I was curious as to everyones opinions on the case of cindy james? very strange case.

i know one thing for sure: extremely creepy!

She was obviously a mentally ill, troubled woman. I'm 90%+ that she made the whole thing up. They confirmed in the case that she was withholding info. Obviously she was holding some info back.

Poor lady, but I fear the wholle thing is fake.

my question is how can somebody tie their hands behind their backs after overdosing on morphine

I'm curious as to that as well. I will admit that some things about her story don't make sense, but I think there was someone after her. It seems too bizarre she would strangle and tie herself up that many times. Also the crime scene when she was found dead. She had been injected with huge amounts of drugs and police want us to think at her own hand, but if so where was the syringe? None was found in the area. I think if Cindy was going to commit suicide she could have done it a lot simpler than that. I read both books on the case and was always suprised that UM didn't give more attention to her ex-husband being a suspect. The book portrayed him as being strange and I don't believe any of the stalkings took place until after they had broken up. My two cents.

Well I know about the 1990/91 "Who Killed Cindy James" by Ian Mulgrew. Though it is out of print, I have been able to request an inter office library loan of it to my local library. No definate date as to when it will arrive... What is the other book about the case?

I really don't think that it was staged, there had to be some covert stalkers out there who had knowledge of the police activities since no incidents occoured during the police survalance. Even if she killed herself with the drugs(as said in the story the drugs would not take affect for about 15 minutes after ingestion) why would she fake six and a half years of harrassment. Why would she spend so much on painting her car and moving? Why would she vandalize her own house and cut her own phone lines and set that fire? The only thing I think was made up was the part about once walking the dog at 3 in the morning, and why this was said is still a mystery all its own.

If she really had a multiple personality disorder, it would have shown up much earlier than after her divorce when she was 37 years old.

I agree about her husband. Who was he? What did he do? Did he have some sort of shady side that was tied to something secretive?

Like I said, this is a freaky case and I am glad it was chosen to be on the DVD set. I actually recall seeing this back when it happened on A Current Affair.

There are two main points that need be noted in regards to this case:

1. Did Cindy have a history of drug abuse? Where these drugs found in her home? How could she have gotten acess to these drugs simply to kill herself? One doesnt just one day decide to take a bunch of morphine. How would she have known what would be a lethal dose? I do not think she gave herself these drugs. Being a nurse, she could have had access, but nothing was mentioned about her and using drugs. Nurses are very heavily watched and tested to ensure that they don't abuse highly addictive painkillers. Over the years, something would have came out had she been taking or doing something with them.

2. Her psychiatrist that took care of her during the 3 months she was in the mental home absolutely believed her story and thought that Cindy's mental problems stemmed from people not believing the years of abuse she endured. He had to know her well and must have conducted countless interviews. I am inclined to believe his opinion over the skeptical Vancouver reporter who never had even met Cindy.

These two points make me believe that she was murdered. Any thoughts?

i know one thing for sure: extremely creepy!

I couldn't agree more! I watched this when it was first broadcast on NBC, gave me nightmares for weeks. If you're going to commit suicide, like the police say she did, why go to all that trouble? I agree that the angle involving the ex-husband probably is a key ingredient in this case. After all, the stalking seemed to start after she divorced her husband.

Another thing I would like to know, for those who have read the book about the Cindy case, did she always have a history of paranoia? If she had no history of mental instability when she was younger, wouldnt this lend support to her story?

I would say that from watching the Unsolved Mysteries version of her case is that she made the entire story up. If you were being harassed why would you not tell someone who was responsibile rather than withhold information? Her murder may be unrelated to her claims of being stalked and harassed.

But whoever was stalking her sure did know how to pull the wool over the policemen's eyes. afteral, they did not do anything each time the police were keeping a watch out for her. Personally, I believe that she might be slightly paranoid.

Well its been a few years since I've read the books but I can't remember them mentioning any problems that Cindy had before this. The book portrayed her husband as being "weird" but extremely intelligent and certainly capable of getting something over on the police, in my opinion.

MetalHybrid, the second story about Cindy James is "The Deaths of Cindy James" by Neal Hall. He was the reporter interviewed in the segment. It is the better of the two books, in my opinion. I found it on a biblio.com. Here is the link:

http://www.biblio.com/isbn/0771037848.html

The morphine wouldn't kick in right away. They talked to knot experts who said she could take the drugs and tie herself up. She also could have hired someone (albeit, sick person) to tie her up.

