A woman is found murdered after reporting more than 100 incidents of harassment and violence, but police think she staged the attacks herself.
Cindy James
She got threatening calls and notes
CASE DETAILS
On June 8, 1989, the quiet Vancouver, British Columbia, suburb of Richmond was shocked when a body was found lying in the yard of an abandoned house. The victim was a 44-year old nurse named Cindy James. She had been drugged and strangled. Her hands and feet had been tied behind her back. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police believed that Cindy’s death was either an accident or suicide.
Cindy was attacked outside her home
In the seven years before she died, Cindy reported nearly 100 incidents of harassment. Five were violent physical attacks. Over time, the police began to doubt her stories. But Cindy’s parents never doubted that their daughter was murdered. Cindy’s father, Otto Hack:
“The police did not investigate the possibility of homicide, of somebody murdering her, but zeroed in on trying to prove that she committed suicide.”
It all began with mysterious phone calls four months after Cindy James separated from her husband. Tillie Hack, Cindy’s mother, said Cindy told her she didn’t recognize the voice:
“She said it was just a voice. Sometimes it would change, the sound, and sometimes it was just whispering. Sometimes it was just nothing, just silence.”
Was it suicide or murder?
Otto Hack, Cindy’s father, felt her daughter wasn’t telling everything she knew:
“Of course, I think that we should add a qualifier there that she was very, very reluctant to talk about this right to the end, and our feeling was that she was withholding something extremely vital.”
Cindy reported the threatening calls to Vancouver police, who began investigating. Over the next three months, she said that the harassment got worse. At night, she heard prowlers. Her porch lights were smashed and phone lines severed. According to Cindy’s friend, Agnes Woodcock, Cindy said bizarre notes began to appear on her doorstep:
“She told me many times that he wanted to scare her to death. She said, ‘He doesn’t want to kill me, he wants to scare me to death.’”
One night, Agnes dropped by Cindy’s house for a visit:
“I went up and knocked on the door, there was no answer. I assumed she was having her bath. She did every night. And I thought I heard something. I wasn’t sure what it was.
When Agnes investigated, she came across Cindy outside:
“I found her crouched down with a nylon tied tightly around her neck. Cindy said she’d gone out to the garage to get a box and someone grabbed her from behind. All she saw were white sneakers.”
Cindy moved to a new house, painted her car, and changed her last name. She also hired a private investigator, Ozzie Kaban. The police continued their investigation and questioned Cindy several times. According to Ozzie Kaban:
“She wouldn’t tell them the entire story. She would be evasive, she would withhold information, and she simply would not act as a normal victim would act. And I can see where a police officer would have a tremendous amount of problem believing her story.”
Cindy’s mother thinks she knows the reason for her daughter’s reluctance:
“Cindy told me that after she was attacked, the knife was held at her throat and she was told that if you talk, your sister will be next, and then your mother. So just keep quiet, don’t tell anything.”
One night, Ozzie Kaban heard strange sounds coming over a two-way radio he had given Cindy. He went straight to her house:
“I went around the house and the house was locked. I was able to look into the house through a window and I found Cindy lying there. I took a look at her and I thought she was dead.”
Ozzie kicked in the door:
“There was a note that was pinned with a paring knife through her hand. I went to the telephone and called 9-1-1 and within about two minutes she revived briefly, and then they took her to the hospital. She told me that she noticed a man coming through the gate. The next thing that she remembers is being hit on the side of the head with a piece of wood or something of that nature. She then she remembered being held down on the floor, and she remembered a needle going into her arm.”
But to some, the incidents and her stories of harassment, seemed suspicious. Neal Hall covered the story for the Vancouver Sun:
“There was never a fingerprint from a suspect, there was no independent corroboration. Cindy saw this person, or sometime she said there were two, sometimes three people. One and a half million dollars, it’s been estimated, the police spent investigating Cindy James’ complaints. More than a hundred incidents. And they could never find a suspect.”
Cindy said the threatening phone calls continued, but police said they were too short to trace. Neal Hall:
“They had 24-hour surveillance on her house for days on end, with up to fourteen officers. But never, when surveillance was on her house, never any, any event would happen. As soon as surveillance was taken off, of course then she’d get another incident that happened.”
Cindy’s mother doesn’t think that was odd:
“When the police were watching the house, we would say to them, ‘Well, you know, if it’s somebody doing that, then sure as heck he knows you’re there, and of course, nobody will do anything while you’re sitting there and watching.’”
Then, Cindy was found dazed and semi-conscious lying in a ditch six miles from her home. She was wearing a man’s work boot and glove, and suffering from hypothermia. Cuts and bruises covered her body. A black nylon stocking had been tied tightly around her neck. Cindy said she had no memory of what happened. Cindy started asking Agnes, and her husband, Tom, to spend the night. On one occasion, Agnes said, she woke them up:
“Cindy came running to the door and said, ‘Tom, I heard a noise downstairs’, and Tom said, ‘I heard it too, it was like a loud thump.”
When they went downstairs, Agnes said they discovered that the basement was in flames:
“So I ran to the phone and the phone was dead. So Tom went outside and got the neighbor and asked if he would call the fire department. And when he went out, there was a man standing on the curb, and Tom asked him, and he ran away down the street.”
Once again, the police suspected that Cindy staged the incident. Reporter Neal Hall said that Cindy’s behavior that night was odd:
“There was no dust or fingerprints disturbed on the outside of the windowsill. But somebody set the fires from inside the home. And would’ve had to climb through that window. Now that should have been one sign. Also, she said she was out walking her dog late at night that night. Now, if somebody was being attacked, why would they go out alone walking their dog, three o’clock in the morning? Does that make sense?”
Finally, Cindy’s doctor committed her to a local psychiatric ward. He believed she was becoming suicidal. Cindy’s psychotherapist, Allan Connolly:
“I think one of the things she found most difficult was that people didn’t believe her. She was always doubted. She knew she was doubted and that was what slowly drove her crazy. The fact that she wasn’t believed.”
Ten weeks later, Cindy left the hospital. Cindy’s father said that she finally admitted to her family and friends that she knew more than she was saying:
“She told me for the first time she was convinced who the perpetrator was, and in her own words, if the police can’t solve this, I’ll solve it for them.”
On May 25, 1989, six years and seven months after the first threatening phone call, Cindy James disappeared. On the same day, her car was found in a neighborhood parking lot. Inside were groceries and a wrapped gift. There was blood on the driver’s side door and items from Cindy’s wallet were under the car. Two weeks later, her body was found at the abandoned house.
It looked like Cindy James had been brutally murdered. Her hands and feet were bound together behind her back. A black nylon stocking was tied tightly around her neck. Yet an autopsy revealed that Cindy died from an overdose of morphine and other drugs. Police concluded that Cindy had committed suicide. Her father didn’t believe it:
“There is no way that she could have been able, after ingesting that amount of drugs, to tie herself up. There was absolutely nothing at the crime scene to indicate that she had used any form of syringe, or she had used any drinking device, or anything of that nature.”
Reporter Neal Hall:
“The morphine wouldn’t have taken affect for say, fifteen minutes to half an hour. The knot specialist who came in and re-created the same type of knots and the way she was tied up, it took him three minutes.”
In Vancouver, the coroner ruled that Cindy’s death was not suicide, an accident, or a murder. They determined that she died of an “unknown event.”
Cindy’s family, however, believes there’s someone in Vancouver who’s getting away with murder.
Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season three with Robert Stack and in season four with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.
SUBMIT A TIP
Lin rau
Anyone watch this on Crime Beat Season 4 episode 10 Part 2. I was listening to he show and heard a voice talking that sounded exactly like the voicemails left, Ian Mugler, who also wrote a book. Could he be involved? Knew she had issues and prayed on them
KC
This is infuriating.
I understand that stalking wasn’t a common concept back then, but to see the misogynistic dismissal of her suffering continue today is outrageous.
I think it’s entirely plausible that someone (likely her ex husband, who would be the first suspect today) tried to drive her to suicide.
What better way than to harass, torture, attack and gaslight her until the police blame her? Police not taking spousal abuse, stalking or rape seriously was even more common back then.
The physical circumstances of her attacks are such that I cannot see how she could have self inflicted them. Try to inject yourself with morphine, get rid of the syringe so it’s never found, tie a stocking around your neck so it strangles you and then hogtie yourself.
Beat yourself so you get black eyes and injuries all over your body. Dump yourself unconscious on the side of the road in snow. Stab yourself through the hand while lying face down on the floor. Orchestrate hundreds of incidents while holding down a job, taking care of a dog, having friends and family who never noticed a bit of evidence that she had such severe “multiple personality disorder” that she tried to kill herself without knowing. THIS IS RIDICULOUS.
