had left the trailer that morning, and had entrusted the woman with looking after Cynthia.
When the woman went to another room, Cynthia had managed to grab a set of keys that hung just within reach, and unlocked the chain that fastened her to a pole. She then spotted a phone and attempted to dial 911, but the woman returned and threat a lamp at her, hitting her on the head, and causing her wound.
She fell down and while the woman hung up the phone, she managed to recover. In the ensuing struggle, a box of items spilled over that contained an ice pick the couple had used to torture her with, and she grabbed it to defend herself. The woman abductor backed off, giving her a brief opportunity to run for the door.
That was how she managed to escape without her clothing, certain if she stayed a moment longer she’d never come out alive. She literally ran for her life, barefooted, along rough stone pathways until she came across the woman’s mobile home. Cynthia gave the officers the address of the trailer, but other officers had already been dispatched.
The dispatcher had received word that a struggle had taken place, and so officers were sent to check. Meanwhile, Cynthia Vigil was taken to hospital, where she told doctors and investigators that her abductors had used her as a sex slave, and most likely had intended to kill her once she proved no further use.
Her body bore bruises and burn marks from electrical torture devices, welts on her back, punctures on her breasts, cuts, bruises, and a recent bump on her head. She went on to explain the pain and terror she had suffered at the hands of her sadistic captors, a story that proved almost too gruesome to believe.
She said she met her abductors while working as a prostitute in Albuquerque, and the man had offered her $20 for oral sex in his car. When she climbed in, she came face-to-face with the woman, and sensed a trap. The man then flashed a badge and told her she was under arrest for solicitation.
It was then her nightmarish ordeal began. She was bound and gagged, at the mercy of the man and woman, and she soon realized they were not police, but were intending to kidnap her. After the duct tape was placed over her mouth, the man locked a steel collar around her neck, and then drove for several hours with her in the back.
She was helpless to resist. When the journey finally ended, they took her into a double-wide trailer and chained her to a post next to a bed. She saw it was where the couple lived, and soon the details of her predicament were explained to her. The couple played a twenty-minute tape that informed her of what she could expect.
She was now their sex slave, the man said on the pre-recorded tape, and she could expect to suffer a great deal of abuse at the hands of the Toy Box Killer. Among other things, she was told she would have sex with animals, be forcibly raped with dildos, have her nipples stretched to the fullest extent they would go, and give oral sex to the man whenever he demanded it.
Most shockingly, she was told that other women before her had experienced the same predicament, and had died. Soon after the tape was stopped, her tortures began. The man and woman applied a series of electrical and medical instruments to different areas of her body, ignoring her muffled cries of pain and her eyes pleading for them to release her.
She told police at the point she was certain they to keep her for as long as possible and then kill her. She was threatened with a gun, suspended from the ceiling and whipped. The man raped her repeatedly, and did other things to humiliate her. He had told his terrified captive that he had a more secure room within the trailer, which held more extreme implements and that she would soon be taken there.
Half-crazed with fear, Cynthia Vigil looked for some possible way to escape before she was taken there. She knew that should she enter the secure room, she would never leave alive. Detectives were sceptical at first, cautious almost, but knew there was only one way to uncover the truth, and that was by conducting a search of the suspected torture chamber. But few had any idea how big the investigation would grow, or how disturbing it would prove.
The responding officers arrived at the trailer from where the interrupted 911 call had taken place, and there apprehended a 59-year-old man named David Parker Ray, along with his 39-year-old girlfriend, Cindy Lea Hendy in their Toyota RV as the couple were leaving the trailer. Both were taken to the police department for questioning, where they gave matching statements.
They had been trying to help Cynthia kick a terrible heroin habit, they explained. Officers were unwilling to release the pair based on their side of the story, and conducted background checks, which indicated that Ray worked as a mechanic with the state parks department, something that gave him access to a wide swath of state land.
A warrant was secured to search for items the victim had described in her statement, along with any evidence of her being present there. If the tapes, whips, and other implements could be found, this would clearly disprove the couples story. But none of those who conducted the search could prepare themselves for what they found.
Once inside the trailer, they found the broken lamp matching Cynthia Vigil’s description of the one used to strike her, as well as a gun and clear evidence of a recent struggle. There was also found the badge used by Ray, along with his written instructions to Hendy for watching their victim while he was away.
