One of the female victims of the alleged cult founded in a Sarah Lawrence dorm room nearly overdosed in North Carolina while under leader Larry Ray’s spell, according to a new report.
The woman, identified as “Yalitza,” was found unconscious from an apparent drug overdose in a Staples parking lot in sleepy Southern Pines, after Ray reported her missing in October 2013, according to police records obtained by The Pilot newspaper.
At the time, Yalitza, whose last name was withheld by The Pilot, was living and working at the home of Ray’s stepfather, Gordon Ray, in Pinehurst, North Carolina, along with a small group of Larry Ray’s “students.”
Ray was charged earlier this month with luring Yalitza and a group of his daughter’s college friends into a sexually and psychologically abusive cult. He coerced at least one of the women into prostitution, according to the federal indictment against him.
If Ray’s hunting ground was the Bronxville campus where his daughter Talia, now 30, attended school, his 92-year-old stepfather’s home — just steps from the famed Pinehurst golf club — was his training camp.
Ray allegedly forced the group to do endless after-hours yardwork at the house, court papers say. On several occasions, he assaulted at least one of the victims there, prosecutors claim.
Yalitza appeared to attempt an escape after her overdose, police records indicate.
In November 2013, Ray reported her missing again and said she had taken “all her belongings and left this morning to catch an Amtrak train in Southern Pines to New York,” he told police, according to The Pilot.
It’s unclear if they were ever reunited. She overdosed on at least one other occasion that year, according to New York magazine, which sparked an investigation into Ray with its 2019 expose.
Her parents told the publication she swallowed an entire bottle of Tylenol one night in 2013. When they went to visit her at Mount Sinai Hospital, they were prohibited from speaking with her doctors unless Ray was present.
Prosecutors say Ray was somehow able to convince his victims they had damaged his stepfather’s property and were indebted to him — a scheme revealed in 911 calls made from the Pinehurst home.
In September 2013, Ray told police a second victim, Isabella, whose last name was also withheld, “walked off” after damaging a garage window at the stepfather’s home, The Pilot reported.
He called back about 40 minutes later to say Isabella had returned.
According to Pinehurst 911 call logs obtained by The Post, Gordon Ray’s upscale single-family home was a hub of odd activity throughout the years. Gordon could not be reached for comment.
Police have received 21 calls for assistance to the home since 2013, according to records. The subjects of the calls vary from harassment and missing persons to property damage, loud noises and a suspicious vehicle.
Ray’s daughter Talia, now lives and works near her step-grandfather’s home and is close with the elder Ray, according to her social media profiles.