Every Town - Hunted Until Death: The Terrifying Stalker Mystery of Cindy James

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

For seven long years, Cindy James couldn't sleep through the night. This Canadian nurse lived in constant fear, jumping at every sound and checking her locks over and over. She told police about a stalker who was making her life hell - someone calling her phone and just breathing, leaving dead cats in her yard, slipping notes under her door with pictures of dead bodies and a whole lot more. 👀 Watch This Episode On Youtube: ⁠https://youtu.be/jX4Ibmd8ooo 👁 Check out our movie AN ANGRY BOY for FREE! ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvtlOlODQ8g&t=5238s⁠ ⁠https://tubitv.com/movies/100029672/an-angry-boy⁠ International & Other Ways To Watch: ⁠https://www.anangryboy.com/⁠ 💀 MERCH: ⁠https://scary-mysteries.teemill.com/⁠ 💀 Free 7 Day Trail on Exclusive Episodes, Podcasts & Perks! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries⁠  🎧 Our Other Podcast Scary Mysteries: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/3ZooEZMoZ421WdsOVJhVkT⁠ 👁 X: ⁠https://x.com/ScaryMysteries1⁠ 👁Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg⁠ 👁 TikTok: ⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald⁠ 👁Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial⁠ 👁 X: ⁠https://x.com/ScaryMysteries1⁠   🗣 Business Inquiries, questions and comments hit us up at ⁠[e-mail]⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Into the dark, where true crime meets the eerie unknown. Every town has a dark side. Cindy James was a nurse who lived in Richmond. For a long time, Cindy James had been terrified. She was convinced that someone was out to get her, and she told police that many times. For seven long years, Cindy James couldn't sleep through the night. This Canadian nurse lived in constant fear, jumping at every sound and checking her locks over and over. As she told police about a stalker who was making her life hell, someone calling her phone and just breathing,

leaving dead cats in her yard, slipping notes under her door with pictures of dead bodies, and a whole lot more. All in all, she reported around 90 scary incidents to the cops, but at some point some of them started to think that maybe she was lying about the whole thing. That perhaps she was doing it all herself and setting up these elaborate scenarios for attention or because something wasn't right in her head. But then came June 8th of 1989 when a city worker was checking out an abandoned house and he spotted something in the backyard. It was Cindy, and she was dead. Her hands and feet were tied behind her back with rope, and black stocking was wrapped around her neck. Hey guys, it's Andrew, and thanks for tuning in to another episode of Everytown where today

we're checking out the extremely strange and tragic case of Cindy James. We'll lay it all out there and see if, in fact, this is a case of a woman who fabricated the most elaborate stalking story you'll ever hear about, or if she was actually systematically hunted down and ultimately murdered. Here is the insane stalker case of Cindy James. Cindy wasn't always living in constant fear. And born Cynthia Elizabeth Hack back in 1944, as she grew up in Oliver, British Columbia.

By 18, she knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life and enrolled in nursing school in 1962, determined to help others. And she was good at it too, had an act for caring for people, especially kids. It was something that just came naturally to her. And then in 1965, while working in Vancouver, she met Roy Makepeace, a psychiatrist from South Africa. And he was 40, and she was just 22.

But despite the big age gap and her family's concerns, they got married in December of 66, right after she finished nursing school. For the next decade or so, Cindy built a solid career for herself. She worked at Vancouver General Hospital for years before taking a job at Blenheim House, a place that helped kids with behavioral problems sort through their issues. Her coworkers thought she was great, professional, competent, and genuinely caring about the children. But her marriage wasn't so great. A friend later said there was always this weird distance between Cindy and Lerner.

Roy, as if the two didn't fit together the way a loving couple should. And he later admitted to slapping her twice during their marriage, but Cindy told friends it was far worse than that. And after nearly 16 years together, in the spring of 82, but she had finally had enough and just moved out. And that's when the weird stuff started happening. It all kicked off in September of 1982, just a few months after Cindy had left Roy. At first, it was just a feeling like someone was watching her house. At night, while getting ready for bed, feeling like just outside the window in the dark, she had a set of eyes on her.

But by October, well, things got real when the phone calls started. According to Cindy, sometimes the caller would use different voices. Other times, they'd just breathe into the phone or say nothing at all. On October 11th, one call really freaked her out. a creepy whisper saying, I'll get you one night, Cindy. She called the cops after this one, and they told her to keep track of the calls

and to also get a new and unlisted number. A fat lot of luck that did, though. And keeping track a few days later on October 15th, someone threw a rock through her window and actually got into her house. And nothing was stolen, but the message was clear. I can get to you whenever I want, whether you change your number or not.

