November 21, 2024 • 34 mins
In the final episode of The Toy Box Killer story, David Parker Ray’s defense attorney, Lee McMillian, describes the disturbing case. We follow along from emotional testimonies to the challenge of securing justice for Ray's victims.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I was David Parker Ray's second lawyer. I stepped in
after the first trial in two thousand. I spent dozens
or hundreds of hours with David Parker Ray. What I
expected was somebody that was visibly evil. What I got
was a guy that if you met him in a bar,
you'd have a beer with him and maybe go fishing
(00:21):
with him. I think the fact that he was so
amiable makes the whole thing scarier.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
My name is Slung Glass and this is the conclusion
of The Toy Box Killer on American Homicide And just
a quick note that this episode contained some graphic and
disturbing content. Please take care while listening. The case of
David Parker Ray caught the attention of the world after
one of his victims escaped from his torture chamber known
(00:50):
as the Toy Box. His toy box was a soundproof
trailer attached to his home in the middle of the
New Mexico Desert. It's the place where three women accused
David Parker Ray of kidnapping, torturing, and sexually assaulting them.
After his arrest, David Parker Ray faced three separate trials,
(01:12):
one for each victim, but prosecutors in the first trial
couldn't secure a conviction.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
There was a mistrial, they had a hung jury.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Lee McMillan was David Parker Ray's lawyer and represented him
in the retrial.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Was one of the best behaved criminal clients I'd ever had.
He never criticized, He never complained, you never whined.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
We heard in earlier episodes how locals described David Parker
Ray as charming, polite, and even helpful. But the likable
mechanic from Elephant Bute, New Mexico had some dark secrets.
The FBI believed he could be responsible for the murders
of more than forty five people, that would make him
(01:55):
one of the most prolific killers in American history, but
they never charged him.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
It was difficult to convict David Parker Ray of murder
because they didn't have any corpses.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Without anybodies, prosecutors charged Parker Ray with what they could
get him on, kidnapping, torturing, and sexually assaulting three women.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
David Parker Ray was a man who believed himself to
be Satan himself, or at least a demonic presence on earth.
To advance the Satanic agenda, he makes that very clear
in the orientation tape that he played for his victims,
and in the sketches that he made of the procedures
that he performed in his den, which he called Satan's Den.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
You may remember that he tied up his victims and
then played a recording of him methodically listing off all
the sick and disgusting things he intended to do to them.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
I have no idea how to defend somebody like that.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Nevertheless, this was the job Lee McMillan had to do.
Each case against David Parker Ray was tried separately. The
first trial was for crimes against Kelly Garrett, who was
kidnapped by David's daughter, Jesse Ray in nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Kelly Garrett, who was uncovered by one of the pictures
that the FBI took and the toy box showed a
victim with a tattoo on her lower leg, and they
identified her through that tattoo.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Kelly's exit in laws saw a picture of her tattoo
on the news and immediately phoned the FBI to identify
their ex daughter in law. They remembered how three years
earlier Kelly turned up disoriented but having no memory of
where she had been over the course of a weekend.
At the time, they all assumed Kelly was out partying
(03:47):
and messing around with another man.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
I thank you for Kelly Garrett.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
She has gone through some stuff and went to the bars,
and I believe that's how she came into contact with
Jesse Ray and David Ray.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
But the reality is that Kelly was kidnapped and drugged,
which destroyed her memory from that weekend. So Kelly never
told the police about what happened. It was the FBI
who approached her. A fact David Parker Ray's defense team
jumped on.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Well, normally you would go after that witness and ask
him why they never came forward and ask him why
they didn't participate in the prosecution until they were found.
Considering that the case was all over the news, why
didn't you pick up the phone and call somebody?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Questioning Kelly Garrett's credibility was one part of the defense.
The other was to argue what the jury saw on
the tapes happening between David Parker Ray and Kelly Garrett
was consensual. When the trial kicked off in the spring
of two thousand and one, it featured a new judge
named Kevin Swayzee. He replaced the original judge after he
(04:55):
died of a heart attack just hours after warning some
jail guards to leave David Parker Ray alone. Judge Sweezey
was a rancher who spent his weekend steer roping, meaning
he'd ride a horse while trying to lasso a bull.
But now he traded his jeans and flannel shirt furrow
rope as he presided over one of the biggest trials
(05:16):
in the country. In order to find an impartial jury,
the case was moved to Estancia, New Mexico, known for
their annual pumpkin chunkin event where custombo machines launched pumpkins
into the air. The tiny farming and ranching community sits
just outside Albuquerque. As you can imagine, hearing a case
(05:37):
about bondage and S and M was something foreign to
the locals.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
And to that end, I actually hired an expert witness
who is a local dominatrix, to explain that concept to
what turned out to be a jury of farmers and ranchers.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
That dominatrix, by the way, was the only witness that
the defense would call. Instead, the defense would chip away
at the credibility of the prosecution's witnesses, and once again,
one of the witnesses was the victim, Kelly Garrett.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Well, the normal situation in a sexual assault trial for
a defense lawyer is to find fault with the victim
as much as possible.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Unlike the first trial, when prosecutors called a string of
law enforcement and FBI investigators to testify, prosecutors immediately put
Kelly Garrett on the witness stand once again. Kelly shared
her painful memories of what happened in David Parker raised
toy box. She explained that David Parker raised daughter Jesse Ray,
(06:41):
a former friend, offered her a ride home, but instead
took Kelly to her father's torture chamber. That's where he
physically and sexually abused her over the course of that
July nineteen ninety six weekend. The jurors, comprised mostly of farmers,
sat frozen in their seats as Kelly recounted the chilling
(07:02):
details from the toy box. The shock on the jurors
faces continued as prosecutors played the video of Kelly's strapped
to a fitness bench in the toy box. This was
the same video from the first trial. After the six
minute clip finished, plane prosecutors asked Kelly if she recognized
the woman on the tape. After wiping away a steady
(07:25):
stream of tears, Kelly said, that's me. She recounted as
much as she could remember from that weekend, including how
David Parker Ray dressed in his Green Parks Department uniform,
dropped her off at her mother in law's house. Those
were the same in laws who later saw Kelly's tattoo
(07:46):
on the news three years later and called the FBI
on her behalf.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
It was pretty convincing, and I think everybody in the
room knew it. I knew it, the judge knew it.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
And then came a ruling by Judge Swayze that changed everything.
