Kriti Mehrotra
Although David Parker Ray was never once charged, tried, or convicted of murder, it is believed the abuser, kidnapper, serial rapist, and torturer was responsible for up to 60 homicides. That’s why he has long been referred to as a suspected serial killer, given the moniker of the Toybox Killer owing to the sexual semi-trailer torture space on his property that he liked to call his Toy Box. According to records, he has 3 survivors, amongst whom Cynthia Vigil Jaramillo chose to share her story with the world through A&E’s ‘I Survived a Serial Killer: The Toybox Killer.’
Cynthia Vigil Jaramillo Endured a Lot of Grief, Pain, and Trauma in Her Early Years
Born to a 15-year-old mother and a 17-year-old father in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Cynthia Vigil Jaramillo primarily grew up under the care of her grandmother and without much family. The limited relatives she had reportedly did not believe her when she came forward at the age of 11 to report that she had been molested by someone known to the family, so she ran to the only person who did, her mother. However, Elizabeth Molina struggled with her own demons in the form of drug addiction and a life on the streets, so she could never really offer her daughter the stability she needed.
What’s worse is that Elizabeth was then found murdered when Cynthia was merely 12 years old in 1992, making the young girl feel as if she had no choice but to follow in her mother’s footsteps. She “started working the streets and selling drugs to survive” by the time she turned 15, according to her own account in the aforementioned episode. She indicated she was also rather careless at the time, which led to her having several stints at juvenile detention centers across both the US and Mexico. Unfortunately, she allegedly experienced domestic violence as a teenager, too – she had gotten involved with a man who she claimed assaulted her to the point of permanent bone injury to her face.
Cynthia eventually managed to escape her reportedly toxic relationship, but she continued to deal in drugs, got addicted herself, and worked the streets. Then, at the age of 20 in 1998, she sadly lost her best friend, Reymunda Baca, who was murdered by a man named Robert Bryant (a man later convicted of the crime), with whom they’d both allegedly faced some issues in the past. It was around a year later, in March 1999, that a friend told her some guy was looking for a date and she would be perfect for it, so she approached his RV. She had no idea at the time that he would overpower her almost as soon as they struck a deal, following which a female accomplice would come out from behind a curtain and shock her with a cattle prod.
Cynthia Vigil Jaramillo Was Abused and Tortured For Three Days
While Cynthia was kidnapped in Albuquerque and prodded until she lost consciousness, she knows her captors drove for at least a few hours because she wound up in Elephant Butte. There, having already been bound by duct tape, stripped naked, and told she was going to be “abused,” “raped,” and “tortured,” she was forced into a trailer home. She was then pushed into a room that comprised a dresser full of torture tools, a hospital bed, chains hanging from the ceiling, and a tape recorder. “It was something out of a horror movie,” she stated in the episode. “They sat me on a bed. They put a metal collar around my neck that was attached to metal chains. They padlocked me to the wall.”
Cynthia essentially couldn’t move when they were done, only for the male to then tell her to pay attention because he was going to play a tape for her. As per her statements, the tape was a voice recording he had made where he detailed what was going to happen to her in horrific detail, as if it were no big deal. That’s when she came to believe this was not the first time the duo had done something like this, with the tape making it seem like he had gotten tired of repeating himself to different girls. She was subsequently raped several times, hurt in different ways, and threatened if she tried to fight back before being taken to a different room the next morning.
“It had a massage table in it,” Cynthia still vividly remembers, according to the show. “They tied me to it. They clamped these clamps to me, and they would shock me. I realized the more I was in pain, the more excited he got. If I took the pain and not showed him any emotion, he got frustrated, and he gave up.” The entire ordeal continued until her third day in captivity, when the male told her he was going to work but would take her to his Toy Box upon returning, which she knew meant more torture. So, the moment the female accomplice left her alone to take a phone call, she figured out a way to nab the chain keys lying on a nearby table and freed herself.
Cynthia Has Since Turned Over a New Leaf and Transformed Her Trauma Into Something Positive
The moment Cynthia unshackled herself, the female accomplice realized what she was doing and rushed back, sparking an intense struggle between them. While the latter went as far as to break a glass lamp over the captive’s head, the young woman kept her wits about and stabbed her with an icepick before fleeing. The 22-year-old had nothing but the metal collar on her body, so when she rushed into an open door of a nearby home to ask for help, the residents didn’t hesitate to contact the police. That’s when it came to light that her captors were the state park maintenance man, David Parker Ray, and his girlfriend/fellow state park employee, Cindy Hendy.
In the months to follow, two additional survivors of David came forward/were identified, and Glenda “Jesse” Jean Ray, his adult daughter, pleaded no contest to kidnapping in connection with one of their cases. However, possibly owing to the 1986 warning to the FBI about her father’s behavior, she was allegedly afforded some leniency. She served 2½ years in prison plus 5 years of probation. It took some time, yet with concrete evidence recovered from David’s torture rooms, trailer, and semi-trailer, as well as Cynthia’s testimony against him, both David and Cindy were also brought to justice. While David was sentenced to 224 years in prison after he ended up pleading guilty to charges of abuse, kidnapping, rape, and torture, Cindy pleaded guilty and was handed down 36 years in prison.
Since then, it appears as if Cynthia has done her best to embrace her second shot at life, which has included getting completely clean and sober. The survivor has also evolved into a family woman, albeit with some more trauma, as she sadly lost her eldest son in 2016 in a firearm accident – he was 15 at the time. It was less than a month later that she welcomed her 4th son into the world, so her remaining three children (all boys) are now her source of inspiration and motivation. We should mention that Cynthia also spread her wings to establish a nonprofit organization, Safe Sex Work, in 2009/2010, which was later rebranded as Street Safe New Mexico.
The establishment aims to help victims of abuse, domestic violence, sex work, trafficking, and more by serving as a safe space for them to come forward and learn about the resources available to them. As if that’s not enough, the survivor is the co-founder of Ritz World Novelties & Toys LLC, alongside her sons, through which they sell LED glow toys at state fairs. Her goal is to one day leave this business as a legacy to her boys while she continues to focus on her non-profit for as long as possible. Today, though, the Albuquerque, New Mexico, native appears to be prioritizing her hobbies of photography and travel, all the while pursuing a law degree in hopes of helping improve the justice system one day.
Read More: Greg Hawkins Now: Is Cynthia Langrall’s Alleged Killer Dead or Alive?
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