Content warning: The following article contains disturbing descriptions of sexual assault.
David Parker Ray called it his "toy box" -- a soundproof trailer packed with whips, chains, saws, and surgical tools, all meticulously arranged. A gynecological chair sat at the center, flanked by clamps and restraints, and a mirror was mounted to the ceiling -- so his victims couldn't look away.
News outlets later called it a "chamber of horrors," but to Ray, a maintenance worker at Elephant Butte State Park in New Mexico, it was a laboratory of control and sadism. Inside, he recorded tapes for his victims to hear once they regained consciousness -- after being drugged, kidnapped, and chained.
"My name is David," one such tape began. "You're here against your will... You're going to be kept chained in a variety of different positions... You will be raped thoroughly and repeatedly."
According to CBS News, Ray used sedatives like sodium pentothal and phenobarbital to disorient his victims, who were often picked up by Ray's girlfriend, Cynthia Hendy, or -- in some cases -- lured with the help of his own daughter, Glenda Jean Ray (aka Jessie).
Ray didn't always act alone. Per The New York Times, investigators believed he sometimes invited friends to join in the assaults -- and accounts even describe animals being involved.
To keep victims from remembering what happened, Ray gave them heavy barbiturates and other drugs that caused amnesia, according to authorities. That's why many of his victims didn't recall the full extent of their captivity -- or even that they'd been kidnapped -- until they saw his face on the news years later.
It all unraveled in March 1999, when a woman named Cynthia Vigil managed to escape. According to The Albuquerque Journal, Vigil had been held captive for three days when she grabbed keys from a table as Ray momentarily stepped away. Naked and chained, she bolted from the trailer and ran to a nearby mobile home to call 911.
Authorities were stunned by what they found. Not just the trailer -- which contained surgical instruments, video cameras, and detailed torture devices -- but also Ray's personal writings, which KRQE reported included entries describing assaults on as many as 60 women over several years.
Despite the scale of the evidence, Ray was never convicted of murder. No bodies were found. Per ABC News, cadaver dogs were brought to Elephant Butte Lake and several properties, but none of the remains located were definitively linked to him.
Ray himself agreed to a plea deal in 2001 to avoid the death penalty and protect Hendy from a capital sentence as well. Before investigators could press him to lead them to burial sites, he died of a heart attack in his cell -- just hours after being transferred to the state penitentiary.
Ray was sentenced to 224 years. Hendy, who testified against him, was sentenced to 36 years and released on parole in 2019. His daughter Jessie was granted immunity in exchange for cooperation, according to CBS News.
Only a few survivors were ever identified. Cynthia Vigil, Kelli Garrett, and Angelica Montano all came forward -- two of them after seeing Ray's face on the news and realizing their fragmented, dreamlike memories were real.
"I couldn't believe what I was seeing," Garrett told KRQE. "I knew it had happened, but I buried it. When it came on TV, I lost it."
Ray had spent years building the trailer. He kept blueprints, supply logs, and pre-recorded warnings designed to break his victims psychologically the moment they woke up.
One tape warns that if a captive doesn't cooperate, he will use threats, torture and drugs to break them; the recording goes on to threaten prolonged captivity, repeated abuse, and death.
Investigators identified at least 14 women Ray is believed to have abducted and tortured -- and they suspect some may have been killed. But his journals hinted at dozens more, and the FBI later catalogued more than 400 pieces of jewelry and clothing suspected to be trophies.
With no bodies and Ray long dead, the true number of his victims may never be known.