Snapped: Women Who Murder - Cindy Campbell Ray

Episode Date: January 21, 2024

When a successful Texas lawyer and his wife are executed while sleeping in their bed, Houston police team up with a private investigator, who gets dangerously close to a killer, to uncover a greedy mastermind who proves that privilege can be deadly.Season 27 Episode 25Originally aired: August 16, 2020Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WatchSnappedPodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery's new podcast, Even the Royals, pulls back the curtain on the darker side of royal families past and present from all over the world, where status comes at the expense of your freedom, your privacy, and sometimes, even your head. New episodes come out every week. Listen to Even the Royals early and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Many put their hope in Dr. Serhat. His company was worth half a billion dollars. His research promised groundbreaking treatments for HIV and cancer.

But the brilliant doctor was hiding a secret. You can binge Dr. Death, Bad Magic, exclusively and add free by subscribing to Wondry Plus in the Wondry app. For one Texas couple, life was all about hard work, family, and extravagance. He worked his way up the ladder. And she was his paralegal, and she was real smart, too. They were a loving couple. They provided their children with whatever they needed. The inheritance.

I know it was a fairly substantial amount. Until a brutal double murder shatters everything they built together. The room was spattered with blood on the curtains, on the bedstead, on the ceiling, on the walls. You have to wonder what kind of evil is here. Investigators quickly uncover a lifetime of deceit and manipulation.

They'd been bailing out of jams and said, that's it. We're done. She played the victim, and he was going to come to her rescue. He said, that was why we had to get rid of him. Before the truth is exposed, a risky move will put more lives on the line. He said, we want you to go back in. And I'm like, that's a no.

We're looking at each other, we're thinking, what happened here? He told me that he would never be taken alive and showed me the gun that he had strapped to his leg. June 19th 1982 4, 4.35 a.m. The day is about to begin in the upscale Memorial neighborhood of Houston, Texas. It's a wealthy area of town, and kind of an exclusive area at the time.

But as residents are about to wake, a call comes in to 911 Dispatch from a maid who lives in a garage apartment on her employer's property. She says shots rang out. Two kids ran upstairs telling Maria the maid that their grandparents had read on them. The grandchildren, they're all excited and they're saying

something's wrong with the you know, the grandmom, grandpa. Patrol officers rush to the home of Maria and her employers, James and Virginia Campbell. There they find a small group waiting for them. They may call J.W. who is the brother of James, tells him what's happened. He comes over, sees that, the kids are with him, they kind of wait there until the police arrive and allow them then to go in and see what was going on. Still in shock, the family motions to the open door.

The officers looking to see if things had been moved or turned over, doors were open, and they didn't find anything like that. They walked up to the door of the bedroom and the bed was maybe five or six feet from the door and there was Mr. Campbell and Miss Campbell was on the left side of the bed laying on her left side. Both of the victims were dead. The sea slaying in bed. Both victims were dead. The sea slaying and bedding. The room was spattered with blood. It was high velocity impact, and it was everywhere. On the curtains, on the bedstead, on the ceiling, on the walls. It was very gruesome. We're looking at each other, we're thinking, what happened here?

We're looking at each other, we're thinking, what happened here? What they know they have is someone who has come and executed a lawyer, James, and his wife. So the question is, who would want James and his wife dead? Born in Cross Plains, Texas in 1927, James Herum Campbell climbed out of his depression-era childhood and grew up to become an affluent attorney. He said he worked his way up the ladder was the way he put it. He was a really hard worker. In 1949, James married the love of his life, Virginia Jean Haefner.

She ran the office. She was the secretary and she was his paralegal and she was real smart. He had to have loved her because she had some really good diamonds on her big rocks, big, big rocks. In 1950, the Campbells welcomed the first of four daughters, Michelle, followed soon after by Betty, Cindy and Jamie. They were a loving couple. They provided their children with whatever they needed.

By the mid-1960s, the family was living comfortably in a lavish home in the memorial neighborhood of Houston. It's one of the more exclusive areas in Houston. I think the house had about five bedrooms, maybe six. It had three baths. It had a huge library with all of James's law books. The garage itself was a soda fountain that they had set up for the kids. Their children brought their friends over and it was a comfortable house. While the other Campbell sisters blossomed in

high school, Cindy struggled to fit in. The other three girls were kind of very close, and Cindy was kind of the black sheep of the family. I met Cindy in my freshman year at Memorial High School. She showed me some of her drawings, and I was just at awe. She just didn't have anything good to say about herself, even though she was so talented. She always had to compete with her sisters and she would never be as good. She didn't have as many friends, so she was always in a competition.

