A nurse’s terror and a chilling connection to her ex-husband | Forensic Files

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Dear Melanie, Hi! Hope all is well with you and thanks for the interesting mail you’ve sent in the last while.
I’ve been busy in the garden wherever I can; getting it slowly in shape. We’ve had some really nice weather lately.
I’m still getting harassed from time to time by someone trying to break in here, but I think we’ve
come up with a solution if it doesn't cost too much. Gord is going to wire in a sensor for me,
so hopefully we’ll know when someone enters the backyard and we can quietly call the police
while he is busy doing his thing. I’m really hopeful we might actually catch him soon.
Wouldn’t that be wonderful! I could actually start living a normal life again. I’ve almost forgotten what that feels like.
The police have been pretty useless so it would be wonderful to hand him over on a silver platter.
Well I must bath and get ready for Marion to pick me up. Hope to hear from you soon,
Love Cindy. 38-year-old Cindy Makepeace was chainsmoking Cameo Menthol Cigarettes at her dining room table.
It was October 12 1982, and she had just received her eighth threatening phone call in five days.
During most calls, nothing could be heard on the line other than heavy breathing.
Othertimes, a man spoke to her in a menacing whisper. He had made crude sexual suggestions
to Cindy a few days prior - but she hung up in disgust before hearing him out. The most recent call had really unnerved her. The man warned: “You’re dead Cindy.”
As nightfell, Cindy went around her multi-level stuccoed home in Vancouver: Canada,
closing the window drapes. Ten minutes later, the phone rang. The familiar low,
growling voice said: “Don’t think pulling the drapes means I don’t know you’re in there.”
Cindy called the police. An officer arrived and found no sign of the caller lurking outside the
house. He couldn’t do anything except suggest Cindy make a list of all the calls she received
and to get an unlisted phone number. With no known enemies, the highly respected
paediatric mental health nurse was at a loss as to who could be harassing her. One week later, Cindy returned home with friend Agnes Woodcock after a night out to find that
someone had gained entry into her house. She raced next door and asked her neighbour,
who was aware of the calls Cindy had been getting, to investigate. He entered the
house ahead of Cindy and Agnes to make sure that the intruder was no longer inside.
After a thorough search of all the rooms, the neighbour told the women that it was safe to go
in. Cindy began to get ready for bed. A few minutes later, Agnes heard Cindy screaming.
She found Cindy in her bedroom, sobbing and clutching a pillow. The pillow, concealed under the covers of the bed, had been slashed to pieces.
The cuts were precise and were carried out with a sharp object like a razor. Constable Pat McBride of the Vancouver Police responded to Cindy’s call. As nothing had been
stolen from the house, McBride thought that someone was trying to send Cindy a message.
Even though Cindy had changed her number, the threatening calls continued. They were mainly “no-talk” calls. Seeking comfort, Cindy contacted her husband.
Cindy Hack had met psychiatrist, Doctor Roy Makepeace, at Vancouver General Hospital
in the fall of 1965. A natural beauty with long blonde hair, blue eyes, and wide smile,
Cindy would turn heads wherever she went. She quickly caught the attention of Roy,
who was assisting Cindy with a group project for her nursing studies. The two became inseparable. In December 1966, Roy, who was 18-years older than Cindy, left his wife
and two children and married 22-year-old Cindy. The union was eventually accepted
by Cindy’s parents, Otto and Tillie Hack. Roy soon became welcomed into the Hack family life,
often playing cards and sharing a drink with Cindy’s father who was only six years his senior.
The first few years of marriage were an extremely happy time for the newlyweds. Cindy,
who always dreamed of working with children, was employed at the Children’s Foundation - a
job where she cared for children suffering from trauma and mental health conditions. In 1974,
Cindy landed her dream job as the founding director for Blenheim House - a new centre
for pre-school children requiring mental health support. Described as gentle and kind but firm
when she needed to be, Cindy ran the centre with utmost professionalism and passion.
In contrast, Roy Makepeace was not faring as well. Although a registered psychiatrist elsewhere,
when Roy moved to British Columbia he failed the accreditation process three times and was
not permitted to practice psychiatry. Instead, Roy took a job as the head of medical services at B.C
Hydro, the British Columbian electric utility. According to Cindy, the disappointment of
failing the exams left Roy depressed and he became short tempered and irritable.
Roy was a keen sailor and fisherman. In 1977, he bought a nine meter catamaran he named “The Peacemaker.” Cindy accompanied him on some of
his voyages. But the trips were unpleasant, as Cindy had a severe phobia of water.
Her fear was so great that she couldn’t even get into a swimming pool. When sailing in Roy’s boat,
Cindy would spend the majority of her time under the deck with her dog Heidi. Cindy’s lack of interest in Roy’s maritime activities drove a wedge between the couple.
Cindy preferred tending to her garden, which became a sanctuary where she could escape her marital troubles.
Cindy and Roy drifted apart over the years. On July 1 1982, after 16-years of marriage,
the couple separated amicably. They lived in different houses, but would continue to see
each other for the occasional dinner date or trip to the symphony - a pastime they both enjoyed.
Roy stayed in their home while Cindy rented the main floor of a house in East Vancouver,
only 14 blocks from her workplace. Three months later, the harassing phone calls began.
Sitting on Cindy’s bed, Roy Makepeace examined the slashed pillow. He tried to reassure Cindy,
who was still very upset about the incident. As Roy left that evening, he took the pillow with him and threw it away.
The following day, the tenants who rented the apartment underneath Cindy’s house phoned the local police. They knew Cindy had left for work,
however they could hear noises coming from her place above. Officers arrived, but it appeared as though the intruder had come and gone without a trace.
A few days later, Constable Pat McBride who had been dispatched to Cindy’s house on the
night of the slashed pillow attack, returned to her home. To put her mind at ease, he had with
him deadbolts to put on her doors. The two became good friends. McBride had separated from his wife
and was looking to stay somewhere for a month while an apartment became available for him.
Cindy suggested he rent a room in her house, explaining that it benefited them both - he would have somewhere to live and she would have someone to offer protection.
Constable Pat McBride agreed and moved in on November 1. The no-talk telephone calls continued. On November 22, Cindy was getting into her car
after a day of work when she noticed a note stuck to the windshield. An image of a woman who resembled Cindy had been cut from a magazine. Her eyes had been
scratched out by a sharp object. Whoever was stalking Cindy Makepeace knew where she worked.
Vancouver Police increased their patrols around Cindy’s house. On November 28, Officer Pat McBride returned to the property mid-shift to have a coffee with Cindy.
After he left, he received a call out advising that Cindy’s phone lines had been cut. They
had been cut in five places, however the phone line to the downstairs tenants remained intact.
Cindy had received a hang up call half an hour before she realised the lines were dead.
Officer McBride and his partner kept surveillance on the home until their shift finished at 7AM. But no further incidents occurred.
He continued investigating, discovering that a woman two doors down from Cindy had also
received hang up and no talk phone calls. A neighbour told Pat McBride that he had also
seen a strange man lurking around Cindy’s house on three occasions but couldn’t offer a description.
In early December 1982, Officer McBride moved out of Cindy’s house. Over the month that they had lived together, Cindy and Pat had formed a bond.
The pair began dating, before entering into an intimate relationship. At times they would double date with Roy Makepeace and one of his female friends.
Even though she was living alone again, Cindy assured family and friends that she was fine.