In the first trial, prosecutors could not play David Parker
Ray's orientation tape. The judge had ruled the audio recording
in admissible since Kelly couldn't remember hearing it.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Basically, it's an introduction for the victim of what is
going to happen to them over the next few days
or weeks in the trailer and graphically describes how they'll
be raped and tortured.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
And tormented.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
In the retrial, Judge Swayzee allowed the jury to hear
an edited version of that tape.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Okay, we'll both know what you've been brought here far.
I'm going to use you. You're not going to like the
way I do it, and in a week or two,
when I'm through with you, you can be turned loose.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Most importantly for the prosecution, the tape described all the
graphic details that Kelly Garrett could not remember.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
As soon as I turned this type off, you will
have an excellent opportunity to try to bag for me
to turn you loose. I loved to listen to a
bag and play. And this is the end of the tape.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
After listening to twenty five minutes of David Parker Ray
rattling off his twisted fantasies, only one word could describe
the look on each of the jurors faces.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Horrified.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
During a cigarette break, David Parker Ray was overheard saying
the new judge was a blow to his case. When
the trial resumed, the jury also heard from Kelly Garrett's
ex's husband Patrick. He was married to Kelly in July
nineteen ninety six. When David Parker Ray kidnapped her. Patrick
testified while dressed in his navy uniform. He explained that
(09:44):
the day David Parker Ray dropped Kelly off, she wasn't herself.
She was disoriented and mumbling. Kelly was also dirty, which
was unusual because she usually showered a couple times a day.
Patrick added that he found the whole situation with David
Parker Wray to be shady. It was a Sunday, and
(10:07):
David was dressed in his work uniform even though he
didn't have to work that day. The irony of his
testimony is that Patrick had originally questioned Kelly's credibility. Patrick
and his family thought her disappearance meant she was cheating
on him. He learned the truth three years later, and
(10:29):
at the trial, the guilt of not believing his now
ex wife finally overwhelmed him. Patrick wiped away tears as
he explained that he annulled their marriage a few days
after David Parker Wray dropped Kelly off. During closing arguments,
the prosecution told the jury that Kelly Garrett's long nightmare
(10:52):
was real and they could bring it to an end
by finding David Parker Ray guilty. The defense try a
different approach and once again played the six minute long
videotape of Kelly Garrett in the toy box. This time,
attorney Lee McMillan gave a sort of play by play
description of what he believed was happening and explained that
(11:16):
the tapes showed nothing more than a harmless fantasy and
consensual sex.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Being a doesn't mean you're a murderer.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
To underscore his point, McMillan took it one step further.
He gramped every picture prosecutor showed from the toy box,
and one by one he held them up and threw
them on the floor. He again reminded the jury that
those pictures were taken in nineteen ninety nine, three years
after Kelly Garrett was allegedly held in the toy box.
(11:48):
McMillan explained that there was no way to know if
any of the items were present when Kelly was there.
Once again, David parker Ray's fate was in the hands
of the jury. After a hung jury in his first trial,
(12:08):
David Parker Ray was retried in the spring of two
thousand and one. Based on parker Rey's demeanor in the
court room, you'd never know he was facing more than
two hundred years in prison.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
He sat there and stared at people and looked at me,
and he would make notes and pass them to me,
and elbowed me a little bit when he wanted me
to say something.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
His attorney, Lee McMillan, now stood next to his client
as the jury returned with a verdict. The group had
deliberated for just over five hours.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
The atmosphere was one of foreboding and darkness.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
On the twelve counts of abducting and sexually torturing Kelly Garrett,
the jury found David Parker Ray guilty. In an interview
with the reporter afterwards, David Parker Ray claimed the sex
between he and Kelly Garrett was consensual. He vowed to
(13:06):
appeal and listened to what he told a local TV reporter.
I feel right, David Parker Ray said, he feels like
the one that was raped.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
I get my excitement from making a moment happy. My
trailer had numerous sex toys in it, of different types,
all different fetishes. I got pleasure out of the woman
getting pleasure. I did what they wanted me to do.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
You could credit that infamous cassette tape for helping jurors
in the second trial convict David parker Ray, but he
told reporters that it wasn't at all what it sounded like.
Parker Ray explained that the tape was recorded for entertainment
purposes and that there was a disclaimer at the beginning
of the tape that said so. With one trial down
(14:02):
and two to go, Judge Swayzee held off on sentencing
until the conclusion of David Parker Ray's other trials. His
second trial was for the crimes inflicted on Cynthia V.
Speaker 6 (14:13):
Hill.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Cynthia V.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Hill was another victim that David snatched off the street
in Albuquerque and took to his trailer. She had been
in the house for three days to restrain and being mistreated,
and somehow got away from Sandy Handy and David ran
down Bass Road with the collar around her neck, trailing
(14:35):
a chain, going from house to half looking for help.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
But just after that trial began, Cynthia V. Hill received
some unexpected news.
Speaker 7 (14:46):
The DA contacted me and told me that David wanted
to plead out and plead guilty for what he did
to me.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
David Parker Ray wanted to strike a deal, but it
came with one giant cat.
Speaker 7 (15:00):
Which the only way he would plead guilty was if
his daughter got no time.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
In exchange for pleading guilty, prosecutors would have to drop
their case against his daughter Jesse Ray. Remember, Jesse worked
as her father's accomplice and helped to lure victims into
the toy.
Speaker 7 (15:17):
Box, knowing that he wanted to plead out on my case.
I was happy that I didn't have to testify.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
It's good that she didn't have to relive what happened
to her by testifying at the trial, But the fact
that Jesse Ray got off scot free seems like a
miscarriage of justice. In the summer of two thousand and one,
David Parker Ray and prosecutors struck a deal. In exchange
for Jesse Ray not serving any additional prison time, David
(15:45):
pleaded guilty to more than twenty charges, including kidnapping, raping,
and conspiracy to knap Cynthia V. Hill.
Speaker 7 (15:54):
I think his daughter should have gotten more time, but
then I had to realize taking it to trial, anything
could have wit and then he could have been let go.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
As part of the deal, Jesse Ray was sentenced to
time served and five years of probation, and there was more.
The deal also meant dropping the other pending case against
David Parker Ray. That trial was for the third victim,
Angela Montano, who sadly passed before her trial was set
to begin. Angela never got the justice she deserved.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
I think David was protective of his daughter because she
represented his legacy.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
All that was left was to formally sentence David parker Ray.
Kelly Garrett arrived at the sentencing hearing to read her
victim impact statement. Kelly said that she hopes David Parker
Ray lives long enough to serve out his full sentence.
