Apr 11/2025 Lindsay Buziak Murder – what we know about the owner of the murder house.
On the Dateline NBC Dreamhouse Mystery show which aired November 17, 2010, the experts LA Prosecutor Alan Jackson, Homicide Investigator Dwayne Stanton, and Crime Investigator Yolanda McCleary all agreed that Lindsay was targeted in a scheme well thought out and artfully designed. The experts believed that whoever planned Lindsay’s murder was someone she knew, someone who was very close to her, someone in the same business, and possibly in the same office. And let’s not forget what Saanich Police Inspector Rob McColl had to say on Dateline.
Inspector Rob McColl said, “It’s possible that one of those two people who were at the home is the mastermind behind this and perhaps the money. Equally possible or more likely, there is a 3rd, 4th, or 5th person involved. Motive, possibly considerable wrong done to the financier”.
ON FEBRUARY 2/2008 Right after Lindsay’s murder, Insp. Robert McColl took the helm as team commander
and appointed a primary investigator and a file coordinator. The three roles acted in a “command triangle” at the head of an investigation and worked to organize the forensic identification, surveillance, interviews & detective teams that carry out the groundwork. One wrong step, McColl said, and evidence can be tainted throwing off the investigation. Even before he arrived on the scene, McColl knew to use the “made-in-Canada” model. Now, looking back today, it is clear that their made-in-Canada model of investigation did not work.
Reports said that the police cadaver dog was deployed along the property’s eastern & western perimeter, but not along the south, (front of the house) as that area was considered contaminated by the movements of police officers and first responders. Wait just a minute now, wasn’t it was Jason Zailo and his friend who first contaminated the crime scene – running through the bushes at the front of the home, down the side and into the backyard, leaving their footprints everywhere they went. Touching door handles at the place of entry, and once inside left footprints and fingerprints on the staircase and other areas of the home.
LET’S TAKE A MUCH CLOSER LOOK AT JOE DESOUSA, THE OWNER OF THE PROPERTY
Joe’s parents owned the original homestead at 4327 Torquay Drive. The home was torn down in 2006 and their son Joe DeSousa subdivided the property, creating a cul-de-sac where he built 6 homes. At the time of Lindsay’s murder Joe was heavily in debt, and his home was soon to be foreclosed on. He was known for not paying his trades and had a number of liens against his property. He was also known to be a difficult man and not liked by a lot of people. In early 2009 Joe’s home went into foreclosure, but somehow, he was able to redeem it. Here he is today, 17 years later and still living in the same 1702 DeSousa Place house. Joe is still building homes, mostly up in the Shawnigan Lake area, and just recently built a home for him and his wife at 4460 Barnjum Road in Cowichan Bay.
Joe DeSousa was good friends with Shirley Zailo & her partner Paul Bergshoeff.
November 2007 Realtor Shirley Zailo did a market evaluation for Joe on his property at 1702 DeSousa Place, which gave her close familiarity with the property.
According to Ms. Zailo, Joe wanted to list his property for much higher than the price she had recommended so she declined to take the listing.
Joe gave the listing to two realtors in Shirley’s Re/Max Camosun office. If Shirley didn’t want the listing, why didn’t she suggest to her friend Joe that one of her sons, or Lindsay take the listing?
Joe took his property off the market over Christmas, then relisted January 6/2008 with the same two women.
On saturday February 2/2008 Lindsay Buziak is murdered in the property owned by Joe DeSousa.
In his statement to the police Joe DeSousa tells the cops that he had been in the home just prior to the showing, had checked the doors & windows, and had even ventured into the master bedroom & ensuite. He said he saw nothing out of place. Why did Joe feel the need to let the cops know he had been in the master bedroom & the ensuite. Was he setting up his alibi as to why he had gone into those two rooms? DeSousa also provided police with elimination fingerprints and footprints. He tells police he left the premises shortly after 5:00 pm, and that his trades had all left the area just before 5:00 pm. Were there any witnesses that can confirm seeing Joe DeSousa leave the house or get into a vehicle and drive away around that time? Where is the evidence that Joe left the house at all?
An important point to never forget – the three missing boards from the fence facing Torquay Drive.
Joe told the Saanich Police that he left cans of paint on the back patio, and the hole in the fence was so that his trades would have a way to enter the back yard to get the paint. Who the heck leaves paint outside on cold nights in January/February and who the heck has their painters crawling through a hole in the fence to get to the paint? Surely Joe DeSousa knew that exterior paint left out in the cold would freeze, Hopefully the police were paying attention & picked up on that BS story.
It’s rare that painters would ever agree to sneak through a hole in a fence to get to their paint. If neighbors were to see this happening, they likely would have suspected a break-in and called the police. The temperature on Feb 2/2008 was a low of 1.9 C and a high of 7.8 C. Above 10C is the recommended temperature to apply paint to the exterior of a home.
Let’s also remember that Joe DeSousa’s wife had cleaned the entire house that afternoon just before the showing. It seems odd that Joe found it necessary to go trapsing into the master bedroom and ensuite leaving his footprints on the carpeted stairs to the upper level, and all over the hardwood flooring in the bedroom. And just after his wife had vacuumed. I have to wonder if this was common practice for Joe, and if so, did he check every single room in the house prior to locking up that night. Did he venture into the basement and check the doors and windows down there too?