She was always losing. She didn't talk much about them. She said her older sisters hated her guts. And her little sister, Jamie, was a spy. At 17 years old, Cindy was eager to escape her family. She always kept telling me she wanted to run away. And she did. She had saved up money. She was going to go. She wanted to get away from him.

She had run away, left the house, was in Colorado. She met this guy who was several years older than her. They became a couple. I believe they hitchhiked or traveled across to the east coast, and I believed that she got pregnant while on the road. In 1973, 18-year-old Cindy married Michael Charles Ray. Within a few years, they moved to Houston and became a family of four when Cindy gave birth to their second son. Unfortunately, the marriage didn't last. I never saw him or nothing. I just knew that she was married to him.

She didn't want to be married. She wanted to come home. And Daddy gave me a divorce, and that was it. When James got out of the divorce, he got her solid custody. I mean, the guy didn't even have to pay child support. She didn't need child support. She had a rich Daddy.

Cindy soon took up residence in an apartment that the family owned while James and Virginia took care of their grandchildren. She had heavy money, so I know she relied heavily on her mom and dad to care for and take care of the kids. I believe that the parents were trying to help Cindy get a new start. She had enrolled at one of the local colleges, attending classes with her younger sister. That's how she met David West.

24-year-old David Duvall West was a former Marine who had recently settled in Houston when he met 25-year-old Cynthia Campbell Ray. He was a macho boy. He was a loud, boisterous guy. He had that confidence and a little bit cockiness. You know, he was likable. Everybody liked him. A romance actually developed, and she moved in with David.

And they lived together as boyfriend and girlfriend. I got a call from Cindy one day and she was so excited about that finally that she had somebody to love her for herself and I told her I was very proud for her. By early 1982 all four of James and Virginia Campbell's daughters were living on their own. The couple was focused on helping to raise their two grandsons, and 55-year-old James was starting to think about retirement.

He made a good living. He had some real estate property, some rental property, and some acres. The boys were spending time there with Grandma and Grandpa, and they had those sleepovers on a pretty regular basis. They wanted to take care of them like they would their own children. But James and Virginia's golden years

were stolen away from them before they could begin. Mr. Campbell had like a pillow up underneath his shoulders and a headlock. He might have been up, sitting up a little bit in the bed. And Ms. Campbell was laying on her left side. There was blood all over the headboard, up the wall, some splashed in the ceiling. You have to wonder what kind of evil is here.

As officers radio for assistance, they turn back to James Campbell's brother, J.W. J.W. is trying to figure out what could be, what's happened here? J.W. confirms the victims in the bedroom are his brother and sister-in-law James and Virginia Campbell. But he can't imagine who could have wanted to kill them and in such a brutal fashion. A murder in that area of the war was a huge shock because that just didn't happen.

Detectives aren't ready to rule anything out just yet. We started interviewing witnesses and things at the location. Try to find out what happened, how it happened, who might be involved, who might have information. Coming up, police learned that this homicide has a history. She was approached, was always looking over her back. It looked like somebody was parking there, maybe staking out the house.

It's not a robbery, that's a hit. In June of 1982, it seemed life for James and Virginia Campbell couldn't get any better. They were both pretty successful. He probably, he could have retired at any time. He didn't need to continue to work. But on June 19th, 1982, the Campbells are found brutally murdered

in their own bed. As homicide detectives arrive, they immediately separate the witnesses outside the house. It was my understanding at the time that the maid had called the police and reported the shooting. And there were some kids involved, small kids involved. Detectives decide to speak first to the Campbell

family's live in maid, 58-year-old Maria Gonzalez. They made lived in a garage apartment. She says that it was a hot night, and she had been tossing and turning. Finally got to sleep and then heard something. Maria tells police she looked out the window, but saw nothing unusual. She thought about it, and then she kind of drifted back off.

