Imagine my surprise when I recently received an email from a young woman, now living in North Vancouver, who had been a Blenheim House client of my sister, Cindy James, three or four years before Cindy’s mysterious death in 1989. She said, “Cindy told me there were really bad people in this world and that it’s normal and ok to be scared (little did I really know at 4) but that you had to place your trust in someone, anyone. She was my someone. I would like to thank you and your family for raising a daughter and sister that was my safe place. We were close. She came to scatter my mom’s ashes. She was at my baptism. She gave me strength and hope. I could go on for hours. I miss her as everyone does. … I have spent many years going over news clippings from her murder. I am firm that that is what it truly was. Murder. Cindy was the only person I would trust. Cindy gave me the faith to trust. I would love to give it back.”
Does that sound like someone children needed to fear? Would it surprise you to know a secret C-237 RCMP report had stated in 1986, “Conversation with a (Force) psychologist, who does not know Makepeace [Cindy James] but was advised of Makepeace’s history [7 years of threats and harassment against Cindy], finds the following:
“Makepeace … should be considered as a dangerous person around children. … Further, it was suggested that, because she works with children with behavioral problems (Blenheim House), the school should be notified.” Within weeks, Cindy’s employment at Blenheim House was terminated. It is outrageous to think that someone who never even interviewed or spent any time with Cindy, could come up with such a belief and that the police would act on that opinion as if it were a fact.
And I believe that when Cindy lost her job, the course of her life took a downward turn. This was something she never recovered from. Her kids, her job, and her coworkers were her lifeboats in a world of turmoil. Years later I would discover Cindy wrote about losing them–within the hidden papers I found.
This young woman who recently contacted me, haunted by dreams of Cindy since she was 10, wrote in an e-mail to me, “My dreams, she is sitting in her office at Blenheim House and she’s petting her black dog saying that she’s scared of people too and that it’s ok. She repeats this over and over. Others are when she visited my adopted parents house and she was pushing me on the swing in our yard. In this dream she is asking me how the air feels, almost begging me to tell her it’s fresh and cool. I truly don’t know the meaning behind these at all. As I have said, she haunts me. Or maybe I feel the need to help her the way she did for myself.”
If you have any memories of Cindy, or any information about her life and death, please contact me.
Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My Friend
The unsolved mystery of the death of Cindy James
I was a special needs student at Blenhein house from 1983-1987. Of course being at a young age my memories of Cindy are vague, but I do remember her. I don’t know why she got fired from there. I don’t know why they say she was dangerous around children (the worst she ever did was put someone for a time out, and kodos for that, because that is just what kids need when they mis-behave….it is no wonder why todays kids have no conscience….Cindy made sure to let us know if you mis-behave there are consequences….and kodos for that) Cindy, you were wonderful and there must be more people like you to help kids get started in life.
You are missed.
April 20, 2008 @ 5:50 pmAnd I’d also like to add, that IF Cindy had done something horrible to someone, these children would remember it (even at 4 years old) I can NOT re-call Cindy as a dangerous woman (maybe a little stricter that the rest of the staff, but dangerous…..that is completly nonsense) and if she did have strange behaviour, I can’t blame her (how would one like to have a harassing stalker threatining to kill you…..I heard one of the messages the guy left on her answering machine and it sends chills to me) Cindy was wonderful, and my last memory of her I believe was ither in 1986 or 1987, when we were on a field trip and Cindy had come to visit us, and I think I had asked her if she brought her camara to take a picture of me, but unfortunatly she did not have it. She really was wonderful, as well as the rest of the Blenheim House staff.
April 21, 2008 @ 12:49 amwatching tv earlier tonight I saw the case of cindy who was found dead, hogtied, and drugged in vancouver. rarely does something on tv cause me to pause like cindy’s case has. I’ve never posted a message before, either. however, what happened to this woman made me take notice. what cindy went through must’ve been a living hell and for the police, media and others to scoff and deny she was being truthful is astonishing. for anybody to go through such horrorific events yet not disclose fully the details means to me that she was profoundly afraid of something and/or someone but was willing to shoulder it in order to protect her family. I believe someone was behind her nightmare, and whoever it was is a coward and a bully. too bad she gave into the manipulation. I doubt had she been completely forthright any harm would have came to her loved ones since people who make threats don’t normally follow through-its nothing more but weasel type intimidation. why didn’t the police have a woman stay with cindy for a few nights until a phone came so the female cop could have answered the phone to at least verify them? according to unsolved mysterys (the program I saw that featured cindys story)the police spent over a million dollars investigating her allegations. I was struck by the reporter whose comments were included in the broadcasts; his attitude seemed as if he had something against cindy. his comment about walking her dog late at night by herself-he said why would someone that afraid go out alone like that or something to that effect-I cannot provide an answer but I find it very brave of her (I wouldn’t have done it), but it seems to me the reason cindy was able to go out with her dog…she was with her dog, hello? how far did she walk anyway? I know how a dog behaves when it needs to relieve itself-it can be incredibly persistent to the point of obnoxious. her friends were inside the house, too. that would have made me feel more comfortable about stepping out although I would asked my friends to go with me. however, it occurs to me that perhaps she got tired of asking people to be with her all the time. what it would be like to be terrorized like that, I have no idea. evidently the police have ruled out her exhusband (I wonder what their marriage was like), but could it have been one of her child patients who had developed some sort of fixation on cindy and when this person got older started to do something about it? her patients were afterall kids who were more at risk, right? I just don’t believe anyone could be that mentally ill without it manifesting in other ways. hopefully the mystery will be solved and the perpetrators punished and the doubters better make a giant apology to the heavens since its too late to apologize to cindy.
November 10, 2009 @ 6:00 am