Transcript
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The following is for mature audiences only, so if you aren't cool with dark and terrifying, you might want to scram.
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Welcome to 10 Minute Murder.
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10 Minute Murder
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Cindy James reported nearly a decade of harassment, threatening calls/pillows, and even strangled cats in her backyard.
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Then, she was found dead, hog tied and strangled with a nylon stocking.
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It sounds like an open and shut case, right? Not quite.
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Police weren't sure if she was the victim of a relentless stalker, or if she somehow staged her own death.
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Yeah, apparently hog tying yourself after a lethal cocktail of drugs is a possibility.
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This is the story of Cindy James, a mystery that's equal parts baffling, tragic, and frustrating.
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But before we get into that story, if you like your true crime brief and bingeable, you found the right podcast.
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Tap the follow button now for access to at least two episodes per week. Let's get into it.
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[Music]
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On June 8, 1989, a disturbing discovery was made in the backyard of an abandoned house in Richmond, Canada.
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Cindy James was found hog tied, drugged, and strangled with a black nylon stocking.
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Her body, left to decay for a week, marked the tragic conclusion to nearly a decade of unexplained torment.
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Born in 1944, Cindy was the third of six children and a household ruled by military precision.
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Her father, Otto Hack, a colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force, led the family with a strict, disciplinary in hand,
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the kind that left little room for warm thore leniency.
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Like many military families, they lived a transient life, moving from country to country, leaving Cindy to find solace wherever she could.
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When Cindy came of age, she struck out on her own, moving to Vancouver to study nursing.
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Her letters and phone calls home revealed the beginnings of a romance with a fellow intern, an unnamed figure who seemed to offer her stability.
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But this budding relationship ended abruptly. Cindy confided to her family that her boyfriend had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
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And for his illness could progress, he had taken his own life.
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To those around her, Cindy appeared to handle the loss with remarkable resilience.
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She threw herself into her studies, eventually crossing paths with South African psychiatrist Roy Makepiece.
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Roy was 18 years her senior, and despite her family's unease, both about the age gap and Roy himself, the couple married quickly.
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Their marriage, however, was far from ideal. On good days, they seemed content. On bad days, they barely even acknowledged each other's presence.
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According to Roy, physical violence occurred only twice, but the fractures in their relationship grew until the divorce became inevitable.
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This was just the beginning of the storm that would define Cindy's life and ultimately her death.
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Not long after Cindy James divorced from Roy Makepiece, her life took a sharp and terrifying turn.
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Four months after the split, she began receiving phone calls, disturbing, relentless, and at all hours.
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They were just voices. Cindy's mother, Tilly Hack, later explained, "Sometimes the tone would change, sometimes it was whispering, and sometimes it was nothing. Just silence."
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The calls, already unnerving, escalated. Cindy told her family that she believed someone was lurking around her home.
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She became so rattled that she called the police after receiving a whisper that stuck with her.
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"I'll get you one night, Cindy."
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This wasn't an empty threat. Rocks were thrown through her windows. Her porch lights were smashed, and she'd return home to find her belongings vandalized. Her pillows slashed with a knife.
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When the Royal Canadian mounted police, RCMP, began investigating, they suggested Cindy should keep a log of the harassing calls.
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The next one came shortly after the police left.
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"You fucking bitch, I'll get you, so you think calling the police will keep you safe?"
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With every new incident, Cindy's fear grew. It wasn't just phone calls anymore. It was an invasion of her home, her sanctuary, and her sense of safety.
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What started as whispers on the phone had turned into a full-scale campaign of terror, and it wasn't going away.
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With no clear progress from the police, and her safety feeling more precarious by the day, Cindy James took matters into her own hands.
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She rented out the basement of her house, hoping that the presence of others might deter whoever or whatever was tormenting her.
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It didn't. Her tenants reported strange noises emanating from the main floor when Cindy wasn't home.
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Neighbors began noticing a man lingering outside her home, watching, though his identity was never confirmed.
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The RCMP turned their attention to Cindy's ex-husband, Roy Makepiece, a seemingly obvious suspect. Yet their interviews didn't result in charges.
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Instead, Roy forged a surprising alliance with one of the lead investigators. Together, they formed an unofficial task force that would meet at Cindy's house to discuss the harassment.
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The campaign of terror, however, did not stop. Disturbing letters began appearing, escalating the psychological torment.
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One note pinned to Cindy's car contained an image of a corpse draped in a medical sheet.
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Around the same time, Cindy discovered her phone lines had been cut in five places.
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Another letter followed, a picture of a woman with her throat slashed. Then came the most alarming incident yet.
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A friend found Cindy unconscious in her backyard, a nylon stocking pulled tight around her neck.
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When Cindy regained consciousness, she recounted being attacked and strangled by two men.
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She also claimed they had sexually assaulted her with a knife.
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While Cindy's physical injuries were evident, police found no evidence to corroborate her story.
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The torment she endured was undeniable, but the lines between fact and perception were beginning to blur, leaving everyone with more questions than answers.
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After the attack in her backyard, the police found no evidence to support Cindy James' claims.
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Instead, they suggested she see a psychiatrist.
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A recommendation Cindy initially resisted, but eventually conceded to by seeking professional help.
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Despite the skepticism surrounding her story, Cindy wasn't about to give up.
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Determined to protect herself, Cindy took a series of drastic measures.
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She painted her car a different color, wore a panic button, and carried pepper spray at all times.
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She also hired a private investigator, Ozzy Kaban, creating a lifeline of constant communication through walkie talkies in case her phone lines were cut again.
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The harassment, however, escalated to a more sinister level.