Minutes later, she was out of bed again, this time to answer a knock at her door. She said that the two little boys had come up banging on the door. They told her that their grandparents were covered with blood. I don't know if they were even able to articulate what exactly had happened. Unable to reach the boy's mother, Cynthia, Maria called James' brother, J.W., for help.

Apparently on Fridays, when there was no school the next day, they would all go into the grandparents' bedroom. The kids were in a sleeping bag in the field of the bed when the shooting took place. I suspected at the time the kids here in the shot something may have gotten up and may possibly have seen who it was during the shooting. After speaking to Maria, detectives

turned to the Campbell's shaken grandchildren. I was kind of shocked when the older boy, when I asked him what he saw, he made a statement to me that I have the right to remain silent. I knew he'd come from a family of lawyers, and I'd say, well, he'd probably just scared, you know. So I made arrangements with family

so we could talk with him. They didn't push him too hard because of the trauma, but I think the police got a pretty clear understanding that there was nothing there that the boys had to offer. Officers immediately worked to reach the boy's mother, Cindy Campbell Ray, while family members take them away from the crime scene. The brother ended up taking the two boys into his custody.

Investigators turned back to the scene of the crime. Walked through the room, looked through the room, saw two sleeping bags on the floor at the foot of the bed. And searched the area, we saw shell casings from the 45 semi-automatic pistol. Both had been shot twice in the head, once in the chest. I assumed the shooter was standing at the end of the bed, which were where the boys were sleeping as well,

but they were under a bunch of sleeping bags and pillows and sheets and blankets. The murderers probably almost stepped on them, They were under a bunch of sleeping bags and pillows and sheets and blankets. The murderers probably almost stepped on them, but didn't realize what it was other than just a bunch of bedding. The perp went upstairs, did the shooting, and left by the front door, leaving the front door open.

By the front door, investigators find another piece of evidence. They found a glove inside the front door, a plastic glove. They asked the EMT when they came in, is this your glove? And they're going, no. So they had no idea why it was there. The next thing you do is to try to determine how the killer would have gotten into the house in the first place.

The suspect had unlocked one of the windows in the living room area there. That was where I thought took place. While CSI dust the window for fingerprints, detectives searched the flower bed outside. They could see a print of a boot. They were larger boots, they were not women's size. They assumed that it was probably at least one male, maybe two. We checked the neighbors next door back across the street, down the street, seeing if anybody may have seen any strange vehicles late at night. Things like that. And it really didn't develop anything from there.

With the point of entry found, investigators now contemplate potential motives. If it's a burglary, they would take valves, they'd take televisions, take any kind of electronic devices, but nothing was missing. Nothing was moved. She had on her jewelry still. So that was another clue that this wasn't a robbery. Two people executed in their bed and there's nothing taken. That's not a burglary, that's not a robbery. That's a hit.

Now the question is, why was this prominent Texas couple the target of such a brutal crime? What you want to know is that he had any enemies, that he had people that he was representing that didn't get what they expected, and that it could be just a revenge type killing. And you killed the wife so that there's no witnesses to it. Turning back to Maria Gonzalez, detectives learned that the boy's parents, Cindy Campbell and her ex-husband, Michael Ray, have been divorced for six years.

Of course, you would want to talk to the father to find out why. He didn't have custody or wasn't in the children's lives. It could be that there's some friction there, and it may believe that Cindy's parents had something to do with that. Maria also tells police that Virginia always warned her to lock the doors at night, out of fear that Cindy's ex-husband wanted his children back. Virginia was the French was always looking over her back and she was always locking windows and

checking doors. Recently Maria has noticed that someone has been leaving trash in the yard near the house which only compounded Virginia's fears. Maria was kind of upset because the gardens were always real pretty. When the world would sit outside and leave the trash, as many as 12 beer cans would be either on the stairs or just around the flowerbed. Everything is considered evidence. When you get someplace and see something,

that's a little different. And so the question is, why are these beer cans here? It looked like somebody was parking there on a regular basis. Staking out the house is what they were thinking. Coming up, family tension points to startling new suspicions. Most of his money was tied up in real estate, but she wanted money as quickly as possible. And the investigation takes a shocking turn. They did not want her to get the inheritance, so they hired a well-known private investigator.

