July 10/2026 Lindsay Buziak Murder – The Saanich Police reject the offer of help from world-wide experts.
The Saanich Police Department has once again rejected the offer of world-renowned experts who have offered to take a look at the 18-YEAR-OLD unsolved murder of lindsay buziak – all expenses paid/ pro-bono.
This feb 2021 statement made by the saanich police was a lie!
Though they spoke briefly with FBI agent Jim Clemente, they never agreed to bring the FBI in on the case. In fact, they told Mr. Clemente, if we need your help we will call.
Former FBI agent Jim Fitzgerald: “By keeping this case internal, in-house it shows administrative incompetence. If you are the Chief you are failing to do your job, and this is reflecting on your entire police Department”.
FEB 2021 Saanich Police Statement read like this.
Investigators with the Saanich Police Department say they have new leads in the unsolved murder case of realtor Lindsay Buziak and are now working with the FBI. On Sunday night, Saanich PD announced that a task force comprised of new investigators and members of the FBI has been formed and is examining “all possible” suspects.
What possible explanation is there for Saanich Police turning down such a generous all expenses paid offer such as this one.
Retired FBI agents Ray Carr & James Fitzgerald are members of the VIDOCQ Society and have taken it upon themselves to extend this warm welcome for Saanich to appear before the panel of experts to present their case. They are only asking that one current or retired Saanich police detective be willing to fly out to meet with them in an effort to solve the Lindsay Buziak homicide case. I believe the more experts looking at the evidence, the better. This investigation has been at a standstill for quite some time, so there is definitely no downside in getting a fresh set of eyes on the file.
No transparency has ever been shown during this 19-year investigation. Not just Saanich, not just Victoria, not just B.C, but the entire world has been waiting anxiously in the hopes of seeing some resolve – yet none comes. The silence is deafening, and the longer it continues the more mistrust the public has towards the Saanich Police. To everyone’s bewilderment the entire Zailo family was publicly cleared just one week after the Dateline NBC show Dream House Mystery aired in October 2010.
A crushing blow indeed, because all three Dateline experts, Yolanda McLeary, Dwayne Stanton & Alan Jackson, had emphatically said that they believed the people responsible for Lindsay’s murder was someone she knew, someone very close to her, someone in the same industry, and perhaps someone in the same office. Could all three of these experts have been wrong? Why in the world did the Saanich Police go on the show saying they had hit a brick wall and needed help if they never intended to take the advice of the experts?
Something has been awry in this investigation from the very beginning.
There has been misinformation given to the media by the Saanich Police, not just once, but multiple times. Yet not once did a spokesperson come out and correct the false information that had been put out there. Instead, the Saanich Police turned the tables, telling the press that it was blogs putting out false information and “lies”. They slandered bloggers who were simply trying to help, and if there “was” misinformation put out there it was because there had been no transparency by the Saanich Police and people were posting what they felt made sense.
Here we are 19 years later, with the Saanich Police Department still not being transparent. Is this the old boys club at play? Who are they protecting and why? Is it that mistakes have been made during this investigation – the department has egg on their face and doesn’t want the truth to be exposed. Is this a cover-up of some sort?
Meanwhile Lindsay’s murder remains unsolved, the truth stays untold, and the perpetrators of this heinous evil crime still roam the streets of Victoria.
It’s abundantly clear that the Saanich Police are unable to solve this homicide.
In fact, it was in 2018 that Sgt. Chris Horsley made a public statement saying that the police still did not have enough evidence to even take the file to Crown. In other words, Saanich Police have never submitted a formal “Report to Crown Counsel” recommending criminal charges, therefore the case has never advanced past the law enforcement stage.
An interesting statement considering they cleared Jason Zailo and his family in 2010. When the Zailo family was cleared that year, everyone thought for sure that arrests were imminent. After all, if you cleared the family, surely you must have suspects in mind. Well, here we eight years later and still no arrests.
If we ever want to see Lindsay Buziak’s homicide solved, the file must be taken away from the Saanich Police Department and put into the hands of an agency who are capable of reviewing the file, honing in on those responsible, and gathering enough evidence to gain Crown approval. If we are ever to see this case in a court of law this is what needs to happen.
Then perhaps Lindsay and her family will see the justice they so rightfully deserve.
The Vidocq Society Mission
Sometimes even the most skilled investigators can benefit from working with a fresh set of eyes via the collective experience of scores of seasoned professionals. For more than 30 years, the VIDOCQ Society has provided pro bono expert assistance to law enforcement agencies across the United States as they work to solve their cold case homicides. The Society does not conduct independent investigations; rather, we act as a catalyst and assist law enforcement agencies only at their invitation.
The US Dept. of Justice’s National Institute of Justice has named the Vidocq Society as a source in its latest publication entitled “National Best Practices for Implementing and Sustaining a Cold Case Investigation Unit”. The journal can be obtained at the National Institute of Justice website.
The Vidocq Society is a volunteer society of forensic experts and investigators who help solve “Cold Case” homicides on invitations from Law Enforcement Agencies. It is an elite group who have in the past helped solve old murder cases. As Sgt. Chris Horsley was the lead investigator on Lindsay’s case right from the very start, right up until he retired in 2021, he is the most logical choice to present the case to the Society. He has all the factual information pertaining to the file and would also be able to explain the discrepancies put out into the media over the years.