In order for the conspirators to carry out their plan,
they would have to have known the exact times the trades left the cul-de-sac, what time the builder Joe DeSousa left the area, and be confident there would be no other realtors arriving unexpectedly to show the place prior to Lindsay’s arrival, or during the time Lindsay would be showing the property. Could Joe DeSousa have been their look-out man, their inside source of information? Had Joe really left the house shortly after 5:00 pm, or was he still lurking around inside? Joe’s principal residence was 4421 Houlihan Court, just 1.8 kilometers away. A 4-minute drive or a 20-minute walk. What a great location for the conspirators to have run to after the murder. Out through the opening in the fence, onto Torquay, then straight to Joe’s place on Houlihan.
Security cameras have Jason leaving SHC at 5:30 pm, the exact time Lindsay is known to be accessing the locbox.
Lindsay was on the phone with Jason at that exact moment, and said to him, “I have to go, the Mexicans are here”. Impeccable timing, impeccable planning, with the mastermind pulling the strings not far away. So, Jason & his friend arrive at the DeSousa house at 5:45 pm. They wait, and they wait, and they wait. Twenty minutes later, after finding the front door locked Jason’s friend Cohen spots an open patio door at the side of the house. Jason helps Cohen over the fence, Cohen then enters the home through the open French doors. Jason ran back to the front door and waits for Cohen to come and open it.
Now Cohen has touched door handles, raced through the family room, down the hallway, then makes it to the front door opening it for Jason. Jason enters, and first thing he does is to run straight up the stairs where he finds Lindsay’s body lying in a pool of blood. He yells for Cohen to come up, and next thing you know Cohen is running up those stairs, at the same time noticing bloody footprints on the way up. Jason & Cohen’s footprints have now washed away all, or at least some of the footprints Joe DeSousa had left when he travelled that same route just a short time earlier. And here is Lindsay lying in a pool of blood in the area where Joe DeSousa was standing only 1 hour earlier.
The cops tell the media that the killers bloody footprints led down the stairs and straight to the front door, therefore the cops are convinced that the killer’s plan was always to exit through the front. Wait just a minute now – the killers likely had to go to the front door area because that is where they left their shoes when entering the house. They needed their shoes for their get-a-way, didn’t they? It makes far more sense that their exit plan was through the back patio doors in the rear yard, then through the opening in the fence where Joe DeSousa had conveniently removed the boards in the days leading up to Lindsay’s murder. Once they came out on the other side, they were hidden from view by trees & shrubbery.
Police claim there were two independent witnesses that saw the buyers shaking hands with Lindsay at the end of the driveway.
One of those witnesses, a man driving by – described the male as wearing a long coat. He did not get a good look at the woman so was unable to describe her. Supposedly the other witness, a woman out walking her dog was able to describe the female, saying she was wearing a bright colorful dress. Years after the murder, the witness driving by the house contacted Lindsay’s father to tell him about what he had witnessed that evening.
The woman witness has never come forward so whether or not she actually existed we will never know. The reality is, Jason Zailo may be the only real witness the police had, though he may have given them false information, so his story cannot be relied upon. Perhaps that is the reason the police held back the description of the couple at the house until a year after the murder. They didn’t trust what Jason had told them.
On Dateline, Jason Zailo told the host that he saw two shadows through the frosted glass in the front door. But a few years later, Jason changed his story, telling police he drives up to the house at 5:45, and then he tells them that he may have actually seen the murderers: a tall Caucasian man, and a blonde woman wearing a colorful dress. “The killers were actually about to walk out the front door and leave, and he turned into the cul-de-sac and interrupted them leaving,” said Sgt. Chris Horsley. “If he had been five seconds later, he would have driven right into the suspects walking out here into the driveway. Instead, he tells police the couple turned around and closed the door”.
Many people have wondered why Lindsay did not wait for Jason to arrive.
The buyers walked into the cul-de-sac, no vehicle in sight. What was it that made Lindsay feel comfortable enough to walk into the house with the couple? If the woman did not have an accent when she spoke, that would have raised a red flag for Lindsay. Especially if Lindsay believed the accent was fake, which it probably was. I have to wonder if the man might have introduced himself as Joe DeSousa the owner, telling her that him and his wife had just been out for a walk in the neighborhood. “I left the door open for you Lindsay, I’ll come in quickly and give you a quick tour.” Or was that man posing as the buyer Joe DeSousa himself? Joe may really be a good guy who had nothing to do with Lindsay’s murder, however, with everything that went down that night, the optics do not look good for Joe DeSousa.
Let’s never forget the statement that Joe DeSousa made to someone he knew less than a week after the murder. “The little bitch got what she deserved”. Who the hell says something like that about a young girl who was just slaughtered in the master bedroom of their home?
Did Joe DeSousa know Lindsay Buziak personally? Because if he didn’t, then someone close to Joe must have been feeding him some very negative stories about Lindsay. Who could that possibly be, other than his friends Shirley Zailo and Paul Bergshoeff. Was Joe involved in the something that Lindsay saw that she shouldn’t have seen? There are a few people for sure that really wanted Lindsay dead, and that’s not too hard to figure out. Just how many people really know what happened to Lindsay Buziak that night and why do they continue to stay silent? The buried secrets in this case seem to lurk just below the surface which means the truth isn’t that far away.
EMAIL ADDRESS: murderondesousa@gmail.com