Freaky Friday Files: The Death of Cindy James
- Ash
- 1 day ago
- 11 min read
DISCLAIMER: This blog post discusses the true crime case of Cindy James. Mention of s*icide, a$$ault, and ill mental health. Reader discretion advised.
Hello! For this edition of Freaky Friday Files, I thought we could take a look at the case of Cindy James. Authorities claim that Cindy passed away either by accident or s*icide. Cindy was found with her hands and feet tied behind her back, and before her d*ath, she was allegedly being stalked and a$$aulted by someone in her own home, following her divorce. Her cause of death was ruled as "unknown," and most believe that she was struggling with something like BPD or DID. Let's explore.
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The Death of Cindy James
I do want to preface this blog post by saying there are a lot of different sources out there about Cindy James and her alleged stalking and ultimate d*ath, so it's hard to pinpoint the dates exactly - I have taken most of the dates from Wikipedia.
Cindy James (born Cynthia Elizabeth James) was a nurse in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. On the 25th May, 1989, she disappeared from her home. Two weeks later, she was found deceased in the backyard of an abandoned house. Cindy's body was hogtied, and she had a nylon stocking tied around her throat/head. Her autopsy showed that she had passed with a concoction of dr*gs in her system, including diazepam, morphine, and flurazepam. I think the autopsy ruled the cause of d*ath as an overdose. It also went to trial, but the jury ruled Cindy's d*ath was caused by "an unknown event".
There is no other word for this case other than bizarre.
Before Cindy's passing, she claimed that she was being stalked by someone. However, authorities didn't believe her. I don't know whether she was failed by authorities or if her mental health led to this. Either way, it is a massive failure.
Let's take a look at Cindy's life.
At 19, Cindy knew she wanted to become a nurse. Cindy enrolled in nursing school in 1962. She had 3 brothers and 2 sisters. She spent a lot of time in Ottawa as a teenager, as her father was involved in the air force. Allegedly, her dad liked to punish the children via corporal punishment.
While at nursing school, Cindy's family relocated to France so that her dad could do more work with the air force. During this time, Cindy sent letters to her family saying she had met a "mystery intern man" with whom she had become engaged. This mystery man allegedly committed s*icide, and no one met him. He was never named by Cindy. Further down the track, Cindy met the man she was going to marry - Roy Makepeace. Makepeace was a South African psychiatrist, and 18 years her senior. Cindy and Roy were married in December 1966, and she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing that same year. She worked as a nurse over the course of her life.
Cindy's family was very skeptical of her relationship with Roy, worrying that he was taking advantage of her vulnerability and naivety. There were some accusations that Roy was violent towards Cindy, and he admitted to having slapped her at least twice. Roy was a licensed psychiatrist in South Africa, but was unable to obtain a license in Canada. In 1982, Roy and Cindy divorced.
The "alleged" stalking + harassment.
Following Cindy and Roy's divorce, strange things started to happen. I believe Cindy lived alone at this point. These incidents occurred between 1982 and 1989. They began 4 months after her divorce. There are a lot, so I might just put them in bullet points so you get the gist.
1982
In September 1982, Cindy told friends that she felt as if she was being watched and someone was lurking around her home.
Around the 7th of October, 1982, Cindy started to receive strange phone calls at her house. Some of the calls were silent, and some s*xual/violent.
11th October, 1982, Cindy received a call of loud breathing noises, and the following day a call from a man who said, "I'll get you one night, Cindy". Following this call, Cindy reported them to the authorities, who told her to just keep track of the calls. This upset the "alleged" stalker, who went on to make more calls to her house, threatening her for getting the police involved.
15th October, 1982, Cindy reported to authorities that someone had thrown a rock/brick through her window and entered her house.
19th October, 1982, Cindy reported to authorities that someone had entered her home and ripped up her pillow.
At this point, people started to suspect Roy Makepeace, her ex-husband, but Cindy had made contradictory claims about him - i.e., telling her friends he was violent and ab*sive, yet telling the police he wouldn't be capable of doing something like that. The main police officer who suspected Makepeace was Patrick McBride.
20th October, 1982, two neighbours reported hearing noises from Cindy's house after she had left for work. One neighbour told authorities that they had seen a strange man outside Cindy's house who didn't look like Roy but had been there at least three different times and entered the gate at least once.
