Shivangi Sinha
In 2010, Talia Ray informed her dorm mates at Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York, that her father, Lawrence “Larry” Ray, would be staying with them. The dorm housed seven other students, several of whom eventually came under his influence. In the years that followed, many of them accused him of physical abuse and other serious crimes. As the full extent of his actions emerged, the situation was widely described as a “cult.” Talia also drew significant public attention, particularly regarding the nature of her relationship with her father. The case has been extensively covered in Hulu’s ‘Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence’ and Lifetime’s ‘Devil On Campus: The Larry Ray Story.’
Talia Ray Allowed Her Father to Move Into Her College Dorm House
Talia Ray was the eldest daughter of Lawrence and Teresa Ray, and she grew up alongside her two younger sisters. The family lived in New Jersey, though their home environment was far from ideal. Talia was known to have a particularly close bond with her father. At one point, she reportedly began to believe that someone was poisoning their home’s walls or attic and these claims mirrored statements made by Lawrence around the same time. In 2004, during her parents’ divorce proceedings, she accused her mother of abuse. However, authorities found no evidence to support these allegations, and Teresa was ultimately granted full custody of all three children.
Although Talia was meant to live with her mother, she instead chose to stay in local youth shelters and eventually drifted apart from her siblings. She remained in contact with her father, who at the time was serving a sentence for fraud-related charges. In 2009, she enrolled at Sarah Lawrence College to pursue a liberal arts degree and lived in a dormitory with seven other students. After her sophomore year, in early 2010, she informed her roommates that her father would be staying with them for a while. As per the court documents, Talia told them that he was an undercover federal agent. This marked the beginning of Lawrence Ray’s interaction with the students, and he would reportedly go on to manipulate and control them for nearly a decade.
Talia Ray is Working as a Paralegal Today
Following Lawrence Ray’s arrest in February 2020, one of the major questions that surfaced was the extent of Talia Ray’s involvement. While she was never formally charged with a crime, prosecutors referred to her as a “co-conspirator” in their filings. A particularly striking piece of evidence was a 2013 email in which Talia wrote to her father, “What you have done with my friends is the most amazing and beautiful thing I have ever seen.” Despite this, many view her as another one of Lawrence’s targets and as someone allegedly groomed and manipulated from a young age. Since her father’s arrest, Talia has largely stayed out of the public eye, but glimpses into her life suggest an ongoing effort to rebuild and reconnect. In a video posted to a lesser-known website, she expressed a desire to reunite with her younger sister Ava, whom she claimed she hadn’t seen since 2005.
Talia also alleged that their mother was responsible for keeping them apart. Currently, she appears to be living in Durham, North Carolina, where she remains close to her step-grandfather, Gordon Ray. She previously worked at The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines and later at The Pilot newspaper. Since February 2019, she has held a position as a paralegal with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. Politically active, she is involved with the state’s Democratic Party and was even spotted at a 2019 event at the Durham Performing Arts Center alongside journalist Bob Woodward. While her father has claimed that she continues to speak with him regularly, Talia has neither confirmed nor denied this publicly. Instead, she appears to be focusing on maintaining a low profile.
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