David stared at the floor as Kelly said she hoped
(16:55):
he would burn in hell. When the judge asked David
Parker Ray if he had anything to say, he said
he did. He explained that this whole process has allowed
him to get closer to God, and then stoically said,
I can only be sorry for what I did. It
was something that caught his own lawyer off guard.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I do not think David Parker Ray ever expressed any remorse.
I don't think that he was capable of remorse. He
fully believed that he would never be in prison.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
And told me so, but Judge Swayzee was about to
change that.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
David Parker Ray was sent us to two hundred and
twenty four years of confinement.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
It was the maximum sentence.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
No human being would ever survive. That.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Cynthia V.
Speaker 7 (17:49):
Hill was thrilled knowing nobody would ever go through what
I went. Dude, I think that's what was satisfying about
him being locked up.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
David Parker Ray was head to prison on a list
of charges, but murder wasn't one of them. Even though
he bragged about killing dozens of people in his journals,
investigators never located anybodies. But then in May of two
thousand and two, David Parker Ray told the FBI that
he was ready to talk. It was the first time
(18:21):
he ever agreed to cooperate, and authorities believed he had
information to finally share about those missing women. The two
sides set a meeting, but that meeting never happened.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Well, I was at home with my children helping them
with their homework, and it came on the news in Albuquerque.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
David parker Ray has died.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Just before David parker Ray's meeting with the FBI. He
suffered a fatal heart attack. He was sixty two years old.
This meant that David Parker Ray took his secrets with him.
His attorney couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Well, I wanted to see his body dead, and I
made the determination that I would make every effort I
could to attend his autopsy. I wanted to be sure
that they made the wye In decision and removed his organs
because I did not trust that he would not start
his own heart and walk out. And the reason that
I felt that way was because one night when we
(19:25):
were sitting there at a table that was before sentencing,
and he and I were talking and basically I was
just giving it to him straight, you're probably going to
spend the rest of your life in state custody, and
so is your daughter. Now if you can possibly bring
yourself to cooperate with the Feds, and they were offering
(19:47):
some sort of deal for his daughter, but he didn't
want to do it.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
So let's connect the dots here. His lawyer said that
David Parker Ray didn't want to take the original plea
deal because he didn't believe he'd serve time in prison.
So he goes to trial, is found guilty, gets sentenced,
and then dies weeks later. In other words, he gets
off easy.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
This is my first and probably only contact me in
my life with pure evil, and it made me believe
in the incarnation of pure evil.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
David Parker raised Bonnie was buried at the New Mexico
State Prison Cemetery in Santa Fe. Nearly a decade later,
local TV reporter Alex Tomlin did a story about Elephant
Butte Lake drying up.
Speaker 6 (20:40):
We had kind of a severe drought and the levels
of the lake really started dropping and they were finding things.
And I got a call from a guy and he says, look,
I haven't said anything for years, but with lake training,
they keep finding these tires. And I used to be
a neighbor of David Parker raised, and I see him
(21:00):
out there filling these really large tires with cement and
dumping them in the lake. And I asked him, I said, well,
what do you think was in the tires? And his
response was, well, I think it's the missing women. And
so there was a lot of speculation about that, and
all I'm thinking is, if this is a chance to
find these women, we've got to cover it. Maybe this
(21:21):
was our next chance, I mean, maybe Mother Nature was
going to catch us a break.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
But once again, no body's turned up. Then, in twenty eleven,
the FBI reopened the case of a missing Albuquerque woman
who was alleged to have been killed by David Parker Ray,
and doing so, investigators again searched in and around Elephant
Butte Lake. The FBI then turned to the public for
(21:50):
help and opened the toy box to the media. They
created a website and posted photos of women's shoes, underwear,
and clothing, along with dozens of necklaces, rings, and earrings
found inside the toy box. All of this was done
with the hopes for further leads in the story.
Speaker 6 (22:11):
But this is one of those cases it's like until
you get that last piece of the puzzle, there's really
nothing else to do with it. I mean, the toy
box has been opened, people have seen it, his tape
is well known, but there's still women who are missing,
and until somebody says something, you know, if it's true
that he had these other people that he can fight
(22:32):
it in, somebody has to know something.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
No bodies were ever found. Instead, the seemingly never ending
story has remained into the area like a scarlet letter.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
I think it hurt the local bars. I think it
hurt the vocal restaurants, and I think the notoriety hurt
in a way that the UFO controversy hurt rosal.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
In New Mexico, a.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Local newspaper printed a letter to the editor from an
eighteen year old earl who is upset at the media's
portrayal of the towns of Elephant Butte and truth consequences.
She wrote that one bad apple shouldn't spoil the rest
of the bunch, but the damage was done.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
I think it hurt the tourism aspect of the lake.
I think that for a time there was an attitude
that people did not want to go in the lake
because there might be bodies in there. And I had
people around the state tell me.
Speaker 8 (23:23):
That Elephant Butte will forever be linked to David Parker
Ray and the unthinkable crimes that he committed.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Darren White, who works with New Mexico's Department of Public Safety,
still lives in the area.
Speaker 8 (23:37):
It's hard to move on when you don't know what happened.
It's hard to move on when you know there are
victims out there that haven't been found. But nobody, including myself,
thanks for a second that David Parker Ray did not
abduct women, torture them and kill them.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
He did.
Speaker 8 (24:02):
But that is the really bizarre thing about this is
that David Parker Ray is the most notorious serial killer
in New Mexico's history, and we've never found a single body.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Today, two key accomplices in the David Parker Ray story
are free, his daughter Jesse Ray and girlfriend Cindy Hendy.
Speaker 8 (24:33):
It's probably the one thing that irritates the hell out
of me about this case is that those two today
are walking the streets free.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Darren White worked for New Mexico's Department of Public Safety.
Speaker 8 (24:44):
Because they're just as responsible as David Parker Ray, and
they're equally as evil as David Parker Ray. But that
was part of the deal that was cut. I get that.
I've been at this a long time. David Parker Ray
he wanted Jesse to be free, and so that was
part of the player agreement.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
In twenty nineteen, Cindy Hendy was released after serving twenty
of her thirty six year sentence. New Mexico state law,
which has since been changed, only required Cindy to serve
half of her sentence.
Speaker 8 (25:20):
And so in twenty nineteen she was released. She served
all of her time, and as I recall, she moved
out of the state.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Cindy Hendy moved to Montana. When locals found out, they
were furious because Cindy, a registered sex offender, reportedly moved
near a public school, and for defense attorney Lee McMillan,
he fears for his own safety.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
I think that anybody that has anything to do with
this case has something to fear from Cindy Handy or
Jesse Ray or anybody associated with that group. I know
that if I see I'll defend myself.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
As you can imagine, being the man responsible for defending
David Parker Ray comes at a price.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
My career was never the same after this case.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
I realized how it changed my relationship to people around me,
to the practice of law, and to society in general.
