Did you know during those years before her death the true extent of the torture she was going through?
~Ken MacQueen, Maclean’s magazine (question to Melanie Hack)

No. I had not known just how much pain she was enduring at the time it was happening. Over the years I was only given enough sketchy details of her harassment to make me wonder what was really going on…I had only had bits and pieces of details.

For example:

I accidentally found out she had been almost murdered in her driveway in October 1988… when I called Cindy about something else. On the phone Cindy had said she wanted to lie and pretend all was well in her life but had ended up telling me she had been attacked and how she thought she had been sexually violated and feared her mental functioning had diminished because of a lack of oxygen during this and previous attacks. That was all she would tell me.

Cindy did not want to talk about it. Sharing information about her harassment was extremely difficult for Cindy; she was very selective about what she shared. And I was reluctant to ask her for details because she would say, “Do you really want me to tell you? The details are too horrible. I’d have to relive it all again.” I would feel ashamed and guilty for asking, so over the years I had learned to wait for her to come to me with details and feelings. Whenever anything happened, I just wanted to know she was OK, to support her in the only way I knew how, with hugs and verbal reassurances. Whenever she did divulge her private life, I always had the belief she was telling me the truth.

My Mom mentioned she had been present when the police interviewed Cindy at the end of that October. She said Cindy had been very emotional and Mom felt the police were questioning Cindy in a way that implied she was behind her own harassment. Mom had felt angry and believed the police were pushing Cindy too hard and too soon for answers—Cindy had still been raw from the assault. Yet Mom also said the police had indicated the October attack would without a doubt have been considered a murder if Cindy had died.

Coming soon…“People who knew her always felt she was holding information back. If it was true, why do you think she did that?”
~Ken MacQueen, Maclean’s magazine

Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My Friend
Read an excerpt now
TV Shows and Clips about the Death of Cindy James