MPD is totally discredited now, and this behavior is beyond Munchausen’s, which is also being looked at skeptically as a legitimate diagnosis.
Also, that cop is a smug, smarmy idiot. I was a substance abuse treatment professional for years, and I can tell you unequivocally that morphine acts instantly, like every opiate. She absolutely would’ve been almost instantly unconscious if given a deadly dose. Especially as she was not a chronic user or addict, and had no tolerance. Addicts may not have felt affected immediately, but anyone else would. You pass out, stop breathing and die.
If she had been a regular user, she’d have had clearly visible track marks and they’d have found paraphernalia somewhere. They never found a syringe at the scene. Kind of hard to inject yourself without one, right?
I think there is more than enough to seriously consider that she was a victim of very sadistic, well planned stalking meant to make her lose her mind or kill herself. When it became obvious she wasn’t going to, then it became necessary to actually murder her. People do horrifying things to their partners and to total strangers every damn day.
I am sickened that she is a victim who is being blamed and smeared, likely her killer will never be caught. Truly an ingenious
Michelle
I also wanted to add, when she had her ex and a friend sleep over, there was a fire in the basement. This was at 2 or 3am. It was Cindy who had walked down into the basement – she heard noises and decided to venture down there herself. If you had 2 other adults in the hoke (one of them was a full grown man), you wouldn’t tiptoe down to your basement at 3am to “investigate” by yourself. This screams BS!!!! Also, when they had 24 hr surveillance, not ONE letter appeared in the mailbox, no calls came in, etc. AS SOON as surveillance ended after a few weeks, what do you know, her threats and all the oddities resumed. I don’t know how dense some of you can be. It’s kinda scary that you disregard ALL the signs proving it’s BS and jump to things like “drug deals” and “the mafia”. Soooo cringe. I have secondhand embarrassment for a lot of people who post on this forum..
Bill mays
Ian Mugler, wrote a book and his voice sounds very similar to the voicemails left. Did he pray on her issues
J West
Anyone ever look into (deeply investigate) the life history of Makepeace?
Amanda
I have tried. There is so little info on the guy. Usually that means some kind of government agency protects them. Maybe he was CIA
MC
And, Roy being the accomplice/person pushing her further and further can explain every instance where third parties witnessed some activity by someone other than Cindy. Calls that were recorded, the voicemail to Cindy’s ex, all of that could have been done by Roy to substantiate her Munchausen-fueled lies, furthering the whole situation to its final, awful conclusion.
To be clear: Cindy is a VICTIM, and I’m not blaming her for what happened. Severe mental illness in the form of Munchausen created a situation in which Roy was primed and specially skilled to participate in, take advantage of, and ultimately execute on her mental illness. Again, I am NOT saying she’s at fault, I think she was compelled to build this lie and then Roy took total advantage of it which caused her death.
Anonymous
A clear case of Munchausen syndrome.
Tom
Yes. It’s clear she was doing it to herself.
millie
no she wasnt, there was collages to prove it wasnt her, and she was found in a weird position and place.
jessie
Also, just to point out the fact that her hands AND feet were tied BEHIND her back. How would one (even drugged) manage to tie their own hands behind their back.
There is no doubt in my mind that she was drugged and murdered.
Tom
Someone ran through that tying up and showed it could be done. It’s not impossible. No one was after her.
Anonymous
They should have kept her institutionalized. Marilyn Monroe was the same way. She was institutionalized, released, and is now a bogus murder mystery. As far as a homicide, everything I looked at looks self inflected. Even the cuts on her hand from the rope was a preexisting condition that can be found on her car handle.
WrongisWRONG
If know the person(s) JUST SAY IT!!!
Clearly there is a HUGE COMMUNITY here if we all know the name(s)… then…
This/these person/people would have eyes on them ALWAYS…
Stop this from happening to someone else….
TRW
It would be interesting to see if the police still have any evidence stored and checked with modern DNA techniques
Truthseeker
cant they track from which number these calls came from
Jayne Carter Williams
One of the calls came from her house.
Jenifer Blowe
I think the EX killed her and began giving her death threats, hiring some people possibly friends to scare her, and eventually the scaring turned into murder. my condolences go to the family and I hope you find the murderer here.
Jared hepburn
Why is no one talking about the police man she was living with for 1 month when All this started or the fact she went on a cruise with her husband the psychiatrist to an island where a good friend of his stayed where they were practising sex slavery 1 year before rhis began when she left her husband were they worried it would all come out and did this too her to keep her quiet theres alot more than meets the eye here this poor soul deserves justice.
Catalina
From where do you have this information?
MC
I think this is a severe case of Munchausen that went too far, and maybe roped in a willing participant in her psychiatrist ex-husband . Hear me out. She showed signs of Munchausen earlier in her life when her family lived in France and she wrote to them about a new boyfriend, who quickly became a fiancé, who then was diagnosed with terminal cancer while they were on a skiing trip (?) and died shortly after. Nobody has ever met this dead fiancé and the entire relationship occurred while she lived alone in Canada and her family was in France. Sorry but she definitely made all that up. Probably latent mental illness combined with living an ocean away from her family built up enough stress and desire for love and affection that she made up this tragic story centering on herself. It’s precisely the type of elaborate lie that mentally ill people concoct.
There’s no evidence of any of these phone calls she constantly reported to the police. Her own father to this day swears that she was never telling the full story (aka the truth…) about any of this. Her first alleged “attack” doesn’t add up – she said she was struck in her living room and injected with something there… but there’s proof that blood was spilled and then wiped up in her kitchen. Very likely she pierced herself with a needle in the kitchen and squirted out some blood, and bc she had her story prepared she had to clean up her blood to stay consistent.
Every one of her “attacks” end with the assailants telling her not to talk about it or they’d kill her… so if they were real why not just kill her? And come on… the small knife thru the hand attached to a note???? That isn’t something that happens in real life… thats something you only see in movies. And that’s exactly what a person suffering from Munchausen would do when they’re desperate to continue their lie – none of this is real but she needs to come up with *something* to show this is all real, and naturally people like her pull from movies and other media to create what they *think* happens in their made-up scenario.
But I don’t think her Munchausen alone led to her death. I think her ex recognized her capacity for Munchausen (as a psychiatrist) and used it against her to take the situation way too far. He would be the best person to subtly push her further, and I wouldn’t doubt if he played an active, knowing role in the final outcome. She HAD to have been tied up in the manner her body was found. I think as her delusion and lies kept increasing in severity, which in turn required increasingly more concrete physical evidence, her ex convinced her to stage ANOTHER “attack” involving a needle, her being hit, and her being tied up. Remember that the first time she alleged a needle was used, doctors found the needle hole but there was nothing in her system. This time, she had to have something come up in the toxicology report. So I think the final incident played out in one of two ways: (1) Ex used too much morphine, she OD’d and he tried to stage it like a murder given her made-up stalker story, or (2) Ex built up her Munchausen to the point that he could deliberately OD her, likely by explaining that he had to inject her with something that would show on a toxicology report, and when she agreed he just gave her too much. Then, he’d be able to easily stage a murder given her stalker story.
KayDaisy
I think she was murdered as well by one of her ex’s. I had a stalking experience too that was horrifying and death threats that were horrid. My stalker also hung my dog from a plant hook on my back porch and killed my cat. He would break my back fence almost nightly to get in my backyard. He would leave evidence all over, he would leave blood from unknown sources, he’d whisper into my window, left a post it note on my car at work that I wouldn’t have my head later and how he would scalp my head to my brain and then feed it to alligators. You name it he said and did, and to save my sanity I won’t go any further. I can say the police believed me, arrested him for 26 felony charges involving cruelty to animals, stalking, criminal mischief and the list goes on. Only to have to face him in court. I lost my mind for awhile after that because of the trauma. I thankfully have recovered, have a family of my own and live far far from that place. Bless you if you have suffered because it will always be engraved into my soul the terror and horror. I’ll never forget some images for as long as I live and ptsd got the best of me for some time. I know find strength in family and loved ones who understands what terror I survived and has always been there to comfort me.
Darcy
I am so incredibly sorry you went through this !! My heart hurt for you while reading your post !
Gwynn
I’m sorry that happened to you, I’m glad you were able to get through it. I hope that never happens to you again.
lena
No, he didn’t. Get help.
WhatWhat
How do you know?