Cindy was resilient - she had endured hardships throughout her life and was not going to let
the recent events get to her. Although loved by their parents - growing up, Cindy and her five
siblings were disciplined sternly by their air force instructor father. At age 6, Cindy began
experiencing nightmares. They continued into her adult years and would cause her to wake screaming.
Young Cindy’s distress was amplified by her fear of the basement in her family home.
Recalling her childhood to friends, Cindy remembered having to eat in the darkened
space because there wasn’t enough room for all the Hack family around the dinner table.
She was also sent down there for misbehaving. Cindy also confided to Roy that she had been sexually assaulted by one of her brothers as
a child. Being someone who kept things to herself, she chose not to elaborate. Regular changes in postings for Otto meant that the Hack family moved often, but Cindy maintained
A-grades throughout her schooling. She had dreams of attending college, however Otto was of the
opinion that only his sons should attend. Instead, he permitted Cindy to enrol in nursing school.
In 1963, Cindy met a resident doctor and the two of them had a brief relationship, ending when he
was killed in an accident. Heartbroken, Cindy threw herself into her studies and came top of
her class in the psychiatric components of her course. It was an area she found fascinating.
In December 1982, police on heightened patrol noted Roy Makepeace’s car circling the block
of Cindy’s residence. He drove into the laneway behind her house and turned the headlights off.
Officers approached Roy, who claimed he was there to protect his wife. They advised him to move on.
In the book about Cindy Makepeace by Ian Mulgrew, Cindy told Officer Pat McBride that one night she
had awoken to a tapping at her window. Terrified, she pulled back the curtain to find Roy there,
armed with a knife and a rifle. He told Cindy to sleep easy because he was guarding her premises.
The next day, Roy recounted the night's events to Cindy, explaining his theory that someone
from the Mafia could be out to get her. He told Cindy that the phone calls, the stalker activity,
and the slashed pillow were reminiscent of scenes from the crime film, The Godfather. Roy thought
that Cindy may have upset the family of one of her patients and that they were terrorising her as a
way of exacting revenge. He warned Cindy not to use the downstairs laundry room as someone
could easily slip in there and slit her throat, remarking that she wouldn’t be found for days.
Roy asked Cindy to move back in with him and was angered when she refused. In late December, Roy went with Cindy to her parents' place on
Vancouver Island for the holidays. The pair exchanged gifts like old times, although it was obvious that their relationship was strained.
On January 15 the following year, Officer Pat McBride was visiting Cindy when she
received a phone call. McBride listened in. There was no voice on the other line.
However, a woman’s voice over a P.A system was audible in the background. It sounded like the call was coming from an airport.
A wiretap had been placed on Cindy’s phone, though the caller did not stay on the line
long enough for a full trace. But a partial trace placed the call as coming from the Richmond area,
the location of Vancouver Airport. On the night of January 27, Cindy was feeling particularly anxious.
Her friend, Agnes Woodcock, told Cindy that she would stay the night so she had
someone else in the house with her. Cindy gratefully accepted the offer. While she waited for Agnes to arrive, Cindy decided to move some old boxes into the garage.
As she went to turn on the garage light, she realised it wasn’t working. Suddenly, someone grabbed Cindy by her right arm and told her to keep quiet. Cindy felt a pin prick
on her right shoulder and although she tried to fight off her assailant, soon became drowsy.
The man held a knife and threatened to cut her face if she cried out. She felt something tight being wrapped around her neck
and tried to get a glimpse of her attacker as she struggled to breathe. He was wearing tight gloves and running shoes but in the darkness, all his features were hidden. The
man went to leave and as he closed the garage door said to Cindy: “It will take a long time to die.”
Agnes arrived at 9.30PM and heard a moaning sound coming from the basement stairwell. She found
Cindy, with a black stocking wrapped tightly around her neck and numerous cuts on her body.
Cindy was taken to Vancouver General Hospital where she was treated for 14 cuts to her back,
shoulders, and legs. The emergency doctor thought they had been caused by a razor
or scalpel, given the neatness of the incisions. She also had a strangulation mark around her neck caused by the stocking, bruises to her face,
and what appeared to be a puncture mark from a needle on her right arm. Cindy was hazy about the events. She did her best to recount what happened to her to the doctor
and to Detective David Bowyer-Smyth who was assigned to the investigation. Roy Makepeace was considered the prime suspect in Cindy’s attack. He gave an alibi for the night,
explaining that he had worked late until about 9, before getting some dinner at a restaurant a
few kilometers from Cindy’s house. He then said he got home after 10, remembering that the late news
had already started on television. Roy agreed to take a polygraph test to confirm his alibi - but
it never went ahead. Medications that Roy took for a heart problem could result in false positives
and the stress of the test could trigger his condition. Roy Makepeace was free to leave.
Following the assault, Cindy moved into a bungalow style house closer to her workplace.
Friends thought Cindy would be safer in an apartment building with secure access, but
Cindy turned down the idea. She wanted a garden to tend to and space for her dog Heidi to run around.
Cindy refused to divulge much information about the attack to family and friends,
not wanting to burden them with her troubles. An intensely private person, Cindy felt the attack was hers to deal with on her own.
However, as a last resort, Cindy began seeing G.P Doctor Allan Connolly to discuss her problems.
She declined seeing a psychiatrist because she didn’t want the stigma attached to seeking
professional help. Cindy confided to Connolly that she thought she would never feel safe
walking down the street again. Soon, Dr Connolly began seeing Cindy in her home
and stopped charging for visits. He became more of a friend than a doctor, even though he continued prescribing her medications for anxiety and to help her sleep.
Not long after the move, Cindy started receiving letters at work. Addressed to her,
the words and letters were cut from magazines and newspapers. The threatening messages inside - such
as “Soon Cindy,” and “You’re Dead C**t,” terrified her and she promptly tore up the letters and threw
them away. On other occasions, she threw the unopened letters straight into the bin.
On October 15 1983, Cindy heard Heidi barking outside. When she went to investigate, she found a
dead cat in her yard with a note nearby that read, “You’re next.” No prints were found on the paper.
One month later, Cindy hired private investigator Ozzie Kaban at the suggestion of Officer Pat
McBride. The physical attack on Cindy had been marked inactive due to a lack of leads. Cindy
felt that the Vancouver Police Department wasn’t interested in catching her assailant.
She hoped Ozzie would get her the answers she needed. Ozzie gave Cindy a two way radio with a panic button that she could use in case of emergency,
given that Cindy’s phone lines had been cut at her new house as well. The hang up calls also continued, now occurring at Cindy’s workplace Blenheim House.
Cindy’s coworkers were becoming concerned as the bright and bubbly Cindy now seemed frightened and withdrawn.
One day, Cindy awoke to find that her new garden she had put so many hours into
had been trampled. Flowers and plants were dug up and strewn around. It was reminiscent of a time
Roy Makepeace had lost his temper and gone on a similar rampage when they were living together.
Cindy’s co-workers discussed the attacks when she wasn’t in earshot. They recalled when she had come
to work in 1981 with a foot and leg injury. She told them that she had injured herself
playing racquetball but later confided to Speech Pathologist Sue Fisk that Roy had pushed her down
the stairs. Sue also recalled at Christmas that year that Cindy had come to work with a black eye.
She walked into Cindy’s office later that day to find Roy Makepeace embracing Cindy saying: “I’m sorry I did that to you.”
