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Cindy James

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Nurse

The Resume

    (June 12, 1944-May 25, 1989)
    Born in Oliver, British Columbia, Canada
    Birth name was Cynthia Elizabeth James
    Alleged to have been a victim of various forms of stalking, harassment, and home invasions
    Made up to 90 calls to police between 1982 and 1989
    Body was found on June 8, 1989, two weeks after disappearing from a Safeway parking lot
    Story is known as ‘The Invisible Man’ case
    Case was covered on Unsolved Mysteries
    Case is documented in ‘Who Killed Cindy James’ and ‘The Deaths of Cindy James’

Why she might be annoying:

    She was accused of falsifying police reports for attention.
    Royal Canadian Mounted Police were unable to find any evidence to prove that she had an actual stalker.
    An officer - whom she started dating - went so far as to move in with her to protect her, only for nothing to ever happen while he was on the premises (the stalking would resume as soon as he left).
    Over seven years, RCMP allocated $1.5 million in funds to investigate her claims (at the time, the most costly police investigation in British Columbia history).
    She was accused of making threatening phone calls to herself after agreeing to have her phone line wiretapped (audio made public sounded like a woman throwing her voice).
    She repeatedly refused psychiatric evaluations, claiming to be afraid of the stigma.
    When she finally relented, the presiding doctor (a woman) concluded not only that she was lying, but that male officers only gave her the benefit of the doubt because she was an attractive white woman.
    She found three strangled cats on her property - which she attributed to the stalker.
    She repeatedly claimed that her ex-husband was the culprit, even as he was living in South Africa at the time, making it physically impossible.
    She also claimed that her ex-husband had murdered and dismembered a young couple on a boat while they were vacationing in 1981 (police investigated and found no corroborating evidence).
    She was found near her home tied up, unconscious - and with visible marks - three times (each time police found no physical evidence of any assailant).
    It has been strongly suggested that she orchestrated each attack to appear legitimate, culminating in an eventual staged suicide (or just a staged attack gone wrong).
    Even this theory has been called far-fetched, as an autopsy showed it would have been next to impossible (the inquest ultimately concluded the cause of death was ‘an unknown event’).

Why she might not be annoying:

    Her case is hotly debated and is genuinely puzzling.
    Her case would be infinitely easier to solve if modern technology were available (e.g. door cams).
    Her family continues to claim that she really did have a stalker.
    She had a documented medical history of depression and suicidal thoughts (some claim she may have suffered from Dissociative Personality Disorder).
    A doctor she knew claimed that she had been sexually abused by her father.
    She changed residencies multiple times because she believed she was being stalked.
    When she returned from an overseas vacation in August 1983, she found a note that - literally - read: ‘Welcome back—death, blood, hate, etc.’ (stalker fatigue?).
    It has been said that, if she was telling the truth, she was the victim of the most efficient and skilled stalker alive (thereby begging the question why said stalker only ever chose to go after one victim).
    Pamela Adlon narrated a 2021 Audible book on her case, titled ‘Death by Unknown Event.’

Credit: BoyWithTheGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 183 Votes: 69.40% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 52 Votes: 50.0% Annoying