CindyJamestheorist
There is a new 12-part podcast series on the Cindy James case released now on Audible Canada: https://www.audible.ca/pd/Death-by-Unknown-Event-Podcast/episodes/B09G8Q7RDB?ref=a_pd_Death-_c4_episodes_view_all&pf_rd_p=0c38abba-a42f-457d-a98a-dad4d340a9a5&pf_rd_r=SK5G5T1FFG0F15WNDCNM
Inês Santos
Here’s a theory that I haven’t seen anyone brought up: they said she was found dead 2 weeks after she went missing and 2 weeks after her car was found. From the pictures of her body we can see that there was barely no decomposition at all meaning she must have been killed a little before being found (it was also a really busy area meaning they must have found her quite quickly). They also said she was found with many many bruises and cuts all over her body. Could it be that whoever took her, tortured her or beat her up, drugged her over time to keep her unconscious or “confused” which led to her overdose and then they dumped her body? i read somewhere that she had needle marks that weren’t healed too and her feet were clean even though the police said she walked all the way to the place she was found..
H
From 2015-2019 I worked at a late night bar in Vancouver. A man in his late 70’s visited me nearly every shift for those 4 years. One night he told me he was a main suspect in Cindy James death and that Ozzie Kaban was pursuing him at the time. He says that in the early 90’s many people in the community believe it was him. He was a postal worker at the time and would walk past her work regularly. She claims he was stalking her. His name is never mentioned in articles or podcasts but I do believe he may have stalked her. He could still recall the cross streets she worked on, hours she worked etc. all these years later..
Gina
So do u think it was him? And ur saying the PI was investigating him somewhat recently in (2015-2019) ?? I wonder what came out of it now then
Anonymous
I’m sure she meet many gentleman that were out of their way interested in her. But that doesn’t make they evil. They were possibly turned off by her mental condition. She sure couldn’t keep a companion.
Anonymous
They= them
millie
she didn’t have a mental condition…
Russell
Common details aside, if the woman was doing it all to herself and trying to get attention, WHY WOULD SHE MOVE AWAY, GO BY AN ALIAS, AND PAINT HER CAR?! That is wasted expense and time.
Cara
She had DID and was unaware it was her own self.
Michelle
Are you illiterate
Cara
It means Dissociative identity disorder so no, not illiterate. Maybe think outside the box next time before insulting someone for something that was clearly in capital letters as the abbreviation.
Rabbit
Explain how her feet were clean, after a 6 mile walk, and they couldn’t find her shoes? if she did in fact have DID then why when her husband who is a clinical psychiatrist who was married to her for 16 years say he never saw anything that would ever indicate DID? how could she inject herself with a deadly combination of drugs then hog tie her hands and feet together? Why would she move, change her name, and car color? And why didn’t they find the needle? Doesn’t make much sense
Nobu
Agreed. This lady needed help.
Salon Sleuths
Taylor- you posted this is happening to you can you email me salonsleuths@yahoo.com i want to hear your story
VeroBearo
What if it’s Agnes?
Suzette Botes
I also wonder if Agnes could had have something to do with this
Jackii
Stephen Lovell
JUNE 11, 2020 AT 1:40 PM
That cinches it for me! I read in one report the bearded guy who abducted her with the blonde in the van was present at many of her attacks.
Stephen Lovell, if you by any chance get to read this I would like to know more about the different speculation that you have on this case.
it didn’t let me reply to your comment so I’m just posting this on here just in case.
Stephen Lovell
Hi Jackii, read “The Blood In a Cabin” by Leanne Jones. My theory is based on reading this book, that the ex was involved in drug smuggling and was working with a mafia operation. When he and Cindy were married she may not have known about it. Or, she may have even been involved. I think that was the secret she would not talk about. Anyway, at one point in their marriage they went boating and Cindy recalled them stopping at the shore where there was a cabin. She woke in the boat and went into the cabin and saw Makepeace dismembering a body with blood everywhere. She was foggy on the memory and her sister, who went along for the ride was asleep on the boat. I think Makepeace drugged them. Anwyay, long after the inquest they found the cabin and there was a lot of blood stains in it. They looked for it at the time of the inquest and did not find it so they assumed she was making it up. I think she became a liability once Makepeace and Cindy divorced and he terrified her so she wouldn’t blab. He kept her expertly drugged and covered his tracks so that people WOULD think she was doing it to herself. Until he accidentally killed her. Neighbors saw people around her house. One woman in the neighborhood saw a car slow down and a man make a cutting action across his throat with his finger right in front of her. when her house caught fire, the man across the street ran off – not the action of an innocent person, yet this man was written off as a suspect! Come on!. It’s CLEAR that she did not die where they found her body. the bottoms of her feet were clean. they would not have been if she walked there to stage her death. So much evidence that was ignored, I almost think someone was in on the drug ring and purposely kept things quiet.
MC
This is such a dumb theory being peddled by a true crime grifter to sell books. Get a refund and stop letting scum profit off tragedies by injecting bombastic and utterly unsubstantiated claims into them to drum up interest and cash. Drug smuggling? Mafia connections? Come on, do you not have any capacity to detect b/s? You think THAT is the answer when millions of dollars in police work investigating Cindy’s claims never came up with a single whiff of any of these types of crimes being remotely involved in any of this? It’s a mentally ill woman being taken advantage of by someone, likely someone she knew. Literally none of the details match Cindy’s version that a stalker or stalkers (??? There is no such thing as stalkers acting as a group against one person) tormented her for FOUR YEARS. No documented case of stalking has lasted more than 13 months, either the stalker gets caught or escalates to violence, it literally DOES NOT happen for multiple years, it is impossible for a stalker to not slip up in any way whatsoever like with Cindy’s “stalker” committing acts for four years.
No organized crime outfits would ever engage in the behavior that occurred in this case. If the mafia was somehow involved in this then she would have been killed quietly and with as little attention as possible. There is no universe where mafiosos would make a hundred phone calls and commit multiple assaults and abductions that DIDNT result in her death, before ultimately killing her under the same M.O. as all the prior “attacks.” You’ve been had, this is a dumb idea, and only a soulless grifter would try to peddle something like this. Unfortunately, gullible rubes like you pay them to spoon you this ridiculous nonsense all at the expense of an innocent, very sick victim.
Michelle
I assure you, people have been stalked much longer than 13 months.
Mary
Yes I have been listening the audible version .. It is obvious someone at the background wanted to threaten her and killer her.. police .. in some countries .. police also tie with gangster or a few high power ones involve in illegal activités too.. I also read a few news before .. that when police can’t solve a case .. they want to close it as that will show them the inability if they can’t solve the case for so long. Her ex husband was a doctor .. doctor especially in that generation .. appear to be very credible and police try to protect them instead charge them.. even to this day.. doctor in Asia .. they tend not to investigate or lots lighter punishment if they commit offense
jackii
i honestly think that it was a police officer or someone that works in that field or someone with that type of knowledge of DNA or a criminology background
Suzy
Definitely screams police involvement whenever they try to cover up an obvious murder to look like suicide.
Chanita Jackson
Cindy was murdered she didn’t deserve none of this!!!! Rip Cindy
Liz
Very good points below! How do detectives explain these things? No needle, no dirt on her feet, no eye witnesses seeing her walk down the street? Etc. what say you Richmond BC?
Cassie Elizabeth Fredieu
Every piece of a suicide theory is disproven. She wasn’t a nut case because if she was they would have never let her out after 10 weeks in an institution for her depression because no one would believe her. At the time of her institutionalization they would have been able to figure out if she had any disorders. What does it make sense to me is the times that physical damage was done Cindy was not the one that called the police people that found her body called the police. I’m going to tell you right now no one injects themselves with a lethal dose of morphine and other Drugs and ties themselves up. The two things that prove that this was murder #1) there was no needle found where her body was found the entire area where she was found all the way to her vehicle on mile and a half away was searched critically and there was never a needle found. #2) Cindy told her family that this person he’s not trying to kill me they are trying to scare me to death and in all reality that is exactly if you take a step back from the situation what this person was doing to her. This person was harassing and terrorizing her and this person was ruining her life on purpose and then would get physical and leave her in random places and show her how much control they really had over what happened to her and it’s very possible but she wasn’t even supposed to die when she did that it was just another form of scare tactic but they gave her too much medication.
Cindy’s theory was always correct her story of what was being done to her never altered. A person that is lying about something would have easily thrown out multiple different suspects and the fact that she never did says she needed the police to do so.
