David Parker Ray's home

This is lot where David Parker Ray lived.

It is situated at 513 Bass Road in Elephant Butte, New Mexico.

Ray became known as the Toy Box Killer after police discovered a soundproof torture chamber on his property. Despite the nickname, he was never convicted of murder.

Toy Box Killer

Ray was a kidnapper, rapist, torturer, and suspected serial killer.

Investigators discovered evidence among his belongings indicating he may have killed dozens of women between 1957 and 1999. This included hundreds of pieces of women's jewelry and handwritten diary entries describing violent deaths.

Ray's case attracted media attention after it emerged that he had spent a large amount of money converting a cargo trailer into an elaborate torture chamber.

It sat outside his residence, fitted with locks, chains, pulleys, surgical instruments, an alarm system, and air conditioning.

The trailer had a gynecological chair, medical tools, modified drills, cages, hooks, and other devices he had crafted by hand. There were also diagrams on the walls depicting women in various bondage positions.

Ray enslaved, tortured, and raped women in the white cargo trailer, which he nicknamed "the Toy Box" and "Satan's Den."

He would sometimes drug his victims with barbiturates to induce amnesia, hypnotize them into forgetting the incident, and then release them.

Ray was a sadist who derived pleasure from inflicting pain on women. His abuse included both physical and mental torture. After abducting his victims, he would play a tape recording of his own voice:

"Hello there, b*tch. Are you comfortable right now? I doubt it. Wrists and ankles chained. Gagged. Probably blindfolded. You are disoriented and scared, too, I would imagine."

The rest of the tape detailed how they were going to be raped and abused in his soundproof "playroom." It also warned them that they would be whipped or shocked with an electroshock machine if they "got out of line." Ray enjoyed witnessing his victims' fear as they listened to the recording.

His girlfriend and accomplice, Cindy Hendy, claimed that the women he murdered were dismembered before being dumped in ravines and the Elephant Butte Reservoir.

Cynthia Vigil Jaramillo

In March 1999, Ray approached a sex worker named Cynthia Vigil Jaramillo in Albuquerque and pretended to be an undercover police officer.

After handcuffing her and placing her in the back of his vehicle, he drove 140 miles south to his residence in Elephant Butte.

Ray kept Vigil chained to a bed in the living room, where she was forced to wear a dog collar and tortured for three days. On the third day, Ray left for work while his girlfriend stayed home to guard their prisoner.

When Vigil realized that Hendy had placed the keys to her chain on a nearby table, she discreetly edged the table closer until she could free herself.

Hendy immediately attacked Vigil upon realizing she had unlocked the chain. This led to a brief struggle, during which Vigil struck Hendy over the head with an ice pick.

Naked and with a dog collar still attached to her neck, Vigil fled the house, ran down the gravel road, and sought refuge with a neighbor, who took her inside and called the police.

The police obtained a search warrant for the residence.

Upon entering the living room, they saw a bed, chains, and the bucket that Vigil had been forced to use as a toilet. There were also signs that a struggle had taken place.

The evidence corroborated the victim's story. The officers noticed various torture devices, which prompted them to search the white trailer parked outside.

A team of 75 federal agents and state police officers combed the property using metal detectors, shovels, and a cadaver dog. However, they failed to find any remains.

Conviction

Kelli Garrett was one of the women who accused Ray of kidnapping and torture.

Garrett said she was drugged at a bar in Truth or Consequences in July 1996 before being taken to Ray's home by his daughter, Glenda Jean "Jesse" Ray. She was held and tortured there for two days.

Ray's first trial for the crimes against Garrett ended in a mistrial after two jurors said they found her account unbelievable. At his retrial, he was convicted on all 12 counts.

Ray later went on trial for Vigil's abduction. A week into the proceedings, he agreed to plead guilty to kidnapping and torture in exchange for a more lenient sentence for Jesse. She pleaded no contest and received a 30-month prison sentence.

In 2001, Ray was sentenced to 224 years in prison.

Ray reportedly agreed to show investigators where he had buried some of his victims, but the interview never took place. He died of a heart attack in 2002 at age 62.

Background

Ray's sadistic tendencies stretched back to his early adolescence. His estranged sister said he was drawing sadomasochistic images by the age of 14.

He told his first wife that he committed his first murder in 1957, when he was 18 years old. He claimed that on that occasion, he tied a woman to a tree, tortured her, and then killed her.

As a young adult, he joined the United States Army, where he worked as a general mechanic. This role taught him skills he later used to construct various torture devices.

After being discharged, he began working as a maintenance man for the New Mexico Parks Department, a job he held until he was charged with kidnapping. Coworkers interviewed after his arrest said he was a "nice guy" who was "always eager to help."