May 16/2025 Lindsay Buziak Murder – What is really going on here?
An entire community, the entire world for that matter, was shocked beyond belief, when in 2010,
a spokesperson for the Saanich Police Department stepped forward & publicly cleared the entire Zailo family of having any involvement in Lindsay’s murder. Since that time, the Zailos have been very secure in their denials and choregraphed alibis to anyone who will listen. This family have managed to evade arrests, prosecution, and the truth coming out for nearly seventeen years. Yes, they could be innocent, but so far, I’ve seen no evidence to support that they could not be somehow involved. If they are, why haven’t the cops shared that information with the public? You can’t just claim a family is innocent and not at least tell the public something that supports that statement.
Didn’t it matter to the Saanich Police that the Zailo’s alibis were littered with gaping holes? Didn’t it matter that their inconsistencies had been brought to the surface over the years. Didn’t it matter that their stories did not fit the true picture? Strength behind truth never changes – lies on the other hand are impossible to keep straight. Everyone knows that the Zailos did not personally murder Lindsay, but it doesn’t absolve them of having knowledge or conspiring with those who did.
This entire mess left the department with a legal and investigatory disaster of not being able to further investigate the Zailos- a blunder so out there that it would tempt any police department to try to sweep it under the rug. Whatever happens, a good legal defense will have a field day with all this when the case finally goes to trial.
Did there ever come a time that the Saanich Police realized they had cleared the Zailo’s prematurely?
And if so, did they realize that this was an irreversible error that could not be corrected without serious implications? I don’t want to believe for one minute that there is a cover-up going on, but I do think there were some serious missteps made during this investigation and Saanich Police quickly tried to backtrack and figure out where things went so wrong. I also believe as many others do, that there is one cop in that department who went to great lengths over the years to protect the Zailo family.
Isn’t it odd that just a week before the Dateline Dreamhouse Mystery Show aired in September 2010, the Saanich Police made the announcement that they had hit a dead end and needed help. That, they said, was the reason they made the decision to appear on Dateline in the first place, hoping that of all the millions of viewers watching the show, it could prompt the tip that cracks the case. The Dateline experts all agreed on the show, that it was someone very close to Lindsay, someone she knew, and very possibly someone in the same business.
How do we go from desperately needing help one week before the show, to clearing the Zailo’s one week after the show? What changed during that short period of time? Is it possible that Zailo’s high profile criminal lawyer at the time, Brad Hickford, threatened the cops with a lawsuit if they didn’t publicly clear the Zailo’s. Or was it that the Saanich Police didn’t believe a word of what the experts had to say on Dateline and retaliated by going public and clearing the entire Zailo family.
There is one Saanich cop who has been interviewed by the media many times, and each time he has stood behind every lie Jason has told.
Instead of this cop taking the opportunity to expose Jason’s lies to the public, he did just the opposite. In fact, when he spoke of Jason, it sounded like they were good buddies. Does this make any sense at all – of course it doesn’t. So, we have a cop who was either doing his best to protect the evidence at all costs, or we have a cop who is covering up for the people he knows are responsible for Lindsay’s murder and has been misdirecting the investigation for years. I’d like to believe he’s a good cop who’s been protecting the evidence, however, I’m just not sure about anything anymore.
This is the same cop who has done his utmost to convince the public that it’s the Mexican cartel who is responsible for Lindsay’s murder. I believe this cop is still on the hunt for that illusive Mexican. Heck let’s get serious. Few of us believe this was a cartel hit. This murder was personal, very personal. Like the 3 Dateline experts all agreed, someone very close to Lindsay, someone she knew, someone probably in the same business.
The Dateline experts sure weren’t pointing the finger at the Mexicans now were they! Tell me, while the Saanich Police have been focused on the Mexican cartel for the past god knows how many years, who’s been investigating the possibility that the Zailo’s may have hired someone local to have Lindsay murdered? Or brought in someone from the outside. It’s insane to think that the cartel concocted this convoluted plan to get Lindsay to an empty house yet had no control over the situation on the ground. How could the cartel know that Lindsay wouldn’t show up with a friend? They couldn’t!
Lindsay was manipulated into doing the showing alone and the killers were in constant contact with the mastermind who could guarantee that Lindsay would be at the house alone. This was a murder planned by locals and committed by locals. An inside job where every move the conspirators made was masterfully planned and carried out. Only those close to Lindsay could have pulled this off.
