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Transcript

A Little Less Mess: Stalked to Death or Staged - The Cindy James Mystery [Canada] · Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Hey everyone, welcome to Bless This Mess and the Trick
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Room Podcast.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: I'm Cara, just Cara. This is A Little Less Mess.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: It's our Monday mini episodes where we step off the
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: southern porch and and travel outside the South to examine
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: some of the most baffling, unsettling, and mysterious cases across
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: the country, and today we're going across the border. Today
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: we are heading up to the Pacific Northwest to the
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: coastal city of Richmond, British Columbia, just south of Vancouver, Canada.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: We are diving into a case that has sparked fierce
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: debate among forensic pathologists, detectives, and psychologists for more than
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: 35 years. It's the seven-year stalking and mysterious 1989 death
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: of 44-year-old pediatric nurse Cindy James. But before we get
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: into this case, here is a quick reminder of our
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: weekly schedule. On Mondays, this is our mini-episode where we
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: are going outside the South. And then our regular full-length
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: episodes with my husband Stu come out on Thursdays. If
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: you want to get those episodes early and ad-free, plus
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: our Friday bonus show, Sittin', Sippin' and Bullshittin', come join
• 1:31
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• 1:34
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• 1:39
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• 1:46
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• 1:58
  Speaker 2: All right, grab your coffee and let's go ahead and
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: get into this week's case. Cindy James was born Cynthia
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Elizabeth Hack in 1944. Cindy grew up in a loving,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: large family with five siblings in British Columbia. She was
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: widely known as warm, compassionate, and deeply devoted to helping others.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: In 1966, she graduated from nursing school and dedicated her
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: life to working with preschool children who had severe emotional, behavioral,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: and physical disabilities. Colleagues and parents adored her. In her
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: late 20s, Cindy married Dr. Mekapis, a prominent psychiatrist 18
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: years her senior. On the outside, they seemed like an
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: established professional couple, but behind closed doors, Cindy later described
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: the 18-year marriage as turbulent and emotionally controlling. In late 1981,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Cindy made the courageous choice to file for divorce, moving
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: into her own small home on Blundell Road in Richmond
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: to start fresh. Four months later, in the spring of 1982,
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: the nightmare began. It started with silent phone calls. The
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: telephone in Cindy's house would ring at all hours of
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: the night. Whenever she answered, There was heavy breathing, whispering,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: or a chilling, raspy voice telling her she was going
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: to die. Soon, the harassment escalated from phone lines to
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: physical property. Cindy would wake up in the morning to
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: find her front porch lights smashed, her garden hoses slashed,
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: and her window screens sliced with a knife. Then came
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: the notes. Cut-out magazine letters pasted onto scraps of paper
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: began appearing on her doorstep, tucked under her windshield wipers,
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: and mailed to her work. The notes carried grotesque messages like,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Cindy Butcher is coming soon, and you are dead meat. Terrified,
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Cindy contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, RCMP. Officers took reports,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: but without fingerprints, eyewitnesses, or identifying clues, there was little
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: they could do. Then the stalker turned violent. One evening
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: in the fall of 1982, Cindy's close friend, Agnes Woodcock,
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: came over to visit. Agnes knocked on the front door,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: but there was no answer. Looking through the back window,
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Agnes saw Cindy lying on the floor in the hallway.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Agnes rushed inside and found Cindy unconscious with the nylon
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: stocking wrapped tightly around her throat. When Cindy regained consciousness
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: at the hospital, she told police an intruder had ambushed
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: her from behind when she walked into the kitchen. Over
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: the next two years, the attacks grew more sadistic. Three
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: dead cats were found hanging in Cindy's yard, each with
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: a threatening note tied to its collar. Small fires were
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: set in her basement and shed. Her vehicle tires were
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: slashed repeatedly. In an attempt to escape her tormentor, Cindy
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: changed her hair color, repainted her car, changed her last
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: name back to James, and moved into a new house
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: in a different neighborhood. Yet, within weeks of moving into
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: her new home, a bloody note was taped to her
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  Speaker 2: new front door. The stalker had found her again. Frustrated
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: by the lack of progress with local police, who were
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: increasingly growing skeptical of the sheer volume of attacks without
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: any physical evidence left behind, Cindy decided to take matters
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: into her own hands. In 1983, Cindy hired a private
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: investigator named Ozzy Caban. Ozzy was a seasoned former law
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  Speaker 2: enforcement officer. He took one look at Cindy's panic and
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: knew she was living in sheer terror. Ozzy installed state-of-the-art
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  Speaker 2: security alarms, outdoor panic buttons, and gave Cindy a portable
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  Speaker 2: two-way panic radio that she could activate from anywhere inside
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: her home. On an evening in 1984, the alarm went
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  Speaker 2: off in Ozzy Caban's office. Ozzy dropped everything and raced
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  Speaker 2: to Cindy's house. When he arrived, the front door was open.