A few days after that, she found her pillow slashed to pieces. Pat McBride, the cop who caught Cindy's case, first thought her ex-husband might be behind it all. But Cindy sent mixed signals about Roy. On one side, telling police she didn't think he'd do something like this, but also telling friends he'd been violent during their marriage. So which was it? Anyway, that didn't help much, and then things got a little messy. See, apparently Cindy and McBride.

got along very well and started dating. He'd just split from his wife too, and he moved into Cindy's house on Halloween of 82, supposedly to keep an eye out for this stalker. But even with a cop living in her house, the harassment didn't stop. In November, McBride himself got one of those weird, silent calls while at Cindy's place.

Later that month, Cindy found a note on her car with a picture of a corpse. But one day, McBride went to, make a call, got no signal whatsoever. Outside, he then discovered that someone had cut the phone line in five different spots. By Christmas, there was another note left saying, Merry Christmas, only this wasn't from a friendly neighbor or friend. It was written in red ink across a photo of a woman whose throat had been slit. The stalker was doing a lot, but in the eyes of the law, really how bad was this stuff? Calls, leaving photos,

It's scary, but technically more of an annoyance than it is a crime. But what happened next took things to a whole new level. On January 27th of 83, this whole scenario went from creepy to downright dangerous. Agnes Woodcock, who worked with Sidney, stopped by her house, but nobody answered, even though Cindy was expecting her. Agnes made her way around the house, and that's when she found her friend lying unconscious in the backyard, with a nylon stocking wrapped around her neck. When Cindy came to, she told a terrifying story, saying she'd been walking to the garage when somebody jumped her from behind. In 1983, she was hospitalized after being found beaten in her garage. She claimed two men had attacked her. They threatened to kill her sister, Melanie, if she told anybody what had happened.

And police came and investigated it, but they found nothing. And when doctors checked her out, they couldn't find any proof of any. sort of an assault going down. So then, was she lying about the attack? And if she was making this up, well, then what else wasn't real? This attack changed everything in Cindy's eyes. To her, this was happening, and she was living in a constant state of fear. She moved to a new house in West Vancouver on February 1st, hoping to get away from

whoever was after her. But within a week, another threatening letter showed up. Run, Rabbit Run, it said. I'll show you how good I am. Soon, bang, bang, you're dead. McCall's kept coming at her new place too, so she moved again in April. She went all out to protect herself and painted her car a different color, so no one would recognize it. Even though police were looking into the matter, she hired a private investigator named Ozzie Cabin to help keep her safe.

She carried pepper spray, even wore a panic button 24-7. Between October and November of 83, Cindy found three dead cats in her garden. Each one had been strangled and tied up with rope. The stalker hadn't just found her new home, well, they were also stepping up their game. On January 30th of 84, Ozzie, the PI, heard weird noises on the two-way radio he'd given Cindy and rushed a check on her. He found her, passed out on her living room floor with a knife stuck through her hand. hand. It had a note pin to it that read, Now you must die, C-word. The note was made from letters cut out of magazines, just like in the

movies. And Cindy told Cabin, she remembered seeing someone come through her gait before getting hit on the head with something. And she claimed the attacker had stuck a needle in her arm. And doctors found a needle mark, but no drugs in her system. By the summer of 84, things ramped up even more. On June 18th, Cabin got a panic call from Cindy and raced over to her house. And there, he found her hiding in the garden, saying someone had broken in. Inside, he found her dog, Heidi, had been hurt and tied up with the same kind of rope used on those dead cats. And there was a creepy, happy birthday note with dirty photos left behind. A Cabin himself was starting to question this whole odd scenario. It was like a munch-house

syndrome, only instead of faking being sick, Cindy was pretending like she was being stalked. But if she really was doing this, she was going to great lengths to make it believable. McCabeon spotted a cigarette butt that wasn't Cindy's brand near a window. And looking at how badly the dog had been treated, you couldn't believe Cindy would actually do that to her own pet. I mean, she loved the dog. On July 23rd, Cindy was found stumbling around dazed, trying to get in. into a neighbor's house.

She had a stalking around her neck again and two needle marks in her arm, and she claimed another attack. Despite all these incidents, nearly 70 of them at this point, the RCMP couldn't find a single, solid lead. They'd spent over a million dollars on Cindy's case with nothing to show for it. No fingerprints, no witnesses, no suspects, just nothing. So what was it? That's the weird part.