Did the cops ever take the time to investigate any of Jason’s friends after the murder?
What about his close friend/mortgage broker partner fraudster Greg Martel. The Ponzi scheme mastermind who has now fled the country. You remember, the guy in the picture with Jason holding the knife. What about his close friend the drug trafficker, Ziggy Matheson? What about his drug dealer friend Chris Schwartz who Jason rushed to see just hours after he was released from the police station? What about Andy Rogers & Bowman Rutledge, the two alleged real estate rapists Jason golfed with on a regular basis? Never heard what happened in the J.K civil trial. As Andy & Bowman never came out to brag about how they won their case, I have to assume they lost. The woman they sexually assaulted probably received a financial settlement but had to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
What about Ziggy Matheson’s little brother Jimmy Lepine, (now deceased). A guy who at one time had been charged with a number of assaults including stabbing a man who nearly died. Why in the hell are we chasing Mexicans when we had so many likely suspects right under our nose in Victoria? Oh yes, I forgot, the police cleared the Zailo’s in 2010, so no need to interview any of these clean-cut individuals. The Saanich Police tell us that they have the help of the FBI, the Vancouver Island Intergrated Major Crime Unit, and Victoria Police Just imagine, all those agencies involved and still no results. Very suspect indeed.
Good old Andy Rogers, not only a bartender at “The Local” on Wharf Street, but also a minority shareholder.
And what did Jeremy Petzing the owner of The Local say after his two employees were accused of sexual assault? Jeremy told the press he was shaken up and his first thoughts were with the women who had come forward with the allegations. He told the press he had cut all ties with these two employees/ both minority shareholders. I call bs on that statement, Petzing knew exactly the type of men who were working for him, and at that time “The Local” had a reputation for spiking drinks and …… Andy Rogers had a reputation with women, and it wasn’t good. The 2nd accused was Roger, a coach with the Castaways Rugby Club, he resigned at the request of the owners.
Times Colonist 2021
Of the 4 allegations, 1 was connected to rugby and the others related to the coach’s roles in local nightlife, most recently at The Local in Bastion Square. The restaurant had not released any statement as of Sunday night. All references to the coach, including his bio, have been scrubbed from the Castaway Wanderers club website. Given the seriousness of the allegations, we have asked our coach to resign, and he has agreed.”
There is a damn good reason that these bar/restaurant/nightclubs owners hire sleazy bartenders and bring on partners/shareholders who are willing to play the game. Heck, Jeremy Petzing is close friends with the entire Zailo family, and even rents Shirley Zailo’s Shawnigan Lake property for one month every summer. Though he claims to have cut all ties with Andy Rogers, they are still good friends, and Andy is on Jeremy’s Facebook friend’s list. All these jocks share the same personality disorder, a sense of entitlement – thinking they are above the law. They are in fact, little men with big egos, who no decent person has any respect for.
As for the Saanich cops, let’s ask ourselves why Sgt. Tyra Reid is good friends with Shirley Zailo.
Tyra even tells Shirley how lovely she looks on Facebook, and suggests they have lunch together soon. Well Tyra Reid is not playing with a full marble bag herself. Just a few years ago she married a Saanich cop who had been charged with 2 counts of sexual assault and was on paid leave during the trial. Of course he was acquitted, but as we all know that doesn’t make him innocent. Yes, that was years ago but the fact is, it still happened, and it speaks to his character. In 2015, this same cop was under investigation for using images of tactical team members and training videos to promote a workout video. He resigned from the department. A number of cops in the Saanich Police Department have been involved in scandals, some of them were fired, a few got off with nothing more than a reprimand.
Saanich is well-known for protecting their dirty cops, which really means you can’t trust any of them. The ones you think you can trust – think again. It’s the blue blood line at work, brothers protecting brothers. They have their reputations and their pensions to protect. Not one of them would ever turn on their own, even if they knew he was dirty. What’s happening to the fired Saanich cop who claims that Lindsay went to the cops with something she shouldn’t have, and that is why she was killed? Can you just imagine if there was any truth to that story. Wouldn’t that be the scandal of the year? Why is this news being kept quiet, hushed up. Isn’t this one hell of a story if there was any truth to it? Maybe the Saanich Police can give us an update on that situation.
Wouldn’t we like to know just why retired Sgt. Barry McLachlan chose to be in a 2-year relationship with Shirley Zailo.