Roy’s temper intensified. Cindy confided to another employee that she required reconstructive
breast surgery following one particularly violent assault. Her colleagues were relieved in 1982
when Cindy, with another black eye, told them that she and Roy were separating.
However, Cindy was adamant that Roy was not responsible for the spate of attacks.
They still went to dinner and dated regularly. Cindy even broke off her relationship with Pat McBride, telling him that things were moving too quickly for her.
On January 30, just before 6PM, Ozzie Kaban was informed by his security company that an odd
rustling sound was coming from the two way radio owned by Cindy. He made his way to Cindy’s house
and knocked on the locked door. When Cindy failed to answer, Ozzie peered through the front window.
Scanning the interior, he could make out Cindy lying on her back on the floor of the hallway.
Her long blonde hair was covering her face. After returning to his car to alert the police,
Ozzie kicked the front door down and yelled: “Come out you son of a bitch, I’ll kill you!”
He rushed to Cindy. She was unconscious, cold, and clammy with a visible bump to her head.
Her left arm was outstretched and a note was stuck to her left hand, secured in place by a paring knife that pierced her skin and went into the floor below.
The note - made of letters cut from newspapers and magazines read: “Now You Must Die.”
Paramedics arrived and a hospital attendant noticed something hidden in between the skin folds
of Cindy’s neck. Tied so tightly it was initially obscured from view was a black nylon stocking.
Scans revealed Cindy had not sustained any brain damage from being strangled and she was released from hospital the next day. She told the police that she
had returned home from work approximately an hour before the attack. She was unlocking her
back door to let Heidi inside when she saw a man coming through the side gate of her house.
Cindy thought it was a neighbour and called out to him. But the man remained silent and walked briskly up the stairs to her.
Cindy began to panic and was frozen in fear. The man struck her over the head with something.
She couldn’t recall the events that followed, other than waking up on the kitchen floor,
with the impression that there were two men with her. After they left, Cindy remembered
crawling to the hallway to retrieve the two way radio and trying to contact Ozzie.
Cindy described her main attacker to Ozzie. He had a brown moustache, blue eyes, and was wearing a blue nylon jacket.
She confided to Ozzie that she hadn’t given the police his description as he had threatened to
kill her sisters if she told them anything. Despite Ozzie’s encouragement, she refused
to disclose any information about the attack to authorities other than the basic details.
On February 14, Roy Makepeace was questioned about the incident. Detective David Bowyer-Smyth believed him to be responsible for the attack. In a six hour
interrogation, he continued to barrage Roy in an attempt to get him to crack. He warned
Roy that he would be charged with two acts of attempted murder over the two physical assaults.
After refusing to give in, Detective Bowyer-Smyth told Roy that Cindy had given him up,
finally telling police that she believed he was the perpetrator behind the attacks
on her. She had told detectives that he was a violent man and she was terrified of him.
Roy steadfastly denied any involvement, however admitted to slapping Cindy on two occasions
when they were living together. He denied ever punching Cindy, giving her black eyes,
or any of the other incidences of assault she claimed. Roy maintained his theory that the Mafia were involved in the attacks and explained this to
the dubious detectives. With no evidence to charge him, Roy was allowed to leave the station.
Cindy recuperated from her ordeal and took a brief holiday to her parent’s bungalow on
Vancouver Island. The respite did her good, and Cindy returned to work happy and upbeat.
Following the previous attack four months prior, Cindy and Ozzie had devised a safety plan.
She would call his firm when she was leaving her house and also when she returned so that Ozzie
knew she was unharmed. On July 23 at 8:16PM, Cindy phoned Ozzie Kaban’s security company
to let them know she was taking Heidi for a quick walk in a nearby park and would return in an hour.
It was a warm night and Cindy watched the tennis players at the nearby community centre.
As she walked along, a green van pulled up alongside her. Its driver was a man with long dark hair, a bushy beard, and wearing square horn rimmed glasses.
He spoke to her through the open passenger window, while leaning across a blonde-haired
female in the passenger seat. He asked: “Excuse me ma’am, do you know where Churchill Street is?”
Cindy started to give the man directions. Approximately three hours later, Regan Trethway heard a strange noise. He looked
out the front window of his house and saw a blonde woman trying to open his front door.
It was Cindy Makepeace. She mouthed some words to him and was about to lose consciousness.
As she pointed to her throat, Regan could make out a black stocking tied tightly around her
neck. He cut the ligature with difficulty, as it was so tight he couldn’t get his fingers under it.
Treating doctors at the University of B.C. Hospital emergency department did not know what to make of the attack.
Cindy had puffy, red eyes from being strangled, a bloody left nostril, and a sore right ankle.
Ozzie Kaban had met Cindy at Regan Trethway’s before she was transported by ambulance.
He informed the doctors of two fresh needle puncture marks he had seen on Cindy’s inner elbow.
Toxicology tests were run which showed the presence of benzodiazepines in Cindy’s
bloodstream, but did not give a result as to the concentration of drugs in her system.
When they undressed her, nursing staff found twigs and leaves in her underwear.
Cindy’s recollection of events was hazy. She didn’t remember anything after giving
the man in the van directions - the next thing she recalled was speaking to a doctor in the hospital.
A search of Dunbar Park where Cindy was abducted located one of her shoes, the canister of dog repellant she carried for protection,
and a drag mark in the dirt about 10 metres from the sidewalk where the van pulled up.
Later that evening, in the emergency department, clerk Lisa Lattimore received a call.
The call was received directly at the emergency desk, bypassing the hospital’s switchboard system.
A man on the line asked: “Do you have hospital security?” When Lisa asked him to clarify what he meant the man replied: “Do you have security guards?”
He also asked what time the emergency department closed. The perplexed clerk advised the man that it didn’t close.
He went on to ask how many floors the hospital had. Not wanting to divulge any further
information, Lisa told the man she would transfer him to her supervisor. The man abruptly hung up.
Lisa reported the unusual call to Detective David Bowyer-Smyth who was at the hospital
interviewing Cindy Makepeace. She told him that the caller had a strange accent,
possibly of South African or New Zealand extraction. In an attempt to remember details of the past attacks, Cindy agreed to undergo sessions of
hypnosis. In the book about Cindy Makepeace by Neal Hall, the sessions were successful.
Cindy was able to recall from the latest attack the model of the van, that it had chrome mirrors, a rubber pad on the bumper, and a smoky coloured air vent on top.
She recalled being dragged into the van, which had carpeting in the back and several people inside.
One had a mask and wig on. She felt a sharp prick on her arm and voices surrounding her.
One of the voices uttered the word: “Hombagosh.” This was a South African Zulu word Cindy explained translated to: “Be warned. Do as I say.”
Roy Makepeace was South African and spoke with a strong accent. At the third hypnosis session held on October 2, Cindy made a startling revelation.
She recalled a trip that she and Roy had taken on board The Peacemaker just over three years
earlier in July 1981. They had sailed to an isolated area of the Gulf Islands, approximately 75 kilometers from Vancouver. As they tied up to the wharf,
Cindy decided to stay below and take a nap while Roy went to look at some property on the Island.
Becoming visibly distressed during the hypnosis session, Cindy recounted how she heard some shouting.
After putting on her jeans and shoes, she went above deck and shouted back. No one responded.