I absolutely believe that this was more than likely a woman and a man involved and possibly a scorned woman and a male accomplice. Cindy was never right and it was not about sex which in most stalker cases it is more than it’s not and the phone message sounds like a woman and to be honest the man her ex that played that voicemail more than likely he’s involved because that was just too convenient for him to prove his innocence because it was happening to him too?!?! Oh really but you’re just now bringing it up because the police think you may be a suspect.
There was no dirt on her feet when they found her even though she would have had to walk a mile and a half in the dirt barefooted I mean everything about where she was left and the things that ARENT AT THE SCENE ARE THE PROOF OF MURDER. NO NEEDLE. NO SHOES BUT CLEAN FEET. To believe suicide you would have to believe that she went to the grocery store and bought a bunch of groceries and then she put the groceries in the back of her car then she cut herself to make herself bleed on the outside of her car door then she dropped off her credit cards and license and all that stuff all over the ground then she took her shoes off and chose to walk a mile and a half while she carried rope a nylon stocking drugs syringe no shoes and went to an abandoned home and did not go inside but chose outside to Dose herself up with morphine then tie a nylon stocking around her neck then tie her feet and then tie her hands and the whole time not be affected buy the drugs that she had administered to herself. She went grocery shopping during the day and they’re saying that she left from her car and walked a mile and a half and did this to herself you’re going to tell me that no one in town saw a woman walking barefooted down the road carrying rope a nylon stocking drugs and needle and no one noticed her yeah there’s nothing about this case that says suicide and for them to ever have labeled it or try to prove it as suicide is pathetic on a police department.
Suzy
You bring up a lot of good points, except that you assume she would receive proper psychiatric care. This is very difficult to find in the Vancouver area, especially in the 90s, when the government closed down a huge psychiatric hospital and turned many seriously ill people (on psychotropic medications) out to die on the streets. They said it was “cruel” to keep these people confined to hospital involuntarily, but obviously they were just trying to save money.
That said, you are right that she was clearly not crazy; she was high functioning enough to maintain relationships and work as a nurse.
Shelley
Morphine can be taken orally.
Detective 48
I just had a sudden thought while reviewing this case and while listening to the voice recording i had an idea. Cidny had divorced her husband and people blamed him but what about the husbands previous girl friend? What if when cidny married her husband his ex got mad and made cidny her personal enemy? Then when cidny broke up with her husband he helped torment her? Because there was definetly more than just one person involved.
Detective 58
Has anyone ever thought to cross examine the knife that was stabbed into her hand? And if you really try hard enough can’t you track where the voice mail that said “Cindy dead meat soon” came from? Cross tracking a call was still around then so why not use it? Also this person had probably been keeping watch on Cindy for a while and when the fire was started was probably in her house plus where the body was dropped after she was killed wouldn’t their be footprints or some type of evidence that was their? I also believe it was not a suicide for two things first who would go through such lengths to hurt themselves? And second what’s the point she was obviously scared and would not do this to herself. Also one last thing the killer was not male it was most likely female (the voice mail) so why not test any females in her friend group that had a reason to hurt her?
Jason
At first I thought Cindy could have been doing this all to herself. After reading other sources and thinking about her circumstances (other than UM) I now believe someone (cop ex bf or Dr ex husband) was tormenting her. To protect her family, she didnt say anything to the police. I assume most if not all people involved in her case have passed on by now, so hopefully a sharp, determined police officer decides to go back and review her case-if any evidence is still around (stalkings, zip ties, etc). This case will only be solved in the science lab.
Taylor
I am going through this currently Someone Please reach out
Unsolved Mysteries
Hello Taylor,
If you believe you are in danger, please reach out to your local authorities as a first priority.
Sincerely,
UM
millie
are you okay?????
Candace
I am so saddened by what Cindy had to endure..I watched my mother live a similar experience. The police kept telling her that she was crazy untill eventually she believed it. It only stopped when my dad got the kids (me) because she had to be admitted To a mental ward in Victoria BC. He got remarried. She would come home from work and her silk nightgown would be strewn on the stairs with a hot iron plugged in on it. Just one example of many many extremely bizzare examples. He was a control freak who turned her agraphobic during their marriage and I had first hand witness to physical and mental abuse from him. There is no WAY No WAY she committed suicide.
Dusty
https://youtu.be/ljymSSBqflU
https://youtu.be/sbrAggQE2EA
Local coverage at time of inquest
AK
Simple. Modern DNA techniques are vastly superior at finding small amounts of dna. Test the ropes she was tied up in AND THE nylons around her neck. Test everything. Killer’s dna will be in the rope unless they were easy enough to tie tightly with gloves on. The injection mark on her arm was not healed, it had to have occurred shortly before death. She had to have walked half a mile from her car barefoot without getting a speck of dirt on them. No shoes with body or syringe. Morphine pill theory- no stomach content evidence backs this up. Calling this a suicide is not following the evidence. Most likely was her much older controlling ex. I wish they would test to try and prove one way or the other instead relying on the lazy attitude of victim blaming.
Eleanor
Where could the morphine and the other drugs come from? She was a nurse and had access. She also had colleagues with access. Someone mentioned her ex husband was a doctor, and she dated a psychiatrist. Did any drugs go knowingly missing at her workplace? Did they check where the drugs came from? Too bad no EHR back then.
Bill Blaski
This story reminds me of Chad Langford. Seems fishy to me that her stalking started 4 months after she divorced. I just don’t understand how we are to believe that Cindy and chad committed suicide? After doing this tying themselves up. In chads case lying over top of the gun that he supposedly used to shoot himself. Cindy we are to believe took pills of morphine, or a syringe and walked a few miles to a abandoned home at a busy intersection. Then tying her hands and feet behind her back. Laying there for two weeks without being noticed? I would love an opportunity to sit down with Cindys PI Ozzie Kaban and pick his brain. I pray these two deaths will be solved.
Jason
I posted on here about three yrs ago. Just checking if there’s any updates. After watching the segment again, her own dr said she DIDN’T have Multiple Personality Disorder and the fact that “no one believed her is what slowly drove her crazy.”
But…
It’s also mentioned Cindy “admitted she was witholding information from her friends and family.” Her parents were upset the police weren’t doing enough, but, they spent over $1 million on her case alone. This is in the 1980s. I imagine if we had the tech we do today, it would bw a solveable case. Either someone did it, or she did it to herself. Idk. This is an interesting case.
Leah
Hi, I was wondering if you knew what episode/season this story is in. I would greatly appreciate it if you could tell me.
Unsolved Mysteries Post author
Hi Leah – you can see this case in S3:E18 with Robert Stack and S4:E3 with Dennis Farina
Sammy North
The cop(s) and/or ex husband were involved. This was NOT suicide.
Kathrine
While there is ample evidence on both sides, have any of you had experience with an abuser who was a master of Gaslighting? I have. They are master manipulaters who can abuse you and simultaneously make you look crazy and undermine your believability. A watch of the movie were the term came from will give you a good idea, its called gaslight and its from the 40s. Its chilling to imagine that a stalker could have used these tactics on her, preyed on her scared her endlessly but made sure to make her look crazy and at fault. I know it can happen. And I hope it didnt because it is almost too horrifying to imagine.
Ashley P.
I read where the Coroner’s Report classified this case as, “Undetermined”. In order for a case that is so old to be classified as Undetermined is kind of unusual. There needs to be a new inquest which dives into the exact findings from the Coroner as to what, when, where and how. I believe this to be a solvable case. Of course this will be determined through a lengthy investigation by officers that are competent. However, due to the last report from the Coroner, they may not want to invest anymore financial resources to submit a new inquiry. It’s a shame that no one was ever able to determine what happened Ms. James. Hopefully one day her family will get the answers they need.
Patrick
Cindy told her parents she knew who it was and if the police couldn’t solve it she would for them. She ends up dead thereafter. I believe it was her doing. How morbid though to tie yourself up and wait to die. The tape sounded staged also by a woman.