And this case turned me into a Christian because you
cannot understand this case if you're not a feist. I'm
very careful about who I take on as a client
now because I don't trust anybody anymore. This case has
(26:30):
made me more aware of evil and good in the world,
and most criminal clients are weak people who have just
to come to their urges and done stupid things or
bad things, and if they're willing to accept responsibility for
their actions and get better, I'm willing.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
To take them.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
If they're not willing to do it, I'm not willing
to take them anymore. I think that this case had
a negative impact on everybody that was associated with it.
Everybody that's associated with it has died.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
In the interim.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
I got cancer and I've had a stroke since then.
I'm surviving that.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
In the end, Lee credits David Parker Ray's victim, Cynthia V.
Speaker 6 (27:16):
Hill.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
If it had not been for Cynthia V.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Hill escaping, he would have continued until he died of
other causes. He would have continued, and I think he
would have continued to recruit people to continue the same activity.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
And I think he did that right up to his
dead Cynthia V.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Hill managed to escape from David Parker Ray's toy box
and in doing so, helped to bring an end to
his crimes.
Speaker 8 (27:40):
For somebody like Cynthia to stand up there with the FBI,
and that was incredibly courageous and important because for many
of us, we see it, we see firsthand. Those agents
that worked that case, they saw it firsthand and for
the public who just read about it.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
There was a naked.
Speaker 8 (28:02):
Woman with a dog collar. There's a face to that.
It's a human being. She stood up at a podium
and said, we need to uncover as much as we can.
We need to learn more, we need to find the
women who were killed by David Parker ray. And now
she's become the voice for the women who don't have one.
(28:23):
And that's incredible. That's so courageous, and I admire her
so much for that because she didn't have to. And
I hope that that brings her, in some way, some
bit of peace, because I can't imagine the hell that
she has to live through, because all we have are
those images that we saw she lived in. And so
(28:45):
if there's anything that brings that woman piece, I pray
for it.
Speaker 7 (28:50):
I don't think I'm a hero. It just happened to
get away from David Parkery.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Cynthia has found a way to find light in all darkness.
Today she uses her experience to help others.
Speaker 7 (29:05):
I run a nonprofit, coss Straight Safe, and that's what
helps me get through all the darkness. That's here helping
the women that were in my situation.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Safe Street, New Mexico serves victims of sex trafficking and
those struggling with homelessness and addiction.
Speaker 7 (29:27):
Letting them know that they're not victims, they're survivors, I
think is a big message to give the women and
let them know you're not anybody's a victim. Take that
power back from everybody. Once you take that power back,
you're not You're not a victim, You're a survivor. And
I think letting them know that is it's the first
(29:50):
step of getting them on the right track.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Well, Cynthia still lives with the physical and mental scars
of her past. She does have surprising message for Cindy Hendy.
Speaker 7 (30:03):
How do you want her to know that I forgive her.
I have no hard feelings anymore. I also understand she
served her time. I'm not mad that she's released. I'm
glad she's with her kids. I hope she's making the
best of her life.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
But she does have one question for Cindy.
Speaker 7 (30:24):
The only thing I want to revisit is if David
ever told her where any of the bodies are at.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
As for the other living survivor, Kelly Garrett.
Speaker 9 (30:34):
I'm just existing. I'm not living. Some days are just
harder than others, but I have mostly good days now.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Like Cynthia, she's also working for a nonprofit.
Speaker 9 (30:49):
I am a coordinator for a little program called Heartfelt Destinations,
and we take people to doctor's appointments. We are nonprofit.
We get our money from grants. Our clients don't have
to pay anything. It's a free ride.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Kelly has turned her experience into her purpose.
Speaker 9 (31:09):
Sometimes we're counselors. Sometimes they don't get good results. You
have to be compassionate. An understanding feels good. I like
helping people, especially on the days I can't get out
of bed.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
There's links in the show notes to the nonprofits we
talked about in this episode.
Speaker 6 (31:30):
I mean, women are amazing, right. We bring life into
this world. We are strong, and those two women embody
that they stood up to a monster.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
For TV reporter Alex Tomlin. Kelly and Cynthia are heroes.
Speaker 6 (31:45):
They survived him, They faced him head on and they
put his ass away, and that has to at least
be some type of justice for them.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Prosecutor Jim Yons helped put David Parker Ray behind bars.
He uses this case as a.
Speaker 10 (32:01):
Warning if anything comes out of the case for the good.
I hope it's that people realize that there are monsters
out there.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
More than a quarter century has passed since Cynthia Vihill
escaped the toy box, running towards freedom naked with a
metal dog collar around her neck, and twenty two years
since David Parker Ray died in jail of a heart attack. Nevertheless,
the story continues to haunt the towns of Truther Consequences
(32:32):
and Elephant Butte even to this day. Sitting in the
parking lot of the Albuquerque FBI office is David Parker
Ray's toy box.
Speaker 10 (32:43):
The town has changed. It's just not as close knitted
community as it used to be, simply because they had
a monster in their midst and they didn't know it.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Next time on American Homicide, when the wife of a
prominent religious leader is murdered. The search for the killer
will uncover layers of secrets that would shake a town
to its soul. I'm Sloane Glass. Join me as we
head to Cherry Hill, New Jersey for the story of
Carol Newlander. That's next time on American Homicide. You can
(33:30):
contact the American Homicide Team by emailing us at American
Homicide Pod at gmail dot com. That's American Homicide pod
at gmail dot com. American Homicide is hosted and written
by me Sloane Glass and is a production of Glass Podcasts,
a division of Glass Entertainment Group, in partnership with iHeart Podcasts.
(33:53):
The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Todd Gantz.
The series is also written and produced by Todd Gambs,
with additional writing by Ben Fetterman and Andrea Gunny. Our
associate producer is Kristin Melcurie. Our ihearty is Ali Perry
and Jessica Crimechack. Audio editing and mixing by Matt Delvecchio,
(34:15):
Dave Seya and Britt Roba. Show additional editing support from
Nico Ruga, Tanner Robbins, and Patrick Walsh. American Homicides' theme
song was composed by Oliver Baines of Noisier Music Library,
provided by my Music. Follow American Homicide on Apple Podcasts,
and please rate and review American Homicide. Your five star
(34:38):
review goes a long way towards helping others find this show.