She investigated the noise, happening upon a log cabin further inland at the top of a hill.
She approached the front porch. Firewood was stacked neatly to one side. Cindy knocked on the door but there was no answer. She cautiously opened the door to
see Roy Makepeace standing there. He was very angry. On the floor were the bodies of two
people - a man in his 30s and a woman in her 20s. Roy was holding a knife. It was covered in blood.
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Running from the cabin, Cindy screamed out to Roy that he was a murderer and vomited.
Roy caught up to Cindy, slapped her on the face, and shook her. The next thing she remembered was
sitting on a bed while Roy hacked the bodies into pieces with an axe to dispose of in the
ocean. From the book by Neal Hall, Cindy told the hypnotherapist: “I don’t know how I got there.
I’m just sitting on the bed. I’m numb as if in a shell. But part of me is screaming inside.”
Detectives attempted to pinpoint the cabin that Cindy had described in her hypnotherapy sessions.
It was a difficult task given that Cindy was asleep when they docked and didn’t
know where the cabin was located in the vast expanse of the Gulf Islands. Although she could recall the interior with clarity - a rough wooden floor, grey blanket,
a wooden cupboard stacked with books, an old table that had writing paper on it,
a wood stove and maps on the wall - the exterior offered no distinguishing features.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police searched the area described by Cindy for a full day
but could not locate the cabin. Employing another tactic, Cindy agreed to call her husband using a phone that was tapped by police.
On July 2 1985, Roy Makepeace’s telephone rang. He was surprised to hear Cindy on the other line.
They had not spoken since he found out she thought him responsible for the attacks.
She began the conversation: “With the help of hypnosis, I’ve been able to remember a lot of why
things are happening and what happened four years ago. I wanted to talk to you before letting the
police know that I now remember everything.” Roy listened as Cindy recounted the bodies in the log
cabin. He sounded shocked and angry when she told him she believed he was responsible for
the attacks on her and denied any wrongdoing, telling Cindy he had nothing to do with it.
As she terminated the call, Cindy said: “We both know that you have been doing it,
I’m not going to listen to that garbage anymore.” Immediately following the call, Roy Makepeace and Cindy were placed on round the clock surveillance.
This was ceased five days later, due to the expense and resources required. During this time, Roy made no attempt to contact or harm Cindy.
Six months later on December 11, Cindy left work on her lunch break and didn’t return.
That night, Desirie Elsaesser was cycling near the University of British Columbia.
It was freezing cold as she rode along West 16th Avenue. The December sun had well and truly set by
6:20 as Desirie came to the intersection of Blanca Street. She stopped when something caught her eye.
A blonde woman staggered before falling into a ditch across the street. Racing over to her, Desirie noticed the woman had a black stocking wrapped tightly around her neck.
She managed to tear the stocking off with her bare hands and called an ambulance.
When paramedics arrived, they found Cindy Makepeace standing in the ditch, dazed, with icy cold water up to her thighs.
She was wearing regular clothes with the addition of a black rubber industrial glove on her right hand. One of her feet was bare, the other had on a man’s work boot.
Concerned about hypothermia, a paramedic coaxed Cindy out of the water and worked on warming her
as he took her to the University of B.C Hospital. Cindy had scratches on her upper chest, arms,
legs, and back that looked like they were caused from fingernails or tree branches.
She had a dark bruise to her forehead. There was a fresh puncture wound to Cindy’s right elbow
indicating that she had been drugged. Blood testing showed the presence of benzodiazepines
in her bloodstream. However, Cindy also told the treating doctor she had taken 6 milligrams of the
drug Ativan for anxiety earlier in the day. As with previous attacks, Cindy couldn’t
remember what had happened to her, only events before and after. She recalled leaving Blenheim
House for lunch and driving to the chemist to pick up her prescription for Ativan.
The next thing she recalled was going to the hospital in the ambulance, although she had a vague memory of having her hands tied behind her in an unfamiliar room.
Cindy poured her feelings out in her personal diary. She wrote: “I don’t know why it bothers
me so much that I can still only remember bits and pieces of what happened the last time I
was attacked. I don’t know which is worse - remembering or not being able to remember.
I think it would be better if I had total amnesia about it, although it feels so helpless to know things were done to you and you don’t know what they were.
The police reaction was so confusing. If nothing else, I learned not to talk to anyone about it.”
Cindy returned to work shortly after the attack but the experience had a profound effect on her.
She became further withdrawn and it was obvious to her coworkers that she was no longer coping with the demands of her work.
She looked exhausted. The dark circles around her eyes accentuated by her pale skin.
Cindy felt she had no choice but to move house again. She relocated from Vancouver
to the city of Richmond, 15 kilometers south. Things settled down and Cindy enjoyed the
garden at her new rental house, a modest brown and white timber multi-leveled home.
Cindy’s close friends, Tom and Agnes Woodcock, came over on the night of April 12 1986,
four months after the attack in the park. They played cards and decided to stay the night, retiring to bed at 11 o’clock.
At 2AM, Tom heard a loud thump coming from downstairs. He was putting on his pants
when Cindy knocked on his door. She had heard the same noise and asked Tom if he
would go with her to investigate. They made their way down the hallway together. As Tom
passed the window of the living room he could see flames coming from the basement below them.
He shouted to his wife Agnes to phone for the fire brigade. Agnes soon returned, telling Tom that the phone line was dead. In response,
Tom raced outside to flag down anyone who might be able to help. He saw a man in his
30s standing near Cindy’s house and called to him, asking the man to phone for assistance.
The man didn’t reply, instead running down a side street and disappearing into the night.
The fire was quickly brought under control and extinguished by the Richmond Fire Department at
2:52AM. Damage was confined to the basement area and Cindy, her guests, and her dog were unharmed.
An investigation by authorities and a specialist fire investigator could not find any evidence
to suggest who might be responsible for the blaze. Cindy thought Roy Makepeace was to blame.
The fire was a massive setback to Cindy. She became increasingly despondent in the
weeks that followed. The major depression that arose from Cindy realising that the attacks
had followed her to her new place resulted in a stay at St Paul’s psychiatric unit.
Gradually Cindy’s mental health improved and on discharge from the hospital, she finalised her relationship with Roy Makepeace, officially divorcing in June 1986.
To mark the end of the marriage, Cindy changed her surname from Makepeace to James. Rather than returning to her maiden name of Hack,
Cindy liked the short, easy to remember surname of James and the new beginning it signified.
In mid-1986, Cindy went to Germany to visit and stay with her brother Roger who worked there.
On return, Cindy, who had taken six months of sick leave, felt well enough to go back to work.
She was immediately asked to resign. It had been decided in her absence that she wasn’t coping well
enough to competently continue as director of Blenheim House. The decision devastated Cindy,
as she lived and breathed her job. As a parting gesture, Cindy received a payout. Given that she
had worked in her specialist role at Blenheim House for 13 years, the company also provided
funds for Cindy to upgrade her nursing skills so she could return to work as a hospital ward nurse.
Not long after, she took a job at Richmond General Hospital on a ward for patients who
had recently been discharged from the I.C.U but were not well enough to return home.
This job had Cindy returning to shift work and working long hours. She had further difficulty sleeping, relying more on medications such as diazepam
and lost weight, often feeling too anxious to eat. Her weight plummeted to 44 kilograms.
