Cindy James was a 44 year old nurse living in the suburbs of Vancouver, Canada. When police found her body on the front lawn of an abandoned house in 1989, her hands and feet were bound behind her back, and she had been strangled. But how she died, and importantly, who killed her is still a mystery.
Cindy claimed she had a stalker since 1982
Four months after separating from her husband in 1982, she claimed got creepy and threatening phone calls. In the next 7 years, Cindy would contact the police nearly 100 times reporting events ranging from being physically attacked by an unknown person to phone calls in the middle of the night with threats or audible breathing on the other end to strange notes and strange letters. Such as:
In 1983, her friend was visiting Cindy and found her outside of her house with a nylon stocking tied tightly around her neck. She claimed that she was going to the garage and was attacked from behind by someone wearing white sneakers. Cindy moved shortly after.
Cindy had hired a private investigator who had given her a two-way radio to keep with her so she and the PI could speak directly. One night in 1984, the PI heard some strange sounds over the radio and went to Cindy's house. The door was locked, but when the PI looked through the window Cindy was on the floor with a small paring knife that was stabbed through her hand. At the hospital she claimed that the same person who attacked her sometimes showed up with two or three other people to harass her. She also claimed that that night, she remembered being poked with a needle. Here's a picture of her face after this attack.
In 1985 she was found in a ditch disoriented with no memory of what happened miles away from her house. She had hypothermia and cuts and bruises all over. She was wearing men's boots and gloves and had a nylon stocking tied around her neck.
In 1986, Cindy was living with her friend and her friend's husband who were there to provide her a sense of security. One night, they awoke to the basement on fire and the phone lines cut. The husband ran to the neighbors house and allegedly saw a man standing on the curb who later ran away. The police claimed that the fire was set by someone in the house, because everything was locked and undisturbed - if someone had come in, they would have had to break in through a very oddly placed and shaped window which would have surely been damaged while climbing through. No fingerprints were found.
That same year, Cindy's doctor had her committed into a psychiatric ward because the doctor believed she was suicidal. After being released, Cindy's family claims that she told them that she knew a lot more about these events than she was telling everyone and the police. She had an earlier stint in a psychiatric hospital in 1985 for depression and anxiety, but it’s not clear if it was voluntary or involuntary.
In October 1988, Cindy said she was almost murdered in her driveway but did not report it to the police. The source is from Cindy’s sister’s blog.
During this time, the police had extended 24 hour surveillance of her house numerous times but would never see anything. Once they left, Cindy would report that the attacks and calls would happen again.
Cindy is found dead
Finally in May 1989 (almost 7 years since the first strange phone calls), Cindy went missing and her car was later found in a parking lot where there were groceries and a wrapped present inside. Blood was on the outside of the driver's side door, and the contents of Cindy's purse were found underneath the car. I can't find any information on whether the blood was Cindy's or not.
Two weeks later her body was found on the lawn of an abandoned house. Her hands and feet were hogtied behind her back. But her cause of death was an overdose of morphine and other drugs. The case was closed as a suicide, but the coroner made no determination of whether the death was an accident, suicide, or murder. ** Theories on what happened ** If you go the murder route, then the theory is that there really was a stalker who had done all of these things and ended up killing her when the time was right. This would also connect Cindy's memory of being poked with a needle in the first attack and then eventually overdosing on morphine. But who was it? Police suspected her ex husband and also her on and off again boyfriend who was also a cop. If it was her boyfriend, it would explain how no evidence was really found and how the police didn't do much, because he would know how to stage scenes a certain way and dissuade the cops.
If you go the accident route, another theory is that Cindy had a mental condition and was faking all of the attacks for attention. She accidentally overdosed on morphine and died when she was actually just trying to replicate the state she was in when she was found in the ditch years earlier. Cindy's faking would also explain the lack of evidence.
If you go the suicide route, then perhaps Cindy was trying to make her suicide as sensational as possible with the hogtying behind her back and her car being found with blood and her purse items scattered underneath the car. How exactly the 7 years' events factor into this, I'm not sure there is a good explanation.
I personally believe she really did have a stalker, exactly who I'm not sure. But I don't think all of Cindy's reports were legitimate. I think she was frustrated at the lack of progress and fabricated some events to get the police to pay attention to her case again. I don't think the major instances of her being beaten/attacked were fabricated, but perhaps some of the phone calls and threatening letters. Exactly who her stalker was is anyone's guess.
More detail is at the unsolved website.
An excerpt of a book written by Cindy's sister provides more details Here's her sister's blog which provides more details