Further reading for episode 109: Cindy James/The McStay family
No Good-Byes: The Mysterious Disappearance of the McStay Family
June 1989, just outside of Vancouver, British Columia, the body of 44 year old Cindy James, a local nurse, was found in the yard of an abandoned house. Cindy had been drugged and strangled, her hands and feet had been tied behind her back. The Royal Canadian Police believed this to be an accident or suicide (even though she was drugged and her hands and feet were tied behind her back???).
Cindy had been married, but did not have children, in July of 1982 she and her husband separated. During the years between her divorce and death she reported close to one hundred of incidents of harassment , from whispering or silent phone calls to violent physical attacks. After she involved the police in these cases of harrassment things got worse for her.
At night she would hear prowlers, her porch lights were smashed and phone line cut, and finally bizarre notes were found on her front porch. One night as her friend Agnes dropped by for a visit, Cindy didn’t answer the door, as Agnes decided to further search around the home for her friend, she found her outside with a stocking tied tightly around her neck. Cindy said she went to the garage for something and was grabbed from behind and all she saw during the attack were white sneakers.
Cindy hired a private detective to try to find out who was stalking and harassing her, one night this detective heard strange sounds via a two-way radio he had given to Cindy. When he went to her house he found everything locked tightly, looking through the window he saw her lying on the floor with a knife in her hand.
As the phone calls continued the police became more skeptical of any actual harassment, there were more strange occurrences such on Dec 11, 1985 she was found dazed and semi-conscious laying in a ditch just a few miles from her house. Oddly she was wearing a man’s work boot and glove and was suffering from hypothermia and covered in scratches and bruises with a black nylon tied tightly around her neck.
At that point Cindy was committed to a psychiatric hospital, it was believed that she was at that point suicidal.
Cindy’s case has never been solved, however there are now a plethora of conspiracy theories even leading toward Project Artichoke aka MK Ultra.
A full family disappearance:
Feb 4, 2010 the McStay family disappeared from their home in Fallbrook, California. Their neighbors surveillance system caught the bottom of their car leaving the home, however it was too low to see any of the occupants in the car. It was believed that the family left their car near the Mexican border and they walked across the border and never came back, as there was video footage that appeared to confirm this.
For three years there were no leads and the case went fully cold. Until finally on Nov 13, 2013 the remains of the entire Family, Joseph McStay, his was Summer, and their sons, Gianni and Joseph were found by a motorcyclist, they had been buried in two shallow graves in the deserts of California.
In 2014, Joseph McStay’s business partner, Charles Merritt is arrested for the murder of the family.
Episode 109
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