Gina
There’s another video on YouTube of a news story that came out a little after it all Happened and she told her mom she thinks it her ex husband and she even tells authorities and there’s a video of them at court and he’s denying it
Truth Finder
This is a tragic and sad case of a life lost. There is believability to both theories of murder and suicide no matter which theory you believe in. This is what makes the case so mind boggling and perhaps why it may never be solved; in addition to the extreme negligence of police not collecting any forensic evidence from Cindy’s body such as scrapings from beneath her fingernails. At first, my feeling was that it was suicide. Anyone can make fake threatening notes and letters to themself, cut the phone line, stage physical abuse to their body, set their basement on fire. But why? When someone wants to commit suicide they do it rather quickly. They don’t spend six years and seven months expending massive energy and time in staging a fire, physically and harmfully beating up on their own body, throw dead cats at their own door, write threatening letters, etc. What would be the point? And in this case there was no reason to do such an outlandish preparation just to kill yourself. Nobody would benefit monetarily in Cindy’s death for her to scheme such an elaborate staging of a homicide. There comes a time when even law enforcement must realize this. On the other hand, there is evidence that supports Cindy was murdered and is too strong to ignore. This is what I keep going back to and what has convinced me that it is indeed a homicide. When Cindy’s body was found outside on the ground she had no shoes on. No shoes were ever found at the scene or in the vicinity. If Cindy walked from her car in the dirt without any shoes why were the soles of her feet completely clean? No trace of dirt, grass or mud. This is not possible if she walked to this abandoned house to kill herself. Science supports the fact that it is not possible for the soles of the feet to be absent of any debris. The only reason her soles could be lean is if she was carried and placed on the ground by someone. She also had substantial amounts of morophine and drugs in her system but yet there was no syringe anywhere to be found. How could she possibly shoot herself up in the arm without the actual syringe? A person committing suicide is not going to inject themselves and then have any clear thinking or strength to get up and crawl or walk somewhere to dispose the syringe, walk or crawl back to lay down and die. Absurd. And which takes us back to the shoes once again. If she staged this whole scene and crawled on her hands and knees or walked to dispose of the syringe why are her feet and hands clean? No dirt. No grass, no mud. Nothing. I’m quite sure she didn’t bring a bucket of water and soap to clean herself because once again she would have had to dispose of the bucket and soap by walking or crawling so why were her feet clean? Again, science tells us there is no possible way her feet would be clean of debris. Science and evidence cannot be argued with. In addition to these strong undeniable facts, there are witnesses who were inside Cindy’s house with her on numerous occasions who heard thumping on the front door at 2:00am. Her private investigator answered Cindy’s phone several times to hear a disturbing threatening voice on the other end. Cindy was in the house with him and visible so it was not her on the phone. Her estranged husband who actually stayed over in Cindy’s house because she asked him to along with one of her girlfriends were there to help her and protect her when she was obviously extremely frightened and they both heard noises outside Cindy’s house and even saw a strange man in her front yard. These eyewitness accounts cannot be ignored.
Sometimes those in law enforcement get “tunnel vision”. Maybe it’s from pressure and stress to close a case or maybe it’s just certain bad apples who just don’t care, but no matter which it is, they try to force the evidence into their working theory instead of following the evidence and allowing the evidence to show them the truth. This is what has happened in Cindy’s case and it’s such a shame and very wrong. In my opinion, the bottom line is Cindy James was murdered. The evidence and science supports the theory. It does not support the theory of suicide in any way, shape or form. I hope justice comes to Cindy and her family. Employment records should be accessed of those who worked in the same facility as Cindy did prior to her death because it doesn’t appear from what I have read that this was ever researched by the authorities. She could very well have been stalked and murdered by a severally unstable admirer who worked where she did. Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts.
Detectivish
Can I get a tl;dr
Anonymous
If you get a chance, listen to the call threat from the so called accuser sent to the voice recorder machine on her ex-husbands ( yes you read that right) recorder. It’s on various web pages and her home page. Listen with headphones and here a womans voice say “Cindy….dead meat soon”. It’s Cindy James trying to change her voice. The Canadian police are undoubtedly right about her doing this to herself! And what’s really baffling is how convincing her act carried out fooled even a private investigator
Kai
I don’t think that’s baffling. If he said the he thought she did it to herself, the parents wouldn’t have continued to pay him
Lorrie
How can it be suicide.how is it possible to strangle yourself if your tied up.
Detectivish
I take it you didn’t bother to read the entire article. She wasn’t strangled, she overdosed on morphine & various other pills.
Lorrie
How can it be suicide.how is it possible to strangle yourself if your tied up.the system failed her.andeveryone working on this case failed her.
Anonymous
“She was drugged, strangled and tied up. How can that be suicide? Very stupid police work and cops.”
The only stupid police work is the fact they gave her so much attention. Had they backed off immediately, she’d still be alive. I assume the police were smart enough to see that the more attention they paid to the case and the more skeptical they became, the “stalking” and level of attacks increased. That’s not a coincidence. Its also proof that she herself was her own stalker.
Her suicide was a huge FU to the cops for not believing her. Its like, See! Maybe now you’ll believe me since I’m dead!”.
THis woman suffered mental illness and I hope they never waste another penny reopening this case and giving it another look.
Jason
I think this was a mental illness case as well, based on this episode alone. Robert Stack said her Psychiatrist sent her to a psychiatric hospital and was released 10 weeks later. This doesn’t happen to people who don’t have serious mental illness. 10 weeks is a serious length of time to monitor a patient. UNLESS, her ex husband WAS threatening to kill her, but, there was never any evidence (fingerprints, hair, particles, etc) of that. At least not on this episode of Unsolved Mysteries. It’s a strange case for sure. But abuse and threats would drive ANYONE to insanity.
Jen
Abusers will literally drive their victims crazy. They undermine them. They ensure their victim is perceived as crazy and a liar.
millie
the calls she got were recorded, go listen to them.
Jordan
Believe it or not cops do end up doing shoty work form time to time. My cousin Annie was murdered and police said it was suicide. Let me explain the story. My cousin walked in on her step mother and her own boyfriend making love. She freaked out and told her dad about it but he didn’t believe her. She even came to my mom and dad and asked if she could live with us, but being the responsible adults my parents were they told her it was up to her dad. Of course he didn’t let her live with us. About two months later Annie was found in her bedroom. She had several bullet wounds on the side of her head. But the thing is that she was shot 3 times and still lived.. she was brain dead but still alive. They decided to take her off life support seeing that she would be nothing but what they described as a “vegetable” her whole life.The police ended up saying that she tried to committed suicide by shooting herself. The thing is the the gun she used wasn’t powerful enough to kill her so I bounced off of her skull and went around her skull to the other side of her head. This would knock her out. When she would wake back up she would shoot her self again and it would do the same thing.. finally when she came to the third time the shot was able to break the skull leaving her brain dead. This seems very unlikely seeing that she would have to be really really determined to do that, this wasn’t Annie at all. She was always cheerful. Even after her and her boyfriend broke up. Also her brother was in the house when she supposedly shot herself. He was talking to my parents after the fact and said something that even my 6 year old self found extremely creepy. He said to may dad that if my uncle Charlie knew what really happened then he would kill his wife. This basically told us that he knew that my aunt killed her. The police chose to ignore his statements and said that it her accident was nothing but a bad case of depression that led to suicide. Years after this happened my aunt divorced my uncle and moved in with Annie’s boyfriend. She was later arrested for attempted murder after stabbing him during an argument. I say the police definitely needed to do more investigating into her “accident”. To this day none of our family believes that Annie killed herself. I feel like this was the case for Cindy. Someone calling out for help but never got it until it was too late.. just like Annie
Judith
Jordan, that’s horrible. I’m so sorry your family went through that. As a mortician who has seen many suicides and many gunshot wounds, as a member of the semicolon club, and as a human with adequate cognitive function, I call every brand of BS on the theory the cops settled on. Having lived in small towns I also know how everyone is related to or otherwise acquainted with someone in LO, and the nature of that relationship has everything to do with how your case is treated should they have to investigate something that happened to you.
Jill Hardwick
It’s impossible to shoot yourself up, then strangle yourself with a nylon,Ji with
your armes tied up behind your back
It’s also impossible for you to tie a rope around your wrist behind your back tightly, impossible ! She obviously was Murdered ! In order for the Coroner to say her death was unknown, keeping quiet about her death being a murder. Obviously someone in the Police Department was also involved with the Drug Cartel.
This was no suicide.
Jill Hardwick
It’s impossible to shoot yourself up, then strangle yourself with a nylon, with
your armes tied up behind your back
It’s also impossible for you to tie a rope around your wrist behind your back tightly, impossible ! She obviously was Murdered ! In order for the Coroner to say her death was unknown, keeping quiet about her death being a murder. Obviously someone in the Police Department was also involved with the Drug Cartel.
This was No S
uicide.
Anonymous
Dahlia, she didn’t have Munchausen by Proxy. That is when you harm someone else for attention. You believe she had Munchausen Syndrome. Learn the difference!
Anonymous
She was drugged, strangled and tied up. How can that be suicide? Very stupid police work and cops.
Abby
Because the morphine was taken in pill form, which would give her time to tie herself up which wouldn’t be the hardest thing in the world.
