The Story of Murder and Cynthia Campbell Ray
During the quiet, predawn hours of June 10, 1982, attorney James “Snake” Campbell and his wife Virginia Campbell, parents of Cynthia Campbell Ray, lay sleeping soundly in their Houston home when intruders slipped quietly through a window, slithered to the master bedroom, and fired six rounds into their bodies; their young grandsons camped out at the foot of the grandparents bed. Although frightening, and mentally traumatized for a lifetime, the Campbell’s grandsons were otherwise unharmed.
-credit owlcation
Cynthia Campbell Ray – The Psychotic Daughter
Cynthia “Cindy” Campbell had always been different than her three siblings and it’s no surprise that her version of growing up in the Campbell household is vastly different than the others.
According to Cindy, she was physically and sexually abused at the hands of parents. Including being locked in a closet for days on end without food or water. Abuse she claims continued on into adulthood.
Her siblings, however, say that no abuse ever occurred. They recall a Cindy who was a troublesome young girl and an even more difficult teenager with parents that tried everything they could think of to help their daughter – including counseling and overindulgence. Despite their efforts, Cindy continued down a troubled path, spreading her lies everywhere she went.
When Cindy was 18 years old, she left home and wound up living on the streets of Denver, Colorado. It was there in 1972 that she met Michael Ray, whom she would later marry. She told Michael her sad stories of abuse, adding a sexually abusive stepfather to the mix. The marriage last only long enough to bear two children.
Cynthia Campbell Ray Had Talent
The couple separated in Houston and it was there Cindy only half-heartedly made an attempt at motherhood and housekeeping.
Friends and family say that Cynthia Campbell Ray had a truly exceptional talent when it came to art and could be so fun and lively when she wasn’t withdrawn into her house, blinds drawn, gaining weight, and overall just neglecting herself and the children.
Today even armchair psychologists would recognize Cindy’s behavior as classic Bi-polar symptoms, but in the 1970’s and 1980’s it was seen as just weird and crazy.
Enter David Duval West
David West had grown up in a home with an overbearing mother who had no friends and filled the void by being a (too) constant in her son’s life. David’s father, Duvall West, didn’t care much for his wife or her holier-than-thou attitude but opted for mental absenteeism rather than save his son from the clutches of his mother.
David was ripe for the picking by the likes of Cindy’s personality. Despite being in his late 20’s, and a former marine, David was weak when it came to women. He readily bought into Cindy’s stories of abuse. He believed her when she told him her oldest son was the result of incestuous rape.
When Cindy said she wanted her parents to pay for what they’d done to her, David believed he could save the damsel in distress. David didn’t realize Cindy was to him as Eve was to Adam – more like the serpent in the tree, truth be told.
Cynthia Campbell Ray and David Were Prime Suspects
If the children, and other family members of James and Virginia Campbell, didn’t already suspect Cindy was behind her parents’ murder, they would have when, just days following the crime, she began removing wanted items from the couples’ home. While the family was scurrying to make financial arrangements for the Virginia’s ailing mother and two young boys under the age of 9, Cindy was demanding she receive her monetary portion of the estate.
Her siblings were horrified and her uncle, J.W. Campbell, was outraged. He immediately sought the services of an estate attorney to establish trusts; a move he hoped would block the now more-than-suspicious Cindy from getting one red cent.
When asked what she wanted to do about her young boys, without skipping a beat, Cindy told her family to take them to Houston Orphanage.
The family wasn’t keeping their opinions to themselves, they were more than willing to share them with police. Police were listen, well aware of the questionable behaviors of the murdered couples’ third-born child.
Suspicion Makes For Good Gossip But It Fails Miserably As Evidence
Three years had passed since the Campbell’s murder and police seemed no closer to making an arrest. Cindy’s siblings wanted nothing to do with her. Her children were being raised by their uncle. She and David had been on again, off again. Mostly off. Six weeks after the murder, Cindy had rid herself entirely of David. She had moved in with a new boyfriend, Rory Lettvin, who later testified, that despite Cindy’s gross obesity, an apartment that smelled of urine and feces, and a very dependent woman who didn’t work nor have a driver’s license, he stayed because he felt sorry for Cindy. (A promise of $20,000 worth of tools and equipment, once she received her inheritance, was a strong enticement as well.) But then Cindy called David to come home and Rory found himself homeless and without the promised goods.
Cynthia Campbell Ray had hired a slew of attorneys trying to force pay-outs from her parents’ estates. She’d reluctantly settled for $25,000 cash and the title to the four-plex apartment house where she and her invalid grandmother lived on Kingston in the Montrose area of Houston. Her grandmother however was often living in squalor because Cindy provided no better care than Grandma could do for herself.
The Family Calls In Reinforcements
The family couldn’t wait around for police any longer. They hired the services of a local private investigator, Clyde Wilson, who had a reputation for getting the goods on unsuspecting targets.
Clyde recognized David as the weaker of the two and knew he should be their primary subject. He immediately assigned his sexy new staff member, Kim Paris, to the case.
Using the name Teresa Neele, Kim began frequenting the bars where David was known to hang around. It didn’t take long until they were introduced and David was head over heels in love. He was so smitten, in fact, that he proposed marriage after only two months of “courtship.”
David had shared only snippets of his personal life, in part of which he spoke about his ex-girlfriend Cindy whose parents had died together in a tragic accident. Knowing the untruthfulness of the story, it was difficult not to speak up but Kim continued to play the role; even pushed a little further by telling David she felt like he was holding back. Before she could marry him, she said, she need his complete honesty.
David wanted to spend the rest of his life with the women he knew as Teresa and finally blurted out that he’d murdered Cindy’s parents after she promised to financially back a business he wished to start.
His confession was captured on audio cassette over the microphone and transmitter Kim was carrying in her purse – for the first time since they began “dating.”
Justice Delayed but Not Denied
The next day an indictment was secured by prosecutors and David was arrested. Under Texas law, Cindy couldn’t be charged on uncorroborated testimony by an accomplice.
David’s confession, and the method under which it was obtain rapidly came under fierce criticism. But, in the end, it was ruled admissible. Although he first decided to take his chances with a jury, halfway through his trial David changed his plea to guilty. He was sentenced to two life sentences with a possibility of parole. He became eligible for parole in 2005, but either did not apply or was denied as he is currently an inmate at the Wynne Prison Unit in Huntsville, Texas.
With David’s confession revealing the blueprint for murder, Cynthia Campbell Ray was arrested on two counts of murder. Although her first trial resulted in a hung jury, a retrial secured a conviction. On at least three occasions she has applied for parole, which she was denied. Cindy is currently an inmate at the Mountain View Women’s Prison in Gatesville, Texas.
credit – owlcation