For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts
I was David Parker Ray's second lawyer. I stepped in
after the first trial in two thousand. I spent dozens
or hundreds of hours with David Parker Ray. What I
expected was somebody that was visibly evil. What I got
was a guy that if you met him in a bar,
you'd have a beer with him and maybe go fishing
(00:21):
with him. I think the fact that he was so
amiable makes the whole thing scarier.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
My name is Slung Glass and this is the conclusion
of The Toy Box Killer on American Homicide And just
a quick note that this episode contained some graphic and
disturbing content. Please take care while listening. The case of
David Parker Ray caught the attention of the world after
one of his victims escaped from his torture chamber known
(00:50):
as the Toy Box. His toy box was a soundproof
trailer attached to his home in the middle of the
New Mexico Desert. It's the place where three women accused
David Parker Ray of kidnapping, torturing, and sexually assaulting them.
After his arrest, David Parker Ray faced three separate trials,
(01:12):
one for each victim, but prosecutors in the first trial
couldn't secure a conviction.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
There was a mistrial, they had a hung jury.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Lee McMillan was David Parker Ray's lawyer and represented him
in the retrial.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Was one of the best behaved criminal clients I'd ever had.
He never criticized, He never complained, you never whined.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
We heard in earlier episodes how locals described David Parker
Ray as charming, polite, and even helpful. But the likable
mechanic from Elephant Bute, New Mexico had some dark secrets.
The FBI believed he could be responsible for the murders
of more than forty five people, that would make him
(01:55):
one of the most prolific killers in American history, but
they never charged him.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
It was difficult to convict David Parker Ray of murder
because they didn't have any corpses.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Without anybodies, prosecutors charged Parker Ray with what they could
get him on, kidnapping, torturing, and sexually assaulting three women.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
David Parker Ray was a man who believed himself to
be Satan himself, or at least a demonic presence on earth.
To advance the Satanic agenda, he makes that very clear
in the orientation tape that he played for his victims,
and in the sketches that he made of the procedures
that he performed in his den, which he called Satan's Den.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
You may remember that he tied up his victims and
then played a recording of him methodically listing off all
the sick and disgusting things he intended to do to them.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
I have no idea how to defend somebody like that.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Nevertheless, this was the job Lee McMillan had to do.
Each case against David Parker Ray was tried separately. The
first trial was for crimes against Kelly Garrett, who was
kidnapped by David's daughter, Jesse Ray in nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Kelly Garrett, who was uncovered by one of the pictures
that the FBI took and the toy box showed a
victim with a tattoo on her lower leg, and they
identified her through that tattoo.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Kelly's exit in laws saw a picture of her tattoo
on the news and immediately phoned the FBI to identify
their ex daughter in law. They remembered how three years
earlier Kelly turned up disoriented but having no memory of
where she had been over the course of a weekend.
At the time, they all assumed Kelly was out partying
(03:47):
and messing around with another man.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
I thank you for Kelly Garrett.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
She has gone through some stuff and went to the bars,
and I believe that's how she came into contact with
Jesse Ray and David Ray.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
But the reality is that Kelly was kidnapped and drugged,
which destroyed her memory from that weekend. So Kelly never
told the police about what happened. It was the FBI
who approached her. A fact David Parker Ray's defense team
jumped on.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Well, normally you would go after that witness and ask
him why they never came forward and ask him why
they didn't participate in the prosecution until they were found.
Considering that the case was all over the news, why
didn't you pick up the phone and call somebody?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Questioning Kelly Garrett's credibility was one part of the defense.
The other was to argue what the jury saw on
the tapes happening between David Parker Ray and Kelly Garrett
was consensual. When the trial kicked off in the spring
of two thousand and one, it featured a new judge
named Kevin Swayzee. He replaced the original judge after he
(04:55):
died of a heart attack just hours after warning some
jail guards to leave David Parker Ray alone. Judge Sweezey
was a rancher who spent his weekend steer roping, meaning
he'd ride a horse while trying to lasso a bull.
But now he traded his jeans and flannel shirt furrow
rope as he presided over one of the biggest trials
(05:16):
in the country. In order to find an impartial jury,
the case was moved to Estancia, New Mexico, known for
their annual pumpkin chunkin event where custombo machines launched pumpkins
into the air. The tiny farming and ranching community sits
just outside Albuquerque. As you can imagine, hearing a case
(05:37):
about bondage and S and M was something foreign to
the locals.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
And to that end, I actually hired an expert witness
who is a local dominatrix, to explain that concept to
what turned out to be a jury of farmers and ranchers.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
That dominatrix, by the way, was the only witness that
the defense would call. Instead, the defense would chip away
at the credibility of the prosecution's witnesses, and once again,
one of the witnesses was the victim, Kelly Garrett.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Well, the normal situation in a sexual assault trial for
a defense lawyer is to find fault with the victim
as much as possible.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Unlike the first trial, when prosecutors called a string of
law enforcement and FBI investigators to testify, prosecutors immediately put
Kelly Garrett on the witness stand once again. Kelly shared
her painful memories of what happened in David Parker raised
toy box. She explained that David Parker raised daughter Jesse Ray,
(06:41):
a former friend, offered her a ride home, but instead
took Kelly to her father's torture chamber. That's where he
physically and sexually abused her over the course of that
July nineteen ninety six weekend. The jurors, comprised mostly of farmers,
sat frozen in their seats as Kelly recounted the chilling
(07:02):
details from the toy box. The shock on the jurors
faces continued as prosecutors played the video of Kelly's strapped
to a fitness bench in the toy box. This was
the same video from the first trial. After the six
minute clip finished, plane prosecutors asked Kelly if she recognized
the woman on the tape. After wiping away a steady
(07:25):
stream of tears, Kelly said, that's me. She recounted as
much as she could remember from that weekend, including how
David Parker Ray dressed in his Green Parks Department uniform,
dropped her off at her mother in law's house. Those
were the same in laws who later saw Kelly's tattoo
(07:46):
on the news three years later and called the FBI
on her behalf.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
It was pretty convincing, and I think everybody in the
room knew it. I knew it, the judge knew it.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
And then came a ruling by Judge Swayze that changed everything.
In the first trial, prosecutors could not play David Parker
Ray's orientation tape. The judge had ruled the audio recording
in admissible since Kelly couldn't remember hearing it.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Basically, it's an introduction for the victim of what is
going to happen to them over the next few days
or weeks in the trailer and graphically describes how they'll
be raped and tortured.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
And tormented.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
In the retrial, Judge Swayzee allowed the jury to hear
an edited version of that tape.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Okay, we'll both know what you've been brought here far.
