Cindy James - Suicide or Murder?

[Orange_Sody_84]

Thanks for filling me in. Never knew it went to that extent. (The poor Cats, tedium of making the letters, the surveillance, etc.)

Amazing that it couldn't be proven one way or the other. As another poster said today's technology would've been a big help back then.

[MegtheEgg86]

Originally Posted by Necco

Now I believe that even if she did somehow kill herself, it was someone else's fault. I think they drove her crazy. I think they exploited her weaknesses. I think at least some if not all of the instances were real. (Some may have been a desperate attempt on Cindy's part to get someone to believe her.)

This is precisely the conclusion I have come to as well. After close to eight years of pondering it, this is what makes the most sense to me. I do think Cindy's fears were ultimately based in reality, but I also strongly feel she may have staged some of the events. I also think she ultimately committed suicide, and that her death was not a murder. But I am just as firm in my belief that there was a third party tormenting her. For what reason someone would do that, I don't know.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Originally Posted by MegtheEgg86

This is precisely the conclusion I have come to as well. After close to eight years of pondering it, this is what makes the most sense to me. I do think Cindy's fears were ultimately based in reality, but I also strongly feel she may have staged some of the events. I also think she ultimately committed suicide, and that her death was not a murder. But I am just as firm in my belief that there was a third party tormenting her. For what reason someone would do that, I don't know.

This is about where I am, except that I'm not certain she was the one who killed herself in the end.

Either way, I do think there was a third party. Though now we'll never know who it was.

[ChrissySnow]

If someone did kill her, WHY would they make her take morphine??

There are many other ways to do it, and, because she was a nurse, she had access to the drug. It makes me lean more toward Cindy doing this all to herself.

Whether she staged the entire thing or someone went to great lengths to set this up....this is one of the most bizarre cases I have ever seen!

[XCalibur]

Originally Posted by LilMissKryssy

Also, she accused her ex husband of being her stalker. He always denied it and always testified at the inquest held after her death. He was 18 years her senior which would've put him in his 60s when she was killed.

People in their 60's can still be dangerous.

[Necco]

Originally Posted by XCalibur

People in their 60's can still be dangerous.

Yep. Heck, this lady is 102! (97 at the time of the crime)
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...-102/11113511/

[TheCars1986]

I've never wavered in my belief that she was staging every single attack, and was doing this to herself. The odd part about the case is how police were never able to either prove the fact that she was staging everything or catch the actual perpetrator.

[asmitty]

Originally Posted by MegtheEgg86

This is precisely the conclusion I have come to as well. After close to eight years of pondering it, this is what makes the most sense to me. I do think Cindy's fears were ultimately based in reality, but I also strongly feel she may have staged some of the events. I also think she ultimately committed suicide, and that her death was not a murder. But I am just as firm in my belief that there was a third party tormenting her. For what reason someone would do that, I don't know.

I agree here. This is the only scenario that makes sense. There were too many incidents that were witnessed by other parties for all of the tormenting to have been in her head. However, I do not feel that a killer would have killed her in the manner which she was found.

[Necco]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

I've never wavered in my belief that she was staging every single attack, and was doing this to herself. The odd part about the case is how police were never able to either prove the fact that she was staging everything or catch the actual perpetrator.

I don't trust the cops at all in this one. One of them who was supposed to be investigating/protecting Cindy moved in and started a romantic relationship with her.

Something really odd is afoot.

[Victoria81]

So I would like to know if the man that the neighbor seen who fled, was real! I always wanted to believe Cindy.

[MegtheEgg86]

Originally Posted by Necco

One of them who was supposed to be investigating/protecting Cindy moved in and started a romantic relationship with her.

I always thought that was pretty bizarre.

[lilmissd]

We also have to wonder where Cindy actually was in the time her car was found abandoned and 2 weeks later when her body was found at the abandoned house. I don't think she was dead that whole time, how do we know that the abandoned house is where she really died? She could have died elsewhere and her body was moved to that location. Odd case no matter how you slice it!

[dynoguy88]

Originally Posted by Necco

I don't trust the cops at all in this one. One of them who was supposed to be investigating/protecting Cindy moved in and started a romantic relationship with her.

