Connie was a young woman who was a victim of serial torturer and presumed serial killer David Parker Ray. Her remains have not been located or linked to an existing unidentified person case. It is possible she may have survived her encounter with Ray but does not remember it due to forced amnesia.
Case[]
Prelude[]
On March 22, 1999, David Parker Ray and his girlfriend, Cynthia Hendy, were arrested after Cynthia Vigil escaped their property. For the past three days, Vigil has been held captive and sexually tortured in a trailer owned by Ray. In addition to Ray and Hendy, two more associates, Ray's daughter, Glenda, and Dennis Roy Yancy, were arrested. All were charged for multiple offenses, including kidnapping, conspiracy, and torture. Yancy was also charged with second-degree murder in the 1997 disappearance of Marie Parker. In addition to Vigil, two more surviving women, Angelica Montano and Kelli Van Cleave, were identified as torture victims of Ray and his accomplices.
After the arrests were made, the FBI and New Mexico State Police started a search of Ray's property, including his torture trailer, which he called "The Toy Box." The trailer contained torture equipment such as syringes, whips, chains, and ankle and knee spreaders, satanic imagery, jewelry and clothing from previous victims, and a video camera that held footage of Ray and accomplices torturing and killing their victims, including Van Cleave and Parker. According to reports, it was the worst case that the FBI or the NMSP had ever seen.
Connie and Mark[]
Among the possessions associated with victims was a two-page letter dated June 1990 to a young woman named Connie from an Australian man named Mark. According to Ray's journal, Connie was a white woman that he abducted in December 1995. She was born around 1977, had long blonde hair, a birthmark on her chest, and was 160 cm tall.
The Australian Federal Police and FBI conducted an investigation, hoping to locate Mark so that he would be able to identify Connie and her family and friends, but were unable to do so. Appeals were made to the Australian public, although it appears this also led to a dead end.
According to the letter, during and around June 1990, Mark lived at Old South Head Rd., Bellevue Hill, New South Wales (NSW), studied for social policy exams, and jogged with the Gay Frontrunners. That same year, he spent Queen Elizabeth II's birthday (April 21) in Melbourne, Victoria, and worked in a hospital for people with developmental disabilities and for the AIDS Council of New South Wales in Sydney, NSW.
Aftermath[]
Between the 1950s and his arrest in 1999, David Parker Ray and his accomplices may have abducted and sexually tortured up to 40 women. Some of the victims were believed to have been drugged to induce amnesia to avoid being reported, while others were killed and either buried in the desert or dumped into Elephant Butte Lake, where Ray said their remains would be eaten by the catfish living in the lake. It is unclear if Connie was killed or released, and she is unaware of what happened to her.
Aside from the surviving three victims and Parker, the group is also suspected in the 1997 disappearance of Jill Troia, the 1988 murder of Billy Ray Bowers. No other victims have been identified from the clothing and jewelry found in the trailer the FBI publicly showed or from the videos Ray took. Additionally, no remains aside from Bowers' have been located in Elephant Butte Lake.
In September 2001, Ray was convicted of 12 counts of kidnapping, torture, and conspiracy and sentenced to 223 years, but died on May 28, 2002, from a heart attack. Additionally, Glenda Ray pleaded guilty to kidnapping and was sentenced to time served with an additional five years to be served on probation. In 2000, Cindy Hendy was convicted and sentenced to 36 years' imprisonment. She received parole in 2017 and was released on July 15, 2019. In 1999, Dennis Roy Yancy pleaded guilty to killing Parker, was sentenced to 30 years, and was released in 2021.
Characteristics[]
- Petite build.
- Long blonde hair.
- Birthmark on her chest.
Sources[]
- The Advertiser
- FBI (archived)
- David Parkery Ray on Wikipedia