Death by Unknown Event by Danielle Elliott Narrator: Pamela Adlon
Published by Audible Original on October 21, 2021
Source: Audible Plus
Genres: True Crime
Length: 7 hr 7 min
Format: Audiobook
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For seven years, Vancouver nurse Cindy James reported more than 100 separate incidents of harassment, ranging from threatening phone calls to home invasions to ritualistic assaults, including strangulations and stabbings. Canada’s Royal Mounted Police spent over a million dollars investigating her claims and found zero evidence of foul play, leading them to suspect she was making it all up. Then, in 1989, Cindy was found dead, bound and naked, half a mile from where her car was parked in a shopping mall. What happened to Cindy James remains one of the most bizarre and perplexing true crime stories in recent memory.
Death by Unknown Event illuminates the enigmatic context around James’s life, the efforts and failures of law enforcement, and the lingering theories around how she died from those closest to the case.
I had never heard of the Cindy James case before, but Death by Unkown Event, another podcast available on Audible Plus, caught my eye. Cindy James suffered for 8 years, filing multiple reports of harassment and assaults. The podcast takes us through the events in Cindy James’ life, and looks at the investigators in her case, her ex-husband, the psychiatrists, neighbors, private detective. It’s a devastating story. We see all the theories and options, but at the heart of the case is that everyone failed Cindy. I think that’s the writer’s point. Regardless of how you see the case, Cindy asked for help again and again. And ended up dead.