On June 8, 1989, in the quiet city of Richmond, in Vancouver, British Columbia, a body was found in the yard of an abandoned house. The victim was Cindy James, a 44-year-old nurse. 

Cindy had been drugged, strangled, and her hands and feet were tied. However, remarkably the Royal Canadian Mounted Police believed that her death was either an accident or suicide, even though prior to her demise, Cindy had endured years of harassment and had reported close to 100 incidents of threatening phone calls, letters and violent physical attacks.

In this episode we look at the life, harassment and police investigation into the mysterious and still unsolved death of Cindy James

Early life

Cynthia Elizabeth Hack was born on June 12, 1944 in Oliver, British Columbia, Canada. Her father Otto was a former Colonel in the Canadian Air Force and an English teacher. Her mother Matilda or Tillie as she was known was a housewife. Both her parents were of Russian descent. Cindy was one of six children, and grew up with her three older brothers and two younger sisters in the suburbs of Vancouver and later Ottawa.

By her own account Cindy’s childhood was marked by her fathers strictness which included physical punishment.

As an adult, Cindy pursued a career in Nursing and in 1962 enrolled in nursing school in Vancouver. 

Around the same time Otto reenlisted with the air force and relocated to France. Cindy stayed in Canada but visited often and stayed in touch with her family through letters. In one of her letters she mentioned a boyfriend who she intended to marry, but who she later claimed committed suicide after learning he had terminal cancer. Information about this man is vague and he has never been named and none of the family ever met him.

Marriage

In July 1966, Cindy graduated from nursing school and in December of that year married Dr Roy Makepeace, a South African born psychiatrist 18 years her senior. Cindy’s parents were not that thrilled about the union due to the age difference, and the fact that he had left his wife and two children to be with Cindy.

Roy was a licensed psychiatrist in South Africa, but failed to obtain his medical licence in Canada and eventually took a job as director of health services at BC Hydro.

In April 1975, Cindy also moved jobs and was hired as a team coordinator at a facility for children with behavioural disorders at Blenheim house, Vancouver. Cindy stayed at Blenheim house for the next 12 years where she was known for her warmth and professionalism.

In 1982 to everyone's surprise Cindy and Roy separated after 16 years of seemingly happy marriage. However Cindy later confided in friends and family that their marriage had been troubled, emotionally distant and abusive and Roy later admitted he had slapped his wife on a couple of occasions during their time together. Despite this the split appeared to be amicable and the two remained in close contact.

Following the breakdown of her marriage Cindy settled into her new single life socialising with friends, gardening and spending time with her dog, Heidi. 

The Harassment Starts

In September 1982 four months after the breakdown of her marriage, Cindy told family and friends she thought a prowler was lurking around her home. 

Just a few weeks later on October 7th Cindy received the first of many obscene phone calls; Cindy told her mother that the calls were often silent or heavy breathing, but on occasions an individual  would speak in a strange voice and that some of the calls were sexual and violent in nature.

After one particularly threatening call on October 12th when the caller whispered menacingly "I'll get you one night, Cindy." She reported the incidents to the police. This would be the first of many reports over the course of the next seven years.

The police initially told Cindy to keep a log of the calls and get an unlisted number. However, within hours of the officier leaving her house Cindy received a call in which a male voice said: "You Fxxxing bitch. I'll get you."

Things got worse from this point, with the caller indicating he knew she had called the police.

Three days after the first call to the police Cindy called again reporting that someone had smashed her porch light in the night and a rock had been thrown through one of her windows and someone had entered her house. Although on that occasion nothing inside had been disturbed, however just four days later an intruder had got in and slashed a pillow on her bed.

Officer Pat McBride from the RMCP arrived at Cindy’s home to inspect the scene. He had taken a personal interest in the case and began to suspect that Cindy's estranged husband Roy Makepeace might be responsible.

However after being questioned Roy denied any involvement telling police he was as concerned as them about the harassment and wanted to protect his wife. Cindy also told police she didn't believe Roy would want to scare her like that.

It wasn't only Cindy who reported suspicious activity, two tenants who rented the basement of Cindy’s home also told police that they heard strange noises upstairs on the main floor after Cindy had left for work and a neighbour said that she had witnessed a man standing outside the house on at least three different occasions, although she was sure the man was not Roy Makepeace.

