Let’s set the scene. It’s March 22, 1999. A woman was driving through the New Mexico desert near the Sierra Caballo Mountains, when she encountered a young woman screaming. She locked her doors and kept driving. The young woman panicked for help. She eventually came across a block of houses and trailers along the road, yet all were locked. After what seemed an eternity, she found an unlocked trailer to seek shelter.

She was dazed, blood streaming from her head wound, nude, with a metal collar padlocked onto her neck, a long chain trailing behind. This young woman was 22-year-old Cynthia Vigil, who was shocked to learn that she was  roughly 150 miles from her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

According to Cynthia, she was kidnapped by a man and woman and held prisoner by them in a nearby trailer. She was tortured for 3 days with an abnormal collection of “instruments.”

According to Medium, David Parker Ray was born on November 6, 1939 to Cecil Leland Ray and Nettie Opal Parker. When he was 10, the two split. After this, David and his sister, Peggie Pearl Ray, lived with their grandparents, Russell and Dolly Parker on a small ranch, due to their poor financial condition.

He was rarely visited by his alcoholic and violent father who would give him magazines that depicted sadist and masochist adult material. In high school he was bullied for his shyness around girls, which resulted in his abuse of alcohol as well as other forms of self-medicating.

Ray’s sadistic fantasies developed during his teenage years. Peggy found a bunch of this material and she was alarmed. As a result, the two became distant. He joined the army and was given an honorable discharge. During his time there he worked as a mechanic, which he would continue to do through all his adult years.

He married his first wife in his early adult years. He confided in her that he had committed his first homicide in 1957, when he kidnapped a woman, tied her to a tree, tortured, and murdered her. She thought he was mentally ill and described that his behavior became increasingly disturbing. He married four times, each ending in divorce. He ended up having children, one of which became an accomplice of his, Glenda “Jesse” Jean Ray.

In his 50s, he moved to Elephant Butte, a warm weather small town with a big lake in between; it’s a nearby town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. It brought in a lot of drifters: adult workers, addicts, and homeless. Ray then worked as a maintenance man for the New Mexico Parks Department in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, for the entirety of his adulthood until his arrest.

The resort town, located approximately five miles from Elephant Butte, contained several local bars, which Ray frequented for victims.

Ray met 37-year-old Cindy Hendy at the Elephant Butte State Park, while she was doing community service. They became romantically involved and bonded over their shared violent fantasies. According to The Case Files, the couple spent over $100,000 on an empty and soundproof trailer. They stocked it with “instruments” for their victims. Sick, sick instruments to harm people. He had elaborate locks and pulleys to prevent his victims from escaping. The victims were brutally attacked in a sadistic manner, and were often forced to see themselves through a mirror as they were harmed. Ray often had an audio tape recording of his voice played for his victims whenever they regained consciousness. This was their toy box. 

According to his accomplice Cindy Hendy, he would kidnap about four or five women a year, holding each of them captive for around two to three months. During this period, he would violate his victims and often torture them, sometimes inviting his friends, wife or even his dog to harm the victim. After keeping them in captivity for a couple months, Ray would then drug the victim with barbiturates in an attempt to erase their memories before abandoning them by the side of a road.

Exactly how many murder victims Ray claimed over the years is uncertain; investigators believe that he tortured and killed up to 60 individuals over the course of his life, but they have not been able to locate any of their remains. Ray kept a diary where he documented his time with each victim, but did not disclose where disposed of the bodies.

According to his accomplice, Ray’s fatal victims were dismembered and buried, dumped in the Elephant Butte lake or any nearby ravines. He would play his victims a pre-recorded tape before he tortured them. 

Cynthia Vigil’s escape led officials to the trailer and led to the arrest of Ray’s and his accomplices.

Another victim, Angelica Montano came forward with a similar story to Vigil. She convinced them to release her. They left her on the road. She was picked up by an off-duty law enforcement officer and told him what happened, but he did not believe her and left her at a bus stop.

Police identified another victim, Kelli Garrett, from a videotape dated from 1996. A judge ruled that the cases for crimes against Cynthia Vigil, Angelica Montano, and Kelli Garrett would be severed, meaning that Ray would be tried for each separately. The judge also ruled that much of the evidence found in the trailer during the 1999 raid could not be admitted in the Garrett or Montano cases, including Ray’s audio tape in which he gave detailed descriptions of his abducting and torturing habits.

Kelli’s first trial resulted in a mistrial, as two jurors believed her story was “unbelievable.”

After the re-trial, David Parker Ray was sentenced on all 12 counts. A week into Vigil’s trial, he took a plea bargain in exchange of leniency for his daughter. He was sentenced in 2001 to 224 years in prison. Before his death, he boasted of torturing and killing women in his trailer.  

No bodies have ever been recovered.

On May 28, 2002, Ray was taken to a correctional penitentiary in Hobbs, New Mexico to be questioned by police. He died of a heart attack before the interrogation.

Cynthia Vigil later founded “Street Safe New Mexico” with Christine Barber, which is a volunteer harm reduction nonprofit that works with adult workers and other vulnerable people living on the street.

David Parker Ray, I hope you were unhappy on your birthday on November 6, since now you’re with people like you.