I told him that if he didn't tell me what he was hiding, I would never see him again. The holidays usually include hours on planes, cars, trains, tying baby next to you, put on those noise-canceling headphones. Mom and dad arguing about directions in the car, AirPods in. No matter how you listen, we have the perfect headphones on distraction. A new season of the critically acclaimed Doctor Death podcast is back with a story of miraculous cures, magic, and murder. When a charismatic, hot-shot doctor announced revolutionary treatments

for cancer and HIV, it seemed like the world hadn't given a miracle cure. Medical experts rush to praise Dr. Serhat Ghumrukku as a genius. But when the company stocks skyrocketed to over half a billion dollars, a team of private researchers dive into Serhat's background and they begin to suspect the brilliant doctor is hiding a shocking secret. Binge, Dr. Death, bad magic right now, exclusively and ad-free on Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

Or if you have a whole cross-country drive in front of you, catch up on all four hit seasons of Dr. Death only on Wondery Plus. Let's say you love sports, but you're also a busy person. Maybe you missed last night's games and you want to catch up on what happened. If we're talking about you right now, then you need to check out The Lead Starting Five, the daily sports podcast from Wondery, hosted by me, Sarah Kizal, and me, John Gonzalez, along with our other co-hosts,

Matt Strouth and Tip Oshinsky. Every weekday, we break down the five biggest stories of the day in about 10 minutes, whether it's LeBron James defying father time yet again. New details on Shohei Otani's record smashing contract. Or the latest Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey update. You will hear about all of it on Starting Five. The show is perfect for a morning commute,

or a trip to the gym, put it in your podcast rotation, and we'll bet it stays there. You can listen to the lead, Starting Five, wherever you get your podcasts, or listen ad-free on the Wondery app or through Wondery Plus. The lead, Starting Five, the sports news you need to start your day.

In the aftermath of the shooting deaths of wealthy Texas attorney James Campbell and his wife Virginia, Houston police have learned from the couples made that Virginia seemed on edge prior to her death. I was Virginia's hairdresser. Virginia would come and she would cry. She would cry in the salon. Among those who investigators theorize could have been targeting the Campbells, one person stands out, their former son-in-law, Michael

Ray. He could be offended by the fact that he doesn't have custody and that they may have a lot to do with that. But before they track down any further leads, detectives must speak to the Campbell's children. Later that morning, all of the Campbell's daughters arrived to speak with investigators, except for Cindy. They had four daughters. The only one that lived in Houston was Cindy Campbell Ray.

So they were very unlikely suspects or anything, but you want to talk to them to find out if they have any idea who would have wanted to do this to their parents. Michelle, Betty, and Jamie all say they had just spoken to their parents in the days leading up to the murders, but no one sensed anything out of the ordinary. You talk to the family,

see if their dad had mentioned anything about having a problem with one of his clients. While investigators are interviewing the three women, they're interrupted by news that the Campbell's fourth daughter, Cindy, and her boyfriend, David West, have arrived. We knew that she was upset about the whole thing, but she kept

a cool head. Investigators quickly asked Cindy about her ex-husband, Michael Ray. Cindy confirms he has had some trouble with the law, including an arrest for a robbery in Kansas, but claims she doesn't know where he is now or how to find him. We don't know where he was at.

I wouldn't find out what relationship he had with her. Before Cindy and David leave, detectives need to know their whereabouts on the night of the murders. They took statements from David and took statements from Cynthia separate from each other. When they got the two statements together, the statements are common and it's the same thing.

They had been at a party the night of the murders. They had then gone back to their apartment that they had gotten up at 3 o'clock in the morning or something, and gone to another party. After wrapping up with all of the Campbell children, detectives worked to back up their statements, starting with Cindy's alibi. They were seen at all these places.

They had people that vouched for them. The other girls all lived out of town. They had no clue as to what happened to their parents. They knew nothing about any enemies or any fears that the parents had. While authorities continue their investigation, on June 22, 1982, friends and family lay James and Virginia Campbell to rest. As detectives pay their respects, tension among the Campbell's daughters is palpable. All four of them were late to the funeral. They caught Cindy rummaging through her stuff, and what the hell are you doing? I want mom's diamonds.

But Cindy never found them. Following the funeral, detectives decide to bring in the oldest Campbell daughter, Michelle, for further questioning. She told us about the money, the inheritance. I know it was a fairly substantial amount. My understanding of the estate was that there wasn't a lot of cash.