Around this time Cindy started a relationship with officer Patrick McBride, he had recently separated from his wife and moved in with Cindy on October 31, 1982, she told friends that he had offered to stay to help with surveillance, but they soon became romantically involved.

Just a few days after McBride moved in he found Roy sitting in his car in an alley behind the house, when he questioned him, Roy claimed he was trying to catch Cindy's intruder, but he left abruptly after McBride told him he had moved in with Cindy.

Soon after McBride also received a silent phone call that was eventually traced to an exchange in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond.  Cindy later found a note stuck to her car windscreen which featured a picture torn from the book Malpractice showing a corpse lying under a white sheet.

The Terror Continues

Cindy and Mcbrides relationship soon fizzled out and she asked him to move out, although he still kept a key to the house and the pair still went on dates and kept in touch.

The phone calls continued, and towards the end of November 1982 Cindy discovered her phone lines had been cut in five places. Police investigated, but could not find any clues as to who had done it. 

Just before Christmas Cindy found a note outside her house saying "Merry Christmas," with a photo of a woman with her throat slashed, stained with red ink.

The following year as part of the ongoing investigation Cindy's phone was tapped, although she was unaware of this. Investigators were able to trace some calls to exchanges just outside of Vancouver, but they were unable to pinpoint an exact location.

Another disturbing note was found on her front lawn that contained the words mangled pulp and dead, and photos of women’s faces scratched out.

First Physical Attack

The phone calls and notes were very unsettling and disturbing but thankfully Cindy had not been physically hurt in any way.

However on January 27th 1983 that all changed.

Agnes Woodcock arrived at Cindy's house, she was a good friend of Cindy's and the pair were going to spend some time together. Agnes knocked the door but got no answer, she called out to Cindy and walked to the back of the house.

There she found her friend lying semi-conscious in the garage, with a black nylon stocking tied around her neck. Agnes untied the stocking and helped Cindy inside the house.

Cindy told Agnes she had been attacked from behind and dragged into the garage where another man was waiting who she remembered was wearing white sneakers. Cindy believed both men physically and sexually assaulted her and threatened to kill her younger sister, Melanie if she reported the attack to the police.

Agnes insisted the police were called; however, after Cindy was examined, they found no evidence of a sexual attack. After the incident, the police suggested Cindy should see a psychiatrist but she declined, although she did agree to attend counselling.

Hoping to escape her stalker, in February of the same year Cindy moved back to her marital home in West Vancouver. The couple were still on good terms and Roy agreed to move out.

However less than a week later, she received another threatening letter that read "Run Rabbit Run, I'll show you how f***** good I am. Soon, bang, bang, you're dead."

This was followed by a barrage of obscene calls.

Cindy continually reported the incidents to police, and kept a log of the harassment. However at the time there was no law against stalking in Canada, so there was not much police could do, especially if they did not know who the stalker was.

Throughout her ordeal, Roy was supportive, and continued to try and reconcile with his wife, he showered her with expensive gifts and kind gestures, he even paid her airfare to Indonesia so she could visit her brother.

But when Cindy returned from her trip the harassment started again and Cindy found a note that read "Welcome back—death, blood, hate, etc."

By the end of April 1983, Cindy had moved out of Roy's house, and when the harassment continued, she moved again for the fourth time in less than a year. Around this time, it was mostly phone calls that occurred; still, a voiceless breather who occasionally made spine-chilling threats. Whoever it was appeared to have intimate knowledge of Cindy's movements, as she only gave her new phone number and addresses to her closest family and friends.

In a desperate attempt to evade her tormentor Cindy even painted her car a different colour and hired a private investigator named Ozzie Kaban. Who, for six years, tried to get to the bottom of the harassment and later told of the lengths Cindy would go to protect herself, such as wearing a portable panic button and carrying oil and pepper spray with her at all times.

It was all to no avail and things continued to get worse, and towards the end of 1983, Cindy found three strangled cats in her garden, each bound with rope. Two weeks later, her much-loved garden was also trashed.

Cindy was traumatised, although she still did not think her stalker wanted to kill her but instead wanted her to be in a constant state of fear and told her friend Agnes that the person wanted to 'scare her to death.'

Ozzie had given Cindy a two-way radio, and On 30 January 1984, he overheard strange noises on the device; he raced over to Cindy's house and found her unconscious on the living room floor with a paring knife stabbed through her hand, with a note pinned through it that read "NOW YOU MUST DIE, C***" 

After being taken to the hospital, Cindy remembered her male attacker had injected her with something. Doctors were able to locate a needle mark, but strangely found no traces of drugs in her system.