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  Speaker 2: Inside the dark house, Ozzy followed faint moaning down the
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: hallway into the basement. There, Ozzy found Cindy lying on
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  Speaker 2: the floor, semi-conscious. She was wearing a men's work boot
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: on one foot. A nylon stocking was wrapped around her neck.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: and a sharp paring knife had been driven straight through
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: the palm of her hand, pinning her hand to the floorboards.
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  Speaker 2: Ozzie called paramedics and the RCMP, but when detectives processed
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  Speaker 2: the scene, they found no foreign fingerprints on the knife,
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  Speaker 2: no broken windows, and no signs of forced entry. The
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: panic radio had been pressed, but no intruder was spotted
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: on any street. The police began to float a radical theory.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Did Cindy stage the attack herself? Could she have driven
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: the knife through her own hand while in an altered
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  Speaker 2: psychological state to seek attention or validation? The RCMP decided
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: to put the matter to the ultimate test. In 1985,
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: law enforcement launched a massive round-the-clock surveillance operation Fourteen police
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: officers took shifts staking out Cindy's house 24 hours a
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: day using night vision scopes, radio tracking, and hidden cameras.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: The operation cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: During the stakeout, things were quiet for weeks. Then, on
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: a night when surveillance officers were positioned all around the perimeter,
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: a basement window on Cindy's house suddenly shattered. and flames
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: erupted from the basement. Officers rushed inside and pulled Cindy out.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: She was suffering from smoke inhalation. When the detectives searched
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: the yard, there were zero footprints in the damp grass
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: or flowerbeds. No fence had been hopped. No figure had
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: been seen running from the street. Police concluded that no
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: intruder could have entered or exited the property past 14
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: trained officers undetected. the RCMP formally closed their investigation, categorizing
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Cindy's reports as self-inflicted hoaxes. Desperate for help, Cindy voluntarily
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: admitted herself to a local psychiatric facility for 10 weeks
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: in 1986. Her family and friends stood firmly by her side,
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: maintaining that Cindy was not crazy. During therapy, Cindy underwent hypnosis,
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: where she revealed deep-seated fears that her ex-husband was the
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: orchestrator behind the attacks. Police questioned the doctor multiple times.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: He passed polygraph examinations, had alibis for several key dates,
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  Speaker 2: and adamantly maintained that he had nothing to do with
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: the harassment. In May 1998, 1989, Cindy decided to make
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: one final attempt at reclaiming her life. She planned to
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: sell her house, leave British Columbia entirely, and move across
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: Canada to start over in another province. On the afternoon
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: of Thursday, May 25, 1989, Cindy drove to a local
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: Richmond shopping plaza to run errands and buy moving supplies.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: She never returned. That evening, her car was found parked
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: in the shopping center lot. Inside the vehicle, police found groceries,
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  Speaker 2: wrapped moving items, and Cindy's wallet and checkbook sitting on
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  Speaker 2: the seat. There was a small smear of blood on
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  Speaker 2: the driver's side door and her driver's license was lying
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: on the pavement nearby. Cindy was nowhere to be found.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: For two weeks, ground search crews and family volunteers searched parks, waterways,
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: and wooded areas across the Vancouver area. On June 8, 1989,
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  Speaker 2: workers inspecting an abandoned, overgrown residential property on Blundell Road,
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  Speaker 2: less than two miles from the shopping plaza, noticed something
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  Speaker 2: lying in the high grass near a dilapidated shed. It
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: was the body of Cindy James. The state in which
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: Cindy was found shocked even seasoned forensic detectives. Cindy's body
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  Speaker 2: was fully clothed. Lying on her side, her wrists and
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: ankles were tied tightly behind her back in a complex,
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  Speaker 2: intricate hog-tie position using black nylon stockings. one of the
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: stockings was looped tightly around her neck. Yet, as detectives
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: inspected the scene, there were no defensive cuts, no broken bones,
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  Speaker 2: no skull fractures, and no marks on her wrist suggesting
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: she had violently thrashed against the bindings. When the autopsy
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: and toxicology reports came back, the case took another baffling turn.
