Inside the Toy Box: The David Parker Ray Story

0:00 It's 1999 in truth or consequences New Mexico. A town whose name sounds like a bad game show, but has a darker reality. A naked, bloody woman runs down the street, chased by a man with a gun. That man isn't just a skinny guy. He's built a torture chamber in a trailer he calls the toy box. Today we're diving into how one small town became the stage for one of the most twisted crimes you've probably have never heard of. Stick around, this one's as messed up as it sounds. Before we jump in, if you like your true crime brief and bingeable, you're exactly where you need to be. Hit follow now for at least two new episodes every week.

0:43 This is 10 Minute Murder. Let's get into it. . 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.

1:25 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 the elderly couple there listens. This time they don't ask questions. They just want to know who is after her. Enter David Parker Ray.

2:06 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. Cecil Leland Ray was hardly a constant presence in David's life. When he showed up with 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, it wasn't an easy task.

2:49 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 very own words, he started simply taking what he wanted, if you understand what I'm saying. I'm not going to read the quote here, but if you go to 10minutemurder.com, click on the murder blog. You can read exactly what he said about that. It was a pretty bold statement and one that was near impossible to cooperate. But it did later come to light that David's younger sister had found his stash of hand-drawn Sadomacochistic fantasies. Where David depicted himself assaulting women. He'd allegedly create these drawings when he was just 14 years old.

3:32 Whether or not David started attacking women as a teenager is unclear. What we do know is that he graduated 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 just 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.

4:12 All he had to do was hang out at one of the local bars and vulnerable women would come to him. Once David had vulnerable women, often transients with no one checking in 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 mind games, he later said, his favorite part of the mental and emotional torture.

4:55 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 would let his dogs in. David claimed he often used drugs, specifically barbituates, 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 on in life. Others remembered immediately, but because of their lifestyle and the effects of the drugs, no one was really willing to listen to them.

5:37 He confessed to telling the women he planned to torture them and then used 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. One of the most active partners was Cindy Hindi. 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 that they would also have to submit to Cindy as well.

6:21 Cynthia Virgil knows this nightmare all too well. Never get into an RV was one of her rules when 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 Hindi 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.

7:04 "Okay, we both know why you're here," 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. She left the keys to the padlock within Cynthia's reach. Seizing the chance, Cynthia began unlocking the restraints when Cindy suddenly returned. Panicked, Cindy grabbed the 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.

7:47 She then broke out of the trailer, running down the street, still wearing the slave collar David had forced on her. She flagged down the motorist I mentioned in the beginning of the story, 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 Hindi. The 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.

8:31 If he thought they would, they 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 intros, he claimed, were placed in bags and sunk alongside their bodies. Cindy struggled to confirm David's claims. When he was sentenced to 223 years in prison, they figured there was time to dig into his statements deeper and find the truth.

9:14 The plan fell short when David died of a heart attack before the state police could question him further. Left only with his earlier confessions, a detailed diary, kept about his victims, and Cindy Hindi'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 called 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.

9:57 Today, it's believed that the fisherman accidentally found one of the victims of David Parker Ray, known to some as the toolbox killer. Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, Brief and Bingeable True Crime. I'm Joe, I'm the host, your unofficial tour guide through the dark corners of humanity. If you've got thoughts about the podcast, let me know. Maybe you just want to rant, that's cool to shoot me an email, joe@10minutemurder.com, but a fair warning. Don't bring your hateration into this dance-ery.

10:39 Keep it respectful and we're going to get along just fine. Which by the way, most of you do. Almost every single person that sends me a message, y'all are super cool. Occasionally, I get a message, and 100% of the time, it's a boomer white man. Tells me my podcast has gone woke. Because apparently, I openly and willingly discuss racial issues, crimes against the LGBTQ plus community, and I respect pronouns. All of that gets a certain hateful group fired up, telling me they aren't going to listen anymore. Am I response to that as always the same? Good. If you're a bigot and a racist, don't listen. This isn't for you. You aren't going to be satisfied here. Anyway, make sure if you aren't a bigot, you subscribe so that you never miss another episode of the podcast.

11:25 Follow me on socials for behind the scenes stuff, random true crying facts, and a whole lot more. If you want to dive deeper or binge the backlog, head over to 10minuteMurder.com. Thanks for listening. I'll see you next time. Seacrest out. [Music]