Inside the Toy Box: The David Parker Ray Story

When Naked and Bloody on a New Mexico Road Means Trouble

Spring, 1999. A woman bolts down a dusty road in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. If that name sounds like a bad joke, you’re not far off. This place is famous for two things: meth labs and folks barely scraping by.

Now, a woman running in that town is not exactly headline material. But this one? She is naked and smeared with blood. That is when a motorist pulls over, rolls down the window just enough, and gets told, panicked and breathless, that a man with a gun is chasing her.

The street is empty, tension thick enough to cut with a knife, so the driver floors it. Not exactly a “hero of the day” moment, but who can blame them?

The woman, desperate and still on the run, crashes into a nearby house where an elderly couple listens. This time, they do not ask questions. They want to know who is after her.

Enter David Parker Ray. New Mexico born and raised, farm boy turned nightmare. His parents split early, and his mom, strapped for cash, took the kids back to live with her strict parents, known for handing out punishments like candy.

But David’s real teacher was not grandma or grandpa. It was his father.

An Unstable Father and a Troubled Teen

Cecil Leland Ray was hardly a consistent presence in David’s life. When he showed up at the family farm, it was usually in a drunken, incoherent state. When he managed to speak, it wasn’t with kindness or encouragement. Instead, Cecil pulled out his collection of explicit materials and urged David to go after girls.

For David, that wasn’t an easy task. He struggled with girls at school and often became a target for bullying because of it.

Things changed when he became a teenager, but not for the better. According to David’s own words, he simply started taking what he wanted. In a later statement, David said: “I’ve been rapin’ b*tches ever since I was old enough to jerk off, and tie little girls’ hands behind their back.”

This was a bold statement; one that was near impossible to corroborate, but it did later

come to light that David’s younger sister had found his stash of hand drawn,

sadomasochistic fantasies, where David depicted himself assaulting women. He’d allegedly created these drawings when he was just fourteen years old.

From Army Mechanic to a Town with Easy Targets

Whether or not David started attacking women as a teenager is unclear. What we do know is that he graduated from high school and then joined the United States Army as a mechanic. That gave him a technical skill set to rely on after his service.

When he left the army, David moved to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, where he worked as a maintenance man for the parks department.

Truth or Consequences turned out to be the perfect place for someone like him. The locals were often tough and kept to themselves, but there was a steady flow of transients passing through—people looking for their next fix or trying to make money however they could.

David didn’t need to chase victims. All he had to do was hang out at one of the local bars, and vulnerable women would come to him.

The “Toy Box” and a Horrifying Operation

Once David had vulnerable women, often transients with no one checking on them, in his grasp, he took them to what he called his “Toy Box.” This was a trailer on his property, hidden in plain sight but soundproofed and outfitted with custom-made equipment designed for his twisted purposes.

Whips, chains, and other cruel devices filled the space. David reportedly spent around $100,000 on tools and gadgets to carry out his brutal acts.

“It was the mindgames,” he later said. His favorite part was the mental and emotional torture. He would often warn his victims about what was coming but preferred they see it for themselves. Above the custom chair where he strapped them down, David installed large mirrors on the trailer’s ceiling.

He took what he wanted from these women. When he was finished, he would bring in a group of trusted friends. After they were done, he let his dogs in.

David claimed he often used drugs, specifically barbiturates, to cause amnesia in his victims before leaving them on the side of the road. Some women didn’t realize what had happened until much later in life. Others remembered immediately but, because of their lifestyle and the effects of the drugs, had no one willing to listen.

He confessed to telling the women he planned to torture them and then using drugs to erase their memories, so they wouldn’t be able to report him.

Another unsettling truth was David’s network of accomplices. He often used the women in his life—including wives, girlfriends, and even his own daughter—as a cover to seem less dangerous. But behind the scenes, he had trained these women to obey his orders without question.

Cindy Hendy: Partner in Crime and the Captive’s Escape

One of David’s most active partners was Cindy Hendy. She worked alongside him in the parks department and shared a disturbing interest in violent acts. Throughout David’s “Toy Box,” tapes played constantly for his victims, making it clear they would also have to submit to Cindy.

Cynthia Virgil knows this nightmare all too well. “Never get into an RV,” was one of her rules while working the streets. But when times got tough, she had little choice.

One day, a man in an RV pulled over in Albuquerque. Cynthia negotiated with him, but the moment she stepped inside, something felt off. When she tried to leave, the man shouted “Cindy!”—a name dangerously close to her own.

That wasn’t for her, though. Cindy Hendy was hiding in the back of the RV. She appeared, struck Cynthia with a cattle prod, and a fight broke out. Cynthia was knocked unconscious.

When she woke up, she was locked inside David’s trailer, listening to one of his tapes.

“Okay, b*tch, we both know why you’re here today,” David’s voice said. “Your wrists and ankles are chained, and you’re gagged because you’re not going to like the way I do it.”

Cynthia endured three days inside the “Toy Box” before sensing a chance to escape. David had gone to work, leaving Cindy in charge. But Cindy made one critical mistake that would change everything.

A Desperate Escape and the Collapse of a Nightmare

Cindy made a critical mistake, she left the keys to the padlocks within Cynthia’s reach. Seizing the chance, Cynthia began unlocking the restraints when Cindy suddenly returned. Panicked, Cindy grabbed a lamp and started striking Cynthia with it.

In the chaos, Cynthia managed to free herself, grab an ice pick, and stab Cindy in the neck. She then broke out of the trailer, running down the street, still wearing the slave collar David had forced on her.

She flagged down a motorist but ended up running straight into the arms of an elderly couple. They clothed her, called the police, and promised they wouldn’t send her back to the man who had abused her.

Cynthia’s brave escape led to the arrests of David Parker Ray and Cindy Hendy.

Her story was backed up by tape recordings, piles of physical evidence from inside the trailer, and the testimonies of other survivors who came forward after hearing the news.

David claimed the women who survived were the lucky ones. He said he kidnapped four to five women every year, holding them for months while deciding if they would cause trouble. Those he thought would were dealt with permanently.

Investigators estimate David’s victim count at around 60. No remains were ever found, but David and Cindy gave a chilling explanation.

On trial for the abduction and torture of Cynthia and another victim, David described how he killed and dismembered others. He said he removed their chest cavities, filled them with cement, and dumped them in nearby lakes. Their entrails, he claimed, were placed in bags and sunk alongside the bodies.

The Hunt for Answers That Never Came

Authorities struggled to confirm David’s claims. When he was sentenced to 223 years in prison, they figured there was time to dig deeper into his statements and find the truth.

That plan fell apart when David died of a heart attack before state police could question him further.

Left with only his earlier confessions, a detailed diary he kept about his victims, and Cindy Hendy’s testimony, investigators faced a frustrating dead end. Cindy said David disposed of human remains in Elephant Butte Lake—but even she didn’t know the exact locations.

The lake is vast and deep, making a thorough search nearly impossible. Still, a local fisherman once caught a burlap sack on his line, filled with what he described as “animal flesh.”

“Just looking at it made you feel strange,” the fisherman said. “The bag had been split, and this material was coming out of it.”

Today, it’s believed that this fisherman accidentally found one of the victims of David Parker Ray, known to some as the Toy Box Killer.