A timeline gap in Kelli Garrett’s case deserves attention. On July 24, 1996, after a dispute with her husband, Garrett went to the Blu-Water Saloon in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, where she met a friend, Jesse Ray. Her beer was reported drugged, she was struck from behind in the parking lot, and awoke inside the soundproofed trailer David Parker Ray called his Toy Box. Over two days she was restrained, injected with drugs and tortured; at one point Ray slashed her throat and later dumped her on a road near Caballo, where she survived and reached a clinic before returning home and then moving to Colorado.

Garrett’s abuse came to light after Cynthia Vigil escaped in March 1999. Investigators found a videotape of Garrett’s torture in Ray’s trailer and identified her by a distinctive ankle tattoo. Garrett returned to New Mexico to testify; the first trial ended in a mistrial when two jurors found her story unbelievable, but a retrial led to Ray’s conviction on 12 counts related to Garrett’s abduction and torture. Ray later received a 224-year sentence as part of a larger plea deal in 2001.

What details about Garrett’s first interactions with local authorities or her husband’s response remain unclear to readers with knowledge of the case?