Neil Hall, a reporter covering the story, pointed out something odd saying they had 24-hour surveillance on her for days on end, with up to 14 officers. That never, when surveillance was on her house, would anything happen? As soon as they packed up and left, boom, another incident. Coincidence? I mean, could the author of all this really be so cunning, or was Cindy both the other? the victim and perpetrator all at once. In August of 85, Cindy took her dog out for a walk in the middle of the night, and when she came home, her house was on fire. Police in the fire department

rushed to the scene and put out the blaze. Inside, they found charred pieces of newspaper in the bathroom where they believe a person started the fire. And Cindy pointed to an open window as the only way they could have gotten in since she had locked the door. However, no soot or dust on the windowsill have been disturbed, meaning nobody came in or out through there. One detective flat out said he thought Cindy started the fire herself, and they weren't the only one who thought this. Carol Halliday, a female officer who got involved after the fire, didn't buy Cindy's story either. She thought the male officers at the scene had been fooled by, and I quote,

the histrionics of a pretty woman. So Halliday asked a psychologist named Anthony Mark, to interview Cindy to give his thoughts about the whole case. And what Dr. Marcus came back with was very interesting. He thought Cindy might have dissociative identity disorder, what people used to call multiple personalities. That she wasn't so much just a regular woman looking for some attention as she was being attacked by her own self, and she didn't even know it.

She actually believed she was being watched and stalked, which is why at times her stories could be so convincing. But the reality was that she was living in a nightmare, and it all stemmed from her own mind. Still not everyone was convinced by the doctor's findings. In early 86, things got even weirder. While seeing a hypnotherapist, Cindy claimed she watched her ex-husband Roy murder two people and chop up their bodies with an axe during a vacation back in 1981.

According to her, Roy, had smeared blood from one of the victims across her face during the killings. The police took this seriously and investigated thoroughly, but they couldn't find any evidence of murders or missing persons in that area. And plus, Cindy's sister, Melanie, had been on that same vacation and didn't remember anything unusual happening. Roy's lawyer said that the cops went on a wild goose chase looking for a cabin that didn't even exist, as though at this point it was becoming unavoidable. was Cindy making all this up?

Around this time, she was seeking treatment, trying to sort herself out and actually ended up overdosing on prescription drugs, which landed her in the psychiatric unit at Lionsgate Hospital. Still, though, while there, she was adamant, someone was out to get her, and that she had an OD'd accidentally, that this had been a murder attempt on her. And trying to find an answer to this, she agreed to let police record a phone call with Roy. During the call, she accused him of being behind all the harassment and brought up the alleged murder she claimed to have witnessed.

Roy denied everything, calling Cindy insane, and saying she was living in some sort of enormous revenge fantasy. After this call, the RCMP put Cindy, Roy, and two other suspects under round-the-clock surveillance for a week. They didn't see anything suspicious. But still, this whole thing did that. stop. In the middle of the winter, Cindy would go on to be found half-conscious in a ditch, freezing cold with another nylon stocking tied around her neck. She said she had no memory of what had happened. After so many dangerous incidents, Cindy's psychiatrist Alan Conley had her committed to the psychiatric ward at St. Paul's Hospital. Even though he had believed her harassment

claims for years, he was worried now that she really might hurt herself. As she was transferred to Riverview Hospital for a full psychological workup. The report described how she'd only give one-word answers at first and wouldn't make eye contact. When talking about the harassment, she'd look down or cover her eyes and speak in broken sentences. She was smart, an IQ well above average, but had unpredictable moods that swung between pessimism and sullenness and social agreement and friendliness. After 10 weeks in there, Cindy was released, and for some time after, she appeared to have gotten her life back on track. In the summer of 87, she started working as a nurse at Richmond General Hospital, but the weird incidents kicked back up again.

Broken windows, loosened light bulbs, damage to her home. The RCMP at this point was pretty dismissive towards her calls. Roy himself would end up getting two creepy voice messages, on his answering machine in quick succession. And they were from what appeared to be a male caller. The one said, Cindy, dead meat soon. And the other said,

more smack, more downers, another grand after we waste her. No more deal. And two weeks after those messages, Cindy was found unconscious in her garage. She was hog-tied, half-naked, with a black nylon stocking around her neck again. The RCMP brought in a knot expert named Robert Chisnell, who said,

it was highly unlikely Cindy could have tied herself up like that. So, is it possible, she wasn't making this all up after all? In January of 89, a guy named Richard Johnston moved into Cindy's basement. And he'd sold her life insurance, and she thought having someone else in the house would make her feel safer. But the threats continued, including a note found at the hospital where she worked on April 8th that simply said, soon, Cindy. After reports of break-ins at her place, the RCMP brought in dogs to track the intruder. And after one incident on May 10th of 89, the dogs actually picked up a scent that led over the backyard fence.