Around the end of October, police officer Patrick McBride entered into a relationship with Cindy (ew - you're investigating her case) and on the 31st of October, 1982, moved in with her. Cindy told friends he was going to stay with her for two weeks. McBride and Cindy's relationship lasted for about a year. While McBride was staying with Cindy, he found her ex-husband sitting in a car surveilling the place. When questioned, Makepeace said he was just trying to find the "stalker". It's not super clear what McBride said to Makepeace - something about him moving on, but I don't know if he means himself with Cindy or that the "stalker" moved on.
Mid-November, McBride received one of the strange phone calls at Cindy's house.
Late November, Cindy found a note pinned to her car with a picture of a corpse lying under a sheet.
28th November, 1982, the telephone wires outside Cindy's house had been cut. Cindy invited Roy over, and he and McBride discussed the case together.
1st December, 1982, McBride moved out of Cindy's house, but they continued to date for a year.
Christmas 1982, Cindy found a note outside her house that said "Merry Christmas" with a picture of a deceased woman with her throat slashed, and it was stained with red ink.
1983 - 1984
27th January, 1983, one of Cindy's friends, Agnes, came round as they had organised a get-together. Agnes found Cindy unconscious in the backyard with a nylon stocking wrapped around her neck. When she came to, Cindy told Agnes she was attacked and SA'd by two men who threatened to k*ll her sister Melanie if she reported the attack to authorities. Cindy was taken to the hospital, where the doctors found no signs of an SA. She was told to see a psychologist, but didn't want to at the time, so she went to a counsellor.
1st February, 1983, Cindy moved to a different house in West Vancouver. One week later, she received a threatening letter that said, "Run Rabbit Run, I'll show you how f*cking good I am. Soon, bang, bang, you're d*ad".
Cindy received more scary phone calls, so she moved again in April.
Cindy went on an overseas trip and returned in August 1983, where she was greeted with another note, "Welcome back".
In late 1983, Cindy painted her car a different colour, hired a PI called Ozzie Kaban, and paid him for 6 years.
Cindy went all out in protecting herself by wearing a panic button and carrying pepper spray.
Between October and November 1983, Cindy found 3 d*ad cats in her backyard.
Over the years, Cindy kept receiving scary phone calls and even received some at work where her coworkers answered and told authorities the caller did not speak.
30th January, 1984, PI Kaban heard strange noises on a two-way radio he had given Cindy. He rushed over to her home. Kaban found Cindy unconscious on the floor with a knife stabbed through her hand, and another ominous note made out of magazine clippings. Cindy was taken to the hospital for treatment and questioning. She said she remembered a strange man coming to her house and hitting her over the head with a blunt object. She claimed she was also injected with some kind of dr*gs. Doctors found a needle mark but no signs of dr*gs in her system. I think Cindy took a lie detector test here, which originally was ruled as "no deception," but then someone changed it to "inconclusive". Another police officer at the scene noted blood stains in the kitchen smeared in circles, as if someone had tried to clean up evidence.
February 1984 - Makepeace was questioned. Makepeace suspected Cindy's attacks were from the mafia. Makepeace urged police to look at this angle, but I don't think they ever did.
In the Summer of 1984, a lot happened. Cindy called PI Kaban in a panic on the 18th of June, saying someone had entered her home and attacked her dog and SA'd her. Cindy and her dog Heidi were hiding in the basement. There was also a Happy Birthday card with explicit photos attached. Both Cindy and Heidi had been attacked. Kaban also found a cigarette on one of Cindy's windowsills that was a different brand from what she smoked. Kaban didn't believe Cindy was capable of hurting her own dog, so he was one of the people who believed what was happening to her was true. At this point, a lot of police officers thought she was lying and doing it to herself.
1st July, 1984, two men posing as police officers went to Cindy's house, and when she radioed Kaban, they fled.
9th July, 1984, Cindy's mother came to stay with her and they experienced weird things in the middle of the night - the doorbell ringing and windows cracked.
23rd July, 1984, around 8:30 pm, Cindy took her dog for a walk and claimed she was attacked. She was found at midnight, dazed and confused, and Heidi the dog was found in a park later on. She was taken to the hospital, and apparently, a "man with an accent" called the hospital asking about their security measures. They compared this to the voice of Roy Makepeace and suspected it was him.
October 1984, Cindy saw a hypnotherapist and experienced a repressed memory of witnessing a double m*rder.
1985 - 1986
Cindy received more phone calls, but none of them were long enough for the police to trace.
January 1985, while under hypnosis, Cindy told police that she witnessed Roy Makepeace commit a double homicide while on vacation with Roy and her sister. Her sister has no recollection of anything sinister occurring.
