Sadistic serial rapist built sound proof ‘toy box’ to abuse countless victims | US | News
David Parker Ray will never be freed (Image: Sierra County Sheriff’s Office)
David Parker Ray was a sadistic serial rapist and torturer whom authorities suspect may also have been responsible for the deaths of several women.
Born in 1939, Ray was raised primarily by his grandparents in New Mexico, US, who reportedly kept a strict, religious household. During childhood, he and his sister Peggy received infrequent visits from their violent, alcoholic father.
Growing up in a small rural town, Peggy was a popular and outgoing girl, while Ray remained withdrawn and largely kept to himself.
Although he had few friends at school and spent much of his time in solitude, Ray was not considered a troublemaker, despite displaying signs of unusual behaviour throughout his childhood.
From an early age, he harboured a sinister fascination with pornography and violence, carefully concealing it from those around him, reports the Daily Star.
It is also believed he had a peculiar obsession with broken bottles, amassing a collection of them in a makeshift dungeon he built in the woods at the age of 15.
David Parker Ray during one of his court appearances (Image: Getty Images)
He eventually enlisted in the US Army and received an honourable discharge upon completing his service.
Ray wed several times and fathered numerous children — yet he abandoned his families and only forged a meaningful bond with one daughter, Glenda Jean Ray.
Described as a “daddy’s girl,” Glenda Jean — later known as ‘Jesse’ — the pair grew exceptionally close as she got older.
One day he acquired an old trailer and converted it into a ‘Toy Box’, soundproofing it and installing a gynaecological chair to restrain his victims.
The ceiling of the trailer was lined with mirrors, forcing the victims to watch the terrifying ordeal being carried out on them.
The rest of the space was fitted out with chains, whips, straps, clamps, saws and sex toys. In a deeply disturbing detail, the walls of the torture chamber were adorned with diagrams depicting numerous methods of inflicting pain.
He created a sound proof trailer of horrors (Image: YouTube)
One victim was Cynthia Vigil, 22, who in 1999 believed she was being detained for illegally soliciting sex in a car park.
However, after being handcuffed by what appeared to be a police officer, she quickly realised something was terribly wrong. Before she could fight back, the young woman was tasered, drugged and blindfolded – she woke up chained to a bed.
She suffered three days shackled to the gynaecological table by Ray and three accomplices, including his girlfriend Cindy, Jesse and friend Dennis Yancy.
Fortunately, she managed to flee the nightmare after seizing the keys to her chains that had been left on a nearby table.
A struggle ensued between Cynthia and Cindy, during which Cynthia stabbed Ray’s partner in the neck with an ice pick and fled.
The authorities were swiftly alerted and Ray’s heinous crimes began to unravel.
Further investigations identified Jesse and Dennis as accomplices, with the latter confessing to murdering his girlfriend, Marie Parker, following her abduction and torture at the hands of Ray.
When he was ultimately captured and the FBI raided the trailer, they uncovered disturbing audio recordings he’d made, explaining to his victims what was going to happen to them.
One retrieved recording allegedly told a victim she was going to be “raped thoroughly and repeatedly,” calling her a “sex slave.”
Ray faced three separate trials, one for each of the women – including Cynthia, Angelica Montano and Kelli Garrett – who had stepped forward to give evidence against him.
Cynthia Vigil Jaramillo gave evidence against him (Image: AP)
In 2001, he received a 224-year prison sentence for numerous offences connected to the kidnapping and torture of his victims.
He became notorious as the ‘Toy Box Killer’ and authorities suspected him of being accountable for as many as a shocking 50 murders, though no bodies connected to his crimes were ever found.
Jesse was handed a nine-year sentence, while Dennis received 30 years and Cindy 36 years imprisonment.
On 28 May 2002, Ray was transferred to a New Mexico facility for questioning by state police but suffered a heart attack just before it was due to commence. He was 62.
Reflecting on her harrowing ordeal in 2011, Cynthia stated: “This was a very sick man. The only thing that gives me any comfort is that he’s gone. If I didn’t get away, I wouldn’t have my three wonderful boys. I wouldn’t be here.”