Jim was described as a millionaire, but most of his money was tied up in real estate. And but Cindy wanted some money as quickly as possible. According to Michelle, Cindy's behavior is nothing new. Cynthia had an adversarial relationship with both her mom and her dad, because she's always wanting something. I think they paid for some courses at one of the colleges here in town. She either wouldn't go to class or she decided she wasn't interested.

She didn't have a job. She was getting food free, getting money from Mama. According to Michelle, though Cynthia had grown dependent on their parents, their father believed it was time for her to stand on her own two feet. Her dad said, get a job. Make your own money so you can find out how hard I have to work for it. And I kind of thought at that time that the possibility there was a motive was inheritance. A week into their investigation,

detectives received the forensics report from the crime scene. There were no fingerprints. You don't have any evidence to actually tie Cynthia Campbell right to the killing itself. You can't arrest her on it, but she is suspect number one based on that information from the sister. With no new leads, the investigation begins to stall.

Then, on July 23, more than a month after the murders, Cindy's youngest sister, Jamie, comes forward with new information. Jamie told the police that Cindy had talked to her a couple of years ago, after one of the parents had yelled at them or they had some sort of a fight. And Cindy reportedly made the claim that we'd be better off if Daddy was dead.

Why wouldn't she say something about it? Why wait until after their dad, and then a month later, got, you know what, I just remember, she told me she was going to do it. Detectives fear these allegations are just part of a long-running family squabble. They went to talk to Cindy again at that point. She had hired an attorney who had advised her not to talk to the detectives, which that

then put another little button being the detective's bonnet, in that if she's got an attorney that doesn't want her speaking to us, then there's something there that we need to be paying more attention to. A person has the right to have an attorney, but it gives you a big heads up that she's hiding something. As detectives begin taking a closer look at Cindy, they finally track down her ex-husband, Michael Ray. But it's another dead end. And where we found out he was in Colorado. He had a good alibi, and he couldn't have been the one

that was involved in the killing. That took him off the suspect list. Without any solid evidence, the case eventually goes cold. At that time, the case wasn't moving forward. The homicide division had reached dead ends trying to come up with somebody. Two years after the murders in late 1984, just as the Campbell's estate is about to be settled,

Cindy's sisters decide they know who is responsible. They just need to prove it. They thought that Cindy had something to do with this, so they hired a well-known private investigator, a lady named Kim Pierce. Investigators had already tried to cut into Cynthia, and they hadn't had any luck. So we went about it an entirely different way. If Cynthia isn't going to talk to people, then perhaps David would.

Digging into Cynthia and David's relationship, investigator Kim Parris discovers the two are currently living apart. I waited outside David's house for two or three days, waiting for him to show up. And finally, one night, I saw the figure walking to the front door and I'm like, that's gotta be him. So I knocked on the door and asked if he was Charlie. And he said, no.

He said, my sister sent me here to pick something up. And I'm sure I have the right address. Do you mind if I use your phone to call her and check? And he let me in the house. And then if they let me in, then it's kind of easy after that. We just started chatting and he said, hey, it's my birthday and we're meeting a bunch of people down the street, do you want to go? And I'm like, okay, that was great. Over the course of a few weeks, Kim works to befriend David and get him to open up to her.

I was struck by how he liked me and wanted to have a relationship, but I knew that something was up the first night when we were chit-chatting, and he said, well, I'd like to own a little bar like this. And I said, that's cool. That costs a lot of money, though. I mean, how are you gonna do that on your good looks?

And he goes, no, I have a friend, an ex-girlfriend actually that's coming into some money and she would be my silent partner. And that got my attention and like, okay, so tell me more. After spending some time together, Kim reaches out to David to dig deeper. I called him and I'm like, oh my gosh, are you okay? I said, I had a dream that we were together and we got out of the car and somebody was shooting at us.