RR
Now I can’t imagine why on earth her husband would have left her, I am sure he could relate some good stories of being kept up late at night over one sort of foolishness or another.
Juli
This story truly catches my attention because ibhave so many things in common with her an ever story. I am also a nurse and was stalked similar but not near as severe as her for nearly 2 years. I never found out who it was and I was also scared to call the police and think they would not believe me. I understand the point of view from the police but at the same time I understand more so from possibly Cindy’s perspective. I was brutally stalked for nearly 2 years and still to this day do not know for SURE who it was. I have a good idea of whom it is but at the same time went over it again and could possibly 2 other men. 2 of them could have possibly been deputies. I dated a deputy intermittently for 10 years and we had a rocky relationship but nonetheless always went back to one another and were very jealous of others. I was 18 years old when I met him and he was 28. During those 10 years when we would break up for short periods I never really dated anyone else. Well, I was getting older and tired of the break ups and truly trying to move on for the first time. He didn’t like it very much. As I got older I found out things I would have never thought twice about him. The second person was another deputy that was very sexual and obsessed but I would not date nor give into his advances when I found out he was married!! The third was someone I also casually dated and I would not allow it to go any further either.
I will try to make this as short as possible but it all started when I left the long time boyfriend and completely quit talking to another guy that I didn’t want to date anymore or take it further with. I was in nursing school at the time. I lived in an apartment complex in the very back by woods where a trail ran from the window to through the woods and also to another apartment complex. In and the window partially open for my car to return and all of a sudden heard 3 gun shots that sounded as if they came in the apartment. Shortly after went outside and talked with all neighbors to rule out anyone playing around although I had the window open and would have heard someone walking back there or talking if they weren’t trying to b sneaky. Next day I go out there and find 3 shell casing lying next to the window. Then the stalking truly started. I would come home and find zip ties on my porch (which ended being the stalkers “signature”). He did this to let me know he had been there wherever whether it be my car door handle or the porch or even work. He was able to get in my home and car without forced entry somehow because I would find things from inside my car like airfreshmer and then put in my house. My cat was shot with a bb gun, whiskers cut off and even shaved his fur!! Shortly after this another black and white cat that looked just like mine was found burned and zip tied and tortured and was on the news. When I would sleep he would tap on my window (it was very hard for me to see out that window at night plus I had pushed a huge dresser in front of it for extra protection) and shine bright flashlights at the window. He would tap and make noise outside. I could go on and on. I then thought moving would solve the problem because suspected all my neighbors at first but it only made it worse. I texted anyone I thought it could be and said I knew it was him and left a note inside my house saying in bad evidence of who the person was and they would be caught. This was partially true. I had at the time put cameras up, taken pictures of foot prints, etc and made a notebook and timeline of the events and I moved away. I was there all of 6 days before my back door was kicked down and everything stolen including the notebook and sentimental things like rose petals from grandfather’s funeral. Anyhow, calling the cops (not that they didn’t necessarily believe me) but they didn’t really take it seriously at all.
Anyhow, everyone believes stalkers are someone you know exactly who they are and follow you and show up places where you are at. Honestly, in my experience a stalker is someone that wants to scare the living death out of you, make you live in fear and wonder when they will come next or if they are there now, and a clever stalker will want to make your think you are going crazy. I believe the stalker delibertlwy did crazy things such as make that sign “I will cut you” because he knew the police would possibly overlook that and possibly consider as if she did it. Also, they want the person to go crazy. That keeps them from getting caught and weakens the defence of the victim even through protection by police.
I ALSO had cameras, etc and somehow the person would get around it. Such as the first camera I had looked like a click but didn’t have great footage. He disguised himself, walked right up to the “clock” and smirked in it and then knocked it over. So you tell me a random burglerar would not have even looked twice at that clock. Anyhow, when I was started to catch images etc was when he came in and stole everything. All my pictures and everything.
Anyhow, so this case could very, very likely be completely 100% true. I can tell you from experience similar to this that the stalking can make you go crazy. First of all, you can understand why someone would do this so you doubt yourzelf. You are scared for your life and don’t even know who to trust especially when you don’t know who it is so you live entirely in fear and suspect EVERYONE. You don’t sleep. Ever. No joke it affected my job. I was late often because I never slept and would sleep in sometimes when I finally did fall asleep. I was scared for my animals most of all because I knew they couldtlnt defend theirselves and I purchased a gun and kept with me at all times. Also, the stalker knew how to hurt me was through my animals. Later we found gps on car that was deactivated. The person was always one step ahead and I rarely involved the police because i felt ashamed, embarrassed, crazy and felt like they wouldn’t believe me nor would they do anything for me.
That’s what the stalker does. In my case and seems in Cindy’s case the stalker appears to be one step ahead of everyone else. He obviously knows to make her look crazy and do bizarre things. So there may have been a phone call or 2 to herself and not saying I personally did this but I could see why she possibly may have done this. When this type of thing is happening to you, you obviously feel crazy, you feel like no one believes you and MOST OF ALL you FEAR FOR YOUR LIFE and what’s next. She may have done this to try and the the police attention and help so they may believe her. In my instance. I never got phone calls. I always got things in my porch left to let me know he was there. If I did get message it was to let me know what I’m wearing.
Sorry for long post but yes this is bizarre. I never was there so I can’t accurately say what happened or what I believe I just know that something similar happened to me and fortunately I am alive today to talk about it. And comments regarding nothing happened when police were watching her home obviously this STALKER carefully planned it out. Obviously he realized if someone was survallancing her house. He carefully planned each step and wasn’t impusilve in his acts just like mine was.Always a step ahead OF the game.
In my opinion, it could have VERY WELL been the COP she was dating. He would have known when they were out there or at least be able to figure it outs or sure. He would have known to make her look crazy so the other deputies wouldn’t take it seriously. Although, it appears most stalkers know to do this. Plus that’s how they want their victim to feel. It also could have been the doctor, her ex husband but for some reason I just lean more towards the COP. People always assume police are there to protect and so forth but cops are only human and there are the good and bad just as any other profession.
As far as the crime scene. I cannot see a clear picture of it really. But I highly doubt she would have been able to take a dose of morphine (a LETHAL dose) of morphine and tie herself up. If she orally ingested it and orally ingested a LETHAL dose I say 15 min MAX would have been the time it took to really start kicking in and she would not have been able to tie ANYTHING in my opinion. I mean we have to look at the fact she took more than just morphine, she took a LETHAL dose of morphine. And where did the bruising and scratching come from. I just don’t feel this girl murdered herself like that. Why wouldn’t she have done this in her own home? It sounds to me she was murdered elsewhere and dumped which would explain why there were no fibers and what not at the crime scene. Not to mention there are A LOT of crime scenes where no fibers and other things are found. Which makes me think that it was the deputy even more. He would have known and made sure somehow he did not leave fibers . I mean how do forensics find the fibers . They use tape? And who knows what this actual crime scene has for evidence. Maybe the police don’t want to admit she was murdered because they didn’t take her seriously previously. I personally think the FBI should be involved in this case.
I also want to say all police departments need to learn more information on stalking and being a victim of stalking. Stalking isn’t just your ex following you down the road but that what this stalker did to Cindy is the goal of stalkers in my personal opinion. Yes, her case was quite bizarre but NO 2 are the same. This person just sounded more confident in what They were doing.They want to isolate the victim, inflict fear and make them think they are crazy. Police need to be trained in this type of thing and need more education in things such as this.
I also remember a bizarre case such as this that involved a young woman maybe 16 to 20? She lived with her mother and all kinds of things qerre happening despite cameras etc. The girl was found dead in her room and involved medication as well. Quite bizarre. I do no think her mother made that up and murdered her though. Anyhow. I don’t think Cindy would have commited suicide like this. Had she been driven crazy by the stalker and committed suicide she wouldn’t have done it like that. Had she already been mentally ill and made these bizarre things up and committed suicide she also wouldn’t have done it like that. I just feel this woman really did have a stalker and that they did bizarre things purposely so that she would be driven crazy with fear and so that the police wouldn’t believe her. What better defence?