Barry just happened to be one of the seven cops who retired in January 2007. Didn’t he have the intelligence to stay away from this woman knowing her family were persons of interest in Lindsay’s murder at one time? Did he decide it was okay to bed this woman because the Saanich Police cleared the entire Zailo family of any wrongdoing in 2010? Shirley Zailo had a way of staying close to the cops who would have information about what was going on in Lindsay’s case. She is no dummy and she’s played a lot of people during her tenure.
Her lawyer Michael Scherr filed a slaphappy lawsuit against Lindsay’s father in 2022, and the case is still ongoing. A most frivolous lawsuit claiming defamation of character. Why didn’t she sue Dateline? Isn’t that where it all began? Millions of viewers watched that show, and after the show aired, it was clear that the majority of viewers believed the Zailo’s were guilty – and they have been voicing their opinions all over social media for years. Shirley & Jason lied on the show and that did nothing for their credibility. So far, this lawsuit has cost Ms. Zailo close to 200K, and she’s still pursuing the case with a vengeance.
All that money that could have gone towards helping solve Lindsay’s murder, instead Shirley Zailo chose to go after the victim’s father, a man who has lost his daughter to a brutal senseless murder. Yeh, she’s a piece of work all right. I’d like to see this case go to trial because I don’t believe she has a hope in hell of winning her case. There can be no trial until Mr. Buziak’s anti-slapp application has been dealt with, and most of us are confident that a judge will rule in his favor.
What is really going on in this investigation? Is it negligence? Is it corruption? Is it a cover up?
What are the Saanich Police hiding? What do they not want us to know. Just who are they protecting? Was the crime scene evidence rendered compromised/unprofessionally collected and thereby the hard evidence is inadmissible or worse, contaminated? Are the Saanich Police still actively working this case? I highly doubt it. They lie to anyone who dares to ask questions about the case, hoping that us idiots will believe their bs and go away.
The investigators continue to let the family & friends of Lindsay believe they are actively working this case when that is so far from the truth. The community was excited when a new team of investigators were brought onto the case in 2021. And just what has this new team accomplished? F/A. They are no different than the team that came before them. Incompetent, useless, and doing nothing to advance this investigation. Just empty promises!
We cannot put the entire blame on the cops, although I will put most of it on them. We need to take a good hard look at how BC’s Crown Counsel interferes with high profile cases. Here in British Columbia the charge approval is so high that often it cannot be met. Therefore, many cases will never see a day in the courts. If Crown isn’t given an iron clad case by the police, they don’t want it. People who commit murders in this province know all the loopholes in our B. C. legal system. Like in Lindsay’s case, the conspirators knew exactly what they had to do to outsmart the cops and the B.C. Crown. We have a real problem in this province when innocent people are being murdered, and the killers are getting away with it.
The Criminal Code of Canada is Federal legislation.
In it, police clearly are given the authority and mandate to investigate crime AND lay charges. This is how it works everywhere in Canada except BC and MB. Both these jurisdictions enacted regulation that interfere with police authority as set out in the Criminal Code of Canada. Interestingly enough both BC and NB brought in this gerrymandering soon after police in both locations did their jobs and laid charges against sitting Provincial MLAs.
There is no underpinning legislative authority which allows Provincial Legislators to do what BC and NB have done, that effectively bar police from swearing charges out unless they have been pre-approved by a Provincial Crown prosecutor. The effect of what the BC government has done here is to use appointed civil servants to circumvent the Criminal Code of Canada, keeping the public from seeing justice being done. This is due to the fact that the public only has a right to know after a charge has been sworn. In all the other jurisdictions except BC and NB, the Provincial Crown Prosecutors can stay charges, but they do it after the charge has been laid, with the harsh light of public knowledge seeing who has been charged with what.
https://www.dougstead.ca/issues-charge-approval.html
Here in BC, the Provincial Crown Prosecutor intervenes prior to the laying of charges.
This does two very bad things; first, it circumvents the public’s right to know and see what is happening and second, it allows the politicians to effectively gerrymander the justice system by not proceeding with charges for the reason of “not in the public’s best interest” which can mean anything, but mostly means the Provincial Crown Service doesn’t have proper funding to proceed with expensive cases such as child exploitation, let alone the government employee who embarrasses the sitting government.
EMAIL ADDRESS: murderondesousa@gmail.com