I'm going to use you. You're not going to like the
way I do it, and in a week or two,
when I'm through with you, you can be turned loose.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Most importantly for the prosecution, the tape described all the
graphic details that Kelly Garrett could not remember.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
As soon as I turned this type off, you will
have an excellent opportunity to try to bag for me
to turn you loose. I loved to listen to a
bag and play. And this is the end of the tape.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
After listening to twenty five minutes of David Parker Ray
rattling off his twisted fantasies, only one word could describe
the look on each of the jurors faces.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Horrified.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
During a cigarette break, David Parker Ray was overheard saying
the new judge was a blow to his case. When
the trial resumed, the jury also heard from Kelly Garrett's
ex's husband Patrick. He was married to Kelly in July
nineteen ninety six. When David Parker Ray kidnapped her. Patrick
testified while dressed in his navy uniform. He explained that
(09:44):
the day David Parker Ray dropped Kelly off, she wasn't herself.
She was disoriented and mumbling. Kelly was also dirty, which
was unusual because she usually showered a couple times a day.
Patrick added that he found the whole situation with David
Parker Wray to be shady. It was a Sunday, and
(10:07):
David was dressed in his work uniform even though he
didn't have to work that day. The irony of his
testimony is that Patrick had originally questioned Kelly's credibility. Patrick
and his family thought her disappearance meant she was cheating
on him. He learned the truth three years later, and
(10:29):
at the trial, the guilt of not believing his now
ex wife finally overwhelmed him. Patrick wiped away tears as
he explained that he annulled their marriage a few days
after David Parker Wray dropped Kelly off. During closing arguments,
the prosecution told the jury that Kelly Garrett's long nightmare
(10:52):
was real and they could bring it to an end
by finding David Parker Ray guilty. The defense try a
different approach and once again played the six minute long
videotape of Kelly Garrett in the toy box. This time,
attorney Lee McMillan gave a sort of play by play
description of what he believed was happening and explained that
(11:16):
the tapes showed nothing more than a harmless fantasy and
consensual sex.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Being a doesn't mean you're a murderer.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
To underscore his point, McMillan took it one step further.
He gramped every picture prosecutor showed from the toy box,
and one by one he held them up and threw
them on the floor. He again reminded the jury that
those pictures were taken in nineteen ninety nine, three years
after Kelly Garrett was allegedly held in the toy box.
(11:48):
McMillan explained that there was no way to know if
any of the items were present when Kelly was there.
Once again, David parker Ray's fate was in the hands
of the jury. After a hung jury in his first trial,
(12:08):
David Parker Ray was retried in the spring of two
thousand and one. Based on parker Rey's demeanor in the
court room, you'd never know he was facing more than
two hundred years in prison.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
He sat there and stared at people and looked at me,
and he would make notes and pass them to me,
and elbowed me a little bit when he wanted me
to say something.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
His attorney, Lee McMillan, now stood next to his client
as the jury returned with a verdict. The group had
deliberated for just over five hours.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
The atmosphere was one of foreboding and darkness.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
On the twelve counts of abducting and sexually torturing Kelly Garrett,
the jury found David Parker Ray guilty. In an interview
with the reporter afterwards, David Parker Ray claimed the sex
between he and Kelly Garrett was consensual. He vowed to
(13:06):
appeal and listened to what he told a local TV reporter.
I feel right, David Parker Ray said, he feels like
the one that was raped.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
I get my excitement from making a moment happy. My
trailer had numerous sex toys in it, of different types,
all different fetishes. I got pleasure out of the woman
getting pleasure. I did what they wanted me to do.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
You could credit that infamous cassette tape for helping jurors
in the second trial convict David parker Ray, but he
told reporters that it wasn't at all what it sounded like.
Parker Ray explained that the tape was recorded for entertainment
purposes and that there was a disclaimer at the beginning
of the tape that said so. With one trial down
(14:02):
and two to go, Judge Swayzee held off on sentencing
until the conclusion of David Parker Ray's other trials. His
second trial was for the crimes inflicted on Cynthia V.
Speaker 6 (14:13):
Hill.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Cynthia V.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Hill was another victim that David snatched off the street
in Albuquerque and took to his trailer. She had been
in the house for three days to restrain and being mistreated,
and somehow got away from Sandy Handy and David ran
down Bass Road with the collar around her neck, trailing
(14:35):
a chain, going from house to half looking for help.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
But just after that trial began, Cynthia V. Hill received
some unexpected news.
Speaker 7 (14:46):
The DA contacted me and told me that David wanted
to plead out and plead guilty for what he did
to me.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
David Parker Ray wanted to strike a deal, but it
came with one giant cat.
Speaker 7 (15:00):
Which the only way he would plead guilty was if
his daughter got no time.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
In exchange for pleading guilty, prosecutors would have to drop
their case against his daughter Jesse Ray. Remember, Jesse worked
as her father's accomplice and helped to lure victims into
the toy.
Speaker 7 (15:17):
Box, knowing that he wanted to plead out on my case.
I was happy that I didn't have to testify.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
It's good that she didn't have to relive what happened
to her by testifying at the trial, But the fact
that Jesse Ray got off scot free seems like a
miscarriage of justice. In the summer of two thousand and one,
David Parker Ray and prosecutors struck a deal. In exchange
for Jesse Ray not serving any additional prison time, David
(15:45):
pleaded guilty to more than twenty charges, including kidnapping, raping,
and conspiracy to knap Cynthia V. Hill.
Speaker 7 (15:54):
I think his daughter should have gotten more time, but
then I had to realize taking it to trial, anything
could have wit and then he could have been let go.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
As part of the deal, Jesse Ray was sentenced to
time served and five years of probation, and there was more.
The deal also meant dropping the other pending case against
David Parker Ray. That trial was for the third victim,
Angela Montano, who sadly passed before her trial was set
to begin. Angela never got the justice she deserved.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
I think David was protective of his daughter because she
represented his legacy.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
All that was left was to formally sentence David parker Ray.
Kelly Garrett arrived at the sentencing hearing to read her
victim impact statement. Kelly said that she hopes David Parker
Ray lives long enough to serve out his full sentence.