Something really odd is afoot.

Reading the books, that relationship didn't come across very bizarre to me at all. In fact, Pat McBride (the cop in question) was really one of the only cops who ever seemed to have any sympathy for Cindy.

A basic summary of that relationship: Towards the beginning of the harassment, he would check in on her from time to time. They started up a friendship. He was looking for a place to live and Cindy offered her guest bedroom. (It was the perfect scenario for her. She now had a tenant and didn't have to live alone. If someone was messing with her, what better roommate to have than a cop?) As time passed, they started a romance and it sounds like it had to have been pretty genuine because he asked her to marry him. But Cindy turned him down and told him she wasn't ready to take their relationship to the next level. He moved out shortly after but continued to check in on her from time to time.

It wasn't long before he met another woman, got married and started a family. I don't think he and Cindy had any more contact with each other the last 4-5 years of her life. It's not like they ended on awful terms but he had moved on with someone else while Cindy sunk deeper and deeper into despair because so few people believed her. It was kind of sad in a way because other than Ozzie Kaban, McBride was the only other member of law enforcement who was truly in Cindy's corner.

[Cori aka ChrisSCrush]

Could she have suffered from severe dissociative disorder? Did they determine how long she had been dead at the time the body was discovered?

[theero]

Originally Posted by dynoguy88

Reading the books, that relationship didn't come across very bizarre to me at all. In fact, Pat McBride (the cop in question) was really one of the only cops who ever seemed to have any sympathy for Cindy.

A basic summary of that relationship: Towards the beginning of the harassment, he would check in on her from time to time. They started up a friendship. He was looking for a place to live and Cindy offered her guest bedroom. (It was the perfect scenario for her. She now had a tenant and didn't have to live alone. If someone was messing with her, what better roommate to have than a cop?) As time passed, they started a romance and it sounds like it had to have been pretty genuine because he asked her to marry him. But Cindy turned him down and told him she wasn't ready to take their relationship to the next level. He moved out shortly after but continued to check in on her from time to time.

It wasn't long before he met another woman, got married and started a family. I don't think he and Cindy had any more contact with each other the last 4-5 years of her life. It's not like they ended on awful terms but he had moved on with someone else while Cindy sunk deeper and deeper into despair because so few people believed her. It was kind of sad in a way because other than Ozzie Kaban, McBride was the only other member of law enforcement who was truly in Cindy's corner.

Wow, never knew about the relationship he had with Cindy, i wonder if any incidents happened while he was living there. Wonder if he saw any personality changes in Cindy from time to time?

In my opinion, i feel that Cindy was stalked at first because you have witnesses who were with Cindy during the incidents and there was no way she could have done them herself, unless (and this is going way too far) Cindy hired someone to do the harassment sometimes, it could also go as far as hiring someone to help her stage her death. I feel that she did have some mental issues after the incidents.

The divorce and these incidents may have put her mental state deeper and deeper into borderline personality disorder. I don't think she had dissociative identity disorder because it is very rare and usually manifests due to a traumatic childhood, such as emotional and sexual abuse when very young, i don't think her parents did such a thing. She may have been harassed for a few years but began to stage them to have someone believe her, and may have gone crazy and began to stage them to get attention from friends, family, police.

I twas mentioned that McBride moved on and got married, maybe this made Cindy want to seek out his attention but in a different way, and when she felt nobody believed her she just decided it was time to end her life.

The fact that she deposited a check really doesn't mean much because she may want to throw off people to make it seem as if she was kidnapped right after this. As stated before, she took about 80 pills, why would someone who was trying to kill her risk all that time, having her swallow 80 pills, when he/she could have gotten caught during this period.

And also the phone messages on her ex-husband's answering machine sounds like a woman disguising her voice, the second message definitely sounds like a woman. It may have been Cindy or someone she knew calling him, if you see the NBC version of the segment it shows more stuff, like Cindy's recording of her speaking about the harassment. Maybe they can compare her voice to that of the answering machine to see if there is similarity.

This is truly one of them most bizarre yet intriguing cases that have been featured and it may never be solved.