The case of Cindy James has been an enigma for years and will certainly will be for years to come. In 1989 a body was found dead in Richmond VanCouver British Columbia. The body of missing Cindy James. Decomposing in the heat by an abandoned house. A 44 year old nurse who had been suffering from stalking, harassment, and assault by what appeared to be an unknown assailant. Or was she??
In October of 1982, right after Cindy and her husband had split up, she began to get some very strange phone calls. The would sometimes just be dead air or you could hear in a growling voice" Cindy your dead meat". She would then being to have her home broken into, pictures of her left on her doorstep with the words" I see you". Police were called multiple times and almost 100 incidents were reported. 5 of those being assaults, one in which Cindy's friend found her in her basement with a nylon stocking around her neck and was out cold. After police investigated, they found that they believe Cindy had done this to herself. Afterwards, 3 dead cats were place in her yard. One with a note that said "Your next." The police would set up surveillance but would never catch the phone calls, assaults, or threats. Due to the harassment and violence, she moved to a new house, painted her car, and changed her last name. She also hired a private investigator named Ozzie Kaban.
The police continued their investigation and questioned Cindy several times. Ozzie later reported that she would not tell them the entire story. She would be evasive, withhold information, and not act as a normal victim would do so. When the police gave her a polygraph test, the examiner also claimed that she was withholding information. Her mother, Tillie Hack, thinks the reason for her reluctance was that her attacker had threatened her family. By naming him, they would be killed. To me, it sounds awfully fishy. Almost as if she had no information that she could give because maybe in fact, she was doing all of this to her self.
On the night of January 30, 1984, Ozzie heard strange sounds coming over a two-way radio he had given Cindy and went straight to her house. He went around it and found it was locked. Looking through a window, he found her lying on the floor with a paring knife through her hand. She was taken to the hospital where she later recalled being attacked and a needle going into her arm. Police never found fingerprints from a suspect. Cindy saw this person sometimes accompanied by one or two others, or sometimes she said there were two or three people, but police could never find a suspect. The threatening phone calls continued, but they were too short to trace. There were never ones when the police had 24-hour surveillance on her house for days on end with up to fourteen officers, but when surveillance was off her house, another incident would happen. How interesting. On December 11, 1985, she was found dazed and semiconscious lying in a ditch six miles from her house. She was wearing a man's work boot and glove, and suffering from hypothermia. Cuts and bruises covered her body. A black nylon stocking had been tied tightly around her neck. A needle mark was found on her arm. She had no memory of what happened.
These needle marks are awfully suspicious....she was a nurse after all....wasn't she? Any none of these horrible things happened when someone was around...
On October 26, she came home from work and was attacked in her carport. She was later found unconscious in her car, nude from the waist down. A nylon stocking was tied around her neck and her arms and legs were hogtied with a second one. Duct tape was found over her mouth, in an attempt to keep her from breathing. She went into a coma but survived. In spring 1989, she reported to her family and friends that the attacks seemed to be decreasing. She seemed to be feeling better for the first time in a while. What is going on with these stockings around her neck. Why is it always the same M.O??? I can't figure it out...
On May 25, 1989, six years and seven months after the first threatening phone call, Cindy disappeared. On the same day, her car was found in a neighborhood shopping plaza parking lot. Inside were groceries and a wrapped gift. There was blood on the driver's side door and items from her wallet were under the car. Two weeks later, her body was found at the abandoned house, very close to her car. It looked like she had been brutally murdered. Her hands and feet were bound together behind her back. A black nylon stocking was tied tightly around her neck. Yet, an autopsy revealed that she died from an overdose of morphine, the sedative flurazepam, and other drugs. Police concluded that she had committed suicide and closed this case in July 1989.
Ozzie did not believe Cindy would have been able to stage the scene, but others believed it was possible. In Vancouver, the coroner ruled that her death was not suicide, an accident, or a murder. They determined that she died of an "unknown event". Otto and Tillie never doubted that she was murdered. Otto believed the police did not investigate the possibility of homicide or of somebody murdering her, instead zeroing in on trying to prove that she committed suicide. They believe someone in Vancouver is getting away with murder.
Tell me, did Cindy James have a mental issue that allowed her to do these things to herself.....or was she really being hunted? I honestly don't think we will ever know....I know that her parents felt she was murdered and was never allowed justice because the police believed she did it all to herself.
A true oddity......
* Women and Crime Podcast- Cindy James
* YouTube- The mysterious death of Cindy James
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