David stared at the floor as Kelly said she hoped
(16:55):
he would burn in hell. When the judge asked David
Parker Ray if he had anything to say, he said
he did. He explained that this whole process has allowed
him to get closer to God, and then stoically said,
I can only be sorry for what I did. It
was something that caught his own lawyer off guard.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I do not think David Parker Ray ever expressed any remorse.
I don't think that he was capable of remorse. He
fully believed that he would never be in prison.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
And told me so, but Judge Swayzee was about to
change that.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
David Parker Ray was sent us to two hundred and
twenty four years of confinement.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
It was the maximum sentence.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
No human being would ever survive. That.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Cynthia V.
Speaker 7 (17:49):
Hill was thrilled knowing nobody would ever go through what
I went. Dude, I think that's what was satisfying about
him being locked up.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
David Parker Ray was head to prison on a list
of charges, but murder wasn't one of them. Even though
he bragged about killing dozens of people in his journals,
investigators never located anybodies. But then in May of two
thousand and two, David Parker Ray told the FBI that
he was ready to talk. It was the first time
(18:21):
he ever agreed to cooperate, and authorities believed he had
information to finally share about those missing women. The two
sides set a meeting, but that meeting never happened.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Well, I was at home with my children helping them
with their homework, and it came on the news in Albuquerque.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
David parker Ray has died.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Just before David parker Ray's meeting with the FBI. He
suffered a fatal heart attack. He was sixty two years old.
This meant that David Parker Ray took his secrets with him.
His attorney couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Well, I wanted to see his body dead, and I
made the determination that I would make every effort I
could to attend his autopsy. I wanted to be sure
that they made the wye In decision and removed his organs
because I did not trust that he would not start
his own heart and walk out. And the reason that
I felt that way was because one night when we
(19:25):
were sitting there at a table that was before sentencing,
and he and I were talking and basically I was
just giving it to him straight, you're probably going to
spend the rest of your life in state custody, and
so is your daughter. Now if you can possibly bring
yourself to cooperate with the Feds, and they were offering
(19:47):
some sort of deal for his daughter, but he didn't
want to do it.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
So let's connect the dots here. His lawyer said that
David Parker Ray didn't want to take the original plea
deal because he didn't believe he'd serve time in prison.
So he goes to trial, is found guilty, gets sentenced,
and then dies weeks later. In other words, he gets
off easy.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
This is my first and probably only contact me in
my life with pure evil, and it made me believe
in the incarnation of pure evil.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
David Parker raised Bonnie was buried at the New Mexico
State Prison Cemetery in Santa Fe. Nearly a decade later,
local TV reporter Alex Tomlin did a story about Elephant
Butte Lake drying up.
Speaker 6 (20:40):
We had kind of a severe drought and the levels
of the lake really started dropping and they were finding things.
And I got a call from a guy and he says, look,
I haven't said anything for years, but with lake training,
they keep finding these tires. And I used to be
a neighbor of David Parker raised, and I see him
(21:00):
out there filling these really large tires with cement and
dumping them in the lake. And I asked him, I said, well,
what do you think was in the tires? And his
response was, well, I think it's the missing women. And
so there was a lot of speculation about that, and
all I'm thinking is, if this is a chance to
find these women, we've got to cover it. Maybe this
(21:21):
was our next chance, I mean, maybe Mother Nature was
going to catch us a break.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
But once again, no body's turned up. Then, in twenty eleven,
the FBI reopened the case of a missing Albuquerque woman
who was alleged to have been killed by David Parker Ray,
and doing so, investigators again searched in and around Elephant
Butte Lake. The FBI then turned to the public for
(21:50):
help and opened the toy box to the media. They
created a website and posted photos of women's shoes, underwear,
and clothing, along with dozens of necklaces, rings, and earrings
found inside the toy box. All of this was done
with the hopes for further leads in the story.
Speaker 6 (22:11):
But this is one of those cases it's like until
you get that last piece of the puzzle, there's really
nothing else to do with it. I mean, the toy
box has been opened, people have seen it, his tape
is well known, but there's still women who are missing,
and until somebody says something, you know, if it's true
that he had these other people that he can fight
(22:32):
it in, somebody has to know something.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
No bodies were ever found. Instead, the seemingly never ending
story has remained into the area like a scarlet letter.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
I think it hurt the local bars. I think it
hurt the vocal restaurants, and I think the notoriety hurt
in a way that the UFO controversy hurt rosal.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
In New Mexico, a.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Local newspaper printed a letter to the editor from an
eighteen year old earl who is upset at the media's
portrayal of the towns of Elephant Butte and truth consequences.
She wrote that one bad apple shouldn't spoil the rest
of the bunch, but the damage was done.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
I think it hurt the tourism aspect of the lake.
I think that for a time there was an attitude
that people did not want to go in the lake
because there might be bodies in there. And I had
people around the state tell me.
Speaker 8 (23:23):
That Elephant Butte will forever be linked to David Parker
Ray and the unthinkable crimes that he committed.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Darren White, who works with New Mexico's Department of Public Safety,
still lives in the area.
Speaker 8 (23:37):
It's hard to move on when you don't know what happened.
It's hard to move on when you know there are
victims out there that haven't been found. But nobody, including myself,
thanks for a second that David Parker Ray did not
abduct women, torture them and kill them.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
He did.
Speaker 8 (24:02):
But that is the really bizarre thing about this is
that David Parker Ray is the most notorious serial killer
in New Mexico's history, and we've never found a single body.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Today, two key accomplices in the David Parker Ray story
are free, his daughter Jesse Ray and girlfriend Cindy Hendy.
Speaker 8 (24:33):
It's probably the one thing that irritates the hell out
of me about this case is that those two today
are walking the streets free.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Darren White worked for New Mexico's Department of Public Safety.
Speaker 8 (24:44):
Because they're just as responsible as David Parker Ray, and
they're equally as evil as David Parker Ray. But that
was part of the deal that was cut. I get that.
I've been at this a long time. David Parker Ray
he wanted Jesse to be free, and so that was
part of the player agreement.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
In twenty nineteen, Cindy Hendy was released after serving twenty
of her thirty six year sentence. New Mexico state law,
which has since been changed, only required Cindy to serve
half of her sentence.
Speaker 8 (25:20):
And so in twenty nineteen she was released. She served
all of her time, and as I recall, she moved
out of the state.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Cindy Hendy moved to Montana. When locals found out, they
were furious because Cindy, a registered sex offender, reportedly moved
near a public school, and for defense attorney Lee McMillan,
he fears for his own safety.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
I think that anybody that has anything to do with
this case has something to fear from Cindy Handy or
Jesse Ray or anybody associated with that group. I know
that if I see I'll defend myself.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
As you can imagine, being the man responsible for defending
David Parker Ray comes at a price.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
My career was never the same after this case.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
I realized how it changed my relationship to people around me,
to the practice of law, and to society in general.
