#cindy james

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Modern Man, magazine, Publishers' Development Corp., May 1968

[dailyunsolvedmysteries]

Cindy James 

Two weeks after disappearing in 1989, Cindy James was found dead near an abandoned house with her arms and legs bound behind her back and a nylon stocking around her neck. An autopsy revealed that her actual cause of death was a morphine overdose and the police ruled it a suicide. That would be bizarre enough on its own, had James not reported being harassed and physically attacked by an unknown assailant for the prior seven years. She first received threatening notes and phone calls, discovered dead cats hanging in her garden, had her phone wires cut, her house nearly burned down, and was assaulted five times — once in her home, when she was stabbed through the hand with a paring knife, and another time when she was found battered and suffering from hypothermia in a ditch on the side of a road. The police, who’d never dusted for prints or thoroughly searched for evidence in her home after the incidents, said James made it all up. After her death, one doctor theorized that she had multiple personalities and one of the split Cindy's murdered the other although her family said that they had never noticed any psychological issues. 

[katruna]

[yesgabsstuff]

[sightgagsforperverts]

[angelicpsychosis]

For years Vancouver nurse Cindy James continuously filed police reports for all the strange and threatening messages she was being sent via mail and over the phone, although they didn't quite believe her claims. Nearly seven years after filing her first police report, Cindy mysteriously disappeared. Her car was found that same day, but Cindy was nowhere to be found for two weeks. On June 8th, 1989, Cindy's battered body was found inside an abandoned house, with her legs and arms bound and a stocking tied tightly around her neck. Oddly enough, her autopsy revealed that her cause of death was a morphine overdose, which lead police to claim her death the result of suicide, though many, including Cindy's family and friends, believe she was murdered.

[truecrimecoven]

The Mysterious Death of Cindy James

In the Summer of 1989, in the sleepy suburb of Richmond, Vancouver, a forty-four year old nurse named Cindy James was found dead in the yard of an abandoned house. Her hands and feet were bound behind her back using black nylon stockings. Later after a post mortem it would be determined she was strangled but what actually killed her was an overdose of morphine.  

The death of the British Columbia nurse was a tragic conclusion to a bizarre, seven year campaign of terror and violence against her that was committed by persons unknown. Her family believes she was murdered, while the authorities believe she committed suicide.

In seven years prior to her body being discovered, Cindy had reported hundreds of incidents of harassment to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or the RCMP. These incidents ranged from mysterious, threatening phone calls, to her phone lines being cut and her windows being shattered. Explicit notes were taped to her door, and dead cats were found hanging in her garden.

These strange incidents began shortly after she divorced her husband. So naturally the police and Cindy assumed that he was behind all of this, but later evidence would disprove that theory. 

Cindy did as much as she could to conceal her identity, hoping to bring an end to the horrible harassment. She changed her name, moved house, hired a private detective, even painted her car. However, her relentless stalker always managed to find her, and the attacks became more violent. Cindy was found in her locked home with a violent note pinned to her hand with a paring knife. The photograph below is of the actual note and knife.

Shortly before she died, Cindy was found in a ditch miles away from her home, wearing a workman boot and glove, with no memory how she came to be there. There was a black nylon stocking tied around her neck.

The authorities investigated and strangely, when the RCMP surveilled her, the attacks seemed to stop. Coupled with the fact that there never seemed to be any witnesses to these attacks, the authorities became suspicious and thought that Cindy James was the true culprit. Shortly after Cindy was found unconscious in that ditch, a fire was started in her basement. It was ruled an arson, but the RCMP quickly determined that the fire “could have only been started by someone inside the house” since there was zero evidence of a break-in.

Cindy was physically attacked at least five times. Five times the RCMP investigated and came up empty, and eventually pointed the finger towards her. This all eventually took a toll on Cindy, who became depressed and anxious, eventually checking into a psychiatric facility.

Then on May 25, 1989 Cindy vanished. Her car was found not far from her home with groceries in the backseat, and blood on the drivers side. Two weeks later, Cindy’s body was found. The RCMP believe that she stole morphine from her work, took a lethal dose, somehow managed to strangle and hogtie herself before she disposed of all the evidence. The corner wasn’t as convinced, and ruled her cause of death as “an unknown event”. Her stalker and/or her killer has never been found.

Photographs of the vulgar notes her stalker left her.

[vancouvertrueborns]

Perhaps the most disturbing story related to the 300-block of East 40th is the Cindy James mystery. She was a nurse who had been married to a doctor, but when the marriage ended, she moved to the main floor of this house on the quiet street near the graveyard. It was 1982 and Cindy began to receive obscene and threatening phone calls. On January 27, 1983, a friend found Cindy slumped in 334’s basement stairwell. The nurse’s arms and legs were slashed, and a black stocking had been tied tightly around her neck. Cindy told police that she had been attacked by an unknown assailant. She moved to the west side of town, but the reign of terror followed her. More phone calls, notes left on her car, a few more incidents in which she claimed to have been assaulted. The number of incidents she reported topped 100. As Neil Hall explains in his book, The Deaths of Cindy James, the police never found a damning fingerprint, nor a suspect.

In 1989, she disappeared and her body was found two weeks later near an abandoned house in Richmond. It looked like Cindy James 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 Cindy died from an overdose of morphine and other drugs. A lengthy Coroner’s inquest concluded that she died from an “unknown event.” The police felt that there was no further evidence to warrant continuing the investigation. Her ex-husband, a psychiatrist, suspected that she suffered from Multiple Personality Disorder and that she staged her own stalking. Cindy’s family believes that her killer or killers are still out there.

Other stories from the block: Evelyn Caldwell and Alicia Priest.