Her parents admitted in the story that she was withholding information the entire time. If you were being stalked and thought your life was in danger, why would you not tell anyone everything?

To me, everything was just a little too neat. No concrete evidence of anything. No one could verify any of what she was saying (that is, anything she couldn't have done herself) and even her supporters admit she wasn't saying everything she knew.

I'm not saying with 100% certainty that she did it all herself. But I definitely think there is more to this story that a simple stalking.

No matter what the truth is, though, it is a creepy story.

The thing that bugs me the most out of this story is if the police were so convinced that she was doing all of these things to herself, how come they could never catch her in the act? This wasn't just one thing happening for a short period of time. These things were happening year after year after year. Isn't it kind of hard to believe that a person staging these awful things for 7 straight years would never be caught by the people that were hired to protect her?

The thing that bugs me the most out of this story is if the police were so convinced that she was doing all of these things to herself, how come they could never catch her in the act? This wasn't just one thing happening for a short period of time. These things were happening year after year after year. Isn't it kind of hard to believe that a person staging these awful things for 7 straight years would never be caught by the people that were hired to protect her?

I agree with this, but I also see it from the other side. Why did they never catch her in the act and/or why did they never catch the stalker or have evidence of a stalker?

I would love to know what was so important that she couldn't tell anyone, even her parents. I do know that in the story her parents said if she talked they might go after her parents next, so maybe she really was trying to protect them.

Most of all, I am just sad about this case. It is horrible if she was being stalked, and equally as sad if she was mentally ill and couldn't get the help she needs. Hopefully now, either way, she is at peace.

Just a question, has anybody read or heard what her ex-husband is doing now?

Todd Mueller, I guess that's what makes this case so creepy and confusing at the same time. On one hand, you could have a stalker/killer that was so good at making this woman's life a living h*ll and then eventually killing her - or on the other hand, you could have a woman that was so mentally ill that she could stage all of these horrible things to herself and successfully fool the police for 7 years, never once catching her in the act. Now she is dead, and neither way can be conclusively proven. It's almost as if this whole thing was meant to FOREVER be an unsolved mystery - if you'll pardon the expression.

There are so many bizarre facts about this case that it's really hard to choose either side. The police always point to so many facts that paint a picture of her staging everything, but there are still many circumstances that could also point to her being stalked for REAL....

1. Her phone lines were cut very often. For a while, she even lived in a house that had a downstairs tennant. She never had any knowledge of which phone lines were hers, which were her downstairs tennant and which were those of all of her next door neighbors that lived around her. Yet, HER phone lines were always cut and her neighbors were always undisturbed.

2. The threatening phone calls. She was NOT always alone when she would recieve threatening phone calls. On several occasions, her police officer friend (Pat McBride), her private investigator (Ozzie Kaban) and several of her family members answered the phone to one of these strange calls. And several times she had company over when she would recieve a call.

3. Witnesses - Two of Cindy's closest friends, Tom and Agnes Woodcock who loved Cindy like a daughter lived with her often because they feared for her life. Even both of them witnessed some strange things that Cindy could NOT have staged. On one occasion, they were all in the living room playing cards at 3:00 in the morning - (They did this often because Cindy understandably had trouble sleeping.) when the burgler alarm went off. A dead cat was thrown on her front porch with some threatening note tied around it's neck.... something along the lines of, "You're next!" :eek: Cindy never once left the room. There was no way she could have staged this and deliberately set off the alarm. Hearing prowlers outside in her yard at night was a common thing - her mother stayed overnight once and witnessed that herself.

4. The multiple personality theory - I'm surprised this doesn't get talked about more often. I don't think it's possible she could have suffered from multiple personalities. If she did, wouldn't any of her family members or friends notice a change? I find it hard to believe that she could conveniantly change personalities ONLY when she was alone.

You could make so many lists of evidence that could go either way but you can never get real proof either way as well. It's just a really crazy case.

If all the things dynoguy88 brought up are true, how in the world can the police STILL believe Cindy did this to herself? These are the cases that would stay in my head for months. People who are stalked, or say they are stalked, yet you cant prove it one way or the other. The incident involving the cat, I agree :eek: