Online taunt renews focus on B.C. murder probe
Realtor’s slaying a cold case since 2008
A public claim of responsibility and a taunting message to police who have struggled for more than nine years with an unsolved B.C. murder is drawing renewed attention to the startling murder of a young realtor who was killed while showing a million-dollar home to mysterious clients.
Real estate agent Lindsay Buziak, 24, died in a second-floor bedroom of an empty executive house in Saanich, B.C., on Feb. 2, 2008, the victim of multiple stab wounds to her head and chest. Police said she was lured into a complex, organized trap.
Her father, Jeff Buziak, has grown increasingly frustrated at the stalled investigation. He has offered a $500,000 reward and supports a website to help unmask her killers.
On Aug. 6, that website received an unusual public posting.
“I killed Lindsey and stupid cops will never prove it so you all got nothin,” the message begins.
That the name of the victim is spelled wrong doesn’t add credibility to the claim, but a list of local people in the message who have been linked in one way or another to Buziak suggests the author is at least familiar with the case.
“No one gives a shit anymore anyhow except her crybaby dad. Even her fakey girlfriends have washed it away. Typical loser chicks. Sanich cops dropped it cause they can’t solve shit and were told to drop it,” the message reads. “Cut the phoney investigation. It’s done. Go home losers. Forget about her. The street always rules. Bitches die every day.”
There appears to be little in the message to suggest the author has special, inside information about the crime. Police often hold back some details that allow them to focus acutely if investigators encounter someone who shares that secret knowledge.
Jeff Buziak calls for the message to be thoroughly investigated.
“I read it. I went through my various gyrations and then I copied and pasted it and sent it to police,” he said. He has not yet heard back from anyone at Saanich police, he said.
He said there are three options.
“It’s either from the guy who’s really kind of kooking out a bit and taunting; or it’s from some crackhead; or it’s someone just f--king around. But I don’t care — I ask the police to get to the bottom of it.”
Messages left for police in Saanich, a suburb of Victoria, were not immediately returned.
Buziak’s murder was shocking from the start. The idea of a real estate agent being ensnared in the trap of a private showing of an empty luxury home on a quiet street was terrifying.
It emerged that Buziak received a series of calls on her cellphone from mysterious clients who needed to buy a million-dollar home before nightfall.
She was apparently unnerved by the situation.
“She had a bad feeling about this but unfortunately didn’t take the next step to do something about it,” a real estate colleague told the National Post soon after the murder, requesting anonymity.
“It’s a perfect setup,” the president of the Victoria Real Estate Board, Chris Markham, said at the time. “I think this is as ugly as it can get. This wasn’t greed, this was entrapment. This was planned.”
On the first anniversary of her murder, police revealed she met with a welldressed couple inside the house on De Sousa Place. Officers released a composite sketch of a Caucasian woman, 35 to 45 years old with short blond hair, and a description of a male, believed to be Caucasian, six feet tall with dark hair.
The appointment was made using a cellphone bought in Vancouver under the name Paulo Rodriguez, a false name, police said. The phone was “used exclusively for this crime,” police said.
Buziak’s boyfriend, Jason Zailo, who was also a realtor, came to meet her at the house after the appointment. When she didn’t respond to his text messages, he called 911, police said. He and a friend then went into the house and found Buziak’s body. Officers have said he has been cleared as a suspect.
The website on her murder weaves a web of various persons of interest in the case, including a section called “Conspirators” that includes links to a large Calgary drug case involving a man Buziak had grown up with and had reconnected with shortly before her death.
In 2010, the case was featured on Dateline NBC. It prompted a new flood of tips but nothing has emerged to bring charges.
Her father continues to wait for an answer he is certain he will get. He has a short list of suspects.
“My kid was murdered nine and a half years ago and we’ve got nothing. Victoria is too small a place and too many people know something.”