Hey there, DETECTIVES! DETECTIVE WRITER here to tell you all about an unsolved case that occurred in British Columbia, Canada, the death of Cindy James. TRIGGER WARNING: this case will be a bit graphic and will discuss the mistreatment of an animal and suicide attempts, so if anyone is uncomfortable, please feel free to skip ahead!
Cindy James was born Cynthia Elizabeth Hack on June 12th, 1944 in Oliver, British Columbia, Canada. She was one of six siblings, and in her diaries, she wrote that her father was very strict with her and also took on corporal punishment. In 1962, she enrolled as a nursing student in Vancouver, and she wrote in letters to her family, that she met a man who became her fiance, who later committed suicide while on a trip with her. Her family never met the man she mentioned and she never said his name.
In 1965, she met a South African psychiatrist who was 18 years her senior, his name was Roy Makepeace. In 1966, against her family’s wishes, she married Makepeace and she also graduated from nursing school the same year. The marriage hit some rough patches as she accused Makepeace of spousal abuse and Makepeace said that he “Had only slapped her twice” during their whole marriage. The marriage ended in divorce in 1982.
In September 1982, four months after James’ separation from Makepeace, she began to get strange phone calls which she first received on October 7th, 1982. Neighbors stated that they would often see a man lurking around her home and even a few tenants claimed to have heard a few noises inside her house whenever she was at work. James even reported that some one slashed a pillow in her bedroom. It was suspected that Makepeace was the culprit, but he claimed his innocence. The man who was seen lurking around James’ house was not found to have any resemblance to Makepeace.
Throughout seven years, the harassment and stalking began to intensify, and James hired a private investigator, Ozzie Kaban to help her find out who was the one terrorizing her. One incident had left her dog physically abused and beaten nearly to the point of death and numerous trips to the hospital after allegedly she had been attacked by a mysterious individual multiple times.
(This is an image of a note James received from the stalker)
In the Summer of 1985, James was committed to the psychiatric unit at a local hospital after a suicide attempt by prescription drug overdose but she claimed she was not trying to take her life. She eventually relocated to a new home and also painted her car a different color, attempting to hide from her stalker but the harassment and attacks still continued on. She soon returned to the hospital after a fire began in her basement and refused to eat as well. She stayed to the hospital for ten weeks and her father said that she knew her attacker but refused to name him.
On May 4th, 1989 at 4 P.M., James was picking up a paycheck from the hospital she worked at, and was last seen alive at a Safeway supermarket. She was supposed to spend the night with friends but when they stopped by, her house was locked with her car missing. It was eventually located in the shopping center where she was last seen with blood inside, her wallet, groceries, and a birthday gift for a friend’s son.
On June 8th, 1989, James’ body was discovered in the backyard of an abandoned house by a municipal paving worker. The brutal manner in which the corpse was found caused the forensic team to determine that she began to decompose as early as June 2nd. The police suspected that James was the one behind the alleged attacks and harassment because, despite their investigations, they could not find evidence of her claims and suspected that when she was a child, her father may have sexually abused her. To this day, James’ highly suspicious death remains a mystery and the circumstances and identity of her stalker are still unknown.
I hope you have enjoyed this storytime as much as I did, DETECTIVES! Please let me know in the comments if you want more storytime! Have a great day, night, afternoon, or evening, DETECTIVES! Stay tuned for next week’s post; until then, keep on sleuthing, DETECTIVES!
Detective Writer 