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James's death received international media coverage and was the subject of an Unsolved Mysteries segment in 1991. Furthermore, two different books were published in 1991 chronicling her life and death: Who Killed Cindy James by British journalist Ian Mulgrew, and The Deaths of Cindy James by Neal Hall, a Canadian crime reporter who had ...
- Overview
- Case
Real Name: Cynthia Elizabeth Hack James
Nicknames: Cindy
Location: Richmond, British Columbia
Date: June 8, 1989
Details: On June 8, 1989, the quiet city of Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia, was shocked when a body was found lying in the yard of an abandoned house. The victim was identified as forty-four-year-old nurse Cindy James. She had been drugged and strangled, and her hands and feet had been tied behind her back. She had previously been the victim of harassment and assault by an unknown assailant. Despite this, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police believed that her death was either an accident or suicide.
Cindy had graduated from nursing school in 1966. She later became the administrator for a preschool for children with behavioral and emotional issues. She was married but did not have any children of her own. In July 1982, she and her husband, Roy Makepeace, separated. Four months later, she began receiving mysterious and sometimes threatening phone calls. During the next seven years, she reported nearly a hundred incidents of harassment. Five were violent physical attacks while others were whispering or silent phone calls. Things got worse after she involved the police. At night, she heard prowlers. Her porch lights were smashed and her phone lines severed. Dead cats were left in her yard. Her dog was nearly strangled to death. According to her friend, Agnes Woodcock, bizarre notes with letters cut from magazines began to appear on her doorstep. She believed that someone was trying to scare her to death. She became reluctant and frightened to give details. Over time, the police began to doubt her stories.
One night in January 1983, Agnes dropped by Cindy's house for a visit and knocked on the door. There was no answer, so she assumed she was taking her bath. As she investigated, she came across Cindy outside, crouched down with a nylon stocking tied tightly around her neck. She said that she had gone out to the garage to get a box and someone had grabbed her from behind. All she saw were the assailant's white sneakers. Due to the harassment and violence, she moved to a new house, painted her car, and changed her last name. She also hired a private investigator named Ozzie Kaban.
The police continued their investigation and questioned Cindy several times. Ozzie later reported that she would not tell them the entire story. She would be evasive, withhold information, and not act as a normal victim would do so. When the police gave her a polygraph test, the examiner also claimed that she was withholding information. Her mother, Tillie Hack, thinks the reason for her reluctance was that her attacker had threatened her family. By naming him, they would be killed.
On the night of January 30, 1984, Ozzie heard strange sounds coming over a two-way radio he had given Cindy and went straight to her house. He went around it and found it was locked. Looking through a window, he found her lying on the floor with a paring knife through her hand. She was taken to the hospital where she later recalled being attacked and a needle going into her arm. Police never found fingerprints from a suspect, and there was no independent corroboration. Cindy saw this person sometimes accompanied by one or two others, or sometimes she said there were two or three people, but police could never find a suspect. The threatening phone calls continued, but they were too short to trace. There were never ones when the police had 24-hour surveillance on her house for days on end with up to fourteen officers, but when surveillance was off her house, another incident would happen.
As police became skeptical of the harassment, Cindy's parents believed her attacker was staying away to make them suspicious of her. On December 11, 1985, she was found dazed and semiconscious lying in a ditch six miles from her house. 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. A needle mark was found on her arm. She had no memory of what happened.
May 17, 2022 · Was Cindy James Murdered Or Did She Take Her Own Life? In October 1988, Cindy James was found unconscious in her car at home, naked from the waist down, hogtied, and with another black nylon stocking around her neck.
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.
Jan 25, 2022 · While the RCMP and Vancouver police publicly said they were investigating a homicide, privately they believed Cindy had died by suicide. This leaked to the media, angering her parents. In an attempt to prove this, they visited Richmond General Hospital to see if any medications were missing.
Mar 11, 2022 · However, an autopsy revealed that Cindy James had died from an overdose of morphine, the sedative flurazepam, and other drugs. The police concluded that Cindy James had committed suicide and closed this case in July 1989.
Jul 13, 2022 · Although it initially appeared that James had been abducted and murdered, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ultimately ruled that she died by suicide. Unsolved Mysteries reports the way James' body was found was enough for her family and friends to doubt the authorities' conclusion.
