Death of Cindy James

Cynthia Elizabeth Hack was born in Oliver, British Columbia, Canada, on June 12, 1944, to Matilda "Tilley", a homemaker, and Otto Hack, an English teacher and former colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force. She recorded in her private diaries that her childhood had been marked by her father's strictness, which included corporal punishment. In adulthood, Cindy pursued a nursing career in Vancouver, and enrolled in nursing school in 1962. During this period, her father had reenlisted with the air force and relocated the family to France, where she visited them during holidays. During this time, in letters to her family, Cindy occasionally referred to an unnamed intern she had met during her studies. She claimed that the two had at one point been engaged, and that, after finding he had terminal cancer, the man committed suicide while the couple were on a skiing trip. None of her parents or siblings, however, ever met the man, and Cindy did not name him. In the summer of 1965, Cindy met Roy Makepeace, a South African psychiatrist 18 years her senior. The two married on December 9, 1966, the same year she graduated from nursing school with a BSN. Cindy's parents were skeptical of the marriage due to the couple's age difference, and her father felt that Makepeace had taken advantage of Cindy's "naiveté and gullibility." Her family testified that the couple's marriage was troubled and that the two were at times emotionally distant. Though Cindy later made accusations of spousal abuse, Makepeace asserted he "only slapped her twice" over the course of their marriage. Though licensed as a psychiatrist in his home country of South Africa, Makepeace failed twice to obtain his medical license in Canada and instead accepted a job as an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. Cindy worked as a pediatric nurse at Vancouver General Hospital—where her husband had also one time been employed—from 1966 to 1975. In 1973, Makepeace took a job as director of health services at BC Hydro. In April 1975, Cindy was hired as a team coordinater at Vancouver's Blenheim House, a facility caring for children with behavioral disorders. She worked at Blenheim House for approximately 12 years, and was noted by her colleagues for her competence and professionalism. ==Allegations of harassment==

Spanning a nearly seven year-period between 1982 and 1989, Cindy reported approximately 90 incidents of criminal activity to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). A series of obscene phone calls soon followed, the first of which was received on October 7, 1982. Cindy's mother relayed that, though she was reluctant to discuss her experiences, she indicated that the phone calls consisted of an individual speaking in different voices, and that, on some occasions, there was mere silence on the other end of the line. Four days later, on October 19, she reported that someone had entered her home and slashed a pillow on her bed. According to Cindy, Makepeace smeared blood from one of the victims' severed limbs across her face during the dismemberment. In the fall of 1985, Dr. Anthony Marcus, a psychologist, was requested by Carol Halliday of the RCMP to conduct interviews with Cindy and examine the various case files. She also exhibited bruising and various cuts on her body. To help assuage her fears, her friend Agnes Woodcock and the latter's husband Tom sometimes spent nights at Cindy's home. where it was observed that she was suffering from anorexia and depression. She was subsequently transferred to Riverview Hospital, where a comprehensive psychological examination was conducted. The report noted: After a ten-week hospital stay, Cindy was released. According to her father, she told him she had been "withholding information" regarding her alleged attacks, stating that she knew the identity of the assailant but refused to name him. 1987–1989 In August 1987, Cindy began working as a nurse at Richmond General Hospital. On August 28, her home alarm was triggered after a back window was broken, and three days later, on August 31, she reported to police that her front porch lightbulbs had been loosened. The following week, she reported that someone had used a glass cutter to create a hole in the basement door window. In February 1988, Cindy indicated that someone had shattered a window to her home after securing it with electrical tape. On October 11, 1988, Makepeace received two strange voice messages on his home answering machine. One of the messages contained a hoarse voice speaking the phrase: "Cindy, dead meat soon," while the other stated: "More smack, more downers, another grand after we waste the cunt. No more deal." He gave the answering machine tapes to his attorney, as he distrusted the Vancouver police, whom he felt might target him as a suspect. Fifteen days later, Cindy was found unconscious in her garage. She had been hogtied, was nude from the waist down, and again had a black nylon stocking tied around her neck. Around this time, the RCMP hired mountain climber and knot expert Robert Chisnall to analyze the knots on the nylon stockings she had frequently been found bound with. At the time, Chisnall concluded that it was "highly unlikely" that Cindy would have been able to secure such knots herself. In January 1989, Richard Johnston, a life insurance salesman from whom Cindy had purchased a policy, moved into the basement unit of her residence; she offered him the rental on the basis that she would feel more safe with someone else living with her. On April 8, a security guard at Richmond General Hospital, where Cindy was employed, discovered a note on the premises with cut-and-pasted letters, which read: "SOON, CINDY". The phrase "sleep well" was also found written in the dew on her windshield. Following a reported attempted break-in at her home on April 29, the RCMP used scent hounds in an attempt to track the alleged intruder, but the dogs found no trail. On May 10, 1989, scent hounds were utilized again following another alleged break-in, and were able to track the scent of an unknown individual that led over the backyard fence of Cindy's home. RCMP conclusions Over the course of the nearly seven years that Cindy had reported the various incidents, the RCMP spent an estimated CA$1–1.5 million worth of resources investigating her claims, but no evidence could be located to corroborate them. Because of this, authorities suspected that Cindy was inventing the incidents herself, and staging them to appear as though she were the victim of a violent stalker. Cindy expressed frustration with the police department, aside from one detective, Jerry Anderson. In a complaint she filed against the RCMP for her perceived dismissal by several officers, she positively singled out Anderson "for his patience, unfailing professional conduct and his exemplary investigation of this case...  He is the only member of the RCMP I feel I can trust and be comfortable with." ==Disappearance==