On the most recent Cold Red Podcast:
Ray said: “My concern with the Saanich PD in the handling of Lindsay’s murder is not that it remains unsolved… My concern is their reluctance to seek broader outside assistance.” He advocated for an independent case review, greater transparency, and collaboration.
Ray believes at least one of Lindsay’s friends may know the answer to that question but is too afraid to come forward, suggesting those involved may still be active in the Saanich area.
Ray stated: “Unless you create an environment where the people who live in that environment feel safe, you’re never going to solve anything.”
Ray concluded by saying: “I’ve never known any police department to refuse help in solving a cold case—especially a cold case that I believe is very solvable.”
Fitz also stated: “You are not doing your job if you do not bring in other people.”
Fitz’s final message to Saanich PD was: “If you don’t do a review, you are failing to do your job.”
Jim Fitzgerald addressed Saanich Police directly, saying: “You are remiss as investigators if you do not take this investigation to the next level.” He called for the case to be handed over to outside agencies for an independent review and for all witnesses to be re-interviewed.
Jim Fitzgerald discussed potential investigative avenues, including wiretaps and leveraging arrests on unrelated charges to encourage cooperation from individuals who may have information.
Ray and Fitz said they have close to 70 years of combined law enforcement experience and that neither has EVER ENCOUNTERED A CASE QUITE LIKE THIS BEFORE. (Culminating with a lengthy period with the FBI)
According to the Vidocq Society website, their members include:
– criminologists
– forensic scientists
– medical examiners
– genetic DNA experts
– behavior analysists
– physicians
– psychiatrists, psychologists
– anthropologists
– toxicologists
– entomologists, wildlife biologists
– forensic photographers
– firearm examiners
– chemists
– linguists
– active and retired law enforcement agents
– prosecutors
– polygraph examiners
The Vidocq Society also offers forensic assistance such as:
- DNA testing
- blood pattern analysis
- review of an autopsy report and its accompanying photographs
- study of polygraph charts
- 911 call analysis
WHY DID THE SAANICH POLICE CLEAR JASON ZAILO IN 2009, THEN CLEAR HIS MOTHER & BROTHER IN 2010?
A competent police department wouldn’t take the highly unusual step of publicly clearing (or exonerating) murder suspects, unless that police department had rock-solid knowledge that it was impossible (or close to it) for the suspects to have participated in the crime and/or that the police know the identity of the actual killer(s). Also, police don’t publicly clear a suspect as part of a investigatory strategy to try to get the suspects to let their guard down. To do so would hand the suspect the legal defence of entrapment in the event they confessed to police.
Accordingly, clearing a suspect effectively precludes any further police investigation of that suspect. Because it’s obvious to any lay person that the Zailos COULD have been involved in the crime, the fact they were cleared–precluding further examination of them–strongly indicates that the SPD believes for the past 9 years that it has known the identity of the killer(s).
Was the SPD is just waiting around for a confession because they know the killer. 18 years later, this has proven ineffectual–it should not take nearly 2 decades to get a confession from a known killer.
IT suggests something else is going on and it could include the following:
1) the Saanich Police has got the identity of the true killers wrong (all the drug-related tangents would suggest this possibility) and, accordingly, made a colossal and irreversible error in investigatory judgment by prematurely clearing the Zailos. As has been detailed at length, many unanswered questions remain about Jason’s behaviour and comments, Shirley’s comments, and, in any event, everyone closely tied to a crime remains a suspect until the killer(s) is/are identified, or
2) Saanich Police cleared the Zailos as part of a bigger coverup from the outset as has been suggested more than once. We have no evidence of any coverup and can only speculate in this regard, and I feel it’s unlikely given lack of any evidence for it; or
3) a combination of the above–Saanich Police got the identity of the killers(s) wrong, then incompetently and prematurely cleared the Zailos and are now stalling to cover it up, because it has left them with a legal and investigatory disaster of not being able to further investigate the Zailos–a blunder so bad it would tempt any police department to try to sweep it under the rug.
In any of the above scenarios, we can remain entirely confident that the SPD has not and cannot be legally investigating Shirley or Jason since 2010 at the latest. So as the public has been carefully dissecting Jason’s highly unusual behaviour and Shirley’s suspicious Dateline comments, and have become reasonable more and more suspicious, we know the police haven’t been looking at any of this for over a decade. Any outside police agency would likely be precluded from considering the possible of Shirley and Jason since the SPD had already cleared them before other police agencies were involved.
Given the potential entrapment issue created by publicly clearing the Zailos
the only way that the Saanich Police could at this point investigate Jason & Shirley would be to retract their earlier statement exonerating them and letting them know that they’re suspects again. This is fraught with all kinds of obvious problems–tipping them off being the most obvious–perhaps giving them the defence of reasonable doubt if they ever get charged–and it would explain why the investigation is so obviously stalled and why the SPD’s conduct vis a vis Jeff feels like the Saanich Police is engaged in a coverup (but the coverup being their own possible egregious errors in judgment that can’t be undone rather than some greater speculative coverup involving the police in the crime itself, which again I just don’t see).
It would also mean that the SPD isn’t and won’t take serious steps to solve this crime and any hope that the SPD is the route to justice on this matter is likely a waste of time and it’s going to have to be solved through alternative means.
EMAIL ADDRESS: murderondesousa@gmail.com