100 Allegations of Stalking: Extreme Case of Mental Illness or Murder? The Horrible Case of Cindy James

Yasmin Scherrer
8 min readFeb 27, 2023

Despite nearly a hundred allegations of stalking and harassment, police found no physical evidence to tie attacks against Cindy James to a perpetrator. Even after her puzzling death, there’s still dispute whether she was murdered or killed herself.

From a Normal Life to a Terrorized Life

Cindy Hack was born on June 12, 1944 in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she spent most of her life. She was one of the six children of Tilley and Otto Hack, who were very strict in raising their children. Cindy noted in her diary as a teenager that she experienced corporal punishment in her upbringing.

After she graduated from university in 1966, Cindy married psychiatrist Roy Makepeace. Afterwards, she started working with children in special needs for a total of 12 years before taking on a job at Richmond General Hospital.

In 1982, Cindy and Roy divorced. This came around the same time as alleged attacks against Cindy started to occur, which continued for more than six years.

Stalking Started With Phone Calls and Loitering

Around four months after the couple separated, Cindy first noted strange occurrences around her home. It started with prowlers at night, and soon went over to phone calls.

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Yasmin Scherrer

Writer from Switzerland • Diploma in journalism and editing • Crime, Health, History • Also on Medium: @zeitgeister