Petition demands Lindsay Buziak murder case be turned over to new investigators
Credit to Author: Denise Ryan| Date: Sun, 01 Mar 2020 22:24:23 +0000
Everyone is interested in talking about who murdered Lindsay Buziak. Except Saanich police.
Twelve years after the savage killing of the Saanich real estate agent, Saanich police say they will not speak to journalists or release any information on what they characterize as an “open and active investigation.”
One person who won’t stop talking is Lindsay’s father, Jeff Buziak.
“There are conspirators and killers of a young woman walking free in Greater Victoria. The public is in danger.”
Buziak told Postmedia that when he cradled his daughter’s head in his arms and stroked her hair as her body lay in the morgue, he made her a promise: “I’m going to find out who did this to you or I will die trying.”
The lack of an arrest or arrests in the case has frustrated and devastated Buziak’s family, said Buziak. The case is one of Canada’s highest-profile unsolved mysteries, and has attracted attention from international media including a 2010 Dateline episode, coverage on Dr. Phil, and inspired podcasters, bloggers and conspiracy theories.
Lindsay Buziak, 24, a real estate agent found dead at 1702 De Sousa Place in Saanich on Saturday, Feb. 2, 2008.
Now, Ashley Marten has launched a Change.org petition asking that Mike Farnworth, the minister of public safety, remove the case from Saanich police department and turn it over to another agency.
“I have been following the case closely,” said Marten, a 35-year-old engineering assistant who lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Marten, who is the same age Lindsay would have been had she not been murdered, became interested in the case after hearing about it on a True Crime podcast.
The details of Buziak’s ambush killing are chilling. On Feb. 2, 2008, the 24-year-old realtor was scheduled to show a Saanich home to a prospective buyer, but she felt uneasy. She had received a call on her personal cellphone near the end of January. The call came from a woman with a Spanish accent asking to see a million-dollar home on De Sousa Court, a cul-de-sac in Saanich.
Buziak told both her father, Jeff Buziak, and her boyfriend, Jason Zailo, that something about the call didn’t feel right — she didn’t give out her personal cellphone number and the woman’s accent sounded fake. Police later said the call was made from a cellphone purchased in Vancouver under a false name, and used only once, solely for the purpose of luring Lindsay to the home.
Police investigate the murder of Lindsay Buziak in 2008.
Lindsay asked her boyfriend to attend the showing with her. Zailo arrived 10 minutes late with a friend, and the pair waited outside another 10 minutes before texting Lindsay to ask if she was all right. Lindsay never answered that text.
Zailo told officers that as he waited, he observed a man and woman open the front door, then close it again. Zailo eventually tried the front door, but found it locked. His friend found the back door open. Zailo entered and found Lindsay dead in an upstairs bedroom. She had been stabbed more than 40 times.
Zailo and his friend were taken into custody, but released the next day without charges.
Jeff Buziak said his daughter, who worked for Zailo’s mother Shirley Zailo, was in the process of breaking up with Zailo at the time and planned to leave the Zailo office for another realty branch.
In 2010, after public speculation about their possible involvement in the murder, Saanich police held a press conference to announce the Zailo family had cooperated with authorities and been cleared.
Jeff Buziak arrives at a Walk for Justice to honour his slain daughter, Lindsay Buziak, in 2012.
Buziak is openly critical of the Saanich police for the lack of progress in the case.
“Saanich police are not capable, they are not qualified, they have no experience, they should never have been on this case by themselves, this needs to be turned over completely to the RCMP.”
In an emailed statement, Const. Markus Anastasiades said Saanich police would not speak to media. Anastasiades said Saanich police has been in “a partnership with the RCMP that began at the initial crime scene. That partnership continues to this day.”
Anastasiades said the RCMP has conducted two “comprehensive reviews” of their investigation, one in 2008 and another in 2019, and that Saanich police are “moving forward with the recommendations of the most recent review.”
“It’s been hell,” said Jeff Buziak. “Lindsay was a great kid, high spirited with a mind of her own. She was happy, fun, kind to others and well loved.”
Buziak, a Calgary real estate broker, said he’s had years of counselling, and he understands that an arrest won’t bring his daughter back.
“I’m not just doing this for her,” he said. “I’m doing this for all the other missing and murdered women and girls whose cases have gone unsolved.”