Murder victim or insane masochist: the story of the mysterious death of Cindy James
In June 1989, the quiet coastal town of Richmond, in the Canadian province of British Columbia, was shaken by a mysterious incident. A local resident, nurse Cynthia Elizabeth, died. The woman was found dead in the yard of an abandoned house, with her hands tied and a nylon stocking wrapped around her neck. The police then decided that it was an accident or suicide. Why did law enforcement come to this conclusion and who is to blame for the woman's death? Read our article.
In the summer of 1965, young and beautiful nurse Cindy met Roy Makepeace, a psychiatrist from South Africa who was almost twenty years older than her. Just six months later, they decided to get married. However, to do so, the psychiatrist had to divorce his then wife Lois Gwen.
Cynthia's parents were skeptical about the marriage because of the significant age difference between the newlyweds. Her father claimed that Makepeace had simply taken advantage of their daughter's "naivety and gullibility." Despite this, Roy and Cindy's union could be called happy and successful for some time. Therefore, when the couple filed for divorce in 1981, it came as a real surprise to those around them.
Although the couple officially divorced and began living separately, they continued to see each other often and spent a lot of time together. Thus, already divorced Cindy and Roy went to the theater and parties, played bridge with their mutual friends, and once even went on a joint holiday for Christmas. However, everything soon changed...
According to Makepeace, his ex-wife began to behave unusually and strangely. He said that as soon as they were alone, Cindy showed clear signs of mental disorder.
Unmotivated quarrels began to occur between the spouses, the initiator of which, according to Makepeace, was always Cynthia. Once she even rushed at her ex-husband with her fists and beat him, which he later recorded with the help of a medical examination. As a result, Makepeace's lawyer advised him to completely stop communicating with Cindy.
Meanwhile, Cindy's parents and relatives claimed that she was completely healthy. The woman behaved as usual: she treated patients with care, maintained good relations with neighbors and friends, and generally seemed completely adequate. Hearing Roy's accusations, those around him simply shrugged their shoulders. Many thought that he was slandering his wife in order to ruin her reputation.
Since October 1982, four months after the divorce, Cynthia began receiving terrifying calls. An unknown person would whisper her name into the phone, threaten physical violence, and sometimes simply remain silent. When the calls became more frequent, Cindy went to the police, but they did not help her in any significant way. Law enforcement officers did confirm numerous cases of short calls to her number, but they were unable to determine where they were coming from or who was calling.
The calls were soon followed by more serious threats. Someone would periodically break into Cynthia's house, ruin the bed linen, break light bulbs, and throw things around the room. Suspicion immediately fell on the nurse's ex-husband, but Makepeace claimed that he had nothing to do with it. In addition, Cynthia herself said that Roy was incapable of such a thing, although she admitted that during their marriage he had raised his hand against her several times. In any case, no evidence was found against Makepeace, and the investigation continued.
Neither police surveillance nor constant phone tapping helped catch the perpetrator. On the contrary, after Cynthia contacted the police, the threats from the mysterious stranger became more frequent and more violent. For example, one day someone threw a photo of a woman with a slit throat and the caption: "Merry Christmas" under her house. And one time Cynthia found three dead cats in her garden.
On January 27, 1983, Cindy's neighbor Agnes Woodcock found Cynthia unconscious in her backyard with a nylon stocking wrapped around her neck. When she regained consciousness, she said she was attacked while walking toward the garage. The man took her inside and waited for his partner, another man. Together, they brutally assaulted her, including shoving a knife into her vagina. The men also threatened to kill her younger sister, Melanie, if she reported the incident to the police.
Doctors who examined Cindy after the alleged assault found no evidence of sexual abuse, and as a result, she was advised to see a psychiatrist.
In February 1983, Cynthia James moved to another house in West Vancouver. However, within a week, she received a letter that said, “Run, rabbit, run.” After a series of more threatening phone calls, she went to Indonesia to stay with her brother for a few weeks. Upon her arrival, Cindy found a note that read, “Welcome back – death, blood, hate, etc.”
Over the next few years, the calls and threats continued, each time becoming more sophisticated. On January 30, 1984, a detective who worked for Cindy heard strange noises on a two-way radio (he had given it to a client as a gift) and decided to visit her at home. When he arrived, he found Cindy unconscious on the living room floor. In her hand was a paring knife with a note pinned to it:
In the summer of 1984, a woman was found dazed while trying to break into a neighbor's house, with a dark gray nylon stocking around her neck. She was taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors found two needle marks on her arm.
In January 1985, under hypnosis, Cindy told police that while she and her ex-husband were on holiday, she witnessed him murder a man and a woman, then dismember their bodies with an axe. According to Cindy, Makepeace smeared the blood of one of the victims on his face. It was later revealed that Cindy's sister, Melanie, was with her on the holiday but had no recollection of anything sinister. A police investigation also found nothing to corroborate.
Later, the number of strange events that occurred in Cindy's life only increased. One day, she was found unconscious in a ditch, 10 kilometers from her home. The woman was wearing men's boots, rubber gloves, and a nylon stocking was tied around her neck.
Then came a series of mysterious fires in her home, and each time the examination indicated that the fire was set from the inside. Cindy herself claimed that she did not do it, and that someone was making fun of her. In 1985, the detective who was working on the James case asked a psychologist to evaluate her condition. Based on his communication with Cindy and numerous police reports, Dr. Anthony Marcus said that the woman may suffer from dissociative identity disorder.
Psychotherapist Allan Connolly, who had been working with James since January 1983, insisted that she be admitted to a local psychiatric hospital. She was treated for depression for ten weeks before being released. During this time, Cindy told her father that she knew who was stalking her and that she intended to deal with it herself.
On June 8, 1989, Cynthia James was found dead in the yard of an abandoned house. Her body was tied with rope in a fetal position, and a black nylon stocking was tied tightly around her neck. Upon closer examination, needle marks were found on her arm and a huge dose of drugs was found in her blood. Intoxication due to drug poisoning was the cause of death.
Based on the fact that Cynthia James had fabricated all of her previous claims of assault and stalking, police assumed that her death was an accident or suicide. The fact is that over a nearly seven-year period from 1982 to 1989, nearly a hundred complaints were received from Cynthia, but not once could law enforcement find a single piece of evidence confirming the presence of another person in Cindy's home.
The notes sent to her were subjected to numerous examinations, but each time only Cindy's fingerprints were found on them. Her home was placed under 24-hour surveillance, and the main suspect, her ex-husband, was followed for almost five years. Ultimately, the entire surveillance and investigation cost the Royal Canadian Mounted Police $1 million. But all these efforts led to nothing, as a result of which the police decided that, most likely, the woman herself was faking the stalking.
The murder of Cindy James remains one of Canada's most mysterious unsolved cases. Her ex-husband was investigated and cleared of all suspicion. Cindy's parents were outraged by the suggestion that their daughter was mentally ill and had committed suicide. Despite their best efforts, they never found out what happened to their daughter. Her sister, Melanie Hack, has written a book and runs a website dedicated to investigating the Cindy James case.
Many people felt very sorry for Cindy on a human level, whether it was an external threat or a nightmare she created herself.
What do you think about this case? Write in the comments.