June 1985, Cindy was committed to a psychiatric unit after attempting s*icide. Around this time, Cindy claimed Roy was the source of her problems, but he just said she was seeking revenge. Authorities watched him and someone else for 24 hours. The surveillance was terminated as nothing unusual occurred. Authorities also found no evidence of Roy's alleged homicide.
In July 1985, Cindy received packages at her house of a nylon stocking and raw meat.
August 1985, there were multiple fires at Cindy's house, but a big one on the 21st of August, 1985, around 4:45 am. Cindy was having a heated discussion with Kaban and had taken Heidi, her dog, out for a walk at 3:15 am (I am assuming he was getting mad at her for this). A detective testified that Cindy started the fire herself.
Autumn, 1985, a psychologist was requested to interview Cindy by a police officer who believed Cindy was lying about everything. The psychologist suspected Cindy had DID.
1st December, 1985, Cindy moved houses again - back to Richmond.
11th December, 1985, Cindy was found by some motorcyclists, semiconscious in a ditch 6km from her house, wearing a single glove and men's work boots. She was taken to the hospital.
In 1986, Cindy changed her surname to help conceal her identity. Her friend Agnes and her husband often spent the night at Cindy's home to help her feel safe.
April 16th, 1986, Cindy woke Agnes and her husband as she heard something in the house. They found that another fire had been started in the basement. When they tried to call the fire department, the landline was dead. Tom, Agnes' husband, went to the neighbour's to call the police, and when he went outside, he said he saw a man who fled when he was spotted.
After speaking to a different psychiatrist, Cindy was committed to a psych ward and then transferred to another one. She stayed here for 10 weeks, then apparently her dad said she was withholding information and knew who was attacking her.
1987 - 1989
August 1987, Cindy went back to work at Richmond General Hospital.
28th August, 1987, her house alarm was triggered after a back window was broken.
11th October 1988, Roy Makepeace received strange calls on his answering machine. Makepeace gave the tapes to his lawyer, as he didn't think the police would help.
15 days later, Cindy was found hogtied and unconscious in her garage, naked from the waist down, and a nylon stocking around her neck. The police hired a mountain climber knot expert to see if Cindy might have been able to tie these knots herself. He claimed that it was impossible, but later retracted his statement and said it would be possible.
January 1989, a life insurance salesman moved into the basement of Cindy's house - she had bought life insurance off him previously and offered him cheap rent on the basis that she felt safer with someone else living with her.
More break-ins occurred, and the threatening notes kept coming.
On the 25th of May, 1989, Cindy picked up her paycheck from the hospital. At the hospital, she spoke with a coworker seemingly in good spirits and told her that nothing weird had happened for at least 2 weeks. Cindy deposited her paycheck into an ATM around 8 pm. The same day, Cindy had organised for infrared security to be installed in her house and for her friends Agnes and Tom to play bridge at her house that evening.
Agnes and Tom hadn't heard from Cindy, so they went to her house around 10 pm, only to find no sign of her. The house was locked, and her car wasn't there. Someone told them she had gone to do some shopping, so Agnes and Tom went in search of Cindy at her favourite shopping centre. There, they found her car abandoned. Cindy was reported missing. Police found blood in the driver's door of the car and groceries, as well as Cindy's wallet. Inspection of Cindy's home showed nothing out of the ordinary.
8th of June, 1989, Cindy's body was found at an abandoned house, again, hogtied with rope and a nylon stocking over her head. The autopsy found that she had passed from an overdose. Because of how many dr*gs were in her system, authorities didn't know how long she would have been conscious for - mere minutes.
PI Kaban suspected that Cindy's body had been moved.
The Aftermath
There was a coroner's inquest that went to trial, where Roy Makepeace claimed that Cindy's father SA'd her as a child and accused the police of attempting to frame him. Psychologists who had treated Cindy over the years claimed she may have had a combination of DID, BPD, and PTSD. A knot expert claimed that it would be possible for Cindy to have tied herself up this way within 3 minutes. The jury was unable to determine how Cindy passed, and the case was closed as "an unknown event".
There are so many things happening in this case. I feel like it is possible that Cindy did make SOME of it up, but only in the hopes that the police would take her seriously. If she did it to herself, the mental health system really failed her - but I have never seen extreme cases of DID/BPD like this specifically. Obviously, I'm not a psychologist, so I don't know, but I also think it's important to believe victims. Especially because her friends witnessed other men around her house.
What do you think happened?
This is a really, really sad case, and I hope Cindy rests in peace and one day her family gets closure.
Stay safe xx
Ash
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