After the incident, Cindy took a lie detector test that proved inconclusive but did reveal that Cindy was withholding information. Faced with this, Cindy broke down and admitted that she had recognized one of her attackers but refused to name him as he had threatened to harm her family if she did. 

Roy Number One Suspect

The police continued to focus their attention on Roy and believed Cindy may not be telling the whole story to protect him. She seemed reluctant to give some details even though she was meticulous enough to report each and every incident, and they started to wonder if she was staging all of these malicious incidents herself.  

They were also looking at links to the mafia, connected to Cindy's work at Blenheim House, which often treated children who were wards of the court, although nothing was ever proved.

Throughout 1984 the harassment continued and Cindy’s father even met with Roy and warned him to stay away from his daughter.

In one incident Cindy’s beloved dog Heidi was physically attacked and bound with rope similar to what was used on the dead cats. The attack on the dog convinced Ozzie that Cindy could not be the perpetrator as many were starting to believe, as she would never do that to her dog.

A series of obscene phone calls continued throughout the year both at her home and at work, although none were long enough to be adequately traced by police, and surveillance of her home proved unfruitful. In July Cindy claims she was attacked whilst walking her dog, and was found by a neighbour in a dazed state with a black stocking around her neck.

She was taken to hospital where doctors noted two puncture marks in her right arm, but again after examination at hospital no drugs were found in her system.

Cindy recounted that whilst she was walking Heidi a green van pulled up next to her, a bearded man and a blond haired lady asked for directions, after that she could not remember anything. Cindy was vague during police questioning and officers were reluctant to follow up, as they believed Cindy was putting on an act.

Bizarre Allegations Under Hypnosis

In October 1984, Ozzie suggested Cindy try hypnosis to see if it would help identify the people in the van; initially, it didn't work as therapists believed she was too traumatised to be hypnotised.

However, later during a successful session, Cindy recalled a repressed memory of witnessing a double murder while she and Roy were on a yacht trip near Thormanby Island in 1981. She said that Roy murdered a young couple, then dismembered their bodies with an axe. During the dismemberment, Roy smeared blood from one of the victims across her face. 

Police looked into the alleged incident and confirmed that Roy and Cindy had been sailing near Thormanby Island in 1981. But they could find no evidence of a missing couple or any body parts. They also discovered Cindy’s sister was also on the trip and had no recollection of anything unusual occurring.

In June 1985, Cindy was admitted to hospital after overdosing on her prescription medication, she recovered but her family felt it was an attempt to take her own life. 

After being discharged the Police agreed to maintain 24-hour surveillance of Cindy, Makepeace, and two other unnamed suspects over a weeklong period. The surveillance determined nothing unusual was happening. Although Cindy told Police she had received another silent call, however investigations revealed that it had been dialled in her own house.

At the end of July, a package of raw meat was delivered to Cindy's house. No one saw who delivered it and the feeling was that Cindy had placed it there herself. 

The following month three separate fires were started inside Cindy's home. When her friends tried to call the fire department after a fire in the basement they discovered the phone lines had been cut. After investigating, Police could find no sign of forced entry and concluded whoever started the fires must have been inside the house. Suspecting yet again that Cindy had staged the scene herself. Although her insurance company disagreed and paid out an amount close to $10,000 for the damage caused. In another anomaly, on the night of the fire, Cindy took her dog for a walk at 3 am, and Police deemed that was not the actions of someone scared for her safety.

Cindy decided to move again, and at the beginning of December 1985, she moved to Richmond; however, just ten days after she moved in, Cindy was found by a passing motorist in a ditch about 3 miles away from her house. She had a nylon stocking tightly bound around her neck and was wearing a men's work boot on one foot and a single glove on one of her hands. Her half-naked body was covered in cuts and bruises, and she appeared to have been drugged. Because of the frigid conditions, she was also suffering from hypothermia and was rushed to the nearest hospital.

Cindy claimed to have no memory of the incident; she was on her lunch break from work and had stopped at a local pharmacy. That is all she remembered of the day.

The scene baffled investigators; it seemed impossible for someone to tranquilise themselves and lay half naked in a ditch, with one boot and a glove on

Four months after the ditch incident, Cindy discovered another fire in her house; she contacted the police and told them she thought Roy was responsible. However, they later discovered he was out of the country at the time so it couldn't have been him.

