Scared to Death: Cindy James

[Thiussat]

I've been out of the UM game for a couple years now and just got back to watching some old episodes for the first time in a number of years (some for the first time since they aired). I used to have a number of DVD's that contained a plethora of Lifetime episodes that I had copied from my DVR. Unfortunately I have lost them. As a result, I recently got a hold of the Bizarre Murders DVD set and there are a number of interesting cases on these discs (though some great cases were oddly omitted). One of them that I do not remember seeing before is the Cindy James case.


In my opinion, this is one of the more interesting cases in all of UM history. It reminds me a lot of the Wacker's episode, and I think a similar conclusion can be reached. As I typically do, I will list points that support both sides and then decide which side is the most likely to hold the truth.

Facts on Cindy's side:

1) Her shrink (an M.D.) believed her story which puts a damper on the mental illness theory.

2) If it was a hoax, it has to be rare for anyone to carry on a hoax for that many years. Her life was severely disrupted: she had to move, change her name and paint her car, all just to carry out the hoax.

3) The S&M angle of the harassment seems at odds with a woman pulling a prank; instead it seems like something a sexually deviant male would do (though I realize there are women into that sort of thing too).

4) Her friends who were staying with her the night of the fire said that when they ran to a neighbor's house to call the fire dept. that there was a strange man standing on the street corner who ran away when spotted.

5) I have never tried to tie my feet to my hands behind my back, but I am certain I would have a very hard time doing it (despite of being rather limber and athletic). When her body was found, she was in such a state.

Facts against Cindy's story:

1) The segment said the harassment began only a couple of months after her divorce. If there is any time for someone to be depressed and/or suicidal it would be after a difficult divorce. I would be interested in hearing what her husband thought of her everyday behavior. Did she exhibit signs of mental illness? Was she prone to tall tales?

2) There was never a witness to any of this harassment. No one ever saw the perp (in spite of numerous police and PI stake-outs) and no one ever witnessed a call. The perp only acted when no one else was around, almost like he was omniscient (much like the Wacker's mythical stalker).

3) The night the house was set on fire, it was done from the inside and there was no forced entry; that is, the window in the basement had not been opened (the dust around the window had not been disturbed).

4) Cindy claimed she was out walking her dog the night of the fire. As the reporter in the segment said: "who walks their dog at 3AM when they think they are being stalked?" Moreover, she is the one who woke up the friends in the other bedroom to alert them of the fire. This means she was awake first (setting the fire perhaps?)

5) When she died, in spite of being tied up, her cause of death was an overdose on morphine. This is very consistent with suicide.

Conclusion: I think she suffered from a disorder similar to Munchausen Syndrome. Even though she did manage to attract some attention due to injuries she received (or inflicted on herself), her main method for getting attention was by filing police reports. I am certain there is an official diagnosis for this but the name slips me. At any rate, I lean 70-30 that she did this to herself, but 30% doubt is enough that I cannot dismiss her story out of hand until more info is provided. For instance, did the police examine her call records? Do these records verify calls at the times she claimed? Did they investigate the man standing on the corner during the fire? Did they interview her ex-husband or co-workers to get a profile of her psyche?

Later.

EDIT:

After catching up on some reading on this board, I came across an already large Cindy James thread here. In that thread, the first poster posted a link to two yahoo videos of a local Canadian news report about this case and the report reveals information that was not told on UM. For instance, I did not realize her body was found over 1 mile away from her car; I didn't realize there was absolutely no drug paraphenalia found anywhere near the scene; and I wasn't aware of the answering machine calls. The answering machine calls were both disturbing and revealing at the same time (you must check these out if you haven't heard them). I am convinced the voice on the answering machine was that of Cindy herself. #1 it definitely sounds like a female trying to disguise her voice with elongated syllables and #2 because no one else but her would have made the call to her ex-husband's residence.

Theory: I am inclined to believe that Cindy's divorce triggered an emotional breakdown (latent mental illness perhaps). This is not uncommon for people who are predisposed to such diseases -- sometimes it wont reveal itself until well into adulthood. What really fortifies this for me are the calls to her ex-husband's answering machine. A perpetrator would not do that. It is more likely that Cindy wanted attention from her ex-husband and creating an elaborate fantasy of a diabolical super-stalker was one way to get his attention, and most importantly, his sympathy.

However, no matter how much I would like to believe the above theory, the physical evidence seems hard to justify it. How did she walk over a mile, get to the abandoned house and then tie her hands and feet together behind her back after having ingested a lethal dose of morphine? It seems very difficult to do. An important question I would like to have answered: Were there any witnesses to her 1.5 mile walk?

I am still leaning to suicide but the physical circumstances make it difficult to do. And, btw, that reporter in the UM episode wrote a book on this case. I wasn't aware of that. He, too, thinks it was suicide.

[Mastermind]

Facts against Cindy's story:

1) The segment said the harassment began only a couple of months after her divorce. If there is any time for someone to be depressed and/or suicidal it would be after a difficult divorce. I would be interested in hearing what her husband thought of her everyday behavior. Did she exhibit signs of mental illness? Was she prone to tall tales?

2) There was never a witness to any of this harassment. No one ever saw the perp (in spite of numerous police and PI stake-outs) and no one ever witnessed a call. The perp only acted when no one else was around, almost like he was omniscient (much like the Wacker's mythical stalker).

3) The night the house was set on fire, it was done from the inside and there was no forced entry; that is, the window in the basement had not been opened (the dust around the window had not been disturbed).

4) Cindy claimed she was out walking her dog the night of the fire. As the reporter in the segment said: "who walks their dog at 3AM when they think they are being stalked?" Moreover, she is the one who woke up the friends in the other bedroom to alert them of the fire. This means she was awake first (setting the fire perhaps?)

5) When she died, in spite of being tied up, her cause of death was an overdose on morphine. This is very consistent with suicide.

6. Cindy changed her name and residence. Yet the suspect was able to find her almost instantly. Such an act would require a high degree of surveilance on Cindy, yet there was no evidence of her being followed or anyone asking about her.

7. No real suspect has ever been produced.

However, no matter how much I would like to believe the above theory, the physical evidence seems hard to justify it. How did she walk over a mile, get to the abandoned house and then tie her hands and feet together behind her back after having ingested a lethal dose of morphine? It seems very difficult to do. An important question I would like to have answered: Were there any witnesses to her 1.5 mile walk?

I'll answer that with a couple of question?

1.Why after all this terror campaign did her attacker feel that he had to kill her now?
2. What was the last straw, here?
3. Why did he feel he had to killer her outside her home, when he was more than capable of attacking her at home?
4. Why did he choose such an ambiguous and difficult manner of murder?