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Escape uncovers bizarre sex-torture case
Links to Seattle area; murders a possibility
Wednesday, March 31, 1999
By JANE HADLEY and ELLIS E. CONKLIN
ELEPHANT BUTTE, N.M. -- Dozens of FBI agents, including psychological "profilers" specializing in macabre crimes, converged on a trailer home yesterday in what appears to be a murder investigation that began with a case of sexual torture.
The bizarre case, which has ties to the Seattle area, began to unfold when a woman escaped from the home wearing only a padlocked metal collar attached to a chain. She said she had been kidnapped and tortured by David Ray and Cindy Hendy.
Hendy, who has three children in King and Snohomish counties, moved to New Mexico in 1997 to avoid warrants for her arrest, her son, Shane Larson of Kent, told the Post-Intelligencer yesterday.
"I'm still shocked. I can't really believe it. She ain't the person who would do this kind of thing," said Larson, who recently got out of prison after serving a year for the crime of third-degree child molestation.
Investigators have expanded their search for victims or witnesses into Arizona, Texas and Mexico and urged anyone else who might have knowledge of the couple.
"This is a very dark, very disturbing case for everyone involved," said state Public Safety Secretary Darren White. "We believe this case involves more victims, and we won't rule out the possibility this case involves homicide."
He said he feared divulging too many details because it would involve "descriptions so vile" other victims might not come forward. "We believe the nightmare is behind bars," White said.
Ray, 59, is charged with kidnapping and criminal sexual penetration. Hendy, 39, is charged with kidnapping and accessory to criminal sexual penetration.
Both are charged with conspiracy and assault. The 25 counts also include charges of aggravated battery, criminal sexual contact and additional counts of criminal sexual penetration and conspiracy.
Albert Costales, Ray's attorney, said his client is innocent. It was not clear yesterday whether Hendy had a lawyer.
Larson, 22, said he hasn't seen his mother for more than two years but talked on the phone to her last week.
Hendy told him "she was going out with a park ranger and quit drinking and was coming up here to see us because my sister was having a baby next month. She asked how we were all doing, said she loved us."
Hendy's oldest daughter, 18-year-old Heather Hendy, said she had expected her mother to return to Everett soon, for the birth of her first child.
Hendy also has a second daughter, 12, who lives in Everett with a grandmother.
Larson said his mother's life has been marred by abusive men, alcohol and drugs. Hendy's three children all had different fathers, according to Larson, who was born when his mother was 16.
"A lot of her boyfriends were very abusive, (drank) alcohol a lot. We've seen that our whole life growing up," he said. Many also had drug problems, he said, and he sometimes got "beat up" by these men.
His mother tried to hide the alcohol and drugs from the children, "but as the oldest, I kind of knew what was going on," Larson said.
Larson said he had been in and out of juvenile detention since he was 13. His mother was present only "on and off" as he was growing up. He lived with a teacher, with a Christian family, his grandmother and his dad at various times.
Asked about his dad, Larson said, "It was about the same thing with him as it is with my mom."
Heather Hendy said her mother left for New Mexico with a man named John Youngblood. "I guess things didn't work out with them and she met that other guy (David Ray)."
Hendy spent a number of years in the Seattle area living with Kris Rautiola, 39. He worked construction jobs and had his share of trouble with the law.
Twice, Hendy filed domestic violence charges against Rautiola, court records show.
Court files also show Hendy and Rautiola were arrested July 4, 1995, for stealing $3,300 worth of aluminum pipes from a King County Department of Transportation storage lot in Kirkland.
When she was jailed, her booking slip described her as 5 feet, 4 inches, 100 pounds, with blue eyes and blond hair. She has a tattoo of shooting stars on her left chest, and between her thumb and forefinger and the initials, "RH." Larson said those initials stand for Robert Hendy, the second of three husbands she's had.
Prior to her 1995 arrest for theft, Hendy was charged with forgery and possession of stolen property in 1979, and for cocaine possession in 1993. Both cases resulted in deferred prosecution.
Larson said his mother grew up in the University District in a home where both parents were present and employed. Her father was a Navy man, he said. His mother was a model and entered beauty pageants in Seattle, he said.
Larson said when his mother wasn't drinking she liked to read romance novels and watch soap operas on TV. He described her as "caring" and said, "She's always worried about us."
Larson said when he talked to his mother on the phone last week, he told her, "Why don't you just come up here, get your warrants over with and just straighten up?" He said his mother cried throughout the call.
Investigators have been searching the dusty half-acre lot around Ray's double-wide trailer home for several days. Investigators have declined to say exactly what they are looking for.
But Doug Beldon, the FBI agent supervising the investigators, including two "profilers," the kind of specialists depicted in "The Silence of the Lambs," said: "We wouldn't have brought this many people in for a single rape."
Costales, Ray's attorney, said "I do not believe any of it is founded on anything more than rumors, sensationalism."
The woman who escaped wearing the collar told authorities she met Ray and Hendy in Albuquerque, where Ray showed her a badge and told her she was under arrest for prostitution. She said she was sexually tortured and shocked with electricity over three days at their home near the Elephant Butte Lake before escaping March 22.
John Branaugh, a friend of Hendy's, told a TV station KOB-TV Monday night: "Ray has put four to six bodies in this lake and others buried in the desert. When he's done, he gets his surgical tool or whatever, splits them right down the middle and that's why they wouldn't have no buoyancy."
Branaugh said Hendy told him about the bodies after a night of drinking. He said he didn't take it seriously and didn't report it until the chained woman escaped.
Branaugh has an unlisted number and could not be reached yesterday.
Kitchen of the FBI said Ray hasn't provided much information but that Hendy "has been a bit more cooperative."
Yesterday, foot-high metal stakes with red and green flags dotted the yard where FBI agents combed over evidence. Bone fragments found on the scene earlier in the search turned out to be from animals, not humans, police said.
This report includes information from The Associated Press and Reuters.
P-I reporter Ellis E. Conklin can be reached at 206-448-8320 or ellisconklin@seattle-pi.com
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