I have seen comments about her walking her dog at 3am but doesn’t fit someone being stalked. Well, she is a nurse and we work SHIFT WORK. I personally worked 3p to 3a for part of the time when I was stalked. When I would come home sometimes opening the door my cat would dart out the door. Do you think I left him out there despite being scared for my life??? Nope. Call me stupid but I wouldn’t. I had tasers, guns, knives, mace etc, I would practically have all these things either in hand or next to me when I had to try and grab my cat or get him in. At one point, I remember I worked 530 am to 530pm and that is when it got really bad. I was so so scared because it was still dark out leaving for work and at the time all my neighbors had moved out. I was scared to death but I still had to go out to leave for work. Anyhow, just because you are scared doesn’t mean you won’t do it. I was scared for death but at certain times I refused this asshole to make me live in fear entirely so sometimes I would do things I probably shouldn’t have done as far as my safety. However, my personality of being fearless at times doesng coincide with many females. Not surewl what Cindy’s personality is. Anyhow, this woman’s case deserves different agencies to come in with fresh outlook to investigate. I think the COP had something to to do with it.
Rip Cindy
Cynthia T Curtis
Juli, I too am a nurse. I have had very similar things happen. My daughter was lured to Alaska and found dead.She was supposed to have committed suicide. Please contact me.
Detectivish
It is absolutely INSANE to place pretend phone calls to yourself & claim its a stalker!! I would also question the credibility of anyone who feels its reasonable in any shape or form.
Anon
As someone with an ex-husband who is a police officer, I agree!!! The cop!!
Naj
Hi. I am sorry that you had to go through what you went through. How did you finally get rid of the stalker? Was he ever caught?
Anonymous
“The morphine took 15 minutes to kick in.” The knot specialist tied it in three. Ok…well he’s a knot specialist. Pretty sure he’s faster than her…
Kai
Yeah, but I mean… 20 minutes for it to kick in, and even then it wouldn’t kill her right away, she’d have even longer if she just kept the pills in her mouth and didn’t swallow right away, and I’m SURE she took time practicing this. It’s sad, but it’s almost certainly the suicide of a mentally ill woman
A Man
I was born and raised in Richmond. Oddly enough, this is NOT a well-discussed case in a small, peaceful city. One of my family friend’s husband is the person who found her body.
Very odd to believe Unsolved Mysteries came out in my own city to film a segment, given how big the world is. I’ve done research and there don’t appear to be any developments in this case. RIP Cindy.
KayDaisy
Unsolved mysteries also filmed a segment from the city I’m from, Vidor Texas. There’s even a giant billboard leaving Vidor that says killers get away with murder there. It’s also a very KKK filled town, in which colored folks to frequent the place because they may not be found…
Lyn
She had a cop move in with her for a month during the harassment as well. It was said to be her boyfriend at the time. Plus her ex husband was a psychiatrist. Very bizarre case.
jack
her husband or cop EX bf
todd
i dont understand how mean comments are allowed.. we shouldn’t be picking on each other.. we need to help bring justice to other people instead of being a bully.. leave others alone they are just trying to help.. especially robbie who has written mean things in the comments here on various cases.. you should be helping too or go away.. lets focus on being helpful to other human beings instead!!!
todd
why is everyone bullying everyone else in the comments.. people make mistakes all the time.. we are just trying to help.. unless you’re perfect stop being so mean.. geez
Anonymous
This case is one that is heartbreaking and tragic.. I feel very sad for her family for losing their daughter. For it to finally end up with her being found tied up in abandon lot.. I read a lot of comments on here. This is a very bizarre and frustrating case. We can speculate and try to put the pieces together and they seem very odd.. Did she really do this to herself? Was she capable of tying herself up after taking morphine? Was there a sick person torturing and stalking her? Was it murder or suicide? Besides the fact of the harassment and the police believing she was doing this to herself. It looks like a murder. The way the body was laying. The way she was tied up. The fact that she was barefoot… I read somewhere that there was bruises and scratches on her body. It looks like a busy area.. So someone could have heard or seen something. I am no expert.. I am no doctor or psychologist. So I really don’t have a leg to stand on. All I know is this case is scary and very eerie.. It would be very strange to act out and be your own stalker.. It seem very calculated to take your own life in such an extreme fashion. I feel the private investigator tried to help her and stumbled upon somethings that could help in this case. However there are many factors that dont add up. There are some truths buried under these strange events.. I hope that someone.. Somewhere uncovers a piece of information that puts this to rest.. Until then it’s just speculation..
Ann Rane
Did anyone ever think that maybe it was a Police Officer that was stalking her? I had a undercover Cop stalk me when I was 17 almost 18. We met at the Cosmetology school I was going to at the time. He talked to my Parents one day when they came to pick me up, he asked them if he could take me to go get something to eat and they said sure because he was an Officer they trusted him. If I remember right he told us he was 24. I didnt want to go with him because I had never been out on a date before. I was an introvert for the most part and I was nervous. Anyway, I was talked into it, went and got dinner than he said he wanted to stop by his apt to get something for a friend he was going to see later that night. I did not want to but he insisted I accompany him because he may be awhile. This was all before cell phone or I would have called my Dad. To long story shortish…. I wound up getting molested almost to the point of rape. Once I started fighting back he stopped and said i was time he got to his friends house. He told me that what he did was what people do on dates. I dont think he realized at first I did not drink any of the soda he gave me when we got to his apt. Mom always said never take a drink from strangers or if you sit your drink down. On the way home he told me if I told anyone what he tried to do he would kill my family and that no one would believe me cause he was a Cop. I never did tell anyone till I was like 28 or so. My Parents were mad because I didnt tell sooner and because they were manipulated into trusting them. He was really cute but to me I could tell there was something off about him. Do not know what happened to him over the yrs either.
So I am wondering if he was an Officer cause he seemed to know when they were watching, like the one step ahead game deal. RIP Cindy.
john smith
what the info in the article does NOT say is that her ex husband was a doctor…wouldn’t be too surprising that the cops would protect a respected person like him. what also is not told is that her boyfriend was…a cop. who better to know when she was under surveillance, if he was working with the doctor? who better to know how to avoid leaving evidence? maybe other cops were even in on it. the whole thing just stinks, and does not add up to suicide.
john smith
cops are all the same…they don’t care about the truth, they just want a simple conclusion so they can cross a case off the books. if it’s murder but can’t be proved, screw it, it must have been suicide or accident. If they can find someone to frame to get a conviction, whether or not that person had anything to do with the crime, screw it, plant whatever evidence you need to, suppress any evidence you need to, just wrap it up. the only way they could wrap this one up was to call it anything BUT murder. cops suck. that chick was CLEARLY too smokin hot to be crazy.
LUIS FREEH
THREE PEOPLE! A NEIGHBOUR ON EACH SIDE AND A “DAEMONS” LIVING IN ANY WALL IN THE HOUSE! CHRYSLER MAKES THEM! “I” WALKED THROUGH A WALL OUNCE TO FIND ASECRET ROOM! THAT WHEN DAEMONS STARTED TO COME OUT FOR ME! GUESS IT ‘S “LIKE” PARANORMAL $60 000G CHRYSLER OF CHILD PEDAFILES OR EVERY POLICE”S DREAM CAR WITH THE ECONOMY AND ALL! THE JIGSAW KI_LLER WAS VANCOUVER AND IN PARAGON SECURITY! PARA LIKE PARANORMAL. OHHH! “U” DIDN’T KNOW THAT ONE EITHER! OH! “I” WAS AN ARNY DIVER THE NIGHT OF “SHAG HARBOUR INCIDENT”.
Robbie
1.OZZY SAW A MAN A FEW TIMES BY HER HOUSE LATE NIGHT
2.OZZY HEARD BANGING ON THE DOOR AT 2AM
3.OZZY PICKED UP TWO OF THE PRANK CALLS AND HEARD HEAVY BREATHING AND A THREAT
4.COPS SHUD NOT HV TOLD CINDY WHEN THEY WERE WATCHING THE HOUSE..SHUD HV DONE IT RANDOMLY.
5.TWO CALLS WERE MADE FROM THE MARINE DR WENDYS ON ONTARIO ST..
6.MY PARENTS LIVED 3 DOORS FROM CINDY AND HEARD SCREAMING TWICE.THEY ALSO SAW A MAN MAKE A THROAT CUTTING SIGN TO CINDY WHILE SHE WAS STANDING BY HER WINDOW WHILE OZZY WAS THERE..
Lily
Wow!!
I think she was murder.
1. Morphine in her system. It could be possible that her ex got injected to her.
2. If you tide your shoes is not going to give you enough chance to tide yourself in the back.
3. I think her ex was using some drug to make go crazy.
4. If I was the perpetrator, do you think that I was going to go around when the cops are around. NO
5. I think her strange behavior was caused by some drug .
Stephen Lovell
That cinches it for me! I read in one report the bearded guy who abducted her with the blonde in the van was present at many of her attacks. When she said she saw him through the window making a throat cutting gesture I wondered if this was more of her fantasy. Since your parents saw him I now know the stalker was real. Thank you. Unfortunately, like JonBenet Ramsay’s murder, I think this is one that will never be solved. I have my own theories but they are pretty wild. I’d rather not leave them here.
