Cynthia Elizabeth James (née Hack; June 12, 1944 June 2—June 8, 1989) was a Canadian nurse who disappeared from Richmond, British Columbia, on May 25, 1989. She was found deceased approximately two weeks later in the yard of an abandoned house, hogtied and with a nylon stocking wrapped around her throat. An autopsy indicated that she had died of an overdose of morphine, diazepam, and flurazepam. James's death was notable as she had made numerous reports to authorities dating back to 1982, alleging that she had been a victim of various acts of stalking, harassment, vandalism, home invasions, and physical attacks perpetrated by an unknown assailant.
James's death and prior allegations were subject of great dispute, as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) were unable to find any evidence suggesting she had been an actual victim of a stalker. Furthermore, she had a documented medical history of depression and suicidal thoughts, leading authorities to suspect that she may have been fabricating the various attacks and other incidents herself, orchestrating them to appear as legitimate, culminating in an eventual staged suicide. Over the nearly seven-year period James reported the incidents, the RCMP allocated an estimated $1–1.5 million in funds to investigate her claims, marking one of the longest and most costly police investigations in British Columbia history.
Despite skepticism from authorities, James's family members publicly insisted that she had in fact been preyed upon, and eventually murdered. A coroner's inquest was held in the spring of 1990 which included testimony from more than 80 witnesses. The inquest ultimately resulted in the conclusion that James had died of an "unknown event."
James's death received international media coverage and was the subject of an Unsolved Mysteries segment in 1991. Furthermore, two different books were published in 1991 chronicling her life and death: Who Killed Cindy James by British journalist Ian Mulgrew, and The Deaths of Cindy James by Neal Hall, a Canadian crime reporter who had extensively covered James's case for the Vancouver Sun. In 2021, a podcast on James, Death by Unknown Event, narrated by Pamela Adlon, was released by Audible.
Background 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. Both of her parents were of Russian descent. She was one of six children, with three older brothers and two younger sisters. Cindy spent part of her teenage years in Ottawa due to her father's involvement in the air force, and attended high school there. 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 died by 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. Cindy later made accusations of spousal abuse; Makepeace claimed 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 coordinator 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). Her claims included alleged acts of stalking, vandalism, arson, harassment, intimidation, home invasions, and physical assaults perpetrated by an unknown person or persons.
1982 The incidents began in September 1982, four months after Cindy separated from Makepeace. In late September, she told friends and family members she suspected that a prowler had been lurking around her home. 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. Cindy described some of the calls as sexual and violent in nature.
On October 11, Cindy received a phone call consisting of loud breathing noises; the following day, she received another call in a menacing whisper, which said: "I'll get you one night, Cindy." She reported the obscene calls to the RCMP, who visited her home and suggested she keep a list of each call and its contents, as well as get an unlisted number. Shortly after the officer left, Cindy received a call in which an apparent male voice said: "You fucking bitch. I'll get you." The next day, on the afternoon of October 13, the caller threatened her: "So you think calling the police will keep you safe? You wait. I've got my zipper open, I'm talking to my throbbing..." before she abruptly ended the call.
Two days later, Cindy reported to the RCMP that she had heard someone lurking outside her home and awoken in the morning to find her porch lights smashed. On October 15, she reported to police that someone had thrown a rock through one of her windows and entered her house, though nothing else had been disturbed. Four days later, on October 19, she reported that someone had entered her home and slashed a pillow on her bed.
Patrick McBride, a constable with the Vancouver RCMP, suspected the culprit was her estranged husband, Makepeace, who denied involvement. Cindy herself made conflicting statements regarding Makepeace, telling authorities she did not think he was capable of tormenting her, but also divulged to friends and coworkers that he was violently abusive during their marriage. On October 20, two tenants who rented the basement of Cindy's home reported to police that they heard strange noises upstairs on the main floor after she had left for work. A next-door neighbor informed McBride that she had witnessed a man standing outside the house on at least three different occasions, and one time entering the gate of the front yard. The neighbor insisted the man did not resemble Makepeace.
Cindy concurrently began a relationship with McBride, which lasted approximately one year. McBride, who had recently separated from his wife, moved into Cindy's house on October 31, 1982. She told friends that McBride had offered to stay for approximately two weeks, helping surveil in the event that the perpetrator arrived at her home. Several days after McBride moved in, he found Makepeace sitting in his parked car in an alley behind the house. When questioned, Makepeace claimed he was trying to catch Cindy's alleged intruder "in the act," and subsequently left after McBride informed him he had moved in.
In mid-November, McBride stated that he himself received a mysterious phone call at the home while Cindy was present, and that the caller spoke no words. McBride initially suspected the call may have been made from an airport terminal, as he could hear a woman's voice in the background over a public-address system, though it was eventually traced to an exchange in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond. Later in November, Cindy found a note pinned to her car windshield which featured a picture of a corpse lying under a medical sheet. On November 28, McBride observed that the phone lines outside the house had been cut in five different places. Cindy, who remained cordial and friendly with Makepeace despite their breakup, at times invited him to her home with McBride present, as both men had in common a shared fascination with finding her alleged harasser, and would often discuss the case together. McBride moved out of Cindy's home on December 1, though the two continued to casually date, frequently having dinners together in Vancouver and Bellingham, Washington, United States. The week of Christmas 1982, Cindy found a note outside her house reading "Merry Christmas," with a photo of a woman with her throat slashed, stained with red ink.
1983–1984 On the night of January 27, 1983, Agnes Woodcock, a friend and coworker from Blenheim House, visited Cindy's house and found her lying unconscious in her backyard, with a nylon stocking wrapped around her neck. Upon regaining consciousness, Cindy told Woodcock that she had been attacked from behind by an assailant while walking to her exterior garage, and that the individual brought her into the garage, where another male subject waited, and the two strangled her. She alleged that the men inserted a knife into her vagina and threatened to kill her younger sister, Melanie, if she reported the attack to authorities. Doctors who examined Cindy after the alleged attack found no concrete evidence of sexual assault, though Det. David Boywer-Smith remained ambivalent about her claim. At police request, Cindy was asked to see a psychiatrist but declined, as she feared doing so would stigmatize her; instead, she agreed to visit a general practitioner with experience in counseling.
Cindy relocated from her residence to a house in West Vancouver on February 1, 1983. Less than a week later, she received a threatening letter reading: "Run Rabbit Run, I'll show you how fucking good I am. Soon, bang, bang, you're dead." After a rash of further obscene calls, Cindy relocated again to another house in April 1983. Makepeace, who had made continued attempts to reconcile with his wife, showered her with several lavish gifts in the summer of 1983 and paid her airfare to Indonesia so she could visit her brother, Roger, who was stationed there. Several weeks after returning from the trip, Cindy found another note on August 22, which read: "Welcome back—death, blood, hate, etc."