At the behest of her psychiatrist, who saw Cindy fortnightly after her release from the psychiatric hospital, Cindy began keeping a private journal. The psychiatrist
hoped it would help if Cindy recorded everything and reflected on her thoughts.
From the book about Cindy by Neal Hall, one entry dated April 30 1988 read: “Got a hang up call about half an hour after getting home.
Don’t know if it’s that or what, but I feel kind of jittery. Hope there aren’t any more over the
next few days as that seems to have been a pattern before my house was broken into each time. Maybe
I’ll take a taxi to work on Monday night so it doesn’t look like the house is empty. Christ, I’m
sick of this! I’m so tired of living in fear. I’m so bloody tired period! I’m tired of being tired.”
Cindy used her journal to express her anger towards the various people in her life that
had left her in despair. Her parents for her strict upbringing. Roy Makepeace for
his control over her while they were together. And the Vancouver and Richmond Police who, whilst they
assured Cindy they were doing everything to catch her assailant, she felt were brushing her off.
On October 9 1988, Roy Makepeace was sitting in his apartment in Kitsilano, Vancouver,
15 kilometers north of Cindy’s house in Richmond. Two men approached the main entrance and rang the
intercom for the secure apartment building. Roy didn’t recognise them so ignored their buzzing.
Several minutes later, he could hear noises at his apartment door. Roy looked out of the
peephole but couldn’t see anyone, they were just out of view. He soon realised it was the two
young men who had been outside moments before, someone else having let them into the building.
Roy heard one say: “You go down - I’ll wait here until he comes out.” After staying outside for about an hour both men left. Roy, although distressed by the incident,
did not contact the police. His treatment by detectives over the attacks on his ex-wife
made him distrustful and he wanted as little to do with authorities as possible.
Roy decided instead that from now on, any visitors to his apartment would need to buzz
on the intercom using morse code for the letter “R” so Roy knew it was safe to let them in.
Two days after the strange men at his door, Roy was checking his answering machine
when a 12 second message chilled him. A low, snarling voice said: “Sunday...dead...meat...soon.” Roy panicked, thinking it was from the
two young men who were at his door the previous Sunday. He replayed the message.
On the second listen he realised that the caller wasn’t saying “Sunday,” they were saying “Cindy.”
Roy believed that the caller was the person who had been harassing Cindy for the past
six years. The next day, as he checked his answering machine again, Roy had another message. This one, in the same growling tone said:
“Hey man, more smack, more downers, another grand after we waste the c** t. No more deal.”
Roy sent a copy of the threatening messages to his lawyer, believing that he was being framed.
In response, Roy’s lawyer told him to forward the tapes to the Vancouver Police Chief.
Roy declined and did not tell Cindy about the calls. Later that month on October 26, Cindy finished work at 8:30PM after a 13 hour shift.
She was due to clock off an hour earlier but a patient on her ward died and Cindy stayed back
to complete the required paperwork. Extremely saddened and dejected at the loss of her patient,
Cindy pulled into her garage and waited with the engine and lights off. This was a habit she had
gotten into to make sure everything was quiet and safe at her house before she exited her car.
As Cindy got out, she noticed a man standing at the rear of her blue Chevrolet Citation. Wearing
a ski mask, the man grabbed Cindy and put a knife to her neck. He said that he would kill her.
It was then that Cindy realised there was another man, his face also concealed by a ski mask.
Cindy tried to fight off her attackers but a needle was pushed into her right arm.
The silent alarm registered to Cindy James was received approximately two and a half
hours later by Ozzie Kaban’s security company. A police officer responded shortly after midnight,
parking his car outside Cindy’s house. Everything was silent. As the officer walked up
Cindy’s driveway, he noticed the interior light of her car in the open garage was on.
He found Cindy lying in the driver’s seat naked from the waist down. Her pantyhose were
pulled down around her ankles. Her legs were protruding from the car door and her hands had
been tied behind her back with a black nylon stocking. Another was tied around her neck.
In one of her hands was the alarm device. Cindy’s mouth was covered with grey duct tape and crusted blood formed around her nostrils. Her skin was cold.
Unable to find a pulse, the police officer radioed for backup, stating that Cindy was deceased.
A responding officer arrived and heard Cindy wheeze. Realising she was still alive, the
officers worked to free her from her restraints. She was taken immediately to Richmond General
Hospital for treatment in the I.C.U, where some of the nurses recognised Cindy as their colleague.
The next day, Cindy fell into a coma. Fearing a brain injury, a neurologist had Cindy
transferred to a second hospital. There, she was intubated and had a number of brain scans.
They revealed no permanent damage. When Cindy regained consciousness, she was questioned
extensively as Richmond Police investigated the crime scene. Four Export A brand cigarette
butts were found near Cindy’s car as well as a kleenex tissue with small spots of blood.
Cindy slowly recovered and was discharged from hospital. Richmond detectives determined a pattern in the Cindy James case.
There would be periods where nothing occurred and then the phone calls and threatening letters began, almost as a warning to Cindy to be on guard for a physical attack.
An attack would then occur and then the threats would cease for a short period of time.
Friends and family of Cindy believed that her attacker wanted to torment and drive Cindy insane from the attacks rather than kill her. They cited that the attacker
already had multiple opportunities in which they could have killed Cindy but hadn’t.
In response, on April 3 1989, Richmond authorities went about installing permanent surveillance at
Cindy’s house. Setbacks, including equipment failure and technical problems made this a
frustrating and time consuming endeavour. However, they were confident the assailant would be caught.
It was just a matter of watching and waiting. On May 25, Cindy went for coffee with a nursing friend Diane Yong. It was
her first day off of five from the hospital. Together they discussed their travel dreams and
Cindy happily told Diane how the attacks against her seemed to have quietened down of late.
Later that afternoon, Cindy went to pick up her paycheck. She had a friendly chat with payroll
clerk Tammy Carmen about all the things she planned to do on the remaining four days off
she had from work, including attending a birthday party. Tammy commented on Cindy’s appearance,
telling her how gorgeous she looked in her pink blouse, burgundy pants, and blue suede jacket.
Cindy explained that she had just had a makeover at a beauty salon in the mall.
Tammy hadn’t recalled seeing Cindy that bubbly in a long time. At approximately 9 that night, Tom and Agnes Woodcock arrived at Cindy’s place to play bridge.
They were confused to find Cindy wasn’t home, as they had organised the late night
card game only hours earlier. Tom and Agnes drove around the main streets of Richmond,
hoping to spot Cindy’s car on the road. As they drove past the Blundell Shopping Centre car park,
Agnes saw Cindy’s powder blue Chevrolet Citation parked near the Bank of Montreal.
Pulling into the near deserted car park, they examined the vehicle. It was locked. Cindy’s keys were visible on the front seat.
A small trickle of blood ran down the drivers side door. Cindy was nowhere to be found.
Police investigated the scene. Inside the car, two paper Safeway bags containing groceries were found
on the front passenger seat, with Cindy’s black purse wedged between them. Her purse contained a
total of $2.77. A further two grocery bags were found in the floor well of the passenger seat.
On the back seats, lay two Sears bags containing a croquet set and wrapping paper. Underneath Cindy’s car was her bankcard with an ATM transaction receipt wrapped around
it. The receipt indicated that Cindy had deposited her paycheck at 7:58 earlier that night.
The position of Cindy’s car concerned her friend Agnes. Cindy preferred to park as close to the bank’s exterior ATM machine as possible,
as this meant that she didn’t have to walk far from her car at night. Agnes knew that Cindy would wait if needed for the closest car space to become available.
At 3:16AM, two constables arrived at Roy Makepeace’s apartment for questioning.
Roy initially refused to let them in, appearing frightened and argumentative. Eventually he obliged, telling the officers that
the reason for his behaviour was that he was fearful for his life. He now slept with a rifle beside his bed after getting numerous hang up calls and phone messages.
Whilst talking to Roy, the officers took note of his apartment. The rooms were cluttered and in disarray. His bed appeared slept in.
Roy gave an alibi for the night before, explaining he went cycling to a market with a friend.
It was then that officers told Roy about Cindy’s disappearance. He teared up and whispered: “My God, she’s dead.”
A foot search commenced in the Richmond area with sniffer dogs but there was no sign of Cindy.
Her car underwent forensic testing. Only Cindy’s fingerprints were uncovered on the vehicle.
The blood on the door handle matched her blood type. Using the Bank of Montreal records, police identified the customers who used the exterior ATM
15 minutes before and after Cindy. Barry Leroy, who used the machine three minutes after Cindy,
told officers he saw a blonde woman resembling Cindy walk in front of his car in a diagonal
direction across the parking lot. She was heading northeast away from the shopping center.
At the time, there were about 6 or 8 other cars parked in the lot. Barry said that the woman was
the only person he saw, although looking at a photo he couldn’t be positive it was Cindy.
As the search continued, Cindy’s father Otto, travelled from his home on Vancouver Island
and stayed in Cindy’s house to await any news of his daughter. Distraught, he offered to provide 500 military men to help search for Cindy.
This offer was declined by the police who assured him they were looking everywhere for his daughter.
Five days passed with no signs of Cindy. Her face was splashed across newspapers as police
urged witnesses to come forward. Staff Sergeant Ron De Roon told the Richmond Review that they
were baffled, explaining that Cindy quote: “Just kind of floated up into the sky like Houdini.”
Flight and other transportation records were checked with no indications that CIndy had left
the area. Her family believed that Cindy had been abducted. Otto Hack told the Province that before
his daughter disappeared, she called a friend. Cindy said to her: “some people may think I’m
paranoid but I have a feeling I’ve been followed all week.” This was in direct contrast to others
who saw Cindy that day, saying she was bright, bubbly and the happiest she’d been in a long time.
A search of Cindy’s house revealed nothing out of the ordinary aside from four bottles
of prescription sedatives and nine small boxes of an over the counter sedative, both of which
Cindy used to get to sleep. It became apparent to detectives that she was hoarding tablets.
Her family also found another 19 bottles of prescription medication hidden in her home.
They made a list of all the drugs, which totalled 900 pills before flushing them down the toilet.
In addition, her family also found in a spare room a kit containing a needle and syringe, an intravenous cannula and saline solution.
In the days after Cindy’s disappearance someone phoned the office where Cindy’s life insurance
policy was held. Claiming to be Cindy’s father, the male caller requested some information on the
policy. The secretary said that they would have to visit the office personally to discuss the matter.
The line went dead. Cindy’s father denied making the call. The secretary told police that the caller sounded older and had a slight accent.
June 8 1989 marked exactly two weeks after Cindy James’s disappearance. One and a half
kilometers from the Blundell Road Shopping Center, a municipal works crew continued
their job repairing part of a pavement on Blundell Road. At 1OAM, worker Gordon Starchuk
needed to urinate. The busy road offered no privacy but the house behind him was abandoned.
Making his way down the side of the property, Gordon passed the heavily graffitied exterior and ventured onto a vacant lot behind the house.
Out of the corner of his eye, Gordon saw a pink blouse and blonde hair. Initially thinking that
a woman was sleeping on the ground, he realised this was not the case as he ventured closer.
The woman was lying on her right side partly on a blue suede jacket, and was wearing burgundy pants
and one shoe. The other shoe was lying nearby. It was apparent the woman had been dead for
some time - her face was completely blackened from exposure and decomposition. Her wrists and
ankles were tied behind her back. Around her neck was a black nylon stocking. It was Cindy James.
Police secured the crime scene while onlookers gathered on the side of the road. Detectives
interviewed locals, none of whom reported anything suspicious in the past two weeks. At the time,
a squatter was living in a van behind the lot only five meters from where Cindy was found.
Even though he cooked his meals over a fire site less than two meters from where Cindy’s body lay, he recalled nothing out of the ordinary in the past
two weeks and had certainly not noticed Cindy lying there. The abandoned house - with broken windows and spray painted messages including the word
“devil”, “666”, and swastikas, was a hangout spot for a group of local teens. It contained no evidence that it was ever accessed by Cindy or her attackers.
Although there was some blood staining and cuts to Cindy’s blouse, there were no injuries to her
skin underneath. Investigators were expecting the cause of Cindy’s death to be strangulation.
However, this was not the case. There were no injuries consistent with strangulation.
20 millilitres of blood was taken for a toxicology screening in the hope it would provide some answers as to how Cindy died.
Days later, a message appeared on a fuel tank that lay beside the abandoned house. \ In orange spray
paint, the sentence: “Some bitch died here,” was written with a line extending from the fuel tank
to where Cindy’s body was found. Whoever was responsible was never identified. A month later, Otto and Tillie Hack, as well as Cindy’s siblings,
met with police. Cindy’s family waited, expecting an update. They were told that the The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were no longer investigating Cindy’s murder.
They were confident her death was a suicide. An inquest into Cindy James’s death was held in February 1990.
The toxicology report showed that Cindy had eight different drugs in her body, including flurazepam,
diazepam, and morphine. The massive drug overdose particularly of flurazepam and
morphine was concluded to have caused her death. Over the seven years prior to the final attack, Cindy had made a total of nearly 100 reports to
police departments. These included hang up calls, threatening letters, destroyed property, physical
attacks, three separate fires, and three occasions of dead cats being found on her property.
On two of these occasions the cats had been strangled. As time went by, suspicions grew - but not towards anyone in Cindy’s life.
Most, but not all of the police investigating the attacks, started to believe Cindy was responsible.
Cindy’s friends and family were adamant that she had been the victim of a sadistic stalker.
Five jurors were tasked with having to decide whether Cindy was the victim of foul play,
ended her own life, or perpetrated the final attack herself and accidentally went too far.
One of the first to give evidence was Vancouver Constable Valen Woollacott. Constable Valen Woollacott arrived at Cindy's home on January 27 1983,
just over six years before Cindy went missing. He had been dispatched to her home after the first physical attack on Cindy in which friend Agnes
Woodcock had found her in a basement stairwell with a black nylon stocking around her neck.
After talking with Cindy, who told him of how she had been attacked in the garage of her home,
Constable Woollacott conducted a search of Cindy’s house. Everything seemed well kept and in order.
Cindy’s house was full of indoor plants that were thriving under her care and attention.
The garage light was working, unlike Cindy had claimed. Furthermore, there was no indication
of a struggle. The boxes that Cindy said she had been moving were piled neatly in a corner.
The only sign that an attack had taken place was a mark of blood on one of the boxes - it
looked like a smudged thumb print. When he walked past the bathroom, Constable Woollacott stopped.
There was fresh blood on the bathroom counter and a spray of blood on the sink and
mirror. Cindy had never mentioned any altercation occurring in the bathroom. Given this discrepancy, Cindy James agreed to take a polygraph test
regarding the night of the attack. She was asked if she had inflicted the cuts to herself
and tied the nylon stocking around her own neck on the night of the attack. Cindy replied no.
The polygraph indicated she was being deceptive. The test was repeated another day. Again Cindy failed the test. When given the results,
Cindy grabbed the polygraph operater’s arm and said: “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry.”
Detective David Bower-Smyth thought that even though she had failed two polygraphs,
the fact that Cindy was incredibly nervous and emotional may have influenced the results. Cindy
could not recall the night’s events without breaking down and becoming histrionic.
He asked Cindy to come clean and she changed her version of events, telling the detective the
attack had indeed occurred in the house, not in the garage as she had previously claimed. She told
him that she had been too scared to tell the truth as the attacker had threatened to harm her family.
Vancouver police constable Kiyo Ikoma responded to the emergency call from Ozzie Kaban
when he found Cindy on the floor with the paring knife through her hand on January 30 1984.
Ikoma told the inquest that the blood on the kitchen floor where Cindy claimed the
attack had initially taken place, was smeared in a circular pattern as though an attempt had been made to clean it. He also noted that Ozzie Kaban had been forced
to kick down the front door after both doors to the house were locked. The coroner asked him if he had ever come across a crime scene before where the
assailant had wiped up blood and then locked the door behind them before leaving the scene.
Constable Ikoma replied: “The door yes, but not cleaned up blood.” Cindy's family and friends could not believe that authorities suspected Cindy of stabbing
her own hand in the frenzied attack but more testimony implicating Cindy was yet to come.
Detective Gary Foster recounted one of the arson attacks to Cindy’s basement on August 21 1985.
He went to Cindy’s house after the fire had been extinguished and along with another detective,
went about searching for evidence. The basement could either be accessed from an interior door
or from a louvred window that opened to the outside. Given that there was no evidence of an intruder in the house, the detectives focused on the basement window.
Divided into three panes of glass, the window opened outwards, making it difficult for someone
to crawl through. The sills were covered in thick dust and cobwebs, which were undisturbed. One of
the detectives tried to see if it were possible to gain entry via the window, covering himself in dust and leaving a trail of fingerprints in the process. The detectives
suggested that whoever started the fire may have thrown lit paper through the window but
arson investigators later concluded that the fire had been lit in six different places from inside.
A roll of toilet paper from the basement bathroom and a reader's digest magazine
had been used to set fire to a towel, subsequently igniting the basement bathroom.
Detective Carol Halliday joined the investigation after this attack. From the minute she spoke to
Cindy, she believed that Cindy was acting and carrying out the attacks herself.
She argued that Cindy had gotten away with it because the male investigators overseeing
the case were so enamored by Cindy’s charm and good looks. Detective Halliday wanted to have
Cindy charged with public mischief and arson. However, her superiors declined to do so,
in concern for the effect it would have on her mental health. Cindy was also suspected of lighting the fire on April 19 1986, when friends Tom and Agnes Woodcock
were staying over. Investigators noticed that even though the fire had started in the early hours of
the morning, Cindy’s bed appeared to have not been slept in. This implied she had been up all night.
The fire started amongst a bookcase containing memories of Cindy’s marriage to Roy,
further adding to the speculation that Cindy set the blaze herself. Tom Woodcock disagreed, remembering the strange man he had seen outside of
Cindy’s house soon after who had run down the road. This man was never identified.
Roy Makepeace, hounded by detectives as the prime suspect for years during the attacks
on Cindy was finally able to have his say at the inquest. The police conceded that
there was not one shred of evidence to link him to any of the assaults. Roy added that he had been in South Africa on the night of one of the arsons.
Cindy, not aware of this, had told detectives she believed Roy had lit the fire.
In an emotion filled testimony, Roy broke down when describing their blissful years as newlyweds.
He denounced Cindy’s story of a cabin murder in Gulf Islands revealed under hypnotherapy as sheer
fiction. Cindy had failed to disclose that her sister Melanie was also on board The Peacemaker
and witnessed none of the traumatic events Cindy described. While admitting to slapping Cindy
twice in their marriage, he clarified that Cindy did not require reconstructive breast
surgery after a particularly savage assault. She had an elective breast augmentation procedure.
Explaining the years prior to her death in the book, “The Deaths of Cindy James” by Neal Hall,
Roy Makepeace said, with a tinge of anguish in his voice: “It just went from bad to worse to impossible to death. I did everything possible to be supporting,
comforting, sympathetic. She was a quiet person who would hold a lot of things in.”
Initially, Roy was of the belief that Cindy was targeted by an unknown perpetrator.
However as time went on, Cindy kept destroying the evidence of her attacks, such as the time she
asked Roy to throw away the slashed pillow. He recalled a time he and Cindy had arrived at her
house together to find two floodlights that were assembled two meters above the ground had been
unscrewed and smashed to pieces on the concrete below. Roy suggested to Cindy that they save the
broken glass for police to fingerprint but she insisted the glass be disposed of immediately.
Around the same time, she asked Roy if he thought she was losing her mind. Roy told the jury that he reassured Cindy she wasn’t. In hindsight,
he said he wished he had encouraged her to open up by asking her: “What makes you think that?”
Roy Makepeace clarified some other points that had baffled investigators during the years. The word,
“Hombagosh,” that Cindy recalled being said to her in the van during an abduction
was actually “Hamba Gashle,” a Zulu term that meant “Farewell, take care.” He explained that his sister used it often in conversation with Cindy and others and perhaps the
unusual phrase had become lodged in her brian. Roy also recalled a time just before they were married
when Cindy read him a letter from her mother. The letter was written in an aggressive tone.
It lectured Cindy about her poor choice in marrying a divorced man. When Roy asked to
look at the letter later, Cindy sheepishly told him that she had written it herself and thrown
it out. Looking back, Roy wondered if this odd event was the beginning of Cindy’s problems.
Roy Makepeace believed that Cindy had multiple personality disorder, now known as dissociative identity disorder. He cited the trouble that
Cindy had remembering events, the side of her personality that he described as childlike,
and the trauma that Cindy had suffered in her life as pointing towards this diagnosis.
Roy criticised the medical care that Cindy had been given over the years of the attacks.
Quote: “There was no competent psychiatrist taking charge of her psychiatric treatment...I’m
so resentful of the inadequacy of her psychiatric care. Nobody checked the facts of her life and that is tragic. It cost her her life.”
Roy believed that Cindy’s use of the black nylon stocking to strangle herself might have had symbolic meaning, stemming from possible sexual abuse as a child.
Cindy’s brother gave evidence at the inquest denying he had ever sexually assaulted Cindy.
The phone messages to Roy Makepeace’s answering machine were played. Richmond Constable Jerry
Anderson believed it was the voice of Cindy James on the recordings. Others, including Roy Makepeace and Cindy’s friends and family,
believed that the messages were left by a male voice. Roy was at a loss to explain them.
The Psycholinguistics Centre in New York analysed the messages. The report found obvious similarities in voice characteristics between the recordings
and audio of Cindy James’s voice taken from a police interview. However, it reiterated that a positive identification could not be made because of the
apparent disguise of the voice and the shortness of the messages. The two men who approached Roy’s
door were never identified, however the incident was believed to be unrelated to Cindy James.
