Only in Your State | New Mexico | Originally written by Libbye Morris | Rewritten by Jaymi Firestone

The City of Elephant Butte is home to approximately 1,400 people.

The quiet little town is located in southern New Mexico is just west of Elephant Butte Lake State Park. It is just north of Truth or Consequences, hidden away in the New Mexico wilderness. The town rarely hits anyone’s radar, unless you’re interested in visiting New Mexico’s largest lake.

Because Elephant Butte backs up to a state park surrounded by vacant land, it made for the perfect location for notorious criminal David Parker Ray.

In 2001, David Parker Ray was convicted of kidnapping and torturing women, and soon dubbed “The Toy Box Killer,” because he is suspected of murdering up to 60 women, although no bodies have ever been found.

Ray picked up women, usually prostitutes, at the Blue Waters Saloon, which is a dive bar that was popular among drifters and locals. He, and sometimes a female accomplice (which was usually a girlfriend or even his own daughter), would then lure these women his soundproofed trailer, which he called “The Toy Box.”

The trailer was filled with sex toys, surgical tools, video cameras, and a gynecological chair that Ray had wired to shock his victims. Ray spent roughly $100,000 equipping the trailer with elaborate torture devices.

Much like other serial killers, he claimed “trophies” from his victims such as clothing and jewelry.

This necklace is just one of more than 400 items of jewelry and clothing the FBI posted on its website. They hoped that by showing the public the items, someone might recognize them and come forward.

Cynthia Vigil, one of Ray’s torture victims, escaped from the “Toy Box” on March 22, 1999, after Ray tortured her for three days.

When Ray left for his job as a maintenance man for the New Mexico Parks Department, Vigil took the keys to her chains from Ray’s accomplice and girlfriend, Cindy Hendy.

The two scuffled, but Vigil managed to stab Hendy in the neck and run away. Vigil was wearing only an iron collar around her neck and padlocked chains. A nearby resident gave Vigil a robe and called 911.

Ray and Hendy were arrested shortly after.

Just one year later, in 2000, Kelly Van Cleve testified that she had gone to Ray’s home with his daughter back in 1996. She said she was blindfolded, a knife was held to her throat, and that duct tape was placed over her eyes before she was taken to the “Toy Box.”

After Ray’s arrest, police found a graphic video that Ray had made as he assaulted Van Cleve.

Ray escaped his fate, though. He died of a heart attack about one year after his convictions in the cases involving Vigil and Van Cleve.

In 2002, the “Toy Box” was opened to the public with the hope that it would lead to more surviving victims coming forward.

Ray’s girlfriend, Cindy Hendy, claims that their fatal victims were dismembered and either buried or dumped in Elephant Butte Lake. There is no sound evidence to back up this accusation though, because no bodies were ever found that tied Ray to any murders, even after a search in 2011 of Elephant Butte Lake, and McRae Canyon nearby.

There were no other victims who were identified and no deaths were ever officially connected to Ray.

The “Toy Box” remains at the FBI office in Albuquerque to this day, and the mystery still remains about whether or not David Parker Ray killed 60 women in the quiet, little town of Elephant Butte.

The town of Elephant Butte and the Lake State Park close by are now calm and quiet, and enjoyed by families from all over the state and surrounding area.

If you have any information regarding this story, please contact you local Police Department.