Despite all these incidents, spanning nearly seven years at this point, the RCMP still had no hard evidence, though. More and more, they suspected Cindy was making it all up. But the worst was about to happen. On May 25th, 1989, Cindy picked up her paycheck from the hospital around 4 p.m. A co-worker who chatted with her said she seemed fine, even mentioned that nothing weird had happened at her house for a couple weeks. As she was last seen that evening, buying groceries and visiting an ATM, at the Blundell Shopping Center around 8 p.m.

That same day, she was supposed to have a security system installed, and it planned for her friends, Agnes and Tom, to come over for cards and stay over the night. When Agnes and Tom showed up around 10 p.m., nobody was home, and Cindy's car was gone. They talked to Johnston, who said Cindy had mentioned going shopping, and they drove down to the shopping center and found her car sitting empty in the parking lot. After that, they went straight to the police station, a reporter missing. When cops checked out her car, they found blood on the driver's side door, grocery is still inside, and a rapt birthday present. And contents from her wallet were scattered underneath the car. And then went back and checked her house.

It was neat and clean, so nothing out of place there or any evidence. But Cindy was most definitely gone. A few days would pass and still no word for her. from her or any sightings. Though her housemate Richard reached out to police to say he'd gotten a weird call at work from someone claiming to be Cindy's dad, asking about her life insurance policy. When they asked Cindy's actual father about this, he said he never made any such call. The search was on for Cindy James, but it wouldn't end well.

Two weeks after she vanished on June 8th, a city worker named Gordon Starchuck was checking out an abandoned house in Richmond when he found Cindy's body in the yard. It was the end of a tortured life for Cindy James. The body of the 44-year-old nurse was found in June of last year at No. 3 Road and Blundell in Richmond. Her hands and feet bound. She was hog-tied with rope, curled up in a fetal position with a black nylon stocking tied around her neck. Her right leg was under some bushes and her coat was lying nearby. This was a busy street near an intersection where people walked by all the time. Not exactly a hidden spot.

On the property's fuel tank, someone had spray painted, someone died here, an orange paint, with a line running from the tank to Cindy's body, circling around her. The pathologist who examined her body said her hands had been tied so tight that one finger, in an attempt to free herself, had scratched another down to the bone. She had a needle mark on her inner elbow. Based on the bugs and decomposition, experts figured she'd been dead for about a week, even though she was missing for two.

When the autopsy results came in, it showed Cindy had actually died from a massive overdose of drugs, morphine, diazepam, and fluorazepam. She had ten times a lethal dose of morphine in her blood, and had swallowed about 20 fluorazepam tablets, plus a bunch of diazepam ones. The RCMP thought it was something she had certainly done to herself,

a final ending to her bizarre and tragic story. And they stuck to the theory that Cindy had made up all the stalking incidents. But Ozzy Cabin, or private investigator, noticed that her body showed signs that blood had settled on her left side after death, even though she was found lying on her right side. And this suggested she died somewhere else, and was moved to where she was actually found. This would also explain why no one had seen her on that busy road

because she actually wasn't there for so long. Cindy's funeral was held on June 14th, two days after what would have been her 45th birthday. The police secretly filmed everybody who came in, taking down license plates. The Roy Makepeace never showed up. And so what really happened? Well, in the spring of 1990, they held an inquest into Cindy's death, where more than 80 people testified.

And there, some things came out. The inquest opened with testimony from the first investigating officer James dealt with on a regular basis. Vancouver Police Constable Pat McBride. He testified, my personal relationship with James continued to heighten. But all along, I felt she was holding back or concealing information that could solve the mystery. after Cindy died, her parents found a stash of medications in her home and flushed them down the toilet. Her sister Melanie found a glass cutter in Cindy's purse, along with medical syringes, a catheter, and saline solution in her bedroom. And the odd expert, Robert Chisnell, who earlier said Cindy couldn't have tied herself up,

now showed the jury how she could have done it in just three minutes before the drugs ever kicked in. and that's completely contradicted what he had said before. After all, the testimony and evidence, the jury still couldn't decide what exactly had happened in this case, but murder wasn't the final verdict. They officially ruled that Cindy died from an unknown event, and after that, the case was closed. And now, over 30 years later,

but we still don't know what really happened to Cindy James and likely never will. An unknown event though, seems like a pretty weak conclusion for a woman who spent her final years living in fear. Whether that fear came from outside or within. So that's going to do it for this week's episode of Everytown. I hope you all enjoyed it. If you like this type of content and you want more, check out the links down in the description. We have a huge library of videos and podcasts, exclusive content, a feature film to watch, new merch, and more. I appreciate you very much for tuning in.

Remember to come back next week for another episode filled with scary, strange, and mysterious stories. Because you never know. Maybe your town will be next.