Real estate agent stabbed, police say
Second 911 call was made by person who found body Another young agent received odd call a day after killing
Saanich police sources confirmed yesterday that 24-yearold real estate agent Lindsay Buziak was stabbed, and investigators will likely say today whether that was the cause of death.
A Saanich detective and a forensic identification officer were present at a forensic autopsy performed yesterday in Vancouver as officers try to determine how and why Buziak was killed Saturday in a vacant home listed for sale on De Sousa Place in Gordon Head.
At a press conference yesterday, Const. Brad Brajcich released more information on a 911 call that sent emergency vehicles screaming to the $964,900 house. According to Brajcich, the Saanich communication centre received a 911 call at 6:15 p.m. from someone who said they were worried about a person inside the house. A few minutes later, police received a second 911 call from inside the house by the person who found Buziak’s body.
Those calls are still a major part of the investigation, Brajcich said, although he wouldn't say if the same person made both calls. He also wouldn’t say how the person who found Buziak’s body got into the house or if there were any signs of forced entry. He didn’t say what time Buziak arrived at the house.
Police officers arriving at the scene were met by two witnesses. Brajcich would not say who the witnesses were, but said they were co-operating with police.
Asked if police had any suspects or if they had detained anyone, Brajcich said police are interviewing “so many people.”
He said police are asking hundreds of people who have called in information about the case to be patient while officers sort through the tips.
“We will get back to you,” said Brajcich. “We will be pursuing all angles regarding information we receive.”
Rumours circulating in the real estate industry say Buziak was lured to the house through a phone call on Saturday from a woman with a strong Spanish accent who asked to see properties in the $1-million price range. She allegedly told Buziak she intended to buy that day. Later, Buziak reportedly received a phone call from a man who said he alone would meet with her.
Buziak told friends in her Re/Max Camosun office that she was uncomfortable about the appointment.
She reportedly asked her live-in boyfriend, fellow real estate agent Jason Zailo, to meet her later at the house.
Police are trying to identify who made the suspicious calls.
Brajcich stressed there’s no evidence linking the crime to Buziak’s job as a real estate agent. Investigators will be looking at Buziak’s background, who she hung out with and her work colleagues, he said.
Both Zailo and Buziak’s former boyfriend, Matt MacDuff, have spoken with police.
“They wanted to know anything I could give them,” MacDuff, who dated Buziak for five years, said yesterday. “They wanted to know rumours about her or if I could explain her character.
“Whoever did this has to be caught,” added MacDuff, who had dinner with Buziak’s father, Jeff, on Monday night. “And everyone who knows anything about her, down to the smallest detail, should be going to Saanich police with the smallest detail.”
Buziak and MacDuff broke up more than a year ago. The two had lived together — she moved back to Victoria from Vancouver to move in with him — but it didn’t work out. MacDuff has had a new girlfriend for about a year. Buziak had been with Zailo a little bit longer.
“We’re all pretty upset,” MacDuff’s mother, Marjory, said yesterday. “Matt’s doing terrible. We all are. She was part of our family. We loved her. She’ll be so missed. It’s a terrible tragedy.”
“He’s really upset about it. They had that connection,” added MacDuff’s twin brother Malcolm. “It’s pretty tragic. It’s almost unreal.” Another young female real estate agent in Victoria has told police she was called by a suspicious woman with a heavy accent the day after Lindsay Buziak was killed.
“She just said, ‘Can you come over, I want to list my house,’” said Jasmine Parsons, 22, who works for One Percent Realty in Victoria.
“I’m like, ‘OK, what’s your address?’ She’s like, ‘Oh, you know what, I’m not sure. Can I call you back?’ And she didn’t call back.”
Buziak, a 24-year-old real estate agent with Re/Max Camosun, was found dead Saturday after reportedly being lured to an empty house in Gordon Head by a phone call from a woman with a strong accent.
Parsons said she knew Buziak, but they weren’t close friends. She said she also knows Jason Zailo, Buziak’s boyfriend.
The call to Parsons came from a private number on Sunday. At the time, she said she knew Buziak had been killed, but did not know about reports of a call from a woman with an accent. After she was told, she said she reported the phone call to police.
“The more I think, the scarier it is,” Parsons said about the mysterious call.
Parsons, whose smiling picture is displayed prominently on her website, said she now makes sure she’s not alone at showings.
“I get creepy phone calls all the time. Now I’m just a little more aware,” she said.
Saanich police Sgt. John Price said investigators will try to determine if other real estate agents were called by whomever called Buziak. But he said he was not specifically aware of Parsons’s case.
“If she phoned us and provided that information, you can bet that will be part of our investigation,” said Price.
A forensic autopsy was performed yesterday on the body of 24-year-old real estate agent Lindsay Buziak, who was found dead Saturday in a vacant house in Gordon Head.
Real estate agent Jasmine Parsons says a woman with a strong accent called wanting to list a house but said she would call back with the address.