April 13, 1999
Web posted at: 4:32 a.m. EDT (0832 GMT)

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. (CNN) -- Dennis Roy Yancy, 27, who, sources say, admitted strangling a woman to death, is expected to plead not guilty. He was arraigned Monday.

Yancy has been charged with murder, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit both murder and kidnapping and evidence tampering.

The 1997 disappearance of Marie Parker, then 22, of Truth or Consequences, has become part of the investigation into the kidnappings of two other women who were raped and tortured while held prisoner in a trailer.

Parker, a single mother whose two daughters are now living with her mother in Albuquerque, was last seen at the Blue Water Saloon in the town of Elephant Butte, in July 1997.

A source close to the investigation told CNN Yancy was leading law enforcement authorities to locations around Elephant Butte Lake, a body of water where Parker's body may have been dumped. It runs adjacent to both Truth and Consequences and the small town that bears its name.

But investigators said a search of the ground and from the air Saturday was fruitless.

The source said, "Yancy confessed to law enforcement officials to strangling Marie Parker."

Following Yancy's arrest Friday, the FBI identified him as an associate of David Parker Ray, 59, who was arrested last month with , 39, on several offenses, including the rapes and torture of two women.

A source close to the investigation tells CNN that Hendy is developing a plea agreement with the district attorney.

The arrests followed an investigation that began after one of Ray's neighbors saw a bloodied woman on the road -- naked except for a padlocked collar around her neck.

The couple, who lived together in a trailer home in the town of Elephant Butte, faces preliminary examination scheduled to begin Thursday.

Authorities searched a smaller sound-proof trailer owned by Ray and found books on serial killings, videotapes of Ray explaining various types of torture, books on the human anatomy, scalpels and a gynecological examination table with stirrups.

Ray is being held in the Sierra County Jail here. Hendy and Yancy were moved to the Dona Ana County Jail in Las Cruces.