After the fire, Cindy was in a bad way and temporarily moved in with her friend Agnes Woodcock and her husband; her mental health was spiralling, and she had suicidal thoughts.

Things were so bad that Blenheim House gave Cindy a six-month absence from work, and she was sent to St Paul's Hospital, where psychiatrists and a psychologist accessed her.

Both concluded that the incidents occurred due to psychotic breaks experienced by Cindy, possibly encouraged by her unlicensed therapist.

During her stay at the hospital, Cindy showed significant improvement and was released after ten weeks.

Throughout the summer of 1986, Cindy started to return to her usual self, and significantly there were no harassment incidents. Although she cryptically admitted to her family that she knew more than she was saying and would take matters into her own hands if need be.

It was around this time that Cindy changed her surname from Makepiece to James, and she also managed to buy her own house in Richmond and returned to work at Blenheim house. However, in a massive blow for Cindy, she lost her job within a month of her return.

Rather than be defeated, Cindy decided to upskill and took a couple of refresher courses in nursing and, in August 1987, started a new job at Richmond General Hospital.

Up until this point, since leaving St Paul's, there had been no harassment, but as soon as Cindy started her new job, she contacted the police and reported a broken window and an attempted break-in.

This was the start of a series of incidents that continued through the rest of 1987 into 1988. Cindy believed her stalker had returned but was well aware that no one apart from Ozzie believed her.

Cindy was convinced Roy was responsible, so Police asked her to call him on the phone and confront him while they recorded the conversation. 

Take a listen https://youtu.be/sbrAggQE2EA?t=290  - play to 4:59

Roy later received some disturbing phone calls himself, one of which was left on his answering machine.

Take a listen - play to 5:25

https://youtu.be/sbrAggQE2EA?t=310

On October 26th 1988, two weeks after Roy received the message, Cindy was found unconscious in her car; she was hogtied, naked from the waist down, with a black stocking tied tightly around her neck. 

When police interviewed her this is what she told them

https://youtu.be/sbrAggQE2EA?t=340  play to 5:53

After this latest horrific incident, more followed including attempted break-ins and threatening notes.

One was discovered on April 8 1989, by a security guard at Richmond General Hospital. The  cut-and-pasted letters spelled out "SOON, CINDY" and the phrase "sleep well" was written in the dew on Cindy’s windshield.

Around this time, Cindy told her private investigator Ozzy that she was ready to talk, however sadly this conversation would never happen…

Final Hours

On May 25 1989, six years and seven months after her first harassing phone call, 

Cindy collected her paycheck from Richmond Hospital and was looking forward to five days of leave. 

At 4pm a neighbour saw Cindy leaving her home, she went shopping and picked up a gift for a friend’s son. Then she had a make-over at a beauty salon, bought some groceries and deposited her paycheck.

Cindy had planned to spend the night with Agnes and Tom Woodcock to play bridge, however, she never arrived, and around 10 pm the Woodcocks visited Cindys' house to check she was okay. They found the house locked and Cindy's car gone. The Woodcocks then drove past the Blundell Shopping Centre, which they knew Cindy had visited earlier that day and found her car abandoned in the lot. They immediately reported Cindy as a missing person to the police, and due to her extensive history of harassment, they sent a patrol car to her house.

In Cindy's car, they found groceries, the wrapped gift and the contents of her wallet under the vehicle. There was blood on the door that was later confirmed to be Cindy's

Cindy was declared a missing person, and her photo was widely circulated within the community.

Body Discovered

On June 8, 1989, Gordon Starchuck, a municipal paving worker, discovered Cindy's body in the backyard of an abandoned house at 8111 Blundell Road, Richmond. She had been hogtied and was in the foetal position, a black nylon stocking was bound tightly around her neck. The property where her body was found was near a busy street and had frequent foot traffic. 

In a chilling twist, police discovered orange spray paint on an external fuel tank that read, "Some bitch died here." The same orange paint ran from the fuel tank to where Cindy’s body lay and encircled it. Inside the house another spray-painted message read "Devil" was found. 

Cindy had suffered a brutal beating and her face was completely black. She was fully dressed, but had no shoes on. Her hands had been bound so tightly that one finger had scratched another down to the bone. 