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  Speaker 2: Pathologists determined that Cindy had died From an acute, massive
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: overdose of morphine, diazepam, which is Valium, and fluoroazepam, her
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  Speaker 2: bloodstream contained more than 10 times the lethal concentration of morphine,
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  Speaker 2: along with dozens of tranquilizer tablets in her stomach. Medical
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: experts testified that such an immense dosage of sedatives would
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: have rendered Cindy unconscious within 3 to 5 minutes. This
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  Speaker 2: created the central paradox of the case. How could a
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  Speaker 2: woman ingest enough tranquilizers to kill an adult within minutes
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  Speaker 2: and then proceed to tie her own hands and feet
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  Speaker 2: behind her back with complex knots, loop a stocking around
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  Speaker 2: her own neck, and walk to an abandoned house in
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: the dark? On the other hand, if a stalker murdered her,
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: how did they force her to swallow dozens of pills
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: without leaving a single defensive wound or bruise on her body?
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  Speaker 2: And why leave her vehicle undisturbed in a public shopping lot?
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: In May 1990, the province of British Columbia convened a
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: formal coroner's inquest to officially resolve what happened to Cindy James.
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  Speaker 2: The inquest lasted over two months. Her testimony from more
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: than 80 witnesses, including doctors, toxicologists, private investigators, family members,
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  Speaker 2: and RCMP detectives and generated thousands of pages of evidence.
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  Speaker 2: The courtroom was divided into two irreconcilable factions. One, the
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: RCMP and forensic skeptics. They argued that Cindy suffered from
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: severe dissociative identity disorder or Munchausen syndrome, staging the harassment
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: for years as a cry for help, and that her
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: death was a staged suicide or accidental overdose that went
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: too far. The other faction, too, was Cindy's family, friends,
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: and private investigator, Ozzie. They argued fiercely that no human
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: being could inject or swallow a massive lethal overdose of
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: morphine and tranquilizers, hogtie themselves behind their back with complex knots,
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: and place themselves in a remote, abandoned yard without an
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: accomplice or an attacker. They believed a calculating predator stalked
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: and executed her, knowing the police would blame Cindy. After
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: days of deliberation, the inquest jury delivered its official ruling.
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  Speaker 2: The jury rejected a finding of suicide because they found
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: it impossible that she could have bound herself in that state.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: The jury also rejected a finding of homicide because there
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: was insufficient physical evidence available to prove third-party involvement beyond
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: a reasonable doubt. Instead, the jury returned an open verdict,
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: officially ruling that Cindy James died of an unknown event.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: Following the inquest, the case of Cindy James was officially
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: closed by RCMP. To this day, no suspects have ever
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: been charged, no new forensic leads have emerged, and and
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: Cindy's death remains one of the most haunting and polarizing
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: mysteries in Canadian true crime history. Whether Cindy was the
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: victim of a sadistic predator who played a seven-year game
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: of cat and mouse with law enforcement, or the victim
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: of a tragic, unfathomable psychological breakdown, a warm, dedicated pediatric
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: nurse lost her life in terrifying isolation. Thank you so
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: much for joining me for this week's A Little Less Mess.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: Make sure and join Stu and I right here back
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: on the porch this Thursday for our next full-length episode.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Until then, stay safe, lock your doors, and keep that
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: porch light on. Bye, everyone.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Don't you know it's bad luck to be superstitious But
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: nothing else is working And my head is really hurting
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  Speaker 1: I'm sick of all this worrying About things I can't
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: control