The clothing that Cynthia had been wearing when Ray and Hendy had picked her up was found as well, along with a large assortment of medical devices, exactly the same as those described by Cynthia, along with items used to administer electrical shock. The pole to which she had been chained and the ice pick were also present.
In her statement, Cynthia mentioned a videotape used by her captors to terrorize her. This too was located. Recorded in 1993, its contents were equally as disturbing as she had described. Next to the double-wide trailer was a smaller one, the same type generally used for moving cargo. This was apparently the “secure room” where Cynthia feared she would die.
The larger trailer was what Ray called his “toy box.” It was a space fifteen-by-twenty-five feet, and devoted entirely to the exploration of sexual torture. Pictures adorned the walls, drawn by Ray of what he planned to do to the victims. In order to enact his violent sexual fantasies, Ray, who would become known as the Toy Box Killer, had filled the trailer with a number of surgical instruments designed to inflict different types of torment.
Amongst the many items found in the “toy box” were medical manuals, ones specifically devoted to female anatomy, as well as a home-made electrical device that was clearly intended for use in inflicting pain. Other medical paraphernalia included a number a of syringes and medical restraints for keeping a person immobile. Then there were the obvious sexual implements, such as large dildos, belts and whips, chains and leather restraints.
Investigators came across a home video of the couple, taken by Ray, of them applying many these implements to a woman, who appeared terrified. For the investigating officers, it was uncomfortable viewing as they watched her scream as Ray methodically and sadistically verbally humiliated, threatened and hurt her.
Vernon J. Geberth, a retired Lieutenant-Commander of the New York City Police Department with over 40 years of law enforcement experience, described the contents of Ray’s welcome video that was played to new victims. “Ray placed a TV monitor in the right-hand corner of the trailer, so his victims, who were secured to the chair as he tortured them, could see what he was doing to them by looking at the monitor.”
“He had a video camera focused on the gynaecology chair to view his operations,” Geberth writes. “Ray had the whole place rigged with a series of chains and pulleys. He also had drawings of things he wanted to do, as well as photographs of the torture he’d inflicted on other women. In addition, he had a series of dolls strung up in various states of bondage and torture.”
“Among his texts,” says Geberth, “was a copy of American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis, a novel that details the violent assaults a man inflicts on his victims whenever he needs to blow off some steam from his high-stress life. Like its lead character, Ray viewed himself as a man in command and thought of his victims as expendable pawns in his game; he referred to them as ‘packages.'”
In order to keep those victims he and Hendy kidnapped in a state of submission, the Toy Box Killer thought up a collection of rules and directions he apparently wrote for how to handle a sex slave. Form his years of experience, Ray insisted that Bondage was an essential part, along with the neck collar, which was considered permanent.
He also included methods of psychological torture, including the use of a blindfold and a slow, deliberate approach. He believed verbal abuse was required at every stage, including putting the slave in the right positions as he explained to her what he was going to do. He thought it was equally important to prevent her from thinking too much.
“Keep her off balance,” the list read, as well as emphasizing the importance of keeping both her mind and body in a state of stress. The intention was to force her into a docile state, and make her willing to do whatever she was told. Ray included a list of sixteen techniques for brainwashing someone.
These involved the obvious psychological tactics of abuse, inducing fear and isolation, to the introduction of occasional small favors. Something he considered the best way to make a slave malleable. He wanted it so she never knew what to expect. Evidence was also obtained from Ray’s Toyota RV, as it was soon clear that the restraints that Cynthia recalled were there, permanently attached.
Police also found duct tape and items used to make the RV appear to be an official police vehicle. With the evidence mounting, Ray and Hendy were detained and charged with a total of twelve counts, including kidnapping, aggravated battery and conspiracy. So serious were these crimes that their bail was set at $1 million each.
But investigators knew that even with this solid and incriminating evidence, it would not be easy to prosecute them. It would be a long and frustrating road to securing their convictions. Meanwhile, the press had learned of the incident, and soon reporters were soon arriving, detailing everything they could learn about the sexual torture case.
Detectives began looking into the history of their chief suspect, the man Cynthia Vigil described as her torturer and rapist, David Parker Ray. Born in Belen, New Mexico on November 6, 1939, Ray was the son of Cecil Leland Ray, a native of Oregon, and mother Nettie Opal Parker, who had been born in Texas.
During his early childhood, Ray and his younger sister, Peggie Pearl Ray, went to live with their mother’s disciplinarian parents, Russell and Dolly Parker, on a small ranch, due to their poor financial condition. There they were occasionally visited by their violent and alcoholic father, who would supply his young son with magazines depicting sadomasochistic pornography.
At Mountainair High School, in Mountainair, New Mexico, Ray was bullied by his fellow students for his shyness around girls, something which resulted in his abusing alcohol and other drugs into his teenaged years. During this time, his sexual fantasies of rape and torture against women began to develop.
At the age of fourteen, the sister of the future Toy Box Killer came across his sadomasochistic drawings and pornographic pictures that depicted bondage fantasies. As a result, Ray and his sister became estranged. During his adolescence, Ray is suspected of assaulting women. In his video message, he can be heard telling his victims, “I’ve been rapin’ bitches ever since I was old enough to jerk off, and tie little girls’ hands behind their back.”
His first wife said Ray allegedly told her that he committed his first murder sometime in 1957, when he kidnapped a woman, tied her to a tree, and tortured her to death. However, authorities were never able to verify this account. Upon completing high school, he joined the United States Army, where his service included work as a general mechanic, and from which he received an honorable discharge.
Ray then worked as a maintenance man for the New Mexico Parks Department in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, a position which lasted for the entirety of his adult life until his arrest over the abduction of Cynthia Vigil. The resort town, located approximately 5 miles from Elephant Butte, New Mexico, contained several local bars, which Ray frequented for victims.
After four divorces and two children, Ray became romantically involved with 37-year-old Cindy Hendy, who worked at a state park in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, and who was fleeing convictions on grand theft and drug charges in Washington State. The couple bonded over their shared violent sexual fantasies, and Hendy submitted to Ray’s masochistic desires.
It is unknown when Ray set-up his torture chamber, however the contents were added over many years, until eventually the couple had everything needed to subdue and imprison women for sexual degredation. The cargo trailer outside his Elephant Butte property looked like any other, but inside Ray had spent $100,000 fitting it out with sex toys and torture devices.
Among the many home-made devices found at the property that had been constructed by Ray himself, included a fur-lined coffin used to imprison women. This particular device would be reminiscent of the one built by Cameron Hooker to imprison the women he had kidnapped in Oregon, such as Colleen Stan, who was kept in a similar coffin for years as a sex slave.
Other items included a makeshift pillory, pulleys and locks to prevent escape, and an obstetric table onto which his victims were strapped and forced to watch their own torment in a mirror mounted on the ceiling. An audio tape was set-up and played for new kidnap victims, on which Ray described himself as a “dungeon master”.
He claimed to be affiliated with the church of Satan, and that his sex slaves were not just for his own use, but for all members of his congregation. The enslaved woman forced to listen to the tape was made to believe she would be repeatedly raped and abused by others. Ray made threats on the tape that he would use the various instruments of torture on his victims, in much the same way Hooker had done to his victims.
In a 1993 recorded message, Ray told his captives that they would be forced to sexually service Hendy as well, who had devoted herself fully to becoming his willing accomplice. Together they kept the victim tied up in such a way that he legs were open as wide as possible, and was subjected to a series of humiliations.
These involved electric shocks from cattle prods and stun guns, as well as being forced to submit to the insertion of many oversized dildos and at times placed inside the fur-lined coffin. During all of this, Hanedy watched their suffering and did nothing to help. Instead, she appeared to take great delight.
Detectives found many polaroids in the trailer that Ray also had taken some of the things he had done, for his records and probably for later enjoyment. The officers searching the trailer had a momumental task ahead of them, which involved collecting and labelling each item. The evidence had to be collected in such a way that it would not be thrown out of court.
New Mexico Public Safety Director Darren White told reporters, “This is very disturbing stuff.” He confirmed what he’d seen inside the Toy Box Killer’s home-made dungeon had “literally made my stomach turn.” While authorities were reluctant to give out details, White assured those residents worried by the news that the perpetrators were behind bars.
Lawyers for both Ray and Hendy stated they would enter “not guilty” pleas at the arraignments. Meanwhile reporters spoke with neighbors of Ray, learning that those who knew him considered him a normal guy. Indeed he had no prior criminal record, and there were never any suspicions about what might be going on at the trailer.
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