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Cindy began finding strangled cats in her yard, an ominous warning that her stalker might be preparing for something worse.
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One night, Ozzy heard a strange sound over the walkie talkie, and knew something was definitely wrong.
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He raced to Cindy's house and found her unconscious in her living room.
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A knife had been driven through her hand, pinning it to the floorboard. Beneath the blade was a chilling note.
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Now you must die, Kant. When Cindy regained consciousness, she claimed a man had entered her yard, struck her over the head, and injected her with something.
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Doctors confirmed a needle mark, but found no traces of drugs in her system.
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After recovering, Cindy changed her name, hoping anonymity might protect her.
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She leaned heavily on her close friends Agnes and Tom Woodcock, who often stayed at her house.
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But even with them nearby, the terror continued. One night, the Woodcock's heard a noise coming from the basement.
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Cindy burst into their room, panicked. Tom investigated and found the basement on fire.
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Outside, he spotted a man on the pavement, but the figure ran as Tom approached.
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The fire forced Cindy to move in with the Woodcock's. Her friends noticed that her mental state was deteriorating.
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Cindy stopped eating, and her psychiatrist believed she had become suicidal.
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Eventually, her doctor admitted her to a psychiatric hospital, where she remained over 10 weeks.
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Despite every effort to protect herself, Cindy's life remained dominated by fear and uncertainty.
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Whether she was the victim of a relentless stalker or a complex psychological struggle, one thing was very clear.
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Cindy James was running out of ways to fight back. For nearly seven years, Cindy endured relentless harassment, assaults, and stalking.
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The RCMP launched a massive investigation, spending around $1.5 million Canadian dollars to track down her elusive tormentor.
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But despite the time, money, and effort, their findings left everyone reeling.
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In all those years, the RCMP found no physical evidence to prove that Cindy had been the victim of an outside attacker.
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Instead, they developed a shocking theory. Cindy might have been orchestrating this harassment herself.
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This theory created a bitter stalemate between Cindy, her family, and friends, and law enforcement.
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Every new report from Cindy was met with skepticism.
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If another threatening letter appeared, a dead animal turned up, or a bizarre incident occurred, the police countered that there was no way to prove Cindy hadn't staged at all.
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As the investigation stalled, Cindy's life took a final tragic turn.
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On May 25, 1989, Cindy vanished. Days passed without a trace, and her family and friends grew increasingly desperate.
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Then, an unsettling call added another layer of mystery.
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Cindy's tenants, who also happened to be her life insurance representative, received a call from a man claiming to be Cindy's father.
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The caller inquired about Cindy's life insurance policy.
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When questioned, Cindy's actual father, Otto, denied making the call. On June 8, 1989, Cindy was found in the backyard of an abandoned house in Richmond, Canada.
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She had been hogtight, drugged, and strangled with an nylon stocking.
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Investigators determined she had been dead for about a week.
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Initially, her cause of death was attributed to high levels of drugs in her bloodstream, including morphine and diapam.
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However, the official ruling was changed to inconclusive.
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Cindy's death left a haunting question unanswered.
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Was she the victim of a relentless stalker or the architect of her own tragic end?
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After Cindy James's death, the RCMP doubled down on their theory.
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Cindy had been faking the nearly decade-long campaign of stalking and harassment.
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At the inquest and to her death, investigators suggested that her demise was either an intentional or accidental result of her efforts to stage yet another hoax.
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Experts were brought in to support their claims.
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One expert testified that Cindy could have tied the complex knots that bound her after injecting herself with the drugs found in her system.
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To drive the point home, an expert even tied themselves up in court to demonstrate how it could be done.
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Cindy's friends and family were outraged by this narrative.
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To them, the idea that Cindy had orchestrated her own torment was unthinkable.
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They argued that Cindy had been the target of calculated and merciless stalking.
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One, the RCMP had failed to take seriously.
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Her private investigator, Ozzy, took the stand to refute the suicide theory.
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He pointed to bruising on Cindy's body, which he believed suggested that she'd been killed elsewhere and her body moved to the abandoned house.
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To this day, Cindy James' death remains shrouded in uncertainty.
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No official calls or time of death have been determined.
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Was Cindy the victim of a violent stalker or the architect of an elaborate and tragic hoax?
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The debate continues, leaving Cindy's case as one of Canada's most perplexing unsolved mysteries.
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[Music]
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That's 10 Minute Murder for Today.
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Brief and bingeable true crime.
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I'm Joe on the host, and thank you for taking the time to listen.
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And man, this one is a tough one today.
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I know I leave you usually with some type of conclusion that is at least somewhat satisfying.
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Like, this person's in jail or this person was killed by the police or died on death row.
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Or, you know, that kind of thing.
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This one we have no idea what's going on.
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Still, decades later, no clue.
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And I want to know what you think about it.
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You can go to any place that I am on social media, and where I post the photos from this story.
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You can comment under there what you think happened, or your theory on what's going on with this Cindy James story.
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If you'd like more information on the podcast, you can go to my website, 10minuteMurder.com, or send me an email,
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jo@10minuteMurder.com.
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If you're new listener, welcome in.
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Make sure you hit subscribe wherever you'd like to listen to podcasts.
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And if you're no G-Listener, keep spreading the word of 10 Minute Murder.
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Let your friends and family know about the podcast.
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And by all means, if you love the podcast, leave a rating and review wherever that's possible.
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That helps the show grow and find more people just like you and I that...
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For some unknown reason, we really are interested in this true crime thing.
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And that's it. I really appreciate you listening.
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And if you're on to binge the next episode, don't let me stop you.
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Thank you for listening to 10 Minute Murder.
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