The post mortem examination concluded that Cindy had died due to an overdose of morphine, diazepam, and flurazepam. She had 10 times the lethal dose of morphine as well as 10 times the lethal dose of Flurazepam in her system. Due to the needle marks on her right arm it was assummed but not definitely confirmed that the morphine entered her system intravenously while the Flurazepam and diazepam were taken orally. The overdose was so large that they could not determine how long Cindy would have remained functional after taking it.

After looking at Cindy’s history of what they felt was fabricated reports of harassment the RCMP suspected Cindy's cause of death was likely a suicide or accident.

However Ozzy Kaban, her private investigator, disagreed and after looking at Cindy’s body in the morgue believed there was evidence her body had been moved and she likely died elsewhere and not where she was found.

Cindy was just short of her forty-fifth birthday when she died. 

A memorial service was held on June 14, 1989, which her ex-husband,Roy  Makepeace did not attend. The abandoned house where Cindy's body was discovered was later demolished

Coroner's Inquest

An extensive inquest into Cindy's death was undertaken in the spring of 1990  and featured testimony from over eighty witnesses. The inquest lasted forty days, and at the time was the longest and most expensive in British Columbia history.

During his testimony Roy Makepeices made several accusations against Cindy's family, claiming that her father had physically abused her throughout her childhood and that one of her brothers had molested her. 

He also accused the police of trying to frame him. 

The inquest also revealed that shortly after Cindy's death, her parents went to her house and disposed of a hoard of prescription medicines including sedatives and antipsychotic drugs.

A glass cutter, a medical syringe kit, a urinary catheter, and saline solution were also found in Cindy’s  home by her sister.

Cindy's mental state was also discussed at length, with one psychiatrist saying Cindy possessed a "tremendous amount of rage" toward her father and, based on the numerous sessions he had with her believed there was a "strong likelihood" that her father sexually abused her when she was a child, though she never indicated this to be the case.

It was also demonstrated how in a three minute timeframe Cindy could have bound herself before the effect of the lethal overdose kicked in.

The inquest concluded on May 25, 1990, After deliberations, the jury was unable to determine whether her cause of death was suicide, homicide, or accidental and it was ultimately ruled that Cindy had died of an "unknown event," and the case was formally closed.

Conclusion

For nearly seven years, Cindy reported over 90 incidents of criminal activity to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Her claims included stalking, vandalism, arson, harassment, home invasions, and physical assaults. They spent an estimated CA$1–1.5 million of resources investigating these claims but found no evidence to substantiate any of them and concluded that Cindy was inventing the incidents herself. 

Because her ex-husband was overseas at one of the incidents, the police believe he wasn't involved, despite Cindy claiming he was.

However, it has been suggested that Roy used his psychiatric knowledge to punish his wife for leaving him and purposely set it up to look like she was mentally deranged, although there is no solid evidence to back this theory up.

Another potential suspect was Cindy’s lover, police officer Pat McBride. Although he only met her after the harassment started, he did have a key to her house and was often around when she first started receiving threatening letters, and as an officer he would have had inside knowledge of when her house was under surveillance. 

The other suspect was the unknown man witnessed outside of Cindy’s house by her neighbours, the man has never  come forward despite appeals and has never been identified.

With no real evidence to link any of these three investigators turned their attentions on Cindy herself, and the inquest appeared to back up some of their thoughts by demonstrating how Cindy could have tied herself up. Although it is worth pointing out the demonstrator wasn’t drugged at the time as Cindy would have been.

Cindy was in a good place at the time of her death. If she intended to take her life, why did she collect her paycheck, visit her beautician, wrap a birthday present and arrange an evening with friends?

Why were no syringes or pill bottles found in her car or near her body? 

Where her body was found was a busy place, surely someone would have either seen her tying herself up or at least spotted or smelt her body if it had been there for two weeks? 

No receipts were ever found for the black stockings that were found around her neck on numerous occasions so where did they come from?

There are more questions than answers. Cindy’s closest friends don’t believe she was behind it all or that she would have taken her own life. Her private investigator Ozzie Kaban, believes that whoever was stalking her and making her life hell was also responsible for her murder.

However, despite all the investigations and theories, there is no conclusion and no justice. Whatever happened to Cindy, whether it was self-inflicted or she was the victim of crime, she suffered terribly for years, either tormented by her own mind or by a merciless predator who eventually murdered her.