Is there anybody that would want to hurt you? He was like, yeah, no. Maybe, what? And there was a strange feeling that I know. Maybe, what? And there was a strange feeling that I had. Believing that David is about to crack, Kim contacts the Houston Police Department. I can remember this exactly when I came to work one evening, they told me that they got a break in a case came to work one evening. They told me that they got a break in a case

and had got a suspect for us in the killing of the Campbells. On the night of February 20th, 1985, investigators place a wire on Kim Paris and follow her and David West. They went to a Chinese restaurant and then they went back to his house and sat in the driveway and talked. I had to bring this to some conclusion, and the only way that I could do that was to tell him

that if he didn't tell me what he was hiding, I would never see him again. It's at that moment David decides to come clean about his ex-girlfriend Cindy Campbell What he was hiding, I would never see him again. It's at that moment, David decides to come clean about his ex-girlfriend Cindy Campbell and her parents' murder. He said, stop. Look at me.

And he said, I killed both of her parents. There. No. Do you know I trust you? Your parents... They're... No, do you know I trust you? Coming up, a secret plan comes to light. He was doing his best to make her love him, which is how he got trapped. Both of us looked at each other and said, did we just hear what we think we heard? It changed everything.

February 20th, 1985. It's been nearly three years since the murders of James and Virginia Campbell. And private investigator Kim Parris has just pulled a confession out of 29-year-old David West, the former boyfriend of the Campbell's daughter, Cindy Campbell Ray. A detective from homicide and I were sitting in the car

and listening to this confession. And both of us looked at each other and said, did we just hear what we think we heard? Never, ever until the moment he told me, did I think that he did it. Ever. There was some cognitive dissonance there. And I wanted him to stop talking.

But David doesn't stop there. He alleges that in the early morning hours of June 19, 1982, he and Cindy drove over to her parents' house. He said, I made her go with me. We went up to the bedroom, and he said it was just a simple execution. That was exactly the way he said it. She went on dead, I did it. I felt the enormity of it, and when he said, you have my life in your hands.

It was like, wow. You have no idea. I said, well, you go upstairs and get some sleep, and I'll call you tomorrow. And he was like, you promise? I said, I promise. And I drove away. I had to pull over And I drove away. I had to pull over a couple blocks away

and the side of the road. And I ran into somebody's yard and I threw up. When she arrives home, Kim Paris finds a homicide detective waiting for her. He said, we want you to go back in. And I'm like, that's a no. That's a firm no. We now know Cindy did not actually kill her parents.

David killed them. And he did it for her. Now we want to try to get a lot more specifics. As odd as it sounds, at that time, the truth is, I didn't want to hurt David. I can't explain it, but I don't apologize for it. It was this. I saw him as fragile. He said, we think that it's very important as fragile.

He said we think that it's very important that Cynthia be held accountable. And for that we need David to talk about Cynthia. And he put it in my lab at Manila envelope. And he said take a look at these and call me. So he left. And I opened them in a lot on the low. And there were a dozen 8 by 10 color photographs of the crime scene.

It changed everything. The next night, Kim goes out with David one more time. At the restaurant, he unloaded everything. He was talking about how he needed to save Cynthia. He needed to save her. And that was the word he used. He shared what he believed to be true, that she had been horribly abused by her family,

and told me that Cynthia had talked about it to him. She had said that to David, that she was abused as a child, and she was neglected, and she was the outcast child, and felt different than the other three. She offered him money, and he decided he didn't want the money because in his words, that would change everything. I didn't do it for the money. He was in his mind convinced that Cindy's stories about abuse were true and in his mind

he was doing the right thing by eliminating these two awful people. David explains that he and Cindy entered her parents' house through an unlocked window in the den. She was to have unlocked the window earlier that week so that they could get into the house without making any noise. He said, I had her step in the flower bed in front of the window to leave the footprints, and she wore boots.

She wore a raincoat and a hat so that she would look like a man in case somebody woke up. They wouldn't recognize her. David talked about standing at the foot of the bed, and he had to stand back from the foot of the bed because the grandchildren were sleeping at the foot of the bed, and he had to stand back from the foot of the bed because the grandchildren were sleeping at the foot of the bed. He shot each one of them, and then he shot each one of them two more times.

He had talked about how, at one point, host murders, Cynthia was starting to become a bit unhinged, and he was afraid that she was going to tell. It's what Kim alleges David did next that sent chills down her spine. And he looked at me, and almost at his smile, he said, I thought about killing her, too. After telling me about his considering killing Cynthia,

he told me that he would never be taken alive and lifted up his pant leg and showed me the gun that he had strapped to his leg. Coming up, detectives close in on a cold-blooded killer. I could see it come over his face coming up. Detectives close in on a cold-blooded killer. I could see it come over his face when he realized who I was or what I was. And a greedy mastermind is brought to justice. The moment she snapped was when she was cut off and permanently. on the night of February 21st, 1985.