And this case turned me into a Christian because you
cannot understand this case if you're not a feist. I'm
very careful about who I take on as a client
now because I don't trust anybody anymore. This case has
(26:30):
made me more aware of evil and good in the world,
and most criminal clients are weak people who have just
to come to their urges and done stupid things or
bad things, and if they're willing to accept responsibility for
their actions and get better, I'm willing.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
To take them.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
If they're not willing to do it, I'm not willing
to take them anymore. I think that this case had
a negative impact on everybody that was associated with it.
Everybody that's associated with it has died.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
In the interim.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
I got cancer and I've had a stroke since then.
I'm surviving that.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
In the end, Lee credits David Parker Ray's victim, Cynthia V.
Speaker 6 (27:16):
Hill.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
If it had not been for Cynthia V.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Hill escaping, he would have continued until he died of
other causes. He would have continued, and I think he
would have continued to recruit people to continue the same activity.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
And I think he did that right up to his
dead Cynthia V.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Hill managed to escape from David Parker Ray's toy box
and in doing so, helped to bring an end to
his crimes.
Speaker 8 (27:40):
For somebody like Cynthia to stand up there with the FBI,
and that was incredibly courageous and important because for many
of us, we see it, we see firsthand. Those agents
that worked that case, they saw it firsthand and for
the public who just read about it.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
There was a naked.
Speaker 8 (28:02):
Woman with a dog collar. There's a face to that.
It's a human being. She stood up at a podium
and said, we need to uncover as much as we can.
We need to learn more, we need to find the
women who were killed by David Parker ray. And now
she's become the voice for the women who don't have one.
(28:23):
And that's incredible. That's so courageous, and I admire her
so much for that because she didn't have to. And
I hope that that brings her, in some way, some
bit of peace, because I can't imagine the hell that
she has to live through, because all we have are
those images that we saw she lived in. And so
(28:45):
if there's anything that brings that woman piece, I pray
for it.
Speaker 7 (28:50):
I don't think I'm a hero. It just happened to
get away from David Parkery.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Cynthia has found a way to find light in all darkness.
Today she uses her experience to help others.
Speaker 7 (29:05):
I run a nonprofit, coss Straight Safe, and that's what
helps me get through all the darkness. That's here helping
the women that were in my situation.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Safe Street, New Mexico serves victims of sex trafficking and
those struggling with homelessness and addiction.
Speaker 7 (29:27):
Letting them know that they're not victims, they're survivors, I
think is a big message to give the women and
let them know you're not anybody's a victim. Take that
power back from everybody. Once you take that power back,
you're not You're not a victim, You're a survivor. And
I think letting them know that is it's the first
(29:50):
step of getting them on the right track.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Well, Cynthia still lives with the physical and mental scars
of her past. She does have surprising message for Cindy Hendy.
Speaker 7 (30:03):
How do you want her to know that I forgive her.
I have no hard feelings anymore. I also understand she
served her time. I'm not mad that she's released. I'm
glad she's with her kids. I hope she's making the
best of her life.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
But she does have one question for Cindy.
Speaker 7 (30:24):
The only thing I want to revisit is if David
ever told her where any of the bodies are at.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
As for the other living survivor, Kelly Garrett.
Speaker 9 (30:34):
I'm just existing. I'm not living. Some days are just
harder than others, but I have mostly good days now.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Like Cynthia, she's also working for a nonprofit.
Speaker 9 (30:49):
I am a coordinator for a little program called Heartfelt Destinations,
and we take people to doctor's appointments. We are nonprofit.
We get our money from grants. Our clients don't have
to pay anything. It's a free ride.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Kelly has turned her experience into her purpose.
Speaker 9 (31:09):
Sometimes we're counselors. Sometimes they don't get good results. You
have to be compassionate. An understanding feels good. I like
helping people, especially on the days I can't get out
of bed.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
There's links in the show notes to the nonprofits we
talked about in this episode.
Speaker 6 (31:30):
I mean, women are amazing, right. We bring life into
this world. We are strong, and those two women embody
that they stood up to a monster.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
For TV reporter Alex Tomlin. Kelly and Cynthia are heroes.
Speaker 6 (31:45):
They survived him, They faced him head on and they
put his ass away, and that has to at least
be some type of justice for them.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Prosecutor Jim Yons helped put David Parker Ray behind bars.
He uses this case as a.
Speaker 10 (32:01):
Warning if anything comes out of the case for the good.
I hope it's that people realize that there are monsters
out there.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
More than a quarter century has passed since Cynthia Vihill
escaped the toy box, running towards freedom naked with a
metal dog collar around her neck, and twenty two years
since David Parker Ray died in jail of a heart attack. Nevertheless,
the story continues to haunt the towns of Truther Consequences
(32:32):
and Elephant Butte even to this day. Sitting in the
parking lot of the Albuquerque FBI office is David Parker
Ray's toy box.
Speaker 10 (32:43):
The town has changed. It's just not as close knitted
community as it used to be, simply because they had
a monster in their midst and they didn't know it.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Next time on American Homicide, when the wife of a
prominent religious leader is murdered. The search for the killer
will uncover layers of secrets that would shake a town
to its soul. I'm Sloane Glass. Join me as we
head to Cherry Hill, New Jersey for the story of
Carol Newlander. That's next time on American Homicide. You can
(33:30):
contact the American Homicide Team by emailing us at American
Homicide Pod at gmail dot com. That's American Homicide pod
at gmail dot com. American Homicide is hosted and written
by me Sloane Glass and is a production of Glass Podcasts,
a division of Glass Entertainment Group, in partnership with iHeart Podcasts.
(33:53):
The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Todd Gantz.
The series is also written and produced by Todd Gambs,
with additional writing by Ben Fetterman and Andrea Gunny. Our
associate producer is Kristin Melcurie. Our ihearty is Ali Perry
and Jessica Crimechack. Audio editing and mixing by Matt Delvecchio,
(34:15):
Dave Seya and Britt Roba. Show additional editing support from
Nico Ruga, Tanner Robbins, and Patrick Walsh. American Homicides' theme
song was composed by Oliver Baines of Noisier Music Library,
provided by my Music. Follow American Homicide on Apple Podcasts,
and please rate and review American Homicide. Your five star
(34:38):
review goes a long way towards helping others find this show.
For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts
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