The second part of the inquest focused on the day of Cindy’s disappearance. Richmond detectives walked through Cindy’s last known movements. They argued
that Cindy had appeared so jubilant prior to her death because she had formulated a carefully orchestrated plan of her suicide and was going to carry it out.
She went to the Blundell Road Shopping Center, purchased bags of non perishable foodstuffs,
and a birthday present for her friend's son. There was no receipt with the grocery bags. Detectives
returned to the shop and ran the purchased items through the checkout. None of the records for
the day of Cindy’s disappearance matched the dollar value of the groceries in Cindy’s car.
To detectives, It seemed as though Cindy had also purchased a pair of stockings and other items and
took them out of the bag before leaving the car park. Lying under the car, Cindy’s bank card and
ATM receipt appeared to have been placed there. They argued if it had been dropped in a struggle,
the receipt would have separated from the card, instead of being wrapped neatly around it.
Following the detective's narrative, sometime after leaving the car park, Cindy consumed a large amount of flurazepam and morphine tablets. She then had 20 minutes to get
to the abandoned lot 1.5 kilometers away before the drugs would have rendered her unconscious.
It was clear she had consumed the flurazepam orally, as residue of the drug was found in
her stomach. To record the concentration found in her bloodstream, she would have had to have
swallowed between 20 to 80 pills. In addition, if Cindy also took the morphine orally she would have
had to have swallowed 18 tablets or 20mls of a liquid preparation. It was assumed Cindy had taken
the morphine orally, as an intravenous injection would have rendered her incapacitated immediately.
This was despite the fact that a puncture mark from a needle was found on her right inner elbow.
It could not be explained how Cindy had either of these drugs in her possession. She was not
prescribed flurazepam or morphine. There were no missing drugs from the hospital where she worked.
Detectives theorised the puncture mark on her right arm was caused by Cindy as she took blood from herself to smear on the door of her car. However,
Cindy was right handed, meaning this would have been a difficult procedure for her to complete.
Detectives found it a plausible explanation that Cindy walked to the abandoned lot,
lay down her coat, hog-tied herself, and then lost consciousness, falling to her right side.
This was evidenced by her blue coat found partially underneath her body. To show the jury it was possible, knot tying expert Robert Chisnell took the same length
and make of stocking found around Cindy’s body. He demonstrated how it was done, completing the
complex tying procedure in about three minutes. He said that the stocking, when found, was tied
loosely enough around Cindy’s wrists and ankles that it could be slipped on and off. The hitches
in the knots were also consistent with the unconventional way Cindy knotted her shoelaces.
Robert Chisnell believed that the knots in this case matched previous incidents with Cindy.
He also tied a black nylon stocking around his own neck in the same fashion, remarking
that it was tight enough for him to feel light headed but not so tight that he would black out.
Cindy’s friends and family were outraged at this explanation, citing that there was no possible way that Cindy could have carried this out on her own.
Surveillance on Cindy’s home always resulted in the harassing phone calls and mail stopping.
The few times that Cindy’s friends or family had heard calls or seen people lurking around could not be explained. One detective accused them of covering up for her.
Cindy’s former psychiatrist was of the impression that Cindy suffered from borderline personality disorder and post traumatic stress disorder
stemming from unknown childhood trauma. However, he argued it was difficult to diagnose and build rapport with her because she was such a guarded and private person.
Other diagnoses by psychiatrists who had examined Cindy over the years included anxiety,
major depression, paranoid disorder, major affective disorder, psychotic delusions, and
suicidal ideation. An excerpt from Cindy’s journal written from St Paul’s psychiatric unit when she
was receiving treatment three years prior to her death was read out: “I still feel suicide is my
best option in an unbearable situation and as soon as I get out of here I will carry out my plan.”
The majority of the public sympathised with Cindy, a woman who was let down in every way by systems
that failed to protect her. Despite admissions to psychiatric units, she was repeatedly allowed
to go home without receiving consistent treatment or diagnosis of her condition.
If it was that the attacks were occurring to her, the police failed to catch a perpetrator who terrorised Cindy for more than seven years.
One forensic psychiatrist, who reviewed Cindy’s extensive medical history and police files,
told the inquest:“The tragedy is that, with all these people involved, she wasn’t saved.”
The inquest into the death of Cindy James was one of most expensive and lengthy in British Columbia
history. In the end, the jury failed to reach a conclusion as to whether Cindy had been murdered
or had taken her own life. They determined that Cindy James died as the result of an “unknown event” after one vote shifted the decision from “suicide” to “undetermined.”
Some thought that another person or persons were involved in the attacks orchestrated by Cindy.
Others proposed that Cindy knew much more about the identity of the perpetrator than
she told authorities. One fact that was not argued by nearly all who knew Cindy was that
if she had indeed carried out the attacks upon herself, she was not aware that she was doing so.
The terror in her eyes, the very real emotion she portrayed during countless interviews,
convinced nearly all involved that Cindy truly believed these attacks were occurring to her.
“This lady suffered very deeply, from within or out.” One forensic psychiatrist stated.
He suggested that Cindy cast herself centre stage as the victim in a fantastic plot of her own creation, adding: “She was in a living nightmare.”
The coroner concluded: “Cindy James was a victim, real or imagined, and lived in terror for an
unknown period of time throughout her life.” The Hack family was devastated by the finding,
hoping that the jury would recommend the case be reopened. They vowed not to let
their daughter’s death go, determined to find her killer and bring them to justice.
Sifting through the rubble of one of the fires that engulfed Cindy James’ basement,
authorities found a mauve coloured notebook. It was Cindy’s journal. The hard cover was
decorated with Cindy’s favourite thing - blooms of coloured flowers. Cindy’s sister Melanie had purchased the journal for her during her separation from Roy Makepeace.
On the inside cover, Melanie had inscribed a note and quote by naturalist John Muir. It read:
To my dear sweet sister Cindy, It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapour is forever rising.
I hope that you feel the wonder of nature as I do. May it make you feel intensely alive and full of joy now and forever.

Case 164: Cindy James

Threatening phone calls, break-ins, slashed pillows, arson attacks, and physical assaults. Cindy James of Vancouver: British Columbia was tormented by an unknown assailant for years. Moving house didn’t stop them. Nor did her policeman roommate. Or her personal alarm...

CREDITS

Narration – Anonymous Host Research and writing – Jessica Forsayeth Creative direction – Milly Raso Production, scoring – Mike Migas and Andrew Joslyn

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RESOURCES

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Brief Summary

Cindy James faced years of harassment and mysterious attacks before her death, leaving unanswered questions about her fate.

Key points

Cindy's Struggles with Harassment. Cindy Makepeace faces a series of threatening phone calls and an unsettling attack.
The Attack. Cindy is assaulted in her home, leading to a terrifying hospital visit.
Cindy's Hypnosis Sessions. Cindy recalls traumatic memories during hypnosis, including a chilling encounter with Roy.
Cindy Confronts Roy. Cindy calls Roy to discuss her memories of the past, leading to a tense exchange.
Cindy's Struggles with Fear. Cindy documents her ongoing fear and anxiety in her personal diary.
Cindy's Disturbing Messages. Roy receives threatening messages that escalate his fear for Cindy's safety.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

You’re dead Cindy.

A threatening call that unnerved Cindy.

4:05WatchFeb 6, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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