Cynthia Elizabeth James (née Hack; June 12, 1944 June 2—June 8, 1989) was a Canadian nurse who disappeared from Richmond, British Columbia, on May 25, 1989. She was found deceased approximately two weeks later in the yard of an abandoned house, hogtied and with a nylon stocking wrapped around her throat. An autopsy indicated that she had died of an overdose of morphine, diazepam, and flurazepam. James's death was notable as she had made numerous reports to authorities dating back to 1982, alleging that she had been a victim of various acts of stalking, harassment, vandalism, home invasions, and physical attacks perpetrated by an unknown assailant.
James's death and prior allegations were subject of great dispute, as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) were unable to find any evidence suggesting she had been an actual victim of a stalker. Furthermore, she had a documented medical history of depression and suicidal thoughts, leading authorities to suspect that she may have been fabricating the various attacks and other incidents herself, orchestrating them to appear as legitimate, culminating in an eventual staged suicide. Over the nearly seven-year period James reported the incidents, the RCMP allocated an estimated $1–1.5 million in funds to investigate her claims, marking one of the longest and most costly police investigations in British Columbia history.
Despite skepticism from authorities, James's family members publicly insisted that she had in fact been preyed upon, and eventually murdered. A coroner's inquest was held in the spring of 1990 which included testimony from more than 80 witnesses. The inquest ultimately resulted in the conclusion that James had died of an "unknown event."
James's death received international media coverage and was the subject of an Unsolved Mysteries segment in 1991. Furthermore, two different books were published in 1991 chronicling her life and death: Who Killed Cindy James by British journalist Ian Mulgrew, and The Deaths of Cindy James by Neal Hall, a Canadian crime reporter who had extensively covered James's case for the Vancouver Sun. In 2021, a podcast on James, Death by Unknown Event, narrated by Pamela Adlon, was released by Audible.
Background
Cynthia Elizabeth Hack was born in Oliver, British Columbia, Canada, on June 12, 1944, to Matilda "Tilley", a homemaker, and Otto Hack, an English teacher and former colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Both of her parents were of Russian descent. She was one of six children, with three older brothers and two younger sisters. Cindy spent part of her teenage years in Ottawa due to her father's involvement in the air force, and attended high school there. She recorded in her private diaries that her childhood had been marked by her father's strictness, which included corporal punishment.
In adulthood, Cindy pursued a nursing career in Vancouver, and enrolled in nursing school in 1962. During this period, her father had reenlisted with the air force and relocated the family to France, where she visited them during holidays. During this time, in letters to her family, Cindy occasionally referred to an unnamed intern she had met during her studies. She claimed that the two had at one point been engaged, and that, after finding he had terminal cancer, the man committed suicide while the couple were on a skiing trip. None of her parents or siblings, however, ever met the man, and Cindy did not name him.
In the summer of 1965, Cindy met Roy Makepeace, a South African psychiatrist 18 years her senior. The two married on December 9, 1966, the same year she graduated from nursing school with a BSN. Cindy's parents were skeptical of the marriage due to the couple's age difference, and her father felt that Makepeace had taken advantage of Cindy's "naiveté and gullibility." Her family testified that the couple's marriage was troubled and that the two were at times emotionally distant. Though Cindy later made accusations of spousal abuse, Makepeace asserted he "only slapped her twice" over the course of their marriage. Though licensed as a psychiatrist in his home country of South Africa, Makepeace failed twice to obtain his medical license in Canada and instead accepted a job as an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia.