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