Police watch as undercover investigator Kim Paris gets into a car with confessed murderer, David West. I told the police that the first turn I would make into a convenience store and that's where it was going to go down. She told David I got to go get some coffee. I told the police that the first turn I would make into a convenience store, and that's where it was going to go down. She told David I got to go get some cigarettes, so she pulled up to a convenience store. I get out of the car real fast.

I'm like, I'll be right back. I almost get hit by a squad car pulling up next to me. I dodged that, and phew, he's surrounded. He had no idea why he was being arrested and what is this about. And the homicide guy said, well, we're arresting you for capital murder, for killing Cindy, raised parents. And he said, there must be so much stake. I could see it come over his face when he realized who I was or what I was.

I remember clearly the thought I had. It was, don't look down. You have to look him in the eye and own this. came in the eye and owned this. Next, police go to the apartment of Cindy Campbell Ray. She was calm. She wasn't crying. She wasn't upset. We brought her to the homicide division.

I purposely walked her by that interview room where West was at to let her see West in there, took her over to interview him, and she refused to give a statement. She took her fifth amendment. In the end, the prosecutors, I think, felt that the only way they could get Cindy, they had to have David.

And the only way to have David was to make this plea bargain. His attorney says, how about we plead guilty to capital murder but take the death penalty off the table and he'll testify against Cindy? On March 23, 1987, Cindy goes on trial for the murder of her parents, James and Virginia Campbell. You had all sorts of ingredients here

that you don't see in a lot of murder cases. Prominent people with money. Somebody in the family is charged with doing it. An accomplice is seduced into making a confession and implicating his ex-girlfriend. Well, you take all that stuff together and it's a very interesting case. The fifth strategy was she was so distraught about the way her dad had treated her.

She was driven to do this in order to protect herself. Prosecutors assert there's simply no evidence to support Cindy's abuse allegations. But they do believe Cindy was angry at her parents. And she used David West as her unwitting pawn. The way the prosecution spun it is that she had manipulated him into committing the crime, that she played the victim and he was going to come to her rescue. She wasn't working. She's relying on her parents, mom and dad, to provide her with money. She wanted some more money,

and eventually you have to say, hey, I'm not gonna do this. We can't keep doing this over and over and over. MUSIC ..prosecutors believe that after a lifetime of supporting his daughter, James Campbell decided it was time to turn off the tap. They've been taking care of her children.

They've been bailing her out of jams and said, that's it. We're done. No more. She was being cut off and she didn't like it and she decided to do what happened. I think the moment she snapped was when it was clear that she was cut off and permanently. The jury finds Cindy guilty of two counts of capital murder. I don't think she believed that they would.

The look that was on her face, when they pronounced her guilty, it was a shock. She orchestrated the killing of her parents for greed and for nothing else. It was a monetary decision. So she doesn't deserve to be running around in this society. I'm just glad that things ended up the way they did. We got the case cleared and justice was served.

And maybe these little kids might have a better life, but I'll do it too. She just messed up so many people's lives, her sisters, her kids. It's just a tragedy. She had everything she could possibly want, and she wasn't satisfied. So in essence, all that was was great. J.W. Campbell received permanent custody of Cynthia's sons. Cynthia Campbell Ray remained incarcerated until her death in 2021. David Duvall is currently serving a life sentence

in the Texas State Penal System. He became eligible for parole in 2005. Hey, I'm Michelle Beedle. eligible for parole in 2005. rumble rules. That means we'll start with two stories, toss one out on its ass, and dive into the other stories with ruthless aggression. Oh, but it never stops, because every 90 seconds after that... Oh god, whose music is that? Another story comes down to the ring. Rinse and repeat until we arrive at the one most important thing on planet Earth that week. at the one most important thing on Planet Earth that week. Yeah! Follow over the top on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen to Over the Top, ad-free right now by joining Wondery+. For the record, this is not a wrestling podcast. No, no, but it is inspired by wrestling. Isn't everything inspired by wrestling, Butyl? Fair point. Yeah!