At approximately 4 p.m. on May 25, 1989, Cindy picked up her paycheck from Richmond General Hospital. There, she spoke with a coworker, who reported that she seemed to be in good spirits, and said Cindy informed her she had not experienced any suspicious activity at her home for at least two weeks. A bank patron told police they had stood in line behind Cindy at the bank's ATM, where she deposited her paycheck at approximately 7:59p.m. That same day, Cindy had scheduled to have an infrared detection system installed in her home for security purposes, A subsequent inspection of her home that night showed nothing had been disturbed: police observed that the house was orderly and clean, and filled with numerous "well-tended" houseplants. The Canadian Coast Guard deployed searches of rivers in the area, as well as the Gulf of Georgia, in an attempt to locate the missing woman. Several days after Cindy was reported missing, her tenant, Johnston informed police he had received a call at his office from a man claiming to be her father, inquiring about her life insurance policy. Johnston's secretary informed the caller that he would need to visit the office, as private insurance matters could not be relayed over the phone. When authorities questioned Cindy's father, he denied ever making the phone call. ==Death==

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. Her body was hogtied with rope behind her back, and a black nylon stocking was bound tightly around her neck. Cindy's right leg lay beneath a bramble of blackberry bushes, and her coat was found lying near her body. The property where her remains were found was situated along a busy street near an intersection, which had frequent foot traffic from pedestrians. On the residence's exterior fuel tank, police found a graffito in orange spray paint reading: "Some bitch died here." The inquest, which totaled forty days, was the longest and most expensive in British Columbia at that time. Among the evidence presented were the two recorded phone messages Makepeace had received on his answering machine. During his testimony on the stand, Makepeace made various accusations against Cindy's family, alleging 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 attempting to frame him. It was also revealed that, shortly after her death, Cindy's parents uncovered a hoard of various medications in her home (including sedatives and antipsychotic drugs) prescribed by her psychiatrists, which they disposed of by flushing down the toilet. Her younger sister, Melanie, also found a glass cutter in Cindy's purse along with a medical syringe kit, a urinary catheter, and saline solution in her bedroom. Jurors were presented with graphic footage of Cindy's decomposing corpse as it was discovered at the scene, as well as numerous accounts detailing her mental state leading up to her death. Testimony was provided from several psychiatrists and psychologists, including those who had personally treated Cindy over the years. Dr. Paul Termansen testified that he believed she suffered from hysterical personality disorder, while Dr. Wesley Friesen—a longtime psychiatrist of Cindy's—stated he suspected she had borderline personality disorder with elements of post-traumatic stress disorder. By Friesen's account, Cindy possessed a "tremendous amount of rage" toward her father and, based on their numerous sessions, Friesen 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. Attempts to discern whether or not Cindy could have bound herself in the state she was discovered were also focused on during the inquest: using the same length of nylon found binding her body, knot expert Robert Chisnall demonstrated in court how she could have bound herself within a three-minute timeframe, before the effects of the narcotics in her system would have taken effect. The inquest concluded on May 25, 1990, exactly one year after Cindy had disappeared. After deliberations, the jury was unable to determine whether her manner of death was suicide, homicide, or accidental. It was ultimately ruled that Cindy had died of an "unknown event," and the case was formally closed. ==Media representation==

Cindy's disappearance was profiled on the American series A Current Affair prior to her discovery, and her case was later profiled in a February 1991 episode of the NBC series Unsolved Mysteries. A docuseries was released the same month in Canada via BCTV. and Who Killed Cindy James? by British journalist Ian Mulgrew. In September 2021, an Audible-produced podcast on James' death, entitled Death by Unknown Event, was released, featuring narration by actress and writer Pamela Adlon. ==See also==