The Bizarre Case of Cindy James

Former Vancouver Sun crime reporter, Neal Hall, guest blogs about one of Vancouver’s most controversial cases. Thirty five years after 44-year-old Cindy James was found dead, people still wonder – was it suicide or murder? 

By Neal Hall

The most bizarre case I ever encountered in my 30-plus years as a reporter, was the case of Cindy James. Her body was found June 8, 1989 in some brambles beside an abandoned house in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, Canada.

Her hands and legs were tied behind her back with a black nylon stocking, and a second black stocking was tied around her neck.

Cindy James, 44, had been missing for two weeks. Her car was found in the parking lot of a shopping mall, with drops of blood on the door and her credit card underneath. There were groceries in the car.

Cindy’s dad, a former Canadian Air Force Lieutenant-Colonel, served as the family spokesman for the media.

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He said there was a long history of his daughter being stalked and attacked – about 100 incidents over a seven-year period.

Dead cats left in her yard. Cindy found tied up and seemingly injected with drugs.

At one point, she was found in her home, unconscious on the floor. A  knife pinned her hand to the floor and a cut and paste note read “NOW YOU MUST DIE C—.”

Police failed to protect Cindy for years and now someone has got away with murder, Cindy’s father told reporters.

Cindy’s problems began when she separated from husband, Dr Roy Makepeace, who studied psychiatry but worked in the field of occupational health.

He became the prime suspect. Dr. Makepeace, who died more than a dozen years ago, vehemently denied he was responsible for her problems.

He told the family they needed to get Cindy the best psychiatric help.

So who killed Cindy James? That has been the subject of debate for 35 years.

Police believe her death was an elaborate suicide staged as a murder. Despite thousands of hours of investigation and many hours of police surveillance of her home, they never found a single piece of evidence that would reveal a suspect. There was no fingerprint or DNA on the threatening notes or at the point where her phone line was cut.

At a 40-day inquest in 1990, the jury heard surprising testimony.

One incident involved a fire set at Cindy’s house. She told friends that someone had thrown a molotov cocktail through her basement window. But an RCMP arson investigation found all the window glass had fallen outward into her garden.

Police concluded Cindy had set the fire herself. They wanted to charge her, but her psychiatrist told police that Cindy was very fragile and charging her could send her off the deep end. She was never charged

Cindy, who was committed to a psychiatric facility before her tragic death, wrote in her diary, “They say I’m doing this to myself…I think my best option is suicide.”

The inquest jury never came to a definitive conclusion about Cindy’s death. They found she died of an “unknown event.”

Bloggers still write about the case. Some believe she was murdered, others believed she killed herself.

Police, however, consider the Cindy James file closed.

Neal Hall is the author of the best-selling true-crime novel, The Deaths of Cindy James. The 1990 book, which is out of print, was the basis for the 12-part podcast series on Audible.ca Death by an Unknown Event.

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• Murder