Eric W Bohannon
It Was a man that is in dorms of a collage, now, I see him walking into his room, after coming up stairs, dark hair, it was a cover up, by local meaning the group that interacts and works, and lives close by that are local authorities.
she was murder
She was murder
Tamara
I do not understand how anyone thinks she could have done that herself (the killing). An expert said its possible? How the hell can someone tie themselves up like that? with hands behind your back + around your neck + your feet?
Someone show me how that would work??
Fart Violence
Look up the BTK selfies and you’d understand that the way Cindy was found is really possible that she did it herself.
yeeee
If she was under 24 hour surveillance how did no one ever catch her faking these acts? No one saw her drop a dead cat on her doorstep? Things just don’t add up.
Robbie
She wasnt always on 24 Hrs surveillance.They told her when they watched her which was a Big mistake.Cops shud of not told her every single time..half/half..But she was murdered by a crazy person who is still at large.Maybe one of us,YOU OR ME WILL BE NEXT..SOOON!!HOPE NOT.The cops did catch her lying a couple of times..But that was because she thought they didnt believe her so she pranked herself couple of times..But Ozzy the Private Investigator saw a man standing around her house a few times,Also heard BANGING on the door at 2AM..
Michelle
Ozzy is a fraud. He played right into this BS because Cindy’s parents were paying him big $$$$. It completely benefit him to continue the charade. When you remove him, there is not a single witness to ANYTHING. When they checked the phone records, there simply weren’t calls coming into her line at those times. The voice on the answering machine IS CINDY. Finally, morphine comes in pill form. She would have at least 30 minutes to step into the pre-tied “getup”. BTK took pictures of himself tied up in bandage almost *exactly* like Cindy was discovered. I think she could’ve used her own spit to clean off the bottom of her feet and then slipped into a clean pair of socks that were in her pocket. These circumstances AREN’T as crazy or “impossible” as someone of you make them out to be. She was incredibly mentally ill. If she were not, she wouldn’t have been locked in the mental hospital for 10 full weeks. The more attention she got, the more she ramped up the “stalking”. The RCMP spent almost a million dollars and countless man hours dissecting this case. You probably read about it online and watched an Unsolved episode. Some of you guys really need to come back down to Earth..
Johnny
I was a teenager when this Cindy James Unsolved Mysteries case aired. It’s a strange case where there are elements of self-harm and murder. This criminal had to be a sadistic offender to torture Cindy like that. Must be a living hell. Probably a serial killer who has killed women before. Don’t know if this case will ever be solved. If it was murder, the criminal got away with the crime. Could be the perpetrator was a police officer or knew about police procedure. Such as a wash out cop. The other theory it was some kind of male nurse or doctor who stalked her as she was a nurse. That would make sense with morphine and other drugs in her system. A real mystery!
Riss
I bet the police did it. She was probably involved or knew something she shouldn’t about an officer and she was killed to keep her mouth shut.
Anonymous
I find it hard to believe that most people think she killed herself most suicides don’t kill themselves or take morphine and tie themselves up. The crime scene looks like a dump meaning someone dumped her there. Its a busy are too. Wouldn’t someone notice something. Where’s her shoes? If she walked to that spot her feet would have shown it. Where are the pills or the sygrine if she swolled or injected her self. If she took them before how long would it take to kick in before she tied herself up. Could she have taken in the spot and then tie herself up.. I have come back to the no shoes thing again. Why would she walk away from her car; with no shoes. Come man…..there is no indication that she walk in her bare feet. Why isn’t her feet dirt. There bruises on her body. How does one tie there hands behind there back to their feet?? Look at the way she is laying. Look at her clothes. The position of her body. This is not a suicide its a homicide.. Despite the harassment letters or phone calls. She might have been crazy maybe she made it up. It is possible that the police are hiding something or covering something up? She is no longer here to defend herself. Maybe the police fabricated on such events. They found her car two weeks before finding her. Her parents said she thought there was something she wasnt telling them.. Up until her death she knew something. I know people who killed themselves. This is not a suicide. This a cold blooded murder. The person or person’s got away with it. The police are not telling all they know. They have painted a picture of facts mixed up and turned around so it well be more believable that this women through had mental problems and was in fact causing her own harassment. Do I know all the facts know? Could she have had mental problems sure. Was someone harassing her maybe. Did she take morphine; walk barefoot to the scene ; tie herself up with her hands behind her back and to her feet high my unlikely. Could the police have
Do more maybe. I Refuse to believe she killed herself. Did someone get away with murder? Yes…..
Kevin
Just a theory: the police mentioned that she cost them much money. As a result, any commissioner or higher up could have staged the murder just to stop her from causing any other financial wastes.
Robbie
Ummm no way it was the cops.
Frank
Sure dude. VERY plausible theory. SMH
Dahlia
I believe Cindy suffered from Munchhausen-by-proxy; a psychological illness in which one injures themselves to attract attention. Police constantly performed surveillance and tapped her phones to attempt catching the alleged harassers – nothing would happen. Whenever interviewed, she’d act deliberately evasive, lie, change stories or deny facts. Even the private investigator she hired couldn’t find any suspicious behaviour and agrees she killed herself. The house arson was set from inside and there was never any signs of forced entry. Also – why was she walking her dogs at 3AM if she was so terrified?
Cindy committed suicide and, because she was willing to endanger those who loved her, animals and strangers, I have no sympathy for her at all. She staged her own “murder”.
Robbie
Actually NO the Private Investigator Did Not BELIEVE she killed herself.He BELIEVED she was Killed,murdered.Also No its Not Munchhausen..Thr was a couple of times Ozzy heard banging on her door at 2:00 Am while staying at her house..And he saw a man standing on her bk porch..so explain that??
Sandy
Perhaps she is walking her dog at 3am because she was a nurse and a shift worker !
Jason
That’s the thing tho. Would you leave the house after being attacked violently several times, at night by yourself?? I sure as hell wouldn’t. That’s why the self-harm for attention theory kicks in for me. But, I didn’t know her. It’s sad she didn’t get the help she needed. Tragic
Lily
I though Malchunse by proxy is when parents hurt their child to get attention.
millie
it is, she didnt have it tho
Anonymous
I find it hard to believe she killed her self. She had no shoes on her feet. If she injected her self with morphne where is the need left and syringe??. Why was there blood on handle of her car door? Why didn’t the police take samples of the blood on her car handle? There are too many questions in this case. Most people don’t kill themselfs like this. I feel sad for her family and fight this ..
Britt
There is no evidence she was injected with the morphine. It is believed she took the morphine in tablet form, which left her time to tie herself up- which, by the way, would have been easy to do, considering she could’ve slipped right out of the restraints. Also, the police did take samples of the blood on the door handle, and it was hers- so what does that prove anyway? She was known definitively to have made at least one of the harrassing phone calls to herself (the rest were too short to trace), she had set at least one of the fires (probably both), and not ONE fingerprint, foreign hair or drops of blood from anyone but Cindy was found ANYWHERE in her home, outside her home, near the death scene, in her car or on ANY of the hundreds of letters and piece of evidence she claimed was left by a stalker. Also, police watched the home for hours upon hours upon hours, with videotape, and nothing happened while they were there- ever. It would’ve been impossible for a stalker to know they were there for at least part of the time they watched her home. Cindy went out walking late at night often, and kept her blinds open as well so anyone and everyone could look into her home and see her and what she was doing at any time. Victims of stalking don’t act the way she did. I know it’s hard to believe someone could do all of this to themselves, but they can. It’s been done before. Google Ruth Finley- her case is almost identical to Cindy’s- and Ruth finally admitted it was her who did everything to herself. She got the mental help she needed, like Cindy should have.
Katherin
I remember Cindy James’ murder well because I was living in the general area when this happened and became very interested in the case. Her marriage to a well known psychiatrist should have been more thoroughly investigated because he was a very controlling man who became vengeful after she left him. Cindy was afraid of her ex husband, who was a very clever and vindictive man, according to some reports. Cindy often pointed the finger directly at him saying, He wants to scare me to death. This was psychological terror as well a physical assaults on a defenseless woman by a crafty mind manipulator. Very, very sad life for Cindy after she walked out on her marriage and ending in this horrible murder which was misclassified as a suicide.